January Wrap Up

I read 7 books in January which I am pretty pleased with since it kept me on track for my 100 books challenge (although I am now 2 books behind, oops!) I actually really enjoyed every book I read in January which is nice, although a lot of them were very different to each other, and a couple were a bit different to what I would normally read.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian is about a girl and her father, and their pursuit of the real life Count Dracula. I have mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed reading it, but I think that may mainly be because I love Dracula, rather than because it was actually that good. I'll admit that the ending and the final reveal seemed a little anticlimatic, though I guess when you spend 600 pages building tension in anticipation of the ending, it's always going to be a little bit disappointing. The characters were a little bit one-dimensional, and I didn't find myself caring that much what happened to them, but the story was still very exciting, and I loved reading all about their travels around France and Eastern Europe - this was one of those books that really immerses you in the setting and makes you want to travel (anyone want to take me to Istanbul?). Also the switching perspectives and use of letters and diaries to tell the story reminded me a lot of Stoker's Dracula (which in case I hadn't mentioned: I love). Overall I enjoyed this book, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea, especially since it's really long.

6.5 out of 10

Pure by Andrew Miller

This was one of my Christmas presents (thanks Mum and Dad!), I actually raced through the first 100 pages or so on the morning of Christmas day and I found it really gripping. The story is a little odd - it's set just before the French Revolution, but isn't actually about the political situation at the time (not really, anyway). It's about a struggling engineer who takes a job clearing out an overcrowded graveyard in Paris. Plot-wise, not a whole lot actually happens in this novel, but the writing is really beautiful, and compelling despite the fact that there's not very much action. This book isn't one I would normally pick up, but I found it really interesting and it made me want to read more novels set in that time period.

7 out of 10

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

I absolutely loved this book. Most people have probably heard about it now since the movie is out this month (not in the Netherlands though, so I haven't seen it yet). I went into this with pretty low expectations, since the premise is pretty silly - a zombie romance? What is that even called, rom-zom? I've heard this book called a rom-zom-com which is just... I have no words about that. I think most people have been pretty sceptical about this story (I've heard it called 'Twilight with Zombies' - though definitely by people who haven't actually read it) - the romance stuff puts off the zombie fans, and the zombie stuff puts off the romance fans, but since I love both zombies and romance, I decided to give it a go. First of all, the writing is just really great, the prose is beautiful, it's funny, but actually pretty deep at times too - lots of introspective stuff on the nature of humanity and what it means to actually be alive... basically it's just all around great. As for the story itself, it's actually very interesting when thinking about the zombie genre as a whole - it reminded me a lot of I Am Legend where SPOILER ALERT the zombies actually evolve into a new (intelligent) form of humanity. The zombie apocalypse story has been played out so many times over the past 30 years or so, and it tends to be the same story every time - end of the world scenario, small group of survivors, someone is elected leader, maybe they turn on each other etc etc. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love The Walking Dead, but it's interesting to see the zombie apocalypse scenario played out in such a different way. This is a quote from the author when asked what he would say to people who compared Warm Bodies to Twilight - 

It's completely different in tone, style, content, and themes. Warm Bodies is dark and satirical, has a nasty sense of humor, is full of blood, sex, drugs and foul language, and is not about romance so much as the meaning of being human. A love story is the engine for all of this, but the destination is not "Aw, they're going to fall in love!" it's, "Aw, they're going to crack the code of humanity's spiritual entropy and try to revive civilization!"

I think that pretty much says it all!

10 out of 10

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
This is another one that I absolutely loved. I got it at the airport when I was flying back to the Netherlands after Christmas (because I was sad and buying books cheers me up), I started reading it then and there and had finished it by the time I got home. I really enjoy reading books narrated by someone with some kind of psychological problem (is that weird?) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are the ones that spring to mind, and this novel actually reminded me a lot of Perks, a more adult version anyway. This book was just great, it's a really quick read, the characters are complex and flawed and interesting, and it's very easy to get invested in the story. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried more than once. I have seen the movie as well, and I think I'll post a book and movie comparison some time in the next couple of weeks.

10 out of 10

Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison (Illustrated by Dave McKean)

This was another Christmas present (thanks Toby!) and it was freaking awesome. Despite the fact that I love superheroes in general and Batman in particular, I don't actually read a lot of graphic novels, mainly because they're SO expensive. The only other Batman graphic novel I've read is Year One, which was great but this was WAY better. I've played the Arkham Asylum video game though, so I was already familiar with the story and I knew the twist (which I kind of wish I didn't). Like I said, I haven't read very many graphic novels so I don't have a huge basis for comparison, but the artwork in this was absolutely incredible, overall Arkham Asylum gave me more of a sense of flipping through a book illustrations than reading a story. There wasn't very much text but it still managed to get the story across really effectively, and be very disturbing. My only criticism of this would be that most of the writing was absolutely minuscule and really difficult to read.

8 out of 10

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

I read this because I had just ordered The Child Thief by Gerald Brom, which is sort of a dark re-imagining of the whole Peter Pan myth, and I wanted to be familiar with the source material before I read it. I'm not sure if I ever actually read this as a child, but I really enjoyed reading it as an adult. I found it really interesting, because most of the stories which have kind of permeated our cultural consciousness and popular culture in the way Peter Pan has tend to be are fairy tales which can't really be assigned to one author (apart from Alice in Wonderland I guess...and probably others that I can't think of right now). Anyway, this book is just a little gem, it's actually really funny and I'm sure if I had read it as a child most of that would have gone over my head, but it's also very sweet and a little weird and just great in general. Also I found myself rooting for Captain Hook rather than Peter, and also a little bit in love with him, is that weird? I don't care.

8 out of 10


The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Yet another book that I really enjoyed! Since I graduated my reading habits have been a little more towards the low-brow end of the spectrum, so I thought I'd give this a go to try and break that slump, and I ended up loving it! Chopin's writing reminds me a lot of Katherine Mansfield, who I studied at university, so I found it interesting to compare the two of them. Another reason that I enjoyed this was that I love reading novels which are set in the deep South of America, their culture is just so weird to me that I find it really fascinating. The prose in this was really lovely, and it's a very short book so I think I finished it in a day.

7 out of 10

So that's all for January! I've finished 4 books in February so far, so I have some catching up to do for my 100 books challenge, but I have some new books that I'm really excited to read so I should be able to do that soon!