BookTube-A-Thon 2016 Results

Well, Booktube-a-thon 2016 is officially ended. I wish I had had more time to read during the read-a-thon! I didn't finish them all, as I anticipated. I wish I could have, but work! So, I'm here to share with you my results from Booktube-a-thon.


First book completed:

Challenges completed: Challenge 1, Challenge 5, & Challenge 6: Read a book with yellow on the cover, read a book older than you, and read a book-to-movie adaptation.

I wasn't originally going to use this book to complete challenge 5. It sort of happened on accident. I got to talking with a co-worker about this play and she mentioned that Joss Whedon had made this into a movie. I love Joss Whedon! So I had to get this from the library. I also got a version of this made in 1993 that had Keanu Reeves in it! As much as I love Joss Whedon, I didn't love his version of Much Ado About Nothing. I actually really liked the 1993 version much more! I think because it actually took place in the time period that Shakespeare set it in. Whereas, Whedon's version was a modern setting and it was all in black and white. I didn't care for that much.

Second book completed:

 



Challenge completed: Challenge 4, read a book by your favorite author.

I managed to make it through this almost 500 page book in about 3 days. Yes, it is for younger readers and is easier to read, but it was so good! I probably would have been able to finish at least one other book before the end of the read-a-thon, but I didn't want to put this one down!

And that is all I managed to finish! I did complete 4 out of the 7 challenges with only 2 books read. I was so very close to finishing Coraline, but I wanted to read Magnus Chase more, so I neglected it. It was worth it. Coraline was kind of a weird book (which I finished today). I also watched the movie adaptation anyway since I already had it from the library. I liked it even less than the book. I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars. I would probably give the movie 2 out of 5 stars. There are elements that are the same, but it is very different from the book.

I also started reading Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes, which was supposed to be for challenge 3: read a book you discovered through Booktube. I'm liking it so far, but have turned my attention to trying to finish the books that I had abandoned to read my TBR for Booktube-a-thon. Right now, that includes finishing up The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

Tell me, if you participated, how did you do? Let me know in the comments! I would love to hear from you!

Until next time,

Jenell

Booktube-A-Thon 2016!

Wow. To think, I started doing this about a year ago, right when last years Booktube-A-Thon was happening. I was mostly posting on my YouTube account then, but I haven't done that in awhile. I find that I don't have as much time to edit, so the blog is a little easier.

Anyway, a little late, but I thought I would share my Booktube-A-Thon 2016 TBR! I honestly have only 4 on the list right now. I always try to combine challenges, then read whatever books I have time for after that. Also, since I have to work all week, I won't have a ton of time for reading. So I probably won't be able to read 7 books, but I will get as far as I can!

Challenge 1 & Challenge 5: Read a book with yellow on the cover & read a book older than you.

For this challenge, I picked Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. I chose my No Fear Shakespeare version because it has yellow on the cover, of course. The other reason I chose this was because this play was the very first Shakespeare play I ever went to see and I went with my sister. It was my first trip to the local Shakespeare festival here in Boise, so it hold special place in my heart. This also has the benefit of being older that me!

Challenge 2 & Challenge 6: Read a book only after sunset & read and watch the book-to-movie adaptation

The book that I chose for these 2 challenges is Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I wanted to pick a book that was short, so that I could read it quickly since I'm reading it only at night and here sunset is officially at almost 9:30 pm. Since I go to bed fairly early, I definitely need something short! I also wanted to pick a book that I hadn't seen the movie. I already had the book and I checked out the movie from my library, so I'm ready for it when I finish the book.

Challenge 3: Read a book you discovered through Booktube.

I struggled with this one. There are so many books that I've discovered through Booktube. I had to think about what I was in the mood to read. I ultimately decided to read Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I believe I first heard about this series from Lainey from Gingerreadslainey. She always would say how much she loved it, so I looked into it and thought it sounded interesting. I thought about maybe choosing Throne of Glass, but decided I wanted to read this one first.

Challenge 4: Read a book by your favorite author.

 

I also had a hard time picking which book I was going to read for this one. I have a few authors that I love with books on my shelf that are unread still. I ultimately decided to read The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan. I love Riordan's books and I felt like this one would be pretty easy to get through. I've also heard good things about this book.

The last challenge is to read 7 books. Here I have 4 out of 7. I haven't decided on the other 3 for two reasons. One is because I'm not sure how much reading I'm going to get done, mostly because of work. Second, I am such a mood reader that I want to leave myself some wiggle room to pick books that I'm in the mood to read. Who knows, I may even change my challenge books, depending on my mood! I probably won't because I want to read all of them, but it could happen!

So that's it! That's all I've got for now. Are you participating in Booktube-a-thon? If so, feel free to link your channel or blog in the comments so I can check out your TBR's!

Until next time,

Jenell

*BookBear Presents* Gol by J.W. Webb

Welcome back! I'm excited to be working with BookBear again on the month long book tour for Gol by J.W. Webb. As you may know by now, I love supporting independent authors and hope that you will choose to support them too!

  

 

Synopsis:

Gol. A continent on the brink of destruction. Once a mighty kingdom, now six provinces torn apart by treacherous barons.
In one province two young lovers strive to stay together when all else prises them apart. Lissane and
Erun must survive to guide their people through the coming storm. The odds are stacked against
them. Erun, dreamer and fool, is chosen for a dark path. Whilst Lissane is given away by her father
the baron to wed the brutal son of a rival ruler.
Meanwhile, at the far side of the world a sorcerer has freed the fire demon, Ashmali, setting off a
chain of events that could ultimately bring about Gol's long foretold ruin. Caught between rising
seas, civil war, and approaching fire the continent’s time is fast running out.
Gol features beautiful sketches and maps by Tolkien illustrator, Roger Garland. It opens the doors on a new epic fantasy series titled Legends of Ansu. Within its content lies an sweeping tale of love, hatred, vengeance and destruction. In Gol the high courage of a few individuals is all that stands against the will of fickle gods and treachery of men. 

J.W. Webb - find out more at Legendsofansu.com

My Review:

I went into reading this story completely blind. I didn't read the blurb first, as is my preference. So I didn't know anything about it beforehand. I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I found it interesting from the beginning. The story often switches perspective, and often in the middle of the chapter and often a few times. Webb mostly accomplished this seamlessly. There were a few rough transitions, but for the most part they were done well. None of the transitions caused me any confusion, whether rough or smooth. I was actually very impressed with the way the transitions of perspective were done when it was switching from one to another without the obvious breaks in the text that denoted a switch in character and scene.

I found the story itself to be interesting. The way it is written reminds me a lot of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, but less brutal and about 95% less incest. That's not to say there isn't adult content in Gol. There are torture scenes, sexual scenes, and other violent deaths.

I also really enjoyed the characters. It was rough going in the begging of the story for me to care and like the characters, but that did come and it didn't take too long either. For me, it came with a scene involving on of the main characters, Erun and the brothers of the girl that he loves. Even though this scene happens not too long into the beginning, I don't want to include any detail on it. It's an event that triggers the growth and journey of Erun, and I wouldn't want to spoil anything! This was the turning point for not just Erun, but other characters as well.

The story seems to flow really well, with a few rough patches here or there. I was glad to have read this on my Kindle because I found myself using the dictionary quite a bit because there were many words used that I was not familiar with. This use of obscure words (at least for me) hardly ever took away from the story. Only a few times did I look up a word and wonder why it was necessary to use that word instead of another. That being said, I do have an appreciation for the way words were used in Gol. The writing style has the feel of fantasy. Does that make sense? I don't really know how else to describe it. There are also some beautiful drawings that are in the novel right at the beginning of each book, as well as two maps in the beginning.

An example of the drawings

Gol was really enjoyable and it gets better and better as you go. It has some hiccups, as most books do. I gave Gol 4 out of 5 stars.

Go read it! :)

Until next time,

Jenell