Rainy Day Reads

I had been looking forward to reading this as everyone on Booktube has raved about it for ever. It is supposedly an epic fantasy with kick-ass female characters and steamy romance. Once again I was let down. But let's start from the beginning. The book is a story about an island consisting of three kingdoms; poverty stricken Paelsia, fertile Auranos and bleak Limeros. We meet Cleo, the princess of Auranos, Magnus, the prince of Limeros and Jonas, a Paelsian peasant, along with a number of others. Their stories intertwine when Cleo witnesses the murder of Jonas' brother, which becomes the catalyst for war between the three nations. I found this book to be mainly uninspiring. The world seemed tiny, but its scope was suppose to be massive. Like there are three separate kingdoms, but they are all so close to each other that a few days travel bring you from one to the other. And then there was the Sanctuary and tales of magic on top, which I felt wasn't really fleshed out

Seeing as I am on a book buying ban, I am making great use of my local library, and I thought “Why not do a haul?” So here are the books I currently have from the library.   First up we have “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. This is part of my “Reading the Classics” project and I have just finished it. I actually really enjoyed it and I think it is one of the few classics (so far) that I feel still have relevance today. Plotwise it’s not perhaps the best book I’ve read, simply because I don’t enjoy violence and made-up slang, but it really makes you think about free will, inherent “badness” and government control.   Then I have “Across the Universe” by Beth Revis. This is a YA book set in space. Amy is frozen cryogenically along with her parents and a number of people who are sent off to colonize a new planet. The journey will take 300 years, and the spaceship is inhabited by other people who keep it running. Somehow Amy is woken up before the spaceship lands and

This book has intrigued me ever since I first heard about it absolutely ages ago. I am always interested in the “hidden side” of things and looking “behind the scenes” of everyday life. Recently I finally got my act together and read it.   The authors themselves preface this book by saying that it doesn't really have a coherent theme. And it doesn’t. It talks about real estate agents, sumo wrestlers, school teachers and parenting. I found it interesting to learn about all of these things and see things from a different perspective. Especially seeing how things aren’t always connected in the way we think or how seemingly unconnected things can be dependent on each other. But other than my enjoyment of the small “aha”-moments collected in this book, I didn’t really find it as mind-blowing as I had hoped.  I gave this book 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in hidden connections. I would say it’s probably a

Autumn is here in full swing (and has been for a while) and it’s time to get cozy under the blankets with a (bunch of) good books! This is a fun tag created by Sam over at Sam’s Nonsense on Youtube. Her video is here ! But without further ado, let’s get into it.   Crunching Leaves: The world is full of color - choose a book that had reds/oranges/yellows on the cover Saw this on my shelves and thought it was perfect. “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins, the last book of the “Hunger Games” trilogy. I think we all know what this book is about by now, so I won’t say anything more about it.  Cozy Sweater - It's finally cold enough to don warm cozy clothing: what book gives you the warm fuzzies? Aside from “Harry Potter” I would say “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. It’s a classic love story, and one of favorite reads. I’ve read it many times, but I always enjoy a reread.  Fall Storm: The wind is howling & the rain is pounding - choose your favorite book OR

I went to India in 2004 (I have another post about my visit to the Taj Mahal ) and this was my first brig trip away from home and on my own. I say on my own, but we were actually a group of 14 girls going, but I didn’t know any of them beforehand. We were going to the small village of Bijanbari in the West Bengal highlands to teach English in the village schools.   The view from Darjeeling We spent a few days sightseeing around Delhi, Jaipur and Agra before we headed up the mountains to the city of Darjeeling. We took the train from Delhi to Siliguri, which is a 24 hour overnight experience, but it is possible to fly to Bagdogra, located 90 km from Darjeeling, and drive for a few hours to Darjeeling from there.  Darjeeling was founded by the British in the mid-19th century, when they set up an sanatorium and a military depot here. Soon it became a popular spot for summering among the British, as it provided an escape from the heat of the plains. It is located

I don’t often cry when reading books, but there have been a few notable ones over the last few years that have made me shed a tear. I thought I would share these books, as they are some of my favorite ones, and who doesn’t need a good tear jerker now and then? Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein This book is set during the Second World War and follows two young women who both work in the war effort. Somehow they end up behind enemy lines and they must each try to get out of trouble in their own way. The thing that got to my cold cynical heart was the relationship between these two women and the sheer bravery of especially one of them. The lengths she was willing to go to were amazing and it wrung a tear from my eye.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Another book set during World War II this one follows a young German girl, who is left with foster parents due to various circumstances. We follow her struggles finding a place for herself in the new family and the new town,

I expected this to be fiction based on true events, but actually it is a non-fiction book detailing the life and love of James Kirkpatrick in India. It is marketed as a great love story between an English man and an Indian woman, destined to be kept apart by race, religion and social standards but overcoming the odds to be together anyway.   The book is very detailed and built mainly on letters, many of which survive in estates and the East India Company’s files. This makes for an accurate, but sometimes slightly dry retelling of actual events. There is so much detail about people and politics that the love story drowns in it. I would say this book is mainly about James Kirkpatrick and his life. His lover Khair features very little in it.  It takes a while for the book to get to James, as it first sets up the entire backdrop of the British in India and the principle figures, both political and familial. This just doesn’t really interest me and for this part of the book I