Sunday 30 July 2017

July Wrap Up

After a both May and June were pretty good reading months, when July came around I was determined to continue on, and read just as many books as I had in the previous months in order to keep on track and to hopefully catch up on my Goodreads goal to read 50 books by the end of the year.  Thankfully, these past few weeks were somehow even better, as not only did I manage to read five books, but all of the books I read I really thoroughly enjoyed as well.  This month I also decided to venture out of my usual comfort zone of YA, with three of the books that I read being from other genres, and I am so happy that I choose to do this as it almost showed me that adult fiction is something that I thoroughly enjoy and is something that I hope to read more and more of in the future.  So, here are all five of the amazing books that I managed to read this month.  And so, enjoy!  




To start off July, I decided to pick this one up at last as I just felt the sudden urge to read something other than YA, and knew I needed to read this one as it has been on my shelf for so long after I picked it up around the time the movie was released.  This one follows our main character of Eilis as she leaves Ireland to go to America to build a new life for herself, leaving behind her mother and her sister, and the life shes always known.  I was a little apprehensive going into this one as I didn't really know what to expect from it, and although it did take me a while to get really into, I'm so glad I did decide to pick this one as I ended up really enjoying it alot more than I thought I would.  I loved the simplicity of this story, and of the writing style, and so how beautiful it was just to read about a young girl trying to cope away from home and make something for herself.  I loved so many of the characters in this, and loved how realistic they were, as well as the whole story was, and overall just really enjoyed reading this one.  

Rating:
4.5/5






Next up, after enjoying Brooklyn as much as I did, I really wanted to continue reading more adult fiction rather than returning straight back to YA, and so choose this one as it was one I've seen around for quite a few years, but only recently picked up for school.  This book tells the story of Cathy, Tommy and Ruth, as they grow up together at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school, and later re-enter each others lives as they begin to finally understand the true nature of what it is that makes them 'special'.  This was one that I didn't really know a huge amount about before going into it,  and after reading it I think that may be the best way to go into this one as the story and certain secrets slowly reveal themselves as the book progresses, something which I really enjoyed about this one.  Overall, I really enjoyed this one and found it to be quite a powerful and poignant read, particularly because of the nature of this story, as well as the idea of such a scary, almost dystopian concept being written into a modern setting.  I also really liked how easy it was to fall into the writing style of this book, and how the simplicity of that contrasted against the complexity of the story itself.  

Rating:
4.25/5







After two amazing, but quite emotive and powerful reads, I knew as much as I had enjoyed them that I needed to return to my comfort and to read something that would just draw me in straight away and .  This book is a Sci-Fi retelling of Cinderella, and so follows our main character of Cinder, a cyborg who just happens to be the best mechanic in New Beijing, in a new take on the classic fairy tale.  I really loved this one, with its addictive writing style and fast paced plot that allowed me to fly through this one in just a couple of days.  This book just seemed to get better as it went on, and was filled with so many amazing plot twists that constantly left me guessing despite this being a story I thought I knew.  It was a retelling whilst still being a completely separate story as well, especially because of certain aspects, such as the plague, and the obvious sci-fi aspects as well.  All in all, I just absolutely adored this one so much more than I was expecting to, and I can't wait to continue on with the series very soon! 

Rating:
4.75/5







Next up, I decided to leave my reading comfort zone a little bit once again, and so chose to pick up another classic, and a book that was actually on my June/ July TBR.  This was another book that I didn't know much about before starting, other than that it was influenced by the USSR and was  a dystopian novel, and so I really went into this one pretty much blind, something which once again I liked as it took time to understand all of the intricacies of the world anyway, and so don't think knowing more about what this actual story was about would have really helped me understand things quicker or anything at all.  That said, I really did love this book and found it so much more engaging than I ever thought it would be.  It was such a poignant read that just exceeded my expectations with just how clever and how thought-provoking it was, and I found so many of the ideas within the story so interesting.  However, my one real problem with this book was that the second half of the book was a little slower paced, and parts become more of just a dump of ideas instead of a story with those ideas embedded in, which unfortunately made it drag a little in parts.  Despite this, I still did really love this book and am now excited to hopefully read more George Orwell books in the future.

Rating:
4.5/5






Finally, after finishing 1984, I knew I just wanted to read something quick and easy, that would be quite simple to follow and understand, and so knew that this one would likely be a good bet for that.  As this book is basically just Eponine's story from Les Miserable, I did already know parts of the story, and so knew form that perspective, that it would be an easier read because it would be that little bit more familiar than other books.  It was also a bit of shorter book, as it is only 270 pages long, something which whilst it did mean I managed to fly through this one in only a couple of days, it did mean the story was very condensed and moved very quickly, and even often moved a little too quickly for me.  However, all in all I did enjoy this one, and found it really interesting to see a well-known story almost expanded upon and so to be able to see more into the lives of one of my favourite characters, and liked how it did seem to stay true to her character as well.

Rating:
3.75/5





What books did you read this month?  Which was your favourite?  Have you read any of these books - what did you think?




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