Hello. Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews and in this post I will be doing the popular mid-year book freak out tag, originally published in 2012. I, however, will not talk about just one book per question but will include all the books I have read so far that fit that prompt. As of June 30th, 2023, I have read 31 books. Out of those 32 books, 9 have been nonfiction and 23 fiction books. In nonfiction, I have predominantly read history books while I have mostly read a combination of fantasy and classics in fiction. Here’s how my year has gone so far:
1. Best book(s) you’ve read so far
The books I mention to answer this question are those that I gave a 5-star rating on Goodreads. The first is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which I do not need to summarize here. The Fellowship of the Ring was the pick for one of my book clubs in June so I decided to continue the series and read The Two Towers and The Return of the King as well. I gave both The Fellowship and The Two Towers a 5-star rating on Goodreads but I gave The Return of the King a 4-star rating because of how slow it gets after Frodo destroys the Ring in Mount Doom. Nonetheless, now I see why this series is important and its role in helping to create and shape the modern fantasy genre. For that alone, it is a must-read series for anyone interested in the genre. But I think this series is also worth reading simply because the story is very good.
The second book that I thoroughly enjoyed in the first half of 2023 is The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This book is challenging and at first I was having some trouble getting into it. But behind the murder of Fyodor Karamazov, this book is a profound study of character and both a deep examination of man’s morality and the existence of God. Dostoyevsky is the master of the psychological novel and he does a superb job here in highlighting the plight of the man who suffers and is tormented by ideas of religious nature.
The third book I want to mention for this question is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This book is a satire and it constantly laughs at the place of women in Jane Austen’s own society. More particularly at the fact that the only thing women had to aspire to in life was to get married. Enter Mrs. Bennet, who is the epitome of ridicule (as is Mr. Collins) and Elizabeth’s counterpart in the story. But the best part of the story is Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s romance. Love for these two occurs when each one of them learns to accept their own faults and correct their misconceptions of the other. I first read this book in college, but I think that I enjoyed it more now (almost 20 years later) as all the satire and criticism of English society in the 1800s passed me by last time.
I also really liked After Hitler: The Last Days of WWII in Europe by Michael Jones. This book is an account of the first 10 days after Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on April 30th, 1945. Focused on the leaders of the Alliance and on the events leading up to Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8th, 1945, in the West, and May 9th, 1945, in the East, the book tries to explain why we have two VE-Days. It was an interesting read.
Finally, Blood Gun Money by Ioan Grillo. This book is about the divisive gun violence/gun control debate in the United States and how guns manufactured in this country are used by criminals in Mexico to commit heinous acts of violence that inevitably affect the general population and innocent bystanders. For this is the main problem: Thousands of people have died in Mexico because of firearms that were smuggled into the country to fight against the government and its war on the cartels and drugs.
2. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan, first published in 2022, and its sequel The Tyranny of Faith, published a year later in February 2023.
These pictures are not mine. They are borrowed from Goodreads.
3. Most anticipated book for the second half of the year
I usually don’t keep track of book releases throughout the year so I don’t have a specific book to be published in the second half of 2023 that I am anticipating. But I might pick up Kate Quinn’s new book, co-authored with Janie Chang, The Phoenix Crown, to be released on September 19, 2023. We’ll see.
This picture is not mine. It is borrowed from Goodreads.
4. Biggest disappointment(s)
First, The Fallen Empire by Grace Draven. This one is a series, and I had high hopes for it. But, alas, it was not meant to be. This is a romance series, and I liked the pairing of the first book Phoenix Unbound, but the second book was very disappointing. I liked the couple in this one too and Grace Draven’s world is very interesting, but Dragon Unleashed is boring. It starts out fine and the story is good, but when the male protagonist is injured and the female protagonist heals him, the pace slows down to a standstill. Nothing happens for a good twelve chapters and I got utterly bored. Except maybe the protagonists fall in love? But even that doesn’t show on the page. And the book drags. Big time.
Another disappointment was The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. This is the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” only to find that their new life in America isn’t what they were told it would be. Each chapter is a different period in these women’s lives, e.g., their arduous journey from Japan to San Francisco, their first night as new wives, their experiences raising children who would later reject their culture and language, and the author does a very good job at portraying these women living a life that will eventually place them in a juncture where they no longer know who they are and who they owe their loyalty to, Japan or America.
This, however, is one of those books that turn out to be something else than what you’re expecting and that affects your experience reading it. It’s not a bad book and I get the point it’s trying to make, but I still didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Honestly, I had a bit of high hopes for it given that it is a winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction but it didn’t deliver and I was disappointed in it at the end.
A third disappointment was The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I love the movie based on this book, but the book itself was not as enjoyable. The problem with this one is the writing. It’s just not good, and that affects the story itself. Several parts are very boring and others are just too convoluted to get through. But what is more, you don’t feel anything while reading this heart-wrenching and sad love story because the writing prevents any emotions from coming through to the reader.
And finally, The Echoes of the Fall by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I didn’t like this series for two reasons: The heroine and the direction the author decided to go in after the first book. It didn’t help either that he decided to kill off my favorite character and the series just wasn’t the same after that. I read Book 1 and 2 but DNF’d Book 3.
5. Biggest surprise
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Honestly, I was not expecting to like this but I did. And I liked it because Jane Austen does a pretty good job at criticizing England’s high society, whose youngest members literally have nothing to do with themselves; she also criticizes how women were sometimes forced to accept an offer of marriage even if that proposal was not in their best interest. The main couple, however, is not my favorite. Fanny Price is not readers’ favorite heroine either but Edmund is worse. He’s too passive and I didn’t like that he was pining for Mrs. Crawford the entire novel and only thought of Fanny as a wife on the LAST page of the book. The LAST!
6. New favorite author (debut or new to you)
For this question I’m going to mention authors that are new to me but that I won’t necessarily say are my favorites. All of them are very popular, but this is the first time that I read them. M.L. Wang, whose book The Sword of Kaigen caused a whirlwind in the book-review world, is one of them. The second is J.R.R. Tolkien with both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And finally, this is the first time I have read a book by Anne Brontë.
7. Newest fictional crush
Finn Kilgore, from The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. But I have loved all of Kate Quinn’s male protagonists. And that includes the protagonists of The Alice Network, The Rose Code, and The Diamond Eye. I love how the author writes romance in her books.
8. Newest favorite character
Faramir, from The Lord of The Rings. Don’t get me wrong. I love Aragorn but Faramir is still my favorite. My second favorite is Eomer. Maybe it’s because I love the actors who portrayed them in the movies. I also liked Thorin Oakenshield (Swoon Richard Armitage. Remember Thornton from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell? He plays that character in the 2004 BBC adaptation of that book too) from The Hobbit and Fili and Kili. Funny that all my favorite are from Tolkien’s books.
9. Book that made you cry
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang. Two passages in this book made me cry like a baby. First, Mamoru’s death and second when Misaki, his mother, goes out in search of his body. That affected me a lot. So much I had to put the book down for a couple of days.
A second book that made me cry was The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri.
10. Book that made you happy
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. I loved the couple in this one, but what I liked the most were all the literary references this book has. I knew each one and that made me smile.
11. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far
I don’t think I’ve bought any beautiful books this year.
12. What books do you need to read
In July and August I need to read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Count of Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas for two of my book clubs. I started Anna Karenina already and I am liking it a lot.
13. A book I did not like
The worst book I have read so far is To Sir Philip, With Love by Julia Quinn. I know that a lot of people love this series, but these books are just not for me.
That’s it. Thank you for reading.
