Long Time No See

School sucks. Well it's not that bad but sometimes it takes over your private time as well and then it's just crappy. So I hope to post some reviews and other things this year but my top priority is passing my exams and starting university next year. This means  I have to study a lot and that doesn't leave enough time to properly read.

Bluh. That's all I can say at the moment, so I'll close with some pictures of my beautiful new bookcase :) More photos and other cool stuff on the Facebook page from Books Are Better Than Pants.

Monday without Moaning

I spent most of the day lying in the sun, just heavenly. Vacation is the best!
I finally passed my car theory exam, so double the happiness.

I started reading Anna and the French Kiss today which is the perfect summer book. You're just sitting in the sun and daydreaming about Paris. There aren't a lot of beter combinations possible unless the involve ice cream.

Reading Shadow of Night Will be continued but I'm still considering what to read next...
I got a giftcard for my birthday so I can buy a book. Any suggestions? Tell me in the comments!

Sunday Stuff

This week went by so fast! Vacation really messes up your sense of time.
Today I celebrated my birthday with my family and some of my friends. It was a lot of fun although I shouldn't have eaten do much cake... especially considering we played our football match of Death afterwards :P
I went to see the Dark Knight Rises on Friday and it was glorious. So awesome and sad at the same time.

As for reading I finished the Gargoyle, Pandemonium and Looking for Alibrandi. I'm halfway done with Shadow of Night.
We're currently attempting to move back to our own house and that's why I haven't read as much as I would have liked.

Review of the Gargoyle is posted and the reviews of Pandemonium and Looking for Alibrandi are coming.

I hope you had a great weekend!

PS. My laptopscreen died Friday and I don't have enough money to buy a new screen at the moment. This means that I'll have to write my posts on my tablet which goes a lot slower... sorry for the inconvenience :(

Review of The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Description from Goodreads:

A young man is fighting for his life.
Into his room walks a bewitching woman who believes she can save him.
Their journey will have you believing in the impossible. 

The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over - he is now a monster.

But in fact it is only just beginning. One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life - and, finally, to love.

Opening Quote:

Love is strong as death, as hard as hell. Death separates the soul from the body but love separates all things from the body.

Review:

When I was a kid, I devoured historical novels. While the other girls where mostly playing with barbies, the scenery of my childhood consisted of the imagined battlefield in the 100th year war between England and France, or travelling to the Indians on a merchants ship or the fantastical world of a futuristic Greenland after the ice has melted and women rule the land. In short: I was and still am a huge history nerd.

So the parts I loved best about this book were the glimpses in the past as told by Marianne. Sometimes they were about the past lives of her and our nameless narrator or the stories of Marianne's various friends. The setting of the tales vary from Japan to Iceland to 13th century Germany. For those who love history I certainly recommend this book.

The once beautiful (or so we are told repeatedly) main character of the book is scarred for life after a horrible accident. He was speeding in his fancy sports car while drunk and high and drove off a cliff. Most of his body is burned and it's still the question if he will get most of his bodily functions working again. While he's lying in the hospital he gives us an objective description of the burn which he researched, everything is told with a certain distant to it. Between the updates of his condition, he tells about his terrible home life. His mother died giving birth to him and it only went downhill from that point on. He's a good learner so he did finish High School, but afterwards he went from modeling to pornography. Now he's 35 with his own production company and makes decent money until the unfortunate accident.

As he tell us: "I'm not a nice person." and doesn't want to be healed. I could empathize with that since he was suffering awful pain and could never get back to the old him. Although he himself is aware that the past him and his past life wasn't that awesome. He's seriously contemplating suicide and has it all thought out until a strange women comes into his life. She tells him stories and reveals later that they were once lovers and that she was waiting for him all along. He thinks she's insane but still craves her company. Slowly through Marianne and with the help of the psychologist and the physical therapist he starts caring about life again. The road to redemption is not an easy journey but he's at least trying to get there.

I liked Marianne a lot as a character and you're constantly trying to figure her out. Because she's such a mystery, I couldn't really identify with her but her stories were great and so interwoven with details.

In the end I could have been more invested in the main characters but the awesome history made up for it.

4 stars 

Monday Moaning

Weekend is over but I still have vacation.

Oh Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh :D

The weather sucks and the rain keeps pouring down like the second Flood is coming. So tonight I'm going to sit in a nicely heated and dry theater and watch 21 Jump Street. The trailer looks funny and the reviews are good, so I expect some good laughs :)

As for my reading this week, I'm still busy in Shadow of Nights which I think is awesome so far.

When I finish that one I'm going to continue in Game of Thrones -also awesome-.
And also I can't wait to finally start The Knife of Never Letting Go. A dystopian where everybody can hear everybody's thoughts. The premise alone sounds really creepy and I've heard great things. It's supposed to be a nail-biting series which every dystopian fan should read.

What are you reading this week? Tell me in the comments!

Sunday Stuff

So since my reading ban has been lifted -by me- I attacked my book mountain like a rabid dog. I finished Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver on Wednesday, I liked it better than the first book in the series, Delirium, but still the series simply isn't for me.

Next up was Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta on Tuesday. It was the only book she has written that I hadn't read yet. Just like the rest of her work it was awesome. You do notice that this was her first novel at some places but the narrator, Josephine Alibrandi, was one of the most relatable characters I've read in a while :)

On Friday, late in the night,  I finished the Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. The story was very unique and I was constantly wondering where the story would go. You were kept on the edge of your seat until the ending. Review is currently being written.

I started Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness yesterday  and I'm liking it a lot. Hoping to finish it tomorrow.

Video I loved

TV's best I love yous *swoon*. Good memories <3

Stacking the Shelves #3

Rules

• Create your own Stacking The Shelves post. You can use my official graphic or your own, but please link back to Tynga’s Reviews so more people can join the fun!
• You can set your post any way you want, simple book list, covers, pictures, vlog, sky is the limit!
• I am posting Stacking The Shelves on Saturdays, but feel free to post yours any day that fits you.
• Visit Tynga’s Reviews on Saturday and add your link so others can visit you!

• Visit other participants link to find out what they added to their shelves!

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (Bought) 



















I was so happy that I found this one in my bookstore. This a perfect vacation book, thick, full of magic and rich history interwoven with an exciting plot. I devoured the first book in the series: A Discovery of Witches, last summer vacation and I've already started this one.

Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Bought)

I've been looking for this book for years and found it recently in a thrift shop. I may have let out a little scream and my day couldn't be ruined afterwards ;)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Bought)


Classic that has been recommended to me a lot, so when I found a hardcover edition in the thrift shop I  couldn't stop myself from buying it.


Salome and other Plays by Oscar Wilde (Bought)


Oscar Wilde is awesome, and this was a cute bound edition of some of his plays.


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (Bought)


We already own the entire series in Dutch and English, but when I leave the house I want them in English for my own. So far I've got one, two, seven and now three. Harry Potter books are forever <3


Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind (Birthday gift)

My boyfriend (who loves everything fantasy) gave me the Dutch edition of Wizard's first rule for my birthday. It's a big one and I think I'm saving this one until


Before I Die by Jenny Downham (Bought)

Bought the Dutch version of Before I Die. It's about a girl who knows she is going to die in four months and makes a to-do before I die list. I've had my fill of cancer books for a while but the reviews are good and the premise sounds interesting.