#AYEARATHON

I've recently been looking for reading marathons to participate in, because it sounds like great fun. However, I'm usually quite busy with school and work and just life. Now since I've been off uni for summer and the whether is rather awful, I don't have t work too much and obviously have no schoolwork. That is why I decided it was time for a readathon. After a bit of research, I found out about the #ayearathon. Every month they have a theme and they choose a week for the marathon. This month the theme is classics, and the week will be from today, the 7th, until this Sunday. You may know I love reading classics, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to find out whether readathons is really something for me.

I've created a small TBR for myself, but it's honestly not too big. I'm currently reading Robin Hood (Henry Gilbert), then I will read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne), and then I will probably try and read as much of The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas).

If you're interested in participating in these marathons, go and check out the goodreads group!

Top 5 Wednesday: Best books of 2014 so far

These are in no particular order. As I have full reviews of all these books, so I feel there's no need for explanations in here - if you want to know what I thought of these books, just check out the reviews.

1. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
     review
2. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
     review
3. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
     review
4. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
     review
5. Wonder - R.J. Palacio
     review

June Book Haul

1. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
2. Beloved - Toni Morrison
3. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami 
4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
5. The 5th Wave - Rick Yancy
6. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
7. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell 
8. Shatter Me - Tahara Mafi
9. The Maze Runner - James Dashner
10. If I Stay - Gayle Foreman
11. Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 
12. City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare

Top 5 Wednesday: Top final sentences

I had quite a hard  time finding these, as I often do love endings in books, but final sentences are rarely ever fascinating when standing on their own.

These are in no particular order :)

1. "I am haunted by humans."
          - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
     Shall be lifted - nevermore!"
          - "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
3. "As soon as they had strenth they arose,joined hands again, and went on."
          - Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
4. "P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard."
          - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
5. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
          - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Want to join in top 5 Wednesday? Check out the goodreads group :)

Review: Lolita

Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov 

Pages: 361

My Rating: 4.5/5

“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece”

"Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, whom he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? ...Or is he all of these?" 
I had, as I assume most people do throughout their lifetime, heard many things about this novel. I had heard it was brilliant, but more prominently, I had heard people talk about how terribly appalling it was. The latter, I could not quite comprehend: it is only a novel, merely a made-up story - how could such a thing ever be so horrifying? 
Even though Nabokov's writing style is flawless, and the story is over all incredibly fascinating, I somehow felt it was at times repetitive. Also, towards the ending I got rather confused, but I will not spoil that on here, assuming some of you may not yet have read the novel.  Therefore, along with the fact that I could not read it in one go and had to take a reading pause of about a week, I 'only' rate it 4.5 stars, rather than 5. 
I have never before read a novel like Lolita, and believe I never will again. 


Now, I do not feel like I should be saying too much about this novel, because so much has already been written, but I do want to get some things off my chest.


This was the first novel that I ever had to put down because the writing was too brilliant. Let me explain this. The perspective this novel takes on, is that of the pedophile Humbert Humbert. The novel is written as a kind of plead to the jury who are about to decide whether he is guilty or not. Therefore, the narrator tries to justify his actions. He does this by explaining how beautiful Lolita is in his eyes, and how she supposedly seduced him - He couldn't help himself, it was her fault. Readers will at this point understand that Humbert is not a reliable narrator at all, and that he truly is a pervert. Despite his effort to defend himself, he will never mislead the audience. However, because of Humbert's excellent command of the English language (as it is not his first language, and nor Nabokov's), and impeccable description of feelings, we will understand exactly what he is feeling, and we will believe it is real. This is, I then started to understand, why so many people had a hard time reading this novel, and I must admit, I did too. Because of Humbert's grusome imagination and Nabokov's brilliant writing, I had to quit reading for about a week - just to cut myself loose from this mesmerising pedophile. 

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Pages: 359

My Rating: 5/5

This novel tells the story of Ari - an angry boy who has never really had any friends. Until he meets Dante, who tries his best to teach him how to be a friend and how to get rid of his anger.

This is probably the most beautiful novel I ever read about a basically normal boy, dealing with everyday problems. Ari as well as Dante are such real characters: they are amazing but also have quite significant flaws. This makes it easy to empathise with both of the characters, even though Ari may seem like an unlikable person at first.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a poet, and that is evident when looking at the writing in this novel: it's gorgeous. Every sentence is well thought through, there are so many interesting quotes in there, and there is a lot of imagery: it's not just a simple Young Adult novel - there are events one has to think about, but also sentences, words even.
Mostly, the story made me feel so calm when reading it, but at one point I did get truly angry. When reading other peoples' reviews, however, I felt like they did not feel the same way. I would like to know, if you've read the book, did you feel angry at some point? I do not want to spoil anything but I think that if you felt the same way I did, you would know what I am talking about.

I find it difficult to properly review books I really like: I think it's important to consider both positive and negative points in a good review. However, I can really not think of any negative aspects to this novel - so I am sorry I cannot provide you with an adequate review.

Anyway, if you  have not yet gathered this from what I wrote: I just loved this book and I think everyone should read it. It's not a difficult read (I read most of it within a day), yet it has so much depth to it. It's just beautiful.

Review: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Title: Hollow City 

Author: Ransom Riggs

Pages: 396

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Hollow City is the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and takes off right where the first one ended. Jacob and the other peculiars go to London to try and save their headmistress.

One of the aspects I was bothered with in the first novel, was its slow pace, and Hollow City definitely makes up for that. It is a lot more action-packed, and therefore much more exciting - it makes you want to keep on reading. Also, the first novel was rather predictable, in my opinion. Even though some events in Hollow City were too, the were much more twists and turns, making it impossible to truly know where the story was headed.
Character development is another feature which I thought was really well done in this one. While the first novel is really getting to know Jacob and generally exloring the world of the peculiars, in the sequel we learn some new things about these peculiars, as well as getting to know so many more new characters. I felt the characters were all so well explored and I loved their back-stories.
Another thing I'd call an improvement is the way in which the pictures are inserted. In the first novel, I was sometimes annoyed by the interruption as at times the pictures did not necessarily belong at that point in the story. I also felt it withheld my own imagination in the way that the pictures provided me with how I should imagine certain people or places. Even the latter problem is present in the second novel as well, this bothered me much less. This may have to do with the fact that I was used to it and expecting it as it was not too long ago that I had read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but it was also because the pictures were always added in the proper place in the story -  you knew what they were supposed to depict.
Now, I only awarded this book .25 more stars than Miss Peregrine's. This is mainly because after I read the first one I felt overwhelmed by the world. It was so new to me and its originality was one of the reasons why I felt it earned 3.75 stars. After having read Hollow City I obviously did not feel the same - I already knew all about the world. However, I felt in this aspect the story lacked - the author could have explored the possibilities of the world he created some more.

Over all though, I truly love this novel and cannot wait for the third one to come out. Ransom Riggs has created such an interesting world and such intriguing characters - there are so many more things to find out.