March Reading Wrap-up

Books Read: 15
Difference from previous month: +2
Avg Rating: 3.29 Stars
Difference from previous month: + 0.37 stars
Pages Read: 3,618
Difference from previous month: - 945 pages

So... yeah, remember this?

Obviously, my monthly reading plan did not work, and was a huge fail. I didn't read half of the books I wanted to, and it felt wayyyyy too much like work to go at it like that. So, back to the weekly ones in April.

And I read nearly a thousand fewer pages. I feel like a failure. BUT... On the plus side, I read a few children's books on We Give Books, which means that I've donated a few as well. So maybe not a total failure?

So... anyway, here are the highlights of what I did manage to get around to reading. Enjoy! :)

For the Real Life Bookclub:

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was... interesting. It was my first Rushdie book, and I pretty much loved the first half of it. I thought it was funny and irreverent and awesome. Unfortunately, the second half didn't quite match up to the first half's greatness, so this one is only a 3 star book for me, but I definitely look forward to more of Rushdie's books... now that I have a tiny idea of what I can expect.

The Awesome:

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Obviously, I loved this book. You can read my full review here, but I will just say that this book was fantastic. I loved the characters, the world, the funny, and the horror. It was everything that I think a "Space Opera" should be... now that I know what one is. ;)

The Good:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So... Y'all know I'm a huge, huge Brandon Sanderson fan, right? Because if I saw that man walking down the street, I would probably start babbling in adoration and drool all over myself in the most embarrassing way possible. I LOVE HIS BOOKS. Love.

I thought that this one was great, but it definitely did feel like a first book, and I thought that the ending was a bit weak and open ended... but I guess that leaves me with the hope that he'll come back to write another book in this world and firm up the ending for me. That would be awesome.

Anyway, this book is full of great characters, and interesting magic, and other general greatness. I highly recommend it. Start with this one, and then watch Sanderson's stories get exponentially more and more amazing with each one. :D

The Bad:

Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Oh boy... This book was great on one level: the artwork. Every other facet of this book was a huge fail. From the Wiki-summary-like storytelling, to the blackhole where the stories life and substance should be, to the fact that the main character, Rapunzel has only one line in the entire book, and it's insanely vapid, to the fact that the only quality worth mentioning in that main character is the fact that she's beautiful... it was just a really, really atrocious retelling.

And this is for small children, ages 4-7. Sure, let's teach them that nothing else matters if you're pretty. The guy will fall in love with you, for no reason at all, then he'll solve all of your problems, and then you'll magically solve all of his because you love him sooo very much... for no reason at all. Great.

If this one hadn't been less than 40 pages long, it would have been a DNF. That's pretty sad.

The Did Not Finish:

No DNFs this month... woo! :)