February 2021 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 5/ listen: 4/ pages: 2144/ hours listened: 26h06m

1. Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco p.512 * - review
2. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson 8h16m ***** - review
3. The Likeness by Tana French p.640 ***
4. The Widow by Fiona Barton 10h29m ***
5. A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare p.320 ** - review
6. Stardust by Neil Gaiman p.256 ***
7. Unheard: The Story of Anna Winslow by Anthony Del Col  4h *** 
8. Hawk's Call by Simone Carter 3h21m ***
9. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman p.416***

Movie watched:
Death in Paradise S.10 Episodes 4-8

Middle Grade March Announcement and TBR 2021

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year....#middlegrademarch​ is here. This month long readathon celebrates the amazing category of books that many times we forget about as adults. I hope you will choose to participate in all the fun with us this 4th year of MGM.  

HOSTS:
Katie @Life Between Words​
Amanda @The Curly Reader​
Krista @BooksAndJams​
Don't forget to use the hashtag #middlegrademarch

CHALLENGES (optional, of course):

Group Read:
The Brave by James Bird

Prompts:

    1. A Book with SILHOUETTE on the cover
    2. A Book with a strong FAMILY (or found family)
    3. A Book featuring a JOURNEY or ADVENTURE
    4. A RETELLING (or book with a fairytale vibe)
    5. A Book written (or set) in the DECADE YOU WERE BORN

      I will not read the group read, unfortunately, as I could not get the book. The libraries are still closed. And I decided not to restrict myself with the prompts, though I hope to fulfill them anyway. I combined the ultimate list of middle grade books I have so far and will pick from it. Thus, I could keep track of the progress during the year as I would like to read at least one middle grade book a month.

1.  The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo
2.  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
3. Curse of the Night Wolf by Paul Stewart
4.  Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
5.  The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
6.  East by Edith Pattou
7.  The Giver by Lois Lowry
8.  Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
9.  The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
10. The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling
11. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
12. Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
13. Little Johannes by Frederik van Eeden
14. Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
16. Меня удочерила горилла by Frida Nilsson
17. Pax by Sara Pennypacker
18. The Ice Sea Pirates by Frida Nilsson
19. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
20. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
21. The Haunted House Project by Tricia Clasen
22. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
23. Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo
24. Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
25. Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
26. The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright - 5th prompt
27. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
28. Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke
29. Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn
30. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Author: Gail Honeyman

Original title: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Pages: 416
Edition Language: Russian
Series: no
Format: e-book
Genres: Contemporary
Goodreads

Blurb:    
   Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

My thoughts: 
    This was a really sweet and tragic story at the same time. I loved the voice of Eleanor and how she defines and defies the life realities. When she describes some social norm in a logical questionable manner I cannot but agree with her. Some descriptions are a bit over-exaggerated, which makes Eleanor less believable character.  

   I enjoyed how the story unraveled - layer by layer, telling us bits of her life and letting us see the difficulties of a person, who does not want or cannot behave in an expected manner. It is a heavy novel, which shows how many things we take for granted, things that other people are deprived of.

 Rating:  

    4/5  

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare

Author: Tessa Dare

Original title: A Night to Surrender
Pages: 320
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Spindle Cove #1
Format: e-book
Genres: Romance
Goodreads

Blurb:    
      Spindle Cove is the destination of choice for certain types of well-bred young ladies: the painfully shy, young wives disenchanted with matrimony, and young girls too enchanted with the wrong men; it is a haven for those who live there.
      Victor Bramwell, the new Earl of Rycliff, knows he doesn't belong here. So far as he can tell, there's nothing in this place but spinsters... and sheep. But he has no choice, he has orders to gather a militia. It's a simple mission, made complicated by the spirited, exquisite Susanna Finch—a woman who is determined to save her personal utopia from the invasion of Bram's makeshift army.

My thoughts: 
     I picked this book on the recommendation of a book blogger. Actually, it was rated as top romance for some of boooktubers. I, personally, was not expecting much from it, and still I was disappointed.  I didn't like Susanna or Bram. Their tragic past and injuries left me untouched, they just did not feel like real people.

     Overall, the concept of the series is interesting, it’s about a group of misfits ladies. But even though Susanna and her girls are supposed to be free-thinkers, they read like flat cardboard figures. This was extremely dull and boring. Absolutely nothing special. I wonder if this is the author that did not sit with me or the setting.

 Rating:  

    2/5  

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Author: Jon Ronson

Original title: So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Edition Language: English
Series: no
Genres: Nonfiction
Format: Audio book
Read by: Jon Ronson
Duration: 8h16m
Goodreads

Blurb:
    For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.

My thoughts:
       I loved this book so much and I was also properly terrified by it. It seems that I live in a bunker and has never thought that public shaming grew to such absurdity and cruelty. I keep away from social media mostly because it is boring and time consuming, but it amazes me how many people are obsessed with following and "teaching" others a lesson. This was a fascinating read about shame in the modern world and how it can impact a life of ordinary people. 

    The Internet has made it easier to make a mistake and then be publicly humiliated for it, and Jon Ronson researched and wrote about a few famous cases. I have never heard of the cases stated here, but all of them gained my compassion. A person is being torn apart by people like us for so little, that in real life would be mostly reprimanded or harshly commented. It seems that compassion is gone from virtual world or people are being afraid to stand for a shamed person, so they would be not objectified as well.
    It's not a perfect book. In fact, Ronson goes a number of paths in history and origin of shaming, modern technologies to deal with shame and so on - and yet it is still quite fun to go on the journey with him. The book has a lot of gaps as well, many important topics are just slightly covered, but I guess it was not the aim of this book to cover everything and everyone. It raises the question of our behavior online, appeals to our morality and asks what are WE going to do next time someone will be butchered online. 

     A book is incredibly actual, 5  years since this book has been published and it’s still as relevant. I am thinking about recent J.K. Rowling shaming, which took ridiculous proportions for a single tweet.
    This book I definitely recommend. Narration by the author really gives this audiobook the perfect voice. All the information and examples provided were very interesting.

Rating: 

         5/5 

2021 Goals

 

    2020 goals were the best combination for my reading reality. I did not fulfill all of them but it kept me on track for the whole year. So this year I decided to keep most of them. So here my goals for 2021:

• Read 52 books
• Read 5 books by Russian authors
• Read 10 translated books
• Read 10 books in my Top 2021 books list
• Listen to 10 audiobooks 
• Read 8 classics
• Complete Read your Bookshelf Challenge
• Complete Page challenge
• Buy less than 12 books during 2021
• Participate in at least 3 readathons
• Finish 5 or 6 series

Challenges I am Joining in 2020

1. This year I am setting my Goodreads goal to 52 books  

2021 Reading Challenge

Julie has read 3 books toward their goal of 52 books.

hide

3 of 52 (5%)

view books

2. 2021 Pages Read Challenge
Goal is 24 000 pages
 
3. Read Your Bookshelf – Reading Challenge 2020
Goal is 12 books throughout the year.

That is basically it. I am still continuing with my Russian Literature, World of Literature, Booker Prize and Classics Club projects, which at the begging 2020 are the following:

Russian Literature: 12/30
World of Literature: 24/50
Booker Prize Project: 7
Classics Club: 15/50

In the Woods by Tana French

Author:  Tana French

Original title: In the Woods

Pages: 480

Edition Language: Russian

Series: Dublin Murder Squad #1

Format: e-book
Genres: Thriller
Goodreads

 Blurb:         
       In the summer of 1984 three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
      Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery.

My thoughts: 

      Well, I was expecting more from this based on how much everyone loved it. I saw the series almost everywhere, but I was thinking it would have Jo Nesbo vibes. Of course, it is not fare to expect the same degree of suspense and tension from the other author, but I just could not help it, as both series are police procedural detective stories set in a relatively small country.

    The mystery side of the story left much to be desired. I guessed the killer in the middle of the book, but just could not figure out the motives. Sometimes the story was going very slowly and I caught myself yawning a couple of times. 

        An undeniable plus of the book are the characters and relationship between them. The characters were totally flawed, but also likeable and relatable; they felt real. I loved the development of friendships between Rob and Cassie. It was really something to find such a great duo with a strong platonic friendship. I was hoping they were going to work together in further books.

 Rating:  

    3/5  

Escaping from Houdini/Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco ready check

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Original title: Escaping from Houdini
Pages: 512
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #3
Format: e-book
Genres: Mystery

Blurb:    
  Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery.

My thoughts: 
    I was going into this book expecting at least the same degree of enjoyment that I got from books one and two and I was really puzzled to find a really bad story and a degradation of the characters. 

    First of all, Audrey Rose turned into a flimsy shallow girl, putting her nose in other peoples' affairs, and entertaining herself in the company of a person with disputable reputation. Her attitude towards
Thomas Cresswell is incomprehensible, she is keeping secrets from him and constantly seen with a different man alone. All her "Trust Me", "Love you" "I know what I am doing" etc. are just pathetic. It is not clear what exactly she is doing with the artists. What is required of her by this con artist? To stand with an apple on her head at the last performance? 

      Cresswell present in this book is close to nothing. He is a secretary during an autopsy. He is sitting idly and waiting for her to choose when she is running with a different man. He cannot even be jealous and fight for her as this will portrait him as a proprietor and an anti feminism character.

    And, secondly, since this book is a mystery and there is a killer on the loose, there must be some detective work done by our characters. But alas, while Audrey Rose was enjoying herself at the carnival, Thomas was watching her to fall in love with a flashy arrogant con artist (not even a scientist) within a week, bodies kept piling up. They did nothing to find the killer. I believe if the murderer was not so theatrical they would still not have a clue who it is. He practically was explaining every step of his doings, at the final show, exactly as he planned it and no one was even close to uncover him. 

So altogether absolutely boring and illogical book with a very irritating female character.

 

 Rating:  

    2/5  

 

 

Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Original title: Capturing the Devil
Pages: 512
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #4
Format: e-book
Genres: Mystery

Blurb:    

  Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell have landed in America, a bold, brash land unlike the genteel streets of London they knew. But like London, the city of Chicago hides its dark secrets well. When the two attend the spectacular World's Fair, they find the once-in-a-lifetime event tainted with reports of missing people and unsolved murders.

My thoughts: 

    I do not know why I decided to torture myself with this book, but hope dies last. I have already read 3 previous books and I kept hearing positive reviews about the final one. Altogether, I was going to DNF it just about 7 times. I was bored to death by it. Audrey Rose turned to absolutely intolerable person. For a such young person there were too much "I know", "I can", "I will do". So much talking and so little done. On one page she is refusing to be a mistress and two or three pages later she is in his arms. She is always armed and never uses the scalpel. She is constantly thinking over the same issues: love for Thomas, sadness over her brother's death and fear of the murderer, her dress again and again, pages and pages on. In this book the mystery is secondary and it is so chaotic. All logic behind the investigation is unclear. Altogether, the book is a 19th century soap opera with a happy ending. Endless boredom, it is better to pretend books 3 and 4 never happened and Audrey Rose and Thomas lived happily after escaping Romania.

 Rating:  

    1/5  

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Author:  Rory Power
Original title:  Wilder Girls
Pages: 288
Edition Language: Russian
Series: no
Format: e-book
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Goodreads

 Blurb:         
       It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

My thoughts: 
      I have heard positive reviews about this book from multiple sources, and let's be real - the cover is a bomb! Unfortunately, the story itself left me untouched. It felt more like a book of character sketches: you can see framework of people, but none of them is complete and whole. I was let down by how a lot of the characters motivation for their actions didn't seem to make any sense. They either weren't explained, or some characters needed more background to be able to understand why they made the choices they did. I could not make any sense of their past, character traits and motivation. The only more or less round character is Hetty, but again the motivation of her actions is not clear. 

   Altogether, interesting premise, but the book felt very raw: many scenes did not make any impact on the story and felt cut out from the flow of the narration. Byatt's point of view contained a couple of chapters only and I found them out of the place as well. They told the story of what happened with her, but I was expecting more history and character development and got nothing.

 Rating:  

    3/5  

2021 Pages Read Challenge

     While I’m participating in a number of challenges that shows how many books you’ve read, I am joining as well the Pages Read challenge, which is hosted by Gina @ Book Dragon’s Lair. Gina does not seem to post any more or is having a break, but I still like this challenge and would like to continue with it just for my own statistics. According to this challenge you are judged by the number of pages you read.

Levels:

Bonsai - Read 12,000 pages
Shrub - Read 24,000 pages

Dwarf Peach - Read 36,000 pages

Apple Tree - Read  48,000 pages

Oak - Read 60,000 pages

Douglas Fir - Read 72,000 pages

Sequoia - Read 84,000 pages

Redwood - Read 84,001+ pages

Dwarf Peach (36,000 pages) is a nice deal, but I will set my goal to 24,000 (Shrub) again this year.  In 2020 I have read only 26562 pages, so no point to add pressure to my reading.

Read Your Bookshelf – Reading Challenge 2021

This fun yearly challenge is hosted by Chantel from An Intentional Life
         This challenge is about reducing the number of unread books on your shelves. Here are some prompts for each month to make it more interesting and challenging. 

        You can watch the announcement video for info on what the prompts are for each month, Chantel also suggests two books recommendation as well as the book she would read for that prompt.

Let’s get into the challenges for each month!

JANUARY
a “home-ish” word in the title

FEBRUARY
red on the cover or spine

MARCH
recommended by a friend

APRIL
five or more words in the title

MAY
a book you should have read before graduating high school

JUNE
an animal on the cover

JULY
a book that starts with the first letter of your first name

AUGUST
a book in a series

SEPTEMBER
a translated book

OCTOBER
set in a different country than your own

NOVEMBER
has a night scene on the cover

DECEMBER
a winter scene on the cover