MONTHLY READS - DECEMBER

Hello! Welcome to 2016's last monthly reads.

First of all, I wish you all the very best in 2017. I hope you all find what you're looking for this year, that you find who and what you love. That you spend many amazing moments with your loved ones, that you see many beautiful sunsets, read lots of great books, continue doing what you love and that you all make peace with yourselves. May this year be all that 2016 wasn't.

Secondly, I wanted to thank you guys for sticking up with me even though I haven't been active at all in these past few months. These are indeed the hard times. :-) I'm not dead, I'm just really trying to focus on school this year since I'm graduating in few months time and I'm also trying to get my lazy ass to a university. I myself hope I'll have more time for blogging in the months to come but until then, here's a really short list of books I managed to read in December.

Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo

Genre: YA fantasy

First published: 2015

Pages: 462

Language: English

Type: paperback 

Rating: 5/5

Let me tell you something guys. The moment I finished the book, I placed an order for the sequel, Crooked Kingdom. I'm not even joking, it's that good. I promise you, reading this YA fantasy is so worth it. The world building is absolutely incredible, the plot twist will hit you like a cannonball, the characeters are complex and you're going to love them, laugh with them, cry with them and long for more time spent with them. Bargudo's work is absolutely unbelievable. Go and read this.

If You Could See Me Now

Cecelia Ahern

Genre: novel

First published: 2005

Pages: 400

Language: English

Type: paperback

Rating: 3/5

I was given this book as a gift from my great friend because she herself absolutely adored it and thought that I just had to read it. And it was a nice read. This book about imaginary friends who change people's life was great, I liked the way Elizabeth changed under the influence of Ivan. Just make sure to bring a few packs of tissues with you when reading this, you'll need them.

Also, how was Christmas for you? Did you find any great books under the Christmas tree? And do you have any resolutions for 2017? Let me know!

MONTHLY READS - NOVEMBER

So! In October I managed to read five books. This months it's only two. Things have been pretty hectic for the past few months so I'm really happy when I even have some time to read. Let's look at the books I read this month.

Angels & Demons

Dan Brown

Genre: mystery, thriller

First published: 2000

Pages: 620

Language: English

Type: paperback

Rating: 5/5

As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of Dan Brown's novels. I've read several, including Digital Fortress (review) and The Da Vinci Code (review), and I have loved them all. I'm simply a slut for conspiracies, art, symbology and secret societies. I loved this book.


Me Before You
Jojo Moyes

Genre: realistic fiction
First published: 2012
Pages: 481
Language: English
Type: paperback

Rating: 5/5

I have been putting this book off for quite a time and now I finally managed to jump on the bandwagon. I'm still recovering from reading this book, it was absolutely brilliant. I loved Moyes's writing style, I loved the characters, I loved the plot. I consider this a pretty great read.


Well, that's about it. I definitely hope I'm going to have some more time to read in the months to come. But now, let's turn the page. What about your Novembers? How was the last month for you? Any highlights? Books we all should check out? Let me know in the comments!

(I'm, once again, sorry for the lack of posts, I swear I'm working on doing something about it!)

MONTHLY READS - OCTOBER

Hi bookworms! October is Octover so I have another monthly reads for you!

I'm sorry for the lack of posts in the past two months, I really am. The thing is, my phone broke down at the end of August and it's still not repaired, and I don't really feel like making posts without photographs in them. Hopefully the phone will be back in no time now.

Let's have a look at how I managed with my reading in October. Just because I'm not reviewing doesn't mean I'm not reading, even though my September monthly reads post might have made you think otherwise. Let's have a look at what I read this month!

In October aka Halloween month I managed to read five books. That's way better than last month! So, without further ado, let's have a look at them.

Má Bohéma

Arthur Rimbaud

Genre: poetry

First published: —

Pages: 200

Language: Czech

Type: Hardback

Rating: 5/5

As you can probably say by now, I'm very fond of poetry — and Rimbaud is hands down one of my most favourite poets. Reading his poems when the cover looks the way it does was absolutely dreamy. I enjoyed it very much. I liked Vítězslav Nezval's translation and I'm definitely planning on getting this little book in English, too.


Květy Zla
Charles Baudelaire

Genre: poetry
First published: 1857
Pages: 184
Language: Czech
Type: hardback

Rating: 5/5

I couldn't possibly read Rimbaud's poems without reading the poems of a person he considered to be something like a god, could I? Baudelaire has his rightful place in my heart. Again, this books was translated by Vítězslav Nezval and he did a really good job. Again, look at the beautiful cover art. I'm crying at how beautiful it is. Two of my most favourite things — art and poetry — collided and made something beyond perfect. And again, I'm planning on getting this book in English as well.


Král Lávra
Karel Havlíček Borovský

Genre: poetry
First published: 1870
Pages: 38
Language: CzechType: e-book

Rating: 2/5

What can I say. It's a Czech classic and I only read it because it's short and it's for school. It's accompanied by a few drawings that made it more exciting to read, but in overall it was the average for me. Two out of five stars.



Romeo and Juliet | Romeo a Julie
William Shakespeare

Genre: tragedy
First published: 1595
Pages: 203
Language: Czech / English
Type: hardback

Rating: 4/5

I absolutely loved this. I saw a really great version of the play earlier this year (at the start of September) and I simply adored it. It was funny, sad, all that it should be. I read it for school, yes, but it's one of the school readings that I do not mind at all and that I will love getting back to. If you haven't read Shakespeare, do yourself a favour and do it. Just for the sake of the humour in that.


Carry On
Rainbow Rowell

Genre: YA, fantasy

First published: 2015

Pages: 521

Language: English

Type: paperback

Rating: 5/5

Finally. Finally a book that helped me out of my misery, out of my reading slump. Baz and Simon are exactly what I needed. This whole book is exactly what I needed. Lesbian pixies, gay vampires, bisexual mages. It was something totally different than I expected from Rainbow after my last experience with her book, but this just entirely overcame my expectations. I absolutely loved it and I highly recommend this book to all fans of YA novels with ships that have the power to end you. And also to all those who are not really huge YA fans, you will be after reading this, trust me. A more detailed review is to come, so stay tuned!

What about your October? How was it? Any tips for great books or warnings about books we shouldn't even put our hands on? 

TIME TO TALK | My prejudices against Czech authors

Hello and welcome to a new category where I'm going to talk about anything book-related when I feel like sharing my opinions (which is pretty often). In today's "episode" of Time To Talk I'm going to tell you something about my prejudices against Czech authors.

As a person born and raised in a really small country in the middle of Europe, I’ve never really been proud of my ancestry, I’ve never been what you would call a patriot. I’ve never felt there was anything to be proud of about being Czech. Maybe it was because the world sees our country as something really insignificant, even though there are many things we as a nation had accomplished. (Like seriously, we've done some good stuff. Read about a few of our inventors or a few quite impressive Czech people.) I’ve just always felt kind of invisible in this America-centered world and I found myself being kind of under the pressure of keeping up with the goings-on in the world rather than with the goings-on in my own country. I just thought that things concerning this little place on Earth weren’t as important or as interesting.

In all my life, I’ve always had this problem with reading books by Czech authors. If I were to choose between a book by a Czech author and an American author, I’d never even think about taking the former. I would immediately reject it without even looking at it. It was simply because I thought Czech books weren’t important and interesting because nobody outside of our borders ever reads them, right? Nobody knows about our authors, they barely know we’re not Czechoslovakia anymore. So I thought, why would I waste my time with reading books nobody cares about when there are all these great and awesome foreign books coming out every single day?

I kinda blame the booklr and book-blogging community for this mindset of mine. Seeing all the new and exciting books everyone talks about all the time and never seeing a single Czech one really makes you question laying your hands on Czech books. There's this kind of pressure to keep up with the Cool Guys on the Internet who read all the Cool Books and write about them — so you don't really consider reading books that they don't even know about existing. And that's really toxic. You're missing out on great books that don't have this super-duper hype about them. That's the case of many Czech books.

The fact that the books they tell you about in school are just the old ones written in a language that’s hard to understand for a twelve-year-old doesn’t really add up to this. The twelve years old me simply wasn’t interested in Božena Němcová and Karel Čapek. I simply believe that books have their right timing in our lives and these books just found me in the worst time possible. I wanted to read new and exciting things, I didn’t want to worry about not understanding a single thing of what I was reading.

Recently, however, the right time has come. I started discovering books written by Czech authors that are just beautiful. Whether it’s the story that makes them beautiful or the usage of language, I realised that there, in fact, are Czech books that are worth reading and worth my time. I discovered Jan Otčenášek, whose Romeo, Juliet and darkness is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read (it’s more the beautiful writing than the story itself), and I discovered Milan Kundera (whose writing is good but I don’t really like him as a person). And I’m really trying to be open and to step out of my comfort zone and discover more and more Czech authors who are actually pretty great and who give me a reason to be proud of my nationality.

The point is, let’s just try and not have prejudices. Let’s try and be open to trying new things and let’s just try stepping out of our comfort zones more often. Because there are good things waiting out there, they just need to be discovered.

What about you? Do you read books written by your "home authors"? And who are some of your favourite non-English authors? Definitely share them with me!

MONTHLY READS - SEPTEMBER

Oh, how fast the time flies!

My final year of high school started this month. That means I'm graduating in spring. Yay. And that means my TBR pile had to be put down for a bit to make more space for the books I need to read for school. And let me tell you, reading school books wasn't exactly an easy task since last month, in August, I experienced a terrible reading slump.

Well, I tried to go back to my regular reading habits. It wasn't easy at all, since I was moving the house (again) in the middle of the month. Let's have a look at how I managed. I tried, okay? I tried.

Romeo, Julie a tma (Romeo, Juliet and Darkness)

Jan Otčenášek

Genre: novella

First published: 1956

Pages: 142

Language: Czech

Type: e-book

Rating: 4/5

I read this book for school. And let me tell you, I need to stop having prejudices against Czech authors. The language of this book is so beautiful that it made me grateful for having Czech as my mother tongue. I loved every single written sentence.

This is a story about Pavel and Ester, a Jewish girl, in the time of the Heydrichiade. It's actually exactly what the title says it is — a story about a Romeo and Juliet, two young people who cannot be together because of the Darkness. Darkness here symbolises the nazi Germany. I love books about the second world war and this one was absolutely beautiful and awfully sad. I definitely recommend this book to everyone.

Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen

Genre: novel

First published: 1811

Pages: 261

Language: English

Type: paperback

Rating: 4/5

I love Jane Austen's novels. Reading them is always such a delightful experience. I don't even have words to describe her genius anymore. Just go read her books, it will not disappoint, I promise.

As you can see, I'm still struggling with the reading slump. I hope that after two months of being terrible, my reading will finally get better next month. Wish me luck.

What about you? How was your "back-to-school" month? Any new book discoveries you'd like to share? New books that were published this month you think are definitely worth it? Let me know in the comments!

RECOMMENDATION | The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

Hello!

Welcome to another one of the recommendation posts. Today, I'm going to talk about a book that was given to me by one of the most interesting ladies I've ever met and that absolutely changed the way I see lots of things now. The book is called The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

This book is not only full of things such as running from the government that wants the main characters, but it's also one of the best books containing spirituality I've ever read.

It talks about insights that were mentioned in an ancient Peruvian manuscript, and secrets that are supposed to be changing the world. This books talks about everything from noticing the coincidences happening in your life to controlling dramas we had learned as children to get energy.

I absolutely love this book. I love everything about energies and auras and spiritual (not religious!) things. I definitely think there are people who will say it's rubbish, but this book meant a lot to me when I read it, so I'm passing it on.

Do you know this book? Have you read it? What do you think about it? And do you know any other books that are like this one? Let me know!

MONTHLY READS - AUGUST

Hello, sweet peas!

I'm here today (I'm a day late today, woah, what a mess have I become?) with my birthday month's wrap up. (That's right, I'm an adult Leo now. Incredible.)

Last month, in July, I read seven great books. This month, in August, I experienced the worst reading slump ever. I've read three books in the first week of August and then I just stopped, unable to find the will to read again. In the end, I read only four books. Let's have a look at them, anyway!

Finders Keepers

Nicole Williams

Genre: NA, romance

First published: 2013

Pages: 310

Language: English

Type: e-book

Rating: 5/5

I continued with reading the Lost and Found series. It just hit me in all the right places and I simply had to read on. This book doesn't revolve around Jesse and Rowen anymore (but don't worry, there's plenty of them in this book). In this one, we focus on Garth Black, easily my most favourite character of them all. Yes, that's right. I like him as much as I love Jesse Walker. 

This story is absolutely heartbreaking. It left me ugly sobbing at three AM after I'd read it in one sitting. I'm so in love with this series and the characters that I feel like my heart might burst out at any given moment. You should definitely read it, but if you need any more convincing, go and read the whole review.

Losers Weepers

Nicole Williams

Genre: NA, romance

First published:

Pages: 258

Language: English

Type: e-book

Rating: 4/5

I didn't even know it and I was reading the fourth book in the Lost and Found series. I started regretting I started reading the moment I did, because they were all so happy at the end of book three and I was happy for them and all was well. And then it all went to ... yes, there.

I actually don't know what to think about this one. I mean, yes, it was a great lovestory, but I had a few issues with it, that's why I gave it "only" four stars. Like Garth, for example. This whole chivalric I-gotta-leave-they'll-be-better-off-without-me attitude was starting to get a bit annoying, and I'm kind of not sure about the way disability is pictured there. On the other hand, I enjoyed the book and I was kind of sad at this point because I only had one more to go.

Heart & Soul

Nicole Williams

Genre: NA, romance
First published:
Pages: 192
Language: English
Type: e-book

Rating: 5/5

The final book in the  Lost and Found series once again revolves mainly around Rowen and Jesse, who have to overcome Rowen's health problems that come along with her being pregnant. We, of course, do see quite a bit of Garth and Josie, but the focus is on the former two. It was really a brilliant ending to this amazing series.


The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde

Genre: philosophical fiction
First published: 1890
Pages: 177
Language: English
Type: paperback

Rating: 5/5

When I get into a reading slump, re-reading my favourite book helps. I loved the book as much as when I was reading in for the first time. Maybe even a little bit more.

What about you and your August in books? Would you recommend any of your reads to us? And what do you do to avoid/get out of a reading slump? Share all of that in the comments with me!