Throwback: June - November

Oh, wow, do you remember how the last time I wrote one of these I was lamenting about having waited for too long before writing the next Throwback? Yeah, this time it's worse. But also, as you might have noticed from how sparingly I've written reviews (until this month), I was kinda busy. I have excuses. Don't judge. Anyway, I'm not going to waste more time not doing the thing I've set out to do and just get right into it:

(Before I actually get into it, though, I just want to make it clear that I'll link to the Goodreads-pages of all the books I haven't reviewed on this Blog and to the reviews on this Blog of all the books which I have written ones for.)

Books:

(The ones I read for university)

• Witches: Exploring the Iconography of the Sorceress and Enchantress by Lorenzo Lorenzi
  Quite interesting! Especially the whole Medusa-bit, I'm a sucker for Greek Mythology and I never even thought of her as such great inspiration for the later witch-myth (now it's so obvious that I don't even understand how I never made that connection myself, maybe it's just me being stupid). 

• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien – 5 stars
  This one was so much fun and I've been meaning to read this one on my own time anyway, so it might as well count as "read for fun", too! It shouldn't have taken me this long to read it, though (honestly, it's been on my shelf for years) and I'm quite disappointed in myself, I was missing out on some real good stuff! (But I'd only recommend it if you're really into the whole Tolkien-thing, otherwise I imagine it being simply unbearable.)

• The Chronicles of Narnia (I'm not going to list all seven books, sorry) by C.S. Lewis

• The Lord of the Rings (again, not going to list all three books, sorry) by J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film by Rebecca A. Umland and Samuel J Umland
  Sadly not as useful as I'd hoped but it contains a lot of interesting discussions about movies I've never even heard of. Like, I always considered myself as somewhat knowledgeable about Arthur but there were maybe 2 or 3 titles I had previously known about? 

• King Arthur in Popular Culture by Elizabeth S. Sklar and Donald L. Hoffman
  Again, quite interesting but not as useful as I had hoped. 

• But I Thought All Witches Were Wicked von Tanja Lindauer
  Ziemlich interessant und super schnell gelesen. War ausserdem recht cool eine Arbeit zu sehen, die vom Thema her in diese spezifische Richtung ging, da ich mich (offensichtlich) einfach sehr für das Bild der Hexe interessiere. Ausserdem ziemlich nützlich (immer ein Plus)!

• Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J.R.R. Tolkien by Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan
  This was super interesting. I sometimes actually forgot what purpose I was reading this one for. Sure, some of the essays weren't as good as some of the others but I'd actually like to read these ones again on my own. 

(By this point you must have realized what I was writing my Bachelor Thesis about, something-something Tolkien, something-something Narnia, something-something Arthur, something-something Witches and yes, that is a precise replication of my thesis.)

• King Richard II by William Shakespeare

• King Henry IV Part I by William Shakespeare – 3 stars

• King Henry V by William Shakespeare – 3.5 stars

• King Richard III by William Shakespeare – 3.5 stars
  I read all the Richard/Henry books for a seminar about Shakespeare's history plays (obviously we didn't read all the books but a nice portion of them) and it was really interesting reading these with a purpose. I had read King Richard III before but reading it again I realize that there was so much I missed and didn't get. I definitely think there was a lot of merit gained from the discussions etc. Buut I do not think these are the best books to read on your own. The family tree alone is so confusing I still struggle with it. 

(The ones I read for fun)

(I won't include these little notes/reviews for books I've already properly reviewed. I hope you understand, seeing the long list of books in this post.)

• What Girls Are Made Of by Elena K. Arnold – 4.5 stars

• World War Z by Max Brooks
  I actually didn't finish this one and simply declared it as a book I wouldn't finish. The concept is very interesting and I did want to know what actually happened but without characters to get attached to it felt so superficial that my interest slipped right off of the surface of this book. I understand why people like it, I can't even say I disliked it or anything, I just didn't have any emotional response whatsoever to it. In fact, I was so neutral that I pretty much just forgot the book even existed when I didn't see it lying around.

• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

• The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan – 4 stars

• Save the Date by Morgan Matson  – 3.5 stars

• Die Wilden Hühner (Die Wilden Hühner) von Cornelia Funke – 3 stars

• Demons in Disguise (Divinicus Nex Chronicles #3) by E. & A. Kirk – 4 stars

• Dear Martin by Nic Stone – 3 stars

• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green – 3.5 stars

• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell – 4.5 stars

• The Raven King (All for the Game #2) by Nora Sakavic – 4 stars

• The King's Men (All for the Game #3) by Nora Sakavic – 4 stars

• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin – 4.5 stars

• Far From the Tree by Robin Benway – 4.5 stars

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – 3 or 3.5 stars

• Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott – 4 or 4.5 stars

Now that I see all of the ratings thusly arranged I'm quite amazed at how many great books I've read in recent months! It's nice to get this opportunity for retrospective overview of my recent reading months, I guess you don't always see how many good books have happened to you if you're not properly looking back on them. And there isn't even one book in this pile that I truly (or somewhat) disliked! I've been on a roll and didn't even realize it, how strange!

Graphic Novels & Comics:

• Through the Woods by Emily Carroll – 4 stars
  This one was quite amazing. The illustrations were gorgeous, I'm not one to be affected by horror stories that much (at least not the written kind) but the atmosphere created by the illustrations totally made up for my lacking response to the stories themselves. It's also a quick read if you're into that sort of thing. 

• Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson – 4 stars
  Last semester I attended a series of lectures about Comics (and the American Culture - sorry Comics written in the rest of the world!) and we actually discussed this particular rendition of Superman (the lecturer made it sound amazing) and I thought I might want to check it out someday, little did I know I'd get my hands on a copy so soon (thank you Steve). It turns out, it is pretty much what I had expected and I enjoyed it a lot! The ending was quite whacky and the whole ride was, although quite predictable at times, interesting and gripping and strangely funny. I think I'll have to get into superhero comics, something about them just seems soo amusing to me, they very much appeal to a rather strange part of my humor.

• Saga (Volume #9) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – 4 stars
  If you don't know Saga yet, go and read it! It's so interesting and fun and quirky and also super devastating and it might wreak havoc in your emotional places! :D

Again, I'm pretty surprised by how consistent these ratings are. All three comics are very different from each other but they're all so enjoyable, I mean, dude, literature is amazing. (I'm quite tired, it might be obvious?)

Audiobooks:

• Er ist wieder da von Timur Vermes – 3 Sterne
  Ehh? War bei weitem nicht so lustig wie ich es erwartet hatte, und es wurde irgendwie nie richtig aufgelöst. Kein schlechtes Buch aber auch nicht wirklich mein Fall. Ich hätte mir auch gewünscht, dass man sich etwas mehr mit dem Thema des Faschismus auseinandergesetzt hätte.

• The Star Thief by Lindsey Becker – 3.5 stars
  It's a pretty sweet, quick children's story with very interesting ideas but not so interesting execution. Don't expect much more than that but otherwise I'd recommend it, especially as an audiobook to listen to in the background.

• Bear Town (Björnstad #1) by Frederik Backman – 4.5 stars
  Absolutely amazing. I really need to read more books by Backman. I went into this one blind and I was completely blown away. It's quite tragic but not fatalistic, it's interesting and fascinating and very, very beautiful. And tragic, did I mention it was tragic? Especially in relation to (ominous) the real world. 

• The Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi – 4 stars
  Interesting, fun, and exciting. I wasn't particularly emotionally invested but I, nevertheless, enjoyed this one a lot. I'd definitely recommend this one if you're looking for an action-packed ride through an interesting fantasy-landscape. Quite trop-y but who cares if it's fun?

• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – 3 stars
  Strangely, I related to this one a lot, which I found highly amusing (my homor works in mysterious ways, I know). When I was younger I suspected for a long time that I might be slightly autistic or something (ever since I wrote a long paper about autism when I was 15 or 16), I've since abandoned this Idea (one the one hand because I don't really think I am and on the other hand because it's quite futile to think about, anyway, and I don't really care whether it could be true or not anymore?) but I was very much reminded of that time when I listened to this audiobook and just related so much. Had Stelle been a little more asexual it might have even been creepy. 

• Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1) by Richelle Mead – 3 stars
  Sadly, not as fun and gripping as I'd hoped it would be but it was, nevertheless, entertaining. Most of my 3-star-reads are books I wasn't all that interested in but could appreciate on some kind of technical level this one, however, is the other way around: the technical level isn't all that impressive but I found myself amused, nonetheless. 

• Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart – 2, maybe 2.5 stars
  I have come to expect quite a lot from E. Lockhart, which might be unfair because I've actually only read two books by her before this one, and, sadly, Genuine Fraud was quite a let-down. The story is very predictable and without any emotional punch to it, thus lacking the appeal of We Were Liars, and neither did it have the same aspect of fun and excitement as Fly on the Wall. 

• The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas – 3.5 stars
  This one just did not do the same thing to me as it did to, apparently, the whole rest of the world. Maybe I'll get along better with the movie? Who knows these things, they're a mystery. 

• Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren – 2.5 stars
  There were aspects I enjoyed (I even giggled sometimes) but also aspects I, more or less, really disliked. The ending, particularly, was stupid and I was super annoyed with it. I'm not giving up on Christina Lauren yet, though (but I'll continue to stick with audiobooks because they're easier to get through and need less attention than books).

• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah – 4 stars
  Amazing atmosphere and a gripping story. I was a little disappointed in the ending because it took away a lot of the consequences and tried waay to hard to be a happy ending, but I can also imagine that some people will love that about this book (the light at the end of the tunnel/summer breaking after an Alaskan winter, I guess?). 

• The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman – Probably 4.5 stars?
  This book was so incredibly sad and disturbing that it actually made me feel sick at times. I don't know, maybe I just get triggered easily by mental institutions, or rather the old practices in mental institutions when people were basically tortured for 'their own good'?? Yeah, it might just be that. I totally recommend it, especially because you probably haven't heard of the Canadian Orphanage Scandal (I hadn't) and that's the kind of thing that should be remembered.

• The History of Bees by Maja Lunde – 2 stars
  Aaannd we're closing on a disappointing note. The History of Bees really wasn't my cup of tea. I strongly disliked one of the perspectives (William, urgh, I can't even with him), and generally the book felt quite lifeless and way to transparent. Like, I could tell with every trope and explanation etc. what the author wanted me to feel because of that without ever actually making me feel that. I know how tragic the state of bees is I don't need a bad book to deliver a weird homily (with a happy ending???? I'm very confused about the ending part, how exactly are the bees supposed to be saved by this book?) about it.

Yes, I listened to a loooot of audiobooks recently. Like, just so many. I think it's because I didn't get round to reading for fun that much that I just became obsessed with listening to audiobooks whenever I had even the tiniest chance to. But also, because I became thusly obsessed, I requested a lot of audiobooks from my library and then I had to get through them quickly before I ran out of time to listen to one of those audiobooks.

Yeah, and that's it, I guess. There's nothing left for me to say except good-bye, I hope you're having and will continue to have a fantastic day, and happy reading.