Summer Reading Priorites

Hi all! I thought I would start off my return to the blog with a quick post about my top priorities for summer reading. I have stacks of unread books everywhere in my room, and they are taking over. So here's some of the books that are highest of my TBR. If you have already read them, let me know what you thought about them!

 

 

 

 

Update: I'll be Back Soon!

Hey guys,
Today is the first day of finals week, so I will be done with the busiest semester of my life in a few days. I will hopefully be back to reading and blogging after my finals finish on Wednesday.
Thanks for sticking around, and I'm really looking forward to having reading time again!

Let me know what you guys are reading, or how your semester went if you're in school!

See you soon!

Top Ten Tuesday: My Latest Five Star Reads

I missed last week's topic so I thought I would do it this week. Here's the latest books I have given five stars (or 4.5) to.

Hosted by: The Broke and the Bookish

1. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Review here. 

2. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Review here.

3. Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde 

Review to come. But I love Wilde and everything he does. So funny and so witty. 

4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley  

Review here. 

5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the illustrated edition by J.K. Rowling 

I loved. loved this! I can't wait for the second one to come out this fall!  

6. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Review here.

 

7. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Review here.

8. In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters 

Review here. 

9. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein 

Review here. 

10.  Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Review here. 

March Wrap-Up- With a Little Bit of February Too

This year has been so busy for me because of school! I haven't gotten to do a whole lot outside of school work, but everything is coming together and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I will be graduating in one year, which is amazing.

So here's some of the things that happened this month and what I have read in the last two months.

Posts 
I finally took some time this morning to get caught up on like three weeks worth of blog reading! I'm really looking forward to this summer when I will have more time to read and write posts. I have a lot of posts I have been wanting to write for a long time, but that I haven't had the time or energy to write. Here's some of the posts I have managed to get up this month:

I finally got my Women Codebreakers at Bletchley Park Interesting Links and Recommended Books posts up!

I did a couple of reviews for the Classics's Club Women's Literature Event: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Gigi and The Cat by Colette. I'm eager to read more by and about these ladies very soon.

I also reviewed Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff which I loved. And then recently, I posted a Book Haul of my recent purchases.

Reads
Here's a look at what I read in the past two moths.

February

Reread for school: Read my Thoughts 

Read my Thoughts 

Read for School: Read my Thoughts

March  

Read my Thoughts

Read my Thoughts 

Thoughts to Come

Thoughts to Come

Watched
I haven't started a new series on Netflix yet after finishing Gilmore Girls, partly because I haven't had a lot of time to watch and partly because picking a new series on Netflix is so overwhelming. I have watched a few movies this month that I wanted to talk about, one that I had seen before and one I watched for the first time. I LOVE old movies and they are primarily what I watch.

I love Cary Grant, and this is one of his best movies. I had seen this one once before and was just craving to watch it again. When I sat down to watch it for the second time, I loved it even more than the first time! It's funny, sweet, and made me quite emotional! This is one of those movies that I will watch over and over for the rest of time.

I watched this for the first time this month and I found it really intriguing, and I feel like if I watch it again, I will get more out of it. Marlon Brando is so young and so, so, so attractive in this movie, and he is perfect for the part of Stanley. I haven't read the play, but I think this is a fairly accurate adaptation. If you have seen the movie and read the play, let me know if this is true. Here's a little Marlon Brando for your viewing pleasure.

Just Added (14)

I haven't had the chance to get a lot of reading done, but that doesn't mean my TBR isn't growing! Here's what I have added to my Goodreads TBR lately.

Just Added (13)
Just Added (12)

Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo 

Summary from Goodreads:

 Long hailed as a seminal work of modernism in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka, and now available in a supple new English translation, Italo Svevo’s charming and splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. The mind in question belongs to Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the behest of his psychiatrist. Here are Zeno’s interminable attempts to quit smoking, his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpected–and unexpectedly happy–marriage to Ada’s homely sister Augusta, and his affair with a shrill-voiced aspiring singer. Relating these misadventures with wry wit and a perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zeno’s Conscience is a miracle of psychological realism. 

Why I added it: I saw this translated work on a list of books that get inside your head, and the description caught my eye. It's been a while since I have read anything that deals with psychology and this one looks like the right mix of crazy, unreliable narrator and psychology. 

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her Daughter Mary Shelly by Charlotte Gordon  

Summary from Goodreads:

 Although mother and daughter, these two brilliant women never knew one another – Wollstonecraft died of an infection in 1797 at the age of thirty-eight, a week after giving birth. Nevertheless their lives were so closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies so eerily similar, it seems impossible to consider one without the other.

Both women became famous writers; fell in love with brilliant but impossible men; and were single mothers who had children out of wedlock; both lived in exile; fought for their position in society; and thought deeply about how we should live. And both women broke almost every rigid convention there was to break: Wollstonecraft chased pirates in Scandinavia. Shelley faced down bandits in Naples. Wollstonecraft sailed to Paris to witness the Revolution. Shelley eloped in a fishing boat with a married man. Wollstonecraft proclaimed that women’s liberty should matter to everyone.

Not only did Wollstonecraft declare the rights of women, her work ignited Romanticism. She inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth and a whole new generation of writers, including her own daughter, who – with her young lover Percy Shelley – read Wollstonecraft’s work aloud by her graveside. At just nineteen years old and a new mother herself, Mary Shelley composed Frankenstein whilst travelling around Italy with Percy and roguish Lord Byron (who promptly fathered a child by Mary’s stepsister). It is a seminal novel, exploring the limitations of human nature and the power of invention at a time of great religious and scientific upheaval. Moreover, Mary Shelley would become the editor of her husband’s poetry after his early death – a feat of scholarship that did nothing less than establish his literary reputation.

Romantic Outlaws brings together a pair of visionary women who should have shared a life, but who instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy. This is inventive, illuminating, involving biography at its best. 

Why I added it: You guys may know, I just read and loved Frankenstein and I am eager to learn more about Shelley and the Romantic circle she was a part of. I'm super interested in the lives and works of both of these women so this should be an interesting read. 

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 

Summary from Goodreads:

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.

Ferrante is the author of three previous works of critically acclaimed fiction: The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, andThe Lost Daughter. With this novel, the first in a trilogy, she proves herself to be one of Italy’s great storytellers. She has given her readers a masterfully plotted page-turner, abundant and generous in its narrative details and characterizations, that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight her many fans and win new readers to her fiction. 

Why I added it: This series has been everywhere lately and I really want to jump on the band wagon! The only thing is these paperbacks are so expensive, I will try to pick them up from the library this summer I think. Let me know if you have read this series!  

Book Haul!-- Recent Purchases

Hey guys! I haven't been able to keep up with the weekly wrap-up posts lately which is where I usually show you what I have bought lately, so I thought I would do a little haul post. I have picked up various books from various places and I would love to hear your thoughts on them.

  I picked up A Walk in the Woods really cheap at my local Goodwill, and I was excited to see it there. Bill Bryson has been on my list for a long time, and this is the one of his I hear the most about. I'm not sure what to expect for it, but I have been loving nonfiction lately, so I'm excited to give this one a go.

Waters is another author I have been meaning to get to for ages, and I finally found one of her novels at my local used bookstore so I snatched it up! I don't know much about this plot, besides the fact that it is historical fiction with a lesbian couple, but I don't really want to know any more.

I have been waiting for this anthology to come out because it sounds absolutely perfect! It's a compilation of historical fiction short stories with kick-ass female leads. There are some authors I love in here, and some that are new to me but that I have heard lots of great things about; I will be getting to this one ASAP! 

This one I picked up as a birthday treat for myself, I love the Virago Modern Classic Editions but didn't own any. I think i will enjoy this novel, and I really want to get some more in these editions. I can see the beginning of a new obsession starting. 

Another b-day treat; I couldn't resist this cute little penguin edition because I have had my eye on this novel for ages! This will be my first Muriel Sparks and I think I'm going to love her. 

Finally, we have The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. I have heard some great things about this novella, so I picked it up when I came across it in the used section of my bookstore. 

Have you read any of these? What did you think? What have you bought lately? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books From Before Blogging

I feel like I always talk about the same books here on the blog. I have my frequently mentioned favorites that I always put on lists and what-not, but I have a lot of really great favorites that don't get mentioned very often, if at all, from before I started my blog. This post will be tricky for me to put together since I am away from my bookshelf that holds most of my read books, but we will see how many old favorites I can remember. 

Hosted by: The Broke and the Bookish

1. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Bradshares

I LOVED this series when I was in early high school. I was so connected and involved with these characters and their journeys. This is an amazing series for young girls to read, and I would love to reread it someday and revisit these amazing characters. This series will always have a very special place in my heart. 

2. Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

This and the book below, are my favorite Dessen books. I read a lot of contemporary when I was in high school so of course I read all of Dessen's novels. This one was seemed very unique from her other novels, and although it's hard for me to remember the details of the plot, I know I loved it.

3. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen 

This was my introduction to Dessen, which may be why it's one of my favorites. I loved the cast of characters and the male lead was so interesting and appealing to my high school self as he was different from the other male leads that I had read so far. 

4. The Oscar Wilde Murder Mystery Series by Brandon Gyles

Another one of my all-time favorite series that I don't talk about enough. In this series Wilde, and a host of other literary and historical figures, solve mysteries. I love how true to the real Wilde these novels are and how they have compelling mysteries and focus on Wilde's personal life as well. It's no secret that Wilde is #1 in my heart, so I really appreciate this tribute to his personality. 

5. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is a really great read about eating disorders, and I loved the narrative style. I've done a lot of thinking about this book since finishing it; it's really stuck with me. 

6. The Paris Wife by Paula McClain 

This is a really great novel about Hemingway's first wife Haldey. I love the 1920's Paris setting and the honest look at Hemingway's difficult personality, to put it nicely. 

7. Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson

This sereis is another really great girl power series. If you like The Sisterhood of the Travleing Pants, you will enjoy this one. I love the strong friendship in this story. 

8. The Boyfriend List by e. Lockhart

This is a really funny contemporary. I really need to read more from Lockhart, as I love the girl power in this novel and the premises of her other novels.  

9. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I read this one my first year of high school and I've been meaning to reread it ever since. This was the first book I really thought about critically, and it kick started my love of studying literature. This is a really great American classic that I think everyone would love, even if American classics aren't usually your thing.  

10. The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

I read this book for my children's lit class a few years ago and absolutely loved it! It's so funny, it had me laughing out loud, but it also covers such a series topic (racial discrimination) in an amazing way. This book is a really great read for any age, but particularly for younger readers.