Wrap up | January 1-6 2017

Goal this year is to review ever book I read during the year. By the amount of books I read this week. I think it may get a little over hand trying to post a review for every single book. So I think that I will be posting one or two single reviews for books that I feel to go more into detail and will be doing a general wrap up review for the rest of the books I read during the week. That way it doesn't feel so over whelm with review in the week. If I do end up reading more than one book in the week.

I think that is my plan. This week was a good reading week for me I think. I ended up listening to 3 audiobooks and reading 1 book. My goal this year is to listen as many audiobooks as I can since I could listen to them at work. I also ended up reading 5 single issue of my comic stack. So that is fun. I also read The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johanson. You can read the review of the book by clicking the title.

Title: Star Wars: Lost Stars #1
Author: Claudia Gray
Release: September 4th 2015

Rating:★ ★ 1/2

Pages: 551
Where to find it:  Amazon | Bookdepository
Series: Yes
Format: Hardcover

Summary: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Eight years after the fall of the Old Republic, the Galactic Empire now reigns over the known galaxy. Resistance to the Empire has been all but silenced. Only a few courageous leaders such as Bail Organa of Alderaan still dare to openly oppose Emperor Palpatine. After years of defiance, the many worlds at the edge of the Outer Rim have surrendered. With each planet’s conquest, the Empire’s might grows stronger. The latest to fall under the Emperor’s control is the isolated mountain planet Jelucan, whose citizens hope for a more prosperous future even as the Imperial Starfleet gathers overhead…(goodreads)

Thoughts:
Well this was interesting. This books was nothing from what the description said. It's basically a love story set throughout the war. It felt like a hash tag of the movies. It just went through the events of the movies as we followed the characters of each side. One in the side of the Rebellion and the other in the side of the Empire. It was an interesting aspect with the characters background story but I felt the story line was too force and just written for the sake of giving a little more background to the main story. Which that was the thing that enjoy from the book.

I enjoyed a lot of easter eggs for all the movies. They had things from Rogue One so that was a nice surprise all the way to The Force Awakens. That is what I like. It gave a little insight to each side but I felt that it wasn't something too realistic to the story. I do recommend it to people that are big fans of Star Wars just for the background things going on in the story and the nice surprises with some connections to the main story lines.

Title: Broken Monsters

Author: Lauren Beukes

Release: September 16, 2014
Rating:★ ★ ★ 1/2
Pages: 442
Where to find it:  Amazon | Bookdepository

Series: No

Format: Hardcover

Summary:Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies, but this one is unique even by Detroit's standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams? If you're Detective Versado's geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you're desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you're Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you'll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe--and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world. If Lauren Beukes's internationally bestselling The Shining Girls was a time-jumping thrill ride through the past, her Broken Monsters is a genre-redefining thriller about broken cities, broken dreams, and broken people trying to put themselves back together again. (goodreads)

Thoughts:
Well this book was something. It was written in the same style as the authors previous books that I have read. I feel like her books have a formula, were we begin with characters at the beginning of the story and we end up seeing how they connect at the end of the story. I felt like it was very similar to the previous book I had read from her. Just with a new set of characters and in another location.

It was entertaining trying to find the mystery of the story and see how the mystery was going to be solve but the ending threw me off a bit. I would have like that the author wouldn't have added a last scene at the end making me confuse about what was really going on in the story. But overall I did enjoyed it and like some of the individual characters. I was pulled into the mystery and wanted to know what the outcome was. It is a little gory in some scenes. It also has adult scenes. But I recommend to people to give it a try.

Title: The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Release: October 8, 2013

Rating:★ ★ ★ 1/2

Pages: 493

Where to find it:  Amazon | Bookdepository

Series: No

Format: Hardcover

Summary: When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in America--even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge. (goodreads)

Thoughts:
This book was scary in the way that this could happen and we are already walking a thin line to this future. The book revolve in a world not much different than our own were we are driven by technology and social media. It feels like a prequel to Brave New World or Nighty Eighty Four. It was that intense. I wanted to read this book before the film came out and now I am intrigue to see how they are going to show case this film. In the story we follow the world through Mae and see how she gets consume in this world.

It touches on the issues of how much people live through other peoples lives. How we stop seeing the world for what it is. People want to record everything around them instead of enjoyed it and the people around us. It's such a great read. It really opens your eyes to our world and make you think step away and take time for your self. Don't invest all our time on the online world and actually go outside and experience the world.

I also I ended up reading 5 single issue comics. I ended up reading 3 issues of Pink Ranger mini series by Boom! comics and 2 issues of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series also by Boom! I am really enjoying the series. I am liking the contemporary feel. Can't wait to see where it leads.