READING CHALLENGE 2020 - ALL THE BOOKS I READ IN THE 1ST QUARTER
I´m not to sure to be honest why I try and do this whole Reading Challenge (RC) thing over and over and over again ;) Over the past few years, excluding 2019, I tried the RC and fails gloriously every time again, but it has something about it that keeps me trying ^^
So here we go again the 2020 RC and this year I´ll just switch it up a bit and only do a post every quarter so you wont be bored too quickly ;)
And here we go with the first 12 books from January, February and March in order in which I read them.
January
Well first of all I loved the prompt I chose this for "A Book by a trans or nonbinary author". I never specifically thought about such a perspective of reading and loved exploring.
I chose the book because the whole story sounded interesting and thrilling and I wasn´t disappointed. The book kind of starts from ta narrators view which is really thrilling and a bit confusing and it kind of gives you the impression the author tells the story you later get into which is in the end the "Confessions of the Fox" Story line. When you get through the book this narrator leaves notes and experiences as foot notes whilst telling the story of the fox. I have to admit that when the story continues I kind of stopped reading all of those footnotes and recapped on them later...probably stupid and I don´t recommend to do so because that kind of makes this special but I just couldn´t be bothered. I also have to say that I´ve been quite happy once I finished the book. I really liked it at first and it quickly turned into a "Can´t put this down" read but with the story unfolding and the characters evolving I kind of got more and more annoyed. I don´t want this to sound bad...but honestly all of them just annoyed me. Still I quite liked the book, I just would not read it again and it´s not on the top of my faves.
This is my choice for "A Bildungsroman" By definition (from Wikipedia) a Bildungsroman is:
"In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn], plural Bildungsromane, German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːnə]) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age),[1] in which character change is important. The term comes from the German words Bildung ("self-cultivation") and Roman ("novel")."
I have never been happier about a book choice ;) Oh my what a wonderfully delightful read this is. I just loove everything about it. I love the way this is written and also how it´s separated in chapters which are almost like little short stories which makes it so easy to read. All the characters grew so close to my heart and I felt so much with everything happening. With Anne growing up and every change she goes through. I felt happy for her and sad. I was thrilled with her and felt it when she felt embarrassed or hurt. I was happy for and proud of her. I love the emotional development of all the other, especially Marillas ;) I loved all the characters and their quirks and habits and I loved all the stories and experiences. It´s so wonderfully written and paints the most perfect picture of a beautiful landscape and a splendid childhood with all its ups and downs :)
Highly recommend this I´m sure I will read this again.
I chose this for the prompt "A book about a bookclub" and I´ve never been happier to have found a book.
I´ve never read a book club book before and never been in one...seriously thinking about it now tho ^^
Before reading this book I also never heard of the author which is nothing special to be honest because there are just wayyy too many ;) but I really wonder why - I love how and what she writes! I love the characters and their development, which is not nessecarily breathtaking or anything but for me everything they do makes sense and they´re nicely composed. I love the story which probably is nothing unique either, but I love the point of view, all the little turns and changes and the constant expectation due to who is the murderer in the end ;) I really enjoyed this little book and am already planning on reading the second and the third one asap and hope to find prompts in the challenge to use them for ^^
This is my book for: "A book with a great first line" and there are many to choose from. At first I thought how on earth should I choose a book due to its first line and also who decides it the line is great or not...is this a universal or a personal question? I ended up just googling the prompt and found so many articles exactly about this topic ^^ For me a great first line is just gripping like...I have to know what comes next. It has to leave you wondering with endless questions and it has to paint a picture from what is about to come your way and The Invisible Man does exactly this ;)
"The Stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand."
I mean what a sentence without being the first, doesn´t it just tick all my boxes from above.
First is it gripping...well I think it is, I certainly want to know what happens next.
Then the questions...well if you don´t have questions I don´t know what...Who is that stranger? Why does he travel in weather like this? Where does he come from? What is in his portmanteau? Why is it so important that his hand is gloved and why thickly? So many things you want to learn ;)
And then the picture ;) I have one in my head, do you?
All in all I find it hard to say weather I liked it or not... In general I´d say yes but I also remember being less interested and bored sometimes whilst reading it. But I´m sure no one would regret reading it, for me it is quite unique, I never read anything comparable - a unique story and amazingly written characters and storyline.
February
When I started watching Bones on Amazon Prime I did not even know that it was based on books. I love the show a lot and watched and am still watching it over and over and over again ;) I kind of stretched the topic a bit on for that. The prompt is: "A Medical Thriller" and well I don´t know how perfectly this fits but it kind of is about forensics and therefore medical isn´t it ;)
If you are a as big fan of the tv series as I am you might want to know that the book are actually quite different. From the place the main story is set, being Canada and not Washington DC, from the characters, to their character and history, to the cases being worked in the books.
The only character that is the same is, obviously, Temperance Brennan but the name together with her profession is pretty much the only thing similar to the tv show. Yes she is a brilliant forensic anthropologist, yes she works together with police to solve deaths. No she does not work in a museum but in a forensic institution and always works to solve suspicious deaths. No she is not as well cool and distant in character and almost always perfect, but has a more or less failed marriage, a daughter and a drinking problem from which she is recovering. She also has a sister gone wild instead of a brother, she never lost her parents tragically and she has a cat ;). Those being the main differences I can think of now. Also all the characters working with her...which I missed a lot at first...are not there and it takes time to adjust to the new setting. But if you allow your self to give in and distant the books and tv series it such a nice read which I enjoyed a lot. It takes some time to get thrilling but it then grabs you until you reach the last page and it made me read book 2 asap ;)
It was quite hard to choose a book for this because there are several which sounded interesting but in the end I chose this for the prompt: "A book with an upside down image on the cover" and to be fair the dog on the cover lies upside down doesn´t it ;)
At first I really liked the book a lot. It´s about a 15 year old boy called Christopher Boone who has Asperger´s Syndrome and his everyday life which is majorly interrupted after the Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time. After this he discovers many hidden secrets, gets into trouble and has to face many challenging new situations.
I would say I really like the first half of the book and was a bit disappointed with the second one, even tho I can not really say why since some of what happens is actually quite nice, especially when it comes to Christophers development, but I just really did not expect it and in this case it was not a change of things I liked so I don´t really know what to say about it or whether I recommend it o r not...
This is my choice for the prompt "An Anthology". Again it was really hard to choose a book here because there are soooo many amazing choices! I am also not 100% sure if my choice really fits the prompt but I wanted to read it and its a collection of stories so at least it´s close :)
Here is the wikipedia definition: "In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.[1] In genre fiction, the term "anthology" typically categorizes collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, by different authors, each featuring unrelated casts of characters and settings, and usually collected into a single volume for publication. Alternatively, it can also be a collection of selected writings (short stories, poems etc.) by one author."
I´ve always been a Agatha Christie fan but never really read a lot of her only one or two stories and so I´ve been very excited when I found this collection to read.
I chose this for "A book you meant to read in 2019" well to be honest I meant to read this a lot longer but therefore also in 2019 so I decided it fits ;) There are also lots of films about them now and I´ve seen all of them and like them a lot. The series is about a police man who was relocated from Munich to his rural home town due to some incident. Of cause he is quite unchallenged there but that soon changes after some really strange incidents and deaths.
Usually I never read a book after watching the film but obviously I did not even think about the book befor the films so I did it the other way round ^^ and I loved the book a lot. The humour, the characters and their historys´, the way it´s written - it´s just such fun and authentic and you really feel like knowing everyone and being able to relate. My fave is the Granma I think ^^
March
Like I said befor I am really really really into the Bones series...you actually might have heard me talk about it once or twice. Sooo since I read part 1 already ;) and since I really want to read all of them, it´s no surprise I read the second book for "A book set in a country beginning with a C".
The whole series is based in Canada so here we go...unfortunately a huge chunk of this is set int the States but...ya well ;) it begins and ends in Canada.
I was really excited to read this after I finished the first book but I gotta admit it wasn´t as good as the first one. Maybe it was because of the topic it was about or maybe because it needed to long to really get rolling only to finish quite quickly...I think the balance of the investigation to the solving was a bit of. Again I loved the characters and finally really managed to not try and think this into the tv series I also loved the ways Tempe had to go and the development of the relationships but in the end it had a bit of a meh factor.
When choosing a book for "A book that is set in a city that hosted the olympics" you are flushed with an seeming endless flood of options to choose from. First of all there are many many cities which hosted the Olympics and all of them are settings for an huge amount of stories told in a similarly huge amount of books which all sound incredible...so how on earth do you choose only one...soo...I never made a real decision I just went into a book store and chose this book because it sounded nice and luckily it´s set in London so voila here we go.
It took a few pages to draw me in but quite soon this book draw me in and I couldn´t stop reading very often. I love the main character of Bridie Devine being so strong and independent. I love the contant air of "take care something is going to happen" and the never leaving wondering to "what is going to happen next" and being surprised all the time. I never expected anything that happened and always wanted to know what was going on and why and who where what... ^^
All in all this was quite different to most I read before and many things I never had in any other book before and thats a good thing isn´t it ^^ I really love it.
I don´t really know why on earth I chose this book...normally I try to stay under 300 pages for reading challenge books...hard to do so and I hardly ever do but...this amount of pages...I mean I love reading and do a lot of it but I don´t have too much time for it and .... ya well the prompt said: "The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed" and this was it...what shall I do...
Also I am a bit ashamed of admitting this but...this was my first Stephen King...ya I know how did I do that :D but rest assured I plan an read more asap.
I borowed this one from my boyfriends mum and read it in german. I love the german version but I don´t know if it´s any good compared to the original english.
In The Institute a lot of things happen, some quite quickly some a bit too slowly. Some things really left me wondering and questioning a lot, also since its my first King I did not know a lot about his style of writing and story telling, so I had to get used to it at first ;) It takes some time to connect everything and often I was just left thinking wth...
This book was simply chosen because it was sitting on my shelves waiting to be read ;) and it was perfect for "A book with a bird on the cover" even tho there are so many others I would have loved to read for this prompt ;) The book itself is pretty much another collection of short stories about all the little bits in life from childhood to present. I can´t say that I particularly enjoyed reading this even tho the stories are everything form hilarious to sad to elegant and moving. I never really could warm up for the story teller even tho I don´t think that´s the goal ;) it´s just very honest and not afraid of talking about everything.
Again I read this one in german so unfortunately I don´t know anything about the original english one and have no idea if the translation is any good... let me know if you know anything about this ^^
I am already so behind on all my reading and struggle with the thought of how much I planned on reading ;) hahaha I never ever will finish a single reading challenge will I ^^
But I am reading some quite exciting books atm you´ll hear all about it in the next Post about the Second Quarter ;) follow the blog so you won´t miss it ^^
What about you? Are you doing the reading challenge? Or any other?
What are you reading atm and lets talk about all the books you read so far :)
I hope you have a lovely time!
Happy Reading!
xoxo
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