Monthly Wrap Up

Hi everyone! Welcome to a new year of reading. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in January. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC IN SPANISH LITERATURE: Las batallas en el desierto por José Emilio Pacheco (English translation: Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco) First published in 1981, this book is the story of Carlitos, a young boy who falls in love with Mariana, his best friend’s mother. Meeting Mariana is pivotal in Carlitos’s life; in the before, he is still a child. In the after, his…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in December. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND ROMANCE: The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch This book is a historical fiction romance with a twinge of mystery that takes place from 1916 to the end of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The story focuses on “an epic love story” that affects the lives of three generations of Russian women, Rosie, Katya, and Tonya, whose narratives are all interconnected by Russian fairy…

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m reviewing the books I read in November. This month I’m also going to start posting my end-of-the-year reviews. I read 5 books in November. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. CLASSICS AND HORROR: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Dr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson This novella is one of the most famous and celebrated horror stories in literature and its renown and prominence are well-deserved. The story is that of a lawyer who investigates his friend Dr. Jeckyll’s transformation into the evil Mr. Hyde. Such…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about the books I read in October. I read 6 books this month. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. SELF-PUBLISHED EPIC FANTASY: Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill When I first started reading fantasy, I read epic fantasy. I love this genre, but I had to take a break from it after reading it nonstop for several years. Today, I’m trying to get back into it and I thought that Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill, Book One of The Bound And The Broken…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about the books I read in September. This month I read 4 books, 3 of which are classical novels. Here are my thoughts on all of them: 1. CLASSICS AND AMERICAN LITERATURE: Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville What is Moby-Dick about? On the surface, Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville is an adventure story about a mad captain’s quest for revenge against a great white whale. The novel’s complexity, however, lies underneath the surface. Like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, there is so much more…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about the books I read in August. Sorry that it’s taken me this long to post. This month I read 3 books. Spoiler Alert: These reviews have spoilers. Here are my thoughts about them:  1. YA FANTASY AND ROMANCE: A Reaper At The Gates by Sabaa Tahir This is the third book of the Ember Quartet by this author. Each title of the series refers to one of the story’s main characters: Laia, Elias, and Helene. The first referred to Laia, the second to Helene, and this third installment…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in July. This month I read 5 books. Let’s dive in: 1. CLASSICS AND POETRY: Iliad by Homer, translated by Stanley Lombardo This is the fourth translation of The Iliad by Homer that I pick up in the last two years trying to find my favorite in the vast array of translations readily available of this epic poem. This is a translation that I did not know about. A fellow ardent reader of classics told me about it and suggested I give it…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in June. This month I read 7 books, three of which are nonfiction military history books about World War I and 3 are dystopias. I usually don’t read dystopias but I don’t regret reading these. In fact, one of them is my best read of the month. Here are my thoughts about them:  1. HISTORY AND WWI: The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman The Guns of August is the most famous book written about World War I. It is a straight-forward,…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in May. This month I read 5 books. Here are my thoughts about them:  1. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston This book was on hold at my library for a very long time and when it was finally available I borrowed it, didn’t pick it up, and returned it a week later. Then I had to wait another three months or so before borrowing it again. Was it worth the wait? Some people might think so, but I’m more inclined…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in April. This month I read 5 books and DNF’d 2. Here are my thoughts about them:  1. COZY MYSTERY AND CRIME: The Dark Vineyard and Black Diamond by Martin Walker I didn’t like this book and that is unfortunate because I had such high hopes for it. But it was not meant to be. The crime Bruno has to solve this time around is arson; the deliberate destruction of a wine vineyard in the outskirts of Saint-Denis and I admit that this…