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I always want to do as many outstanding things as possible.
That can be about Traveling all around the world... about Creating amigurumis... about Learning new languages... about my work in Atomic Physics... and a lot of other stuff...
I'm sure you will find an interesting topic.
Please feel free to look at my articles and leave me your comments.
Welcome to my crazy world!
It has been a while since my last video and even longer since my last book review. Today I have for you a review of "Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman.
I have a mix feeling about this book. It can be some times intense, sometimes boring. It can be hard to follow at time because of the choice of POV and the crazy going time line but it doesn't fail to be interesting. It was a sort of difficult read, the type of book you really have to concentrate on to know where you are at.
Today, I'm reviewing: A Stranger in the House which was the read along book for #Spookathon.
This book is extremely poorly written with a lot of very annoying things.
First, the POVs are all over the place. You keep on jumping from one character to the next without real definition or break except a paragraph break and the paragraph can be very unrelated even in the same chapter.
Then you have the obvious lack of research and realism about the car accident's consequences on the main character's body which basically is a turning point in the story.
A lot of the characters body motion or action aren't realistic either and the prose tend to be repetitive especially with Tom.
And the list could go on...
So I had a lot of problem with reading this book since for the first 10 chapters all I could see was everything that was "wrong" in it. Then after that the plot start showing a bit better. So many my attention to the annoying detail faded or maybe the writing got better, I'm not sure.
For a thriller, it was kind of predictable. But I guess the story is ok and there are some plot twists.
Then there is Tom. I think that I have never seen such a crappy character taking that much of attention. It was said that he was supposed to be on his wife side when all hell breaks lose and people think she is lying well, he wasn't. Tom is probably the worse husband a woman can get, like really and he is self absorbed, his worry about his wife going to jail is what that's going to do to him, after all he cheat on her on her first night there, then again. And she still manage to forgive him, like what the fuck, you're not even married to the idiot get your money girl and run, leave him to Brigit, seriously they deserve each other.
The Girl on the Train is the last book that I read in full for #Spookathon.
I had already watched the movie so I definitely had to read the book. There are a bit of differences but the movie actually follow the plot
really well.
This book has three different POV in the first person in different
chapters. So you always know who you are with. You follow three women on
two different time line.
Rachel, the girl on the train, is an alchoolic, depressive, divorcé who
is obsessed with her ex-husband and like to look at a house while on the
train because she imagine the life of the people living in it.
Megan, is also depressed because she has a secret too heavy to carry.
She is the type of hyperactive depressed person, sort of ation junky who
would do anything not to think about the ghosts in her past.
Basically, Megan and Rachel are exact opposite. One long for the past,
the other can't avoid it enough.
Then there is very boring Anna who is like a version of who Rachel used
to be and would have been if her life had turned out as expected.
I finished to read Doctor Sleep last night. I thought I would be scared but there was nothing scary about this book. It was good just not as mind blowing as expected.
Still, I have a few issues.First with who Dan actually is and if it's not a bit out of character for him to be an alcoholic in the first place.
Then I found myself having empathy for the bad guys and sort of not completely understanding why the "good" characters didn't have much. I mean I can't understand why at least one of the characters couldn't show of some empathy for the bad guys.
Then I have a bit of problem with the mass murder, probably as a result of having empathy for the bad guys.
I also have problems with Momo's death, I mean I went to analyse, Danny taking the cancer from her as being the same as how John Coffey takes the illness from other people in The Green Mile and use it later. There is the same sort of process, Dan, just like John is sick while transporting the cancer but Momo dies while the woman in The Green Mile survives which I feel is a bit unfair.
Then there is the problem of the true knot. In a way it feels like the book want to make us believe that they were created in the boiler's explosion which would be why they need "steam" but in an other way some of the member are really old, like century old so they would have to have existed before the incident in The Shinning. Or maybe it's just the place where the hotel used to stand that is attracting people. I'm not sure but I feel like the origin of the True Knot wasn't really explain and in the same way, they apparently used to be 200 and then now they are 41 but we are also told that the death are super rare for them so, where did the 160 others disappeared. I mean is there a third book fighting them coming up in 30 years?
Are the one who left Rose the Hat really all going to die of the measles?
So many questions partially answered only. And it feels to me a bit inconsistent.
Today, I have for you the first review of Spookathon: Junction 2020 Nightmare Realisation.
This book is the second book in the series. I read it as an ARC but it's actually out now so you can go and grab it here.
In Junction 2020 a group of five adolescent go through a portal made to triangle to reach what is called a landscape.
The landscape is build of the nightmare and favorite things of one of them.
In this book, we are in Tony's landscape so we learn about Tony's past, his likes and dislike and the reasons behind all of his nightmare.
At the same time, our little group of friends, Mainworlders, also have to fight against the Shifters, people jumping from landscape to landscapes to catch the Mainworlders and get out of the landscape with them.
Tony is a very particular character because all of his fears are actually lethal which makes this landscape very dangerous. He is very different from Marie in multiple ways, including the fact that he is not really as brave and as smart. This book is interesting because it pushes the understanding of the landscape and Shifters a lot further.
It was an interesting read.
Today, I'm reviewing The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu.
I wanted to read this book for quite some time but I was a bit afraid to actually know the Truth about Alice.
Alice Franklin is actually one of the only main character in the book who doesn't have her POV. She is talked about but never does anyone actually ask her what happened and the only time she voices it, her best friend doesn't believe her.
Her story is told through the eyes of multiple unreliable narrator who all have their own reason to propagate rumors about her. It's kind of disturbing to actually see everything unfold and to learn the truth because those characters are sort of directly talking to the reader.
I was afraid to read this book because I thought something really drastic would happen and actually, nothing drastic happens which makes it even more realistic.
The last Dan Brown book came out of October 3rd and of course I had to get it and read it immediately. I'm
a bit on the fence about this book I have to admit. There are a lot of
thing that I like about it but as a part of the Robert Langdon series,
it falls a bit short from the previous books. I wanted the thrill of
looking for the clue and decoding all the symbolism but it wasn't
there. Instead, this book takes you through a race against the clock let
by a computer. I think you can say that Origin stand for the Origine of
life but also for Dan Brown going back to his original theme of writing
about computer and science fiction. I wasn't prepared for that. The thing is if it isn't a Robert Langdon book, it's still a good book, though it was a bit predictable. The
threat to religion this time is science, or more accurately the grudge
of an atheist using science to kill the religious idea of genesis. I
mean there are already a lot of Christian who believe in Evolution as a
fact without turning down the rest of their religion. The idea that
knowing for sure what the start of live was would kill religion as a
whole is a bit presumptuous but it still might do it for some people.
The thing with this book is that it also uses the fear of technological
progress. Just like previous Dan Brown book. The computer are going to
be starter than you and they are going to want to kill you, which sort
of annoys me a little because it's just so easy. It would have been so
much more interesting to have a real antagonist that you wouldn't get
rid of by just unplugging it. In this book the human reaction to the
news of the origin of life is totally tuned down which is a bit of a
shame.
Today, I'm reviewing the last of John Green's books until tomorrow and probably the most famous too: The fault in our stars.
First I have to say I didn't like this book all that much. I think it's overrated. I didn't feel anything sympathy for most of the characters. Yes, they are going to die and that's so sad because they are so young but basically my feeling for them sort of stopped there. I don't know if it's because I already knew they were going to die I mean since they all have cancer.
But I couldn't be friend with any of those characters and I need to be friend with the characters in the books I read or at least I need to have some emotional reaction to them. With this book, I didn't.
I find the character highly pretentious and the fact that they are sick doesn't mean they can't be spoiled little brats. The entire book feels like they know everything about life and about other people and their struggles just because they are dying. It's just very annoying.
Then we have everybody around the main character being a pain. I mean Patrick is ridiculed, Hazel's parent really don't understand poor Hazel who knows so much better, the nurses don't go to funerals, and the writer of Hazel's favorite book is like... a drunk.
It's like from Hazel's point of view the entire world sucks and nobody can be a decent person. And I totally get that she has teenager view of the world aka adults=bad idiots and cancer but at the same time it's really tiring to read.
And then there is the love story and it didn't really work for me. Because if I can't like the characters it's really hard to imagine how they can' love each other, I guess but at the same time all of them were so self-centred that I wasn't sure to see how this work except for the fact that they might want to experience stuff at rushed speed because they don't have time to lose after all.
I think Augustus was a nice guy and that he could have really love Hazel but the problem I have here is that:
1) he was dying without telling her.
2) He wanted to get laid and she was probably the only one around wanting to help with that.
3) He already explained that his previous girlfriend died of brain cancer and he stayed with her by pity, which really doesn't help me trusting his deep feeling for Hazel even though they still felt more genuine than Hazel's feeling for him.
Today I'm reviewing a third book by John Green: Paper Town.
This book is based on two things. The first, Margo Roth Spiegelman a teenager with an history of skipping town for greater adventure while living clues behind for nobody to find her.
The second, Paper Towns, a fake town on a map used to detect plagiarism.
The book is build in the way that we see different angles of Margo through the eyes of Quentin but never one angle that Margo seem to be satisfied with. Margo is like that person who doesn't believe that the sum of her elements make her whole. I think in the end Quentin actually gets that and Margo still doesn't and still look for herself, which made me feel like the whole thing was a bit pointless. Yes, it's true that readers, including me, are probably routing got Margo and Q to get together but that's a John Green book that is sort of based on how real people will act so people in real life never really get those kind of wishes and we don't.
Margo remains in the darkness and still don't understand herself and since the book is about her, I find it a bit annoying.
I mean it's a beautiful read, don't get me wrong but I wished in include and evolution in the character of Margo just like it did for everyone else. For me Margo remain through the entire book the same person and that's really strange considering all that happened. At the same time, she is also repeating the same thing over and over again trying to obtain a different result which is kind of madness.
Today, I'm reviewing "An Abundance of Katherines."
This book is probably the lightest of all John Green's book even though it still tackles the big theme of the meaning of live. I think the main character is sort of depressed but it doesn't appears too much as a sad and overwhelming sort of depression like it does in his other books.
An Abundance of Katherines is a mixture between a road trip and a math problem which makes it a fun read. I think dating 19 Katherines even though possibly unpractical in real life is a funny concept.
The novel is enjoyable even though the ending feels a little rushed.
As you might now, Turtles all the Way Down, John Green's new book is coming out on the 10th of October so I decided to have a Countdown review of all of John Green's book (The one that are solo written) just before the book comes out. I'll probably not get my book on the 10th but hopefully I'll have it soon enough and be able to review it too.
So I'm starting this Countdown with a review of Looking for Alaska which is by far my favorite of John Green's books and the first I ever read.
I read it in a couple of hours. Actually, I was waiting for a friend to get out of class when I read it so I was interrupted but went back to it as soon as I could.
This book is mind-blowingly good. I loved all the characters, they looked so real to me and the story was a lot of fun. I mean yes, it's just teens trying not to be bored but it's just so funny. This book contains a count down which sort of inspired me to do my own Countdown reviews. The main character's little thing is to memorise famous "last words" so it's sort of funny but also very fitting with the story.
Today, I'm reviewing "The Murder of Roge Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie.
This is one of the Agatha Christie's book that I hadn't read yet. I'm not really sure how many more books from her I have left to read since I would have to compare the French and English titles as I read a lot of them in French.
This book is the fourth book in the Hercule Poirot series. You can read the Hercule Poirot book in non particular order though as they aren't really linked together since Poirot investigates different murders in different settings.
I had trouble to read this books. I started multiple times but I never actually managed to finish it until now. And I can understand why it is called the best Agatha Christie's book even though there are a lot that I really like.
Hercule Poirot is Agatha's Christie's famous detective. He is Belgian so sometimes speaks words in French or has a weird English phrasing. People around him always tend to underestimate him even if he is pretty famous for solving cases. They all think he is a bit bizarre in the way he acts and speak which doesn't lead them to take him seriously but of course he doesn't care much because he knows his own abilities.
The story is pretty mind blowing. I mean for most of the book it's just a normal Agatha Christie story with Poirot going around gathering clues and talking to peole in the usual way. Though, when he finally tell you who the murderer is, it's totally over the top and you never could have guessed. In other Agatha Christie's book you can't get either but at least, you suspected. In this one, you can't even suspect. It's really amazing and you should just go and read it.
Today, I'm reviewing Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas. This is the sixth book in the Throne of Glass series.
Why am I reviewing Tower of Dawn without reviewing the other 6 books that comes before (yes I include Assassin's blade) Well, I planned to review them all in a row at first but the thing is, Tower of Dawn is still fresh in my mind while the rest of them even if I know the story and characters are a bit too blurry for a review. So if I want to review them, I'll have to read them again or at least get a refresh and since I have plenty to read I'm not considering doing that any time soon unless someone really wants me to go in details and make a video otherwise, I'll do that when I feel motivated.
So Tower of Dawn is the 6th book even though it's really the 7th and this time it follows Chaol and Nesryn. Thing is people thought it was going to be in Chaol's POV but lucky us we also follow Nesryn when she gets out of the castle. I mean otherwise, it would have just been a magically and pain enhanced romance with a nasty troublemaker. (aka princess Hasar, sorry but that one is a bitch, and not even trying to hide it.)
I didn't like Chaol and Nesryn as a couple, so yeah for this book. But the problem I have with those books is the length of the relationship and the fact that the character sort of jump on the next person they meet like every single time. For example Aelin and Rowan... but then Chaol is doing the same with Yrene and Nesryn is doing the same with Sartaq and I'm like really, I mean can't they just stay single instead of falling for other people even before finishing their current relationship?
Anyway, this book though goes back to have a little bit of mystery like in Crown of Midnight which is still my favorite book in the series. Problem is, it was more centered around Chaol healing which was paired with this relationship with Yrene than on the threat having a Valg around posed. I mean I think we should have seen a lot more death and a lot more attacks. Also, the books were all a bit deal for almost nothing since Yrene figure out stuff on her own and there was a misleading scene about the queen. I seriously thought that she was up to no good which would have made a lot more sense if she was Valg too since she was never actually there.
So that's basically my review. Hopefully, with the next book, we will have all the main characters playing again together. That sounds like fun.
I decided to read A Game of Thrones a while back because I needed to know what everyone was talking about but I can't watch the series if I haven't read the book.
I wasn't really into it when I started and I read a few things between the first chapter and the rest. It was a bit boring at first. But then, I decided to really get into it and I read the rest of the book really fast.
I like that there are multiple POV allowing you to go around the entire world. I also like that there is still a mystery about what happens on the other side of the wall.
The story could be a simple historical tale if it weren't for all the magic and mythology put in place. I really like the that magic and the dragon were gone and that they are sort of coming back.
I wish I knew exactly why and I wondered if it's because Winter is coming.
I like most of the character's POV. The only character that annoyed me was Sansa. I think I have a lot of trouble to relate to her. I don't know why her behavior is so different than her siblings.
This
book was so depressing. It took me forever to read it. I started when I
finished "Kafka on the Shore". It was sort of hard to read because
basically, nothing happens. It's like we follow this guy going to his
daily student life. He is so amorph about everything that's happening
around him that there is no exciting point. When he meets new people or
do something there is never any excitement. Basically, I didn't care
about any of the characters. I think it's one of the rare books when I
was happy to see a character finally disappear. I mean there was no other point in Naoko's life than to die. Really. I understand depressed and overly depressed but I don't understand her take on reality. It
seems like the entire purpose of the book was to show two different
type of depression and two different type of way of going through life
after the suicide of a loved one. On one side, we have Naoko who just
can't get out of her own head. And on the other side, we have Toru who
is nowhere near his until everything collapse. So I don't understand how
she didn't care and I don't understand how he actually didn't. I
know that people love this book so I don't know why I was so bored
reading it. Even the Storm Trooper, I didn't think that was funny. I guess I came to this book after "Kafka on the shore" expecting it to be as mind blowing. Well, my mind wasn't blown. And
still, I think it's a good book. I think there are a lot of little
things and construction in this book that makes it interesting. This
book is really really weird. Seriously, if you want to start on
reading Murakami, don't make this your first book because you might
never pick up another one and that would be a shame.
Today I'm reviewing The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
This review is part of a Buddy Read project so Rishika and I were both reading the same book and will have our videos review up at the same time.
I really like this book and this is actually my third read. I think it has a lot of value as a novel so if you want to read it just as a story. But also has a philosophical reflection on life. It gives a lot of insight and core values about a lot of important things. At the same time it's entertaining and funny.
Bottled is the 1000 years love story of Adeelah, captured and bottled as a genie to serve the purpose of the greediest master on the planet.
She moves from masters to master as her bottle is lost and found, hunted for and kept hidden.
Adeelah dreams of finding her true love, Karim, who has been looking for her bottle all that time. She can't do anything for herself unless her master agrees. She is trapped and slaved. Then one day, she arrives at an Antique store.
This book was a very interesting read, filled with magic and bizarre ideas. Adeelah is a very realistic character. She is so trapped that she become obsessed with the only thing she associate with a time in her life when she was happy, Karim. Even after 1000 years apart, her only wish is to find him. While she grants often against her will the wishes of others, she can't go look for Karim unless her master agrees.
I loved the complexity of the characters, they are very human even though at time, Nathan was just too good, David too evil and Adeelah just frustrated with everything. The good thing is that they learn and grow and has a reader we can see their evolution as the story unfold.
I absolutely loved how Adeelah was able to adapt (or not) to her new place. The language barrier was so funny at time as well as her reaction to new technology. It made the entire story even more palpable and realistic.
I hated Karim on first sight. Sorry Adeelah but what the hell! *I'm not going to say more or I'll have a spoiling rant about the guy.* If you want to see why I hate him so much you'll have to read the book. It's totally worth it!
This is my second book review video and my first book
review in this format. It was a lot of fun to make and I loved to play
with my dolls to make the slow motion part of the story.
It's finally time to open Dal Charlemagne and I say finally because she is one if the dolls I have been wanting for a while because she is the one completing my Dollte-porte series, but I was waiting to order her because she still never felt like a priority over more highly rated or rare dolls.
I'm really happy I managed to find her at the groove sample sale and that the series is finally completed with my four dolls: Pullip Henri (very hard to get), Taeyang Alfred and Isul Vesselle. There is also a Byul in this series but I probably won't get her though I wouldn't mind actually using her outfit on a Dal.
I wanted to so something special for this video so I spent all day yesterday working on it but it didn't turn out as I wanted so I had to rework the concept over the tools that I actually have to make it work. I think I did a good job with it. It was a lot of fun to make, I hope you'll like it and don't miss the secret bonus part at the end. Don't tell anyone I told you about it.
In this video I also review "Victorian", a novel by Jordan Elizabeth Mierek, one of my favorite contemporary authors. The book is the story of two girls with problems undergoing therapy and due to that volunteering in a Victorian fair with ghost. It's really entertaining and you can check my review on goodreads if you want to.
