*In the order of first to last*
FEBRUARY
It Devours!
by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor
347 pages
Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤ 5/5
I personally loved this book so much. It is a sequel to Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel (which was amazing as well) and this one was even better. It tells of two people who struggle between the conflict of religion and science in a chaotic town in the middle of nowhere and combines science fiction, horror and romance to create a plot that is truly baffling ( in the best way). Night Vale is a town of very diverse characters and approaches horror and sci-fi in a subtle, nonchalant way. This book made me laugh and cry at the same time all throughout it, which made it one of my new favourite books.
Go Set a Watchmen
by Harper Lee
278 pages
Rating: ❤❤❤ 3/5
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favourite novels and reading this sequel to it opened up a new view of Maycomb County. Since this novel was technically written before the original, the characters are much different then they were and they reference many events that did not happen. I liked reading this and seeing Scout come back to her hometown as a young woman and realizing how different things have become since she left. I found the plot compelling but a little hard to follow at times since there were many characters and locations.
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
By Celeste Raspanti
52 pages
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ 4/5
We are doing this play for school and it is absolutely heartbreaking. It is based in WWII in a Czech Concentration Camp and tells of a young woman retelling her story of survival and utter loneliness. They use poetry often within the piece, which are actually real poems found inside the camp. It focuses on how the camp affected the children and how they coped by writing, reading, and drawing. The realistic characters and the innocence of children during these horrid events left my heart aching.
Night Shift
By Stephen King
226 of 505 pages
Total pages read: 903 pages (32 Pages a day)
I am overall quite pleased with my reading rate this month despite the fact that I had a hard time finding books I was interested in. it felt like I was just reading for the sake of it so for next month I will focus on finding books I want to read. I feel I am successful in my reading rate this month and will my best to keep it up for the rest of the semester. I am going away at the end of March for spring break and I will try to read as much as I can and to bring my books and journal with me. I am planning on finishing Night Shift and then moving on to Frankenstein and A Streetcar Named Desire. I will continue reading everyday and hope to keep my rate up.
March
Night Shift
By Stephen King
279 pages
❤❤❤ 3/5
This is a wonderful short story collection features many horror and thriller type stories. While most of the stories were enthralling and creepy, some were a bit boring or maybe just went on for too long without really building any tension. My favourite stories in the collection are probably Children of the Corn and The Boogeyman. Overall this book was just a fun thing to read and I enjoy Stephen King’s writing style.
Milk and Honey
By Rupi Kaur
204 Pages
❤❤❤❤4/5
Beautiful short poems exploring the struggles that can come with being a woman and it is this extraordinary journey of rising above it and being strong. Reading some of them made me feel better about myself and guided me towards being who I want to be and how I want to look instead of what media expects me to be. This book of poetry consisting of only a few lines per poem tells a long story of a girl living in oppression and heartbreak all her life and how she grew and healed through her writing and that is very inspiring for me.
A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
142 pages
❤❤❤❤4/5
A very unique play about a young woman losing all hope in her life and trying not to show how hurt she really is. I love the writing style and the descriptive stage directions lets you know exactly what happens on stage without having to be there. The story is captivating with very compelling characters that are very human and you end up really feeling for them.
Total pages read: 625 pages (22 Pages a day)
My reading rate dropped a bit because one of the books I wanted to read I never got to within the month and during spring break I was away and out a lot with my parents and I didn’t have as much time as I would’ve liked to have. I planned to read every night when we got back from wherever we were but we usually didn’t get back to our hotel until 10 or 11 pm and I would be really tired. For April I am going to get my rate back up, I just bought some new books and I’m planning to get more. I’m reading every day again and I am going to read Frankenstein and A Portrait of Dorian Gray.
April
Frankenstein
By: Mary Shelley
175 pages
❤❤❤ 3/5
I loved the ideas in this book but sometimes I found it dragged on a little bit too much in certain areas or dialogue or description. It is a classic novel and it was an interesting and not particularly difficult read but some of the later chapters were just a little boring.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
By: Oscar Wilde
72/269 pages
Total pages read: 247 (8 pages per day)
My reading rate dropped significantly this month and that really disappoints me because I was hoping to increase it. Suddenly school became really hectic with drama and I had many project piled on since it is getting close to the end of the year. I will get next months rate up since my play is over now and I have some more free time. I am going to finish The Picture of Dorian Gray and move on to The Woman in the Window.
May/June
The Picture of Dorian Gray
By: Oscar Wilde
197 pages
❤❤❤ ❤ 4/5
I finally finished this book and I am absolutely in love with it. Victorian horror has always fascinated me and the creepiness of this book was just wonderful. The ending was so chilling and I really just wanted to read it again and again.
The Woman in the Window
By: A.J Finn
449 pages
❤❤❤ ❤ 4/5
This book was actually way better than I thought it was going to be, at first I was worried that it would be boring but it was not. This is probably the first mystery/thriller novel that I’ve actually enjoyed since so often I find them cliche and over dramatic. While this novel could be a bit over dramatic at times, it was mostly very realistic and the ending actually surprised me quite a bit.
Total pages read: 646 (23 pages per day)
I’m so glad I was able to get my reading rate up during these months by reading as often as I can and choosing a longer book. I plan to read a lot during the summer even if I don’t catalog it. I recently got some new books so I want to read most of them during the summer.
All Images from https://www.goodreads.com/
