Artemis, by Andy Weir

Hey, all! 

I just finished reading Artemis, by Andy Weir! 

This is one of those rare cases where I didn't like the characters much, but the book was so plot-driven that it kept me going. I read this book incredibly quickly and enjoyed the science of it. I will be slightly ranty about some character building, so watch for that! 

"Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first."

Okay so I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on this book. I found myself to be in the middle of all of the controversy. As a science nerd, I really loved the science blabbering, as well as the chemistry-based plot! It was super well thought-out in the chemistry side, and I appreciated how well the science was explained. 

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was the pacing. Although I'm someone who loves short chapters - and this book's chapters were quite long - it is written in such a way that I always wanted to know what happened next, a la Da Vinci Code. As a result, I read this book in less than a day. 

This story is about Jazz, a Saudi-Arabian girl who lives on the moon. She's a smuggler, helping get mild illegals onto the moon and to their recipients. She's super smart, thus a multimillionaire asks her to vandalize a company that creates oxygen for the moon-city, in order to provide oxygen for the moon on his own, for people to pay him. Needing money, Jazz agrees, but as expected, things go wrong. 

As much as I enjoyed the plot and keeping up with what was happening I had a hard time with what a lot of readers seemed to have a problem with... Jazz. 

Oh man Jazz was annoying. It felt like Andy doesn't know how to write female characters - she's the only one with a real role in the book, and she has the mindset of a 15-year-old boy. She was 'perfect' - smart, rebellious, good-looking, sarcastic and known by all. She always got told that she was smart enough to do something other than a low-paying job, but she never looked into it, even though she kept mentioning needing money. Her humor was forced and just off, and she never, ever let herself be feminine without either receiving shame or shaming herself. 

I think Andy Weir tried to be diverse but it just all fell apart - while I did enjoy that the moon colony came from Kenya, it felt like all of the random countries mentioned were mentioned for the sake of being mentioned. Same goes for varying religions and sexualities. It would be really interesting for someone from one of these countries, religions, or someone from the LGBT community to read this, I'm curious to know what you think of the representation. I'm hardly one to talk - being white straight and atheist - but something about it just felt forced. 

That's all I have for today! I'm giving it 3/5 feathers - I loved the plot and reading process, but I feel like this book was problematic in some regards. 

Have you read Artemis? What did you think of it? Let me know! 

Stay bookish! 

A Gathering of Shadows, by V.E. Schwab

Hey, all! 

*I'm a little sick so my review may be short and sweet rather than long and very detailed. Hopefully this will cut back some spoilers as well* 

I just finished reading a Gathering of Shadows, by V.E. Schwab! This series may be one of my new favorites, and I cannot wait to receive book 3! 

"It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell's possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland's dying body through the rift--back into Black London.

Now, restless after having given up his smuggling habit, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks as she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games--an extravagant international competition of magic meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries--a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

And while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night will reappear in the morning. But the balance of magic is ever perilous, and for one city to flourish, another London must fall."


I'm so happy that this book didn't fall into the dreaded second-book syndrome! A Gathering of Shadows picks up 4 months after ADSOM left off - Lila is now a thief on a ship, while Kell and Rhy are trying to figure out life now that their lives are more entwined than they could imagine. This installment focuses on an event called the Magic Games, which makes magic users from different cities compete against each other using the elements they can control. 

Of course, both Lila and Kell find themselves in these games. Of course, things go wrong. It wouldn't be a good book if that didn't happen, now would it? 

The games were a lot of fun to read about! You really felt the competition in how it was written and in everyone's reaction to it. 

This book is constantly busy and flowing, in such a way that I never wanted to put it down! The only thing that made me slow down is that it took quite a while for the main plot of the book to begin - most of the first chapters were fluffy in order to explain what happened in the time before the Games were announced. 

Kell is still adorable - I love his character, how careful he is and how aware he is of Lila around him. Lila an interesting character as well, but very stubborn at times. However, I am not surprised about her true nature - I expected it since book 1! What I'm more curious about is her backstory - notably how she ended up in Gray London. 

A new character we meet is Alucard - the Captain of Lila's ship, and a strong magic user from Red London. I never really knew whether to trust him or not, until his past with Rhy was revealed. To be fair I wasn't surprised - Rhy has a flamboyant enough personality. However, I am very curious about how his role will be involved in book 3. 


I'm sorry about how short and messy this is! I'm giving this book 4/5 feathers :) 

Have you read A Gathering of Shadows? What id dyou think about it? Let me know! 

Stay bookish! 

2017 - What Happened There?

Hey, all! 

Ok - we have stuff to talk about. Get ready for a long post, but I gotta get this written down.

At the beginning of the year (or the end of last year), I mentioned some big goals I had for blogging, reading etc.

If you've been following me for a while, well, you'll see that most of these goals didn't exactly go to completion... 

So today, I'm going to post a 2017 recap - what I managed to get done, what I missed out on, and why that might be the case. 

So I'm a big believer in the 'bad news first' deal. So before I go on about what I managed to get done, I'm going to go over why I've been mostly MIA this year. 

Some deep stuff I needed to write down
First, I want to apologize for my blogger attitude. As bloggers, we give opinions on what we read, and we agree to read books authors and publishers send us before publication. I've been really slow with all of this in 2017, both the reading and reviewing aspect. The number of NetGalley ARCs I need to read is kind of incredible...

I also have not been visiting other blogs as much as I would have liked to. Those of you who have blogs, I love what you write, and I hope that you keep blogging so well! I'm sorry that I haven't had much of an opportunity to visit your sites, I'll do my best to change that :) 

My Goodreads goal was 70 books. I read 60 last year so I figured it was possible to get to 70. As of now, I made it less than halfway. I didn't lose interest in reading, on the contrary! Sometimes all I want to do is sit down for a week and do nothing but reading. 

Now for something more personal - life has been unusual this year. A lot of it has to do with university - I've always been a fairly good student, until last winter when I realized that I needed to take an extra year of classes to go into the master's program I want to apply for. Since then, I've been finding it increasingly difficult to pass my courses, to the point where I fail exams more often than I pass them. As a result, I've been putting reading, blogging, and archery aside - my three biggest hobbies - in order to try to pass classes that I end up failing. This brought back some insecurities in my mind, which just increased stress in the long run. 

Now, I'm not falling into any mental illness, such as depression - (In fact, the past two years, I have been doing incredibly well! My confidence grew, as did my self-comfort and my regards to other people. I'm happy in my own skin, and with the people around me, and for once I'm not afraid of being on my own in the future, or of growing up!) - I just feel constantly caught up with time, and have been putting too many responsibilities into my own hands, such as extra classes, being the co-chair of a committee, extra working hours, driving classes, and starting my thesis early. "That's life", as some say. 

I was talking about this recently with a good friend of mine, and the discussion boiled down to something I had not thought of. Maybe all of this has been happening because I somehow messed up my balance between uni and the things I enjoy. I used to read and blog constantly, in such a way that it actually helped me focus on university. Maybe I studied more efficiently when I took more time to do what I enjoyed because I had less time to study all the fluff? It makes sense... 

Therefore, my resolution for 2018 might sound counterproductive, but I think I'll be better off if it works: to put more priority into doing the things enjoy. I'll be blogging more, reading more, putting more hours into archery - maybe even find a local coach! I have some cake recipes that I've been wanting to try for years! And, as much as I honestly enjoy learning about my courses, maybe taking a break from them will make me enjoy it all more. 

What I Accomplished in 2017
I don't know if I ever mentioned this on here, but 17 has always been my lucky number. Not too sure why, but it's never failed me. 

Although I've been trying to figure out everything that I wrote about above, I did have a pretty decent year! 

Bookish
- I read books

- I kept up my Instagram! It grew a lot and I cannot believe how much support I am getting through it! 

- I organized a Dutch Bookstagram Meetup with some of the loveliest instagrammers and bloggers I know! Please go follow @Anniekslibrary, @sortingdays, and @sneirrbooks! 

- I was albe to represent some lovely companies! Please please check them out! 

• Nox to Lumos Candle Co 
• Light The Pages
• The Paper Charm Shop
• Magic Chests - Magical Tea

- I was a part of the Boekhandel Dominicanen's group Young Adult Dome, that introduced me to great books, events and people

- I helped organize a huge Harry Potter party that even made the local news! 

- I worked with lovely authors 

Non-Bookish

- I narrowed down what my passions in education are! I'm applying to a Masters in Physical and Material Chemistry, with a minor in Astronomy! It's going to be a bit difficult for me as I'm not very mathematically inclined, but I am not afraid to take more time to learn. 

- I got an awesome thesis topic to work on - Sgr A*, the black hole in the center of the Milky Way!

- I visited London which is now one of my favorite big cities.

- I jumped off a 9m cliff into a river for a canyon tour which was one of my year's highlights!

- I figured out that not all people are going to judge for no reason, and that I could be myself without worrying what people think. 

- I traveled around the Netherlands some more and explored some places in France

- I watched all of Friends, no shame, at all

- I managed to take and pass some classes that I believed would be incredibly difficult for me. 


I hope that you are enjoying the holidays, no matter where you are from, what you celebrate and what you believe in! No matter what, we are all going into a new year in a few days, and I hope that 2018 is everything you hope it will be. 

Stay bookish, and thank you for this year!

Just Another Week, Always New Discoveries III

Hey, all! 

I hope you are doing well! Winter break has officially started here, and, with 7 weeks off, I hope I'll be able to read a bit more than usual, to review some more and to catch up on everything that I missed! 

Stay Bookish 

1. Read
So I kind of temporarily gave up on A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - it's been a little slow for me especially through exams where I can only really read one short chapter at a time. I might pick it up during the winter break again. 

Yesterday, I started A Gathering of Shadows, by V.E. Schwab! I'm 2 sections in and I adore it, just as I adored a Darker Shade of Magic!  

2. Haul

No haul this time! However I did re-purpose a candle I had! One of my candles I had from Letters and Lights had its wick burn out, but loads of wax was still on the edges. I melted it and re-formed it to make melts! 

3. Discover
I didn't discover much, but I'm simply dying for Obsidio to be published! This is the third Illuminae book by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufmann, and it'll be out in March! 

Bring on the Music
Oh I've actually been all OVER the music front lately! Right now I'm listening to something I just discovered yesterday - Walk The Moon's new album. I actually really love it! :D 

Sleeping At Last is a band I also discovered this week, and they're amazing to read/relax to! I would recommend listening to their song called Earth. 

I also re-discovered many songs I used to listen to when I was 13-15, and of course, had to make a playlist with them ^^. It's funny how I haven't heard many of these songs in years, yet still know many of them by heart! 

On a more serious note, a very well-appreciated French singer - Johnny Hallyday, died last week. The impact it had on the country was huge... he will be missed. 

Movies and Motion Pictures

1. TV shows
Since yesterday, I've been catching up with Once Upon a Time! I didn't think I'd like the new season, with #CaptainSwan gone and Henry being an adult, but I love the way they twisted it this season! It reflects season 1 well but still manages to surprise me! 

2. Movies
I want to seen Coco! And Wonder! I heard that the new Star Wars movie was supposed to be good, but I'm not a big fan of the franchise, for some reason. 

That's it for me this week! I'd love to see your responses! 

Stay bookish!