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Saturday, May 30, 2015

May Wrap Up and Update

Oh hey there!! I am back again! School is finally done and I have been able to read again!! It's a great feeling...minus the fact that I have so many things I want to read I'm a tad bit overwhelmed with options...First World problems.

So I'm going to just go straight into the wrap up and then I will do my official update later!  Let's do this!~


The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff: 4/5 Pots of honey

I re-read this for a project I had to do for my East Asian Religious Thought class.  I needed to do a project on Hinduism, Buddhism, or Daoism.  Daoism has gotten me through a lot of rough parts of my life, so I decided to read this again and do a book report.  I still really liked this book and I encourage anyone who is interested in Daoism to pick up this book. It's a great way to learn about the practice without being intimidated...It's funny and sarcastic and everyone knows Pooh and his friends!!



Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes: 3/5 Crowns

I FINALLY finished this book!!! Gods be praised!!!! I started this book at the end of December last year and never got a chance to finish it before school started. Now...What to say about this book....It was definitely NOT my cup of tea. The first 100 or so pages were really good...Nice and murdery...but then.....*sigh* all the characters, minus King Gaius, got super annoying and totally flat. I hated ALL of them...minus Gaius...who is the best character because he kills all the annoying, stupid people. >__< The plot was really not that great and the world, though it promised to be interesting, wasn't really talked about at all. I was curious to hear about the magic system and learn more about the world...was it like ours or was it a completely different? It was pitched as being like A Song of Ice and Fire for young adults...Yeah...they had a similar-ish layout...but no...not by a long shot. It was insta-lovey in parts and things that were supposed to be emotional and sad didn't affect me.  I have a couple of Booktubers who felt the same as me and will be trying the second book, so if they give the second book high praise, I might continue...if not....then I shan't be continuing on in the series (Update: I am thinking of dropping this to a 2).


The House of Hades by Rick Riordan: 5/5 Stars
After the crushing let down of Falling Kingdoms, I decided to pick up a book that I knew I would probably like.  I still can't believe that I just read this book recently...it was released, what, 2 years ago?! Shame on me!!! I really liked this installment in The Heroes of Olympus series.  I still have some problems with liking all of the characters and reading their chapters, causing the book to drag in places, but some of those characters grew on me a teeny tiny bit in this book. I loved Percy and Annabeth's trek through Tartarus and Leo...I love Leo.  I also love that Nico (<3 <3 <3) got a chance to shine a bit in this book...I love that dark kid...I could kind of relate to him (the whole ghosty thing) but I really love where Rick Riordan took his character.  I am planning on finishing the last book The Blood of Olympus before the end of the summer and finish off the series before the release of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (fangirl squee).  I have been watching this show called The Almighty Johnsons (available on Netflix) and it has to do with Norse Mythology...I'm so pumped for October (and yes, I have pre-ordered it XD)!! I'm super hella nervous for what's going to happen in the last book...but I'm also really excited too. ^^
 



 Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson: 5/5 Epics
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS BOOK WAS EPIC!!!! I can't even express how much I loved this book. I picked it up on a whim and I devoured the first 100 or so pages. Then in the middle something happened and I got annoyed with all the characters. They suddenly when flat and the whole David and his insta-lovey crush on Megan bothered the hell out of me...Then shit happened and I was thrown completely off by what happened...I mean, I guessed some of the things that happened, but not 100%...I had doubts...I SHOULD HAVE NEVER DOUBTED BRANDON SANDERSON AND HIS AMAZING-NESS!! T^T The ending of this was so amazing I had to control my outbursts of shock and excitement. This is why he is one of my top 5 favorite authors. I need to pick up Firefight ASAP!! I just...I can't even think of anything else to say about this...Amazing. Just read it!! XD


So those are all the books I have read in the month of May. I have also started: Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas (which, oddly, I'm having a hard time getting into)



And I'm 191/272 pages into Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang.  I had to read a few bits of it for my Comparative Politics class and I ended up buying my own copy.  It's a non-fiction book about Ji-Li and her growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China during Mao's reign. She lives in a "black list" family and it deals with her dealing with what the country wants of her and her duties to her family.  It's really fast paced book and super easy to read (it's written and set up like a middle grade book)...but it makes me sad...so I'm just kind of taking my time with it.

Day later update: I was ill and I finished the last bit of this today. 4/5 stars. Slightly childish writing style (not particularly bothersome though), fairly fast paced, and very interesting. Would recommend if you are interested in China and Mao Zedong/Cultural Revolution.

NOW for the updates:  I will be leaving for Japan on July 1st!! WOOOOOOOOOO!! I'm super hella stoked! I am not sure what my reading will be like there, but I will be bringing a few books with me to read.  I will probably do a "What I'm Bringing to Japan" post when it gets closer to that time.  Also, I'm planning on vloging my experience, so I will be posting that on Youtube. I'm also hoping to launch my Booktube channel before I leave so that's a thing. I know I have been saying that I was starting a Booktube channel for a while now, but I'm heaps serious about it this time!! Phobia or not, I want to do it!! So when that happens, I'll be sure to update my blog with the channel information!~ ^^
I am going to kind of attempt a June TBR (Video/post) soon...I'm not very good at sticking to a TBR as I'm an emotional reader and I feel like TBRs are "required reading" so I tend to become defiant and not do anything I say I'm going to....XD
So that's what's doin' and I hope to see you in my next post! Tootles!~ ^^v