Category: Reading Challenge

I ended up being disappointed in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. As I was reading, I kept feeling that something wasn’t right, and because it was based on a person’s life, I felt wrong for not liking it and questioning its veracity. I did some research, read some reviews, and found that I wasn’t alone. 

The factual mistakes made by the author of "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" as well as all misinterpretations resulted in creating a distorted version of Auschwitz. This is dangerous and disrespectful to history. The story deserves better. #FactCheck review: https://t.co/hioNswY2nT

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 13, 2019

It’s disappointing to me when authors take on topics like this and miss the mark. Diving into the critical reviews did give me a deeper understanding of life in the concentration camps and various roles prisoners played to ensure their survival, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Now for shelf #21!

I’ve read all these. Multiple times. Since I needed a brain break (it was the last week of school), I decided to read the Crescent City series. I bought the ebooks as a bundle because there was crossover to ACOTAR in the last book. Otherwise, I probably would have skipped them. I read the first book when it came out, and didn’t love it enough to invest the time. Plus, there’s the fact that they are ridiculously long. Somehow I read all three (2,443 pages) in 23 days. The third book was slow at times, but I enjoyed the series overall.

Shelf #22 (Finally)!

I’m trying to remember why I felt the need to own every book by Bernard Malamud. Maybe I should have picked one to read, but I grabbed The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan instead. 

Books I’ve read:

• Gregory Maguire Wicked
• Bernard Malamud The Fixer

I need to finish my bookshelf challenge by the end of the summer!

I wrote this on April 6th, but never published it. Go me!

This is probably not going to be a great year for reading. I’ve been in a funk, and it’s probably because I’m being pulled in too many directions. This has also been a very difficult school year, and burnout started much earlier than usual. I absolutely loved The City We Became and The World We Make, but it took me a long time to read them. I think I started The City We Became three times before I had time to keep going. Once I get the fourth marking period mapped out and organized, I will be able to focus on reading again. 

As for a review . . . I have to say that I was surprised at how different these books seemed from The Broken Earth trilogy. They weren’t what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing. The novels center around the avatars of New York City, which has just been awakened, and the battle that ensues with an entity trying to destroy it. I’d say more about the general plot, but I don’t want to spoil anything. The avatars are the embodiments of each of New York City’s boroughs, Jersey City (in an interesting twist), and the city as a whole. What I loved most was the character development of each avatar and the dynamics between them. I read the bulk of each novel in one sitting because I was so invested in the world building and the characters. I’m sad that it ended up being a duology instead of a trilogy because I’d love more (but I totally understand why the trilogy didn’t happen). Highly recommend these!

Now for shelf #18!

This decision is easy. I will be reading Babel by R. F. Kuang. 

Books I’ve read:

• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
• Lightning by Dean Koontz
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence