The Mid Year Freak Out Tag – 2019 Edition!

Hello, my lovely readers!
Before I continue with my reviews on the MCU films, I’d like to give a shoutout to Shanah from Bionic Book Worm, who came up with the Mid Year Freak Out Tag. I always make sure to participate in her Top 5 Tuesday series and was now tagged to do this post as well!
So let’s take a look at my bookish year so far and what is to come in the second half of 2019!

#1 – THE BEST BOOK I READ SO FAR IN 2019

I read many great books this year but I think my favorite so far is The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I only picked the book up because I saw it all over Instagram and fell in love with the cover art. That it turned out to be so brilliant was a great surprise!

The Cruel Prince on Goodreads

#2 – MY FAVORITE SEQUEL THIS YEAR

As I am going strong in terms of YA books this year, my favorite sequel has to be Crooked Kingdom. I’m currently about 2/3 through and am beyond thrilled!

Crooked Kingdom on Goodreads

T5T: Books for Ravenclaws

Hello, my darling readers!
It’s Tuesday, that means it’s time for a T5T post!
It’s hosted by Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
For this month, we get a very special treat: for the first time ever, there is a theme! So all four T5T posts for February are related to the Hogwarts houses.
Every test I ever took confirmed that I would be sorted into Ravenclaw. So, I’m really excited to pick a bunch of books for them this week!

#1 Anything by Rick Riordan:

Assuming that the Ravenclaw kids are anything like me, they’ll love books by Rick Riordan. Not only are his novel both funny and heart-breaking. My favorite aspect is that his books teach you something. Whether you pick up the series about Percy Jackson, Magnus Chase or the Kane Siblings, you are bound to find out something new about Greek, Roman, Norse or Egyptian Mythology. Just perfect for those curious Ravenclaws!

Cover from Goodreads

#2 American Gods by Neil Gaiman:

This goes down the same road as the books by Rick Riordan. American Gods is fascinating but not only for the interesting plot and characters. What kept me hooked were the bits of information on so many different folktales, on Gods worshipped all over the world. I learned so many new things, I was sad to see the book end.

Cover from Goodreads

T5T: Books for Gryffindor

Hello, my darling readers!
It’s Tuesday, that means it’s time for a T5T post!
It’s hosted by Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
For this month, we get a very special treat: for the first time ever, there is a theme! So all four T5T posts for February are related to the Hogwarts houses. Today, I’ll pick five reads for anybody in Gryffindor!

#1 – A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

If you look at the traits Bionic Book Worm used to describe people sorted into Gryffindor house, ASOUE was the first thing that came to my mind. Not only would they be able to recognize many of their valued traits in the Baudelaire orphans who are the main characters in this book series, but they’d also have a hell of a time procrastinating as there are 13 novels in this series!

Cover from Goodreads

#2 – Pretty much anything by Sarah J. Maas

First of all, her books are absolutely brilliant and I think everybody should check them out.
However, I think those would be especially brilliant reads for Gryffindors as the characters Maas creates embody the very traits a Gryffindor would cherish. They are passionate, stubborn but also unafraid to make changes. When I look at Aelin from the TOG series or Feyre from the ACOTAR books, that’s what I see.

Cover from Goodreads

#3 – The Fault in our Stars by John Green

While I think that Gryffindors might make good John Green fans, this was the only one of his books that I enjoyed. The protagonists also feature many aspects that Gryffindors value. A few years have passed since I read the book but I remember Hazel to be funny and trusting and she certainly tries to live in the moment. It’s simply an amazing book and I can totally see somebody like Hermione discussing the novel even weeks after she’s done reading.

Cover from Goodreads

T5T: Top 5 reasons I love reading

Hello, lovely readers and welcome to Top 5 Tuesday!
It’s hosted by Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
So here we go with my Top 5 reasons I love reading!

#1 – The Dark and Quiet:

I love to read at night. When everything around me is utterly quiet. Since I bought an e-reader, that has a built-in light, I usually sit in the dark and read. It’s the most wonderful feeling to be wrapped in blankets, nothing but darkness and silence swirling around me, only a book to keep me company. It’s a feeling only reading can give me.

#2 – The Focus:

When reading, I can’t have anything else disturb me. I don’t have any music on or the TV. When I pick up a book I have to focus solely on the piece of writing in front of me. I usually have a tendency to do ten things at once, but reading forces me to sit down, to quiet down and choose to do this one thing. But not just physically do it. You can’t have your mind wandering around, going through to-do-list and worrying. Unless you really focus on what you are reading, you’ll have to go over the same passage multiple times.
I guess, when I am reading is the only time I am utterly at peace with myself and the world.

#3 – Foreign Worlds:

“Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” That’s a quote attributed to Mark Twain.
When you read, you can venture into new worlds. Leave the shackles of this one behind. You are not bound to a single place. Words can take you anywhere – everywhere imagination leads.
Twain is right. Sometimes it’s an escape. The only form of escape you can get. The easiest form of escape you can get.
It’s beyond beautiful to discover a new world, full of magic, full of wonders, full of beauty. Somewhere far away.

Blogger Book Nook: Murder in the Library – A Study in Scarlet

Hey Guys!
This month I’m doing an entry for the Blogger Book Nook, which has Murder in the Library as April theme.
I don’t read that many crime stories so finding the right book was a bit of a challenge. But before I’ll give to my two cents on A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, let’s answer some questions!

 

1) Who is your favourite fictional detective and why? 
Since I don’t read too many books on crime, I’ll go with the one and only Sherlock homes here. However, I’ve got the Dirk Gently series on my to-read list, so maybe that’ll spark my love for detective stories!
When it comes to TV it’s a tie between Lucifer Morningstar from Lucifer and Dana Scully from The X Files. While Lucifer has just the best sense of humor, Dana Scully is super badass, highly competent and doesn’t take shit from anyone.

 

2) Do you enjoy being able to solve the mystery in a book before the characters do, or do you like to be kept guessing until the end?

Blog Challenge: Plans and Goals for the next 30 Days

Hello folks!

Today’s post will be a bit unusual. I started out with a blog challenge some time ago but then lost interest. There hasn’t been a proper Blog Challenge post in almost two years now (shame on me!) so I figured it’s time to get back to it!
The topic I chose for today are my Goals for the next 30 Days!

(If you want to know more about this whole Blog Challenge thing, click here)

 

So, I’ll kick off my list of goals with the stuff I need to do for university:

• For my Human and Computer Interaction class:
  • I need to program an App on my own
  • We also need to do a group project (also an App but much more refined) and need to do the next Milestone
• For my two Philosophy classes:
  • I actually have a ton of reading to do. There’s the original Literature I have to go through
  • and the book accompanying one of the lectures
• For my Historical Media and Communication Research class:
  • Finding two topics for the thesis we need to write until the end of the semester (thankfully a group project)
  • Checking out what material we have for the topics
  • Presenting the whole stuff
• For my Public Relations class:
  • Write a press release
  • finish the class as there is only one date left (which is Saturday, 8 hours)