Readathon 2016: Books 21-25

Readathon 2016: Books 1-5

Readathon 2016: Books 6-10

Readathon 2016: Books 11-15

Readathon 2016: Books 16-20

It took some time to read the next 5 books. The reason for that was a combination of being busy, traveling, guests visiting and one of the books being City on Fire!

21. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen.

Readathon category: A book by two or more authors

Imagine the known story of Pride and Prejudice, but with zombies lurking around. I was not very impressed. The biggest part of the book is just Pride and Prejudice, which I had just spent so much time reading. There are at most 3-4 scenes with some zombie fighting and the rest of the “zombification” of the book are small insertions, such as cleaning guns instead of reading. It just doesn’t feel like the author worked very hard on this. But kudos to him for making it so popular and getting a movie deal.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

22. The Beauty, by Aliya Whiteley

Readathon category: A book with less than 150 pages

Unfortunately I have no dress with mushrooms (weird, I have so many dresses with weird stuff, why not mushroom?). So I wore something yellow-ish. And there is a leaf, it kind of fits. Anyway, read the book and you will get it.

This is a tiny post-apocalyptic book. All women have died. The story is set in a camp somewhere in USA. The men try to live their days in an organized group. Then, something live comes out of the women’s graves…

This book could have easily been a trilogy of 400 pages for each book. Instead the author chose to make it 100 pages. And it is enough. You don’t feel like anything is missing. In these 100 pages, the author manages to question the roles of the sexes, how far can you go from what is considered normal and acceptable after the world has more or less been destroyed and how far should you go to protect the future of your species.

I liked it, both for the post-apocalyptic story and for the questions raised.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

 

23. City on Fire, by Garth Risk Hallberg

Readathon category: A book everyone talks about

I really didn’t know what to wear for this book, set in New York City in the 70s. Since it is set mostly in the winter and there are some punks in the story, I chose this coat.

I haven’t been asked so many times about a book as for this one. It is a very well-heard book, because of the huge payment the author received (a record for a debut). But the problem is, the book is about 1000 pages long. And big pages! It is actually 1024 pages in the greek version, which made the computer-geek side of me me so happy every time I was seeing that number 🙂

People want to read it but they are scared to start it. And that is a correct concern. I invested a lot of time in it. So this is my review:

I did not get bored almost at any point. This is a huge accomplishment because I can get bored with books, especially if there is no dialogue or narration. So not being particularly bored for 1024 pages, is a big plus. But on the other hand, I did not get very absorbed. I did not have dreams about this book. I did not care that much about the characters. Shouldn’t I care after reading so much about them? I only kind of close with the two teenagers. There are many characters in the book. Each chapter is from the viewpoint of one character. It started with 4-5 main characters, but I think it was more than 10 in the end. There was nothing big happening in the book, I was not interested to see what would happen in any of the stories. I was just reading it. I guess I would describe it as a good quality soap opera in the form of a book. To sum up, if you don’t read particularly fast, you can only spent some hours within the week reading and you think it will take you months to finish it, better not read it. It is not a masterpiece.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

24. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote

Readathon category: A novella

The story of an impressive young girl that made her living by flirting with men. I had watched the movie some years ago. I don’t remember it very well, but the atmosphere was totally different than what I got from the book. The book is much more realistic and un-romantic. It is the kind of story that, although you can’t say why, you understand why it is a classic.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

 

25. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Readathon category: A book where the main character is a child or a teenager

Ugh, I don’t like that photo at all. But I am running out of clothes… And I am not even in the middle of the readathon!

This book is surely one of the best Young Adult books. It deals with family and friendship and love, but in a special and mature way. The main character is a teenager with psychological issues that starts hanging out with a new group of friends. We learn about his new friends and his family through his letters to an anonymous person. I really liked the writing of this book. It felt very realistic and really kept you focused in the book. Recommend!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐