August Book Haul and Wrap-Up

Unbelievable (or inconceivable? Hah, I love the Princess Bride!) it's the end of August already!
That means only two more weeks of holidays for me?? And then I'm supposed to be a Senior?  


Anyway, here are the books I purchased in August!

                                                                      BOOK HAUL


                                                                                        Holes by Louis Sachar

The first book I got in August!
I've seen snippets of the movie before (and that glorious Zero scene on tumblr) but I've never really got the whole hype behind this story.
So when I saw it, I just had to get it!

Goodreads-Summary:
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

                                                                 Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (again)

I gave my copy to my best friend, so she bought me a new one!

Goodreads-Summary:
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

                                                                          The Martian by Andy Weir

I mentioned this book (just as Outlander and The Princess Bride) in my previous post, so I won't go into detail. All you need to know: I'm really excited to read it while I'm in Spain.

Goodreads-Summary:
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death.
The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next.
Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?


The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

My best friend got this book as a birthday present waaay back in April, and ever since then she asked me to read it. So - finally! - I got it and read it (spoiler alert: I love it)

Goodreads-Summary:
Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful— irresistible to all who meet him.
Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name.Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows.
Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.


The Princess Bride by William Goldman



As I've already mentioned, I talked about this book in my previous post.

Goodreads-Summary:
What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
In short, it's about everything.


WRAP-UP

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr



Beautifully written but it's no book to fly through!
My review
4 out of 5 stars



Holes by Louis Sachar



Love, love, love it!
I didn't expect it to be so amazing!
I'm working on a review right now, so stay tuned!
5 out of 5 stars



Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor



Waaay better than the first one!
I'm in love with Ziri (as you can guess from my recent Fan Art Friday)
My review4.5 out of 5 stars



Dreams of Gods an Monsters by Laini Taylor



Definitely a satisfying conclusion!!
Ziri!! And Liraz!!
Love those two.
Review is coming soon!
5 out of 5 stars



The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller



*violent nodding*
Achilles and Patroclus are my babies and you cannot tell me otherwise.
You may know Patroclus already from my "Top Ten: Cinnamon Rolls", I did earlier this week!
Achilles, on the other side, is definitely a problematic fave. Maybe I'll do a Top Ten on that topic too!

Review will be up in September.
5 out of 5 stars

Books on the Beach!

Hi there, guys!
As I said in my last post, I'm going to Spain next week and I plan on bringing a few books with me!
And with this post I want to show you which ones I picked.

                                                             1) The Princess Bride by William Goldman

It's the book I'm reading at the moment, so duh, of course I'm taking it with me. Provided that I won't finish it in the next two days.

Summary: What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
In short, it's about everything.
So far, I have not yet seen the movie. All I knew about this book/movie was that one scene we all know:




                                                                          2) The Martian by Andy Weir

I haven't watched the movie of that one either! But I'm planning to.

Summary: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next.
Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Some people love the writing style, some hate it - I hope I'll be part of the first group!




                                                                        3) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I'm feeling quite bad because I still have not yet read this book.
I started it weeks ago and put it down. Then I started the TV Show and stopped watching.
Hopefully I can finish (a pretty high set goal) it in those 10 days!

Summary: The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.



Have a great time!
Franzi

Fanart Friday "Days of Blood and Starlight"

I can't believe it's Friday again!
This will be my last post for the next few days because I'm on vacation!
Yeah, that's right, I'll be in Spain for a while.
I'll tell you in another post which books I'm going to take with me - so stay tuned!

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

All those pictures were actually drawn by the same artist: Lucky-Ziri She's amazing!
Oh, how hard did I laugh at that scene in Avatar: The Legend of Aang. Still one of my favourite shows!


Yes, Ziri is my darling, you're not allowed to hurt him.

Oh, Lucky-Ziri is breaking my heart with her beautiful drawings of him! AND SHE DRAWS HIM A LOT.


Oh, he's so pretty. He's definitely my favourite character (along with Liraz, Zuzana and Mik)
I think DoBaS is one of the very few books in which I like the side characters more than the actual main protagonists.


Talking of Liraz!



Karou and Akiva!


Here's someone else for a change:Thiago and Ren



And lastly: ISSA!



Her art is amazing, you have to check out her blog!

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Hi there, guys!
What's up?
I'm not reading that much right now because I discovered a new TV Show. Have you guys ever heard of Misfits? It's 100% politically incorrect but strangely addicting at the same time.
Anyways, back to the books.

BASICS
Title: Days of Blood and Starlight
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2
Author: Laini Taylor
Release Date: November 6th 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316133973
Number of Pages: 512
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy




MY OPINION
"Life is our master, or death is.", Brimstone had said, but in theses days of blood, there was no luxury of choice. Death ruled them all. 

While I didn't love Daughter of Smoke and Bone as much as I hoped I would, I really, really enjoyed Days of Blood and Starlight!
I actually put off reading it for a while, because I just couldn't bother to pick it up. But now I'm glad I did! 

The second book picks up soon after the ending of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
Karou teamed up with Thiago (no, you're eyes are not betraying you. It's the douche who had her killed) and became the new Resurrectionist. Yeah, she's not so happy with her situation either, but she felt like she owes her people.
Meanwhile Akiva believed she's dead and Zuzana and Mik tried to solve her riddle which contains her current location. There's a lot of angst and dispair waiting for you!
(I really suck at summaries, sorry, guys.)

I loved that the reader's horizon was extended by several POVs. In the first book we saw the whole story through Karou's or Akiva's eyes (correct me if I'm wrong) but now we get more insight. It also adds to the complexity and depth of the story.
The readers get some more insight on the angel side as well as on the chimaera side. Due to the very well chosen POV characters (a 14-year old chimaera civilian and an emperal harem guard) we start to understand that this story does not only revolve around Karou and Akiva and their love story (as it was in book #1)

Alongside with the new POVs we get some new characters! Ten, Ziri, Sveva and Jael are only a few of them. Most of them (except for Jael) are Chimaera which means we get to know more about a race we haven't really learned anything about before!

Taylors writing works so well for me! It felt really magical and she managed to portray really sad or depressing scenes with so beautiful and simple writing, it made my heart ache even more.
It just fits. Beautiful writing + endless pain and despair = awesomeness (and tears)
She creates an amazing atmosphere!
Literally all that keeps the inhabitants of Eretz alive is hope. Har har.

At least on paper Madrigal and Karou are the same person, but honestely? They are not.
We mostly get to see Karou, who for some reason hasn't a direct access to Madrigal's memories.
I would really like to see Karou having difficulties with Madrigal's opinions.



The end was brilliant worked out as it forces two enemies to unite over a common enemy. It makes one really excited for the last novel as the reader will see how this union will play out.

Where Daughter of Smoke and Bone was very innocent in its emotions and actions Days of Blood and Starlight is very dark and very twisted. There's more gore and definitely more gore than before.
It goes from, well, not exactly butterflies and rainbows but you get the picture, to death and destruction.
The story really gave me goosebumps at some points.

My favourite quotes:
“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And its snap split the world in two.”


“Nothing made you feel so useless as another person's grief.”

RATING
4.5 out of 5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday #3

Hi there, guys!

I can't believe it's Tuesday already! In less than a week I'll be in Spain!

Today I'll present you my top ten cinnamon rolls. They are too good, too pure for this world.
But - as always - this is just my opinion. If yours is different, fine, but don't yell at me.


                                                10) Petra Ral from Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama

 

"Making the right choice isn't easy."

                                              9) Dorian Havilliard from Throne of Glass by Sarah J.Maas

Artist: cosmic-frequencies 

“As for Celaena," he said again, "you do not have the right to wish she were not what she is.        
 The only thing you have a right to do is decide whether you are her enemy or her friend.”
                                                     


                                        8) Sansa Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.Martin

Artist: elia-illustration

“My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.”
                                                          


                                                  7) Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling

Artist: Viria 

"My mum always said: things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end."

   6) Ziri from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Artist: Faindri

“Ziri's soul felt like the high roaming wind of the Adelphas Mountains and the beat of stormhunters' wings, like the beautiful, mournful, eternal song of the wind flutes that had filled their caves with music he could not possibly remember. It felt like home.”



                                               5) Patroclus from The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Artist: Linneart

"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world."



                                         4) Kate Piper from The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

"Because I'm not gay. I'm just a straight girl stuck in a boy's body."



                                                          3) Hector Zeroni from Holes by Louis Sachar

"When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up."



                                            2) Adam Parrish from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

The Adam Parrish Twitter Account has him as a profile picture, and I'm totally fine with that.

"Being Adam Parrish was a complicated thing, a wonder of muscles and organs, synapses
and nerves. He was a miracle of moving parts, a study in survival. The most important thing
to Adam Parrish, though, had always been free will, the ability to be his own master.
This was the important thing. It had always been the important thing.
This was what it was to be Adam."

                            1) Charlie Kelmeckis from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

“And there are people who forget what it’s like to be sixteen when they turn seventeen.
I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs.
We all become somebody’s mom or dad.
But right now, these moments are not stories.
This is happening. I am here, and I am looking at her. And she is so beautiful. I can see it. This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story.
You are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you’re listening to that song, and that drive with the people who you love most in this world.
And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite.”

Fanart Friday!

Hi there, guys!

I'm back with another Fanart Friday!

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Sadly, I only found one drawing! It was done by Nora Krug!



Blood Red Road by Moira Young

The first drawing was done by leabharlann!


Someone proposed him as Lugh, god, he's pretty:


Saba by for all love



And lastly, some pencil drawings by leablarhann again!

Jack & Saba



Ash, Maeve and Epona!


And Jake, Ike and Saba!



Out of the Easy

This drawing was done by New (I couldn't find a link)



Josie done by NinufaLuver236



Someone said they picture this guy as the perfect Jesse, what do you think about him?


And here's a link to someone's thoughts on Josie's clothing!


If you know any more Fanart, please tell me in the comments!
Franzi