Challenge Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

My #dymocks52challenge book 3/38, for week 17.

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Published: 10/7/08
First appearance in 101: 2010 (#37)
Years in 101: 9
2019 101 ranking: #20
Rating: 4 stars

Why I chose this book:
This is one that repeatedly appears on the 101 list. My list was only formed based on the previous five years, but it turns out this little novel has only missed out in 2016 since the list began back in 2010! Helps that this was donated to me by my dad, who rather enjoyed it himself I believe.

Thoughts:
I normally hate war stories meaning this one never interested me, so we have our first thank you owed to The List! It was a lot happier than I was expecting! Sentimental stuff, country bumpkin type characters, but it's got a homey sort of charm to it. I was pleasantly surprised. Lucky for me not a whole lot of detail on the war setting, making this more chick-lit than historical fiction in my opinion.

I still really, really hate that title,though.

You can read my full review on Goodreads here.

Verdict: Was it worthy?
I liked the story well enough, but it didn't strike me as anything particularly special. I can see it being enjoyed when it was first published, but I'm actually astonished that it's endured so long. 

Review: Dracul

Dracul by Dacre Stoker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Um, guys?

I don't know what I just read.

Blurb: Mysterious happenings throughout Bram Stoker's early years were the inspiration for Dracula, the greatest vampire novel of all time. This is that origin story.

Story: Vampires, ghouls, zombies, apparitions, blood and gore, general impossibilities.

Author's Note: This all actually happened.

Me: 0.0

If we're calling this a true story it's a solid 5 stars just for its WTF level.

BUT!

If we're sticking with this being a vampire story inspired by the mystery of Stoker's inspiration for Dracula, I think we're dealing overall with a pretty mediocre offering.

But I am honestly SO CONFUSED.

I feel like this would have been better as a non-fiction exploration of Bram Stoker's madness, or reasons why he may have seemed mad when perfectly sane. Because apparently Stoker originally wanted to publish Dracula as non-fiction? Like he actually believed the vampire story he wrote was legit?

So that kinda fascinates me, and I would have loved to take a look at that, kinda muse over 'well there are weird people who call themselves vampires in today's society and drink each others blood' etc.

Instead, this is the supposed 102 missing pages from the start of the first edition of Dracula. So it's basically a prequel to the vampire story we know and love, featuring the author and his family as its main characters.

That's cool. Stephen King has written himself into works of fiction, no big. Clever, really.

But you want me to believe this happened for real?

I mean, if you're gonna convince me this was legit happenings I need more facts so I can get my science brain onto it please.

I'm actually really torn over whether to review it for the story itself or review based on 'am I convinced it was real?'

I guess both?

I mean, the story was decent. It was a bit of a slow start, but it started to get creepy about 100 pages in and then got nice and chaotic with violence and snakes (I love snakes) and obviously typical vampiric behaviours. The dynamic between the characters was fantastic, and I loved the relationship between the three siblings. Towards the end of the novel I found it really hard to put down. But with Dracula having been around for so long and having spawned so many other vampire novels, the formula is kind of tired. Slight creepiness of people not aging, appearing and disappearing, healing fast and heightened senses? Standard. Stalking the evil during daylight hours? Standard. Garlic and wooden stakes and silver crosses? Standard. As far as vampire stories go, there's really nothing all that new here.

The book's strongest appeal is in that possibility that there WERE mysterious, unexplained happenings. But there's no mystery here. It's all written out into a story, through journal entries and letters etc. But even there I struggled because there's mixed tenses. For example, one entry begins with (paraphrasing here) 'I am sitting here at this time writing these events' and then later says 'there is [something] (which I was later to discover was called [something] ...' and how can you write about later if later hasn't happened yet? So clearly this was a fabrication?

Honestly I just cannot wrap my head around this, but I find it very hard to believe this story to be an account of true events.

I think I'm just going to leave it be.

Overall, an interesting but average vampire story with great characters.

I recommend NOT reading the Author's Note.

And if anyone can shed more light on this for me or share theories or knowledge, PLEASE HELP.

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Review: The Boy Who Steals Houses

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a heart-rending novel about family, broken pieces and redemption.

15 year old Sam just wants to take care of his older brother, Avery. Avery is autistic and needs routine, but that's hard to give when the only time Sam feels safe is when he's under a stolen roof.

If you've yet to read the author's debut, A Thousand Perfect Notes, well done you for protecting your heart for so long. If you survived that one, your scarred heart might just be tough enough to get through this one without breaking. Good luck though. I recommend extra bubble wrap for protection.

This is my third beautiful disaster in a row (following Sadie and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine) and honestly my poor lil heart needs a time out. It would be a quivering mess of uselessness if it wasn't for the De Laineys and their chaotic love. I desperately needed the light they brought to Sam's story.

Unlike the previous two books, this is a disaster I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Because the themes of love and devotion and family are so close to my heart and Sam is a dude I can really relate to. I mean, not so much the homelessness and the breaking into houses and looking after an autistic brother and stuff ... more just, like, the dedication. Family first. But he's a 15 year old kid dealing with things he should never have to deal with and I just felt so much for him. He deserved a little sunshine and to be loved and the happy accident of stumbling across the De Laineys was a refreshing blast of joy in a gloomy grey story and the balance was perfect.

This is also a really important book for Autism representation because it continues to remind the reader that Avery is not broken. Autism is not a passing illness, it's not a defect ... this book reps HARD and it was just written so respectfully while still facing the reality of how viciously autism can be viewed by ignorant members of society. Avery is a character you will find it hard not to fall in love with.

As with the author's previous novel, there's violence in here that will break your heart but there's a message within it:

"You can do monstrous things and not be a monster."

This is a novel about choices; about good, bad, and all the shades of grey that lie in between. This is a novel not afraid to face ugliness so that you can also appreciate the beauty when it's there. It's about mistakes, and choices, and the lengths we go to for family.

Loved it from start to finish, and highly recommend to anyone brave enough to offer their heart up for a thorough drenching in emotions.

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Challenge Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

My #dymocks52challenge book 2/38, for week 16.

Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Author: Gail Honeyman
Published: 9/5/17
First appearance in 101: 2018 (#68)
Years in 101: 2
2019 101 ranking: #1
Rating: 4 stars

Why I chose this book:
This book came out on top for 2019 so it was going to be pretty close to the top of the pile. I like quirky protagonists and Eleanor really seemed to fit that description from the blurb. Plus seeing a lot of positive reviews on Goodreads is always going to leave an impression.

Thoughts:
Ah, now this was a tough one! It's a brilliantly written book but mostly it just hurt my heart. It covers some pretty interesting topics and ideas about society, but it's also kind of depressing. Eleanor's quirky lifestyle has grounding in a dysfunctional childhood and that bothered me. 

Reading this book made me sad and grumpy and overall wasn't a pleasant experience. But I can certainly understand why it's so loved! I don't regret reading it, but I definitely need a good horror or fantasy after reading this. Something that will allow me to disappear from reality again for a little while.

You can read my full review on Goodreads here.

Verdict: Was it worthy?
Tough call. It's certainly a great book, even if it's not a very fun read. I don't think it's really #1 material with so many other brilliant books out there, but it IS a worthy addition to the list.

Review: Sadie

Sadie by Courtney Summers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well f*ck me, this is 300 pages of depressing.

This is another one of those stories that is about the characters more than the actual story, and Sadie is a mess.

Did not enjoy.

'Enjoy' is a word that belongs nowhere near this depressing road trip.

Summary:
Reeling from the murder of her little sister, Sadie takes off. Next minute, she's missing. Some random stranger with a radio show puts himself on the case, so we get his journalistic descriptions split with Sadie's revenge adventure. Reventure? This girl is out for BLOOD. She tells us so repeatedly.

This is the kinda gritty and depressing that I would honestly rather avoid. I thought this would be a fascinating crime novel, a murder-mystery sort of deal, but instead it's all about how astonishingly shitty Sadie's life has been and how she's ended up on this bloodthirsty quest for vengeance. She's super tough and savage but on the inside is just this broken thing who is starved for love and honestly it just hurts my heart way too much to actually think about all of her pain so let me just say it made me feel really shitty and miserable and let's leave it at that.

This is a rip-your-heart-out-and-stomp-on-it kind of book.

F*ck you, Sadie.

I hated the radio segment bits, because I never really felt the emotion through it, so I imagine this may be one of those rare cases where the audio-book does a lot more work in getting readers invested. On paper, it was a clever idea but it really pulled things back a bit. I mean, I understand why it was done, and it has its own gut-wrenching effectiveness, but it just slowed things down a bit for me.

Honestly I just want to forget I ever read this book.

Way too painful.

But sweet jeezuz, if you want something that's going to tear you apart and get you thinking about the darkness that lurks ever-present in our world, knock yourselves out.

I'm DONE.

I think I need a hot shower, fluffy pyjamas, and a hug from my mum.

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Challenge Review: Nevernight

Here we have it!

The first book of my refined #Dymocks52Challenge.

Title: Nevernight
Series: The Nevernight Chronicles (Book 1)
Author: Jay Kristoff (AA)
Published: 9/8/16
First appearance in 101: 2018 (#58)
Years in 101: 2
2019 101 ranking: #89
Rating: 5 stars

Why I chose this book:
I wanted to start with something fun, and this has been getting rave reviews on Goodreads for a while, now. I bought an earlier book by Jay Kristoff - Stormdancer - and never got into it enough to read more than a chapter or two so I've kind of been putting this series off.

However I LOVED The Starbound Trilogy by Aime Kaufman and Meagan Spooner so naturally I made my way to Illuminae by Kaufman and Kristoff and even though that was only a 3-star for me it made me think I should probably give Kristoff a second chance. Especially since assassins are maybe a little bit of a weakness for me. I LIKE CARNAGE AND MAYHEM OKAY.

Plus he's an Aussie Author so please respect my loyalty to my fellow Australians. :)

Thoughts:
Actually LOVED IT. It was dark and chaotic and all kinds of weird words and feelings and visuals telling this totally messed up story about a girl who wants to become a lethal assassin. The footnotes were a bit off-putting to begin with but they can be easily skipped.They provide a little more world-building, and were humorous enough for me to not abandon them. They also lessened up about halfway through.

It's not for the faint of heart, because it does go into sordid details with a lot of things, and there is swearing and vulgarity and bits and pieces being chopped, mutilated, burned, flayed etc. It's probably the most assassin-y assassin book I've read recently.

But there's still heart here, and fun characters and hijinks and hilarity and if you're okay with people learning how to kill other people then this should be a lot of fun.

You can read my full Goodreads review here.

Verdict: Was it worthy?
Absolutely. This is a unique book that will appeal to many who are looking for something gritty, with stunningly visual language and a fantasy world dominated by darkness and villains.

If you're easily offended, though, you may want to avoid this one.

The List, Explored

Choosing 38 books for my refined Dymocks 52 Challenge was not an easy task.

Particularly since I'd miscalculated, and originally only planned for 34 books.

I didn't want to randomly choose my list, nor did I want to just pick the stories that most appealed to me. The whole point is to challenge myself; to read books that seem deserving that I am otherwise unlikely to read.

I can't tell you how many years I've put off reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, because war stories just don't appeal to me in the slightest. However it's appeared consistently in the Dymocks 101, never at a spot beyond #6 (2018) and even took out first place three years in a row (2014, 2015 and 2016). Despite my reservations, this was the first book I added to my challenge list.

It's also worth mentioning that I've already read a lot of the books listed each year. Re-reading old favourites, while entertaining, would have nullified the point of the challenge. So look in vain for titles like Lord of the Rings, Throne of Glass, 1984, Harry Potter and many more favourites, both classic and modern.

To determine the most worthy books, I began by reviewing the lists for the past five years. Some appeared on their own, others as part of its series. (For the sake of numbers, I've included only the first book in series.)

Upon my review, I discovered 9 unread books that have made the list every time:

1. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (AA)
2. The Happiest Refugee - Anh Do (AA)
3. Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey (AA)
4. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
5. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
6. The Light Between Oceans - M. L. Stedman (AA)
7. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan (AA)
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
9. Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy) - Robin Hobb

AA = Australian Author

Seems that we are quite partial to our homegrown authors!

I have to admit - I was not comforted by these titles. Several I've had no intention of ever reading (Hichhiker's Guide ... , The Narrow Road ...) and others I've attempted in the past but cast aside after a chapter or two (Light Between Oceans, Assassin's Apprentice). Yet here they were, consistently proving they had won the hearts of Australian book lovers.

On to the list they go.

The next step was to look for the books that had made it four of the five past years - another six books emerged.

10. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (-2016)
11. The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty (AA) (-2015)
12. The Martian - Andy Weir (-2015)
13. My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Series) - Elena Ferrante (-2015)
14. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (-2016)
15. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (-2015)

(- the year they missed out)

Again,  mostly books I'd never thought a lot about reading. Sci-fi, lit fic ... eh. And that potato one? I almost don't want to read it just because its title is so obnoxious. How anyone remembered the name of this book is beyond me.

Naturally, it was then the books that had three mentions:

16. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
17. All the Bright Places - Jennifer Niven
18. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty (AA)
19. Reckoning - Magda Szubanski (AA)
20. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara 
21. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson

Now here was something fun: Finally my list had its first two non-fiction offerings!

Not particularly happy with the voters for delivering me Shantaram, though. This is a 936-page monster I am NOT looking forward to tackling.

(I'm sure there were some other 3/5 options that I neglected based on page-count alone - Anna Karenina didn't get a second glance at all.)

With what I believed to be 12 more choices to go, I decided it was time to have a little fun with it.

A common book lover problem is buying more books than one can possibly read, and having them sit, neglected, on bookshelves for years. I am no exception. My next step was to compare the 101 lists from 2012-2019 against the books already on my shelves. It produced six more titles not already on my list:

22. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
23. The Final Empire (The Mistborn Series) - Brandon Sanderson
24. Wool - Hugh Howey
25. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
26. Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton (AA)
27. Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles) - Jay Kristoff (AA)

Admittedly, the last three are recent purchases bought to celebrate the 2019 list. I love that 3-for-2 deal.

Down to the last 7, I thought it was time to allow for some random choices. The only stipulation was that they be chosen from this year's Top 101. Here they are:

28. Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
29. Fight Like a Girl - Clementine Ford (AA)
30. Circe - Madeline Miller
31. Mythos - Stephen Fry
32. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Holly Ringland (AA)
33. Becoming - Michelle Obama
34. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness

And then of course I discovered I'd neglected four weeks of the remaining year, so added by random choice:

35. Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan
36. Scrublands - Chris Hammer (AA)
37. Normal People - Sally Rooney
38. Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty (AA)

So there you have it! The complete list of 38 books I intend to get though in the next 38 weeks! 14 Australian authors, four non-fiction books, and so many I've been putting off for years. Wish me luck!

Stay tuned for updates, stats and more.

Happy reading!

Review: The Ruin of Kings

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Look.

I cannot count the number of times this book had me feeling confused.

There are so many names and most are hard to pronounce and often similar so it was incredibly difficult to keep track of who was who and what was what. Then you throw in the genealogy and the adultery and the body snatching and the illusions and I DON'T KNOW WHO ANYONE IS.

There's a boy.
There's a witch.
There's a flirty magic boy.
There's an old sorcerer dude.
There's a tyrant. (Actually several).
There's a wimp.
There's a dragon.

There's also X who is secretly Y but is actually secretly Z and that is the case for, like, half the characters. Basically, no one is who they seem to be.

But you know what? Despite regularly having no clue what was happening, I still really enjoyed this book. It's a rare occasion that I get invested in the story when I don't really care for the characters. I didn't start warming up to this band of misfits until about 350 or so pages in so props to the story for keeping me entertained that far.

There's a lot of variety and magic here, making the whole thing pretty epic. I DID want more dinosaurs, though. I got so excited when they showed up, but they didn't hang around nearly long enough for me. Sigh. But there's lots about gods and demons and monsters and magic and reincarnation and it all gets so messy but who the heck cares because it's SO MUCH FUN.

So I'm gonna keep it brief for now and just say that I really enjoyed the crazy ride this book took me on. It was so bizarre to just be so out of it and yet so thoroughly entertained all the same.

Fingers crossed the next installment has some more detailed family trees though. The one at the back here really did not help in the slightest.

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Dymocks 52 Challenge

For Aussie book lovers, the Dymocks 101 is an annual highlight.

Every year readers vote on their favourite books of all time and this is compiled into the Top 101 for that year. Previously, it used to just be open voting, however recently they've been suggesting books for voters so the last few years have contained a fantastic variety of new reads to discover. However there are still some books that have appeared consistently, attesting to their staying power as a captivating novel.

So because I regularly like to bite off more than I can chew, I'm setting myself a new reading challenge.

This year, Dymocks has been promoting reading with their #dymocks52challenge on social media. The challenge is to read one book a week for the year, adding up to 52 books total.

Last year I read 130 books, so it's unsurprising that I've jumped a little ahead on this challenge.

So instead I'm going to venture outside my reading comfort zone and explore the Dymocks 101 a little further. Here's my modified challenge:

Read 38 books from the Dymocks 101 throughout the remaining 38 weeks of the year.

I have the complete lists for 2012 - 2019 and have finally compiled a refined list.

For me, it was important to include books I otherwise wouldn't read so I'm both nervous and excited about this challenge!

Keep an eye out over the next few days when I reveal the list of books I'll be attempting, as well as how I narrowed it down.

Let's have some fun!

Review: Pain is Potential: Finding Purpose Through Your Story

Pain is Potential: Finding Purpose Through Your Story by Sophie Pham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for an inspiring story about overcoming the obstacles that life throws at you
and then turning that into fulfillment - look no further.

This is such an honest, open account from a person who has faced some incredible trials. Rape, addiction, prostitution, mental illnesses (TRIGGER WARNING, btw) - this girl has faced down some pretty fierce demons and come out victoriously on top.

Full disclosure: I know Sophie personally. But WOW. I had no idea that the woman I know had so much darkness in her past. She is a brave, kind individual and I feel so grateful to her for baring her soul to me. I never suspected just how much she's been through.

I guess that's a pretty big part of why I appreciated this story so much - you never know the stories of others, unless they are willing to share. Sophie has shared her story with the intention of helping others understand their own pain and trauma, and how it can be used to create a life of fulfillment and content.

Yes, she tells her story, but each aspect of her story is connected to the point she's trying to make - how to identify childhood pain that may have impacted you, how a person's pain can manifest, and the extent of control past pain can have on present thoughts and actions. It is structurally sound and sensible in its approach to harnessing pain to create potential.

There are a modest amount of self-help activities (something I'm notoriously bad at completing) but they involve a lot of consideration so I found that, even though I didn't write anything down, I was still developing a better sense of my own behaviours. I see a lot of sense in the ideas she proposes, so I'll likely go back and do the exercises properly when I'm a little more open.

It was also such a fast read for me - less than 24 hours - because I just latched on to everything she was saying. I know this book and its methods won't work for everyone, but this is going to be a game changer for people who want to give; people who feel like they have a greater purpose but aren't sure how to realise it. It'll be tough work, facing your truth so unconditionally, but it seems like the reward is worth it.

Sophie is now encouraging people to share their own stories and become empowered through The Introvert Project and if you're interested, you can order this book off her website.

Highly recommend for the self-help readers who need something a little grittier and more tangible. Also a fascinating and inspiring read for anyone interested in an honest account of how one girl overcame immense obstacles to become a successful businesswoman changing the world one story at a time.



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Review: The Spanish Promise

The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read anything by this author before so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

This is another one of those books that has split timelines -the past, and the present. In the latter, Charlotte is sent to Spain to find out a little more about the woman who is at the centre of a Rich Family Scandal - she's the intendee for the entire fortune of a family who knows nothing about her. In the former - 1930s Spain - Nene is the rebellious daughter of a Rich Family trying to live life on her own terms instead of her family's. Naturally the timelines intertwine, but the mystery is unravelling how.

I enjoyed the beginning, and all the questions surrounding the mystery. There's also the question mark of Charlotte's past which makes her an intriguing protagonist who is hard to get a read on. To be honest, I never felt particularly attached to her. She's the prim and proper lady with a secret past but she seemed like a pretty generic lead to me. That made it harder to get into the story, and when we did found out more about her it still didn't really help me connect. Same with Nathan - I never really got a clear picture of him so I wasn't really fussed about their relationship.

Nene is a much more interesting character, particularly in the first half of the book. I really enjoyed the way this novel explores the theme of wealth, and how having it doesn't necessarily mean you're happy. How, in fact, having great wealth can come with great responsibilities. It was quite fascinating to see things through Nene's eyes. The book also touches on events from the Spanish Civil War which sets an interesting backdrop for history lovers. I personally could have done without the war talk but I imagine there will be plenty who really enjoy this aspect.

There was a lot involved in the story, so to me it felt a little messy and stilted, with the split timelines never seeming to fit quite right to me. It was also a shame that some of the exciting moments from the past were ruined by the blunt delivery of facts in the present.

I never felt attached to the characters, so the love story angle was a bit disappointing for me. It just felt like more effort went into describing the burdens of wealth so not much was left over to convey a proper sense of who these people were and why they made the choices they did. I kept forgetting that Marina was 40-something and it took me half the book to remember that Mateo was the son of the dying man. It's very hard to connect to a story when you don't have a clear idea of who the characters are.

The writing was decent and painted a beautiful picture of Spain, but failed to really connect emotionally. There were some beautiful descriptions and great ideas but it just felt a little flat to me. I enjoyed the mystery but it seemed to be solved rather quickly so I wondered a bit about what more there was to explain.

I enjoyed the story overall but never really felt emotionally attached. All the same, I'll probably pick up more from this author in the future.

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