#Comme un vol d'étourneaux by Giorgio Parisi

[astridofraftel]

reading challenge review #9

Just finished: The Conqueror's Saga (And I Darken + Now I Rise + Bright We Burn) by Kiersten White + Comme un vol d'étourneaux by Giorgio Parisi + I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy + Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Currently reading: Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

Next on schedule: L'Ultime Expérience by Bruce Benamran + Boudicca by Jean-Laurent Del Socorro + Le Flambeau + Témoin à charge by Agatha Christie

I went totally off-schedule during my holidays, I'll try to get back to it asap but I've got so much on my plate in August, it'll be hard ;(

For what it was, The Conqueror's Saga was too long a story for me. I very much liked the first volume, but by the third one I was quite bored, even if I got attached to the characters and still wanted to know the conclusion of it all. I think Kiersten White's other trilogy Camelot Rising was better paced and way more engaging, though it was a totally different setting and perhaps less mature.

My best friend who mostly only reads popular science books lent me one of her recent favorites, a french translation of In un volo di storni (In a Flight of Starlings) by Giorgio Parisi which was fascinating and well explained!

Jennette McCurdy's memoir is very much worth the read, it's unexpectedly well-written in a sort of harshly candid way. It's important and insightful. I'm glad her mom died, too. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to be slapped in the face by a book (please just mind the tw before reading)

Crooked House was a cool mystery. I've never been disappointed by the end of an Agatha Christie book, and this one is not an exception, but I have to admit that sometimes the actual investigation can be quite dull. And I couldn't rely on my affection for the characters this time since none of them were a recurring character from other books (but I understand how Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot wouldn't have worked on this one). It's a good thing her books are short, then. I'd recommend this one still!

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[astridofraftel]

reading challenge #11 (wrap-up)

Just finished: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Currently reading: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Next on schedule: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I just wanted to add for myself a little conclusion to the reading challenge I did last year! I went back to university, so I had a lot less time and motivation to read for the past six months. Because of that, I didn't achieve my goals in the end, but that's alright, I'm still very proud of all the dusting-off I did! My TBR pile is much more manageable now, so I will not be keeping up with this challenge in 2024 (I barely read anything not Percy Jackson-related since January, anyway).

So, if anyone is interested in random lists of books, in 2023 I checked off my program:

(FR) Le Prieuré de l'Oranger (The Priory of the Orange Tree) by Samantha Shannon

(FR) La voleuse de livres (The Book Thief) by Markus Zusak

(FR) L'École des femmes + Le Misanthrope by Molière

(EN) Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang

(EN) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

(EN) Daughter of Smoke and Bone + Days of Blood and Starlight + Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

(FR) Le Chien des Baskerville (The Hound of the Baskervilles) by Arthur Conan Doyle

(FR) Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

(FR) Le symbole perdu (The Lost Symbol) by Dan Brown

(FR) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

(FR) Il était une fois dans le Nord (Once Upon A Time In The North) by Philip Pullman

(FR) Le Roi Lear (King Lear) by William Shakespeare

(EN) The Conqueror’s Saga (And I Darken + Now I Rise + Bright We Burn) by Kiersten White

(FR) Le Flambeau + Témoin à charge by Agatha Christie

(FR) Boudicca by Jean-Laurent Del Socorro

(FR) Fantômes et kimonos by Kidō Okamoto

(FR) Dans l'ombre de Paris by Morgan of Glencoe

For a total of 23 books out of my goal of 30 that I had owned for years and never read!

Which means that my TBR pile now amounts to these 12 books (I acquired the last 4 last year so they were not included in my program):

(FR) L'Ultime Expérience by Bruce Benamran

(FR) Cinna by Corneille

(FR) Othello by Shakespeare

(EN) Three Dark Crowns (re-read) + One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

(EN) Iskari, the Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

(EN) The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

(FR) Le complot des corbeaux by Ariel Holzl

(FR) La mythologie viking (North Mythology) by Neil Gaiman

(FR) La métamorphose by Franz Kafka

(EN) A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

(EN) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

In addition to all that, although disregarding anything fanfictitious, last year...

(and because I barely have any self-control when it comes to books)

...I also read these, which were not initially included in my program:

(EN) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

(EN) Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

(FR) Le château de Hurle (Howl’s moving castle) by Diana Wynne Jones

(EN) The Princess Diaries vol. 1 by Meg Cabot

(EN) Strange the dreamer + Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

(EN) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

(EN) Divergent vol. 1 by Veronica Roth

(EN) Legendborn + Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

(FR) Comme un vol d'étourneaux by Giorgio Parisi

(FR) Le meilleur des mondes (Brave New World) by Aldous Huxley

(EN) I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

(EN) Crooked House by Agatha Christie

(EN) Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

(FR) La guerre des clans (Warriors) - cycle I vol. 1-6 by Erin Hunter

(EN) Tallstar’s Revenge by Erin Hunter

(FR) Le mystère de Listerdale by Agatha Christie

After all these gruesome lists, I can finally put to rest my 2023 reading challenge. Maybe one day I'll renew it, but I probably won't have the time nor the energy to schedule my readings so seriously for the next two years. It's been very fun though, also it had been the first year in quite some time that I read that much in French, and I think it did me good.

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