Feb 2018 Reading Wrap Up

Feb was an excellent reading month for me. I read 10 books in total, out of which 3 were manga, 1 was a comic and rest were novels.

1. The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin – 4.5 stars
   This book was amazing. I read Lathe of Heaven and wasn’t a big fan of LeGuin. I am grateful that I thought of giving this author another chance and read this book. This one was mind blowing and I loved the way it ended. Definitely the best book I have read about colonization and it does look like Avatar movie borrowed lot of ideas from this book. When I picked the book, I was not sure what the title meant but once you know what it means, you will really appreciate it. When a violent species like humans meets a calm alien species, what exactly happens? How do different species learn from one another? I loved how well the characters were written and even with brilliant characterization, the story was fast paced and events happened without too many boring details. I am deducting 0.5 stars because of the descriptions about dream time which was a concept not completely explained and I don’t think I understood that concept well enough. Other than that, it was perfect in every sense.
   This will definitely not be the last book by this author that I read.
2. Eliza and her monsters by Francesca Zappia – 4 stars
   I LOVED it! It’s about this girl who writes a popular webcomic. However, nobody in her real life knows that she is the creator. And then she meets a boy who writes fanfiction for her webcomic. I found Fangirl (which has similar storyline) boring but this book was awesome.
   Why did I love it so much?1. I blog under a fake name. My real name is never revealed there and none of my real life friends (except maybe very close friends) have even an inkling that I blog. I prefer to keep it anonymous.
   It’s a different thing that my blog is not famous, but still I could relate to the main character. Imagine how I would feel if every one of my friends knew about my blog. *shudders*
   2. I have anxiety issues, just like the main character. There are so many days when I just want to bury my head inside sand and don’t want to face the world. I could totally relate to the anxiety faced by the main protagonist.
   3. I could also relate to the part about having more friends online than offline. There was a time when I spent most of my free time blogging and interacting with my fellow bloggers, just because I felt more at home there.
   4. The love story is sweet. Also it is not instalove and I loved how the two characters fell in love with each other, through their love for the webcomic.
   5. I love Wallace.
   The art pages were not at all interesting. Also they had lot of text and I thought it was supposedly a webcomic?
   This book reminded me of The Fault in our stars a LOT. Even the idea about loving an incomplete book and contacting her favorite author about it. That whole premise felt like a rip off of TFIOS. That is the only reason why I am deducting a star.
   Other than that, it was perfect.
3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’ Engle – 4 Stars
   It’s a nice adventure story for children or probably for young adults since children won’t understand most of the scientific concepts I guess. It is very different from every other book I have read since it involves traveling through time and space (wormholes). Story is simple – few children go in search of their missing father. I like how this book introduces some complex scientific concepts to children in a simple manner. I loved all the characters. The story were pretty good too with aliens on various planets that the main protagonists travel to.
   This is the one book that I will definitely make my son read. I am sure children will enjoy this story even more than I did. I wish I had read this as a kid. Now can’t wait for the movie as it has my favorite actor playing the father role.
   I read it with very low expectations since I felt I will not like it as an adult but I couldn’t be more wrong. I read it in 2 sittings in a single day, which never happens so you can understand how interesting the story is.
4. All Systems Red by Martha Wells – 4 stars
   This was a great novella. There are two colonies on an alien planet and humans in one colony are murdered by someone and the other colony is now trying to figure out who these murderers are and why they are killing people on this planet. Each colony has murderbots with them. This book is from the POV of one such murderbot. The world building and the murderbot as a character were interesting and I would definitely want to continue with this series. That said, the first half was better than the second half. Second half felt too rushed and before I could grasp what was happening, the book had ended. The author could have spent little bit more time in making the climax better and also to tie all the loose ends together. I also didn’t like the way it ended (in the very last page). But otherwise, it was lot of fun reading from the perspective of a murderbot. Loved it.
5. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn – 3 stars
   I have reviewed this along with other books by Gillian Flynn in this post – Link

Manga:

I reviewed these three mangas that I read in a separate post – Link

1. Monster by Naoki Urasawa – 5 stars
2. One-Punch Man by ONE, Yusuke Murata (Illustrator) – 4 stars
3. Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama – 4 stars

Black History Month reads:

I did a separate post on my Black History Month reads – Link.

1. 1. March Vol. 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell – 5 stars
   2. Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates – 2 stars

March TBR:

Just a tentative TBR for March –