Recently Read: City of Lost Souls

Last night I stayed up to finish the fifth book in the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. Preparing for Christmas and a six day power outage has lead to a minimal amount of reading over this break from school, but I'm going to try and read as much as I can before I have to go back to school next month.

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the first three books in this series. In this book, a lot of relationships begin to deepen between the characters and there is a lot of making out! I of course enjoyed the characters in this book and found them funny and endearing, as I did in the other books of the series.

This book allowed me to appreciate Clare's writing style. She is able to write her books in a way that makes them addictive, once you start reading it you have a hard time putting it down. She also evoked a number of new emotions from me for certain characters in this book. (I don't want to say too much, but if you have read it, you probably know who I am referring too).

I would of course recommend this series, and if you read the fourth book and thought ehh and haven't picked this one up yet, pick it up, it is on the same level as the first three books in the series. I am rather anxious for the last book's release, which is this spring I believe, I want to see how this series wraps up for our characters. I am also considering reading the e-book novellas Clare has written to go along with the series about Magnus, called The Bane Chronicles. Have you read any of them? Do You like them?  

City of Bones review (book one)
City of Ashes review (book two)
City of Glass review (book three)
City of Fallen Angels review (book four)

Recently Read: Lolita

The semester is finally over, and I have jumped right into my reading pile. Today I finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which was my first Nabokov novel. I must say, I am very intrigued to read more of his works.

Lolita is his most well known work, and the only work of his that I had heard anything about. I didn't really know the premise to the novel before I picked it up and found it very interesting. I can only imagine the negative reviews this book receives from people who read it today, simply because it deals with a controversial subject matter, and people are always afraid of the controversial. The main character of this novel, Humbert Humbert, who is using a fake name for himself to protect his identity, finds himself to be obsessively in love with a twelve year old "nymphet" named, of course, Lolita. 

Humbert Humbert is a very complex and dynamic character. He is so self aware, and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where he psychoanalyzed himself, he is not a monster with no remorse of conscious, he is intelligent and can understand to some degree what has caused his problems, but that does not give him the ability to solve them. This novels brings attention the mind and the capabilities it has and the control it can have over a person. Nabokov uses such beautiful words to tell Humbert's story, which serves a higher purpose then to just please the reader. Humbert is appealing his case to "the jury", or the reader and his beautifully flowing words sooth the reader and arose sympathy. This book really gives the reader a lot of things to think about while they are reading it and after they finish it. 

I would recommend this book if you are a fan of well written literature and willing to give it a try even though the subject matter is not pleasant. I feel like this a novel that you have to read before you can defend it or appreciate it.  

I am interested to see the Lolita film from 1962, have you seen it? Have you read anything else by Nabokov you would recommend? Let me know. 

      

December Purchases

From the bottom: 

Attachments, Rainbow Rowell-- bought at my grocery store for five dollars (what what?) 

The Tragedy Paper, Elizabeth Laban-- rather new release I believe, the dual story line caught my eye

The House of Hades, Rick Riordan-- book four of the Heroes of Olympus series, bought on Black Friday

The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan-- book three of the Heroes of Olympus 

Jane Eyre, Charlolette Bronte-- Beautiful Vintage Classics edition

Hourglass, Reba McEntire-- Time Travel YA trilogy 

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb-- ghost girl haunts English Classroom? I'm in.    

Anonymous

"I would venture to guess, anon; who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a women."

-Virginia Woolf

December To be Read

Here's my December TBR. I hope to read quite a few books between semesters since I will be doing a lot of reading in my next semester with three English classes.

Currently Reading: Splendor, Anna Godbersen  Which is the fourth book in the Luxe series. This is a roll over from last month, I would like to finish this series this month. I'm curious to see how everything plays out for all the characters.

The Darkest Minds, Alexander Bracken
City of Lost Souls, Cassandra Clare
The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

Those are the books I'm hoping to get through this month. I'm trying to get my papers and protects done so I can start reading, but the end of the semester is always packed.

If you want to see what I read in November, click here.