MY SHOPPING BASKET | I

Hi everybody!

Today I thought of a new blog feature. I am going to show you which books are in my shopping basket on BookDepository. These are books, that I at the moment would like the most to order.

Unfortunately I cannot allow myself to buy 100 euro's of new books at the moment.. :( But I will slowly but steadily in the near future have all of these babies on my shelves ;)

MID-YEAR BOOK FREAK OUT | TAG

Hi everyone! 

Since we've surpassed June I thought it's the perfect time to do the book freak out tag. Let's kick it of with some basic facts. When writing this post I have currently read 40 books. The oldest book I read is 'Leaves of Grass' which was published in 1855. 20 books have been written by female authors, 19 books by male authors and 1 book has been written under an anonymous pseudonym. 15 books have been written by an author from The United States. 

Best book you’ve read so far. 

I think the book I enjoyed the best so far is 'The Vegetarian' by Han Kang. I really enjoyed reading this story and especially the fact that the plot turned out to be a lot different than I expected.

Best sequel you've read so far.

Definitely 'Blood of Wonderland' by Colleen Oakes. This book has been on my shelf ever since it's been republished and I don't know why but I postponed picking it up ever since. When I finally did pick it up I absolutely loved it. Most of the times I don't really like the second book in a trilogy because it just feels like an unnecessary bridge between the first and last book but I highly enjoyed this one. 

New release you haven't read yet, but want to.

I am very excited to read 'The Good Immigrant'. I have it on my shelf already and can't wait to pick it up very soon!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

I am super excited for the last book in the 'Queen of Hearts' saga. The last book 'War of the Cards' will be published on 7 November.

Biggest disappointment.

'Makkelijk Leven' a short story by Herman Koch was probably my biggest disappointment. I was very excited to pick up a book by this high praised Dutch author but was quite let down. This book was just nothing special or outstanding. I have another novel of him on my shelf so I'm very curious to see if that book will be my cup of tea.

Biggest surprise.

- 

Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Hands down. I read three books by her so far this year and absolutely loved all of them. I plan to finish her other three books as well this year. With 'Americanah' already waiting on my shelf. 

Newest fictional crush.

I don't have fictional crushes.

Newest favourite character.

I adored the character August in 'The Secret Life of Bees'. I can't explain much about her character without spoiling anything but she is one of the Calendar Sisters and I love her!

Book that made you cry.

'Achtste Groepers Huilen Niet' by Jacques Vriens. This title literary translated is ' 6th graders don't cry' and it's the story of a girl who gets leukemia. Jacques Vriens used to be a teacher before he was an author and this story actually is based on true facts when he was a teacher of the 6th grade and one of this students got leukemia. 

Book that made you happy.

'Het Paradijs' (The Paradise) Suzanne Vermeer. Not necessarily because of it's theme because it is a thriller. But because it is set in Greece, which sets me in this amazing holiday mood. 

Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year. 

I only have seen one book to movie adaptation this year which was 'A Monster Calls' and I really loved it!

Favourite blog post you've written this year. 

Probably the blog post on '100 female writers' because it has made me motivated to write on this blog again.

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received).

Probably 'Tales of the Peculiar'. I have this in the hardcover edition and it's clothbound and has beautiful gold lettering. It's absolutely gorgeous. 

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I want to finish all the books on my TBR but mostly the underlined ones.

Mannen die vrouwen haten (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) - Stieg Larsson

De vrouw die met vuur speelde (The Girl Who Played with Fire) - Stieg Larsson

Gerechtigheid (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) - Stieg Larsson

The Trees - Ali Shaw

The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

De Greppel - Herman Koch

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I Heart Christmas - Lindsey Kelk

The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman

The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

The Arabian Nights - Translated by Sir Richard Burton

Madness - Roald Dahl

Cruelty - Roald Dahl

Ten Thousand Skies Above You - Claudia Gray

We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families - Philip Gourevitch

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

The Power - Noami Alderman

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

The Good Immigrant - Nikesh Shukla

The Song Rising - Samantha Shannon

The Righteous Mind - Jonathan Haidt

Modern Romance - Aziz Ansari

Emma - Jane Austen

A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James

Fates and Furies - Lauren Groff

100 WOMER WRITES | CHALLENGE

Hi everyone! 

Long time no see... I'm very sorry and hope this is the last time that I am going to apologise for my absence in a long time. Since I have finished school for this years (technically I still have two days left but oh well) I decided that it is the perfect moment for me to pick up blogging again. 

Although I had quite the hiatus myself for blogging, I never stopped reading. As well as I did also not stop reading book  blogs or watching booktube. I am following Jean (JeanBookishThoughts) for a while now and she is the creator of '100 Women Writers'. This is a list she put together with 100 must read women writers. For more information what this list is about click here. I find this to be an amazing concept and decided that I want to participate to this as well. 

I discovered that a lot of the authors on this list, I know and really want to read books of but I haven't. Now that I have a visual list I'm very excited to see how fast I will discover new books by amazing female authors. 

1. A. L. Kennedy

2. Agatha Christie
3. Ali Smith 
4. Alice Walker 
5. Angela Carter 
6. Angela Davis 
7. Anne Bronte
8. A. S. Byatt
9. Anne McCaffrey
10. Anne Radcliffe
11. Anne Tyler
12. Arundhati Roy
13. Audre Lorde 
14. Audrey Niffeneger
15. Azar Nafisi
16. Bell Hooks
17. Betty Smith
18. Carol Ann Duffy 
19. Charlotte Bronte 
20. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
21. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
22. Christina Rossetti
23. Daphne Du Maurier 
24. Donna Tartt
25. Dorothy Sayers
26. E. Nesbit
27. Edith Wharton
28. Edna O’Briean
29. Ellen Feldman
30. Emily Bronte
31. Emily Dickinson
32. Emma Donaghue 
33. Elena Ferrante
34. Elizabeth Gaskell
35. Elizabeth Goudge 
36. Erica Jong
37. Fanny Burney
38. George Elliot 
39. Han Kang 
40. Harper Lee 
41. Hilary Wainwright
42. Helen Oyeyemi 
43. Hilary Mantel
44. Ida B. Wells
45. Isabel Allende 
46. Lynne Segal
47. J. K. Rowling 
48. Jackie Kay
49. Jane Austen 
50. Jaqueline Wilson 
51. Jean Rhys
52. Jeanette Winterson 
53. Jhumpa Lahiri
54. Jacqueline Susann
55. Joanna Russ
56. Judith Butler
57. Kate Atkinson
58. Kate Chopin
59. Alexandra Kollontai
60. Liz Lochhead
61. Louisa May Alcott
62. Louise O’Neill 
63. Madeleine L’engle
64. Murasaki Shikibu
65. Margaret Atwood 
66. Margaret Cavendish
67. Malorie Blackman
68. Marjane Satrapi 
69. Mary Beard 
70. Mary Shelley
71. Mary Wollstonecraft
72. Maya Angelou 
73. Maxine Hong Kingston 
74. Monica Ali
75. Muriel Spark 
76. Naomi Mitchison
77. Naomi Wolf
78. Nnedi Okorafor
79. Octavia E. Butler
80. Pat Barker
81. Robin Hobb 
82. Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein 
83. Roxanne Gay
84. Ruth Ozeki
85. Sappho 
86. Sarah B. Pomeroy 
87. Sarah Waters
88. Sheila Rowbotham
89. Shirley Jackson 
90. Simone De Beauvoir
91. Stella Gibbons
92. Sylvia Pankhurst
93. Sylvia Plath
94. Toni Morrison
95. Ursula K. Le Guin
96. Virginia Woolf 
97. Vita Sackville-West
98. Willa Cather
99. Zadie Smith
100. Zoe Fairbairns

Which authors do you recommend most for me to start with? Have you read any of these authors? 

THE READING SLUMP | BOOK DISCUSSION

Hello, everybody, it has been a while!

Recently, I have been in the worst reading slump ever. School and work got the best of me and whenever I had a moment just to do something I like, I would pick sleeping over reading. It now had gotten to the point where I kept buying new books but did not read any of them to which my TBR-shelf now has grown to 29 unread books. Where first I only had 12 unread books on my shelf.

Since reading and book blogging come hand in hand, you understand where the lack of blog posts is coming from. I'm really disappointed that I did not keep up with my blog but really want to pick it up again. 

I still am not sure how to actually get out of the reading slump. My only motivation, besides the fact that I of course like reading, is probably the fact that I'm behind on my reading goal. 

I hope you will hear more from me soon because that will mean I am over my reading slump! If you have any tips or tricks to get over one, please let me know in the comments!

Thanks, guys! 

BOOK REVIEW | ON THE OTHER SIDE BY CARRIE HOPE FLETCHER

Title: On The Other Side
Author: Carrie Hope Fletcher
Published: 2016
Pages: 345
Rating: 3/5

"Evie's soul must be light enough to pass through so she needs to get rid of whatever is making her soul heavy. For Evie, this means unburdening herself of the three secrets that have weighed her down for over fifty years, so she must find a way to reveal them before it's too late. As Evie begins the journey of a lifetime, she learns more about life and love than she ever thought possible, and somehow , some way, she may also find her way back to her long lost love... Evie Snow is eighty-two when she quietly passes away in her sleep, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. It's the way most people wish to leave the world but when Evie reaches the door of her own private heaven, she finds that she's become her twenty-seven-year-old self and the door won't open." 

I was really curious to read this book because Carrie was the person who got me back in to reading. I used to watch every book video of her multiple times. I was so excited to find out that she had written her own novel.

I really, really like the story and the fact that this is not you average love story. It was super cute and whimsical. I really enjoyed the story, it was nothing special just adorable.

The characters were all very likeable and all characters that I would love to be friends with if I would knew them. If you are looking for a cute contemporary which you can fly through I would highly recommend this read. 

BOOK REVIEW | THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Title: The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published: 2009
Pages: 218
Rating: 4/5

"This is a short story collection, set in Nigeria. In “A Private Experience,” a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she’s been pushing away. In “Tomorrow Is Too Far,” a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother’s death. The young mother at the center of “Imitation” finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them."


This is the second short story collection I've ever read and although I didn't have a good first experience when reading 'My True Love Gave To Me', I really loved this short story collection!

All the stories are set in Nigeria, a place I normally never read about in either fiction or non-fiction but something that did intrigue me a lot. When reading the stories it felt like all stories had an important message to give when you had finished the story.

I really love the writing style Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie used and I'm really excited to read more/all of her work. I have 'Purple Hibiscus' on my shelf and I'm very excited to pick it up in the near future!

TOP 5 WEDNESDAY | CURRENT FAVOURITES THAT AREN'T BOOKS

First of all I want to apologise, again, for the lack of blogging. I have been so extremely busy; school, internship and work really got the best of me. But now I am finally in my last week of internship and although I'm sad to leave, I am glad that I will have some time for my own now. Internship just really took a whole lot of my time. Without any further do, today I decided to do a Top 5 Wednesday since my latest posts all have been reviews. These weeks T5W is: current favourites that aren't books. 

Hannibal

First of all, I am absolutely loving the show Hannibal which I'm watching with my boyfriend. It is absolutely creepy and totally disturbing but I really enjoy watching it. It also makes me very curious about the books!

Fernandes Cherry Bouquet

My favourite drink at the moment is definitely 'Fernandes Cherry Bouquet'. I think it's a drink that is only available in the Netherlands and Suriname though...

On My Way by Phil Collins

'On My Way' from the movie Brother Bear was always one of my favourite songs but one I totally forgot about. Recently I rediscovered it and once again I'm absolutely in love with this song!

Disposable Camera

Maybe the most random one; but I love disposable camera's. I really like to take pictures with these because I am for sure that I will look at the pictures a lot more than when they are on the computer.

Mamma Mia

Mamma Mia is one of my favourite films ever and recently I have watched it a couple of times again. Still loving it to bits!

What are your non-book favourites?

BOOK REVIEW | THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS BY MARIEKE NIJKAMP

Title: This Is Where It Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Published: 2016
Pages: 285
Rating: 4/5

10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03 a.m. The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05 a.m. Someone starts shooting.

Told from four different perspectives over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.


Ever since this book first got attention I was really curious to read this. This book is about a school shooting, something that nowadays happens a lot in America. Something that is very sad but in my opinion also is something that needs to be educated about. I was curious about the message this book was going to bring.

The way the story is told is quite cool. It's told from multiple perspectives, over a time spend of a couple of minutes each time. I personally found that this kept me really curious about what was going to happen.

I really liked the fact that this book had a very diverse set of characters. What I did find unfortunate is the fact that we didn't read in the perspective of the shooter. I think this could've made the book a whole lot more interesting. 

Although this was a really good read, I think that I would have liked this book a whole lot more as a 14-year old. I think this is definitely aimed for the younger audience of the young adult genre. 

BOOK REVIEW | THE VEGETARIAN BY HAN KANG

Title: The Vegetarian
Author: Han Kang
Published: 2016
Language: Korean
Pages: 192
Rating: 4/5
Translator: Deborah Smith


Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. 



I was really excited to finally pick up 'The Vegetarian' since it has been on my wishlist for so long. I am really curious to read more translated fiction and had never read a book from South-Korea. I think that the book starting with someone becoming a vegetarian is a really interesting start for a book about mental health. 

This book had plots and twists of which I never could imagine them happening when I imagined what this book would be about. What I really liked about this story is that you can see the mental illness 'being born' you see how it develops and grows within our main character.

This book is separated in 3 parts, and in the second part we also experience sexual desire, but again not as we are used to. We experience it not about lust objects and sexual desire from human to human but about the power of an individual. 

This was a book like no others.

BOOK REVIEW | MEN EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME BY REBECCA SOLNIT

Title: Men Explain Things To Me
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 130
Rating: 4/5

"In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters."

I found this a very interesting read. Since I listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk in the end of 2016 I have been interested in discovering the feminism topic. For me it felt like 'Men Explain Things To Me' was a good book to start with. I felt like it explained the basics of feminism. 

It's a relatively quick read but the emotion that comes with this book, makes it no fast read. Most of the numbers that I now read about for the first time are so shocking, as well as the fact that most numbers get explained with horrific stories. 

I would recommend this book if you are new to the topic of feminism and would like to discover this subject. I think that it won't technically be mind-blowing to ones that have been reading more about feminism. 

BOOK REVIEW | MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME EDITED BY STEPHANIE PERKINS

Title: My True Love Gave To Me
Author: Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Rainbow Rowell, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White and Laini Taylor
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 321
Rating: 2/5

In this anthology 12 popular contemporary authors write short stories set during or around Christmas. Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year's Eve, all are present in this anthology edited by Stephanie Perkins.

I was really excited to read this with one of my book clubs, but this did quite disappoint  I felt like the stories were lacking quality. It felt like anyone could have written it, they were not special in any way. I did quite like Rainbow Rowell's story 'Midnights' which was the first one in the book, which made it start of good.

'The Lady and the Fox' by Kelly Link was the second story in this book which I enjoyed as well but not as much as 'Midnights'. Lastly I also liked 'It's A Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown' by Stephanie Perkins herself. That's for all the stories I liked in this anthology. 

What can I say, this wasn't my cup of tea and I am contemplating to erase the summer anthology, co-written by the same authors of my wishlist.

FRIDAY READS

Men Explain Things To Me and Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit

DECEMBER 2016

December has been an incredibly busy month and made it almost impossible for me to read. In the beginning of the month I finished 'Naamloos' a Dutch fiction book which I really enjoyed. The other two books I finished this month were 'Reached' by Ally Condie, and 'My True Love Gave to Me' edited by Stephanie Perkins. Unfortunately I didn't like either of these books. Reviews will be up soon!

I am really looking forward to a new year full of reading. I am really excited to start reading in 2017, with all my reading goals being set. 

December has been a fun month full of festivities and happy things! 2016 overall has been a year I utterly enjoyed and I can't wait to find out what 2017 has to offer. I wish you all a very happy new year! Thanks for your support!

TOP 5: BOOKS I WANT TO RE-READ

This year I set as one of my reading goals to re-read at least 5 books. Here are the books I am planning to re-read this year.

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I really can't even remember what this book is about, but when I read it I gave it four out of five stars. I'm really curious to discover again why I did so.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

To be honest, when I first read this book I didn't quite like it but back then I wasn't strong enough on my opinion to give it the rating that back then I would have wanted to give it. I would like to re-read this book and give it my full and honest opinion. 

Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

I really loved this book when I first read it, but now cant' remember much of the details of what this was about. I can't wait to re-read it this year!

The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

To be honest, when I first read this I didn't have a clue what was going on in this book. It was so hard for me to understand and although I finished it, I didn't understand anything of this book. Time to give this another chance!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I read the first 5 Harry Potter books almost a dozen of times. But I can only remember reading the last two books just one time. I can't wait to re-read the whole serie and especially the last two!