July 2018 Wrap Up

 

The blue and black are the colour of this month covers!

Hello, how are you doing? I had a little accident involving my head and an iron door this month, so I still feel dizzy and tired when I’m reading. Hope to feel better in August!

In July I read a total of 9 books (but one is a re-reading) and 5 are in english:

The Uninvited by Cat Winters: I didn’t like it as much as I liked In The Shadow of Blackbirds, but this book has an amazing plot twist, and can break your heart in tiny little pieces. 4 stars.

Skulduggery Pleasant #1 by Derek Landy:  this book was totally a surprise to me! I heard positive things about it, expecially on Instagram, but I didn’t think it was so good and funny! I will continue this series. 4 stars.

The bone season by Samantha Shannon: I know that my review is in italian, but you can admire the GIFs, really funny. I know too that it’s a popular/super hyped book, but I didn’t like it. 1 star for me.

The watchmaker’s daughter by C. J. Archer: I read and review with entusiasm The Last Necromancer, another book of the same author. But this was like a copy: the plot, the background of the characters, their interactions, and now I’m feeling teased. It’s enjoyable and a lot less dark than The Last Necromancer, but I’m worried that all the series of Archer are the same. 3 stars.

Del Toro Moon by Darby Karchut: I received this ARC from Netgalley. I love the cover, the story that had made me cry, and the author is so kind! She appreciated my review, and I’m so happy! 5 stars for me, the best book I read in July!

How was your reading month?

When translation goes wrong: EngVsIta titles #1

Hello! Here’s another little meme of my own, in which I confront the original English titles of the books with the Italian translated ones.

Why? Because a lot of times, I didn’t know/comprehend that a new release in Italian it’s the same book I put on my wishlist, because of the absurd/weird/wrong title it has.

Or because I’m stupid and out of vogue, I don’t know.

The first example will be with (obviously) with the book after this blog is named:

Fortunately, the milk by Neil Gaiman.

I personally own this hardback edition: it’s so shiny and colourful, and it’s my preciouuusss.

But I really like the white hardback edition too.

The dinosaur is pretty different, but it’s okay.

And then BAM, we have the italian edition:

The cover is pretty plain and simple, and I didn’t dislike the “newspaper” style. But if you are wondering, “L’esilarante mistero del papà scomparso” means “The exhilarating mistery of the missing dad”.

“Fortunatamente, il latte” will be the exact translation of the original title, but as the author made a parody of the famous quote “Where there is life(milk), there is hope”, maybe a title referring to this quote will be better.

I’m not creating this post to discredit the italian editors/graphic, and I’m curious about other editions too. What title this book had in your country?

What’s your favourite cover?

Del Toro Moon by Darby Karchut, ARC review

Del Toro Moon

Author: Darby Karchut

Editor: Owl Hollow Press

Pages: 256

Genres: Middle Grade, Adventure

Rating: 4,5/5

Add on: Goodreads, Amazon

Summary:

“Ride hard, swing hard, and take out as many of those creepy critters as you can.”
Twelve year old Matt Del Toro is the greenest greenhorn in his family’s centuries-old business: riding down and destroying wolf-like monsters, known as skinners. Now, with those creatures multiplying, both in number and ferocity, Matt must saddle up and match his father’s skills at monster whacking. Odds of doing that? Yeah, about a trillion to one. Because Matt’s father is the legendary Javier Del Toro—hunter, scholar, and a true caballero: a gentleman of the horse.
Luckily, Matt has twelve hundred pounds of backup in his best friend—El Cid, an Andalusian war stallion with the ability of human speech, more fighting savvy than a medieval knight, and a heart as big and steadfast as the Rocky Mountains.
Serious horse power.
Those skinners don’t stand a chance.

Review:

 

“Back then, belief in things skewed toward the mythical end of the spectrum was acceptable. Somewhat. But with each new generation, humans find it harder to believe.””I frowned.”Believe in monsters, you mean?””And in heroes.”

At first, I was captured by the cover, and I realize only after reading the first pages why: it’s realized by the talented Risa Rodil.

Isn’t a beatiful cover? I like it so much!

Do you know what I love in a book? Talking animals, maybe a little sassy too, and friendship between humans and animals. And nerd quotes.

I must confess I wasn’t very interested for the first 2/3 chapters. We are transported directly in the plot, without a lot of informations. Then suddenly we read of this amazing friendship between caballeros and war-horses, expecially between Matt and El Cid.

So, everytime El Cid speak, I fell in love more and more with the characters and the story.

Del Toro Moon is a middle grade story with a lot of adventures, a touch of history and myth, friendship and family relations, a main character who has flaws and fears, who is actually a nerd (there are a lot of LOTR quotes and reference) and a little touch of horror, thanks to the skinners.

The setting is very captivating, with a lot of descriptions, but in the beginning I mistaken the time setting: I was convinced it was set during the “Far West/Gold rush” period, until I found out the first LOTR reference.

The characters are well done: the horses are wise and sassy, protective and so brave; Javier has done a great job with his sons; Matt is so cute, he’s my favourite along with El Cid. I must advise you that at one point during my reading I was crying. Prepare yourself.

The ending is all right, but now I want another book, maybe a prequel with the family’s centuries-old business and the ancestor of Matt; and a sequel too, with Matt and another character I can’t tell you without spoiler!

Thanks to Netgalley and Owl Hollow Press for this book. I received for free in exchange of a honest review.

 

My most read authors

I saw this post on a couple of different blogs, so I check my goodreads page and here’s my Most Read Authors!

If you click on the name, you can find the Goodreads Author page.

In the past years I read a lot of mangas. And I means a lot. 499 books, to be honest.

And that’s why the first 7 authors are all mangaka. The first 2 are:

1) Clamp with 56 books.

56 books???!!! I’m surprised too! My favourite series are Kobato and Chobits. The characters in the Clamp books has always beatiful costumes.

2) Kazuya Minekura with 39 books.

Saiyuki, and the spin-off of this series are my fave series of all the time. I discovered mangas and all the world of comics (cosplay and comic conventions, etc…) thanks to this manga. I love with all my heart, but it’s Saiyuki Gaiden that has break my heart in tiny little pieces.

The first author of books in my chart is:

R.L. Stine with 28 books.

I still have at my home my collection of Goosebumps books. At elementary school, I was the only girl who was reading horror and mystery books. I hated the “classic books for girls” like Pollyanna and The secret garden.

Neil Gaiman with 21 books.

Sorry Mr. Gaiman, I tought I read more books written by you, but you are 11th in my GR chart. (But I love your books, you know!)

Coraline and Neverwhere are my favourite books!

Banana Yoshimoto: 10 books.

I’ve read and loved a lot of Yoshimoto’s books, like “Umi no futa” and “Arcobaleno” (sorry, I can’t find the translated title!), but I didn’t like all her books.

What are your most read authors?

Do you read manga too?

 

I spy book challenge

I saw this funny challenge on MelToTheAny blog, and I immediately decided to do it, even if I am not tagged!

The rules: Find a book that contains (either on the cover or in the title) an example for each category. You must have a separate book for all 20, get as creative as you want and do it within five minutes!

1) Food

2) Transportation

3) Weapon

4) Animal

5)Number

6)Something you read

7)Body of Water

8)Product of fire

9)Royalty

10)Architecture

11)Clothing item

12)Family member

13)Time of day

Inkdeath

14)Music

15)Paranormal being

16)Occupation

17)Season

Shadowed summer

18)Color

19)Celestial body

20)Something that grows

Wow, that’s a lot of books!! The Wonder has a wonderful cover, along with Hand and Talon. I can’t wait to read it!

Inkdeath has the italian title, because “Alba” means dawn!

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