Operation "Fifty in Twelve", or how I expect to finally manage reading fifty books in twelve months.
Righty-o, it's the end of January (ALREADY???), and I have decided that blogging about the books I read each month might help with fulfilling my goal of reading fifty books this year. So, without further ado, here are the books I finished in January in short reviews.
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Conciousness, Sy Montgomery
A holdover from 2017, I started reading this in early December or maybe late November after seeing it recommended on rbb, the public broadcasting station for Berlin and Brandenburg. I'm a huge octopus fan and love reading about the "big questions" now and then, so this sounded like it might be interesting. I fell in love with it right when I received it because it is just so pretty. It has a gorgeous cover, pictures, the font is nice to read and, best of all, a flip-book add-on of a moving octopus in the right hand corner of each page. Montgomery never even concerns herself with "objectiveness" or "scientific language" (she does, however, cite a ginormous body of scientific research on octopusses, philosophy, neuroscience, zoology, consciousness research and tons of other interesting topics), so this isn't only highly interesting and teaching you a lot about octopusses and the world they live in, it is also funny, emotional, comforting, exciting and plain lovely. Everyone go and read this book!
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
The Beauty Chorus, Kate Lord Brown
Another holdover. I ordered it when I had a hankering for some WWII romance back in the summer of 2017 but didn't really get into it when I first started it. I took it up again in November or December and had a better time with it than in summer. The style is a little let's say generic and the plot gets kinda rushed in the last quarter of the book but it was still entertaining and exciting enough that it had me staying up late to finish it. I also liked that she obviously put a lot of research into it, and the "awesome flygirls telling mediocre RAF chaps off for being idiots" scenes were pretty cool but I found that there were a couple twists I could have done without in favor of some secondary plots I would have liked to see more of. All in all, it was a nice diversion but honestly, I've read better WWII romance so I didn't regret ordering and reading it but yeah, could have been better.
Rating: * * */* * * * *
The Lost Plot, Genevieve Cogman
Fourth installment in Cogman's Invisible Library series. I was really looking forward to it because the first three parts played mostly in Victorian London (yes, I know that's a setting everyone loves but honestly? It's not really my favorite one) while this was set in an alternate 1920s. Roaring Twenties is much more my thing (mostly because fiction authors don't really seem to like it that much so it's much rarer as a setting). I wasn't exactly disappointed but I could have done with more Twenties tropes than just bootleggers and cops. Plotwise, this was a delight, though. It was pretty fast paced, had a couple really good twists and was just a lot of fun to read. The humor - and especially Irene's exasperation and frustration with having to excape from politically hazardous dragons instead of just curling up in front of a fireplace with a good book - was on point and it was awesome that after three books almost exclusively exploring Fae politics and worlds, this one took on the dragons of the Library universe. I would recommend reading the other three books (The Invisble Library, The Masked City and The Burning Page, in correct reading order) first, though, because otherwise, you might find a couple concepts confusing.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir
First book of what is apparently supposed to be a quartet. I was looking for some new YA fantasy (no, 35 is certainly not too old for reading YA, okay?) that stood out a little, and Amazon recommended this to me. It sounded interesting enough so I gave it a try. I needed some time to get into it but it grew on me because the setting is refreshingly unique (military academy towering over a city in the desert isn't something I have come across yet), the plot is exciting and engaging enough to keep one reading and most of the characters are at least interesting. I couldn't, for the life of my, bring myself to care much for Laia, the female protagonist (I found the male protagonist's best friend Helene much more interesting but then again, as mackenziesmomma once put it, I do like my characters way more complicated) and I find myself wishing I could skip her parts in the sequel I'm currently reading because booooring (for me, anyway) but other than that, I really enjoyed this one.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book count as of January 30: 4/50.
So that's one book less than I would have liked (especially considering that the first two were holdovers from 2017) but I'm reading about three books at the same time right now (one fiction in bed, one non-fiction on public transport and one non-fiction on the ergometer) so I kinda hope I'll have about the same count in February. If I keep it up, I just might make it. Or maybe I'll just have to add more stuff like Claudia Gray's Leia book because I read that in three days straight...
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Conciousness, Sy Montgomery
A holdover from 2017, I started reading this in early December or maybe late November after seeing it recommended on rbb, the public broadcasting station for Berlin and Brandenburg. I'm a huge octopus fan and love reading about the "big questions" now and then, so this sounded like it might be interesting. I fell in love with it right when I received it because it is just so pretty. It has a gorgeous cover, pictures, the font is nice to read and, best of all, a flip-book add-on of a moving octopus in the right hand corner of each page. Montgomery never even concerns herself with "objectiveness" or "scientific language" (she does, however, cite a ginormous body of scientific research on octopusses, philosophy, neuroscience, zoology, consciousness research and tons of other interesting topics), so this isn't only highly interesting and teaching you a lot about octopusses and the world they live in, it is also funny, emotional, comforting, exciting and plain lovely. Everyone go and read this book!
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
The Beauty Chorus, Kate Lord Brown
Another holdover. I ordered it when I had a hankering for some WWII romance back in the summer of 2017 but didn't really get into it when I first started it. I took it up again in November or December and had a better time with it than in summer. The style is a little let's say generic and the plot gets kinda rushed in the last quarter of the book but it was still entertaining and exciting enough that it had me staying up late to finish it. I also liked that she obviously put a lot of research into it, and the "awesome flygirls telling mediocre RAF chaps off for being idiots" scenes were pretty cool but I found that there were a couple twists I could have done without in favor of some secondary plots I would have liked to see more of. All in all, it was a nice diversion but honestly, I've read better WWII romance so I didn't regret ordering and reading it but yeah, could have been better.
Rating: * * */* * * * *
The Lost Plot, Genevieve Cogman
Fourth installment in Cogman's Invisible Library series. I was really looking forward to it because the first three parts played mostly in Victorian London (yes, I know that's a setting everyone loves but honestly? It's not really my favorite one) while this was set in an alternate 1920s. Roaring Twenties is much more my thing (mostly because fiction authors don't really seem to like it that much so it's much rarer as a setting). I wasn't exactly disappointed but I could have done with more Twenties tropes than just bootleggers and cops. Plotwise, this was a delight, though. It was pretty fast paced, had a couple really good twists and was just a lot of fun to read. The humor - and especially Irene's exasperation and frustration with having to excape from politically hazardous dragons instead of just curling up in front of a fireplace with a good book - was on point and it was awesome that after three books almost exclusively exploring Fae politics and worlds, this one took on the dragons of the Library universe. I would recommend reading the other three books (The Invisble Library, The Masked City and The Burning Page, in correct reading order) first, though, because otherwise, you might find a couple concepts confusing.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir
First book of what is apparently supposed to be a quartet. I was looking for some new YA fantasy (no, 35 is certainly not too old for reading YA, okay?) that stood out a little, and Amazon recommended this to me. It sounded interesting enough so I gave it a try. I needed some time to get into it but it grew on me because the setting is refreshingly unique (military academy towering over a city in the desert isn't something I have come across yet), the plot is exciting and engaging enough to keep one reading and most of the characters are at least interesting. I couldn't, for the life of my, bring myself to care much for Laia, the female protagonist (I found the male protagonist's best friend Helene much more interesting but then again, as mackenziesmomma once put it, I do like my characters way more complicated) and I find myself wishing I could skip her parts in the sequel I'm currently reading because booooring (for me, anyway) but other than that, I really enjoyed this one.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book count as of January 30: 4/50.
So that's one book less than I would have liked (especially considering that the first two were holdovers from 2017) but I'm reading about three books at the same time right now (one fiction in bed, one non-fiction on public transport and one non-fiction on the ergometer) so I kinda hope I'll have about the same count in February. If I keep it up, I just might make it. Or maybe I'll just have to add more stuff like Claudia Gray's Leia book because I read that in three days straight...