#monthlysugar May 2017
Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my first ever blog post on this website and I am so excited! Here you'll find the complete list of the books I read this month:
Blue Mountain by Martine Leavitt
(Rating: ★★★★☆)
The main character of the story, Tuk, is a bighorn. In case you do not know what a bighorn is, it is a kind of sheep native to North America named for its large horns (thanks, Wikipedia).
Tuk is a very special bighorn, for he is able to see "story mountain", a place where everything is perfect - knee-deep grass, streams that never go dry, where no man has ever set foot. Although Tuk is still very young, he takes the responsibility of leading the herd to the mountain.
He fights with pumas, and tricks a bear to let the herd cross a river. I admire Tuk, for he is brave and quick-witted when facing problems.
This story made me think about what damage us humans have done to nature. In the book, the humans chop down trees to build houses. The bighorn have no place left to go, and have no choice but to stay in someone's yard. Is it time we should do something to help animals instead of destroying their natural habitats?
This book is an easy and meaningful read. I love it!
Red Sky in the Morning by Elizabeth Laird
(Rating: ★★★★☆)
Oh look, another book with a color in the title. I was assigned to read this in English class. "Red Sky in the Morning is boring," my friend said to me the other day. I put the book into my bag and forgot all about it.
But in fact, it wasn't boring at all. I actually enjoyed reading it.
The main character, Anna has a younger brother with disabilities. However, this does not stop her from loving him. She is very protective of him and does not want him to get laughed at. Expecting the people at school to be mean about it, she avoids letting others see her brother. When her schoolmates finally meet him, though, they do not tease him or Anna. Instead, they show kindness.
This book makes me realize how lucky I am to have my sister - siblings are the closest friends we ever have, after all. Ben may be disabled, but he has the ability to make Anna happy and put a smile on her face.
Although I fail to understand how the book's title is related to the story (LOL), it was still a really great read.
Love, Rosie by Cecilia Ahern
(Rating: ★★★★☆)
A friend of mine keeps saying how good this novel is. I found this in a public library near me - all the books there are brand new! Once I borrowed it, I couldn't wait to start it, and I couldn't put it down once I began reading it!
This book did not fail to meet my expectations. Rosie and Alex have been best friends since very young, and I have been shipping them since page one.
The two of them live totally different lives - Alex is a doctor, Rosie doesn't even has a stable job; he lives in the US, she lives in Ireland, yet they are still in touch after so many years, and never stopped being each other's best friend.
I love that this book is an epistolary novel - the letters, emails, cards, instant messages and notes between Rosie and her friends are hilarious! (Especially Rosie and Ruby's long chats - they crack me up every time.)
I love love love love this book - it's amazing. (Oh, and don't forget to check out the movie too.)
Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw
(Rating: ★★★★★)
I read this book for Battle of the Books. Historical fiction has always been one of my favorite genres, as I found stories written based on the past really interesting.
Michiel, the main character of the story, is Dutch, and Holland has been occupied by the German. His friend, Dirk, tells him that there will be a raid on a distribution centre and if anything goes wrong, Michiel should help him deliver a letter to another friend of his, Bertus Van Gelder.
Dirk is then arrested, and so is Bertus Van Gelder. Michiel has no choice but to read the letter. Dirk has written about a wounded British pilot, and has given instructions for finding his hiding place. It is up to Michiel to take care of the pilot.
This book not only taught me that we should be brave like Michiel, it also let me know more about the lives of people during Wold War II. It all seemed so real to me when I was reading the book!
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
(Rating: ★★★★☆)
Another Battle of the Books book... This is quite challenging, as the vocabulary used in it is pretty advanced.
In the story, Faith, the protagonist, is a young lady who is very fascinated with science. Her father is a renowned naturalist, and she takes great interest in his findings. However, people keep telling her young ladies ought not be "too clever".
Faith's father gets murdered one night. Faith wants to find out the truth about his death and goes through her late father's possessions and finds notes about a tree that has to be fed lies. For every lie fed, it bears a fruit believed to hold a truth. She hides the tree in a secret place and rows out to feed it lies, hoping to eat the fruit and find out the truth about her father's death.
This book is so incredibly creepy and I had to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next! And Faith is so amazing - although she is a girl, and girls are not allowed to be scientists or anything of the sort at the time, she doesn't care what other people think and does whatever she wants. You go girl!
