Favourite Books of 2016!

Wow guys! Hasn't this year gone so fast? A lot has happened in the past year... But well, it is almost 2017 already (doesn't it sound so odd?!), and it is time to do a recap of all the great books I have read throughout the year 2016! In this post I am also including those I have read throughout the last part of 2015 as I didn't write a post like this last year, and there are a couple that should definitely be mentioned :) 

This year I managed to read a total of 28 books - which, let's face it, is not that good :/ But hey, I am a dedicated Med student, who inconveniently was a in a reading slump during part of the summer :( Anyhow, I plan to top this count in 2017!

The following books aren't necessarily 5 star reads, but they have stayed with me long after I finished them. Also, they are books that I have read throughout the year -they weren't necessarily published in 2016, and they are sorted in chronological order.

Let's dive right into it!

Cova Reviews | To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Hann

Hey, guys! First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! I have been away for some time due to my finals, but I am back to say goodbye to 2016 :D Today I bring to you a YA, contemporary novel by Jenny Han - To All The Boys I've Loved Before (the first of the to-be trilogy To All the Boys I've Loved Before). I hadn't heard a lot about this novel, but what I'd  heard was great, so I (wrongly) decided to pick it up just before my exams period. I started listening to the audiobook, but then I just really wanted to know what was going to happen next quicker than the audiobook would let me and I picked up the e-book. I absolutely loved this novel! But let's just get right into the details :) 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before is about a girl named Lara Jean who has the habit of writing a love letter to every boy she likes when she stops liking them. She keeps them in a box, and never sends them -it's just so she can move on, like a good-bye letter. The thing is that one day, the letters are somehow sent to the boys, and her secrets exposed.

Cova Reviews | A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness

Well, well, well. Now, what do we have here? A Monster Calls has been all over the media for quite a while now -especially now that the film has come out. I have been wanting to pick it up since before I even knew there was going to be a movie based on it, and around one week after I bought the book, a friend of mine came to me and said "You know what, Cova? I went to the cinema yesterday and watched A Monster Calls, and you want to know something? The monster is ****************". I almost died right there and then... I could kill him!! He'd spoiled a story that I had been wanting to get to for so long!! Luckily, he was just being an asshole and that had absolutely nothing to do with the story :D I did not have a good time, though!

We could say A Monster Calls is a fantasy book about loss, hope and growing up. I honestly did not know what it was about when I read it, and that went extremely well for me, so I'm just going to leave you here the synopsis from Goodreads:

"The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth." (Goodreads)

Cova Reviews | p53. The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code (Sue Armstrong)

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I was assigned to read p53 The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code (by Sue Armstrong) at the start of the semester for a voluntary assignment. I actually thought it was a very nice assignment -extra marks for reading a book, what's not to like?! :D 

Essentially, it is the story about the discovery of p53 -a gene that was found to be the key to knowing what cancer is, and how it makes your cells go crazy (it's non-fiction, of course). Shockingly enough, we've only discovered this recently, and so much work has been put into it. p53 also gives you a tour around what the scientific method is (how experiments occur -how they are planned, carried out and eventually understood), which I think is a great topic -too many times we take science for granted when really so many people are working for the world to understand! (hey, med student right here :P).

Cova Reviews | The Evolution of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin (Mara Dyer Trilogy #2)

The Evolution of Mara Dyer is the second book to the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin. The series is a young adult, mystery, paranormal novel about a girl named Mara Dyer who goes through an ultra-traumatic event in her life -her best friend and her boyfriend died when the old building they were in at night collapsed. Only she survived, and now she sees things she should not be seeing. She suffers from PTSD, and her family thinks it's a good idea for them to move to Florida, where she can start a new life away from everything that reminded her of her now-dead friends. There she meets hot Noah -the hot, popular guy who strangely seems to be interested in her. 

Whatever my previous description made you think, this is no regular, cheeky love story. I loved the first book (the review of which you can find here), and I was dying to read the second one. If you haven't read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (the 1st book in the series), I suggest you go read the post about it first. It's not like I am going to spoil anything, but I think there's no point in reading about the second book if you haven't even read what the first is about! hehe

Anyway. Let's start :)

Book Series Review: The Mortal Instruments (Cassandra Clare)

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to be talking about and reviewing book series by Cassandra Clare - The Mortal Instruments (yes, I know the picture I posted right above these lines is from City of Bones - the movie, but it's so beautiful!).

September Bookhaul!

Hello, hello!

So I'm hear once again to talk about books and books and books! (which, if you are reading this, we all know you too love ;) ). So this month -which I wasn't planning on buying any books- I ended up buying 4! Which is pretty good, if you ask me :P

I bought the first three because they had been on my TBR list for quite a long time now, and I finally found them on sale - which was certainly not to be missed. And the third one, I had to buy for a voluntary project for one of my subjects at university - and I actually think it seems pretty interesting. Honestly, I have no idea what each of them is about, but I have heard a lot of good things about them, and I found the stories interesting at the time, though I have forgotten by now. I prefer it like this, really. That way it's a mystery what I will find :)

Let's get to it!

10 Books I Loved but Sadly don't Own :(

Hello there! In this week's post I will ramble on about book I have read and I have loved but unfortunately I still don't own. By "not own" I include books I checked out from the library and books I've been lent, but I also include e-book editions as, even though I do technically own them, if I REALLY liked a book I like having its printed version (plus hardcover if possible! hehe).

The books listed here are in no particular order - I wrote them down as I remembered about them :) If you click on the picture of each cover, you'll be taken to the Goodreads page for the book.

1. Forbidden, by Tabitha Suzuma 

Cova Reviews | Detrás de Mi Música - Israel Moreno

Detrás de Mi Música is a young adult, contemporary novel by Spanish author Israel Moreno. Just as so many others of the books by Spanish authors I'm reading lately, it has only been published in this language, so you can use the Translate button at the top of the right sidebar if you need it :)

Detrás de Mi Música sigue la trayectoria musical de un grupo de estudiantes en su último año de bachillerato en el año 1999. Son un grupo de tres amigos que, viendo el verano que se les viene encima y con los rumores de la llegada del fin del mundo, deciden dos cosas: UNO crearán una banda de música con la que podrán expresarse y conocer nuevas chicas. DOS antes del día 11 de agosto (día predicho para la llegada del fin del mundo) perderán su virginidad.

Shameful August Wrap-Up :(

Hello there! This post will be a summary of the books I've read during the month of August :) August is supposed to be a time when I read a LOT, but for some reason this year hasn't been this way :/ Since it was the end of summer (yes, I'm back at uni now! :( ), I think I focused on going out more and doing more of the things I cannot do throughout the school year. Such is the case, that I was only able to finish 2 books! :O Which, by the way, were two very good reads!

Cova Reviews | Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

I HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN AROUND TO READ THIS BOOK! Ever since I first heard about it I've been wanting to read it! (just thought you should know about my excitement haha).

As an introductory introduction, Ready Player One is a young adult, science-fiction, dystopian novel by Ernest Cline. It is his first novel and... Holy crap. 

It follows our main character Wade Watts, who lives in the year 2044, in which technology has gone through great changes, but the energy crisis makes the world not a very nice place to live in. Both his parents are dead, and so he lives with his aunt, who steals away his food rations as a payment method for letting him live at her place. The odd thing about the year 2044 is that everyone seems to live inside the OASIS, a virtual reality created by the greatest videogame designer James Halliday. In the OASIS, you can go to school, make your own business, visit thousands of planets and basically do whatever it is you can think of. The thing is now, Halliday dies at age sixty-seven with no-one to leave his insane fortune to, so at the time of his death, a video is released in which he says he's set up a contest inside the OASIS: the first person to find the Easter egg he's hidden somewhere inside the virtual empire will inherit everything he owns. 5 years after the first clue was released by the multibillionaire, after almost everyone had given up, a name appears at the top of the scoreboard.

5 Book Series of my Childhood

Hello there! Today I thought I'd do a slightly different post. As the post title tells, I'll be making a recap of the books I'd recommend everybody when I was younger (and by that, I mean up until middle school). They aren't necessarily specific for middle-school readers, as I was an avid reader and a fan of YA since early in my reading life :) You'll find that most of them are trilogies. I remember thinking that good books must be made into trilogies because stand alones were just not enough, and book series were just stories stretched too far. Of course, I don't think that way anymore, but it was a good theory! ;)

The following books are in order of my reading - that is, the first books are the ones I read first, and the lasts ones are those I read last. Of course, I didn't use to keep a record of the books I read, but I will try to be as close to reality as my memory allows me to. 

Geronimo Stilton series

July Wrap-up

Hello, hello! I'm sure if you've been in the blogging community for a while now you already know what this type of posts is about - a simple compilation of the reads I've accomplished throughout the month. In this case, July - month of heat and beach ;) I've gotten to read a total of 5 books this past month, which is an OK amount. 

So, without further ado, let's get right into it :)

The first book I read last month was... Arena Roja, by Gema Bonnín. 

Cova Reviews | Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes

Hello there! Today's post will be a review of the super famous novel Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes. It is a contemporary romance about family, love and overcoming hard situations. 

"Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time." (Goodreads)

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, dear WL!

Happy birthday to you!

Today is the day! Today, 28th July, Wonderful Literature is 1 year old! Still a small baby, but undoubtedly growing :) 

I want to thank everyone who reads my posts and reviews for making of this year such a Wonderful one <3 This blog has helped me reach a great community of people with my same interests and hobbies, who have in some way contributed to this blog too! I am forever thankful to them :D

Let's hope this coming year is at least good as the first, filled with amazing reads - and even better readers. 

Happy Birthday, Wonderful Literature!

And happy reading!

Most read book review of this 1st year...

A Thousand Pieces of You - Claudia Gray