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[identity profile] kiwiria.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] christianreader
Huh! Fewer books than I had expected, considering this was a month with a readathon... but guess I haven't really been reading much otherwise. Too busy knitting! ;)


Attachments - Rainbow Rowell, 4/5, 357 pages
Perfect readathon material - I breezed through it in no time at all.

Just as charming and feel-good a novel as I've come to expect from Rainbow Rowell. While it couldn't quite live up to "Fangirl" or "Landline", I still liked it a lot, and really enjoyed the unusual narrative... even if it did take me awhile to figure out that Beth and Jennifer weren't supposed to be the main characters.

I liked Lincoln, and was pleased to see he wasn't quite the helpless person the first few chapters made him out to be; my heart broke with Jennifer and Beth through their trials (their friendship was brilliantly shown without any telling necessary at all); and I mentally cheered when everything worked out in the end.

The only problem is that now I have no more new Rainbow Rowell books to read. I'll have to hope she publishes something else soon :)


Wrong Way Round - Lorna Hendry, 5/5, 238 pages
Not the best book ever for a readathon, as it was rather slow reading, but man, I loved it! This is one of the best travelogues I've read in a long time, and I loved living vicariously through the experiences of Lorna and her family. It made me want to go back to Australia and explore more of the country (I've seen depressingly little of it), although I'm not quite sure I could be as loosey-goosey with the planning as they were ;) Still, it made for fascinating reading.

My only complaint was that there weren't enough photos! There were a few pages at the end, but that was it. I would have appreciated seeing more of those - although Lorna did do an excellent job of putting them into words.

I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to come back to 'every day life' after an adventure like that.


A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman, 3.5/5, 358 pages
Unfortunately not as good as I had expected. I liked it well enough, but I didn't love it the way I had expected to, nor did it blow me away like it apparently has so many others.

It's written in much the same style as The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (which I adored!) but without the same joyfulness that made that book so charming. The writing style was excellent, but for about the first half of the book I wondered, "Yes, but what's the point?".

Fortunately it improved, and the last 100 pages were awesome, so I may still want to read more of Fredrik Backman after all.


Sword of Deaths - Christopher Mannino, 2.5/5, 263 pages
While the first book in the series was pure genius, this sequel unfortunately couldn't deliver at all. The writing wasn't nearly as tight and often confusing, with lots of needless repetitions (yes, everybody's hot for Susan - we get it already!), and a plot that didn't really take off until about 20 pages before the end, so we're left with a cliffhanger, and resolutions that won't happen until the next book. I was especially frustrated by the lack of follow-up on what happened to Tom. That was such a brilliant idea, but other than a brief comment from Frank, the reader was just left hanging. Hopefully this will be brought up again in the next book.

The first book was obviously the first in a series, but still nicely contained, leaving the reader eager to read the next book, but not terribly frustrated by a ton of loose threads left hanging. A shame Mannino couldn't repeat that excellent bit of writing for the second book.

I still want to read the last book, in the hopes that Mannino will redeem himself. But I'm no longer as excited about it, as I was before reading this one.


Atlantia - Ally Condie, 2.5/5, 368 pages
Not a particularly good book, but a question was asked in the first chapter that I desperately want answered, so I kept reading regardless, hoping that it was a good answer, so it'd be worth it!

Fortunately it was a decent enough answer, so I wasn't disappointed in that regard, but the writing just couldn't live up to what I'd expected from Ally Condie. It was just plain unengaging (for want of better word), so if it hadn't been for wanting to know the aforementioned answer, I probably never would have gotten through the book.

There were a lot of other questions left unanswered though, and as a whole, I just didn't find the book neither terribly well-written nor interesting. A shame, because it really did have a lot of potential.


The Great Piratical Rumbustification AND The Librarian and the Robbers - Margaret Mahy*, 3/5, 48 pages
I read this aloud to my nieblings. I love Margaret Mahy, and the first story especially is one of her better ones :) Hope the nieblings enjoy it as much as I do.


Unstoppable - Christine Caine, 3/5, 192 pages
Not as good as "Undaunted" - or perhaps I just read the two books too close to each other. I thought it interesting to read about Christine Caine's work with A21, but found some of her points too specifically targetted that line of work.


Spark Joy - Marie Kondo, 3/5, 256 pages
Not as good as her first book, but a decent follow-up/companion novel. There were some things she'd glossed over somewhat in her first book, and it was nice to have those elaborated on.

I still roll my eyes at some of her ideas, but think that's probably cultural more than anything else, and she does have some good points on how to simplify and keep things organized, that I'm going to try to implement.


The Emerald Atlas - John Stephens, 2.5/5, 429 pages
Really weird reading experience. I liked the book well enough while actually reading it, but when I put it down, days could go by before I felt like picking it up again. I guess I just never got to care properly about the children.

Decent enough fantasy, however, so when I finally got stubborn and sat down to finish it, I rather enjoyed it - especially once the kids started to get into the thick of things. But all in all, it required too much effort to get through, and even with the obvious lead into the next book, I just don't care enough to continue.

Witches On Parole - Debora Geary*, 4.5/5
Witches Under Way - Debora Geary*, 5/5
Witches in Flight - Debora Geary*, 4.5/5
Love, love, love these books :) Wish more people knew about them. Thank you again to [livejournal.com profile] dichroic for introducing me to them. They are AWESOME. This spin-off trilogy is my favourite after "A Modern Witch" itself. Best comfort books ever :)


Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness - Andrew Blake*, 5/5, 514 pages
One of the best works of fanfiction I have ever read. Though never endorsed by JKR, I definitely consider this canon. It's extremely well written, and made me cry on several occasions... even on my 4th read-through. It's a lot darker than HP&DH, but apart from the final battle, I think I actually prefer it. I'd have to reread the book to see how many liberties Andrew Blake has taken though.

Book of the Month: "Wrong Way Round" - awesome book!
Biggest disappointment: Can't believe I had THREE 2.5 star books this month! Out of those, I think "Sword of Deaths" was the biggest disappointment, as that was the one I had the highest expectations for.

Date: 2016-05-01 06:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jobey-in-error.livejournal.com
I think you did pretty good on your readathon. :)

Never heard of Rainbow Rowell, but what an amazing name. Is that her real name or a pen?

I was the HP fanfic queen in the family, but my husband LOVES Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness. I'm amused and proud to see it's still going strong. :)

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