Book Challenge Day 20: Lucy in the Sky

Hey folks :)
Just a quick Book Challenge Update :) Today's prompt for the Book Challenge was to write about My Favourite Romance.
I am not really into romance stories. But there is one romance book I really did enjoy:

Lucy in the Sky by Paige Toon! Here is what I thought about it, back when I first read it:

Lucy in the sky is a wonderful book about friendship and love that makes you chuckle. It is the perfect reading for souls harassed by lovesickness. I rarely enjoyed another book as much as I enjoyed this one. It made me happy and sad equally.

Following Lucys' struggle for happiness and her interesting relationships was a fantastic adventure and really delightful.
Paige Toon is able to bring her character to life, something I apreciate most about an author.

A recommendation for everyone who likes reading books about love and even for those who prefer darker reads. But most of all for everyone who needs a encouragement considering their own love-life.

Have you read the book? Tell me what you think of the story in the comments :)
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 18: Breaking Dawn

All right so I probably talked about this book before whenever it came to "bad" books. And I thought it is time to tell you why I disliked this book that much.
The Prompt for today's challenge was "A Book That Disappointed You" and of course Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer was the first one that came to my mind. But I have to say it is not the only book that disappointed me. Masque of the Red Death which I read last week (or the week before) really disappointed me too, to give you another example.

Book Challenge Day 17: Favourite Quote

Hòla!
So I thought while I figure out my life a little I continue the 30 Day Book Challenge in order to get myself into blogging regulary (again).
The prompt for Day 17 is:

Favourite Quote From Your Favourite Book

Picking one book as my favourite was pretty hard so I decided to pick my favourite quote from my favourite classic novel, which is Faust I by Goethe, since I just love almost every line from that book.
And here is my favourite quote:

I am the spirit that negates.And rightly so, for all that comes to beDeserves to perish wretchedly;'Twere better nothing would begin.Thus everything that that your terms, sin,Destruction, evil represent—That is my proper element.”

 This is how Mephisto introduces himself, I will leave you hanging with it, since you simply cannot explain poetry (but I have to add, that it does sound a little better in the original German version ;D)
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 15: Jace vs. Aaron

Argh. I have to pick my Favourite Male Character for today. How am I supposed to pick ONE? There are sooo many swoon worthy men in YA it's unbelievable!

For a long time Jace Wayland from The Mortal Instruments was my favourite fictional male character. But Aaron from Pretty Dark Nothing is unbelievable great, too. I would tell you why he is so great, but I cannot, since that would mean telling you everything about the ending. And we do not want that, do we?

Let's just say he is great and you better go and read the book by Heather Reid like right now! 

What are you still doing here? Go and read it!

I loved Jace because he was so funny and smart. He had that kind of a Bad boy attitude and was a really tortured soul. I love tortured bad boys. I have a thing for them :)

But I am slowly (like really really slowly) growing up  and I know realized that being a tortured bad boy is great when you are 16, but not that great when you are getting older and want to settle down. 

So Aaron is not an average bad boy. But he is really tortured... That poor guy!

And there is a similarity between those two, I am not telling you what, though! We do not want spoilers...

Who is your favourite male character?

Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 13: Hobbit, Thief Lord and Blood Promise

Today's prompt for the 30 Day Book Challenge:

Favourite Book Of Your Favourite Author

I already told you that I can not decide who my favourite author is in the last post. So I am telling you my three favourite books  by my three favourite authors!

1. The first one was Richelle Mead and I already told you that Blood Promise is my favourite book by her. I really think I should read her other series, too, so my answers will get a little variety :)
I loved Blood Promise because of all the great character interactions. Some of the best scenes of the whole series go down in this book. And let me not get started on all the tragic...

Book Challenge Day 12: The Twilight Series

And again it is time for another part of the 30 Day Book Challenge! Today the prompt was:
A Book You Loved But Don't Anymore
And for me this is definitely Twilight.
When I first read the book years ago I really loved it. My friends loved it and when we were talking about it a lot, an we talked almost every girl in our class into reading it, too (even some boys).
The second book was not so great but I loved the third and I definitely was really desperate to get my hands on the last one. Breaking Dawn was actually the first book I read in English outside of school. I wanted to find out how the story ended so badly that I purchased it online.
And it was a huge disappointment. I really disliked the ending and how a lot of things were handled in the book. This let to me and another friend to look back at the other books more critically and we found out that the writing style and the whole story was not as great as we thought it was on first glance.
I am still really thankful for the great time I had during the first read, but I am sure I will never pick them up again. I know how the story goes and I do not think this is a book I could finish twice.

And do not get me started about those terrible movies! I did not even watch the last two movies...
What's your opinion on Twilight?
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 11: On "Hating" Books

In order to complete the challenge for today I need to write a post about A Book You Hated.
I skipped day 08 because it was about the in my opinion most overrated book. I skipped it because I do not like bashing books on the internet for various reasons. There is a small line between giving a critical nevative review of something, stating your opinion politely and bashing something.
It is very easy to cross this line especially on the internet. It is such a anonym place and you easily forget that real people are behind the usernames and websites. I thought about skipping this day, too, but I think stating my motivation on this once and for all would be a better way:
A book is an authors baby and even if you hated it you should always be polite. I already said that on my post about Day 08.
I just have a feeling that the more I get involved with the blogging community the more "constructive critism" turns into "bashing".
Let us just take tumblr as a example. I am part of that community since a few months. I think it is a great place to find other people who like the same things as you do and to share creative work and opinions.
But I get more and more the feeling that you cannot join a fandom without having to deal with hate.
It is normal and completely understandable if you hate the things I love. You can even tell me that you hate these things without making me angry. I may try to convince you how great those things are but I will never judge you based on your opinions. But I will judge you on the way you talk to other people on the internet.
I will never get why there are so many fights going on on tumblr. Every fandom has its own fight.
The Game of Thrones fandom fights about Sansa or the Lannisters.
The Spartacus fandom fights over Gaxa vs. Gannibyl.
The Les Mis fandom fights currently over Enjonine.
If you search the Harry Potter tag you will always find someone fighting over Dramione.
And the list goes on and on and on...

I for one example disliked Sybil while watching Spartacus, too. I disliked her because I thought she was blind for what made Gannicus really himself.  There I stated my opinion nicely and no one got hurt. Now I will continue my life and stop being obsessed over a fictional character.
Seriously sometimes I just want to scream "SHE IS FICTIONAL GET OVER IT!" at people through the internet. We can discuss Sybil in a normal way but at the end of the day I have to admitt that there are more important things for me than her. It is not like we are discussing politics or animal abuse. We are talking about fictional things.

And here comes the important part: The people you are talking to on the internet, the authors behind the books, and the authors of tumblr posts are not fictional. They are real. They are real persons with a life, a family, hobbies, and maybe even a dog. Words can hurt.
We have a saying here: "If you do not have something nice to say, say nothing at all"
Hate is a really strong word. I for an example hate it when people hurt animals, I hate it when my friends lie to me (which end-friends them automatically), and I really hate the fact that I was mad at my father over something stupid when I last talked to him before he died. That was something I can never take back and it will always cloud the memory I have of the last moments with the most important person of my life.
That is something you can hate, something important, something that matters and stays with me for the rest of  my life. It changed the way I treat other people.

But fictional characters? Books? A book I dislike turns into something I do not care about. I may be angry for spending money on it and I may tell my best friends "No don't buy it!". I will even give it a bad rating on Goodreads. But I will not spend my time writing a post about how much I disliked it.
Because I can spend my time with more important things. Things I like and love. A book, as hard as it sounds, is not worth the time you spent hating on it. It is not worth the energy you spent bashing it.
At the end of the day it is only a book.
(It is different with "evil" books people write to affect other people or if a book is discriminating a minority. These are valid points to hate it and if something like that happens we as a community need to state our discontent with such books. That counts as important but negative feedback and has nothing to do with bashing a book).

A book is only a book to you. But to the author who wrote it the book means a lot more. It represents a time of their life, they channeled their feelings to write it. They care for the characters and the story like someone cares for their children.
And then they go online, and let's face it we live in a world were a almost all authors are conecting with their fans online, and they read all those things people write about their books. Especially debut authors read a lot of reviews online. And hearing that something you love so much, something that is a part of your life, is bashed and called trash really hurts does authors.
Just imagine you walk down the street and you run into a woman with a newborn baby. And it is, in your opinion, a really ugly baby. Do you take the time and stop to tell the woman: "Wow, your child is the like the ugliest baby I have ever seen!" No you don't say that. (If you say that you are a really bad person! Shame on you!). That woman loves her baby after all!
Authors love their babys, too. And their babys are books.
If an author writes a book and publishes it he gives you a part of his soul. Remember that when you write a bad review.

Do you want an author you love and admire stop connecting with his/her fans because of people bashing her? Do you want an author you love feel bad about the things they love because of something an idiot wrote online? Do you want them to stop writing because they are hurt by what people say?
No?
Then don't bash authors other people love!

So to answer the question for today's challenge: Yes there are books I dislike, there are even books I would rather spent the whole day working in a mine in District 12 than reading them again, but there are no books I hate. Simply because I do not waste my time on hating books.

And do not get me wrong. I love making fun about things I dislike, stupid movies, and terrible books. But there is a difference between making fun about something when you're alone with your friends and shouting it out loud on the internet. I created this blog to talk about the things I love with other people and to celebrate those things. I will not turn it into the opposite.

Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 10: Faust I by Goethe

Today I am talking about my Favourite Classic Book.
This is, again a German one. And it is again a hard decision.
You know I love me some classic books. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Wuthering Heights, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Of Mice and Men, Don Karlos...
I love them all.
But if I have to pick a favourite one it would definitely be one by Schiller or Goethe since they were both great writers (and best friends).
I loved Faust I by Goethe. Here is a short summary for everyone who does not know the book (as always taken from Goodreads):

Goethe’s Faust reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract with Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seeks to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last forever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephisto and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe’s great work, the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a rejuvenated life and winning the love of the beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire, and self-delusion, Faust heads inexorably toward an infernal destruction.

Faust is a strange character. I am halfway torn between really disliking him and loving him. Mephisto on the other side is really great. He pulls of some great quotes and is perfection in demon form.
The story itself is really interesting, showing a man that searches for the real meaning of life. What if one day you find out that everything you will ever accomplish will not be enough in the end? What if you want more than you can ever get?
And I just love the idea of the devil betting with god on human souls :D
What is your favourite classic story?

Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 9: Medea

So I am skipping day 8. The prompt for day 8 was writing about the most overrated book. I think Breaking Dawn is the most overrated book because that, despite the fact that I liked Eclipse, really disappointed me.
Therefore I wrote a post about Breaking Dawn. The whole thing ended with me completely bashing the book. And I am not going to post something that bashes a book so bad.
Do not get me wrong. I have strong opinions and I have no problem with stating them official even when they are bad. But whenever I write something bad about a book I at least try to be polite. Because somewhere an author tried really hard to write the best book they can write and it is kind of their baby. I will not kill someones baby. And even more important: It is only my opinion. I am in no way "right" about the whole thing. Other people love the book and will do everything to defend it. I respect these people.
Therefore I always try to be polite.
But I honestly had a really bad day today, so I do not feel able to write a polite post about this topic. I am not doing it at all. Maybe I will write one later, but not now.

Let's start with Day 9 anyway!

A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving. 

That is really hard. Why? Because I usually do not read books if I already think I would not like them...
Well it seems like I once again have to turn to a German book. But fear not! This time I am pretty sure it has been translated into English: Medea by Christa Wolf.
We read it in 12th class and the begining was really bad. It starts with the protagonist Medea having a fever dream, but you do not know that it is a fever dream. Therefore everything is really confusing and she talks about things that happened or may happen, and what she is feeling. For the first 20 pages I was like "What is going on here? Who is she, what is she talking about? I hope the rest of the book is not like this"
But if you get through those first 20 pages the book is really great. Honestly, hands down, it was one of the best books I ever read in school. And I wrote my exams in English and German so I did nothing than reading books for three years.
So book is a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Medea who is betrayed by her beloved Jason. It's really tragic. And the whole book is basically pure feminism. But it's great!

Would you check it out?
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 7: Wolfsgier

Today we are talking about:

The Most Underrated Book

I think a book that does not have the fanbase it would deserve is Wolfsgier by Brigitte Melzer. She is a German author and I do not think that her book has been translated into English yet. So you have to bear with me on this one.

The title can be translated to something like Wolf's Greed. The story centers around the young woman Emma who is haunted by a dangerous beast in her dreams. She lives in London, 1886, and everyone thinks she is insane. So Emma ends up in an ansylum, which is a terrible place if you consider the time she lives in. This is where the story starts and the atmosphere Melzer conjures is dark and haunting.
Emma is desperate to find out something about the beast so she escapes and returns to the place she was born, a little village in the misty Dartmoor.
But Emma does not realize how great the dangers around her have become: An inspector from London followed her to return her back to the Asylum, a mysterious group of men chose her for a sacrifice, and the beast is not only hunting her in her dreams anymore...

I love the spooky and sometimes really dark atmosphere. The characters are great and the ending...! Do not let me get started about that ending! I can simply not remember that any other book made me so emotional over an ending. It was so great!
And I am a big fan of the author anyway so if you ever come across one of her books: Read it!
Trust me, I talked Rachel into reading it and she loved it, too!

So this is definitely a book I wish more people could read.
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 6: Marley and Me

A Book That Makes You Sad

Before I go any further into this I have to say: If a book makes me sad that is a good thing. Sometimes you just need to let go and let all the stress flow out of you. A good cry helps you with that. And a good book can help you cry.
But there was one book that made me cry beyond the "good cry". After finishing it I actually needed to wake up my dog to find some solance. That may sound worse than it was. It was in the middle of the night since I often spend all-nighters reading. And everyone else was asleep. And my dog is really really good at comforting sad people.
I am talking about Marley and Me by John Grogan.
You know a lot of my friends make fun of me because you cannot watch a movie with animals in it without me crying. We once saw a movie in school were a terrible nuclear-catastrophe happened and everyone had to run for their lives and families were separated. It was all really tragic, but I started crying because someone had to shoot his own dog instead of leaving him behind in the disaster. That was tough. At first they laughed at me but at the end all 18 girls in my class were in tears (some even near a melt down) and our teacher had no clue what he should or could do about it.
It was a truly great movie.

But I got carried away a little, what I wanted to say was: I start to cry when a dog gets shot on screen, a dog you only see for about 30 seconds and I start to cry. Because I can imagine how that man feels, shooting his best friend. I grew up with our dogs being more than just loyal companions, they were my friends, my family, and I sadly had to watch them go after 15 years.
So if that man on the screen, which I never got to really see, can trigger such major emotions and make me empathize with him, imagine what a whole book about a man and his dog, from the begining to the end can do to my heart.
Wow, now I am almost crying again just remembering how I felt about the end of Marley and Me. It was funny, great, and so very, very beautiful.
I never watched the movie though. Not since I had a melt down watching a movie about two tigers. I cannot remember half of it because of all the tears. And I did not want to be disappointed by this movie, too.

Thinking about it now I never posted a review... I may have to re-read it now. So if you never hear from me again I possibly drowned in my own tears.
What books make you sad in a good or bad way?
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 5: Wintersmith and Glennkill

 Today's prompt was:

A Book That Makes You Happy

This is once again a really tough decision. I read whenever I'm feeling lonely or sad so I can distract myself. Therefore a lot of books make me happy.
But if I have to nail it down, which I have, I would say anything by Terry Pratchett. He is the only author that never fails to make me smile or laugh out loud. So I choose The Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett.
It is one of my favourite discworld adventures. It's actually a fairytale about a young witch.

He has a way of writing, that is really special. He can make you laugh and giggle by every word you read and each of his characters gets more and more kinky with every page. But behind this funny facade there is a message ion every book. And the Wintersmith does not make an exception. Nothing is as it seems. (I mean what would a good witch be without a little Boffo?)You should always know what you're doing or at least try to think about it. But even if you do something without thinking about it, if you just listen to your heart (or your feet) something good can come out of it... or not.

It shows just like Witches Abroad how important stories for us humans and our world are.
The Wintersmith has a love triangle that is... let us call it interesting, special and unique. But that is what we all love about Terry Pratchett, his uniqueness.


Another book that I cannot read without crying from laughter is Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.
In this book and the follow up Garou a flock of sheeps has to solve crimes.
One morning the shepherd lies dead in the field and his sheep are determined to find out what happened. Miss Marple, the most intelligent sheep starts here investigations and discovers with the help of the rest of the flock an old and deadly secret, that hovers over the village of Glennkill.
A flock of sheep has to solve crimes! Sheep! And a murder! It is amazing! And absolutely hilarious! It is just so much fun to watch the sheep struggle to understand our minds and to realize how stupid we are sometimes acting.


Which books make you happy?
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 4: Blood Promise

And here is the next part of the 30 Day Challenge. I'm sure I will be able to keep on posting this without delay *cough*
Today's prompt is:

Your favourite book of your favourite series.


Seriously? I have to choose one?
I already said that Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead is my favourite series. But which of the six books is my favourite? That is a tough question. A really tough question.
I have to go with book 4 Blood Promise.
Here is the official summary taken from Richelle Mead's site:

Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same. 

The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved? 

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?


So why this one you may ask. Here are some of the reasons:

Beware, Spoilers ahead!

1. Rose and Sidney on a Roadtrip. Do I need to say more? Rose and Sidney on a ROADTRIP
2. I loved to actually meet Dimitri's family. That was such a great insight into his life and they were all incredible characters.
3. The tension at the begining when she makes her decision to go after him and keep her promise.
4. Have I mentioned how awesome Rose and Sidney are? Can you imagine them on a roadtrip?
5. The tragic behind the whole "I need to kill the man I love"- thing. It sounds cheesy but Richelle Mead captured it in a really heartbreaking way.

Have you read this book? How would you answer today's prompt?
Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 3: Vampire Academy

Aloha :) The prompt for today (we'll I should have posted this yesterday, but you know how I am with keeping up...)  is:

Your favourite series

I love a lot of series, but when it comes to picking one I'll always go with the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I just love these books! There is not one book I disliked and I enjoyed each equally.
I posted about that series a lot, I even think my first English post was about Richelle Mead.
Her vampires were different from the once hyped through Twilight and I think that is one of the main reasons I stayed with this series the whole time. And maybe the wonderfully tragic love story was the other reason.

I cannot begin to describe the excitment I felt when I finally held the last book in my hands. I was so happy and so sad that the series ended at the same time. And now I am as excitedly waiting for the movie!
Here is what I had so say about the ending of VA, back in the day:

"Though I didn't wanted it to end like it did, Richelle Mead has a wonderful stile of writing and I was totally satisfied with the way she put the end into words. Honestly she could have killed EVERYONE at the end of this novel in a Shakespear-like tragedy and I still would be satisfied because she would have written it in such a wonderful way. I'm just happy she doesn't try to sell washing machines, because I would probably buy a dozen without needing one. "  Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Yeah, you're reading it right. I would even buy a washing mashine from this faboulous author... Now go and read the book!
This story was actually the thing that got me into Paranormal Romance and reading YA. So therefore you can say this whole blog is kind of Richelle Mead's fault.
So thank you for such an amazing series, Mrs. Mead.

What is your favourite series?
Find the complete challenge here.
Have you read these books? I definitely recommend them!

Love and Words
KJ

Book Challenge Day 2 : Wind in the Willows

So today is the second day of me attending the tumblr 30 Day Book Challenge. And I already don't know what book to answer the question with...
Today's question, which is actually more a prompt than a question, is:

A Book that you read more than 3 times:

After much thinking and consideration I'm pretty sure that I read The Wind in the Willows more than 3 times. I just love this story. It is really inspirationals and not just an average children story.
What you haven't read it? Shame on you! It is definitely a Must-read-before-you-die-book. And it can actually tell you something about live. Yeah, I know it is about a mouse and a mole, but those two really no something about being human.

The story behind this book is really beautiful, too, since the mole and the mouse were the protagonists of the stories the author Kenneth Grahame told his little children.

Meet little Mole, willful Ratty, Badger the perennial bachelor, and petulant Toad. In the almost one hundred years since their first appearance in 1908, they've become emblematic archetypes of eccentricity, folly, and friendship. And their misadventures-in gypsy caravans, stolen sports cars, and their Wild Wood-continue to capture readers' imaginations and warm their hearts long after they grow up. Begun as a series of letters from Kenneth Grahame to his son, The Wind in the Willows is a timeless tale of animal cunning and human camaraderie. This Penguin Classics edition features an appendix of the letters in which Grahame first related the exploits of Toad.

You can find a full list of the questions and my answers here.

Love and Words
KJ

30 Day Book Challenge Day 1

Hey guys :)
So in order to get me posting a little more I decided to join the 30 Day Book Challenge from tumblr I found over at Quotes from Fiction.
Here is day 1:

Best Book You Read Last Year:

Remember at the end of last year when I couldn't decide wich book was the best and instead of nailing it down I made a 12 books in 2012 list? Seems I have to make that decision now after all.
So the best book I read last year was...
Oh my god I read so many good books last year! But if you want a recommendation you definitely have to read The Heroine's Bookshelf by Erin Bowman. I love that book! And it is so inspiring.
Here is what I had to say about it in my review (Because I think this describes perfectly how much I loved this book):


This is going to be a very private review for this is about a very private book. Erin Blakemore shares with us some of her precious memories and the precious memories of many remarkable women writers.
The Heroine's Bookshelf shows which character trades a modern heroine should have in times like these, explaining that there is a heroine in every women. Each character trade is described with the help of a fictional heroine who portrays the feature. Erin Blakemore does not just outline why the heroine she picked is a heroine, she also allows us a deep glimpse into the struggles the authors behind the books had to overcome. Therefore she shows us, what we can learn from women like Scarlett O'Hara, Scout Finch or Alice Walker.