#100happydays | Day 6 - May 19th 2014

We went to the Toronto Zoo on Victoria Day. We got there super early so the pandas were super active. I loved them and I have to say they were my favorite part of the entire day. Overall it was a great day, all the animals were good, the weather was good, and I got a lot of walking done, yay!

Review: The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H Winters

The Premise: From the author of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, comes a brand new trilogy titled The Last Policeman series, with the first novel titled: "The Last Policeman: A Novel" (2012). The story takes place in a pre-apocalyptic world and follows Detective Hank Palace, as he attempts to solve a suspicious suicide in a city where suicides are quite frequent. The novel is linked with the tag line: "What's the point in solving murders if we're all going to die soon, anyway?" The story follows the narrative which most mystery novels ask and that is "whodunnit" and the novel has many twists and turns, where all the evidence points to it being a suicide but also, you are skeptical as Palace unravels the mystery for you. Along with that, there is the underlying narrative and that is the story of Palace himself; who he is, his job, his role as a policeman/detective and his family and friends. Without spoiling anything, I believe the underlying narrative about Palace is the interweaving aspect that will unravel within the next two books in the series and also, the narrative of the effects of imminent and inevitable end of the world. From what I have read and seen, each book comes with a new "case" so to speak.

My overall thoughts and review? To begin with, it is INCREDIBLY refreshing to read a story that is set in the pre-apocalyptic as opposed to the post-apocalyptic. It brings an interesting dynamic to a world that is awaiting the inevitable end of the world, and how each character reacts to it. It asks the question, is crime even worth solving when the end is so near? The context for the end is also interesting, because even after the first book there is still lots to be developed. When reading this, it reminded me a lot of Robert Galibrath's (JK Rowling's) The Cuckoo's Calling murder mystery type narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed reading from the perspective of Palace and I found it really interesting that he was kind of ambivalent towards the end of the world and placed more emphasis on the actual case and stuck through it even when all signs point to, it isn't worth solving. I also found the underlying narrative of Palace and his sister interesting too which was spliced in between the scenes of the case. I am now already onto the second book in the novel which is currently out, titled Countdown City and I can't wait to read the next part of the novel, where Palace is in fact, no longer an actual policeman and with the deadline of the end of the world quickly approaching.

Rating of the book: 4/5 stars.

For more information on Ben H Winters and the series, you can read his website http://benhwinters.com/  or on his twitter at https://twitter.com/benhwinters!

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me from Quirk for consideration/review. All opinions are my own. 

Sh*t, I Have Too Many Books Read-a-thon | Day 1 Update

As soon as one read-a-thon ends, another one starts. Regan from the youtube channel PeruseProject, one of my favorite booktubers I should add, released information on Sunday evening that she was going to host a very low-key read-a-thon. The read-a-thon would be updated and interactive through the hashtag #shitIhavetoomanybooks, which I am sure you have seen circling through twitter now. It will be Monday to Monday, May 19th to May 26th. Since I mostly update my reading progress in blog format anyways, I will continue to post daily updates that way. I have quite the busy week ahead of me, but I will try and get as much reading done, preferably an hour a day, to seriously bring down my TBR pile. Anyways, so here is my update from day one!

Books I am currently reading: 

• Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins 

Total # of pages read today: 468 pages

Books I completed reading:

• Countdown City by Ben H Winters
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 

Total # of pages read overall: 468 pages

I was able to finish the rest of the Ben Winters book which I only had about 87 pages left of after the bout of books read-a-thon ended. It was a great read, and reviews for the first two books in that series will be up soon. I also picked up We Were Liars - which has a lot of hype surrounding it and I really enjoyed it as well, so full review for that to come! I am now tackling Rebel Belle, which I really like so far, it is really funny and the story is quite intriguing so far. Harper as the main protagonist is hilarious! Anyways, I am hoping to finish that off today, but we shall see. Anyways, good luck with your reading progress and let me know in the comments below if you are participating. 

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The Premise: If I Stay is the first part of a two part duo-logy from the author Gayle Forman. It follows the protagonist Mia Hall, as she faces the aftermath of a tragic car accident which takes the lives of her mother and father, and possibly young brother. The novel is comprised with a series of flashbacks which feature moments between Mia and her boyfriend Adam, flashbacks of Mia and her family members and flashbacks of Mia with a significant part of her life: her music. The car accident happens fairly early on in the book and the rest of the book, Mia is in a type of coma where she like a ghost and can see all the events and hear the people around her, but not actually experience all the moments. The flashbacks and the experiences in the hospital, lead Mia to decide the ultimate question, if I stay?.

My overall thoughts and review: I picked this book up because I saw the trailer for it. I own the other books written by Forman, but I have not gotten around the chance to read them yet, but I participated in a read-a-thon last week and decided why not to go ahead and read this. It looked really interesting and terrifyingly heartbreaking from the movie trailer, and the book only reaffirmed that a tenfold. The book was really interesting because although the crash occurs quite early on, the flashbacks helped build character and only made you feel more for the situation at hand. Although it follows Mia, the reader cannot help but mourn her very wonderfully multi-dimensional family that suffered in the accident. Learning more about her mother and father were especially some of my favorite moments. Also, Adam. He was just incredibly lovely and the flashbacks that catalogued how their relationship came to be were extremely heartwarming. It wasn't the typical YA novel of "insta-love" but it was truly a very interesting and deep relationship, where both found common ground in music, and although music at opposite ends of the spectrum one might think, it was so beautiful how they both came together. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it ended in such a nice way that opens up for the next book in the two-part duology. I highly recommend giving this a read, it reminded me of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Rating of the book: 4/5 stars.

The movie for the book will come out soon and here is the trailer for it!


A review for Where She Went will be up shortly! ;)

Bout of Books 10 | Day 7 Update & Wrap-Up Post

Books I am currently reading: 

• Countdown City by Ben H Winters

Total # of pages read today: 763 pages

Books I completed reading:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Loki: Agent of Asgard - Issue #004
• Serenity: Leaves on the Wind - Issue #004
• Rebel Heart by Moira Young
• Raging Star by Moira Young
• The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H Winters

Total # of pages read overall: 1,903 pages

Total # of challenges completed: 5 (4 posted on here and 1 on twitter) 

I was able to read and finish two books today and I am about 100 pages away from the second book by Winters, so I will finish that off before bed. Overall, I think I did pretty good, not as good as my last boutofbooks, but I accomplished 4 books and 2 comic books, and about 2/3 of another book so that is pretty good. I am happy I caught up on all of my comic issues and also finished the Dust Lands trilogy, which has been on my tbr for quite some time now. I sadly missed all the twitter chats so I was not able to participate in that, but I did participate in 5 challenges so that was awesome. All in all, I had a great week of reading :) I can't wait for the next bout of books! ;)

How did you make out for this boutofbooks? Let me know in the comments below! 

#100happydays | Day 5 - May 18th 2014

I have two photos for today because I just could not choose. I had a lovely meal today with the boy, we had sushi.. which is so delicious! And it was a day of light rain, so we stayed indoors, where I got a lot of reading done and we hung out with the dogs. We also ended the night with a delicious home-cooked meal (not photographed) and I got through two books today actually and I am now onto my third one. Pretty successful day if I say so myself. 

#100happydays | Day 4 - May 17th 2014

We saw Godzilla tonight in AVX 3D and I really enjoyed it. I don't remember much from the previous versions, but I really liked this one. It was long but the effects were really well done and overall, it looked pretty awesome. :D