Category Archives: Bookworm Corner

The Princess Bride Book Review + a list of what I’m reading next

First off, Hello October, where did you come from??? Anyone else feel this way because I am sure confused about how it has been nine full months of 2020. 

Secondly, this is my 100TH Blog Post!

Dance Celebration GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Thank you to everyone who has followed along with me on this journey of blogging. Now ONTO THE POST!

Today I am fiiiiinally getting around to reviewing The Princess Bride after I said I wanted to read it… during 2019. Better late than never though! I bought the book right before coming back to school this semester and finished it a few weeks ago.

If you didn’t know The Princess Bride movie was in fact a book first by the same man who wrote the screenplay William Goldman. 

Image - 848470] | The Princess Bride | Know Your Meme
Continue reading

July Book Wrapup

July Reading Roundup |Thoughts&DaisiesWelcome back to Bookworm Corner and another book wrapup! July was such a good month for reading, I read 8 books, that I am going to split reviews into different posts. Be sure to stay tuned for reviews of the others at a later time.

You can check out my latest book reviews by clicking below

12 Books that will Change your Life – Collab with TheCarolife

Today we are going to talk about the four fiction novels I read.

First up!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escape”

Six of Crows is about a group of outcasts against the task of an impossible heist. Kaz Brekker has taken an offer to break a man out of the Ice Court, the most highly secured place in the world, and it is up to him to create the perfect team to pull this off. If they can do it they will be rich beyond their wildest dreams and free to do what they please, if they fail they may die and just doom the whole world with them. Continue reading

Cover to Cover: A Snapshot of my Year in Books

Cover to Cover: A Snapshot of my Year in Books |Thoughts & DaisiesOne of my absolute favorite things to do is to read. I have loved stories since I was a baby. Even before I could read I would memorize some of my favorite stories that my mom would read me. Every year I set a book challenge for myself to see how many I can read that year. With one full week left of 2019, my total is 42/40. So let’s take a trip down book lane and reminisce on the most memorable from this year. 

For every new book, I read a year I end up probably rereading two or three books. Not because I don’t want to read new books, but because A. I don’t always have money to get new books and B. I like to have a book on me at all times and it is easier to reread a book while I am on the go or in studying because I don’t have to intently focus on what is going on. Plus that way I won’t get sucked in and be late for class or never do my work. Some of the great rereads for this year include…

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Both times I have read this was for a class, first back in eight grade and now this year for my Literature for Adolescents class. Still a good book but not really a favorite of mine.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. I got to present this book for class this semester and even after the fourth read, this book is fantastic. Made by the author of The Book Thief, I can say this book rivals that novel. I can not recommend it enough.

The Giver by Lois Lowry. I know this book is actually part of a series, but I love it so much as a stand-alone that I have yet to get around to the rest of them. It is probably my favorite book and I don’t want to risk being disappointed by the others. Someone let me know if I should read the sequels!   Continue reading

Bridge of Clay Review

Image result for bridge of clay

Markus Zusak (MZ) is the author of two books on my all-time favorite list so when I found his newest release during a Barnes n Noble browsing it was quickly added to my shopping cart.  

Zusak is the author of the award-winning novel, The Book Thief as well as I Am the Messenger (probably my absolute favorite of his). But we aren’t here to talk about those today. Today’s blog is all about Bridge of Clay.

“In the beginning, there was one murderer, one mule and one boy…”

Bride of Clay is a story about the 5 Dunbar boys, most notably the fourth, Clay. Clay the boy who will build a bridge. 

I will have to say that this book was a bit slow-paced and it is looooong, almost 600 pages, and with it starting off slow it took me a while to get into it. Including a lot of patience on my end but I knew I didn’t want to stop because I love MZ’s writing style. Although, his style is also the reason this book ended up being this long.

The way he writes incorporates details in a way that is different than other books and in use takes longer than average explaining something which can feel, at times, tedious. 

“The sun was some sort of barbarian, a Viking in the sky.”

One thing for me that makes MZ a fantastic writer is his command of language. If you are a lover of language than his books are for you. His sentences have a very poetic feel and are often used to both rip your heart out and stitch it back up at the same time. It is writing to where sometimes you just have to stop and admire a sentence because it takes your breath away.

Compared to his other books I’ve read I will have to say it is my least favorite. The extensiveness of the book created some confusion as the plotlines shift around a lot and I don’t feel that it allowed for enough cohesive detailing in any specific one. 

In total there are maybe 10 characters that this book delves into pasts for and I for one had to reread pages a few times over to keep up.

 Similar to his The Book Thief, Death as its own character makes a return in Bridge of Clay, for good or bad. Which is all I will say since, spoilers.

“It was in there, out there, waiting. It lived on our front porch.”

I felt the narration fell a bit flat compared to his other novels because, for me, it was harder to connect to Matthew as a character and the narrator. I felt we saw little of him as his own intricate character. Despite the novel being centered around Clay and not Matthew, I would have liked to have had more glimpses into him. 

MZ also used Homer’s novels The Odyssey and The Illiad as both allusions and physical objects throughout the book which were intriguing and I felt were tied well into the other plot points as a whole. For those who know me they know, I am a lover of anything involving Ancient Greek Heroes so I very much appreciated this detail. 

In whole, I enjoyed the plot of the novel and my read but I do not think this will be one of his that I reread over and over again.

“That bridge was made of him.”

Let me know in the comments if you have read one of his books and which is your favorite.

 

Be sure to subscribe and follow along with me on // Pinterest // Instagram //