The Classics Club Spin #13

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. This is the fourth time that I'm participating and I couldn't be happier! In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read.

So, here is my list for list #13:

1. Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw
2. A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
3. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
4. The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham
5. The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence
6. The Atom Station, by Halldor Laxness
7. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
8. The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht
9. The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott
11. Beauty and Sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata
12. A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter
13. Brave New World, by Aldous Haxley
14. The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
15. Utopia, by Thomas More
16. Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell
17. The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
18. A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
19. Nemesis, by Isaac Asimov
20. Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima

This is it! From these books I'm more eager to read Nemesis, Gothic Tales, and The Big Sleep. Moreover, Beauty and Sadness and Confessions of a Mask would be very welcome, as I'm fond of Japanese literature. I dread to read The Gambler, Utopia, and The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. On Monday, we'll know which will be the lucky book I'll have to read until August 1, 2016.

Review: Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Author: Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina Lacour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Date of Publication: May 17th, 2016

Number of Pages: 400

Find it at : Book Depository

Summary

Maybe it's the long, lazy days, or maybe it's the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom. Summer Days & Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

Review

Summertime is upon us and all we have to do is lie around, and of course read. These are also the months for the infamous summer romances and Summer Days & Summer Nights is one of those books that can make you want to fall in love. If you've already read My True Love Gave Me then you can easily understand the tone of the short stories included in the collection.

From 2014 when My True Love Gave Me was first released I thought that it was a brilliant idea to collech short stories from all those authors we all know so well and I'm sure that some of us include them in our favourite authors list. Similarly, in Summer Days & Summer Nights the list of the contributing authors is more than impressive, making it a short story collection that I was eager to read.

This collection was more diverse than the stories in My True Love Gave Me, and so I enjoyed it more. I loved the fact that there were many stories that had science fiction and fantasy elements. I loved the Groundhog Day thing in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things and that an actual demon was giving power to the circus in Brand New Attraction. I adored that there were mysterious sea creatures in Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail and some sort of zombie apocalypse in Last Stand at the Cinegore. Also, the protagonists were more diverse, not only as far as it concerned their sexuality, but also their other physical characteristics. For example, in A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong the guy has Asperger syndrome.

Furthermore, some of the stories were heart-wrenching and others were delightful. Inertia was so sad and depressing that I couldn't read it without being moved. On the other hand, Good Luck and Farewell was so light-hearted and amusing. It almost reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel, although this might be because it was set in a hotel. Other short stories, like The End of Love, made me think and I felt that the protagonist really grew up in just a few pages!

Naturally, I didn't enjoy all of the stories that much. To be precise, I couldn't connect with just two of them, Sick Pleasure, and Souvenirs. This might have happened because of their endings, since both of them didn't leave me with a sense of hope. But I have to give it to Sick Pleasure that it featured very good music. Many of the songs in the Play(list) by the Book were from this particular story and I really like the punk sound.

Summer Days & Summer Nights is a delightful collection of short stories that will make you swoon. There is a story for every taste, and so I can safely say that it is a must-have book for your summer reading!

Play(list) by the Book: Summer Days & Summer Nights, edited by Stephanie Perkins

Hello, everyone! What a better way to welcome summer than listening to the Play(list) by the Book of the short story collection edited by Stephanie Perkins, Summer Days & Summer Nights! Plus, I always have so much fun compiling and listening to all those literary playlists. So, turn up your volume and enjoy!

As usual, I've included all the songs and artists mentioned in the short stories. Some of them didn't mention even one, others featured many. This playlist turned out to be more punk than I expected. When only an artist was named I chose the song thay I liked the most. The same applied to the case where only the album was mentioned. In the short story Inertia by Veronica Roth a band called Chase Wolcott plays an important role, and especially their song with the same title as the story. Also, another song is mentiones called Traditional Panic. I couldn't find anything about this band, so I figured that it was a fictional one. In case you know that this is a real music group, please let me know, for I'd like to listen to their songs!

Find more playlists at: Play(list) by the Book

Radio Show: Play(list) by the Book  

The Reading Book Post, May 30th

Hello, everyone! Summer has arrived and I'm trying to compile my summer reading list. There are a couple of books of my favourite authors coming out and some others that I've wanted to read for a while. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know! Anyway, let's see what happened in the literary world the previous week.

• The V&A Illustration Award 2016 was given to Kate Milner for her picture book My Name is Not Refugee. In this picture book the creator aims to show children what is the refugee crisis.

• One of the first novel to be published in summer that I expect is definitely Stephen King's End of Watch. You can read an excerpt from it before its publication on June 7.

• Which is the first science fiction story? Could it be one of Edgar Allan Poe's, or one of Mary Shelley's? Well, the genre might have appeared even earlier than we thought, as the 1616 The Chemical Wedding is considered the first science fiction story.

• Any fans of the Mortal Instruments series? It seems that Cassandra Clare will publish an adult trilogy about the character we all know (and love) Magnus Bane! But we'll have to wait until November 2017 for the release of the first instalment.

• You all know by now my love for David Mitchell. The author has delivered his manuscript for the Future Library Project, which will be released on 2114. The only thing we know, and we'll ever learn is the it's called From Me Flows What You Call Time. 

• Which Literary Creep Is Your Alter Ego? Take the quiz to find out! It turns out that my alter ego is none other than Cathy Ames from the novel East of Eden. Which one is yours?

Review: Luna the Vampire, Volume 1: Grumpy Space, by Yasmin Sheikh

Title: Luna the Vampire, Volume 1: Grumpy Space

Author: Yasmin Sheikh

Publisher: Idea & Design Works

Expected Date of Publication: July 12th, 2016

Number of Pages: 80

Find it at : Book Depository

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary

Ever wondered how it would be if outer space was populated by monsters? LOOK NO FURTHER! As this is the AMAZING everyday life of Luna the Vampire. Jam packed with awesome adventures, crazy faces, zombie postmen, AND SPACE. By the power of the giant floating god heads, don't miss out!

Review

Luna the Vampire is a quick and fun read. The cartoony art style and the everyday life short stories make this comic so easy to read.

Luna is a vampire that lives in space. This alone is a refreshing view, as I'm used to darker versions of these creatures. Along with Luna space is filled with all kinds of creatures, such as witches and zombies. Even the young vampire's pet is a fat worm, rather than a dog or a cat.

This comic consists of a series of short stories of Luna's everyday life. They don't have a connection, each story can work fine on its own without any context. This means, on the one hand, that we never really get to learn our protagonist really well, and, on the other hand, that Luna becomes really relateable, escpecially to the female readers. She worries about being fat and the way that her body looks, she even freaks out that she doesn't have anything to wear. All of these, are things that we all have felt and this makes it even funnier.

All in all, Luna the Vampire  is a quirky and light read. It doesn't offer anything much, apart from killing a boring afternoon. Another problem is that it's not memorable, funny for reading the first volume but not expecting a second one. I'm not sure what the target audience of this comic really is. I wouldn't consider it for younger readers, but adolescents would surely find it enjoyable.