Christmas Reads (that aren't all that Christmassy)

Now that we're on the Christmas holidays, and i finally have spare time again,  I felt I should address my poor neglected blog.  I thought i'd run over the books i'm currently reading (as there are a lot of them). 

I’ve been very non-committal with my reading habits lately, fluctuating between a few different books and never finishing them. I’ve had a pretty busy Uni month and haven’t found a lot of time to commit extensively to one book which has left me with a pile of half read, unfinished books.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare | Book Review

Disclaimer: this is a major head rant written immediately after finishing City of Bones where i hadn't had a chance to fully process all of the book and therefore definitely does contain spoilers (sorry!)

So a while back my dear friend Amy lent me the first three books in The Mortal Instrument series and I was super excited to read it, having seen SO MUCH about it in the booktube/YA world and it really was time for me to read it.

At first, I thought it was a bit slow. I wasn't really intrigued too much into the characters – nothing stood out to me as that interesting. But I was only 50 pages in, so I powered through, and I am glad I did!

More Than This by Patrick Ness | Book Review

 “We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we’d go crazy.” 

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. My sisters (thanks guys) gave it to me for my birthday, and in the height of procrastination, I figured it was time to read it, and thank god I did. This god damned book bundled me up into a little ball and shook me about until I was pretty much taken over with emotion.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth | Book Review

Disclaimer: this review was written as soon as I finished the book and so may not be fully coherent (there was just too much emotion).

I don’t even know where to begin with this. Allegiant is the 3^rd instalment and conclusion in the Divergent series. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Divergent tells the story of Tris Prior, a girl born into a society divided into factions that are separated out according to personality type. Tris, however, doesn’t fit into any faction; she is known as Divergent. And the story pretty much unravels from there. The second book, Insurgent, was fast paced and told the story of the aftermath of Erudite’s mass killing of the people of Abnegation. In the final pages, we were left with the knowledge that the outside world is ‘waiting for the Divergent’ to come and rescue them

And so here we are. I had this book for so long that I had to actually reread Insurgent before eventually diving back into the world of Factions (or lack of oooh spoilers)

Zombicorns by John Green | Book Review

This short novella was given away as an E-book during the 2010 Project for Awesome, a charity event run by the Vlogbrothers in which youtube users donate and make videos about their favourite non-profits.  It feels slightly strange reviewing this, as it was never really meant to be read! In the preface, John Green describes it as a “bad zombie apocalypse novella” and a “steaming mess of prose”, which should give you some idea what we’re up against!

A 16 Book Challenge

So I'm setting myself a challenge of sorts.

As of right now, I have 16 unread books on the shelf of my uni room. I am not going to buy any more books until I've read every last one

The list:

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter | Book Review

                 

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter was published by Hot Key Books in 2013.

I first heard about O’Porter’s debut novel Paper Aeroplanes through Sanne Vliegenthart’s review (2014, February 10) on her Youtube channel, and her praise along with the premise and vibrant design of the cover intrigued me.

Paper Aeroplanes is an incredibly relatable young adult (YA) contemporary novel centring around Flo and Rennee, two teenage girls who, in the midst of a gritty, gossip ridden high school, find friendship together.