Goodbye Spring! (April + May 2014 Reading Wrap-Up)

Monday, June 2, 2014

Hello everyone! Because I completely missed my wrap-up for the month of April, you will be getting both April and May's today (also known as a huge post that you can just scroll through and look at the book covers.)

BOOKS I READ


I read Panic by Lauren Oliver back in April for the "Booksplosion" read-along and thought it was just okay. I didn't really care for most of the characters, but the game itself was thrilling to follow along with.

One of my friends, Stephanie, graciously lent me her copy of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I ended up finishing it in an hour or two, and I really loved the narrator's quirkiness.

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill surprised me a lot — it wasn't as "cliche" as I initially thought (Meant to Be as a title is cheesy enough), and it had an interesting twist at the end.

After reading Meant to Be, I wasn't in the mood to read anything except Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, which I loved. My favorite part is when Harry and Hermione go back in time to save both Buckbeak and Sirius!


Toward the end of April, I picked up Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo after seeing it marked as five stars on a friend's Goodreads page. Unfortunately, I didn't like it and thought it was dull.

I quickly moved on to The Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry and enjoyed the storyline, but found there were a lot of problems that could have been fixed. (This story didn't even take place during the summer!)

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott was a really good read. Although the pacing was a bit slow, I loved the action and events that happened. A lot of people are comparing it to The Hunger Games ... yes, there are some similar things, but I felt that it was a unique book and should be enjoyed for what it is!

On the day I found Perfect Lies by Kiersten White at the library, there was an evacuation drill right before I was about to check it out. Luckily, I placed it somewhere random and was able to pick it back up when I returned inside. Perfect Lies was a satisfying ending to the Mind Games duology. I really liked reading from two different POVs, especially during times of Fia's sassiness.


I really wanted to read more about Annie and Fia after Perfect Lies, so I read a short story titled Annie and Fia by Kiersten White. I didn't expect it to be as short as it was, so I was quite sad.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira was (and is) a beautiful book about a girl who lost her sister and how she deals with it. I wasn't that into it during the first half, but the last part was written very well. It's written in letter form, which makes it quite easy to read, but the themes presented were woven so nicely throughout the entire book.

Although the Bout of Books 10.0 read-a-thon landed on the week of my finals, I decided to participate anyway. (I ended up reading on five out of the seven days.) If you want to know what I thought about The Here and Now by Ann Brashares and Open Road Summer by Emery Lord, check out my progress posts here and here :)


I wanted to read If I Stay by Gayle Forman after finding out it will be released as a movie later in August. I liked it, but I expected a lot more from it.

After hearing tons of people talking about Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, I FINALLY read it. And yes, it is as cute as everyone says it is! It's the whole Paris atmosphere and foreign cute boys thing that makes readers fall in love with this book. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that St. Clair (the love interest) had a girlfriend while he was clearly interested in Anna.

After three/four months of reading Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes, my small group and I finally finished it and had our last meeting at the end of May. If you are wondering what it means to be woman of God, I highly recommend this book. Barbara Hughes talks about many relevant topics (such as singleness and marriage, submission, and contentment) and really challenges you to be, like the title says, disciplined in all aspects of your life.

BOOKS REVIEWED
Panic by Lauren Oliver

BOUT OF BOOKS 10.0 POSTS

OTHER POSTS + VIDEOS

READING CHALLENGE UPDATE
Books read in April and May: 14 (not counting the short story)
Books read this year: 31/50
Reading goals completed: 0/7

2 comments

  1. Damn, you read a lot! I read two books last month, though I usually get to three, but I was feeling lazy haha! I'm going to add some of these to my list!
    ~Sara

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  2. You read a lot -- good for you! The Little Prince is one of my favorite books... I love that it can appeal to such a wide audience and you're right, it's full of quirkiness!

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