Books I read while I had ‘almost no internet’.

Let’s first clear this up: by ‘almost no internet’ I mean having the slowest of connections in a very old cell phone where most apps didn’t work. I was mainly using only Gmail for two months. So, during the busy autumnal days, I was:

-Writing emails like in the old Pine days,
-Watching a lot of DVDs (mostly Vampire Diaries, a guilty entertainment activity like reading the Selection series)
-And visiting the small bookshop of my town, which deserves a lot of support and has awesome author readings. I went to a reading with Elia Barceló and absolutely loved how the author made her book a lively experience for us. Now I want to read all her books :-). I still didn’t get to that, but even though these last weeks I managed to tackle my previous TBR list reasonably well.

The books I’ve read: 

The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) by Samantha Shannon – 5 stars

In this book, the world building was quite extensive and that alone was already worth at least 4,5 stars. There is even a spin-off called “On the Merits of Unnaturalness” which further explains it.
Although I haven’t read the spin-off I could reasonably follow the various ‘voyants’ classes that appear in the book.
I also liked Paige because, although she was IMO likable, she wasn’t exactly a standard romantic heroine. She could be contradictory, seemed to be too cynical and suspicious sometimes and only at the end of the book, you could see all her layers. Perhaps she’s not everybody’s favorite type of main female character, but I found that really refreshing after so many perfect fictional girls out there. I also liked the flaws in all other characters, I think this contributed to give depth to the story.
I’ll be surely following up this series to see how the story goes on.

(I would like to thank NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. )

 

 

Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber – 4 stars

** Spoiler alert **

Quite nice though some things round up too easily at the very open end. I’m still in doubt if I’ll go on reading the series.

 

The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy #1) by Katherine Arden – 5 Stars

A beautifully told, interesting story with a Russian fairytale setting. I’ll be following this series for sure.

 

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1) by Amie Kaufman (Goodreads Author), Meagan Spooner – 3 Stars

** Spoiler alert ** The romance in this story was well done, it’s just that it was the main part of the story at the expense of world-building, story development, and pace. And there were many extremely repeated tropes too, while the resolution was really fast and the end left open for the next book.

So I may go on reading this series, but I’m not so much in a hurry.

All the Birds in the Sky (All the Birds in the Sky #1) by Charlie Jane Anders – 3 Stars

I’m a bit in doubt about what to say in my review. I liked the story and the ending although I would have liked more if it would have gone to more depths in its original and interesting premise and tried less to be everybody’s taste in an amusing way.

P.A.W.S. (P.A.W.S. #1) by Debbie Manber Kupfer – 4 Stars

What a cute shapeshifter story, I could not put this book down.I’m curious as how the story will go on too.

Artemis by Andy Weir – 5 Stars

First things first, I considered Weir’s second book as good as “The Martian.”

I’ve read some reviews where people complained about characterization problems, but this didn’t stop me from enjoying the book and considering the heroine refreshingly funny in her tomboy flawed way. I also liked her name – “Jazz”- that is so cool.

As a Brazilian, I found a couple of details in the ARC I would have pointed out as not so really Brazilian, so I wonder if these details were later changed in the final version of the book.

In any case, I couldn’t put this book down or stop laughing. So it’s one of my favorites this year as “The Martian” was one of my favorites in 2015.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Now in Dezember I just have three weeks to wrap this reading year up.  I have around six books in the middle that I’m currently reading, so I’ll try to finish at least a couple of them before 2017 is over. Then I’ll write my favorite blog post of the year with my favorite 2017 books, stay tuned. 😉

And you, how was your reading year? Any new year reading goals?

 

 

 

My 5 favorite NetGalley Reads (from August to October 2017)

I’m commemorating my “10 Book Reviews” Badge on NetGalley. End of August this year, I became a member on this site. It made sense to me that since this blog has lately been more and more devoted to books, to check there for new books to review. So far I wrote reviews on a bit more than 10 books and posted them all on Goodreads, where I even have a list called
NetGalley Reads

However, so this post doesn’t get too long, I’ll concentrate on the five favorite books and graphic novels I read since I started. Here they are:

1- Hardcore Mindgames (Hardcore Station, #0) by Jim Starlin

This book was very original and funny. The main character is very interesting and his family is extraordinary too. I’ll never complain about my family again after reading about Xeno’s, lol. I was a bit confused about Xeno’s bodyguard because she was called on one page by the last name and later by the first name, so it took me a while to see that the author meant the same person. Overall I felt that the secondary characters, including the girl Xeno was trying to save, could have been more developed too. The end seemed a bit rushed, I suppose there will be a next book where we’ll know how things progress. I would surely read the next book in this series to see how Xeno’s story goes on.
Rating: 4 Stars

2 – How to Be Perfectly Unhappy by Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal

I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What a lovely and poetic short graphic novel!
I can totally relate to the questions and answers in this book. After all, what means to be happy nowadays? Is happiness or a pretense of happiness the ultimate goal? Or is it fine to be “busy, interested, fascinated” and “perfectly unhappy”?
Rating: 5 Stars

3 – John Carter: The End by Brian Wood (Author), Alex Cox, Hayden Sherman (Contributor)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I like a good science-fiction adventure with aliens on another planet, so this graphic novel had all the right ingredients for me.
Rating: 4 Stars

4- Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real by Brian Gordon

I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As a mother of a six and a four-year-old, I could relate and laugh at the very funny jokes. My favorites were the ones about tired children, sibling’s fights and why they won’t try the food.
Rating: 5 Stars

5- Joyride, Volume 1 (Joyride, #1) by Jackson Lanzing (Writer), Collin Kelly (Writer), Marcus To (Artist), Irma Kniivila (Colourist), Jim Campbell (Letterer), Scott Newman (Designer)

I would like to thank NetGalley and BOOM! Studios for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Earth Sucks. Space Rocks. Let’s Dance.” This graphic novel is fun and I liked its theme and story a lot. Let’s see where this graphic novel will go.
Rating: 5 Stars