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.

BOOK REVIEW | A CLOCKWORK ORANGE BY ANTHONY BURGESS

Title: A Clockwork Orange
Author: Anthony Burgess
Published: 1962
Language: English
Pages: 141
Rating: 3/5

""What we were after was lashings of ultraviolence." In this nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him - but at what cost?"

I was really excited to read this because the title of this book always drawn to me. When I entered it as bookclub choice and it got picked I couldn't wait to pick it up. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy (or understand?) it as much as I had hoped.

We follow Alex in this story, and his friend and the first thing I notice when starting this story is the words that are used. Alex and his friends have their own slang which even after reading almost halve the book, I still didn't understand. I felt like an adult nowadays, trying to understand what their children are talking about but not understanding a crap.

This really, really made the book very unpleasant for me to read. I actually finished the book understanding maybe 60 percent of it. I went and looked for a summary on the internet to fully understand this. From the summary I really liked the story of it, but for me it was not executed the right way so I can't give this more than 3 stars. 

I would recommend this to lovers of classics, who like to puzzle with language. 

Get your copy of 'A Clockwork Orange' here!

BOOK REVIEW | BOY MEETS BOY BY DAVID LEVITHAN

Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David Levithan
Published: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 185
Rating: 3/5


"This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right."

I wasn't planning to pick this up anytime soon, but when this got chosen as the bookclub pick in one of my bookclubs, I picked it up anyhow. I went into this booking knowing that it contained quite the unrealistic LGBT-utopia, but that didn't matter to me. I just saw this as a light and entertaining read.

And both it was. The LGBT-utopia in this book was as said before, unrealistic. Although it didn't bug me, I can understand why this is a thing that make me people like this book less. For me this was definitely a nice, light read and definitely something I would recommend to pick up, when in a reading slump.

I wasn't to impressed by anything, but overall it was fun to read this. I definitely liked the fact that this is quite a diverse read. 

BOOK REVIEW | ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER BY STEPHANIE PERKINS

Title: Isla and the Happily Ever After
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 339
Rating: 4/5


"Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. "

Isla and the Happily Ever After is the last in this companion serie consisting of three books, and I definitely liked this one the best. First of all I absolutely adored Isla, I thought she was a lovely and sometimes relatable girl. I also absolutely adored Josh, he was cute and definitely fit in the image of what my imaginary boyfriend would look and act like.

This is in my opinion a typical book for it's genre, and this is not in a negative note at all! It is super cute, fluffy, easy to read and enjoyable!

One thing that did annoy me, is that one point some characters are 'feeling depressed'. I think that this term should have not been used. The way the characters feelings were described, I wouldn't say they were depressed, they were just not feeling to great. I think that when you use a term as depressed you really need to think twice. Are your characters really depressed or are they sad?

Overall I really liked this series, I am definitely planning to re-read them. I think I might pick up Anna and the French Kiss next year, because I read that one already over two years ago.

BOOK REVIEW | SHATTER ME BY TAHEREH MAFI

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
First published: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 338
Rating: 4/5

"Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color."

This book was always so hyped on BookTube but it never really got my interest, but it was this months bookclub pick so I decided to pick it up anyway. To my surprise I actually really liked it! 

I found the story at first, very very interesting. The concept of a girl being locked away, away from every human contact because touching can kill, was something I never heard of before. I really liked Juliette as a character as well as Adam (book crush nr. 2). But, I found Warner so super annoying. I don't understand why everybody he is so obsessed with him (yet?). I guess that I will might find that out in the second or third book.

I'm not really sure about the writing style just yet. Tahereh made Juliette say words multiple times, and she also couldn't stop mentioning the colour of Adam and Warren's eyes. It being such a quick read, I couldn't really be bothered with the sometimes repeating descriptive writing style. 

I am indeed very curious about the next read and am hoping to pick the final two books up before the end of this year!

BOOK REVIEW | THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER BY LESLYE WALTON

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Author: Leslye Walton
First published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 301
Rating: 4/5

Foolish love appears to be a Roux family birthright. And for Ava Lavender, a girl born with the wings of a bird, it is an ominous thing to inherit. In her quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to join her peers, sixteen-year-old Ava ventures into the wider world. But it is a dangerous world for a naive girl. 

This is, I think the first book of magical realism that I am reading. Or at least, the first book of magical realism of which, I know that it is magical realism. Okay with that being said, I think I really want to discover more from this genre.

This book contains a story of loss and love that spans different generations. When I started the book I didn't know where it was going to go. It was different from what I expected from the synopsis, but it was even better than I expected it.

The characters were so lovely (except for a couple). I especially loved Rowe, such an intelligent, sweet boy. 

The writing style was great, the story itself beautiful and the characters absolutely lovely. I would definitely recommend this!

BOOK REVIEW | MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN BY RANSOM RIGGS

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Published: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 352
Rating: 5/5

I have been doubting that I would ever find a book that would give me the same feeling as I got when reading Harry Potter, but I think I found a new series!

In 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' we follow Jacob. A young boy who always sed to listen to the fairytale-ish stories of his grandfather. After a horrific incident things are shaken up. Jacob soon is discovering a remote island along the coast of Wales, where he discovers the ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

This book was definitely a 5/5 star read for me from beginning until the end. I read that some people had trouble with the fact that the build-up to the action took to long. What I find was that Ransom Riggs really took his time to develop the characters and world building. 

This book contains a lot of fantasy and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. 

Of course, I can not, not mention the photo's. The first night I read some chapters it was storming outside and I was home alone, this gave such creepy vibe to the book. I can't wait to read the second and third book in this series but that probably won't be until autumn because I am not allowing myself to purchase anymore books for a little while.