My Welsh Trip and What I managed to Read!
So, at the beginning of the year I decided that it was time to take my daughter away on a camping trip. This trip was going to be on a budget, so I chose a relatively small and unknown campsite in Wales and that was that. I had most of the camping gear and all I needed was a tent to sleep in, some essential items (food, clothes, toiletries, etc) and we were all set.
However, no holiday would be complete without a selection of books to take away with me. This is when I ventured over to my TBR pile and had a browse for whatever took my fancy. In total, I took eight books away with me:
1) Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3) by Marissa Meyer.
2) Attack on Titan Volume 3 by Hajime Isayama.
3) Attack on Titan Volume 4 by Hajime Isayama.
4) How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
5) We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach.
6) The Thrity Nine Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) by John Buchan.
7) The Long Way to the Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers.
8) 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad.
Out of these eight books, I managed to finish five and start another one before my week had ended. The bulk of my reading was done during the days that we had rain, but I also found a lot of comfort sitting in the sun after a long cliff walk, or of an evening in front of the beautiful sunsets. Eventually it got to the point where I was waking up at 6.30am; so those early mornings were spent reading outside with a coffee, waiting for my daughter to wake up so we could decide what to do that day.
We would often go and see the animals on site before venturing further to do a cliff walk, hoping to catch site of the local wildlife. Sea birds are very common in the area as well as birds of prey. But the main attraction, is Seal spotting. They spend the hours during low tide, resting on the rocks by the cliffs, or floating in the small bay. If you were really lucky then you would catch sight of the local dolphin family (we had zero luck in that respect).
It is certainly a nice, quiet campsite, run by a wonderful family and fanatstic amenities.
The first book I finished was Cress by Marissa Meyer. I started this book back at the very beginning of this year and yes it has taken me an embarrassingly long time to read it. A lot of this is down to personal things going on at home and a very stressful job hunt. Reading has effectively been put on the backburner again this year, but my trip away has allowed me to read an awful lot, which I am very happy about.
Cress was wonderful. I absolutely loved jumping back into this particular universe. It has become one of my absolute favourite series. Its fun, exciting, romantic and incredibly intense. From the very moment he was intorudeced earlier on in the series, Captain Thorne was incredibly fun to read about. Heās had a lot more āpage timeā in this particular book and I have loved reading about him. He has become my favourite character and his relationship with Cress is entertaing and heartwarming. You have no problem seeing how much Thorne cares about Cress and the development of their relationship was interesting to read.
Iām really looking foorward to the rest of the series!
After the excitement of Cress I decided to read the next two volumes of the Attack on Titan Series by Hajime Isayama. I love the anime and I really love the the book. Although the manga isnāt as conherent as the anime, it allows you to really look at the characters individually: their emotions; characteristics; physical traits; etc.
I may have essentially āspoiltā the book for myself by watching the show, but I cannot say that I am really saddened by this. It was the anime that led me to the book and ultimately gave me an amazing introduction to the manga style (I was very apprehensive about reading this particular style, as you have to read the book ābackwardsā. However, it turned out to be a lot easier than it looked).
This is one that I will be continuing and looking forward to read when I get my hands on some more copies.
Having relaxed with some shorter books, I decided to pick up something that had been on my TBR for the last two/ nearly three years. How I Live Now has been sitting on the pile for so long that I was sick of it staring at me everytime I walked past it (like a number of other books on that pile that shall remain nameless).
This was also a relatively short book and didnāt take me very long to read at all. The concept of this book was certainly interesting and very reminiscent ofĀ āThe Tomorrow Seriesā by John Marsden. Although it was an interesting storyline, I didnāt feel very attached to the characters and the love story made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
This resulted in me giving this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the emotions felt real rather than forced, and if the story was void of the uncomfrotable inst-love. Not sure Iāll be picking this up again any time soon.
After that little disappointment, I moved onto a book that I was slightly unsure about. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach, is one of those books that if it has been getting rave reviews then, Iām wary about reading it because I would have such high hopes for it. As it turns out, these hopes were well founded.
I loved this book! It has had such a massive impact and even now, one month on, I am still thinking about it. I canāt even begin to describe how I actually feel about this book. It was funny, romantic, intense, heart breaking...I just cannot explain how much this book hit me.
In order to really express myself, I will show you my review. Somehow I was able to get my thoughts down āon paperā, which wasnāt easy:
I wasn't sure about this book at first, so I stepped away from reading for a day before going back to it. That proved to be the right move as I discovered a new appreciation and love for it.
A generous mix of drama, romance and contemporary, this book follows four POVs: Peter, Eliza, Andy and Anita; as they navigate their way through their final year in high school. They each lead separate lives until they are all brought together by the recent news that an asteroid is on a collision course with earth and set to cause an extinction level event.
This book is funny, depressing, lovable and tragic. It draws you in and refuses to let you go even when your finished.
The ending is so ambiguous that, even though your told it is going to happen, your not sure whether the asteroid hit or not. It may seem to be a frustrating ending, but I felt quite satisfied with it.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and will be reading it again in the future.
When I finally composed myself, I picked up 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad. I havenāt finished this yet but it is interesting. The idea that NASA is hiding the truth about the moon isnāt a new one, but the way the author has written about it, makes it mysterious and frightening (especially with the idea of teenagers being involved). Hopefully, this book will also live up to its reputation as a 5 star read.
I am very happy with what I managed to read while I was away, and Iām certainly happy with how much I read. Since I was going away with my daughter I didnāt think that I would get a chance to read that much, but I did!
Now if only I could get into that kind of groove again and catch up on my Goodreads Reading Challenge (I am currently eight books behind).
Let me know your thoughts on these books and I will speak to you all very soon!
Happy Readings Everyone! Much Love! xx
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