Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Want To Read This Summer

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme 

created by The Broke and the Bookish.

I know it is already Thursday and Tuesday was two days ago, but I thought I would still participate in this week's Top Ten Tuesday anyways. Its better late than never, am I right?!

Here are my Top Ten (or twelve) books I want to read this summer! I'm kind of cheating a little because I couldn't narrow it down to only ten, sorry!

              

  

   

  

 

  

What books are you planning on reading this summer?


Look out for my next blog post for my full Summer TBR!

ANNOUNCEMENT: I am participating in Bout of Books 19!

I am so beyond excited to participate in the Bout of Books Read-a-thon 19 this week and I hope you will join me! It started yesterday, but I am finally done with finals and have time to read! I am looking forward to getting so much reading done this week.

Here is my TBR for the Read-a-thon!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 8th and runs through Sunday, May 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 19 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

First I need to finish:

Then I am going to choose from:

If you're participating in the read-a-thon, what are you planning on reading?

"The Night Circus" By: Erin Morgenstern Book Review

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."

"The Night Circus" is a story about a circus, but not just any circus. A black and white circus with different tents that each hide an exhibit full of magic beyond your imagination. There are also two magicians that duel to the death and the circus is their stage.

Erin Morgenstern has a beautifully descriptive writing style, that takes you to a whole other place. I love how she describes the beautiful imagery from both the vantage points of the patrons of the circus and those who's lives are the circus. The setting of this book, Le Cirque des Reves, The Circus of Dreams, is such a unique circus and it is described in beautiful flowing prose.

This book takes place between the 1800s and 1900s and Erin Morgenstern does a wonderful job including and weaving all of the details to create a flawless representation of this century. Every detail from the dresses, down to Marco's bowler hat screams late 1800s and early 1900s. Every descriptive detail made me feel like I was there in that time period, with the rest of the characters.

The story is told from many vantage points and I absolutely loved hearing about the circus and story from both sides of the gate. Each chapter is told in third person, sometimes third person omniscient, and is about a different character, and a different event during a different time. You get the perspective of Marco, Celia, Bailey, Herr Friedrick Thiessen, Hector Bowen, Chandresh, Isobel, and others. Bailey is a boy who grew up traveling through the field from his backyard to visit the circus every time it showed up unexpectedly. Herr Friedrick Thiessen, is the one who made the clock that sits inside the circus and fell in love with the circus, starting a chain reaction. Celia is not only the illusionist at the circus, but she is also one of the magicians involved in a magical duel. Marco is the assistant of the circus proprietor and is a magician on the side. Isobel is the fortune teller at the circus and Chandresh is the circus proprietor. We see how each of their lives was affected by the circus and we also get to travel through the century and around the world with this book. From London, to New York City, to Boston, to Munich and a lot of other places. Its a magical, whimsical, roller coaster ride around the world.

The characters were also very well developed and so engaging. The masters of both Marco and Celia were so devious and vengeful. While, Marco and Celia themselves were both so woeful. I loved Marco so much, because he was so mysterious, charming and handsome, from his bowler hat to his personality. Every detail woven together, from the characters' words, to their dress, to their actions, makes these characters so unique and dynamic. These characters are definitely bound to each other and the circus.

"The Night Circus" is amazing and with the powerful imagery you will not only get to travel around the world and feel like your in the era, but you will also feel like you are at the circus with the rest of the characters. You will be able to see every black and white detail in your mind's eye and smell the caramel corn and taste it on the tip of your tongue. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

My Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Paw Prints

TomeTopple Round 3 Wrap-up 2017

I thoroughly enjoyed participating in TomeTopple Round 3! Even though I only completed one book out of the two I read, I am still really proud of myself considering how busy I have been!

How did you do during TomeTopple Round 3?

Pages I Read Per Day:

Day 1 

50 pages

Day 2

100 pages 

Day 3

50 pages

25 pages

Day 4

98 pages

Day 5 

76 pages 

Day 6

8 pages

Day 7 

82 pages

Day 10

10 pages

Day 11

13 pages 

Day 12

77 pages

Day 13

112 pages 

(Completed)

Tomes I Completed:

Total Pages I Read:

200 Pages of "Outlander"

+

512 of "The Night Circus"

= 712 total pages

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon 2017 TBR

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon is a read-a-thon where you read as many books as you can in 24 hours and you can participate in challenges as well!

Click here for more information!

For this read-a-thon I am planning on reading:

What are you planning on reading during this round of Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon?

"The Book Thief" By: Markus Zusak : One Of My Favorite Books Of All Time

Aaaaaaaah I loved this book so freaking much!!!!

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak is most definitely one of my favorite books I have read so far this year and probably one of my favorite books of all time!

This story is set during World War II in Germany and follows a girl named Liesel Meminger, a foster girl who is living in Munich with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Since she is now all alone in a place foreign to her, she finds comfort through books and because of them she finds out how powerful words are. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, or Papa as she calls him, she learns how to read and her love for reading and need for more books grows. She starts to steal more and more books, and so the title book thief was given to her. Not only do Liesel's books comfort her, but she reads them in the bomb shelter during the bomb raids in order to comfort others. She also reads these books to the Jewish man hidden in their basement as well. This book puts an emphasis on the power of books and words, and it's such a powerful, beautiful story!

This story is different than any other story based on World War II because you mainly see the perspective of a German girl, but you also get a glimpse of what it is like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany as well. We see in this book that not all of the Germans agree with Hitler and that not all Germans are bad. The German people in the town of Munich meet Death many times, because of air raids, war, and even starvation.

The narrator of this YA novel based on World War II is also very unique because the book is told by Death. However, in this book, Death is more like a friend than an enemy, because Death carries people away very gently and genuinely. Death makes it clear that he doesn't choose who dies, or when or where they die, and that he is merely just a result.

Death also leaves you little Easter Eggs containing little hints of what is to come next in the book. However, Death doesn't spoil anything or give you all of the details. This makes you want to read to the end to find out how these events will occur. Death knows all and sees all, even the destruction humans cause amongst themselves.

The author also includes many bolder sections that include lists, the thoughts of Death and even definitions and translations of German words. This allows the reader to have a deeper understanding and to have a deeper connection with the story.

This story had very heartfelt moments with the friendships between Rudy and Liesel, Hans and Liesel and Max and Liesel. However, it had a lot of tear jerker moments that broke my heart, because of the war.

This book was honestly so amazing, life-changing, eye-opening, heartbreaking, but overall beautiful and I recommend it to everyone, whether you like history or not!

My Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Paw Prints

"Salt to the Sea" By: Ruta Sepetys: A Book About Navigating The Waters To Find Hope After The War

“Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war. As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. Yet not all promises can be kept. Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.” -Goodreads

This book follows four different narrators: A Lithuanian girl named Joana who was once a surgeon’s assistant, a Prussian boy named Florian who was once an apprentice to an art restorer for the Nazi Party, a pregnant 15-year-old Polish girl named Emilia and a German sailor named Alfred. Over the course of the novel, we see each of these characters tell the story of their journey escaping to refuge after the battle between the Russians and the Germans during WWII. Each character lost so much along the way and when their paths cross they work together for survival. Each chapter is only a couple or a few pages long and is told by a different narrator. We see how the war affected them through each characters eyes and also all that they lost along the way. We see each narrators past, present and their hope for a better future after the war.

This book was very fast paced and I found myself turning page, after page, after page. I thought I had only been reading it for an hour at times, but then an hour turned into five hours. This book was so good it only took me two days to read it! While this book is tragic and heart wrenching and is based on heartbreaking true events, it also had a romance you want to fight for, friendship and so much mystery. While each character/narrator gives us a glimpse of their past and how World War II destroyed it, there is also a lot of mystery about their pasts as well. Each character is keeping a secret and some of these secrets could get them killed. This book is a page turner, because you don't find out most of these secrets until the end of the novel!

This book is so different from any other historical fiction young adult novel, about WWII that I have ever read.

It focuses on one of the biggest tragedies in maritime history, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which occurred during World War II, but a lot of people don’t know about it. You always hear about the Titanic or Lusitania sinking, but this book focused on the most tragic one that is unfortunately the least known, especially by Americans. I liked reading a historical fiction book about an event in World War II that isn't as well known. Most World War II historical fiction books are focused on the holocaust, so this book is a dime in the dozen.

One of the major themes in this novel was that while the Germans killed Jews, disabled people and other undesirables, the Russians weren’t any better, because they killed people in Poland, Ukraine and The Baltics. My American Education only taught me about what the Germans did, but I never learned that Russians, with America’s help also took the lives of many people. We also never hear about the fact that many innocent German women and children were brutally murdered by the Russians. Neither parties during WWII were innocent.

This book was very eye opening and I learned many things I didn’t know about World War II. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a different perspective about World War II and that wants a heart wrenching story about, survival, love, redemption, and hope after the war.

My Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Paw Prints