JUNE READING WRAP UP

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WEEKLY VLOG// KELLY LYN AND THE BOOKS

 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY// SUNDAY POST #2

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from the Caffeinated Reviewer.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!

This post is going up way later than I wanted it but I wanted to document how my family celebrated the holiday. We ended up swimming all day and getting sunburn for me and my daughters getting tans because they took after my husband on that. I had to get my dad's Irish genes and skipped out on my mother's Native American roots. We also grilled some Pepper Onion Burgers and they are the best. Then we ended the night by having a firework show with our next door neighbors who also have young kids. We were taking turns lighting  the fireworks and it was just a fun time.

Monday: Review: Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

Tuesday: Anticipated Releases for Rest of the Year

Wednesday: Review: Sentinel by Matthew Dunn

Thursday: The Classics Club Challenge

Friday: NONE

Saturday: NONE

Review: Willa of the Wood

Review: City of Heavenly Fire

Tag Thursday: Half Year Book Tag

Top Ten Tuesday

NO BOOKS BOUGHT THIS WEEK!!

MY BOOKTUBE VIDEOS THAT I UPLOADED THIS WEEK

The Classics Club Challenge

 We are halfway through 2021 and I have not started my goal of reading a classic a month. I didn't exactly make a list to hold my self accountable. I am so glad that I found this reading group called The Classics Club. While reading the rules and checking out some of the other bloggers taking part in this challenge, I thought I would go ahead an make my list. To be honest, it was really hard to go past 20 and I had to use my Goodreads TBR shelf. I have 3 books reserved at my library so far and I am excited to start this challenge. Knowing that I have 5 years to complete this lengthy goal is great because I am a person who starts hard and fast and then experiences burn out and resentment. I did decide to put two titles on this list that I was required to read in my senior year of high school and I didn't like them, but I am hoping that will change.

RULES

1. – choose 50+ classics
2. – list them at your blog
3. – choose a reading completion goal date up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
4. – e-mail the moderators of the Classics Club blog (theclassicsclubblog@gmail.com) with your list link and information and it will be posted on the Members Page!
5. – write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
6. – when you’ve written about every single title, let them and everyone else know!

GOAL: JULY 2021 TO JULY 2026

My List of 50 Classics that I am hoping to read in the next 5 years.

1. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

7. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

8. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

9. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell ( I know this is problematic but it is my grandmother's favorite and she has always wanted me to read this and talk about it with her before she passes.)

10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

11. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

13. Catch-22 by Joesph Heller

14. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

15. The Giver by Lois Lowry

16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

18. Animal Farm by George Orwell

19. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

21. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

22. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

23. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

24. Persuasion by Jane Austen

25. Macbeth by William Shakespeare

26. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

27. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

28. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein

29. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

30. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

31. The Odyssey by Homer (Will be a Re-read since High School)

32. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

33. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

34. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

35. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

36. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

37. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

38. 1984 by George Orwell ( Will be a Re-read since High School)

39. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

40. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

41. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

42. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

43. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

44. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

45. Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

46. Around the World in 80 Days by Marian Leighton

47. Watership Down by Richard Adams

48. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

49. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agathe Christie

50. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

Review: Sentinel by Matthew Dunn

 

The sequel to Spycatcher and I will be continuing my reading of this series. I won the fourth book years ago in a Goodreads giveaway win and when I was setting up my buzzword TBR for the year, I decided to put the fourth book on my TBR or I would have never picked it up. Reading the first book a couple months ago, I disliked it because the main character was so arrogant and cocky and he thought he was untouchable. 

I made the decision that if I didn't like this one, I would not continue with the series and just get rid of my copy of the fourth book. I ended up really liking this one. It takes place in Russia and the way to my bookish heart is Russian settings and spy/espionage plots. Will Cochran, the MC, has to stop a war between America and Russia before it is even begun. He has to team up with the first ever Spartan who's code name is Sentinel. His past comes up and they have to figure out how to stop the main antagonist to stop killing Russian agents and to not set off a nuclear bomb. 

This book was better than the first. Some of the arrogance and cockiness from Will in the first installment was toned down way more. He had more failures this time proving that he wasn't a one and done man. He met his match and was over powered several times which actually made him more human than "killing" machine. He once again fell for a woman and she died. 

The two things that annoyed me was that he talked about the smart suits the men were wearing and what kind of knot their ties were in and how their hair was styles either with creams or oils. Like how does that fit the story... IT DOESN'T! And I had to skim the end where he was climbing the moutian with ice axes and crampons. I was annoyed at the 2-3 pages of foot goes there, slamming the ice axe here, sweat making body cold, second ice axe going just above the first and repeat. It was stupid. 

The endings do need work. I will be picking up the third book next month in anticipation of reading the fourth book in September for the Buzzword reading challenge. 

Anticipated Releases for Rest of the Year

 

Getting into the second half of the year. Thanks to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting Top Ten Tuesday. Here are my MOST ANTICIPATED out of all the books releasing for the rest of the year. 

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel (July 6)

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (July 6) 

Boy, Falling by Jenny Jaeckel  (July 22)

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead  (August 3)

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia  (August 17)

The Plentiful Darkness by Heather Kassner  (August 3)

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee  (September 7)

Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone  (September 28)

Daughters of A Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O'Neil  (October 26)

Tidesong by Wendy Xu  (November 16)

Review: Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

 

Another middle grade book that my daughter requested from a list made by Book Riot that was prefect for 6th graders to read. She really loves the Indian culture and the top place on her travel bucket list is India. 

This graphic novel is about a girl named Priyanka. At the beginning of the story she is being bullied and being called thrift store which isn't repeated but gives the jist of her clothing and how you dress is a major middle school hurdle. During the story, she is going through her closet after a suitcase once again falls to the floor and she opens it and notices a pashmina scarf. She tries it on and she is transported to India. She has these animal guides that show her the beauty of India. But when she is in this world, she keeps being followed by a shadow girl and the animal guides keep shooing her off and ignoring Priyanka's questions.

Priyanka doesn't get any details about why her mother left India and has vowed to never return. Eventually Priyanka gets her wish and gets to go to India to help her aunt with her newborn. Her aunt helps her with family history and tells the story of her absent father. 

I ended up giving this a 3 out of 5. The story wasn't coming of age but more of a family history and cultural experience. I loved the bright vivid colors when she put on the pashmina. I loved how the aunt disobeyed her husband and gave Priyanka the answers that she wanted. The history was amazing .