Monthly Archives: February 2016

January reads!

Heyooo! Back after my unexpected two week hiatus to bring you a list of what I’ve read this January. I didn’t read nearly as much as I feel like I should’ve this month (especially considering I bought about 12 new books xD) but I’d like to start doing these posts monthly in order to encourage myself to read as much as I used to. So without further ado, here are my January reads!

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The Likeness by Tana French

Previous to this book, I had read In the Woods, Tana French’s debut novel, and could. not. put. it. down!! I bought The Likeness right afterwards because I saw that it was the logical ‘next’ book in the Dublin Murder Squad series (they are standalone novels, they just contain a lot of the same characters), and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Just like In the Woods, this was an insane page-turner for me- I was up past midnight choking down coffee and trying to crash skidding into the finish when I had a six o clock wakeup the next day because I HAD SIXTY PAGES LEFT I COULDN’T STOP THERE. The story is from the point of view of detective Cassie Maddox, who gets sucked into a case where a girl is found murdered who looks exactly like her and was using an old alias of hers. Cassie poses as Lexie Madison (the fake name of the dead girl) and infiltrates the house where she lived with four of her friends, a set of mysterious characters who attend and teach at the local college and live in a big, historic & isolated house. This book is SO full of suspense, and when events finally unravel to the case’s end it’s like coming to the end of a great rollercoaster ride- not that I know what that’s like, AHAHA. I felt for a lot of the characters, and the ending was just so tragic and perfect and contained a lot of twists a and unexpected elements. (Also, can I just note Cassie is a much better narrator than Rob from In the Woods, one of my only complaints about that book was that he was too whiny xD)

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How to be Perfect by Ron Padgett

I got How to be Perfect on a trip to the book barn in Niantic, where the cover arrested me with its simple image and title.  This is a hard book to review not only because it’s the first poetry book I’m attempting to review (and poetry is so much harder for me to critique in any way). I wasn’t the biggest fan of it overall as a collection though I did see it had a lot of high ratings on Goodreads- a lot of the poems didn’t engage me personally, though I will say Ron Padgett is a master of taking poetry from everyday thoughts and musings. His poetry is very accessible and often humorous while still penetrating to a deeper level. I did love the title poem and there were a few others (“The Stapler” comes to mind as well) that resonated with me.

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Black Butler volumes 1-3 by Yana Toboso

Premise: In 1800s England, the young aristocrat Ciel Phantomhive forges a pact with the demon Sebastian Michaelis, who poses as his butler. The exchange is to be Ciel’s soul for revenge against those who wronged him by selling him into slavery and murdering his parents two years prior to the story opening. Finally started in on this series after watching the anime a few months back, and so far I am LOVING it! I’d heard that it’s a different animal than the anime entirely (as in, a lot of the anime never happens in the manga, which is 21 volumes so far! AHH! ) and I’m already seeing this manifest. Right now I’m at the place the story starts to deviate, after the Jack the Ripper arc when Ciel and Sebastian go hunting with Elizabeth and her mother. The artwork is beautiful in these books, and I can’t imagine the level of research on Victorian England that must I am obsession-level fixated on Grell Sutcliff (you don’t want to know the amount of amount of needless merch I bought…it’s a veritable Grellection…hahaHA) and I am finding Grell’s character even more amazing in the manga…slightly different from the anime, but in a very good way. Actually, everyone’s character is more shapely and complex here so far, which I suppose I should expect, as it usually is the case in the jump from screen to page. Even Sebastian, who was probably my least favorite (IDK, I know a lot of fans of BB love him, I just found him realllly boring in the anime) is a little more intriguing to me so far. I can’t wait to read further, especially as from hereon out it should be completely new story to me!

Welll, that’s about it! Hope you’re well and I’ll see you next week!

{C}

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