July Wrap Up 2019

Video in Swedish

Books read in July

1. "Kirke" ("Circe") by Madeline Miller
2. "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
3. "Call me by your name" by André Aciman
4. "Rör mig inte!" ("Shatter Me") by Tahereh Mafi
5. "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
6. "The DUFF" by Kody Keplinger
7. "Liftarens guide till galaxen" ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") by Douglas Adams
8. "Siddharta" by Herman Hesse
9. "The Copper Gauntlet" by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
10. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

Star of July
It must be "Kirke" by Madeline Miller! This was given to me as an arc by Bokus at the end of June to read and review. I'd wanted to read it since its release, so this opportunity was amazing to me! I really enjoyed the story and writing style, and I will definitely recommend it to a lot of my friends :)
However, I also want to mention "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, which was a very sweet and emotional book that I actually gave a higher rating than "Kirke". But because "Kirke" was a bigger deal to me, it's gonna be the star anyways ;P

Biggest disappointment of July
Unfortunately, I encountered a few disappointments in July. The first was "We Were Liars", which just didn't deliver anything but a shocking plot twist. Then there was "Shatter Me" (which I read in Swedish as my first read for the Reading Rush this year. That one started out good, but failed to deliver anything beyond a good 50 first pages. "The DUFF" wasn't great either, though none of these compare to how little I enjoyed "Siddhartha". Not because it was a bad book to my standards (the writing and story weren't super bad), but it just gave me nothing. No enjoyment, no new wisdom, no nothing. Just a waste of time.

Surprise of July
Honestly? I didn't expect to like "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" as much as I did! If it doesn't get the spot as star, it gets the spot as pleasant surprise <3

Theme of July
The theme of July was "historical fiction"; a theme that I managed to read several books for! (depending on if you count a 1980's setting as historical). I read "Kirke", which is set in Ancient Greek times, and "Call me by your name" is set during the 1980's (but was written in the 2000's). I enjoyed both of these books!

Series started

1. "Call Me By Your Name" by André Aciman
2. "Shatter Me" by Tahereh Mafi
3. "Liftarens guide till galaxen" ("Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") by Douglas Adams

Oldest on the shelf
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "Historien om Leon" have been in my possession for the same amount of time, since I purchased them at the Book Fair in Gothenburg in 2017. However, I'm unsure if I bought "The Copper Gauntlet" before then. I think I must have, because as I remember it I bought it not long after its release in 2015... either way, it was about time I read all of them anyway!

Overall thoughts
A month of several short books, but a bunch of intense reading! I'm happy that I got through the Reading Rush and met all my goals. I hope August brings me good books and productive reading :P

May Wrap Up 2019

Books read in May:

1. "Just Dreaming" by Kerstin Gier
2. "Rebel Belle" by Rachel Hawkins
3. "Miss Mayhem" by Rachel Hawkins
4. "Gul utanpå" ("Yellow on the outside") by Patrik Lundberg
5. "Till alla killar jag har gillat" ("To All the Boys I've Loved Before") by Jenny Han

Star of May:
The book that received the highest rating was "Till alla killar jag har gillat" by Jenny Han, which gave me all the good feels. I feel confident that I will continue with and finish the trilogy very soon (probably in June).

Biggest disappointment of May:
Definitely "Miss Mayhem". I don't think any other book was really a disappointment to me this month, which is very pleasant!

Surprise of May:
I guess I didn't expect to like "Gul utanpå" as much as I did. It didn't get the highest rating, but I'm happy that I read it.

Theme of May:
The theme of May was the colour pink! Simply read a book with something pink on the cover. For this theme, I chose to read "Rebel Belle" by Rachel Hawkins, which was one of the pinkest covers I could find in my room. I followed that up with the sequel, "Miss Mayhem", which also had pink details on the cover. Adding to that, "Till alla killar jag har gillat" has a very pink cover under the dust-jacket.

Series started

1. "Rebel Belle" by Rachel Hawkins
2. "Till alla killar jag har gillat" ("To All the Boys I've Loved Before") by Jenny Han

Series finished

1. "The Silver Trilogy" by Kerstin Gier

Oldest on the shelf
Probably "Rebel Belle", though I can't remember if I bought that and "Miss Mayhem" at the same time. At least I know that "Just Dreaming" and "Till alla killar jag har gillat" are the newest of this lot to grace my shelves.

Overall thoughts

A pretty decent month! I'm hoping to get through more books next month, though, since I will have more free time. The reading theme of June is "dragons", so feel free to join in on that!

BTW SORRY I FORGOT TO POST THIS!!!! HERE IT IS ANYWAYS!!

Reading Theme of August, 2019

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

"The Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Humans seem to always have had a deep fascination with the sky, especially so when the sun is down. Have you ever tried counting all the stars in the sky? Well, that's probably a waste of time, unless you feel like getting up to numbers like 100 thousand million. That's how many stars that are estimated to exist only within the Milky Way. That's more stars than it would take rice grains to keep a human alive for about 80 years (yes, I did the maths, it would take like 456,000,000 rice grains), ignoring that you'd get sick from lack of other nutrients.
Counting them or not, stars are still stunning to look at, which is probably why we're so obsessed with them. Walk into any store, and you'll probably find something in there with a star pattern on it. Why? Cause stars are cool and pretty! And might that store be a book store, perhaps? Of course! There are plenty of books out there with stars on the cover. That's why we're gonna try to read some of those in the month of August ;)

Are you too star struck by this challenge to think of any books to read? Here are some of my recommendations!

• "The Diviners" by Libba Bray
• "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis
• "Charmed Life" by Diana Wynne Jones
• "Alienated" by Melissa Landers
• "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon

And here is a list of what I might be reading:

• "Dödens märken" ("Carve the Mark") by Veronica Roth
• "All the Birds in the Sky" by Charlie Jane Anders
• "Drakryttaren" ("Dragon Rider") by Cornelia Funke
• "Hjärta av jazz" by Sara Lövestam
• "Eliza och hennes monster" ("Eliza and Her Monsters") by Francesca  Zappia

Ready to jump on the starry bandwagon? Great! Let me know if you decide to read a book with stars on the cover this August ;P
Happy reading!