Snacks & Paperbacks

  Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he'll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist: Break into the notorious Ice Court (a military stronghold that has never been breached) Retrieve a hostage (who could unleash magical havoc on the world) Survive long enough to collect his reward (and spend it) Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done - and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable - if they don't kill each other first. I fully understand the love this book has received from many people. I really do. It gave me a Shades of Magic vibe, which I really enjoyed. “No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck'.” But there was just something about this book that made it really hard for me to get into the story. Maybe it ...

To keep track of my goals and progress, I am going to give you all a monthly update each month. In these posts I will tell you about the book(s) I read during the month and update my progress on both the reading challenges. Books This month, I was able to read 6 books, which surprised me! Of to a good start! I started the year of with a book to improve my life, to inspire me to work on myself in the new year: A Beautiful Mind, A Beautiful Life: The Bubz Guide to Being Unstoppable , written by Lindy Tsang. You can find my review here . The second book I read this month was All the Ugly and Wonderful Things , written by Bryn Greenwood. This was quite a heavy book about a shocking love story between a child and a man. It was really intense and made me feel very ambiguous. You can find my review of this shocking story here. After that, I started Far from the Tree by Robin Benway, which is about 3 adopted siblings finding each other. I had heard so many good things about t...

Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself. Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety. Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness. This book, compared to my other reads so far this year, is old. It was first published in 2006, so that makes it about 12 years old. The first time I read this was in 2011 and my goodness, I LOVED ...

For the first time ever, Lily shares her life and her own deepest secrets, underlining that every single one of us experiences pain and heartbreak. We all understand what it’s like to live in the light and in the dark. For Lily, it’s about making it through to the other side, where you love what you see in the mirror and where you embrace yourself just as you are. She's learned that all it takes is one person standing up and saying something for everyone else to realize they’re not alone. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Lily’s honest voice will inspire you to be who you are and say what you feel. It’s time to claim your voice! It’s time to live your life unfiltered. The first chapter explains exactly what I know her from. She came to my attention when I was in a stage of my life where I was very insecure. Then one time, I read all this criticism about her eyebrows: how they were too big and too bushy. I never agreed, I though her eyebrows look good. Then I read...

A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment. Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including— Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs. And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears ar...

Eight-year-old Wavonna (Wavy) Quinn is the daugther of a meth-dealer knows not to trust anybody, not even her parents. S truggling to raise her little brother, Wavy is the only responsible "adult" around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle. What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer. Well, the blurb was right: a shocking love story. The subject makes it quite hard to review, because I don't want to give anybody the wrong idea. So, to all of you reading this: I do not support these kind of relationships. "Odd couple that they were, they had a real connection." So, the subject made this a very ambigiuous story, as it ...

Every year I like to set a few reading goals for myself, because the feeling you get when you accomplish a goal is amazing and rewarding. Whenever I accomplish a goal, I feel invincible! It makes me feel super confident and ready to take on the world. How many? So, I set myself the goal of reading (at least) 40 books this year. Last year, my goal was 24 (2 books each month) and I finished with 33 books, which was totally unexpected! If you want to know which 33 books I read, check out my 2017 bookshelve on Goodreads, which you can find here ! Because of my unexpected succes, I decided to aim a little higher this year. I did some calculations about this: 365 days in the year devided by 40 books: this leaves me 9 days per book I read, which I feel comfortable with. Share! Another goal I've set myself is to review all the books I read. This is something I hope (and expect) my blog to help me with. I love talking about books, but I've found when I'm putting my thoughts t...