Review: Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon VS. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Series: Standalone

Released: April 7th, 2015

Pages: 303 (Paperback)

Source: Purchased

Rating: 5 / 5

Link: Goodreads








Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.


This book is one of my favorite contemporary books since I read it this year. I loved all of the characters and how Becky Albertalli made me care for them so quickly.
Not only is Simon the funniest and most adorable kid in town, his entire family and friends made me laugh out loud so much. This book makes you wanting to be friends with all of them so you can please hang out with them.

NANOWRIMO 2015 Update #2

Hi lovely readers!

As of today we are in week 4 of National Novel Writing Month. My word count is currently at 21.677. It should be at 40.000. You probably can guess that I haven't done a lot of writing last week. I am trying to catch up a little, but it looks like I won't win Nano this year. 30k words in one week...doable but I know me, so let's just adjust the personal word count goal a little.
I am still 100% behind my story idea, even if it started to take turns and directions I didn't expect. For a first draft that is pretty normal...I checked with other authors ;).
The thing that let me fall behind the most last week, besides my omnipresent lack of motivation was using Book Expo Vienna and ComicCon Vienna as an excuse not to write.
So this week, I really want to start writing every day again. Even if it's just 100 words. If I can keep that up I will eventually have a first draft in my hands at least in the next couple months. That's not bad, and the real work just continues afterwards, editing, asking if the plot really makes sense, changing things. Although December will most likely not be my revision month, I am excited to see how far I can get until next Monday. Maybe I will even surprise myself.
So if you like, you can add me on Snapchat (thelifeofkatha) because I am now going to update my word count daily again ;).
Or you can just watch my Vlog videos on Youtbe:

Either way, if you are doing Nanowrimo this year, or attempted previously, I would love to hear from you guys. How are you doing?

Hopefully better than me ;)...
Katharina

Fall Book Haul

Hi guys!

So, I don't know if you saw this, but I uploaded my giant Fall Book Haul video on Youtube a couple of days ago. 

Over the months of September/October/November I accumulated a lot of books, and yes I know November isn't over yet, but until Christmas I am on sort of a book buying ban to avoid getting doubles, because what more joy can it bring than to find a lot of books you really wished for under the Christmastree - getting festive already just while thinking about it...jingle bells, jingle bells,...ok enough, not yet, I know guys! My birthday is in October so I received a good junk of books as presents from my loved ones.

If I am not mistaken, I am talking about 17 books and 2 comic trades. Insane! I know! But there is just so much excitement in opening a new book, and smelling it for the first time - ok I get weird again, but yes I do smell my books. 

As much as I love watching Book Hauls from other Booktubers I also really loved to film this for you, to share with you all of the wonderful reads that are now in my home, just waiting for me.

Also featured in the video: some hyped new releases that hopefully won't disappoint.

As my blogging journey moves forward, I will review every book, once I have read it here on my site, to share, recommend and talk with you about it, or even discuss because please do share if you read any of the books and have a completely other opinion!

So if you are now super curious and want to know which books I got this Fall check out my video :)!

See ya next time!

Katharina

Review: Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Series: Solitaire #1 (Standalone?)

Released: July 31st, 2014

Pages: 400

Source: Purchased

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Link: Goodreads






My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year – before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people – I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that’s all over now.

Now there’s Solitaire. And Michael Holden.

I don’t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don’t care about Michael Holden.

I really don’t.

That's the blurb of Solitaire, I really don't think you should know more before reading this novel. Maybe except of, it's about a typical teenager, with problems, that you will find yourself remembering you had too, or you have right now, because you are the same age as Tori (if so, it will get better, I promise ;)). The book has a sader vibe to it, with occasionally funny bits. It's a growing up thing!

Review: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Series: The Invisible Library (#1)

Released: January 15th, 2015

Pages: 329

Source: Birthday Gift / Purchased

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Link: Goodreads







Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests books from different realities. She and her new assistant Kai, are posted on a mission to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book. Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.

I got this book as a surprise for my birthday in October. I haven't heard of it before and started reading right away. I just wanted to read the first chapter, but I got sucked into this world. So I basically flew threw this book. The world is super interesting! There are alternating universes but Irene and her assistant get send into a Steampunk London. Steampunk! I love it! I don't know when this obsession started but I love reading action stories set in this fictional time period. 

NANOWRIMO 2015 Update #1

Hi guys!

We officially crossed the halfway point of National Novel Writing Month today. So this means the total word count should be 25.000 or more.
Did I reach it yet? No. But that's okay. I was super busy the past couple of days and my motivation to write at night or while others are watching my current Netflix obsession aka Supernatural (need to start Season4!!) wasn't at it's top.
So what to do when you fall behind? Just don't give up. I gave up last year, but regretted it for the last eleven months. So now, even if I am not in reach of that word count goal yet, I will keep on writing. I almost wrote every day. I admit some of the days I only wrote about 200 words but that is still 200 more than nothing. The two days I didn't write were packed with a concert and a wedding, so I knew from the start that I probably wasn't going to write on these days anyway.
Although I like writing from the beginning to the end, I had problems with that during the last week of Nano. I started to jump around in the story, and started new chapters, some people swear on. If you are currently writing on your Novel too, and you feel stuck, just try this method, it can help a lot. I personally used it mostly to outline future chapters, but in some cases I got caught up in the scene and now half of the chapters are already finished. It helps to set the direction of your plot, especially if you are like me and haven't gotten around to figure out the resolution yet.

I am snapping every day of Nanowrimo to document my journey. I got inspired to do that from the lovely Youtuber Kristina Horner who did this for a couple of years now. I put up a video about the first half of Nanowrimo, so if you want to see how I was doing day by day, check that out!

Thanks for reading, hope to see you all at the Nanowrimo Finishline at November 30th.
PS: I am still looking for some writing buddies, so add me if you want -thelifeofkatha- ;).

See ya soon,
Katharina