July and Booktubeathon 2017 Review

So July I didn't expect to read so much, the beginning of the month started off pretty slowly and then picked up for Booktubeathon, literally the last week of July!

This month I was able to read 8 books. One audio book, one adult fiction, two young adult, two children's books, and two graphic novels.

Lets get into the review

The first book I was able to complete this month was a recommendation from my mom and that's:

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sendker

Published 2002, by Other Press

This book follows Julia...of sorts, she's on the search for her father who disappeared four years ago. After she finds a love letter addressed to a woman in Burma. Leaving the comforts of New York, Julia searches for this woman, knowing she's the key to finding her father. Only to learn more not only about her father but herself as well.

This book....I actually saw this book months ago at a Barnes and Noble and the cover stuck with me. I wasn't sure why until I was finally able to get it from Book Outlet. Only for my mom to tell me she has this book and had suggested it to me a couple years back...oops.

I gave this three stars. It's not that it was a bad book, I actually enjoyed the story, and I love the love story. It just wasn't too impact-full of a story. Yes I remember it, yes there were some impact-full moments in the book, yes I'd recommend this book to someone, but when reflecting back on the book it was good, but no fireworks. Nothing against the book.

So I was able to finish this on the first day of a camping trip. And the fact the camp site was two  hours away I had gotten an audio book since I was driving alone. and it was able to fit in in the trip perfectly going to and coming back from camp and that was:

The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

Published 2016, by Thomas Nelson Publishers

So if you have ever watched HGTV it's hard not to know about Fixer Upper. If not, well it's an HGTV show with Chip and Joanna Gaines finding the worst house in the best neighborhood and making their clients dream home. They have created multiple businesses under one company name Magnolia, and this audio book is about how they met, how they created Magnolia and how they were inspired by their family values and teachings of their parents.

I love Fixer Upper. Chip and Joanna are just so cute and so funny and instill inspiration and goals not only for my dream home but for a well balanced and happy relationship. I gave this audio book a four out of five stars on Goodreads, but honestly more of a 4.5 and the only critique I had was that I personally felt that when Joanna read it felt too fast, there wasn't enough breathing space between chapters. It seriously sounded like she tried to read the whole book in one breath. But other than that I loved the book.

I then read:

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Published 2014, by Harper Collins

This book follows Amy Gumm, a Kansas girl wanting to get out of Kansas. Her school life sucks, her home life is spent taking care of her mother who is addicted to pills. Amy want's out. So when a tornado takes her trailer away and she lands in OZ she thinks it's a dream....or maybe a nightmare. Oz isn't what she thought it was based on the stories and movie. Dorothy has taken over and turned Oz on it's head, bent on mining all the magic for herself, even her three lovable friends we knew and love aren't lovable anymore but are Dorothy's henchmen keeping those in Oz in line or getting rid of them permanently. Amy finds herself recruited by a resistance group and they know Amy is the one to end this tyranny by killing Dorothy.

So I had heard some talk about this book but didn't quite know what to expect going into it. I gave this two stars. So I remember going to this website when I was really really into Anime, it was this site that had fan fiction. This is what this book reminded me of. It felt like fan fiction. Nothing was really believable to me, I know it kept saying it was Oz but....I truly didn't believe it.  The story was entertaining enough to keep me interested through out the book, but I didn't take it seriously at all. I feel bad because when posting a picture of my current read in book themed facebook page it seemed as though people were for this book and loved it...I don't get it. I will not be continuing with the series. It had a good premise but the over all writing style wasn't believable, I didn't connect with the characters at all, and the "scary" elements in this were obscure. Over all a bit of a disappointment.

So as soon as I finished this book we got into Booktubeathon 2017.

There were 7 reading challenges and despite me not normally making a TBR I did to fit this challenges and boy did I start feeling pressure mid-week. Those Challenges were:

1. Read a book with a person on the cover
2. Read read a hyped book
3. Finished a book in one day
4. Read a book about a character that is very different from you
5. Finish a book completely outdoors
6. Read a book you bought because of the cover
7. Read seven books

so with that my TBR for this read-a-thon was:

1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
2. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
3. DC Bombshells Volume One: Enlisted by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage
4. Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton
5. A Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install
6. Snow White by the Brothers Grimm illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia
7. DC Bombshells Volume Two: Allies by Marguerite Bennett, Laura Braga, and Mirka Andolfo

of those seven I completed three challenges but I was able to read 5 books.

The first one I picked up was:

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton 

Published July 2017, by Random House Books for Young Readers

This book follows Adam. He suffers from Schizophrenia. He's part of a trial for a new drug to help him cope with his mental illness, and with that going to a new school where no one knows about it, and he plans on keeping it that way. But when the drug begins to fail Adam is determined to keep his secret away from his new friends and his new school.

So this book completed the challenge of reading a book about a character who is very different from me. The character in this book is male, and he suffers from a mental illness. I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. Due to the fact that I've never had to experience with Schizophrenia I can't say if this is a good representation of it. What I can say is that I found in informational. The book is set up as letters from Adam to his therapist, you also get the therapist writing notes about his trial drug along the way. I connected with Adam, I wanted to protect him. There was humor that was relatable, connections and example of current events that made sense and gave me a grounding of when this took place and a better understanding of Adams environment. The half a star taken away was because it got cliche towards the end, it was a bit predictable. The cheesy scene at the climax of the movie. I feel like it could have been written better and could have gone in a less safe direction. But that's just my opinion. Overall though loved the book, it's witty and it's heartbreaking.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Originally published 1946

This book follows the Little Prince as he goes from his tiny planet to the next, until he gets to Earth and makes some friends. He learns about adults and their odd habits along the way.

So I realized that the book to movie adaption review I could do on this one too, since the movie is readily available on Netflix. I had loved the movie. The book I got lost in a bit. The movie explained the book a bit. With out it context is a bit lost. However, I also feel like if I read this at my leisure and really took the time to analyze it I would appreciate it a bit more. This completed the challenge to read a book with a person on the cover. And I gave it 3 stars, it was cute but I need to be in the right mind set to re-read it.

Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia

Published 2012, by Harper Design

This book completed the challenge of reading a book you bought because of the cover. Now, I could have honestly picked any book on my shelves for this because I believe that judging a book by its cover is something we do because it helps sell the book. With this book I bought it years ago because I love Camille's work. I have several books illustrated by her. I love her gloomy illustrations with the vibrant colors it's gorgeous. That paired with the story of Snow White was fairly entertaining. Her rendition of Snow White to the Evil Queen to the Dwarves were quite dramatic and hilarious. I gave the book over all 4 out of 5 stars. My only critique as that at times when there was text, Camille boxed in the text with again beautiful borders, but had these borders connect with on another, this gets confusing when it doesn't flow with the text itself. Especially when one border skips two others for one at the bottom of the page, it makes me feel like that's where my eye should go but that's not how I should be reading it.

So in terms of challenges that's all I was able to finished I did read the comic books but A) forgot I had to read Volume One in one day... didn't happen and B) Volume two was supposed to be my seventh book but I didn't read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet or The Robot in the Garden. I also got to a point where I didn't want to follow my TBR anymore, I was ready to pick up a different book entirely, but that I started getting into  DC Bombshells and didn't worry about time.

But I was still able to finish them before July ended so:

DC Bombshells: Volume One Enlisted by Marguerite Bennett and Margeurite Sauvage

Published 2016, by DC Comics

This comic takes a few of the well known comic book heroins and puts them in a WWII setting. Amanda Waller is known for creating the Suicide Squad, well in these she's creating another team, but not of super villians she can threaten to blow the heads off of but super human and talented and killed Women called the Bombshells. She creates this team to help fight WWII as it is starting to tip the balance as the Axis accesses dark power of myth and legend and is bringing the dead back to life. This team is styled in a 1940's pinup fashion and has the witty quips to go with it.

This one was a re-read for me, I got Volume 2 a while back and needed to read this one again enable to remember what the hell was happening, and now I remember why I had a hard time remembering, it's the reason why I gave this 4 out of 5 stars, there's just so much that goes on! In this one volume alone you see multiple origin stories and introductions that the story doesn't even take off until three quarters of the way through, it's really hard to keep track of what's going on. Over all though I love the art style that this has, strong bold colors as well as bold and confident line work, I love the pinup style and fashion, I am telling myself now if I ever get to go to Comicon I want to go as Wonder Woman for DC Bombshells.

DC Bombshells Volume Two: Allies by Marguerite Bennett, Laura Braga, and Mirka Andolfo

Published 2016, by DC Comics

Here the story continues but again I only gave it a 4 out of 5 because although they are able to bring most of the characters together, the left others out that they had had in the first volume. For instance Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy had a couple of chapters in Volume one (and holy crap I love their style) but in this volume they weren't mentioned a bit. However the strong Female theme is awesome, there's some girl girl romances, there's fantastic sister bonds, and even a daunting bad guy. The art is also very strong in this one but There was definitely more of a difference in art style in this one. In the beginning the style is line heavy with angles and basic color, as in there's not much detail or variation in terms of color, kind of the basic of what I expect from comic books, however, by the second "chapter" it gets changed up a bit, the lines are lighter more rounded edges, there is a lot more detail in the color ....it looks more "lush" if that makes sense? dramatic? sexier? pouty?

ugh here:

This is Mera at the beginning of the comic, lines only applied when necessary little high light minimal shadows.

This is also Mera, more line work but on the delicate side and in terms of detail and drama, deeper shadows, and more highlights. more detail over all, but she also has: Thick lashes, thicker hair that floats seductively over one eye, pouty lips, even the bubbles flowing around her are more detailed! in the first volume I didn't notice such a change in style, this one it flips back and forth and it bugs me only because I notice. Ultimately I don't mind either style, actually I think I prefer the bottom, i find it more aesthetically pleasing and knowing that took the time to put more detail in makes me like it a bit more, don't know if it takes longer, (i would assume, but at the same time look at the angle of Mera's body in the upper, that foreshortening though!)

Alright I'll be done with that.

Over all a successful month.

Remember that I also have a youtube channel now, I haven't posted much yet but I hope to here shortly. Channel Name Bitterly Fun.

If you participated in Booktubeathon 2017 let me know how you did in your challenges and in your reading over all.

Until next time!

Litta