The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini | Book Review

So this is one of those books; you know the ones I mean. Everyone's read it, everyone loves it, everyone thinks it's amazing. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad I've read it, but to be perfectly honest, this was one of the saddest books I have ever read (and the Noughts and Crosses series put me off reading, thank you very much Malorie Blackman). It just seemed that nothing good at all ever happened; at every turn everything that could have possibly gone wrong, did go wrong. Or as soon as something vaguely positive did happen, it would be drastically brought down by  devastation of some sort or another.
It follows a man called Amir sharing his life story, starting back when he was a child growing up in Afghanistan with a Hazara boy called Hassan. The relationship between these two is something which a part of me longs for; as a friend said of Hassan: 'He is such a beautiful person'. Various events unfold resulting in Amir and Hassan being separated. Amir ends up moving to America with his beloved, Baba, who throughout the entire book he strives to earn the respect and love from him which he believes he lacks.

The book was very well written, and at times I really did find myself captivated by the story, however a book such as this would normally take me days to get through. This took me around a month simply because I struggled so much to keep picking it up as it was depressing me so much. I would definitely recommend this book to those who absolutely adore reading, but word of warning: it is not for the faint-hearted.  

(Note: I apologise for the lack of proper photo; the problems of travelling back home for reading week...)

Next Up: The Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort

What are your thoughts?

xoxo

Divergent - Veronica Roth | Book Review

Hopefully some of you have also embarked on a reading challenge with me and I think that I've gotten off to a fairly good start! One week of the year down and I'm already one book down. Apparently I have completed 2% of my challenge! (From Good Reads). 

Divergent is the first instalment of what is simply called The Divergent Trilogy. It is the next big cult series following The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments. If you don't like these series' or are just thinking 'What!?', then this book is not for you.
The storyline is made up of a city which is split into different factions, upon which when you turn 16 you can then decide to stay in the faction you were born in or choose to join a different one, abandoning your family. The book follows Beatrice who embarks on this journey along with her brother Caleb. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it had everything that you would want and expect. It had cliffhangers. It had violence. It had action. It had a bit of romance. I struggled to put it down to get out of bed in the mornings!
I would definitely recommend if this kind of genre is your type of thing. I now needneedneeeeed to read the next two books!!

Next Up: The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Let me know your thoughts!

xoxo

Reading Challenge 2014

Last year, using Good Reads, I set myself a challenge to read 50 books. For me, I thought that this was quite a small amount and did consider setting it as 100. However, I only managed 35 and am quite disappointed with myself to be honest! I know that to a lot of you this may seem a lot and for some hardly anything!
This year though I am really motivated to get that goal reached and I hope that some of you will also set yourself a reading challenge. I have applied for the third year running to be a World Book Night Volunteer and this will spur on my motivation! I'm also going to be blogging about the books I'm reading/would like to read etc so I am going to be on top of my reading.

Currently I'm reading Divergent by Veronica Roth; it's looking to be the new cult classic after The Mortal Instruments series.
So far: 157/487 pages.

For some ideas on what books to read, take a gander at my Good Reads profile (nice sly little plug there...)

What will be your goal?

xoxo