Demonathon TBR

Hello readers!

Today I want to share with you my tentative TBR for a readathon that will run from February 14th to February 28th called Demonathon!!

You can find all the info on the Twitter page or on Youtube. There is also a wonderful website set up for the readathon that is fantastic!!

The reading tasks are:

Incubus/Succubus: read a steamy romance or a book with a s*x scene.

Ally Rose la quinta vittima

Shetani: read a book that is weird, or outside your confort zone

Ella, the slayer

Wekufe: read a book with secrets or lies

Greenglass house

Eudaimones: read something inspiring!

This is going to hurt

Djinn: read an adventure/action-filled book

The time hunters

 

And that’s my tentative TBR! Before the readathon begins, you can also choose your demon and write a little story about him/her!

Hope you enjoy my TBR, tell me in the comments if you are participating!

Wrap Up: January 2020

Hello readers, how are you?

Welcome to the first wrap up of 2020! In January I managed to read 9 books, with one DNF.

As always, I will include also the books I read in Italian, with the translated title, if exist.

5 stars:

Look, 2 books with 5 stars rating! How it is even possible?

Arbrook Huxley & the star crossed lovers is another short story from The Celestial Isles series. It was so funny and delightful!

Bewitch me: I love this cover so much, even if it doesn’t suit well for the story, a funny and supernatural adventure with witches and demons.

3 stars:

Ok, also the cover of The strings of murder is beautiful, right? Every single cover of this series is amazing, unfortunately I couldn’t stand the main character.

I’ve found The book of general ignorance in the house I rent in London, and it was a light read.

I didn’t know the history of Belle Gunness, so it was interesting to read Hell’s Princess, my first book finished in 2020. It became a little boring past the middle.

2 stars:

I discovered that also manga, comics and yaoi manga (m/m) are included in my Kindle Unlimited, so now on you will see it more frequently on this blog. Tricky Prince 1 is yaoi, but was pretty plain for me.

How disappointed I was when I finished The boy, the bird & the coffin maker! I don’t know if I am too old or too cynic, but it gave nothing to me.

1 star/DNF:

See what I have done is my first DNF of the year. I’m really interested in the Lizzie Borden story, but the writing style was awful and so weird.

Please, don’t hate me, I’m not a bad person, but I don’t comprehend and don’t like the kind of story where you can’t identify if there’s really something paranormal or not. Also, the ending of The boy who could see demons was terrible.

And that’s all, have you read some amazing books in January?

Tell me in the comments!

 

Worst Books of 2019

Hello readers, how are you?

After the good (Best books of 2019) and the beautiful (Best covers of 2019), it’s now time to see the worst books I’ve read in 2019.

Please don’t be offended if one of your fave books is on this post, this is my personal opinion, I will not cause you to stress or offend you.

I will make another separate post for the book I DNFed last year.

These are the books that I disliked so much last, or even that I hated.

We have Smoke gets in your eyes, disrespectful and that has left me questioning about the hygiene rules in the US.

The destroyer was ridiculous, Island of the dolls was the copy of Suicide forest, Circe was so boring I had to force myself reading it.

The case of the green dressed ghost is fatphobic, so keep this in mind if you want to read it; The land of yesterday has a beautiful cover but it was just so weird.

And the last one, Just one damned thing after another… characters that act stupid, unnecessary s*x scenes but again, an appealing cover. I was so disappointed.

And that’s all, fortunately there were more good books last year than bad books!

Do you have read some bad or boring books last year? Tell me in the comments!

Best covers of 2019

Hello readers! How are you?

I’m here to show you my personal favourite covers of books that I read in 2019! They are not books published in 2019, as I read mostly backlisted books.

What you prefer to see on a cover? A beautiful dress, a shirtless guy, the ever-present snake? XD

As you can see from my selection, I’m a fan of Steampunk covers. Lady Mechanica is the perfect example.

I also have an obsession for typography/calligraphy, so my eyes are captured by how the title is written, like Limelight.

But the creepy cover of Constable & Toop is a little jewel, the perspective is amazing, it seems to have tridimensionality, right?

These were my ten favourite covers of 2019!

Do you agree with me?

Tell me in the comments what’s your best cover of the last year!

Best Books of 2019

Hello readers!

I’m a little late with all my posts about the best or worst of 2019, but 2020 has begun with some health problems for one of my cat.

Here we are now, with the best books I read in 2019!!

These 10 books are the best of the best of the 121 total books I read in the last year.

Two are non-fiction: “All that remains” and “Il mondo è un teatro” about anatomy and mortality the first; Shakespeare and his era the second.

Four of these are middle grade: “The wingsnatchers” the first in the Carmer and Grit trilogy, I really can’t stop talking about it; “The cat man of Aleppo” is a touching graphic novel, everyone need to read it; “The nowhere emporium”, the best cover I own; “Constable & Toop” is deliciously creepy.

Three are historical fiction: “The Cure for dreaming” from my fave gothic/historical author Cat Winters; “Her Majesty’s necromancer” is even better than the first on in the series; “The yard” a historical crime really well done with spectacular characters.

And the one it took me by surprise, because I thought it was just another YA: “The Belles”, with a lovely cover, an interesting world-building and lots of plot twists.

Have you read some of these books?

Have you read some great books last year?

Tell me in the comments!

Wrap up: December 2019

Hello readers and Happy New Year!

How was your reading month?

I managed to read 11 books on December, without DNF! It’s a miracle, I know.

What was the last book you’ve read in 2019? Mine was a non-fiction book about murders, so typically me.

As usual, I will include the books that I’ve read in Italian, with the title translated, if possible.

5 Stars:

 

3 books with 5 stars? How this is even possible? The magic of Christmas, I suppose.

The electrical menagerie is so beautiful! I can’t even describe how much I’ve loved it. Go and read it, it’s so underrated!

Arbrook Huxley and the miraculous confection: we are lucky, because the author of The Electrical Menagerie has written a couple of short stories!

The cure for dreaming is another great historical/gothic book written by Cat Winters. For me, she’s the queen of these books genres.

4 stars:

Another short story from the universe of The celestial isles! A celestial quartet shows us a little more about the characters of The electrical menagerie, and it’s free on the author’s site!

The audiobook version of Mary Poppins is a lovely company during the Christmas holidays! I really enjoy it.

3 stars:

Ah, always the special snowflake syndrome! Something that never change, right? Snow like ashes has a beautiful cover, but it was pretty flat for me.

The bank holiday murders is my last book of 2019: a non-fiction book about murders occurs in Whitechapel just before Jack The Ripper began to strike.

2 stars:

The catacombs was a little better than the other two in the series (Suicide forest/island of the dolls), but the plot is basically the same. Also, the main culprit is always the same kind of  “creature”.

I’ve read dozens of yaoi fanfictions with a better plot and better s*x scenes of The magpie lord. Totally not impressed, I won’t finish this series.

1 star:

The only 1 star book is a book about Christmas. Unholy night (that’s the original title) was funny only when Mary or her husband are involved. So, for me, that’s the last book written by Grahame Smith that I read in my life.

 

And that’s was my reading month, how about yours?

Tell me in the comments!

End of Autumn Recap Tag

Hello readers! I’m coming back with this lovely recap tag made by Faith. Go and check this great blog!

Like Faith, I will count books read from September to the end of November, feel free to adjust it.

Just a little note: I will be in London for my Christmas Holidays until the 30th of December, so I will post all my “best or worst of” in the new year!

The Questions

• Which book can you not stop thinking about?

This book was so good, adventurous and heartwarming. I also love the interaction with the author on Twitter.

• Which book would you rather have not read?

Circe was a big no for me, and this experience has ruined a little my memories of The song of Achilles.

• What genre did you read the most?

I’ve read lot of horror during autumn, thanks to Halloween.

• Which book surprised you the most?

Mirror Mirror is a short horror story that has creeped me out. Just what I want from a horror book.

• Which book disappointed you the most?

I waited months for reading Island of the dolls, I was so curious about this creepy island, but this series is really disappointing.

• What was your favorite cover?

• What was your favorite fall/autumn release?

I don’t follow the new/recent release, so I really don’t know.

• Which books did you plan on reading, but you never got around to?

I really wanted to re-read Harry Potter (the illustrated version), but I didn’t find the time! ç__ç

• Which books do you plan on reading in the winter?

The cover of Greenglass house is perfect for winter, right?

Tag done! What are you planning on reading in winter?

Tell me in the comments, and a Merry Christmas to all of you! ❤

Reading Challenges 2020

Hello readers!

As the new year approaches, I was searching for new reading challenges to do in 2020. These are the chosen, all very simple.

For the Love of Ebooks 2020

The lovely Tina of As Told by Tina has a bunch of great reading challenges, and also a post where you can list all the reading challenges of 2020. I chose For the love of ebooks, a challenge where you can read all the ebooks you want, since now I have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited too. I will participate for the Pro Status, 20-29 ebooks.

Mount TBR 2020

The Mount TBR challenge is back in 2020! This challenge is to read a certain number of book to reach the top of one famous mountain. Next year I will climb Mount Ararat with 48 books.

The A to Z reading challenge 2020

I love making lists, especially lists of books. So, I’m super happy to participate again to the A to Z reading challenge! The goal is to read a book for every letter of the alphabet.

 

And that’s all for now, do you participate in reading challenges? Do you like them?

Tell me in the comments!

Wrap Up: November 2019

Hello readers!

December is finally here, and here’s the recap of my readings in November. At the end of November, I reached my goal of 110 books on Goodreads, I’m so happy!

In November I read a total of 10 books, with 1 DNF. As I’ve done last month, from now on I will include in this wrap up the books I read in Italian too, with title translation when possible.

5 Stars:

Il Mondo è un teatro (Shakespeare, The world as stage) by Bill Bryson: my first ever Bryson book, I totally love it, it’s a great non-fiction about Shakespeare and the world where he has lived.

4 stars:

The Midnight Sea by Kat Ross: I’ve finally read this hyped book! Everyone in my country seems to love it, I’ve found it really readable and full of action, but a little predictable.

3 Stars:

Sitting Murder by A.J. Wright: this is the fourth book in the Lancashire Detective Mystery series. I love the cover, and the mystery behind the crime is interesting, but there’s a lot of dialects (of Lancashire, I suppose), that makes difficult for me to read.

Crypto by Dan Brown: hello again Mr Brown! I really liked the action parts of this book, but also found boring the computer and codes parts.

2 stars:

Il Drago verde (Dragon’s green) by Scarlett Thomas: this is a strange and confusional book. Sometimes it seems a middle grade, but then there are more adult scenes. It began with a simple plot, but then it adds more worlds, and magic and characters and I was really confused.

La Maschera di Bali by Francesco Durigon: sorry, no translation for this one! A steampunk book, too short for the plot.

The Butchered Man by Harriet Smart: the first 3 chapters were really interesting and I was captivated by the story. Then it began to be boring and more focused on gossip about the characters than solving the crime.

1 star:

Circe by Madeline Miller: I know. I’ve cried all my tears when I finished this book and I understood that I hated it. Well, I really disliked it during my reading too, found it boring and not at all write as good as The Song Of Achilles.

Island of the dolls by Jeremy Bates: as you can read in my review (link on the title), Island of the dolls as the exact same plot and situations as the Suicide forest. But now I want to read all this series, just to find out if even the other books are the same as these two.

DNF:

The Shrigley abduction by Ashby & Jones: Oh my, I was bored to death.

And that’s my recap! How was your reading month? Have you read some 5 stars books?

Tell me in the comments!

The ABC Book Challenge (J)

Hello! How’s everyone doing?

The challenge is to post some books that I loved and some books that are still on my TBR (please TBR, don’t hurt me), corresponding to each letter of the alphabet.

Personally, I found this challenge on A Book. A Thought. Go and check this great blog!

Please remember that maybe some books will be in Italian. I will write the English title too.

Previous Post:

The ABC Book Challenge (A)

The ABC Book Challenge (B)

The ABC Book Challenge (C)

The ABC Book Challenge (D)

The ABC Book Challenge (E)

The ABC Book Challenge (F)

The ABC Book Challenge (G)

The ABC Book Challenge (H)

The ABC Book Challenge (I)

Memorable books:

Junjo Romantica: a super cute yaoi (boy x boy) manga! One of the first I ever read!

Jack lo Squartatore (Jack the Ripper): well, you can see that I gave a little obession about Jack The Ripper. This one is written by the author of Psycho, and it’s very good.

James e la pesca gigante (James and the giant peach): it’s still one of my favorite book of all the time. And the movie? Wonderful! Have you seen it?

Books on my TBR:

I’m so intimidated by the lenght of Jonathan Strange! >__<

 

And that’s all, have you read some of these books?

Tell me in the comments down below!