August Book Haul #6

August has been a pretty good reading month. I got a chance to read fantasy, young adult and classics. here they are:

First, I finished reading The Archived by Victoria Schwab, an amazing fantasy, YA novel. I received this book in the Genre Swap Project, which was started by 2 booktubers: Jesse from jessethereader and Andrew from HeavyShelves. They paired 2 readers that read 2 different genres: YA and Classics, and each had to send the other a book from their mainly read genre, as an effort to expand your literature experiences. I received this book from LittleBookOwl. The Archived is basically a library filled with the histories of the dead. Sometimes the histories escape and the Keepers have to return them. They follow the histories through the Narrows. The older the History the more violent they are. The older ones are called Keeper Killers. Our protagonist is Mackenzie Bishop, who was thought everything by her grandfather, Da, and became a keeper at an early age. After her brothers death, her family moves into an hotel turned into an apartment building, The Colorado, where a mysterious murder happens - but the traces (the memories) are erased. And she is left to solve this case with a help of her new friend. Even though it is a part of a series, this could very well be a standalone book. If you see it in the bookstore please give it a chance, because it is a great story!

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is the best book I've read this year! If I could i would gift this treasure to anyone I know. The story takes place in 1920's Alaska. After the death of their baby, Mabel and Jack decide to move to this new place and create a new life for themselves. Jack takes care of their land, plants potatoes and other vegetables, while Mabel takes care of their house and bakes cookies for sale. They make new friends, a family with 3 boys, that help them when Jack falls ill, breaking his leg. One day, when it was snowing, they make a snowman, they put red mittens and a red scarf on it. But the next day, the snowman is destroyed and the red mittens and scarf are gone. After this, a little girl starts lurking around with their clothes. Her name was Faina, and she will soon be treated as their daughter. I don't want to give too much of it away, but it is one of those books that will make you feel that there is good in this world, it will make you feel nourished and blessed. i find it to be a perfect gift for Christmas or for hot summer days.

After watching the movie, I really wanted to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I find it to be a perfect book for teenagers, because it can help you see that there is nothing wrong if you are different, you are at an age where you discover so many things about yourself and that it's important to live life and to participate. Charlie is a wallflower, he observes and understands. With the help of his new friends: Patrick, Sam, Mary Elizabeth, Alice, he learns to be part of a team, to fight for his friends, how to act around girls. His English teacher gives him books to read, from which, without him knowing, he learns the true values of life. What I liked about the book more than the movie was the ending, because you could fully understand what happened to him and what his aunt, that he loved so much, did to him. Charlie is a complex character, with many layers. And he is a character that we all should meet and learn from. 

Lastly, I had the chance to read a classic novel this month! i enjoy reading classics but they tend to be a little depressing, and the Russian ones are complex, this one in particular was a bit freaky. I've read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is a mix of genres, including: fantastic, farce, satiric, romance and mysticism. If you are new to classics do not start with this one. I was really confused for the first houndret-something pages, that's until I realised who the Magician actually was. Basically, we have 2 settings: 1930's Moscow and Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate. The novel is divided in 2 parts. in the begining we have 2 writers that try to convince the magician that God does not exist. The Magician has prophetic powers, and tells one writer how he is going to die, which happens a few pages later. The other writer tries to capture the prophet, without any luck, and ends up in a sanatorium. There he meet the Master, a writer who wrote a novel abot Pontius Pilate and the trial of Jesus. But because it was not well received he burnt it and became depressed. The only one that had faith in him was Margarita. But he left her before he could ruin her as well. In part 2, Margarita is found by the Magician's servant and is invited to his midnight ball. So she becomes a which and learns how to fly. After the ball the Magician (Satan) grants her deepest wish: to liberate the Master and live with him and love him. In the end Master and Margarita drink Pilate's poisoned wine and are taken by Satan and his servants to live in peace in Purgatory. It is an interesting and complex novel.

This is my August wrap-up! I hope you enjoyed it and maybe you will give one of this books a chance.

Keep reading!

Birthday playlist

So yesterday I turned 22. Personally I don't understand why turning a year older, shortening your life should cause such a fuss, but I guess it is worth celebrating surviving another year, being healthy and hopefully surrounded by the ones you love.
Also, the pop scene hosts a lot of songs talking about being 22. Don't know what's so special about this number, that makes it so lyrical friendly, but here is a small collection of birthday and 22 songs. Enjoy!

1) Today is my birthday by Amadeus feat. Claudia Cicone

2) 22 by Taylor Swift

3) Birthday by Selena Gomez

4) 22 by Lily Allen

5) It's your birthday by Chief waKiL

xoxo

Bookish wishlist

My sister went/is on a trip to London and Geneva and so I asked her to bring me one or two books that I couldn't find in my country or that are yet to be translated.

Here is the list and I hope she does go on a book hunt for me:

#1: Fantastic Beasts and where to find them by J. K. Rowling

#2: Quidditch through the ages by J. K. Rowling

#3: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling)

#4: Wildwood by Colin Meloy

#5: Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy

#6: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Have you read any of these wonderful books?

My to read list keeps growing and growing!

Keep reading!

xoxo

July Book Haul #5

Hello there!

July was a dry month for me, when it comes to reading for pleasure. I had time to finish only one book which is: Cine suntem aka Who we are by Dan Puric.

This book has been on my shelf for centuries, mom read it before me and she enjoyed it so I decided to give it a try.
Dan Puric is a very popular actor in my country, he toured many countries and had his share of international success. He came to my University once, to promote one of his books. I've seen him in numerous TV interviews. he catches your attention from the moment he starts speaking.
"Who we are" or "Cine suntem" is a compilation of press and TV interviews, other conferences he attended. I did'n not expect this book to be so much infused with religion and christian orthodox views. For someone who is a truly religious person this book will be absolutely perfect, but for those who do not think of religion as a priority or are not religious I ask them to read this book with an open mind and to take it simply as someones point of view - and not as a brain-wash-kind-of-book. I can not say that it was my cup of tea, I rated it 3 stars on Good Reads, because I did not always feel that Puric's view on the Romanian peoples was accurate to this time and age 100%. I guess as an artist you interact with different aspects of life that normal people do not.
For any Romanian that likes Dan Puric I recommend this book. And if you do decide to pick one of his books up please have an opened mind.

In July I also started another book: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey! I highly recommend this one, especially now, when the weather is so hot that you can feel your skin melting away.

I will leave you the book trailer and hopefully you will find it as entertaining as I did:

Keep reading!

PS: If you want, you can add me on Goodreads!

3 songs that go together

Hello!

Lately I've been enjoying a few songs that were really popular in Romania this year and I find that they work together. Without further ado, here are my 3 picks:

Asaf Avidan - One day / Reckoning song (Wankelmut Remix)

Asaf Avidan has an unique voice and a lot of good songs that I'm slowly discovering.

Major Lazer - Get Free

Get free sounds like water, it always makes me think that I'm floating in a deep dark blue sea. There is an alternate video, which offers an important life lesson. You can watch it here!

Santigold - Disparate Youth

This song was featured in a telephone company commercial and it went big here. I like Santigold's voice, but haven't really listened to anything else.

Hope you liked these songs!

How to read The Chronicles of Narnia

Hello!

The Chronicles of Narnia is a magical series, perfect for all ages, especially for all of us who are little kids at heart. If you are like me, the order in which you read a series is very important and in this case we have 2 different ways of reading these books.

You can read the books in the chronological order, numbered from 1 to 7, which is the order in which you find the books in stores.

The chronological order of the books is the following:

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle


The second way, is in the published order. Like in the photo below:

I opted for the second version, because I wanted to read the books on which the movies are based first and because I didn't want to learn more about Narnia before the first adventure with the Pevensie brothers in this magical land.

When Lewis started writing the books, he didn’t really have much of a plan for the complete series.  In fact, if he didn’t find inspiration for four more books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader would have been the end of the series.  This would have altered a lot of other book series to come later, as J.K. Rowling has stated that her primary reason for writing seven Harry Potter novels was inspired by and in honor of the seven Chronicles of Narnia.  That was not a coincidence, but an intentional decision she made as a fan of Narnia. 

Here are the books in Publication Order: 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)

Prince Caspian (1951) 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) 

The Silver Chair (1953) 

The Horse and His Boy (1954) 

The Magician’s Nephew (1955) 

The Last Battle (1956) 

[source]

You see, Lewis started the series with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It is evidenced by not just the date of publication, but also by the language which Lewis uses as the narrator.  When they are in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the first mention of Aslan occurs:
 “They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed.”
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different.

If you had started with The Magician’s Nephew, then you, the reader, would know who Aslan was.  The narrator would not have said “None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do.”

I hope this was helpful. You can read my little opinions on the books in my last 2 book hauls: here and here.

Have fun reading!

June Book Haul #4

I finished reading "The Chronicles of Narnia"! And it is definitely one of those series that you have to read once in your lifetime either as a kid, a grownup or to your children or grandchildren.

Sadly, in June I was able to read the last 2 remaining books of the Chronicles, but I highly recommend them. And now lets proceed by saying a few words about them.

The Magicians nephew is the 6th book based on the publishing order or the 1st book if you would like to read the series in chronological order. The main characters are Digory and Poly. Digory is the professor that we all know and love from the first movie, in whose house Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter stayed when they discovered Narnia. Basically, in this particular volume, we learn about the Which - and why she ends up being so bitter and wanting to rule over Narnia, we meet Aslan for the first time and see how he creates the magical land and how he gives the animals the gift of speaking. This is one very important book, because it teaches you a lot about Narnia's beginnings.

In "The last battle" we are reunited with Jill and Eustace, the heroes of "The Silver Chair". There are many rumors concerning Aslan, but what the Narnians do not know is that the Aslan that gives them order to kill the trees and to make slaves out of the talking animals is only a donkey dressed in a Lions fur, who is ordered by a Monkey. In the end everything we used to know about Narnia will end and the true Narnia will arise, and all of our heroes from the first book will return and remain there, with one exception. This last book raised a lot of contrary opinions. All I have to say is that I understand why this book had to end the way it ended, considering it is a Christian allegory.

I can say that the last book was special, it had it's twists and turns, and in the end things happened the way they were supposed to.

I really do hope more people will start reading this Chronicles and have fun and go on adventures together with the characters.

Because of the lack of books mentioned in my last book hauls, I will make another post about the ways in which you can read the Chronicles of Narnia.

Keep reading!