Sunday Post #22, Cold in the Air

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday fun, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Outside the Blog
    The Secret Santa from The Broke and the Bookish  is officially on and I got my person, so I was thinking how I can organize it nicely. Have a couple of ideas, but not much time to realize.
    My worst week so far during this autumn: I have not finish any book, and most probably I did not even read more them 100 pages.

   Last on the Blog 

• On Monday 6.11 I reviewed The Ocean by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa  
• On Tuesday 7.11 I reviewed Dogheaders by Alexej Marvin
• On Wednesday 8.11 I published October 2017 Wrap up
• On Thursday 9.11 I reviewed Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Next on the Blog

• I will review All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• and I actually do not have any books read, so I might concentrate on  some challenge updates and movie reviews.

Newcomers on my Shelf
   None and that is good. I believe one of my New Year resolutions will be to reduce my unread books to the minimum.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Original title: Never Let Me Go
Edition Language: English
Series: no
Genres: Dystopia, Drama
Format: Audio book
Read by: Rosalyn Landor
Duration: 9h43m
Goodreads

Blurb:
     As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one –lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. 
      She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham's nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.
My thoughts:
    I truly enjoyed this book. It like going into calm water just to find out the whole living world under the surface. The same in the book: under oversimplified narration and leng description of the  settings and circumstances the reader can find multiple hot and controversial topics: starting from bullying in schools and finishing by right to live. Day to day life with small joy and sadness of a group of young people who have the whole life in front of them; and at the same time a huge shadow of horror and cruelty stands behind this peaceful picture.
    I understood the nature of the school quite early in the book and had difficulties to read further on impartially. I had the movie The Island (2005) on my mind all the way through the book and I believe they correlate with each other. 
    The book provokes a lot of discussion and it does not give you the opportunity to choose one correct answer or way: everything is the grey zone of ethic and humanity. I am still not sure if I agree with Tommy: if I would want or not to know.

Rating: 

    4/5 

October 2017 Wrap up

Read books: 
read: 3/ listen: 2/ pages: 963/ hours listened: 31h34m
1. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon p.379 - my review
2. The Diviners by Libba Bray 18h14m  - my review
3. The Circle by Dave Eggers p.448 - my review
4.  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro  13h20m - my review
5.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie p.136

Challenges overview:
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 55/50 - completed
Pages Read Challenge: 15142/12000 - completed
Audiobook Challenge: 8/15
Russian Literature: 2/30
World of Literature: 12/50
Booker Prize Project: 4
Classics Club: 2/50

Dogheaders by Alexej Marvin/ Псоглавцы by Алексей Маврин

Author: Alexej Marvin
Original title: Псоглавцы
Pages: 348
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Дэнжерологи #1/Dangerolog 1
Format: Hardback
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Goodreads

Blurb:     
     This is a book about so called dangerologs, people who are dealing with dangerous wonders of world culture.
    A village in the middle of nowhere with a decaying culture and population. Three bloggers are chosen and sent to take off the wall painting in an abandon church.  On a wall painting is a picture of Saint Christopher, which is traditionally painted with a dog's head. Their task is not only to take off the painting, but to watch and record the people's reaction to it, as the village has many secrets.

My thoughts: 
       The synopsis was very intriguing and I even enjoyed the first quarter of the book, but then it went down hill. One of the main characters was trying to "reveal" the mystery behind Dogheaders and was going through internet pages: so the great a majority of the book felt like a Wikipedia page and I could clearly see some of the attempted of the author to make it more "digestible". So some suspense interlaced with Wiki pages was not doing it for me. And all the characters in the book were quite unsympathetic, so I could not even enjoy character development.
     The positive thing though is the description of the village and its population. It is so vivid and detailed that you can feel the hopelessness and depression; actually it is so good that it is terrifying.

Rating:  

    2/5 

The Ocean by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa

Author: Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa
Original title: Océano
Pages: 448
Edition Language: Russian
Series:  Océano #1
Format: e-book
Genres: Drama
Goodreads

Blurb:     
   The island Lanzarote was for generations home to Perdomo family, untill Yáiza was born. The girl, that can tame animals, heal the wounds and talk to the dead, grew up in a stunning woman. Defending the honor of a sister Yáiza's brother kills the only son of the most powerful man on islands. Devastated father demands blood of a young man by all means and Perdomo family has nothing to do but to flee the island and cross the Great Ocean to hide away from the assassin.

My thoughts: 
     I remember watching the film adaptation of this book and quite liked it. So when I had a chance to read the original source I could not resist. Of course the book is quite different for the story I remember and it was a nice journey to read about Perdomo family, and islands, and the way of living so unfamiliar. I have never read a book based in Canary island and so much devoted to the sea description.
Though the narration is quite simple and the language is not captivation the story has its rhythm as waves going against the shore and its atmosphere. Going through the plot I could easily picture the purity of the sea and roughness of the people who are bond with it forever.

Rating:  

    3/5 

Sunday Post #21, Leaves are Falling.

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday fun, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

 Outside the Blog

     Finally the spell is over and I started to watch movies. Not the full movie so far, but at least the 2 episodes of the new season of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and it is again mind blowing. It is so confusing and you just keep wondering what can come out of it, but still it is very fast pace, dynamic with great actor performance.
I am still struggling to catch up on some challenges and the time is running out for this year, so I might skip Non Fiction November. Anyway, I am not into reading nonfiction so far.

   Last on the Blog

• On Monday 30.10 I reviewed Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• On Tuesday 31.10 I reviewed The Circle by Dave Eggers
• On Thursday 2.11 I reviewed The Diviners by Libba Bray

Next on the Blog

• I will review Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• I will review Dogheaders by Alexej Marvin
• I will publish October 2017 Wrap up
• I will review The Ocean by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa 

Newcomers on my Shelf
    I got The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist for reading in Tales & Co. book club.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Author: Libba Bray
Original title: The Diviners
Edition Language: English
Series: The Diviners #1
Genres: Mystery, Fantasy
Format: Audio book
Read by: January LaVoy
Duration: 18h14m
Goodreads

Blurb:
    Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
    Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
My thoughts:
     I was going into this book with HUGE expectations as I have heard only positive reviews so far. I have even chosen the audio book format, which was masterfully narrated by January LaVoy. As I was enjoying the audio format I gave a book a higher rating. The book itself left me a bit puzzled. I can see only positive features: the coherent plot development, the characters greatly outlined, the city description is so vivid that it is almost a character itself, the atmosphere of the 20s is depicted colorfully; but still the book did not captivate me and I even struggled through it. Maybe it is because the narration was jumping from one character to another trying to introduce everyone who will be playing roles in later books. Maybe because of constant repetitions of passages, or maybe because Evie's incredible egoism.
      The crime/horror plot line was not very interesting as well. Though the murders are quite horrific, I was not terrified and could not feel the suspense; and the ending was flat and crumpled. So thought the book did not grip, it was solid and entertaining read and I will continue with the series.

Rating:  

    3/5