January '21 Wrap-up
One of my busiest months has now passed as it was jam-packed full of due dates and exams in university.
Now within the last two weeks I have tried to read more, although it has not really gone to plan as I've simply chosen to either journal or watch YouTube or Korean dramas instead. I'm not complaining though! I've been having fun.
I did end up finishing Clockwork Princess right at the start of the month, but I was not completely really satisfied with the ending of The Infernal Devices trilogy conclusion. I did give it 3.75 stars, if we were going into specifics, so there was a pretty good level of enjoyment still. I thought that it was wrapped up a little too conveniently, the characters fell too much into a cliché. I did not end up loving the entire love triangle situation anymore as much as I did in the prior books. Oh well, at least I tried and finally managed to finish a Cassandra Clare series!
Then it was time to read a bunch of books and articles for my university essays and assignments, the most interesting of them all were the books I re-read for my two essays. The books I revisited were The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, NW by Zadie Smith and Autumn by Ali Smith. My favourite of the three without a doubt was The Yellow Wallpaper as I could find so many small elements that were so important and Gilman was a phenomenal writer and woman. I don't have many classics I really love but this will be one to revisit for several more times for me. The Yellow Wallpaper received a high 4-star rating from me, as I ended up receiving a pretty high mark for my essay as well. ;)
NW by Zadie Smith is a book that I did enjoy; however, I don't think that it's a particular favourite of mine. The writing was a little far from me in several sections - as it is told by four characters, each of them in a different tone and style -, hence why I could not give it a much higher rating than 3 stars. I like the very real setting of London and the depiction of class, race, poverty, addiction, family etc as it felt very much real.
Lastly of my assignment books, I read Autumn by Ali Smith, which was perhaps my least favourite of the bunch. This went too much into the setting of what felt like borderline magical realism to me, and it isn't really my favourite genre. I struggled to incorporate the book into my essay, too. It is an absolutely beautiful book, don't get me wrong, with its descriptions of seasons and artwork; however, I think that much of it fell a little flat for me. There was a lot of symbolism involved, which is not my cup of tea as I like to go into books so that I, well, actually understand what is being said. It is more of a character-driven than a plot-driven story, which was an interesting choice as it is a relatively short novel. The message of the book felt a little confusing, so all-in-all, this one received another sad 3-star from me.
Now for the fun part! I read two Dan Brown books! Started off with Angels & Demons, which was super interesting for me! I had not seen the movies prior to reading the novel, so this was definitely a plus point of me reading this. I think I would not have been as invested had I known the plot to this. The plot was really fast and I would have read this much faster had I not had to complete schoolwork and I left minimal time for reading for fun every day for myself. The topic was intriguing as well because I do not generally really read anything religion-related or adventure in a thriller form. It was fun though! I ended up giving this one 4 stars.
The sequel, The Da Vinci Code, was a little bit of a different story. I thought this was really repetitive with teh first book and the plot did not interest me at all anymore because the events seemed to clash with the prior book, but here I think that I was at fault for reading the two books so close to one another. Reading this was incredibly boring and I dragged reading this out to a much longer time-period than I would have personally liked. I did not care for the characters nor the plor, my mind really wandered when I was reaidng. Sadly, a 2-star book for me.
Up next was a very exciting new release I read on my Kindle - Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire. Unfortunately, I was let down simply because I think that the topic of discussion was not for me. I am not particularly interested in horses or centaurs, unicorns and whatever creatures of that kind, so this book completely missed the mark for me. The main character was interesting and I thought the topic of sexuality was handled pretty well. IT is pretty rare to see an intersex character in literature, so this was a really pleasant surprise and I think I enjoyed this element the most about the sixth Wayward Children book. This received 3 stars.
Second-to-last, another highly disappointing read, even moreso than The Da Vinci Code. I read about half(ish) of Fallen by Lauren Kate. This one I did not get along with at all. Maybe it is the writing style or the clichés that I didn't exactly vibe with, or it is just the very poorly written plot. First of all, I did not understand what was going on at any time. The scenes were pretty unattached from one another from me and they did not seem to really lead anywhere. It was poorly researched, poorly developed in writing, plot and characters. Absolutely not worth any of my time and I'm actually a little mad I spent a few horus reading the first half of this 1-star dnf. Glad to be unhauling this series from my shelves.
Last but not least, I am carrying over my last January read, and my current read, which is The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. This one I am enjoying a lot more! The creepy setting is really interesting and I like that the mysterious/fantastical/paranormal elements are not revealed right away as the novel starts. The characters are interesting and I even enjoy the high school setting, which I tend to get tired of as of recently. We'll see where this book takes me next.
Not my best reading month, but considering that I spent majority of my time writing numerous assignments, I think that this was a pretty good accomplishment to read 7 books (and a half.......and another half from another). I am pretty happy with this and excited to see which kind of books I end up reading in February besides the Mara Dyer book (maybe the entire trilogy?).
By the way, for anyone interested in the Korean dramas I absolutely inhaled within a few days......... I watched My Secret Romance, My ID is Gangnam Beauty and started Suspicious Partner, the last of which I would highly recommend for fans of mystery romances. I watched all of these on Netflix, absolutely a time well spent.
Until next time,
Eke
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