Leigh Bardugo

New year, new beginnings! And when we talk beginnings, we mean series! Just what series, exactly, we couldn’t agree on, so you’ll get a bunch of interpretations for this topic. I’m really bad at keeping up with new releases, so that one was out of the question for me. In the end, I went with series I want to start in 2021. It’s not like I have a shortage of those …

Late as always (but earlier than last year, ha! I’m getting better at this!): Looking back on the books I read in 2017 – the good, the bad, and the ugly (crying)!

The number one reason why I love Frankfurt Book Fair (beside meeting my bookish friends, that is): the tons of books I carry home with me each year!

October is definitely my favourite month of the year. However, with the Frankfurt Book Fair, it’s also incredibly stressful. I didn’t manage to read as much as I wanted, but there were quite a few books I really enjoyed.

I read and reviewed Shadow and Bone in 2013. Spoiler: I didn’t like it much, which is why I never bought the sequels. A small part of me, however, was curious how the story would continue so when I got my new library membership, this was the first book I picked up. And what can I say? I’m glad I didn’t invest in the English hardcovers. I just can’t warm up to this series. Maybe I’m a little more critical than I usually would be because I didn’t like the first one. I don’t want to get too much into details here to keep it spoilerfree, but I’ve got a couple of things I want to address …

Hey, I’m even a little over a month earlier than last year! As always, I semi-prepared this but didn’t finish in time, but wanted to finish it nevertheless. It’s supposed to be functioning as a memory aid for my future self. Anyway, here are some of the books I’ve read in 2016 and my thoughts on them …

They divide books into delicious morsels ready to be devoured – and sometimes we decide to eat up the whole serving tray in one go resulting in a major hangover with the flavour of our huge disappointment that there’s nothing left. They help us remember where we left off – well, at least those people who have awesome memory. Everyone else lets the good old bookmarks do the remembering. They are wonderful excuses to procrastinate – “Just let me finish this.” – “Only one more.” – we’ve all been there. Sometimes, they make us tear out our hair because they leave off with a cliffhanger and we have to stop to do annoying real life stuff or have to read half the book to get back to this certain point of view – or even one and a half books, in case you’re reading A Song of Ice and Fire. They come in different sizes and even more shapes to look their very best.