November 2018 Wrap-Up

Welcome to my first monthly wrap-up! I'm going to list out all the books I read in the month of November, with my ratings and overall impressions for them. I read 10 books in the month of November, and I really loved a lot of them! At the end of the post I will do a "If I could only recommend one...", which is basically my way of expressing my favorite book of the month that I think everyone should read.

# 1: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Rating: 4 stars

Having been completely enraptured by this story from ACOMAF, I loved this book. Seeing all the characters that were introduced in the second book develop and interact and be awesome was amazing. I fangirled too hard after I finished this book, and I'm impatient for the follow-up series to be released.

#2: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
Rating: 4 stars

I cannot read series separated, so of course I had to follow up ACOWAR with ACOFAS. This book was not as good as the first three, but it was never meant to be. It was based on fanfiction that the author wrote for her own series, and it's meant to be light-hearted, giving closure for the first triology and setting up the next one. I still really enjoyed this little story, due mostly to the characters.

#3: La Guerra Sucia by Nathaniel Kirby
Rating: 2 stars

I'm studying abroad in Spain next semester, so I read this book to see how much I could comprehend since it is completely in Spanish. The book is meant for students, so the plot and characters are justly lackluster and predictable. The symbolism in the ending is what gave the book an extra star for me.

#4: The Science of Harry Potter by Roger Highfield
Rating: 2 stars

This was definitely the most disappointing read for me this month!! I love Harry Potter and I love science, so I thought this was a match made in heaven. It was boring, it didn't go in the direction I hoped/thought it would, the writing was sometimes uncomfortable/cheesy and it took me literally 3 months to force myself through it.

#5: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Rating: 3 stars

For the twist at the end, I would have loved to have given this book 4 stars. However, the story just took so long to get through. It was a little boring, a little cliche, and if I hadn't been on a major reading kick at the time of reading it, it would have taken me weeks to get through. It would probably appeal more to avid suspense lovers; I usually favor fantasy/SF more so I didn't get as much out of it.

#6: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Rating: 5 stars

OKAY. So I didn't realize this was a biographical account, I thought it was historical fiction before I started reading. Nevertheless, this book captivated me from the very beginning, and I was distressed through most of it. I love it so much. It is so important to read. Not only is it an amazing story, but I learned so much about WWII that public schools failed to teach me. So good.

#7: Anatomy of a Scientific Discovery: The Race to Find the Body's Own Morphine by Jeff Goldberg
Rating: 3 stars

I think this is the only book I read this month that I don't really have much to say about. It was fine. It was good. It wasn't special. I appreciated the author's inclusion of the scientists' lives (updates on their families, etc.) throughout, but it seemed that the author could not decide if he wanted to target the book toward scientists or everyday readers.

#8: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Rating: 4 stars

I listened to this on audiobook, and it's a good thing I did because otherwise I would have been bored out of my mind. I have trouble with classics; the style of writing just does not keep me engaged. But I liked the story, even if it seemed a bit arbitrary to me. The prose was beautiful, and I understand the hype even though I do not feel super strongly about it.

#9: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Rating: 4 stars

I liked this book. It was an interesting concept, and it drew was strong emotions out of me. I probably wouldn't reread this again soon, but I would recommend it to people who like this kind of historical fiction (similar to To Kill a Mockingbird).

#10: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Rating: 5 stars

So beautiful. Beginning, middle, and end, I was swallowing sobs over the beauty of innocent love and sacrifice. It has a bittersweetness to it, and the story is believable but also relatable, which I consider a feat considering it's set in Ancient Greece. I would definitely recommend this book. It brought me back to my Percy Jackson Greek mythology days, so part of my infatuation was reminiscence, but the writing and the story are still so wonderful.

If I could only recommend one...
This is very hard because there are some very diverse books on this list, and I love a lot of them for different reasons. My honorable mentions will be A Court of Wings and Ruin and The Song of Achilles. I think these are great books that anyone can enjoy.
However! My one book to recommend for this month is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. This is just such an amazing story, especially because it's a true story, and I think that it was a very important read for me. I hope you will pick up a copy and read it soon too!

Review for "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."



Rating: 4 stars

Okay, so I finally read a Jane Austen novel! My best friend is obsessed with Jane Austen and especially Pride and Prejudice, so naturally I didn't tell her I was reading it until I finished or else she would have be badgering me the entire time...
I give this book four stars. The thing is, I did not enjoy it to a four-star level. I enjoyed it to a two- or three-star level. BUT. I recognize that since this is a classic, I couldn't have related to the characters as much as was intended. I also have to mention that the writing really is beautiful; there are some wonderful quotes and the omniscient narration is well-developed.
I think the problems I had with this book are a result of the time period difference. I couldn't relate to the characters the way I was supposed to because their situations and drama are so different than my own. When Lydia is caught living with Wickham before marriage I was like "okay, that's cool", and then everyone started flipping out... Oops.
This also contributed to some of my dislike for the characters. I know that Elizabeth is written to be viewed as a strong independent woman, and my absolute favorite parts of the novel are the chapters when she rejects Collins and Darcy. Golden. But I still found her whiny. And considering she is one of the more level headed characters, that's saying a lot (don't get me started on the cringe I endured every time Mrs. Bennet opened her mouth--which I know is the intended reaction to her character).
Most of the things I've already mentioned didn't contribute to the one lost star in my rating because I recognize, as I mentioned before, the differences between now and the time that this was written. I only gave this book four stars because honestly, I just didn't really get the point.

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."

This quote makes the book seem really important, like it has a good moral to the story that makes it all worth it. False. What is the point of the novel? The entire time I was reading, I just kept thinking "this is just a tea time gossip session." There isn't a directional plot. It's just a snippet of the lives of one family in England. There isn't a rising action, a climax, or a conflict. I suppose I could see the Elizabeth-Darcy romance as being somewhat climactic and conflicting, but it was so minimized by the background noise of everything else in the story that I couldn't even be engaged in it. Why did we need that much background on Darcy/Bingley's penmanship?? Why did we need everything to be explained exclusively through letters? I didn't understand how such a lackluster plot with characters that hardly make up for it can be considered a great classic novel. I'll disclaim this by saying that I am a very plot-driven reader, and I mostly love fantasy novels with lots of action, so my interpretation of the story is not surprising. 
Four stars for writing and narration, and for the lack of plot direction and constant background noise. 

Review for "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

“The dead weren’t numbers on a page. They were their roommates, their drinking buddies, the crew that had been flying off their wing ten seconds ago.”

Rating: 5 stars

WOW. I am completely in shock over the contents of this book. Louie Zamperini’s amazing story is beautifully crafted by Laura Hillenbrand, and the detail that it is told in is absolutely stunning. The seven years of research that Hillenbrand conducted in preparation for this book are very apparent. 

The book gives a complete overview of Louie’s life, divided into five parts. 

The first part recounts his time before he was drafted into the Air Force and his early military days, when he was growing up as a rambunctious child and succeeding as a record-setting Olympic runner. Even this early life biography had me enraptured, despite it not being the more thrilling part of the book. Hillenbrand’s storytelling abilities in this respect are spectacular. 

The second part of the books reviews Louie’s more dangerous military missions, including the ones that his crew and plane survived, and the mission that sent his aircraft into the sea. Even as someone who is not super interested in war stories and military events, I was still captured by this part of the book. 

The third part of the book is the story of Louie and two of his crewmates lost at sea, afloat in a tiny life raft that was extremely inadequately stocked for extended periods of isolation on the ocean. It recounts Louie, Phil, and Mac’s struggle to survive against starvation, thirst, frenzies of incessantly pursuant Pacific sharks, insanity, heat, enemy fighter planes, and illness resulting from a combination of these factors. This section of the book had me constantly holding one hand to my temple, actually in fear over what was happening and what was going to happen to Louie (especially during the shark parts!!). I knew he was going to survive because parts 1-3 aren’t even half the book, but HOW could he??? It was truly exhilarating. 

The fourth part of Unbroken, the longest of the four parts, centers around Louie’s time in as a POW after he is captured by the Japanese military (47 days after his plane crashed). If the previous part had be terrified, this part had me angry and fuming over the events that nearly killed Louie multiple times. The author’s emphasis on the dehumanization aspect, the stripping of dignity, and the emotional turmoil of being constantly demoralized, belittled, and humiliated, really consolidated these emotions in me as I read. I was still enthralled, but it was fueled by an anguished need to finish the book and find out that it had a happy ending. This part also really enlightened me on aspects of WWII that I had never been taught in school. While in Germany POWs were kept in war camps that were under the regulations of the Geneva Convention, Japan was an unrestricted horror show for POWs. After reading books like Night (Elie Weisel), I had assumed Nazi Germany was the worst of the worst in WWII, but I was clearly not well informed on the role of Japan during the war. I think it’s common to be taught more about the European Theatre during WWII (and about the Holocaust without mention of the war itself) than to learn about the Pacific side of it, so this story opened my eyes in addition to having a clear emotional impact on me. 

The fifth part of the story is the resolution, after Louie is liberated from the Japanese war camp and returns home to his family. I was unsurprised by a lot of the events of this part, but what stood out to me was how Hillenbrand consistently wove different stories together, and how those stories all fit. Louie’s retribution is recounted, but part 5 also talks about the fate of one of the war camp torturers in detail, along with giving general facts and statistics about life after being a POW for WWII veterans. This interweaving style of storytelling is done consistently throughout the whole book but it stood out to me here. 

“If they were going to die in Japan, at least they could take a path that they and not their captors chose, declaring, in this last act of life, that they remained sovereign over their own souls.” 

This book consistently provides contexualization, relevant statistics, and a captivating storytelling tone that will leave readers hypnotized by Louie Zamperini’s story. Five stars, and I recommend this book to everyone. 

Welcome to Lynsie Loves Literature

Hi! My name is Lynsie and I love to read. I started this blog without the intention of anyone actually seeing it, so if you're here, welcome!

What kind of books do I read?
Favorite genres: YA/NA fantasy, science fiction, memoir, contemporary
I'm trash for a good high fantasy or paranormal romance series! I love YA and highly prefer series over standalone. I also can find a book enjoyable solely for plot/characters, in spite of "bad writing" (a guilty pleasure, honestly).

On this blog I will be posting reviews and popular book tags. I love Booktube, so I draw a lot of inspiration from there.

Here is a guide to my rating system:
5 stars: Not only do I love this book, but it made me feel a very intense feeling. Usually a book that makes me so happy that I actively look up fan art/merch of the book/series later, so sad that I cry, or so angry that I want to punch a wall (it is my personal opinion that an author that can make you feel any emotion very intensely has made an effective piece of literature).
4 stars: I really like this book, and I would recommend it to almost anyone.
3 stars: This book is fine, but I didn’t feel much reading it. There way be minor details about the writing or plot devices that bother me. I may recommend this book to people with different reading tastes than me.
2 stars: I have major problems with aspects of this book. I could suggest many things I didn’t like about it, and I would not like to read it again. I will not recommend this book.
1 star: This book had a lot of problems! I found myself incredulous while reading at how unenjoyable or illogical it was, or I was so bored that i wanted to DNF.

A couple more general things:

• I do not DNF! It may take me months to finish a book because I dislike it, but I will eventually finish it.
• I have to read books in a series all together. The exception is if it's a new series so the books are only coming out once a year. It is for this reason that I tend to wait until an entire series is published to start it. I may also do a review of books as a series, rather than reviewing the individual books.
• I might recommend books that I myself did not enjoy. I can appreciate that people have different book tastes, especially if my opinion on a book is an unpopular one.

Thanks for checking out my page! You can find me on Goodreads under my user name Lynsie Daniels.

Happy reading!