I read mostly short books this year so I could keep up with my Goodreads challenge. Hoping that next year I can spend more time reading.

Unpopular opinion time: The Kite Runner wasn't as good as I expected it to be. That is not to say that it was bad, because it wasn't. I enjoyed the story, but I disliked how conveniently it was moved along at some places, the whole circle-of-life idea that was consistently present throughout the book. There were too many convenient accidents that were supposed to give poetic justice to wrong-doers and I felt like that was a bit overdone.

I enjoyed this better than You Have Arrived at Your Destination. I found it interesting that it was written in the second person, it felt fitting for the story in order to relate to the protagonist (well, basically, the reader is the protagonist). For most of the story, you are kept in the dark about what's happening, you just know that something is very eerie about the situation.
Rating 3.5/5

Rating: 2/5
It started off interesting with the projections of predicting how a human's life can develop before they are even born, but somewhere along the way, it turned into something else that didn't hold my interest. Maybe it's just me, but I failed to understand the point of the whole story.

I am basically becoming a Death Note fan account with all my recent updates 😂 But I am really enjoying this manga and I can't stop reading it. It's been a while since I've been so attached to anything. In this volume, I didn't like how few things were resolved so it's getting a lower rating than the previous one, but I still like how the plot is developing so far.

I finished the first volume way faster than I expected. Looks like it's helping with the reading slump 😁
Aside from a few aspects I didn't enjoy, regarding how the police are handling the Kira investigation, this was a great start. It's setting up the world pretty well and the story is very entertaining.

I'm going through a bit of a reading slump and I just picked up this manga in hopes of getting over it. The first chapter was super fun and I realized that I've forgotten many details from the anime. We'll see how it goes.

100 pages in, the story is already heartbreaking 😢 And having read Khaled before, I don't think I'm ready for whatever it is about to come in the next 300 pages.

I've been wanting to start this one for a long time, finally it's in my hands.

Already posted about it, but here's another post, because this book deserves it. Best book I read this weekend for the #24in48 readathon. Anybody who's thinking about picking it up, I wholeheartedly suggest the audiobook, the author is so passionate when narrating, it's a wonderful experience.
#hour42challenge @24in48

A solid, relatively fast-paced thriller that was very easy to read. Most of the characters were unlikeable and I guess that was on purpose. It didn't leave any big impressions on me but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Second and last book finished for #24in48.
@24in48

YA is a genre I often read and a book that has left me a lasting impression on me is More Happy Than Not. Adam Silvera shies away from clichés and sugar coatings. He tells a raw, very human story with the good, the bad and the ugly. My favourite YA read to date.
#24in48 #hour30challenge
@24in48

This was so so good. I doubt that I could enjoy it as much if I weren't listening to the audiobook because I was able to hear the author's words the way she intended them to be heard. I loved every second of it, it was brilliant. Also it's my first finished book for the #24in48 readathon.
@24in48

With more than 6 hours passed reading ever since the start of the #24in48 readathon, it seems highly unlikely that I'll be able to reach the target of 24 hours. So my goal is to finish the 2 books I started by the end of the readathon: The Kind Worth Killing and Poet X.
@24in48

Midnight passed in my timezone so I'm starting a little ahead of the US participants in the challenge. I spent solid 2 hours reading and decided it's enough for today. Will continue in the morning.
#24in48 @24in48

Kinda last minute, but I just found out about #24in48 and decided to sign up! I don't have high hopes about achieving 24 hours but any amount I spend reading will be considered a win. I also don't have books planned out, I'll just wing it 😁
@24in48

I struggled through this one. I started it few months ago while I was still busy with uni and got the chance to finish it now. I can't tell whether the fact that I took such a long break before finishing it had an effect on how much I was (not) immersed in the story, but it was a bit of a lackluster for me.

Rating: 3.5/5
I wanted to like this book more than I actually do, but for some reason, it didn't resonate with me as much as I wanted it to. Maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind for it, because I felt my mind wander at some parts. Ocean's writing is very interesting and peculiar, feels very scattered but is actually very connected. His descriptions are very subtle, yet explicit and direct. It had good moments, but I wasn't captivated by it.

I decided to rearrange the bookshelves in my room and right now I have all of the books on my couch. Maybe I should have come up with a plan before taking them off the shelves 🤔 This might take a while.

Has anybody read this? I've been eyeing it ever since it came out, but I haven't gotten around to it. The cover is the first thing that caught my eye when I first saw the book, it's very pretty.

Aaah I am so excited for this! The Hunger Games is the book that made me realize how much I love reading. I'm so excited to revisit Suzanne Collin's world again.

Nocturnal is a collection of poems, covering topics about self-love and self-empowerment, accompanied with interesting illustrations that complement the poems well. I was not the biggest fan of this book. I feel like I've already read the same poems in different (better) shape from other authors. The words that were supposed to be empowering I found to be very cliché. It fell flat to my expectations.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC.

I've been patiently waiting for the release of this book for over a month. I have high expectations, I'm so excited to get into it. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

This is such a striking poem. The imagery he paints with his words is so vivid. It's my first time reading Wilfred Owen and I love everything so far.

“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it”

The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people‘s interests. The library was open, unending, free.

Dona Tartt spends a great amount of time capturing the essence of each character and she does it in such a subtle matter that you can't help but fall in love with her writing. Although at some points the plot felt stretched out and the descriptions sometimes seemed repetitive, I was too absorbed in the beauty of her prose to mind it.

Although the book holds a very important message, I'd be lying if I said that I'm a fan of the writing style. If I hadn't been listening to the audiobook I don't think I would finish it, simply because I felt like the tone of writing was intended more for middle-graders than young adults. What made me stick around was the amazing narration done by Bahni Turpin, she menaged to keep me entertained throughout the whole book.

Rating: 4/5
I really enjoyed it, but there were some plot holes, which I'm hoping will be explained in the other books. Also, I wish there was more of an in-depth exploration of the faction-divided world. In this book there wasn't much information about it, apart from the basic rules of how they are divided, I hope to see more on how factions cooperate with one another in the next two books.

Question of the day: Why must all books contain a love story?

What I loved the most about this book is the fact that there are no sugar coatings about how messy life can be, unlike most YA novels. The author did an amazing job connecting different plot points, some of which I never even imagined having any importance at the time they happened. More Happy Than Not tackles major issues such as suicide, depression, sexual identity, and most importantly shows the consequences of actions. I absolutely loved it.

I've become this happiness scavenger who picks away at the ugliness of the world, because if there's happiness tucked away in my tragedies, I'll find it no matter what. If the blind can find joy in music, and the deaf can discover it with colors, I will do my best to always find the sun in the darkness because my life isn't one sad ending—it's a series of endless happy beginnings.

If I were to rate this book judging with my emotions it would probably be 5 stars. But, if I'm being rational it's probably going to be 3.5/5. I devoured it in only 2 days, it was easy to read and definitely entertaining, but I can't help but feel how it was a bit predictable, and at some times a bit of a clichè.

The story itself didn't stand out much, but the writing is truly remarkable. Brit Bennett knows her stuff.

#seasonsreadings2016 #setinlibraries
I still haven't read this book, but it has been on my TBR for more than a year. The plot sounds truly captivating, I can't wait to dive into it!

"I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn‘t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn‘t know when. But now I knew it acutely. The problem wasn‘t really a scientific one. The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live."

This book isn't in the database so I can't tag it 😓 Anyway it's an amazing collection of poetry, I love the dark and mystetious vibe it has to it. This is the first book by the serbian author Vladan Savic and I'm really looking forward to see more of his work in the future!

#photoadaynov16 #childprotagonists
This was a truly remarkable and heartbreaking story set during WWII. Planning to read it again soon.
@RealLifeReading

I won this book on a Goodreads giveaway about a year ago, I think it's about time I got to it 😊

Imagine you‘re a fish, swimming in a pond. You can move forward and back, side to side, but never up out of the water. To you, that little pond is an entire universe. Now imagine that someone reaches down and lifts you out of the pond. You see that what you thought was the entire world is only a small pool. You see other ponds. The sky above. You realize you‘re a part of a much larger and more mysterious reality than you had ever dreamed of.

I feel a bit emotionally drained because of this book (in a good way). I loved the concept, it was very well written. I am a bit sad that this isn't going to be a series, though. I would love to know what happens afterwards.

#photoadaynov16 #disabilities
I read this book few years ago and I really enjoyed it. It follows the story of Melody, a teenager who has cerebral palsy and also a photographic memory. Except no one knows about the second one because she can't communicate properly.
@RealLifeReading

"And here's the most shameful truth: there is a part of me which would rather just have it all be over, because the dead don't feel fear or pain. Does this mean I'm a coward? Is that the final truth I have to face before I die?"

This just ended on a major cliffhanger. The next book is expected to come out next year. I honestly don't know what to do with my life now.

I keep reading good reviews about this book so I decided to give it a go, I just started listening to it 😃

Rating: 4/5
I really liked the way the author narrated the book, it was raw and emotional. I'm glad I gave it a chance, I really enjoyed it.

"I am not scared of bad people, of wicked evildoers, of monsters and creatures of the night. The people who scare me are the ones who are certain of their own rightness. The ones who know how to behave, and what their neighbors need to do to be on the side of the good."

I just started Three Dark Crowns and I'm so excited! I have high expectations for this one.