November Wrap Up

I proclaim this month as a huge success when it comes to reading. I've read a total of eight books and I had an average reading experience - some books I loved, some books I hated.

Reviewed Books:

"More Than This" by Patrick Ness

☆☆☆☆☆
Genre: Dystopia

My review can be found here, but the only thing you need to know really is that the book is unique and great.

"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick

☆☆☆☆☆
Genre: Middle Grade

My 2 in 1 review can be found here, but I'm sure all of you've heard great things about these books.

"Urban Gothic" by Brian Keene

☆☆☆☆
Genre: Horror

If you like gory stuff and really descriptive language and a lot of violence, than this book is just for you. For more detailed review, you can click here.

Non-Reviewed Books:

"City of Stairs" ("The Divine Cities" #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

☆☆☆
Genre: Fantasy

The problem I had with this book is that I was confuse most of the times by the amount of strange names that I had to remember in order to follow the story and some of the unexplained things that were somewhat important for the story. The book was better towards its ending and that's enough to make me want to read the next ones in the series. Sadly I can't say I recommend this read.

"In the Dark of the Night" by John Saul

☆☆☆
Genre: Horror

This was not a horror book at all. It's more like a mystery novel with not enough mystery in it. I was expecting psychological horror and I didn't get any...so I ended up really disappointed. There were some good moments here and there, but not nearly enough for me.

"Twilight Eyes" by Dean Koontz

☆
Genre: Horror

This book was my biggest disappointment of the month. It should have never existed. It would have been such a good book, but the ending ruined it all. Do you know what my thoughts were towards the ending?! - "This book was pointless!" That have never happened before. I've always found some reasoning behind the books I've read, but this one was just meaningless, dull...Just don't read it...

"Jumanji" by Todd Strasser

☆☆☆
Genre: Childrens

I love the movie. I've watched it a gazillion times. I was going for "Jumanji" by Chris Van Allsburg, but they didn't have it in my local library, so I ended up picking this one up. It's OK for a children's book or a beginner in English (which I am not). It was still nice to read it.

These were all of the books I've read this month. Is there any of them you've read? What was your reading experience throughout November?

Book Review: "Urban Gothic" by Brian Keene

☆☆☆☆
Genre: Horror
Source: Library

"When their car broke down in a dangerous neighborhood of the inner city, Kerri and her friends thought they would find shelter in the old dark row house. They thought it was abandoned. They thought they would be safe there until morning. They were wrong on all counts. The residents of the row house live in the cellar and rarely come out in the light of day. They're far worse than anything on the streets outside. And they don't like intruders. Before the sun comes up, Kerri and her friends will fight for their very lives... though death is only part of their nightmare." - Goodreads

After reading two "horror" novels this month, that were huge disappointments, I was in a deep need for real horror story. Now, this book was not the horror I had in mind, but it did the job. May be some of you've watched some scary movies like "The Hills Have Eyes" or "Jeepers Creepers". Horror movies with a lot of gory, Horror movies with a lot of gory, emptying-your-stomach scenes... This book is like those movies, that need a sign

Due to the utterly descriptive and vivid writing, every scene was not really hard to imagine, which led to me being disgusted throughout almost the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this read, but, although I love horrors, some parts of this book were too much even for me. If this book was ever to become a movie, I would definitely never watch it (and if you read the book, you will know why).

Now, let's move on to the characters in this book, since they are the reason I gave this book one star less. The problem with the characters was that every single time, when the author tries to give them some personality or backstory, he failed. There were a couple of times when the characters thought - "I've been through serious hardship throughout my life, so I will overcome this one, too" - but you are never told what this hardship was, which kind of annoyed me.

If you love gore and don't mind flying brains and chopped off body parts, than this book is for you. If not, better stay away from it.

If you've read this book and have similar books to recommend to me, please share them with me in the comments :)

Book Review: "More Than This" by Patrick Ness

☆☆☆☆☆
Genre: Dystopia
Source: Bought

"A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies.

Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive.

How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?

As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

From multi-award-winning Patrick Ness comes one of the most provocative and moving novels of our time." - Goodreads

I've heard a lot of people talking about this book and each and every one of them says that the only thing you need to know about this book is the synopsis, written on the back. I completely agree with this. I won't even try to explain what this book is all about. It's strange and original and really, really good.

I find every Patrick Ness book to be unique in its own way and I really love that. I never know what to expect and end up loving every story, written by him. If you've read any of his works, you know what I'm talking about.

This book is an emotional ride, at least for me it was. It was thought provoking, too. If you've never read any Patrick Ness books, I definitely recommend you to start with this one.

If you’ve read it, share your thoughts on it in the comments. I’ll be happy to see what other people think about this book :)

Book Traveling Thursdays: Book That Deals With A War

The Book Traveling Thursdays meme is created by Danielle at Danielle’s Book Blog and Catia at TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch. Every week you choose a book for your blog post that fits the weekly theme (which you can find in the Goodreads group), you share why you chose that book and finally post picture of the original cover, the covers from your country, your favorite cover, and your least favorite cover.

This week’s topic is dedicated to the World Peace Day and we have to pick a book, that deals with a war...and I have a lot to choose from, since most of my reads are either fantasy, or historical-fiction/historical-romance. Even some of my contemporary reads deal with a war...

My pick is going to be one of my favorite historical-fiction books - "The Lady of the Rivers" ("The Cousins' War" #3) by Philippa Gregory. I love all of the books in the series but I'm choosing it, because it's the first one, if a person chooses to read this series in chronological order (as I did).

Original Cover:

I really like this cover. The font of the title and the color scheme are just perfect for this book.

Bulgarian Cover: 

It's not my favorite cover, but I don't hate it.

Favorite Covers:

               1) Norwegian                             2) Lithuanian

The Norwegian and the Lithuanian covers are my definite favorites! I mean, look at those gorgeous dresses...

Least Favorite Covers:

                   1) Portuguese                                2) Romanian                                     3) Serbian

Let's start with the Portuguese cover - it could have been perfect, if there wasn't a face on it. Good job, publishers, you've ruined it!!! The Romanian cover with this boring white background and the horrifically-looking woman on it - it's a definite no-no. As for the Serbian cover - I really hate brown...

If you have a Book Traveling Thursdays blog post, share it in the comments. I would love to check it out :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Quotes 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is "Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So". I want to thank Goodreads, because I suck at remembering quotes.

"The Desert Spear" by Peter V. Brett

"The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham

"One Plus One" by Jojo Moyes

"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green

"The Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

"A Dance of Cloaks" by David Dalglish

"The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith

"Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones

"The Giver" by Lois Lowry

If you've read any of these books, share your favorite quote from them in the comments. If you have a blog post about this topic, share a link and I'll be happy to read it :)

Book Traveling Thursdays: Favorite Kind Character

The Book Traveling Thursdays meme is created by Danielle at Danielle’s Book Blog and Catia at TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch. Every week you choose a book for your blog post that fits the weekly theme (which you can find in the Goodreads group), you share why you chose that book and finally post picture of the original cover, the covers from your country, your favorite cover, and your least favorite cover.

This week’s topic is dedicated to the World Kindness Day and to our favorite kind characters. The characters, that we can't help, but fall in love with, the ones, that we want to be our best friends, because everybody needs kindness in their life.

I choose Auggie from "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio, because this is the book, that speaks kindness to me the most. I doubt that there is a person, who have read the book and stayed indifferent to it.

Original Cover:

I think it's this one. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is a really simple cover, but it fits the book perfectly.

Bulgarian & Favorite Cover: 

It's almost the same as the original one. The only difference is the quote from the book:

"I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse."

I love this quote.

Least Favorite Covers:

                   1) French                                    2) Serbian                                            3) Slovak

I don't like the color scheme in the French cover. The Serbian cover lacks art. As for the Slovak cover - faces on the covers are a no-no for me.

If you have a Book Traveling Thursdays blog post, share it in the comments. I would love to check it out :)

Top 5 Wednesday: Books You Wish You Haven't Read

Top 5 Wednesdays was created by gingerreadsLainey and there is a Goodreads group where you can find a list of participants as well as Top 5 Wednesday topics.

This week's topic is "Books You Did Not Finish" but there are only three books I did not finish. I hate not finishing books. Even if they are really boring, I keep on reading them. So instead of my uncompleted books, I will share with you some of the books I wish I haven't read (a.k.a. the books I wish I haven't started reading in the first place)...

“Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series by Laurell K. Hamilton

Starting this series was my biggest mistake, when it comes to books. The first book was not that great, but after it everything went downhill...I will complete this series eventually (because I'm a complete masochist) but this is going to happen in a far, far future...

“The Seer King” trilogy by Chris Bunch

I absolutely hated this trilogy. The writing style was so descriptive and the books were so slow-paced. I was bored throughout all three of the books. It's a shame because the story could have been really interesting...

“Snakes and Earrings” by Hitomi Kanehara

This book...I really don't know what to say about it...It was a bad reading experience.

“Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China” by Nigel Cawthorne

I don't even want to talk about this one...It was confusing, with too much characters that I did not need. Here is my review, if anyone is interested.

“Fallen” series by Lauren Kate

This was a cover buy. The only thing I liked about this book, was the last chapter, which was written from the guy POV (I don't even remember his name). Do the books get any better, because I will finish them and I want to know what to expect.

These are my top 5 books/book series I wish I have never started/read. If there are any different opinions, please share them in the comments. Links to your Top 5 Wednesday blog posts are also appreciated :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book To Movie Adaptations

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

I love book to movie adaptations, so today's topic should be a lot of fun. Like major part of the book community, my opinion is that there are a lot of bad book to movie adaptations, but in spite of that I really love watching them.
So here are the top ten movies that I just have to watch...

"Room"

I was not very impressed with the book, but I really loved the story. The movie came out this year and has really high rating on IMDB, so I really want to check it out.

If you have not read the book, don't watch the trailer - it contains SPOILERS!!!

"The Martian"

I really, really want to watch this movie...but I have not read the book yet. I am not a huge fan of Matt Damon, but I've heard amazing things about the movie, as well as the book, so I'm really looking forward to enjoy both of them.

"Dark Places"

I've read mixed reviews about the book and the movie has a low rating on IMDB, but I want to check both of them out.

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

I've heard nothing but amazing things about the book and I've recently found out that there is a movie. It has a high rating on IMDB, so I'm looking forward to watching it.

"Jumper: Griffin's Story"

This is an old movie. It came out in 2008, but I still haven't got the chance to watch it. I remember liking the book, so I really want to give the movie a try.

"Gone Girl"

This movie came out last year, but I haven't read the book yet. I don't know what I'm waiting for...I don't like Ben Affleck, but I hope that the movie will be good... 

"The Golden Compass"

I absolutely love "His Dark Materials", so I want to give this movie a try. I wish all of the books were adapted into movies...

"Let the Right One In"

I love horrors. I have not read the book, but I'm looking forward to watching the movie. The only thing stopping me is that the movie is Swedish and I have never watched something in Swedish before. I know that there is a remake - "Let Me In", which is in English. If any of you watched both of these movies, please share in the comments which one is better...

"The Kite Runner"

Sometimes I need a good cry. I know that the book is really emotional, so I expect the movie to be the same.

"I Am Number Four"

The only reason I've read this book in the first place is because the movie was coming out. I did not like the book, so my interest in watching the movie faded away. Now I want to give it a go.

If you've watched any of these movies, share your opinion in the comments (without spoilers please, because I have not read most of the books). If you have a blog post about this topic, share a link and I'll be happy to read it :)