T5W: Worst Love Interests

 It's wednesday which meansssss: Top 5 Wednesdays!!!!

Like I told you last post, this Top 5 Wednesday was something created by Lainey and you can find the goodreads group here! So check it out because it's preeeetty rad.

This wednesday the top was supposed to be least favorite book in a series but I don't read many series, I either read all the books in them and feel satisfied or I DNF them so I looked at past topics and I am gonna do "5 Worst love interests" instead.

Without much to add, here are the 5 love interests that have made me pull my hair out during the whole book or for a good part of it!

1. Bella/Edward in "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyers

Bella and Edward. Where should I start with these two? I could have choosen one or the other but I honestly think they are both awful. Bella is very silly, spineless and so blindly in love with Edward that she can't even see what is wrong with their relationship. And Edward is so...urgh! Like, he takes decisions alone and doesn't care about others but okay, at least he did go away for Bella's sake (but like...did he reallyyyy?) and he should do that because they are AWFUL, BAD, NO, NO, NO.


2. Gale in "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

 
Oh, Gale! First things first, I kind of like Gale and more than liking Gale I really like Liam Hemsworth playing Gale. Heart eyes for Gale (Liam). And I really like the friendship between Gale and Katniss during the first book and I think he is an alright lad, with his convictions and all that but like... why would you ruin a perfectly good character with a love triangle? JUST NO. He is so childish in his love for Katniss with his "you can't be anybody's friend because we hunt on saturday's mornings" and "who cares if you are trying to survive, don't you dare to get together with another male character" urghhh. And so what if he didn't say this, that is what I heard!

3. Alaska in "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

I could say a lot about Alaska if Alaska had anything interesting about her for me to talk about. I didn't understand Alaska, I didn't understand what the heck was going on in her head, I didn't understand her motivations and I didn't understand why everyone was in love with her. I thought she was silly and not interesting at all and I thought Pudge (who was also kinda meeh) deserved better.


4. Nick and Amy Dune in "Gone Girl" by Gyllian Flynn

Oh myyyy, these two! Okay, I basically adore this book and I adore these two characters and they are so well built and very well written but from that to saying they are good for each other.... just no. I think this is actually a good thing because they aren't supposed to be good for each other. To begin with, Amy is crazyyyyy, she is nuts, but I think she got like that because she suffered so much with Nick and her parents. And also, Nick can be an ass sometimes. C'mon, get a divorce and don't hurt anybody else, yeah?  Just go be merry and happy.


5. Natasha in "War and Peace" by Lev (Leo???) Tolstoi

So what if I have only seen the War and Peace mini-series by BBC? It doesn't matter because I'm still gonna rant about Natasha. She was like one of my favorites characters (also Lilly James, soooo pretty) but then she goes totally out of character and falls in love with Anatole in like 0.02 seconds and she wants to elope or whatever they called it those days? And I know my buddy Andrei (who was my top fav) kind of left her for a year so his (stupid) dad could approve of his wedding (dunno the point of this but anyways) but Natasha waited and that's the most wicked of it all: SHE WAITED A YEAR AND THEN GAVE UP FOR ANATOLE WHAT THE FUCK???? I forgive her though because she probably wanted to get laid (oops) and she kind of redeemed herself by the end so... Istill love you Natasha (or Natalya or any of the other 20 names you were called).


And this is my top 5!!!!! And now I'mma check out yours. So leave me links and leave me more bad, just the worst of the worst love interests in my comments!!!

T10T: 10 Books you gave 5 Stars Recently

And here am I with yet another challenge!!! I found out about Top Ten Tuesday in the The Brooke and The Bookish and I thought it was really cool and another way to talk about books so I decided to take a chance on it.

Like my wednesday challenge, I'm not sure I will be able to alwayyyyys do this but still, I'mma try! It will probably fun.
Now, since I don't give a lot of 5 stars, I will edit the challenge from "10 Books I gave 5 Stars Recently" to "10 Books I gave 5 Stars ever".
And here we goooo:

1. Baltasar and Blimunda, José Saramago

 
Even though my list has no order whatsoever this would always be my number 1 because it's my favorite book everrrrr. So this is the story of Baltasar, 7 suns, and Blimunda, 7 moons, and the construction of the Mafra Convent which is one of the coolest buildings ever in Portugal. Also, Saramago has a super different writing and makes me believe I can be different too. So I reccomend this book to everyone I know because it's rad and the coolest!

2. An Abudance of Katherines, John Green

 

This was my first John Green book and it was also my favorite. I found it really hilarious and so easy to read, plus the characters actually had some personality (unlike other books I've read from him).... or maybe I just liked because it's about a Kat and I feel important!

3. Diário do Último Ano, Florbela Espanca

I don't think this book has ever been translated to English. Florbela Espanca is one of the most famous and liked portuguese poets who lived a very dramatic life; some of her poems are now songs (see: Perdidamente by Trovante) and this is a diary of her last year (that is literally the title: Diary of Last Year). This is one of my fav books because she is one of my fav poets and even though this book is so sad, it's also very poetic.

4. My Sweet Orange Tree, José Mauro de Vasconcelos

(i think this is the picture of the movie but anywaysssss...)
This book is soooooo sad but sooooo good. I remember that when I was little I watched this show on TV and then I read the book and I felt all the feelings again. It's about a child that has to grown up very fast, his loyal friend a sweet orange tree and a portuguese old man who becomes the child's protector. It's so good. Everyone should read it. (But also have Kleenex at their side while doing so).

5. The Other Boleynn Girl, Philippa Gregory

I have mentioned before that this was the book that made me fall in love with Philippa Gregory (even if I fell out of love when I read the sequel) but I just adored to read this book and I feel like I learned so much about the Tudors from it. Or maybe it's because this book made me search like crazy about the Tudors. I just love it.


6. Wallbanger, Alice Clayton

 

For me, this is THE book! I loooove it. And also, it made me a slave to Alice Clayton so I'll probably read everything she  ever writes, even if it's her grocery list. I also love this book because it was the first proper comedy book I read and I had a great time reading it!

7. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon

I first watched the show and then I picked up the book because the show was on a huge hiatus. I adored this book because it made me feel like I was right there, in the action and in Scotland. I didn't feel bored at all even though there are a lot of discriptions and the proof that it's so good written is that some parts stayed with me so much that I skipped a few epis of the show (if you read this, you know what scene I'm talking about!)

8. To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee

If there's something that makes me so angry that I turn so red that I could explode, it's inequity and discrimination so this book spoke right to my heart. I really liked how the story is told from the eyes of a little child that doesn't understand why things are the way they are....even if they shouldn't be.

9. D. Amélia, Isabel Stilwell

This is another portuguese book that I don't know if is translated to english. This is a book about the last Queen of Portugal, Amelia of Orleans (the D. is for Dona, something we call royal members or older people). I didn't care much for the writing at some points but I loved this Queen, she did such good, and the book follows her life from before she came to the country until she married King Charles.

10. Rafa: My Story, Rafael Nadal and John Carlin

 

This book is about Rafael Nadal and that is basically the only reason why I've read it: because I love this guy. He is like my favorite person in the entire planet. It's not that the book is so cool but the fact that Rafa is! Also, I remember that I had to ask someone to get it for me when they vacationed in another country (oh my little 13 year old self, so unaware of ebay and all those online stores....sigh). This was the first and only book about sports I've read....it's also probably gonna be the last, if Rafa doesn't write another book.

Reading Challenge - A Book Set in Another Country

To begin with, my country is Portugal and there aren't many books set here unless they are written by national authors so this was basically a veryyyy easy pick because I could choose any book in the world.
For me, the coolest and easiest (and let's be honest, cheapest) way to travel is to grab a book and go. And my friends, let me tell you my destination: Egypt!

I first grabbed this book because I was invited to this Goodreads group where you had to read an Agatha Christie book per month. I had never ever read any Agatha Christie book which was basically blasphemy so I grabbed this one (and okay fine, I have only read this one book and we're on month 3 right now but I'm a procrastinator, I told you!!!!).

Anddddd my first time with Agatha was innnnn... "Death on the Nile"!

I loooooved every moment on it! I adored the writing and the plot and like usual when reading police novels, I always put my detective hat on and try to find the murderer which is super fun. It was especially fun because my dad had read this book already and I could always tell him who I thought was the killer and he was basically try to tell me wrong. In fact, the killer in this book was pretty easy and clear from me in the beggining but I only steered away because people kept telling me that it's never the obvious with Agatha Christie so this made the reading so much more fun for me!

I was also affraid that I wouldn't like Poirot much because I really like Sherlock Holmes but it's official, I am a fan. I love everything.

My fav quote was this one:
“For, as Mr. Ferguson was saying at that minute in Luxor, it is not the past that matters but the future.”

(13 of 50)

Reading Challenge - A Book turned into a TV Show

This choice was so easy because I got super hooked on this tv show and I binge watched like two seasons of it and then I had to wait a few months until the show was back on so I decided to grab the book (or books, since it's a trilogy) and read it and learn more about the series.

Now, the book/show I'm talking about is "The 100" and the book was written by Kass Morgan.

By this small introduction you can see how much I adore The 100 so imagine how much I mean it when I tell you that the book SUCKS. It sucks so bad and on so many levels that I don't even know how I finished it????

To begin in, half of the characters that make the show what it is don't even exist in the book which makes it a little hard for me to believe how it's possible to have such two different things but okay.... maybe book 2 and 3 are just like 'Book 1 was a dream, it never existed, here's the real story' but I'll never know 'cause I'll never ever read them. Because my favorites characters don't even exist!

And also, it's not even small differences no, it's big ones: like Clarke's mum not existing in the book when she is a main person in the show???

And anyways, that romance between Clarke and Bellamy that we are still waiting on in the show (and that, truth to be told, I don't even want it to happen) happens in like the 2nd chapter??? What?

I'm not even going to get started on the writing. Urgh. No. No. No.

Ayways, here is my quote of the book:
“You need to let yourself be happy. Or else, what's the point of anything?” 

(12 of 50)

Reading Challenge - Book that Became a Movie

This was the last book I read in 2015 (so I kind of didn't complete the challenge back then but we have already established how I'm going to do this challenge for the rest of my life).

My book chose for this category was "Paper Towns" by John Green.

Well.

First I want to say that I kind of fell in love with the song in the trailer (Smile by Mikky Ekko) and also one of my friends told me she loved this book so I thought 'why not?' and got it at the bookstore

because I love John Green. Or I love the idea of loving John Green if that even makes sense. Truth to be told, I have read every single book of his and I have only liked one....yes, o-n-e. And that one was also the first book I have ever read from him, called "An Abudance of Katherines".

Things I have to say about Paper Towns: NO, NO, NO.
I just really disliked this book! I felt like Quention was the exact same person as Pudge from Looking for Alaska and Margo was kind of an Alaska 2.0. I felt like half of the book was idiotic ramblings by Quention who was the most egocentric character to have ever existed and thought that just because his friends' lives didn't revolve around MArgo then said friends didn't matter. Like, no. Margo doesn't even care about you!

And then the ending was just wtf??? I don't see MArgo crying, at allllll. Like she ran away from home, she is sleeping at an abbandoned warehouse and then SHE CRIES JUST BECAUSE? No. The only moment I liked was the roadtrip and that's because we could see more of the friends (who were actually pretty cool) and because I think that friendship is what the book was supposed to be about. Not Margo. Or egocentric Quention.

I still got a cute quote out of it though ('cause that seems to be John Green's main strength):

"What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person."

(11 of 50)

Reading Challenge - Reccomended by a Friend

For this category, I asked for the help of two of my friends who are very much into books too. One of them told me that I should read a J.R.Ward book but I found that I could fit that book into a lot more categories so I followed my other friend's advice. I think that if my friend hadn't told me to read this book for this challenge I would have never read this book because it just wasn't a genre that I saw myself liking.

(I was wrong, by the way. I am now hooked to mysteries and whatnot).

So, the book my friend L reccomended me was: "Ice Princess" by Camilla Lackberg.

This is the first book of a whole saga but it can be read as a stand-alone since the only connecting factor is the main couple: Erica and Patrick and their friends/family. This book begins when Erica moves back to her hometown and finds her childhood bestfriend dead in her bathtub. Oooh, suspense!

Now I'm the worst person to read thrillers and mysteries because I just can't put the book down until I find the murderer. I just have to know! This is a great book because you are completly in the dark ALL THE TIME, which I kind of hated sometimes because they hid things from you and you know they were hiding those things (like Erica would find a note but they'd never tell you what the note said, for example). There was also some tension on the dialogues, sometimes, they felt really out of place and like they had been forced, especially at the begining of Erica's and Patrick's relationship.

Anyways, I overall liked it. I had never read a Scandinavian book but now I kind of want to get the second book ("The Preacher").

p.s.: also, the book gets wayyyyy better if you imagine Patrick as Daniel Craig. I did! ;)

And for the quote:
"'How did she look?'

At first Erica didn’t understand what Birgit had said. Her voice was tiny, like a child’s. Erica didn’t know what to answer.

‘Lonely,’ was what finally came out, and she regretted it at once."

(10 of 50)

5 Things you need to know about Versailles!

Okay, so this week was the premiere of a new tv show in my country. That tv show happens to be a show that I have watched already and love to death and it's no other than "Versailles"!
This show is about Louis XIV who is one of the most famous Kings of France and also the person responsible for the construction of Versailles and Les Invalides.


In my opinion, he is one of the most important Kings ever and also a favorite of mine. I want to write a proper post about him and about the Palace of Versailles but for now, I want to leave you with 5 quick facts, the most basic facts to have ever existed, so that if you don't know who Louis XIV was but still want to watch the show, you won't be confused or in the dark!

(Also, very good basic tips to impress someone. Trust me, I have tried them!).

So here we go, these are the 5 things you just need to know about Versailles (the tv show), or better yet: The 5 Things You Need to Know Before Watching Versailles! (And I may have inserted one or two random but cute facts). Check it outttt:

Reading Challenge - A Book Published This Year

My first reaction to the book I'm about to write about was: AAAAAAAAAH.

Inhale. Exhale. Let's move on.

This was one of the categories that I was most worried about because whenever I checked the dates on the book I've read, they were all prior to 2014 howeveeeeer this book kind of came out of the blue. One day I was chilling on an ebooks website and suddenly I saw it and I grabbed it and I read it and then I wrote you about it.

The book I'm talking about is "See Me" by Nicholas Sparks. Now, I adore Nicholas Sparks even if, okay, his books are always the same thing and there's always someone who dies (someone who you usually love to death and it guts you. Or a dog. Yeah, sometimes the dog dies. Which guts you).

Anyways, I basically loved this book which may be a little bit obvious because as I stated I love Nicholas Sparks but I like to think this book had something different. I liked how he mentioned the social netwrosk which are such a big part of our life and I adored Colin and Maria, I'd find myself stopping reading just to sigh at how adorable they were.

However, what I didn't like was: if they were always on social networks even using them to research people from their past, then why didn't they use it to find Maria's stalker??? Another thing that surprised me (this is a SPOILERRRRR) was that nobody that I loved died. weeee. That is a big feat!

(And also this was the first post-divorce book by Nicholas Sparks and it was my favorite book of his so I suppose divorce is working out for him?? I'm sooooorry Cathy and Nick. You're still my fav couple to have ever existed. Even if you are no more) (but, please, get back together!)

My fav quote wasssss:

“In the end, the only one you can ever really please is yourself. How others feel is up to them.”

(9 of 50)

Reading Challenge - One-Word Title

I started reading this baby for two reasons: the first was because I was bored with another book I was reading and this was the only book I had left in Aldiko; and the second reason was simply because of this challenge! (okay so maybe this was my first kind-of-planned reading).

The book I'm talking about is "Attachments" by Rainbow Rowell and my, my, I have to say I had to start it twice. It was really hard for me to get into it because I just simply couldn't tell Beth and Jennifer apart so I kept going back and forth to re-read it... until the very end I found these two characters very alike, with the same sense of humour just with a different lifestyle (married/single, pregnant/not-even-close-to-get-hitched, etc).

However I confess that what I loved most about this book was Lincoln and how alike him I was: no idea what to do about like, no future in sight, lost and with this kind of unhappiness but at the same time happy with life.

To sum up, this book wasn't exactly my favorite ever and it will hardly make a top 5 of my favorite books ever especially because I got a little disappointed with the ending. I spent the whole book waiting for them to meet and then... that was that? Only that? And what about getting married? And babies? And do they live togethr? And Linc's mum? And...and....and. Basically, I had a huge book hang over after this one!

(I can confess that even though I grabbed another book right after this one, I sometimes stopped, gazed into nothing and thought "Linc and Beth, ayyyy" and I got happy that Linc was happy at least!)

Also, I got the SWEETEST quote out of this book:

"I want someone whose heart is big enough to hold me."

(8 of 50)

Reading Challenge - A Colour in the Title

Now, for this book I had to think back to all the books I had read in 2015 and then search them through Goodreads. Something told me that I had indeed read a book with a colour in the title in 2015 and I was right!

And now thinking back to it, I can't figure out how I'd forgotten about this book because I went nuts after reading the first one and wanting to read the 2nd one. So.... my book is.......


"Pink Ice" by Carolina Soto.

Honestly speaking, I can't exactly tell you what this book is about because I can't remember much of the story besides it being a romance between two co-workers (boss and worker, maybeee?) that had a very strong and feisty female  protagonist that I pretty muched loved. I remember falling in love with the girl in "Blue Ice", the first book, and wanting to read the sequel just because of her.



Without much to add, let's unveil my fav quote, shall we? (Also, a special thanks to Goodreads for this!):

“Now I knew that if that's how the devil looks, I wanted to go straight to hell.”

(7 of 50)

Reading Challenge - Book that I haven't read by author I love

This was a very easy category to fill since even a procrastinator like me can do it, because you don't have to actually read the book! There are several authors who I worship and love to death and from whom I'd read anything and everything - even their grocery list. yup.

But there is this one author, I just have to love her. And whenever I see she releases a new book I get on every website about books that I know to get said book.

This author is no other than Alice Clayton. It may seem strange because I don't think she is one of the most famous authors but I just love her. I think her humour is very much like mine and I am a slave of "Wallbanger". Ever since reading "Wallbanger" and reccomending it to every single one of my friends, I have became Alice Clayton's bitch. Yup.

And so, I kind of freaked out when I learned that she was going to release another book: "Nuts"!

And since I am writing this post after I actually have read this book (I'm still going to leave it like this because when I originally posted this on my portuguese blog, I still hadn't read it), I can tell you what i thought about it. I didn't like Roxy at first but then she grew on me. Since I am not a cooking expert or even a cookie enthusiast, I kind of didn't care much about her recipes but I adoooooore the romance portion of it. I lovedLeo (because I mean who doesn't love a Leo?)

And also let's not even get into the cuteness that is Leo and Penny! urgh.

And since back then I hadn't read this book, I think it's better to give you a quote from Wallbanger (also one of the quotes who sold me on Wallbanger):
“He was wooing me. And I was letting him woo. I wanted the woo. I deserved the woo. I needed the wow that would surely follow the woo, but for now, the woo? It was whoa.”

(6 of 50)

T5W: Books you didn't finish

So. I am new to this blog thing but I saw this group on Goodreads where every wednesday there's a top 5 related to books and I thought it was cool. I don't know if I'll be able to enter every single week (we have talked about how much of a procrastinator I am!) but I will enter whenever I can.

This challenge was invented by Lainey and you can learn everything and anything about it here!

And now for the Top 5 Books I Did Not Finish! (oooh).



1. Persuasion by Jane Austen. 

 I KNOW. A lot of you are going to hate me because who doesn't love
Jane Austen? The answer would be me. I really disliked this book and after carrying it around in my backpack for like 2 years worth of uni and only getting to the middle of the book, I decided to drop it. I didn't like the writing, I didn't like the characters and every single conception about how women should behave and of what a family should be just drove me nuts. So there.

 

2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

I adooooooooore Les Mis, and by that I mean that I have seen
the show once, the movie twice and I listen to the soundtrack on repeat. I love the story, I truly do but I just CAN'T with the book. It's has way too many discriptions and the fact that I know nothing about the society of the time and the book is very political just turns it less interesting for me. I tell myself that I will finish this book one day (someday, very far far away) but for now it's just a nice base for my bedside lamp (Sorry, Victor Hugo pal).


3. 1984 by George Orwell.

Ooooooops. I know, shame on me! But on my defence I started this baby in a really bad time in my life and it didn't make it easy for me to continue. This is one of the books that I will probably still read someday (especially because I went purposedly out in the rain to get it with a good price at the bookfair!) but it was just super hard for me to get into at the time.

4. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory.

I read this one book by Philippa Gregory ("The Other Boleynn") and I fell in love with it so of course I thought I had found a new favorite historic writer and that everything she writes just has to be cool. I was WRONG. I did not like this book at all! I like the way Philippa Gregory tells us the history of a family from an outside POV but I just really hated the plot in this, with Hannah and Robert Dudley. I hated it. I hated Hannah, she was so naïve and I kept hoping for her to just grow up but 200 pages in and she still hadn't. PASS.

5. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.

 This is the third book of that Mortal Instruments series that I was loving until Simon became a vampire because of course he would become a vampire. I mean, we can't have a fantasy book without a vampire in it anymore, it seems. After I picked up this book, I realized that my feelings towards it lived more in James Campbell Bower for playing Jace in the movies than in the book itself so I dropped it. And I don't plan to pick it up. Ever.

Et voilá! Which 5 books did you never finish? Leave your lists down bellow!!! Let's hate on books and stories together (kind of, not really because books are friends!).

Reading Challenge - A mystery or a thriller

Of course for this category there could only be one book choosen. I think this was actually the story of the year (and by year I totally mean 2015!).

No more suspense.... The book I read for this cat. was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn!

I don't usually follow trends and I usually wait until for the buzz for a certain book or movie to be over before I watch it/read it. I mean, that's why I still haven't read Harry Potter (I know, shame on me!!!!) but I just couldn't avoid watching this movie (also, I think it's important to mention that me watching the movie had more to do with Ben Affleck than with the buzz around it!) and then getting the book.

I looooooved it.

Even after I watched the movie and knew what would happened, I found myself questioning certain things through the book. I even got to the point where I wanted to smack Nick.... poor lad.


I know the Cool Girl speech is iconic but for me, the most memorable part of this book was this little dialogue between Nick and his sister, Go, so these is my favorite quote:

“Remember that game you always played with Mom when we were little: Would you still love me if? Would you still love me if I smacked Go? Would you still love me if I robbed a bank? Would you still love me if I killed someone?'
I said nothing. My breath was coming too fast.
'I would still love you,' Go said.
'Go, do you really need me to say it?'
She stayed silent.
'I did not kill Amy.'
She stayed silent.
'Do you believe me?' I asked.
'I love you.” 

(5 of 50)

Reading Challenge - Female Author

By trying to fill this category I have realized that I mostly read books written by female authors!

So this book wasn't hard at all. My chosen one was "Skygods" by Sarah Latchaw.

I don't think this book is particularly known and I wouldn't be able to tell you how I found the 1st book of this series (the 1st book is called Hydraulic Level Five) but the truth is that I absolutely loved the first book and I then spent the following months searching for this second book. Just like I am now anxiously waiting for the next book!

Skygods (or better yet, the Hydraulic saga) tells us the story of Samuel Cabral and his on-and-off girlfriend/wife, Kaye. What is interesting is how funny and laid back the 1st book is but how we take a sudden turn in this 2nd book and dive into the subject of a menthal illness that consumes Samuel and how Kayer deals with it all.

I loved, loved, loved it!

And my quote is:
"A skydiver, arrogant in his ability to navigate the heavens, rejects his fragile state and calls himself a God of the skies."

(4 of 50)

6 Things I learned watching 'TUT'

I love history. And because of that I am always searching stuff about historic events or figures. I don't have a degree in history so everything I know is kind of the product of a lot of time spent researching things and watching documentaries but anyways I thought it could be fun to share! I have always been intrigued by Pharaohs and the Egyptian pyramids, I feel like egyptians lived as they died: richly.

Considering that I know approximately...nothing (!!) about the Egyptians dynasties, I found that what I knew about Tutankhamun was basic knowledge, things that everyone knows. Or I thought I knew that, at least.

I recently watched the documentary "Tut", about the life of this Boy-King, one of the most famous nowadays, and I obviously researched like crazy to find if everything in the documentary was truth.

Anyways, from everything I discovered, I'm gonna tell you 6 facts. 6 things that I learned watching Tut and researching about him. These are 6 things that may be very obvious or even a little polemic but I will list them for people who, like me, didn't know about them. And the precious 6 are:

Reading Challenge - A Number in the Title

Well..... This could only be one book, right? And if you think what I'm thinking, scream it out loud: "FOUR" by Veronica Roth.

I read this book right after Insurgent came out, last year. I adored all three books of the Divergent series and I read them all after I watched the first movie. Suddenly, after watching Insurgent I felt like I wanted to read more and since Four is... well... such a great guy (wink), I picked up this book and read it in two days!

Safe to say, this brings nothing new to the story but it gives us a perspective from Four's POV which is nice and different. I liked it almost as much as I like Four.

My quote (or Four's):

“You’re the one who has to live with your choice" she says."Everyone else will get over it, move on, no matter what you decide. But you never will.”

(3 of 50)

Reading Challenge - A Book with more than 500 pages!

Phew! This one was a book that I NEVER thought I'd read. Who, me? "Oh it's so big and heavy", "Oh it's gonna take me a hundred years to finish", "Nah, nothing is that interesting during more than 300 pages".

But I was wrong, my friends. And I did it! Whee-woooo!
Also, the chosen one was: "The Other Boleynn Girl" by Philippa Gregory.

It is a wonder to me how an History lover like me had never really paid attention to history books. I had read one or two books by portuguese authors but I had felt a bittersweet taste afterwards, like they weren't all that good. I blamed it on the books when maybe I should have blamed it on the authors.

Now, experts say that Gregory is no expert BUT I loved this book. And who really cares if Anne Boleyn didn't hook up with her brother? Or if Mary was a slut? Not me! This book opened my eyes to this generation of Tudor monarchs that I have, ever since finishing this book, researched on and read more about and actually fallen a little in love with. I have also downloaded more of Philipa Gregory books.

(And I kind of want her to write about other Royal Houses, like... why not Louis XIV? Who is basically my favorite monarch? He is preeeeetty interesting!).

And for my fav quote:
"I am sorry for you. And I am sorry for me. When you are sent back to me, perhaps a month from now, perhaps a year, I will try to remember this day, and you looking like a child, a little lost among all these clothes. I will try to remember that you were innocent of any plotting; that today at least, you were more a girl than a Boleyn."

(2 of 50)

Reading Challenge - Non-Fiction Book

I know this book can occupy a number of categories from my challenge BUT I promised myself that I would read one book per category. And anyways, it's not like I read many non-fiction books so I think this was the perfect fit.

And by this, I mean "Beyond Belief - My Secret Life inside Scientology and my Harrowing Escape".

This book was reccomended to me by a friend, and it was written by Jenna Miscavige Hill who is the niece of the actual leader of the Scientology Church.

I will admit that I knew nothing about this "science" or "religion" - maybe I should call it, way of life? - but this book actually taught me a lot. There were times, during my train trips to work in which I read this book, where I felt so mad and angry and at the same time very incredulous that stuff like what Jenna wrote happens nowadays.

Sure, there were some bits of the book which were a little boring simply because it's full of explanations and terms unknown to me but all in all, this was a good read.


Also, I tend to be a lover of quotes. So I get one from each book I read. In this case, best quotes goes tooooooooo......

"“I knew without a doubt that I was a good person, and, no matter what anyone else thought or said about me, no matter who they were or how important, I didn’t care. When I realized this, down to the moment, the clouds opened up. This realization was the beginning of personal integrity, when, instead of dismissing my feelings or my intuition, I found myself following them.”

(1 of 50)

Reading Challenge!

So, in 2015 I accepted to be part of this reading challenge. At the time, I was unemployed and I thought how I'd have so much time to read and how I'd love to read new things.

Well, let's just say....this is a still on going challenge.  I will try to read one book per challenge but it's just been soooooo hard so far. I have found that I am the absolute worst at having a planned reading and that is probably why I will pick up 2 or 3 books at a time. Oops.

Anyways, here is my challenge!!!!! This is excitingggggg....right?!

p.s.: let's ignore how it says "2015" and let's replace it by "Cat's lifetime reading challenge". Yup. Seems about right.

I just came to say...hello!

HELLOOOOOO!

So this idea of having an english blog has been bubbling in my mind for a while now. It will mostly be a place where I talk about books and movies and maybe a few historic figures and events that I'm just too geek to miss out on.

If you've been following me on my portuguese blog, a lot of posts I will publish for the next few days will be old (but never outdated!!!) but I want to have these opinions in both portuguese and english. But then, everything will be new!!

So, hop on then...for an adventure of books, movies, nerdness and okay....the occasional drama of the life of a 20-something year old gal.