Hi guys, I've got my January Wrap Up today
which I thought I would combine with my
December Wrap Up because I wasn't able to
do a December Wrap Up because I was ill at
the end of December and beginning of
January. And I was considering just
completely skipping over it but I did
end up reading some really good books
in December and I kind of just want to give
them the credit that I think they
deserve. So today I just thought I would
combine my January Wrap Up with my
December Wrap Up. Throughout the entirety
of December, I was reading 'I'll Be Home
for Christmas' which is a collection of
short stories, all centering around the
theme of home and Christmas. It was a very
diverse collection of stories actually.
In the sense that a lot of stories
all surround different things, like different
sexualities and different religions and
races and class and things like that.
Some of the stories I really, really loved
some of them I didn't love quite so much.
But I really enjoyed Non Pratt's story,
and Cat Clarke's story and Lisa Williamson's
story. But my absolute favorite out of
them all was the poem that Benjamin
Zephaniah wrote about refugees at
Christmas and I thought that was absolutely
gorgeous. And I kind of just want to
recommend that everybody reads that poem
because I just thought it was stunning. I really
enjoyed it and I ended up giving this a
3.5 out of 5 stars. I also read 'The Amateurs'
by Sara Shepard. About this group of
amateur detectives, trying to solve the
murder that happened five years prior to
this being set, to a girl's sister and it
was so much fun.
This gave me all the kind of nostalgic
'Pretty Little Liars' feels. And I didn't
enjoy this quite as much as I've enjoyed
Sara Shepard's other books. It didn't blow my
mind quite as much and I kind of guessed
the ending to it. Which I'm not sure
whether that is because I have now just
read too many of Sara Shepard's books. So I
feel as though maybe I kind of know where
they're going to go or how her mind is
working when she's writing them. I
really enjoyed the fact that the
characters in this were all slightly older.
So they were all either in their first years of
college or in the kind of, last years of
high school which I really enjoyed.
Just because it kind of felt as though them
being these amateur detectives, was slightly
more plausible, which I really enjoyed.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next.
As I feel as though the next one may be slightly
crazier and maybe slightly darker. I ended up
giving it a 4 out of 5 stars. It was
definitely a really fun read and I just
love Sara Shepard's books, they're just always so much fun.
I then also read 'Every Last Word'
by Tamara Ireland Stone which is
following Samantha, who is living with
purely obsessional OCD and it's
basically about her trying to deal
with that and trying to learn how to,
kind of control that, whilst also balancing
her life and some toxic friendships and
a romance and a few twists and turns as
well. Before reading this, I had not heard of
purely obsessional OCD. I'd heard of OCD
but not purely obsessional. So I found
it incredibly enlightening and
incredibly insightful and I thought it
was done very respectfully. As I know
this wasn't own voices but you can tell
that Tamara Ireland Stone did put a lot of
research into it and she actually
explained at the end of the book, how she
did that research. This also features a
very positive family relationship
surrounding mental illness and also a
really positive relationship with
therapists and a positive outlook on
therapy and things like that, which I
thought was fantastic. I know a lot of
people have read this and it's kind of
blown their mind in a lot of ways but
because I had known that, it didn't
completely blow my mind. It was just a
very nice balance of your classic
contemporary, whilst also tackling mental
illness. Although I do wish that there had
been slightly more emphasis on the
mental illness side of things. As I feel as though
this was very much sold as a book
following a girl with purely obsessional OCD
and that wasn't necessarily, kind of, the
highlight of the book. It wasn't
necessarily the main focus. But I would have
just personally liked to have read more about
that and learn more about that but as I
said, I thought this was incredibly
insightful, incredibly eye-opening and I
ended up giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.
I then also read Plutona which is a
graphic novel by Jeff Lemire, Emmi Lennox and Jordie Bellaire.
And this is about a group of kids that find
a dead superhero. I really loved the art
style in it. I thought it was really
interesting and I loved the color palette
and thought it just kind of really
perfectly fit the feel and emotion to
it but there were a couple of things
they didn't love quite so much. First of
all, this was a very short graphic novel and
I'd expected it to be the start of a series
but it was just its own, stand alone
graphic novel. So it felt very rushed
and I would have really enjoyed it to be
more fleshed out, as it was a very
interesting concept. I definitely think
that I would have appreciated it more
and enjoyed it a lot more had I gone into
this knowing that it was a standalone.
And I actually read it almost
immediately after I read it the first
time around, knowing that it was a
standalone and definitely enjoyed it more
that time around. There was also a
character in this that was consistently,
throughout the whole story, picked on
that due to her weight. And was called 'chubs'
and things like that and no one really
stood up for her, or called this person out
for doing it. And I just thought it was
completely unnecessary. It didn't add
anything to the story and it was never
concluded, it was just completely
accepted and I don't really understand
why it was there. So I really, really
didn't like that part of it. I think this
would make such a great TV show or movie.
It kind of gave me 'Stranger Things' meets
'Super 8' kind of vibes. And also there was a
pug puppy in this called Loki, which was just fantastic.
I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. During the
few days leading up to Christmas, I read
'The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily'
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan which is the
sequel to 'Dash and Lily's Book of Dares' which is
one of my favourite contemporaries. I never
expected there to be sequel to it, so I
was kind of really nervous about what I
would think of this because I really wanted
to enjoy it and I really, really loved it.
This followed kind of a very different
feel to the first book and I've heard a
lot of people kind of not enjoying this
because they felt it was too negative.
Lily is this person that
absolutely love Christmas. It's her favorite
time of the year and this year she's not
excited about it and just not feeling
happy about it because her grandfather,
who she is super close with, hasn't been
very well. I thought it was just so
refreshing to read about someone at
Christmas, who is known for how much they
love Christmas, not enjoying Christmas. I
found it extremely comforting and this
was just the kind of book that I needed to
read at the time that I read it. I really,
really appreciated it and I didn't
find Lily annoying in any way, which I know
a lot of people have done. I didn't find
that, I just kind of really felt bad for her
and understood it. I don't know whether I preferred
it more than the first book. I think for
me, they're on two totally different levels and
will stay kind of quite sentimental to
me. I really, really enjoyed it and I
ended up giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.
And lastly in December, I read 'A Monster Calls'
by Patrick Ness and I went into
this knowing absolutely nothing about it,
despite the fact that I'd heard so many
people saying how much they enjoyed it.
I didn't really know anything about the
plot at all. Because of that, I'm not going
to explain the plot because I feel as though
going into this
without it, is kind of the best way. The very
kind of, very small tiny summary, is that
it follows a boy whose mother is living
with cancer and other than that I'm not
going to go into anything more about it
but this book kind of broke me. And I'm
not sure whether that is because of the
book or whether because, the day that I read
this, was very emotional day and I was
already extremely emotional when I
picked this up. So it probably wasn't the
best time for me to read this but I
thought this was really great. I don't
think I loved it as much as other people
have done. That is something that will
say and I think that may be because I
picked up with extremely high
expectations. But yeah, I end up giving
this a 4/4.25 out of 5 stars. So those were all
of the books that I read in December and
then the first book I read in January was 'Big Magic'
by Elizabeth Gilbert and this is 'A
Guide to Creative Living Beyond Fear'. And
I'm going to say straight of the bat, I
really didn't enjoy this.
I had really hoped that I was going to.
I had heard so many fantastic things about this
and so many people saying how much it was
inspiring them and how much it really
helped their creativity, which I'm all for
but I really just didn't connect to it
at all. I don't think I resonated at all
with Elizabeth Gilbert's voice. The first thirty
pages or so, I was thinking yes, this is
going to change my life but after those
thirty pages, I really didn't like it. And
it's not because I necessarily hated it.
I just didn't enjoy it. There was a whole
section in it, which I think after I read
that, I just kind of was like, I don't think
this is going to be a book for me. When she
was talking about how art isn't
important and at the end of the day, it
doesn't save lives.
So in a zombie apocalypse, it would
just be completely unnecessary. That is
something I personally don't agree with.
I think art is really, really important.
Theatre and film and books and writing
and music, has such a huge impact on
people and I think it is an incredibly
important part of people's lives. If
you're interested in picking this up,
then I don't want to put you off because
I don't want to put you off reading
something that could completely change
your life. So I think definitely read
positive reviews about it as well but I
personally really didn't enjoy it and I
just don't think there's anything that I
will take away from it.
So I ended up giving it a 2 out of 5 stars.
I read 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe'
which I fell head over heels in love
with and ended up giving it a 5 out of 5
stars. I went into this having heard so
much about it but knowing very, very
little about it. And I just don't really
know how to explain the plot of this. I loved
the writing in it, it was very simple but
also at the same time beautiful and I
was constantly wanting to write down
quotes from it and I just loved it. I
really loved it. It was completely
character-driven, which is my personal
kind of preference and favourite thing in books.
I'm very much a character reader. I really
enjoy connecting the characters. The plot
is still one hundred percent important
and I'm still all about amazing plots
but I love it when I can read a book and
really fall in love with the characters.
Which I definitely did with this and I
absolutely adored it. I think the word
that I would use to describe this is
subtle. It was very subtly beautiful, very
gentle and subtle in its plot and pace.
And it was just heartbreaking and
heartwarming and I thought it was fantastic.
The characters are all very
multi-dimensional and my favorite aspect
of this, was the fact that the family
relationships in it were fantastic.
They were so brilliant, so positive, so
interesting, with different sexualities and things
like that. Yeah, I thought this was
fantastic and I couldn't recommend it
more highly. I'm really excited about the
fact that there is a sequel to it and I now
completely understand why so many people
love this book so much because I am now
definitely one of those people and I ended
up giving a 5 out of 5 stars.
And then lastly in my January Wrap Up,
throughout the whole of January, I
managed to read the first eight book in
'The Series of Unfortunate Events', for the first time
ever. And this, I don't know what I
expected from this. I'd seen the movie
when I was younger and it totally
scarred me for life.
I cannot watch a film within Jim Carrey
in it because he just terrifies me now
because of his portrayal of Count Olaf.
And I never read these because of that
but I've been really wanting to watch
Netflix original series and I felt as
though it was time to challenge myself
to read this. So I read the first eight
and I'm hoping to read the rest of
them in February. They're all my
February TBR. And I really enjoyed this. I'm going
to put them down because they're kind of
heavy but I really enjoyed it. The first
two I gave a 4 out of 5 stars and I really
loved that, especially the second one. Then
books three and four I gave a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Just because the underlying plot I just
found a little bit tedious and I was
getting slightly tired of it. So I gave
those a 3.5 out of 5 stars. And then I
really enjoyed book number five. So I gave
that a 3.75 out of 5 stars. And then books
six, seven and eight
I really enjoyed. I thought kind of the spark
from the original two books kind of came
back in them and there were more
characters and more mysteries and more
kind of objectives and just weird stuff
going on. But I think I gave six, seven and eight a
4 out of 5 stars. This whole series is so
far-fetched and so bizarre and it is a
lot of fun. I will say that the whole
kind of basic plot is very much recycled
in all of the books. I'm really looking
forward to kind of finishing this series.
I'm not entirely sure where it's going,
so I'm very, very intrigued and yeah
I'm really enjoying it. So I'm looking
forward to seeing what happens and how
it concludes because it's just
incredibly intriguing. So those were all
of the books that I read in December
2016 and January 2017. And I hope you had
a fantastic December and I hope you had
a fantastic January. I will leave the links to my
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Goodreads and
Blog in the description box below. I also
just got Snapchat, which I'm kind of half
using, kind of half not. So I will leave that
as well in the description box and yeah
as said I hope you've been having a
fantastic month and I hope you have a
brilliant start to February. Bye!
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