The Naked Traveler Across the Indonesian Archipelago - Trinity + Secret Santa Post #2

Wuih, judulnya panjang.

Helloooo, Guys! Sudah lama sekali (sebulan, lebih tepatnya) saya nganggurin blog ini. Maaf. I just need some time apart from this blog. I need something new, or else I'll get bored and abandon this blog for even more time that I already did. Karena itulah, untuk review buku kali ini saya mencoba hal baru yang belum pernah saya coba.

Saya bikin video! Saya enggak pernah bikin video sebelumnya, jadi, ini yang pertama. Saya sadar banget akan pencahayaannya yang buruk, kualitas kameranya juga, suaranya juga... semuanya! Hahah. Maklumin saja lah yah. Tapi saya lumayan semangat gara-gara bikin video ini, bahkan... sebenarnya, saya sudah menyiapkan satu video lagi yang akan saya publish awal Februari. Hoyeee~

Secret Santa Post #1 bersama Happy Cattelya

Hai! Post kali ini akan ditemani oleh si cewek berkumis ini. Happy Cattelya. She even shares the same middle name as me. Desember 2014 ini dia ulang tahun yang pertama, jadi biarlah dia berseliweran di post ini yah.

Saatnya pamer kado yang dikirimkan Secret Santa saya! Yeeey. Karena bakalan banyak gambar, lebih baik saya sedikit cingcongnya. Nah, paket yang sampai ke rumah saya berisikan ini,

Kenapa Saya Enggak Bikin Book Haul Post Lagi?

Apakah ada yang bertanya-tanya selama ini? Kalau ada yang penasaran, ini dia penjelasan saya. Kalau ternyata enggak ada yang penasaran... yaaa... saya tetap akan melanjutkan tulisan ini. Mariii...

Wishlist SS 2014 [cihuuuuyyy]

Hoyeeee ikutan Secret Santa BBI lagi. Tahun lalu pengalaman pertama saya ikutan Secret Santa, and oh boy it was fun! Soalnya saya tuh tipe yang senang sekali beli buku. Mau itu beli buku buat diri sendiri atau buat orang lain. I'm obsessed in buying books. Karena itulah, saya sangat menikmati acara Secret Santa BBI ini. Thank you divisi event BBI yang ciamik semua. This is a romantic smile for ya'll.

Nah, berikut ini buku-buku yang termasuk wishlist saya.

Shift - Em Bailey

Bailey, Em. 2012. Shift. Great Britain: Electric Monkey.

Rating 5 stars

I often read books before I go to sleep every night, because that’s how I roll since I was a kid. If the books are not interesting enough to keep me awake, I don’t mind because those books still help me to beat my sleep deprivation. As you may guess, the amount of books that keep me awake through the night is, of course, far more many than the books that don’t. But, books that keep me awake AND haunt me in my sleep are quite rare, I believe. 

This book. This book is one of those books that makes me lost my sleep time, and when I did sleep, it haunted my ugly dream. I admit, I had a nightmare after I read this book. It jabbed me right in my supposedly brave-heart.

I enjoy this book so much. I can’t believe that NONE of my Goodreads friends have read it (or maybe they just don’t put it on their bookshelves, I don’t know).

Mara Dyer Trilogy (Book 1-3) – Michelle Hodkin [SPOILER, obviously]

Hodkin, Michelle. 2011, 2012, 2014. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Evolution of Mara Dyer, The Retribution of Mara Dyer. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Overall Rating 2,5 stars.

Sigh. Another stellar debut, another love to give. I decided to pick it up and read it, solely because of the amazing cover on the first book of this series, the other two are not very satisfying but I couldn’t care less after I finished the first book. I think that is the kind of cover that will always attract my attention. You know, mysterious, dark, sharp picture, and doesn’t show any particular face to be judged. Totally my type of cover, yes. Safe to say, I knew nothing about this book until I read it, I even didn’t know its genre.

I know now, I should never judge a series if I don’t read its whole series. By that, maybe I did an unfair judgment with Marked, but that is one awful book though, ugh. I love the first two book of Mara Dyer Trilogy, but after reading the final installment, my love was fading pretty fast. I’m bumped because I can’t give more than 2,5 stars for this series, believe me, I really want to love this more. But the last book crushed me, and not in a good way either. Despite the failed ending of this series (I’m getting to that later), I really like Michelle Hodkin’s writing style (she has good humor) and I still will pick up her future novels, I guess. Now, shall we talk about who Mara Dyer is?

Lucid - Adrienne Stoltz & Ron Bass

Stoltz, Adrienne and Ron Bass. 2012. Lucid. New York: Razorbill.

_­Rating 5 serious stars

This is a story about a girl who whines a lot more than I tolerate and a girl who is so lonely she often makes up stories about strangers around her. And I should say I am pretty shocked myself for being able to finish the story until the very last page, let alone crown it with a five-star rating.

It’s definitely not a happy story, but I smiled in some parts of it. It’s not a sad story either, but I cried anyway in the end, complete with an ache in my heart and all.

Marked - P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast [DNF gladly]

Cast, P. C. and Kristin Cast. 2010. Marked. United States: St. Martin's Griffin.

Rating 1 generous star

 

Below is my review in Goodreads that I wrote after I read this horrible thing:

I stopped at 42% of the book.

Apparently, this demonic chic Zoey Redbutt is so exotic and awesome so she has the right to trash-talking everybody else. I'm so very done with this piece of crap.

That's all I got to say, at first. But I guess I did an injustice deed by writing that short unclear review, although I show my disliking toward this book quite clearly, but that's beside my point. It is unfair for future readers of this book because they wouldn't get enough warning to not read this crappy crap. So here I am, warning you... no, I give you proof! Please proceed reading if you want to see all the evidences I managed to collect.

The Blood of Olympus - Rick Riordan (not sure if this is a review or not, but surely it contains SPOILER!)

Riordan, Rick. 2014. The Blood of Olympus. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Rating KYAAAAAA 5 STARS KYAAAAAAA!!!

I know it's early. I know this awesome thing just came out a couple days ago. I know you REALLY don't want to accidentally stumble in my blog and read this uncool spoiler. Oh by the way, SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Read on your own risk.

It's not exactly a review though. It's a jumble mess of my feelings. Yo, guys, I actually wanted to review this book along with its nine books before this, but I guess I'll settle with only this one for now. I don't know. I'm kind of planning to make reviews for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and Heroes of Olympus series separately, but... what's the point? Based on this, I review books so I don't just forget what I've read. The problem is, I read this whole series repeatedly and I remember every bits in every scenes! I've read the other nine books ninth times each, so far. So, yeah.

Dear Rick Riordan, The Myth Master, I hope this is not really the end of Percy's adventure. Please plan to make something, anything, with Percy in it. I wish you work on Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles crossover more. You've hinted (or so I wished) that there will be another story regarding to that. Well, just so you know, I'M PRAYING FOR IT!