Thursday, May 20, 2021

What I've Read In 2021 So Far

After not having such a great reading year in 2020, 2021 has been going much better for me. I'm actually ahead in my goodreads challenge (!) and have already read 22 out of my goal of 52 books for the year. In the spirit of catching this blog up to what has been going on in my life, I thought I'd talk about all the books I've read so far this year. Just think of it as one big monthly wrap up for the months January to April.



Monday, May 17, 2021

Where to even begin...

It's been over 1.5 years since I last uploaded to this blog and so many things have changed. Looking at my last posts, I just got back home from my exchange semester in Seoul? That seems like a lifetime ago. Since then, I graduated university, finished one and started another internship in the legal field, moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend, acquired about a hundred plants and, of course, found myself in a global pandemic - fun times! But through all of it, I never stopped reading and also never stopped missing being a part of the online book community.

This week, I made my 'comeback' on bookstagram, and it just wouldn't feel complete if I didn't also try and revive my blog. I honestly haven't looked at this page in over a year, and scrolling through it now, I feel so proud of what I accomplished with the blog design and everything. I really put so much work into this blog, and despite it never reaching much of an audience, it was my little corner of the internet, where I could be creative in my own way and do what I wanted, for so long. It would be such a shame to give it up completely. So here I am.

I really don't know where to even begin with starting up this blog again. But I wanted to upload this random little post to announce my return, and of course I'll go right back to planning some bookish posts.



Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Books Outside My Comfort Zone | Top Ten Tuesday #10


For the first time in over 2.5 years, I've felt like doing Top Ten Tuesday again, so here we are! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, where you can find topics and such! This week's topic is top ten books I enjoyed that are outside my comfort zone. For me this is pretty much anything outside YA and Fantasy, as almost all the books I read are in these genres. But of course, I've found some gems by branching out a little now and then, and that's what this post is all about. This list is in no particular order, but here are ten books I enjoyed that are outside my reading comfort zone.


Monday, August 19, 2019

July 2019 Wrap-Up


Look at this year just flying by! It's already August and I really don't know where July even went. I am back home in Switzerland and I've settled into things more or less, so hopefully I can get back into blogging soon enough. For now, I only have another monthly wrap-up to share, but hopefully different content will come your way in the next weeks.


Wednesday, July 3, 2019

June 2019 Wrap-Up


June is over and so is my exchange semester in Seoul, I'm traveling in Japan right now and I really don't know what this life even is. So please bear with me while I am finishing up my traveling and then settling back into life in Switzerland in a few weeks. I haven't even thought about blogging in the past few days or weeks but since I have a few moments to spare right now, I want to talk about the books I read in June.

Looking back on the list of books I finished last month, it feels like years ago that read some of these books. Was June really only 30 days?? I had a pretty good reading month and finished five books, and I think it's safe to say I discovered a new all time favorite book (but more on that later!).


Monday, June 10, 2019

Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

by Hank Green
Series: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing #1
Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Contemporary
Publication date: September 25, 2018
Published by: Dutton
Paperback, 343 pages
Rating: 3.5/5 ★

The Carls just appeared.

Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship—like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor—April and her friend, Andy, make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world—from Beijing to Buenos Aires—and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.

Going into this book, there were some things that I wasn't aware of that I wish I would've known. And that's all on me, because I wanted to go into this blind, it just turned out to not be the best option for once. First of all, I really wasn't aware that this was a sci-fi book. I bought the book after reading the first page or so at the book store. The writing style was fun and easy to read and immediately pulled me in, so I bought it. I thought it was simply the story of someone who went viral online and became famous over night. Turns out, there was a little more to the plot, and at first I couldn't really get into the whole sci-fi aspects of the story. With time, though, the Carls grew on me, and I became more invested in the mystery of their existence.



Thursday, June 6, 2019

May 2019 Wrap-Up


Already another month has passed without any blogging on my part, but I am not here to cry about that, because I had quite a good reason. My boyfriend was visiting me here in Seoul for three weeks so we were out exploring and enjoying our time together for most of May. Blogging, therefore, had to take a back seat this month. Luckily (and I don't really know how), reading didn't. In fact, May was the best reading month I've had in a long time, so I'm very excited to share all the books I finished this month with you.