Embracing My Books
donderdag 13 april 2023
zaterdag 21 juli 2018
Bookhaul
Hi everyone
Just a quick post to share my newest additions.
As gifts from my parents, my brother and my husband:
Emma Newman – Planetfall
Max Brooks – World War Z
José Saramago – Death at Intervals
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Shirley Jackson – The Sundial
Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others
Chris Wooding – Retribution Falls
Richard Yates – Young Hearts Crying
Robin Hobb – Ship of Magic
Robin Hobb – The Mad Ship
From Bol.com:
Robin Hobb – Assassin’s Apprentice
Robin Hobb – Royal Assassin
Robin Hobb – Assassin’s Quest
J. V. Jones – A Fortress of Grey Ice
Stephen King – Carrie
Bradley P. Beaulieu – With Blood Upon the Sand
Marie Brennan – The Tropic of Serpents
From Book Depository:
Alfred Bester – The Demolished Man
Joanna Russ – The Female Man
From Fnac:
Christopher Priest – The Prestige
Happy reading!
Helena
Just a quick post to share my newest additions.
As gifts from my parents, my brother and my husband:
Emma Newman – Planetfall
Max Brooks – World War Z
José Saramago – Death at Intervals
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Shirley Jackson – The Sundial
Ted Chiang – Stories of Your Life and Others
Chris Wooding – Retribution Falls
Richard Yates – Young Hearts Crying
Robin Hobb – Ship of Magic
Robin Hobb – The Mad Ship
From Bol.com:
Robin Hobb – Assassin’s Apprentice
Robin Hobb – Royal Assassin
Robin Hobb – Assassin’s Quest
J. V. Jones – A Fortress of Grey Ice
Stephen King – Carrie
Bradley P. Beaulieu – With Blood Upon the Sand
Marie Brennan – The Tropic of Serpents
From Book Depository:
Alfred Bester – The Demolished Man
Joanna Russ – The Female Man
From Fnac:
Christopher Priest – The Prestige
Happy reading!
Helena
woensdag 4 januari 2017
My Favorite Books of 2016
Hi everyone
Last year, I got asked
about my favorite books of 2015 so I wanted to come up with a list of my most
loved books in 2016 too.
I made it easier on myself by adding star ratings to my reviews and that’s why I made two lists for you.
I made it easier on myself by adding star ratings to my reviews and that’s why I made two lists for you.
Here are my all 5-star
books I read in 2016.
- Terry Pratchett: The Shepherd’s Crown
- Terry Pratchett: Snuff
- Terry Pratchett: I Shall Wear Midnight
- Miles Cameron: The Red Knight
- Michel Faber: The Book of Strange New Things
- Richard Yates: The Easter Parade
- Richard Yates: Disturbing the Peace
- Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son
- Rachel Joyce: The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
- Amos Oz: Between Friends
- Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon
- Emma Donoghue: Room
- Jim Butcher: White Night
- Jim Butcher: Small Favour
- Stephen King: The Long Walk
- Stephen King: The Stand
- Stephen King: The Shining
- Joe Haldeman: The Forever War
- John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of thePhoenix
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
And here is my top 10 of
2016 (without the rereads) in alphabetical order.
- Miles Cameron: The Red Knight
- Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son
- Emma Donoghue: Room
- Michel Faber: The Book of Strange New Things
- Stephen King: The Stand
- Amos Oz: Between Friends
- Terry Pratchett: I Shall Wear Midnight
- Richard Yates: The Easter Parade
- Richard Yates: Disturbing the Peace
What were your
favorite books of 2016?
Happy reading!
Helena
Helena
maandag 2 januari 2017
Wrap Up: 2016
Hi everyone
Happy New Year!
I hope 2017 will bring you as much or even more reading pleasure as 2016 did.
I hope 2017 will bring you as much or even more reading pleasure as 2016 did.
Here is the list (with
links to the reviews) of all the books I read in 2016.
I had a lot of fun taking the pictures at the end of this post and it was the perfect time to give my shelves a good, thorough clean too. Great way to end the year! Rearranging books and then spending a lovely evening with friends.
I had a lot of fun taking the pictures at the end of this post and it was the perfect time to give my shelves a good, thorough clean too. Great way to end the year! Rearranging books and then spending a lovely evening with friends.
In the end, I read a
total of 50.433 pages in 126 books last year.
That’s exactly 400 pages per book and 138 pages per day.
I think I can safely say I surpassed my own expectations and I crushed my 2015 Wrap Up.
That’s exactly 400 pages per book and 138 pages per day.
I think I can safely say I surpassed my own expectations and I crushed my 2015 Wrap Up.
Here’s some
information about the series I read in 2016.
I started reading:
- Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series
- Miles Cameron’s Traitor Son Cycle
- Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers
- Justin Cronin’s The Passage
- Toby Frost’s The Chronicles of Isambard Smith
- Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles
- Karen Miller’s Godspeaker Trilogy
- Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles
- Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach
I continued reading:
- Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files
- Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time
- Terry Pratchett’s and Stephen Baxter’s The Long Earth
I finished:
I started and finished:
I’m still waiting on the next
one to come out:
I won’t continue reading:
- David Gemmell’s Jon Shannow
- Mark Lawrence’s The Broken Empire
- George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
- Kat Richardson’s Greywalker
Here are the books I
read in 2016 in the order I read them. If you click on the title of the book
you will automatically open the review.
- David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
- Stephen King: Salem’s Lot
- John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids
- Robert Jordan: The Fires of Heaven
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
- Herman de Coninck: De Gedichten
- William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair
- Terry Pratchett: Unseen Academicals
- John Wyndham: The Chrysalids
- Jim Butcher: Death Masks
- Kameron Hurley: God’s War
- Allie Brosh: Hyperbole and a Half
- Emma Donoghue: Room
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Evelyn Waugh: Decline and Fall
- Seth Dickinson: The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Arthur Miller: The Crucible
- Michel Faber: The Book of Strange New Things
- Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
- Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White
- E. M. Forster: Howards End
- Neil Gaiman: How the Marquis Got His Coat Back
- Isaac Asimov: Foundation and Empire
- Robert Jordan: Lord of Chaos
- Jim Butcher: Blood Rites
- Stefan Hertmans: Oorlog en Terpentijn
- Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon & Around the Moon
- Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House
- Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
- Richard Yates: Disturbing the Peace
- Stephen King: The Shining
- Isaac Asimov: Second Foundation
- Joe Abercrombie: The Blade Itself
- Terry Pratchett: I Shall Wear Midnight
- Hella S. Haasse: Maanlicht
- Chris Beckett: Dark Eden
- Isaac Asimov: Foundation’s Edge
- Amos Oz: Between Friends
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Ann Leckie: Ancillary Mercy
- Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent
- Robert Jordan: A Crown of Swords
- Neil Gaiman: Trigger Warning
- Stephen King: The Long Walk
- John Wyndham: Chocky
- Miles Cameron: The Red Knight
- Jules Verne: Journey to the Centre of the Earth
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Ira Levin: Rosemary’s Baby
- Isaac Asimov: Foundation and Earth
- Jim Butcher: Dead Beat
- Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London
- Joe Abercrombie: Before They are Hanged
- Terry Pratchett: Snuff
- George Eliot: Silas Marner
- Kat Richardson: Greywalker
- Robert Jordan: The Path of Daggers
- Joe Abercrombie: Last Argument of Kings
- Charles Dickens: David Copperfield
- William Shakespeare: Richard III
- Ben Aaronovitch: Moon over Soho
- Terry Pratchett: Raising Steam
- Terry Pratchett: Mrs. Bradshaw’s Handbook
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Jim Butcher: Proven Guilty
- Joe Haldeman: The Forever War
- Stephen King: The Stand
- Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim
- Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Ben Aaronovitch: Whispers Under Ground
- Mark Lawrence: Prince of Thorns
- Robert Jordan: Winter’s Heart
- Rachel Joyce: The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Frank Herbert: Dune
- Jane Austen: Lady Susan
- H. G. Wells: The Sea Raiders
- Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon
- Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven
- David Gemmell: Wolf in Shadow
- Richard Yates: The Easter Parade
- Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
- Margaret Atwood: Stone Matress
- Kameron Hurley: Infidel
- David Gemmell: The Last Guardian
- Andy Riley: Great Lies to Tell Small Kids
- Karen Miller: Empress
- Ayn Rand: The Fountainhead
- Kameron Hurley: Rapture
- George Eliot: The Lifted Veil
- Ken Liu: The Clockwork Soldier
- Andy Riley: D.I.Y. Dentistry and Other Alarming Inventions
- Justin Cronin: The Passage
- Ira Levin: Sliver
- Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation
- Terry Pratchett: The Shepherd's Crown
- John Steinbeck: Cannery Row
- Jim Butcher: White Night
- Robert Jordan: Crossroads of Twilight
- Aliette de Bodard: Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight
- E. M. Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Dawn French: A Tiny Bit Marvellous
- Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter: The Long Utopia
- William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
- Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell
- Toby Frost: Space Captain Smith
- William Peter Blatty: The Exorcist
- Thomas de Quincey: Confessions of an English Opium Eater
- Anne Rice: The Vampire Lestat
- Virginia Woolf: Orlando
- Charles Dickens: To Be Read at Dusk
- Charles Dickens: Dombey and Son
- Toby Frost: God Emperor of Didcot
- Andy Riley: The Book of Bunny Suicides
- Karen Miller: The Riven Kingdom
- The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
- Matthew Kressel: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye
- Justin Cronin: The Twelve
- Jim Butcher: Small Favour
- Terry Pratchett: Dodger
- Terry Pratchett: Dodger’s Guide to London
- Sebastian Faulks: A Week in December
- Arthur C. Clarke: A Fall of Moondust
- Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things
- Randall Munroe: XKCD volume 0
zondag 1 januari 2017
Wrap Up: December 2016
Hi everyone
Time for another Wrap Up!
December has gone by so incredibly fast I can’t believe it. And January will be even worse with both my husband’s and my birthday.
Enough with the chatter, here are the books I read last month.
December has gone by so incredibly fast I can’t believe it. And January will be even worse with both my husband’s and my birthday.
Enough with the chatter, here are the books I read last month.
I read a total of 3921 pages. That’s 381 pages per book or
160 pages per day.
But I did cheat a bit there. The poetry book was read over the last 6 months.
But I did cheat a bit there. The poetry book was read over the last 6 months.
- Toby Frost: God Emperor of Didcot
- Andy Riley: The Book of Bunny Suicides
- Karen Miller: The Riven Kingdom
- The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
- Matthew Kressel: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye
- Justin Cronin: The Twelve
- Jim Butcher: Small Favour
- Terry Pratchett: Dodger
- Terry Pratchett: Dodger’s Guide to London
- Sebastian Faulks: A Week in December
- Arthur C. Clarke: A Fall of Moondust
- Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things
- Randall Munroe: XKCD volume 0
How was your reading last month? Anything you’d like to
recommend?
Happy reading!
Helena
Helena
zaterdag 31 december 2016
Randall Munroe: XKCD volume 0
Hi everyone
A couple of years ago my husband (then boyfriend) became of
big fan of Randall Munroe’s webcomic XKCD so I gave him the book for his next birthday.
It has 120 pages but the only reason I know that is because of Goodreads as the
pages skip numbers.
My husband is an engineer so he understands all the
sciencejokes and references. I don’t.
The ones I do understand are very clever, sweet and funny.
However, I would recommend this only if you are interested in science and engineering in particular because the comics are targeted towards those of you who are.
I can only rate this as I read and understood this.
The ones I do understand are very clever, sweet and funny.
However, I would recommend this only if you are interested in science and engineering in particular because the comics are targeted towards those of you who are.
I can only rate this as I read and understood this.
Happy reading!
Helena
Helena
vrijdag 30 december 2016
Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things
Hi everyone
The last novel I read in 2016 is Neil Gaiman’s
short stories collection Fragile Things.
I got it as a gift from my husband and it has 433 pages.
You can find all my Neil Gaiman reviews here.
I got it as a gift from my husband and it has 433 pages.
You can find all my Neil Gaiman reviews here.
I enjoyed this collection but I can’t say I
loved it.
Some of the stories are different and
interesting enough and Gaiman does write imaginative stories but there were a
few I just didn’t get or I couldn’t understand what’s so special about them.
The writing is lovely and I enjoy his style but I had a hard time reading more then a few stories a day. That wasn’t a problem because life was very busy but it’s not something I’m used to; I tend to read an hour or two hours at a time in the evening.
Some stories felt like Gaiman was trying too hard to make them different by adding sexual elements, gratuitous violence or gore and those stories felt a bit wrong to me. He just added and added those elements and they made the stories less about the plot and more about those aspects.
The writing is lovely and I enjoy his style but I had a hard time reading more then a few stories a day. That wasn’t a problem because life was very busy but it’s not something I’m used to; I tend to read an hour or two hours at a time in the evening.
Some stories felt like Gaiman was trying too hard to make them different by adding sexual elements, gratuitous violence or gore and those stories felt a bit wrong to me. He just added and added those elements and they made the stories less about the plot and more about those aspects.
All in all I had a mixed experience. I liked
quite a few of the stories but I was disappointed one way or another with the
majority of them.
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