2016 Readings 1/2

First of all, happy new year!!

Now that's out of the way ( :p ) on to the books I read in 2016. Reading as many books as I could was my resolution for 2016 and I can gladly say I achieved this goal. I read 63 books, I have never read that much in a year in my entire life. I have never bought that many books as well (novels, comics and photography), I would say I bought a hundred books in 2016.

I spent the summer months and beautiful spring days at the window reading and it's really something I would like to do again this year. It was simply awesome.

Today I said goodbye to this old friend, the big stack of books by my bed and I will try to review each one of them as well as I can, since it's been a while and I don't remember clearly all of them.

It shouldn't be a problem next year because I bought a tiny binder with index cards and I'm planning on reviewing each book I read in it as soon as I finish it.

It was quite a challenge to take a decent pictures of all the books together and I quite failed I would say. But it doesn't matter, this post is about books, not pictures.

Let's start with the ones I didn't like.

Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase: I read a couple of Murakamis before and really enjoyed them. But this one felt redundant and not as beautifully written as the others. The plot was kind of like the other two I read, some kind of investigation, people disappearing, but this time I didn't buy it. I thought it was quite absurd and not in a good way.

Doris Lessing - Love Again: I found this book pretty dull. I have not much alse to say about it, it just didn't do it for me, too slow, too cheesy at times.

Sarah Marcus - Girls to the Front: I got pretty interested in the Riot Grrrls movement in 2015 and bought this book in Portland while I was there on vacation. Well, I didn't think it was very interesting. I'd rather watch the movie The Punk Singer, it's an awesome movie and has a clear angle on the movement through Kathleen Hannah's experience. Unlike Girls to the Front, it is straighforward and has rythm.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt: I don't remember much now but I know I was pretty disappointed with how this book turned out. I thought there would be more to the plot than what there actually was.

Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter: Too dense for me.English is not my mother tongue and this one was pretty hard on me. Not that much because of the vocabulary but because of the synthax.

Simone de Beauvoir - La Femme Rompue: I HATED IT! If you want to feel bad and witness women going powerless and pathetic, well that's the book for you! I wanted to slap the characthers in the face.

Graeme Smsion - The Rosie Effect: I read the first one just before, and even though it was not a master piece, it was clearly not as corny and silly as this one. 

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Quite like Graham Greene, too dense for me. But some beautiful things along the way.

Mark Helprin - Winter's Tale: Still my worst read of 2016. I did a whole post about it when I finished it here. I will not discuss it any further :P

Next category is Books-I-didn't-like-a-lot-but-had-something-very-interesting.

Muriel Barbery - L'élégance du hérisson: Nice read with a lot of beautiful little things that makes you feel good inside.

David James Duncan - The River Why: Unique and quite dense for me at times, but really funny now and then.

Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth: The style is always a little hard for me but I like her stories. I had read The Age of Innocence before and liked it. This one, in my opinion, is not as good but good nonetheless.

Jean-Paul Sartre - La Nausee: I'm glad I read it but it was kind of hard on my mood. It's all in the title, Nausea. Not a feel good book at all.

H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man: Pretty entertaining. And very clever.

Toni Morrison - Jazz: Once again, a little hard to follow for me but a few nice things. I bought a couple of other books by Morrison that I still have to read, because I want to see what else she can do.

Audre Lorde - Sister Outsider: A very hard read for me but very interesting. 

Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita: It was OK, only OK. 

Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street: I read this one in college, sold my copy and had the urge to read it again, so had to buy it again. It's original and easy to read.

Iris Andreski - Old Wives Tales: I heard about this book in Sister Outsider, and wanted to read it to learn more. 

Category : Easy-read-not-so-interesting-but-still-had-a-good-time

Alice Hoffman - Pratical Magic: I love the movie. But the book, except for the main characters, has nothing to do with the movie. Yet, it was awesome to follow the same characters in different stories.

Stephen King - Thinner: Fun easy read.

Fannie Flagg - A Redbird Christmas: Cheesy AF. Not a very good story but easy read.

Stephen King - The Long Walk: Fun easy read.

Rani Manicka - The Rice Mother: Easy read. Some characters are unbearable but I think that was the point. Not so fond of the story.

Kathleen Stockett - The Help: I'm torn about this one. It was not a master piece but it was very entertaining but I was quite mad to see that it was yet again the story of a oh-so-kindhearted white woman coming to the rescue of black women.

Eowyn Ivey - The Snow Child: Much better than I expected. Nice little story in a snowy and secluded little house.

Mineko Iwasaki - Geisha of Gion: After I read Memoirs of a Geisha and didn't like it, I read somewhere that the book by Iwasaki was accurate, and Memoirs was not. Geisha of Gion was a nice easy read, and very interesting to learn about geishas.

Edward Kelsey Moore - The Supremes at  Earl's All-you-can-eat: Fast, easy read. Not very good but fun.

PG Wodehouse - Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves: It was the first book I read in 2016. I don't remember much now. I only know it was funny at times.

Yangsze Choo - The Ghost Bride: I had a good time with this one and was pleasantly surprised by the end.

Graeme Simsion - The Rosie Project: Quite corny but fun.

Stephen King - Desperation: Fun easy read.(yeah, I don't rack my brain too much when I talk about a Stephen King's book)

That's enough for one post. To be continued with the books I actually liked ;)