Top of My TBR!

Hi Readers! July is officially my Reading Slump Month. I did everything I could to get out of it, but the more I try, the worse it gets. So, now I have finally given up. I have read ONLY TWO BOOKS so far this month, which is really low compared to earlier months. That is one of the reasons why my July month’s posts are more than just book reviews. I told you guys about my favourite book covers & my 2020 Reading Challenge Update. And now, this post is about the books that are in the top of my To-Be-Read List! As I mentioned in the last post, I am yet to complete 14 of the 52 categories from my Reading Challenge. All the below books match those categories. Have a look!

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – A book I started but never finished.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – A book with red cover.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami – A book published in the year I was born.

Circe by Madeline Miller – Anything I want.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – A book from a genre I don’t normally read, that is, Classics.

1984 by George Orwell – A deceased author’s last book.

Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse – Written by an English Author.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri – Anything I want.

Becoming by Michelle Obama – A book I lied about reading.

Above 9 books are the ones I own. But, the next five books for the remaining five categories are the books I might read in e-book format or buy later on. Have a look!

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green - Young Adult.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts – Travel.

There There by Tommy Orange OR Between the World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates – Recommended by a favourite author.

The Whistler by John Grisham OR Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson OR Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett OR Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – A book mentioned in another book.

A book mentioned in a movie – For this I am yet to find a book.

 

That is pretty much it! Please hope that I will get out of my reading slump really soon. It becomes annoying for me to not read more than 6 books a month, now that I know I can. The competition is only with myself after all. If you have any more interesting suggestions for any of the above categories, do tell me! I am always up for exploring books!

Until next time,

Update on my Reading Challenge!

Hi Readers! Now that we are more than halfway done with 2020, I thought of updating you guys with my Reading Challenge. Here is the main first post if you want to download the image! As you know I had prepared a challenge of reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks & I had also decided on the 52 categories to make it more fun! I have updated the same image so you can check out the books I read so far. I have already read 48/52 books this year leaving a lot of scope to read a lot more.

Also, after the image I have put the links to the reviews of some of the books, if you want to check them out!! I think you should check them out!

Check out the reviews!!

A book with more than 500 pages - A Little Life

A trilogy - Chaos Walking (Post 1 & Post 2)

A book being made into a movie - The Rhythm Section

A book published in 2020 - Untamed

A classic novel - The Color Purple

A book on LGBTQ - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Recommended by Oprah’s Book Club - The Water Dancer

Recommended by your favourite book blogger - The Nightingale

Recommended by an internet stranger - The Dutch House

A book I haven’t read from the author I love - And the Mountains Echoed

A book that everyone is talking about - Where the Crawdads Sing

A debut novel - The Silent Patient

A book with blue cover - The Atlas of Reds and Blues

Anything I want – Gilead

Though I have read 48 books, a few of those books are outside of the Reading Challenge, like rereading Harry Potter. So, I am yet to complete 14 categories of those 52. I have a few options for those which I am going to post later this week! Stay tuned till then!

Until next time,

The Water Dancer. (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! After two long weeks of reading, I was finally able to finish The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This book kept popping everywhere. It is recommended by Oprah’s Book Club among many other people who have highly recommended it. When I read the description, I myself was quite intrigued. So, I ordered the book & finally finished it today. Thoughts followed below!

 

~~INTRODUCTION & STORY LINE~~

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is the story of Hiram Walker, set in the times when coloured people were treated as slaves. We watch Hiram, who has lost his mother, to go seek shelter with Thena. Hiram starts working as a slave for his white father Howell Walker & half-brother Maynard Walker. Soon after, we see him go through immense struggles to finally become a part of the Underground. We see Hiram start off as an intelligent boy to grow into a sensible one. This story focuses on the cruelties of slavery. It also has a bit of magical realism in it. It is a 403-page book with not a lot to offer.

~~CHARACTERS~~

Hiram Walker is the protagonist of the story. He never forgets anything, is brilliant, can read, can do woodwork & has the hidden skill of water dancing. He talks about Thena who took him in when his mother was sold off. He also talks about Sophia who he loves. But, in all of this, it looks like he is reciting for a play, because I couldn’t feel any emotion behind it. In the book itself, they mention how he grows up in the span of just one year, but I couldn’t feel that to that much of an extent.

Sophia is her own woman. I liked her character. Even in those times, she talked of being free & not bound to anyone but her won self. She was brilliant in a more human sense. And still, she never touched me either.

Then we have our cast of the Underground. Corrinne Quinn, Hawkins & Amy who are set up in Elm County. We have the White family & lastly Micajah Bland aka Mr. Fields. There was a lot that could have been worked out deeper on the character of Mr. Fields, so I couldn’t feel that either. I was hoping a lot from Moses. But, given how she was talked about so highly, I didn’t think she would be introduced in such a normal manner, much less continue to be so normal.

In short, all the characters are real only up to 60% of themselves, if that makes sense. None of them really become someone whole with dreams or a life of their own. They are just fictional characters who never become more than that, which was a shame.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

I had heard a lot about Ta-Nehisi Coates & his mastery in the world of non-fiction writing. His book ‘Between the World and Me’ has been on my TBR since a long time. But, I’m not a fan of non-fiction & so when he wrote a fictional novel, I had to read it. It only led to disappointment. I never really vibed with his writing style. Reading this book was like knowing there was some level of poetic literary aspect to it, but it was so far hidden, it never materialized to the surface. I have more complaints about the writing & narrative. All these allegedly amazing characters just seemed so distant. There was no sentiment in the dialogue between the characters nor in the memories or anywhere else. I found the characters to be really flat. Even the narrator Hiram Walker. We read with him the entire novel but he just seems like a robot. I never really got to know them.

The main topic in this is a war against slavery. With war novels such as ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ or ‘The Nightingale’, the feelings & emotions rise up to overflow. But, nothing of the sort happened to me while reading this novel. It wasn’t a war with guns, it was a war with deep rooted wrongs of the society. So, in that way, it should have brought out even more feelings, but the opposite of that happened here.

Now, about the Conduction. Usually I love magical realism introduced in a normal life scenario. But, when you are writing a book on an important topic as slavery, you just cannot introduce something like magical realism to it. It completely removed the little bit built up emotion that the reader might have felt. I really liked both the concepts. Both concepts are brilliant, but when taken together, it did not work very well. This takes me to the purpose of the novel.

What was even the purpose of this story?

To stress on the war against slavery?

To introduce us to Hiram’s story?

To tell us about the Underground?

To fascinate us about the Conduction?

I failed to see the real purpose behind this story.

I also wanted to discuss about the predictability of the novel. I was hoping that Moses would actually be Hiram’s mother, but that was just my theory that did not come true. Given the weightage given to his mother & her water-dancing, I really thought she would show up somewhere in the novel, but no such luck. So, that part was unpredictable, but not good unpredictable. The other things such as Hiram & Sophia fleeing only to get caught was obviously predictable. Also, him returning to Lockless was foreseen. The only interesting parts were those in Philadelphia where he went on missions. I’d have liked to read more of that. It reminded me of Isabel Rosignol’s missions in The Nightinagle.

 

~~CONCLUSION~~

When I started reading this book, I was unable to really get into it. I suffered through the first 100 pages. But then, the story actually progressed when we get to see Hiram joining the Underground in a real sense & doing meaningful work in Philadelphia & so on. My interest piqued when I finally understood what the title stood for – the Conduction. And, then, in the last 100 pages, it got boring again. I usually don’t have so many ups & downs in a book except with this one, which leaves me to rate it at 3/5!

Until next time,

My Favourite Book Covers!

Hi Readers!

How are you all doing? How was July so far? For me, there is nothing great going on. 9 days in & I have not read a single book, except for ‘The Little Book of Happiness’ by Ruskin Bond, which as the title suggests was little. I am hoping to complete Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘The Water Dancer’ by tomorrow. Then, finally, the weekend is set for Hank Green’s ‘A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor’ for which I have been waiting since long!

Because I haven’t read anything to write a review on, I thought I would do a fun post. And, to me, a fun post almost always involves a book photoshoot! I decided to do a post on my favourite book covers. I own quite a few books & so I chose among them. There are also many e-books that I read whose covers are absolutely gorgeous, such as ‘Untamed’ by Glennon Doyle. But, because I don’t have a paperback or hardcover, I had to let them go. Hope you love this book photo shoot!

Let me just give you a list of the books featured in the photos in no specific order. I have also put the links on these for the books I have reviewed earlier!

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

The Spy by Paulo Coelho

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar

The Shooting Star by Shivya Nath

 

A few of these books are my absolute favourites, such as Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt & Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. Whereas some are the ones which I completely hated, such as The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar. Some I have rated on average, like The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, The Spy by Paulo Coelho & The Shooting Star by Shivya Nath. And, then there is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton which I am yet to read. I know the most famous quote “Never judge a book by its cover”, but for the intents & purposes of this post alone, I am going only with the covers, no matter how good or bad the story within. Hope you enjoy it!

Until next time,

Character Arcs in Chaos Walking Trilogy! (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! This post is in continuation of the first detailed review of the Chaos Walking trilogy (click here!) One of the most fascinating aspect in this is the character development. I have written about Todd, Viola, Mayor Prentiss & Mistress Coyle here. Check it out!

 

~~TODD HEWITT~~

With a fantasy trilogy, there is always so much scope to invest in the characters & I’m happy to say that I was not let down. My favourite character development is Todd’s. Todd Hewitt starts his journey with little knowledge of the real New World. He is just a boy who cannot control his Noise, who is stubborn to a point where he kills a spackle. He is ignorant of a lot of things. In the first book, we see him progress from that person into a little braver version of him. Even though he feels emotions for his loved ones, he hates being the emotional one. He wants to know everything but doesn’t want to leave the fake knowledge he was given for years. His growth in Book 1 is slow, which was needed at that stage.

In Book 2, we see a whole different Todd. With only Viola left in his life, he decided to do whatever he can to keep her safe including following Mayor’s orders. We see him become emotionally detached from all the wrong things he was forced to do so much so that the reader can fear he has actually become the Mayor’s man. But toward the end, we see him revert to his old self when he is reunited with Viola.

In Book 3, we see how he changed the Mayor into something resembling good. We saw him grow & learn all the good qualities from a bad man. He finally came to embrace his emotions. From an ignorant & stubborn boy, he became the man who would save everyone.

 

~~VIOLA EADE~~

Viola Eade has been quite perfect since Book 1. The only thing changes is that she grows from a child into an adult. She suffers an incredible loss with her parents dying, attacks by Aaron & being the only girl deserted on the outskirts of Prentisstown. In Book 1 itself, we understand how quick she is on her feet, how smart & how focused. Losing her parents breaks something in her which is later on slowly fixed with the companionship with Todd. She reacts perfectly to every situation that is thrown at her. Be it friendship with Todd, crossing the bridge, choosing sides between Mayor & Coyle, War or Peace. You name it & she chooses it right. With Todd being so flawed, it was good to read about flawless Viola.

~~MAYOR PRENTISS~~

Next is Mayor Prentiss whose character is the best written after Todd’s. In Book 1, Mayor Prentiss is only shown as the guy who is after Todd with an army. He becomes President of New Prentisstown. The way his character is written is purely brilliant. Even though it is annoying how he influences Todd with his sweet talk, you almost believe he has changed by Book 3. But, for a man that bad, even Todd’s bit of good would not have impacted him by a great deal. He mentors Todd & almost becomes like a father to him by teaching him to control his Noise and control people even. And, given Todd’s detachment he follows it until finally he knows right from wrong. For every wrong step Todd takes, the Mayor congratulates him. It becomes quite annoying reading how Prentiss keeps praising Todd. I hate to put it out there but, Prentiss is just about the smartest man on New World. The only problem being, he uses his intelligence for bad deeds like controlling people, heading them into a war, killing his own son & then that brilliant move at the end of Book 3. All of this makes his end a bit satisfying.

 

~~MISTRESS COYLE~~

Mistress Coyle is that character than changes shape like liquid. She starts with being the best healer in Haven to being a leader of the Answer, to dropping bombs all over the city, to being the lesser of two devils against Mayor Prentiss, to being so deeply entangled with her goal that she loses sight of what she is fighting for. I liked her best in her healer form, but not so much later on. It is another adventure getting to know her as she keeps on changing.

 

There are other characters whose arcs are well formed, such as Wilf, Davy Prentiss Jr, Spackle 1017, Ben, Ivan, Horse Angharad. It is amazing how the author has continued to develop all of his characters while keeping the story line so thrilling & addictive. If you haven’t yet read the trilogy, you definitely should!

I hope you enjoyed reading through this!

Until next time,

Chaos Walking Trilogy! (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! As you know, I had made a 2020 Reading Challenge. A part of it was to read a trilogy. I had narrowed down a few options including Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy, Amish Tripathi’s Ram Chandra trilogy, Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy & a couple more which I knew would never stand a chance. Finally, I put my mind to read Chaos Walking & it was a brilliant decision! I picked this fantasy novel in a dystopian world, the kind which I hadn’t read in years. I read the three books one after the other finishing the set in a week.

I wasn’t very keen on doing three different reviews. So, below is a somewhat brief introduction & basic plot line for each book, followed by my detailed thoughts for the series as a whole. It was too big of a post, so check out the Character Analysis here!

INCLUDES SPOILERS!

 

~~WIKIPEDIA DESCRIPTION~~

Chaos Walking is a young adult science fiction series written by American-British novelist Patrick Ness. It's set in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise. The series is named after a line in the first book: "The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking." The series consists of a trilogy of novels and three short stories.

~~THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO~~

In ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’, we see our two main heroes – Todd Hewitt & Viola Eade. The book is entirely how they escape Prentisstown & go on a journey to a city called Haven. Mayor Prentiss is after Todd which is why he has to escape. This book is quite a mellow start to the series. There is adventure, but it is more of how these two people go from point A to point B. It is an incredible journey, but that’s that. This is why, I rated the first book at 3.5/5!

~~THE ASK AND THE ANSWER~~

The Ask and The Answer was my favourite book in the series. It is unputdownable with some epic adventure happening in every chapter. At the end of Book 1, we see Viola & Todd enter Haven & Mayor Prentiss unfortunately welcoming them. For the entirety of this book, the Mayor keeps Todd & Viola separate. Todd works for Mayor while Viola starts her training as a healer with Mistress Coyle. President Prentiss shows that all he wants is peace in New Prentisstown. But then an organization is formed headed by Mistress Coyle & a majority of women who name themselves The Answer. In response to this, the Mayor forms a sort of committee named The Ask where he captures suspects and Asks them or in normal words, interrogates them. They plant bombs in various places in the city & call for war. The ending of this book is next level shit! I have rated this book at 4/5!

~~MONSTERS OF MEN~~

“War makes monsters of men.” This quote is back from Book 1, which obviously hints that Book 3 is all about war. It is not just The Ask vs The Answer anymore. It is also a War against the Spackle, with everything happening at once. Plus, we have more people coming from the space shuttle. Book 2 onward, the chapters were separated as Viola & Todd, because they both were separated. In this book, there are chapters named The Return, who is a member of the Spackle. I loved the entire setting that lead to Book 3 & also enjoyed reading the battles & war in Book 3. Yet, Book 2 remains my favourite! I have rated this book at 4/5 as well!

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~BUILDING THE FOUNDATION IN BOOK 1~~

Usually the first books of trilogies are spent on making a foundation of the fantasy world they are based in, which is why there are more facts & less story. In ‘The Hunger Games’ & ‘Divergent’, that is evident. But, in this first book of Chaos Walking, the author has put down the facts in the first 20 pages or less & begun with the story. I really liked that. I know it is important to make readers understand what the fantasy world is like, but in this case, the author has showed us that world in just a few sentences.

Old World destroyed so everyone came to this New World with 2 moons where everyone can hear men’s Noise, animal’s thoughts but no one can hear women’s thoughts or Noise & there is an alien species called Spackle.

That’s it. That’s the foundation he put forth & began with the adventure because, clearly we all can’t wait to get on with it.

 

~~EPIC LEVEL ADVENTURE IN BOOK 2~~

Book 2 has everything in it. We have a tyrant ruling New World. There’s Todd working under him so that he doesn’t harm Viola. There’s Viola working with Mistress Coyle in the opposition. There is a dictatorship disguised in peace. There are rebellions disguised as terrorist attacks. We have one human group fighting another human group until they all are fighting an Alien Group. We have a battle between the Mayor & Todd; a battle of Noise! Both of them fighting mentally by throwing words at each other! We have Todd & Viola growing up without the company of the other, but only for each other. There is no rock unturned in The Ask and The Answer. It really brings about the fantasy to a whole new level while keeping some normalcy intact.

 

~~3 POINTS OF VIEW IN BOOK 3~~

When there are two protagonists, sometimes the author writes alternate chapter from each one’s point of view. (This is usually also a hint that if one dies, other can still write & the show goes on, like in The Fault in Our Stars.) So, when there was a third element introduced in Book 3, I was obviously thrilled. Now, there was equal representation from all sides, Mayor’s, Mistress Coyle’s & Spackle’s. I loved reading Spackle’s perception on everything. The language was a bit difficult to follow because The Return (1017) talks in a different way. In his language, Land means Spackle, Clearing means enemy team, Knife means Todd, The Sky is their leader & so on. Once you get the hang of it, you can actually enjoy the writing. This newly introduced aspect is something I found perfect for Book 3!

 

~~PREDICTABLE & UNPREDICTABLE PARTS~~

I have to admit that some parts were clear cut predictable, but then there were also a few parts where I would never had guessed what could happen. Ivan helping out Todd was obvious. The Spackle genocide done by Mayor and not The Answer was also obvious. Ships landing in the middle of a war was a little bit expected as well. But, Mistress Coyle turning into a tyrant & engaging in murder & destruction is something I did not see coming. The Spackle attack at the end of Book 2 was also a surprise turning everything even more chaotic. The role of 1017 becoming so important was also unforeseen. Manchee’s death in Book 1 seems a lot less shocking when there was so much more that was to happen. Ben being alive was also unexpected. First time, in a long time, many things were unpredictable in a book I was reading & I was just so positively thrilled about it!

 

~~WRITING STYLE~~

Initially, the language was a bit different & took some time to get used to. Todd cannot read or write, which is why some of the spellings are incorrect, such as tho for though, twixt for between & so on. There is also a lot of repetition of words which was annoying, such as go and go and go, fall and fall and fall etc. But these things were quite okay. The one thing that bothered me was how whenever there was an emotional scene where Todd was crying, he put a “(shut up)” next to it, as if it is wrong for boys or men to cry. And, that is at many places. That was too irritating for me.

Apart from these tiny things, the writing was way too good. Even from a fantasy standpoint, you can clearly figure out how much of a talented author Patrick Ness is.

The most important point in this is Character Arcs, which you can check out here!

 

Until next time,

June Reads! (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! Just like that, June has already ended! And, as usual, I thought I will do a roundup of the THIRTEEN BOOKS I read this month! Most of them were e-books, so I couldn’t click a satisfactory picture of 13 books stacked on top of the other. Anyway, now I have read 46 books from my 52 books target in just half the year. So, obviously, I am going to increase my target, but more on that later. Check out the books I read in June!

 

~~THE NIGHTINGALE by KRISTIN HANNAH~~

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 440

My Rating: 4/5

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is a historical fiction novel set in the WWII telling us the story of two sisters – Vianne & Isabelle. There are two story lines. First one is during the war, which is 95 % of the book, set from 1939 to 1945. The other is in 1995, 50 years after the second world war, where we see an old woman who has survived the war. Is it Vianne? Is it Isabelle? You will only know at the end. Both the story lines are written so amazingly well. There are many people whose lives we see getting affected because of the war. We see how every person reacts in a different way; some to survive, some to fight back, some to right their wrongs, some following orders & some to just live another day. Every person in this novel, no matter what part they decided to play, have shown that bravery can be a hundred different things. There is not only one correct way, there are hundred correct ways.

Check out the full book review here!

 

~~AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by TAYARI JONES~~

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 308

My Rating: 2.5/5

I had waited a long time to read this highly recommended novel, but it all lead to disappointment. Barack Obama recommended it, so I obviously thought it would be really something. An American Marriage is nothing but a sad little love triangle. I thought it would be the story of how a black man got wrongfully convicted, how his life changed because of it, how it impacted his marriage & maybe even the racial discrimination rooted in our world. But, it was nothing of the sort. While the writing was interesting, it couldn’t bring out the dull plot.

 

~~GILEAD by MARILYNNE ROBINSON~~

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 247

My Rating: 1/5

The story is narrated by a minister John Ames where he writes letters for his young son for him to read when John Ames will have died. It sounds good, I know, but wait. In these letters, he talks about his stories, his father’s stories, his grandfather’s stories & so on. We also get a lot of content on God, faith, preaching & all of that. And yet, it fails miserably. Nothing from this is in-depth. It is just at the surface leaving the reader to never truly understand the familial bonds or the faith in God. The content of all these stories put together amounts to everything insignificant in our daily lives. These letters are nothing but random straggling musings of a dying minister with a pinch of advice and more of mundaneness connecting no dots along the way as the story progresses.

Gilead is the first novel which is of Historical Fiction genre, set during wartime & is a Pulitzer Prize winner, which I did not like.

Check out the full book review here!

 

~~THE DUTCH HOUSE by ANN PATCHETT~~

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 337

My Rating: 2/5

Reading this novel felt like reading a very dull first draft from an amateur debut novelist. We have a deluded robot of a narrator, reprehensible characters which we cannot get in the mindset of, dull story line & predictable end; all of which make a complete disappointment to the historical fiction genre. When I read it halfway, I knew it would not get better, because it was just so plain & dull to read. I think the author tried to make an impression with the Bildungsroman attempt of writing, but it has failed for me. Now that I read the book, here I am thinking, what was the point of it?

Check out the full book review here!

 

~~THE CODE OF THE WOOSTERS by P.G. WODEHOUSE~~

Genre: Classic Humour

Pages: 272

My Rating: 4/5

This was my first Wodehouse read in the Jeeves series & it SOLD for me! The humour in this story is just so real & simply hilarious. The plot looks so effortless, but the setting of that plot must have taken way too much efforts. I loved the British English writing as well. It took me some time to understand some phrases, but after that it is all fun fun fun!

 

~~MY MAN JEEVES by P.G. WODEHOUSE~~

Genre: Classic Humour

Pages: 256

My Rating: 3.5/5

When you start reading Wodehouse, it is almost impossible to not keep reading his books & there are so many of them!! I wanted to read ‘My Man Jeeves’ because it checks out the category of ‘A Book 100 years older than me’. This book is a collection of 8 short stories, in which Jeeves appears in less than half. Nevertheless, it is all still very funny! Below are my ratings for each of the short story.

"Leave It to Jeeves" 4/5

"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest" 3/5

"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg" 2/5

"Absent Treatment" 3/5

"Helping Freddie" 2/5

"Rallying Round Old George" 2/5

"Doing Clarence a Bit of Good" 3/5

"The Aunt and the Sluggard" 4/5

 

~~CHAOS WALKING TRILOGY by PATRICK NESS~~

Genre: Fantasy / Dystopian

The Knife of Never Letting G0:o 3/5

The Ask and The Answer: 4/5

Monsters of Men: 4/5

I had to read a trilogy for my ‘2020 Reading Challenge’ and I am so glad I picked the Chaos Walking trilogy! I am planning on writing a full review on this, so I will just do a quick brief here.

Chaos Walking trilogy is based in a New World where everyone can hear men’s thoughts out loud, which is termed as Noise. It’s a world with an alien species – Spackle. Our main characters are Todd Hewitt & Viola Eade. I have rated the entire series at 4/5!

 

~~CHAOS WALKING SHORT STORIES by PATRICK NESS~~

Genre: Fantasy / Dystopian

The New World: 4/5

A Wide, Wide Sea: 3/5

Snowscape: 3.5/5

These three are short stories of around 40 to 50 pages each are an obvious must read if you have already read the main trilogy.

 

~~HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE~~

Because I was entirely caught up in the Chaos Walking world, I paused on my Harry Potter re-reading. I finished this one just before picking up Chaos Walking. Now, I have only the last book to read which is sure to be done in July!

 

So, that is that! Thirteen books read in June! I will be back for a Chaos Walking Review & to show off my July Book Haul!

Until next time,