October Books and Movies

🎃 October Books and Movies: 

What I Want to Read and Watch 🎃

I will not be reading all of these books, but these are the ones that I will be picking from this month. I hope to be able to read most of these. Every year in October I also like to watch many Halloween movies that I have since I was a kid so I will be taking some time to do that.

🎃 The Books 🎃 

👻 Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller Audiobook -

 I will be finishing this book early this month because I started it in September. So far I am fully enjoying it. This is an audiobook that I received for an honest review. 

☠️ Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown - 

This is another book that I received for an honest review. It's a dystopian novel that looks quite interesting. I haven't read one in over three years, so I'm interested to see how I like it.

🦇 William Shakespeare's plays Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear - 

Shakespeare's plays are usually quick reads for me so I'm hoping I can get through these in a day or two. I have read Macbeth three times before (in eighth and eleventh grade and in my third year of college). I want to read it again because Wyrd Sisters is based on it and also Hamlet. I also have read Hamlet in my senior year of high school. I want to read King Lear because Fool is based on it and I have never read King Lear. Let's hope I enjoy it. If I get through these quickly I hope that I can maybe get to Merchant of Venice too, but if I don't I already have read it so it's not a big deal. 

💀 Fool and Serpent of Venice by Christoper Moore -

These are two books that I have been meaning to read since I got the sequel Serpent of Venice. I have had Fool for over a year, but I wanted to wait for the sequel. They are based on three of Shakespeare's plays: Hamlet, King Lear, and Merchant of Venice.  

🕸️ Sourcery and Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett -

The next two books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. These will definitely be books that I read this month. I hope to read at least two of his books each month until I finish them. These are the two that I wanted to read in October so I'm glad that I got to them. I cannot wait to read them. 

🍬 This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee - 

Earlier this year, I heard of Mackenzi Lee for the first time because she was doing an interview about her new book The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. I really enjoyed her personality and looked into her book more and also her. That is when I also heard about this book and that it was based on Frankenstein. I really enjoy Frankenstein and the premise of this book sounds really intriguing. It is the book I am looking forward to the most this month. 

👻 Rhett and Link's Book of Mythicality: A Field Guide to Curiosity, Creativity, and Tomfoolery by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal - 

This is a book that had to be on this list. I have been waiting for this book since the first day I heard about it and pre-ordered it literally the minute after I heard about it. Rhett and Link are two of my favorite YouTube creators and Good Mythical Morning has become a part of my life that I fully enjoy. I make sure to watch them every weekday. So on October 10th, when their book comes to my house I will be reading it. Yay, it's almost here!

☠️ Turtles All the Way Down by John Green - 

This is another book that I have been waiting for since John first announced it months ago. John's books are some of my favorite contemporaries and I have been waiting for another book for about four or five years. Also, this book sounds great. I loved his reading of the first chapter on YouTube a bit ago. I also pre-ordered this book and will be reading it whenever I actually receive it. This also comes out on October 10th, but I will be getting it probably a week after that. Cannot wait!

🎃 The Movies 🎃

👻 Hocus Pocus- 

Every year I watch this movie at least once if not twice in the month of October. This is my favorite Halloween movie and it is one of my favorite movies of all time. I cannot wait! 

☠️ Halloweentown and Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge - 

This is going to be a bittersweet rewatch after the death of Debbie Reynolds last year. I grew up on these movies and there has not been a year that I don't watch them at least once in October. Another favorite of mine. They will never get old. 

🦇 The Nightmare Before Christmas - 

This will be the first time that I have watched this movie since I was a kid. I know that this is a well-loved movie and I enjoyed the story in the manga. What I'm really looking forward to are the visuals which I already love from what I have seen. Also, the music is some of my favorite from Disney movies. "This is Halloween" and "What's This". 

💀 Casper Meets Wendy-

Most of this list of Halloween movies are going to ones that I have loved from an early age. This is another that I usually watch every year. It's been quite a while since I watched it, so I'm excited to see it again. This is what made me love Hilary Duff from a young age. 

🕸️ Underwraps-

This is another classic Disney Channel original movie that I loved as a kid. I have always loved the story of the mummy befriending the kids. 

🍬 Tower of Terror-

This movie is almost tied with Hocus Pocus as my favorite on the list. I have always loved the mystery in this movie and loved the creepy feeling that it gave me. Also, I loved Steve Guttenberg in it. 

Schedule for Blogs

🍂 My Schedule for Blogs 🍂

It has been quite awhile since I have posted anything on this blog and I decided to revamp my blog with a weekly schedule. I hope to keep with this set plan each week for the rest of the year. 

Movie Monday: On Mondays, I will be posting anything regarding movies, whether that be, reviews, favorite movie posts, Book to Movie comparisons, etc. Starting next week, I will be doing posts towards any movies I watch during the week and anything else about movies. This will also be the day that I do anything regarding tv shows that I watch.

Tag Tuesday: On Tuesdays, I will be having Tag posts. These will be any Tags that I find that interest me during the week. I hope to find both book and movie tags but they may just focus on books. 

Top Five Wednesday: Top 5 Wednesday is a group created by Lainey of Ginger Reads Lainey on Booktube. It is now hosted by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes on Booktube. Here is a link to the group on Goodreads if you are interested in joining: 

Each Wednesday during the month there is a topic picked by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes for the group to talk about in their blogs or vlogs. So on each Wednesday, I will be posting my Top 5 Wednesday answers. 

Friday Reviews: On Fridays, I will be doing a review post for the books that I read during the week. These will be like any of my normal reviews but they will all be together in one post. 

I'm so excited for FALL. 

July: Chris Colfer Month!!

Chris Colfer Month
In other words July 

I decided for the month of July to read Fairy Tale retellings starting with Chris Colfer's series. 

Every year at the start of July I read Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series before the new book in the series is released. I started doing this back in 2012 and have done it ever since. I will be reading the whole entire series leading up until the release of the final novel on July 11th. I will also be reading the companion books that go along with the series.  

Chris Colfer's Land Of Stories Series:

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns

The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning

The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms

The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey

The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide- Finally!!

The Land of Stories: A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tales
Adventures from the Land of Stories: The Mother Goose Diaries
Adventures from the Land of Stories: Queen Red Ridding Hood's Guide to Royalty 
The Curvy Tree: A Tale from the Land of Stories 

And also his book Struck By Lightning


This is going to be a great month of reading. 

June Reads: End of the Month Reviews

Dorothy Must Die Series by Danielle Paige: 

For my reviews on these books I'm not going to do a full plot synopsis for each book. This is a series about a girl named Amy, who is the second girl from Kansas to land in the Land of Oz. Her mission is to kill Dorothy. Oz has been completely changed since what happened in the original novels and the movie. Amy joins the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. The Wicked may not be a wicked as they have always seemed especially if Dorothy and her loyal followers are considered "the good".


Dorothy Must Die- Read June 15-18th 
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The concept for these novels is a great one. I like when a retelling or re-imagining takes characters that in their original story are considered good and then makes them villains. The first book in the series is a great setup for the entire series. We get to know our main character and her motivations. She is learning about the world that she has just entered and it gives the audience an eye into the world that Oz has become. One of the aspects that I don't like about this book is the slow middle. I believe with a little tweaking the middle would have been fine. Overall this is a great opener for the series that I enjoyed and hoped would continue for the books. This was also my second reading of this novel and I was excited to finally read the other three books. I got the fourth signed!



The Wicked Will Rise- Read June 19- 21st 
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The Wicked Will Rise is the second book in the series and it definitely for me at least, had middle book syndrome. The problem for me in the first book was the slow middle of the book. This book is almost two hundred pages less and it felt slower for me. Also the lack of descriptions bothered me. I feel that having the world of Oz at your disposal should give plenty of room for great descriptions and story. Now, I'm not saying that I hated this book because I did not but it is my least favorite of the series. The size of this and the rest of the books scared me when I first saw them. They are each at least two-hundred pages less than the first.

Yellow Brick War-- Read June 22- 24th

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The next book in the series Yellow Brick War was a book that I was not really excited for I will say that. After the second book, I felt that the series would just continue to lose me. I wanted to finish the series because I don't like not finishing them. The beginning took me a little to get into. Two days of it. When I got to around page seventy or so I got hooked so hard on the book. I loved what happened in this book and I really don't understand that. This is one of the most hated in the series and I can see some of the flaws that people point out but I love that. I'm not going to mention any of the plot points since this is the third of a series but I love where Amy ends up in the beginning of the book.



The End of Oz- Read June 25th 
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The last book in the series (Oh it better be! Ugh), was a good book until the ending. I like where the romance ends up and also Amy as a character. The solution in this novel that she finally figures out was not something that I was expecting and it sort of wrecked my heart reading it. Then Danielle
Paige goes and ruins it with the ending. We got a happy ending of sorts but then she goes and makes it open ended. I don't know if this is the last book or if we will have more. If there is I may read it depending on when it comes out. I don't want to have to reread these books to read another.

Overall the series is good though I'm not sure if it should have been the four books. I believe that a good amount of some of the books could have been cut out to make this let's say a two book series. Three at the most. I did like the first, third, and fourth books and some of the second. It is an interesting take on the Oz books and I like how Danielle Paige pulls in aspects from other books in the Oz series other than The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I don't know where I stand on this series as a whole but I did enjoy it enough.


My Month As A Whole: 

This was a pretty good reading month for me since I read fourteen books. I will say though that I did not read all of the books that I had planned out for myself. That was due to how much I have been writing this month and also not feeling like reading the books. April, May, and June were experiments for me with picking out a list of books to read that I wanted to during the month. This I thought would be similar to reading for my college classes. It was to an extent but I know that it was not a good idea for me.

 I have never done this for myself before and really have always read what I felt like reading. I wanted to try it out these months and it worked for the most part. Well at least for April and May.

I'm not going to try and force myself to read anything during the months that follow. Next month will be a themed month because I always read the same books during July. I will have a post dedicated to talking about that.

What I learned from this experiment is to not try to force myself into picking books for the month at such an extensive amount. I'm a mood reader and always will be. July like I said is going to be themed month but that is my tradition that I started back in 2012. Next month is going to be exciting.


I cannot wait.


List of some of the books I read this month: 

Random Illustrated Facts by Mike Lowery- Read June 2nd
This book will be coming out October 31st 2017
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This book was so cute but also very informative. I love books that have facts in them and have read many different books similar to this with random facts. A great part of this book is the illustrations. I know that this author is popular for his illustrated children's books and I can see why from this. His illustrations are often quite funny in this book and are a great addition to the facts within the book. Also just so interesting and weird. Many I had heard before but then there were many that I had never seen before. I think this book is a neat little book that may interest many people. I enjoyed my reading of it and am glad that I got the chance to read it. 

I received this for free for an honest review.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll- Read June 1-2nd  

I have a full review of this already on my blog. If you want to read it here is the link: http://whattoreadwithcag.blogspot.com/2017/06/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-review.html

I also watched the 1951 Disney movie version: http://whattoreadwithcag.blogspot.com/2017/06/disneys-alice-in-wonderland-1951-movie.html

St. Grizzle's School for Girls, Ghost and Runaway Grannies by Karen McCombie- 

Read June 5-7th

Released June 2017

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This is an adorable book that I thoroughly enjoyed during the month. The illustrations and the story are just so cute. This is about a quirky school that a young girl named Dani goes to. They try to enter into a film contest to show their love for where they live and hilarity ensues. This is the second in a series of two books so far. It was a quick and easy read. Perfect for young ones but again I will say I enjoyed it. It was funny and had the right types of quirks. I would pick up another one of the books if she ever wrote more. 

I received this for free for an honest review.

I recommend reading it. 

Heartless by Marissa Meyer- Read June 6th-9th

Another favorite of the month that I have already done a review for. I completely recommend reading this book. Here is a link for my review: http://whattoreadwithcag.blogspot.com/2017/06/heartless-by-marissa-meyer.html

Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin 

Released on June 27th 

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This is a stunning book that almost made me cry multiple times while I was reading. I enjoy books with different formats and instantly wanted to read this book. Half of the novel is written in prose where we are getting what is happening to our main character, Genesis after she has an abortion. (This is not a spoiler because it mentioned in the description) The other half of the book is written in a script format showing what happened to Genesis in the past. We switched back and forth between these two different times learning bits and pieces of the story over time. I am going to say that this was a bit jarring at times. The formatting and the way that Bonnie wrote was beautiful but the switch took me out of it two or three times. 

I recommend this to anyone that wants to be touched by a beautiful book. It is sad but also heartwarming at the same time. I will definitely be buying this book for myself. Gorgeous. 

I received this for free for an honest review. 

And finally...

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee- Read June 27-28th

📚📚📚📚📚- I would give it more than this if I could

This book is one of the funniest books I have read of all time. So far it is my second favorite book of the year right below 180 Seconds by Jessica Park. I had been anticipating this book for six months and as soon as I received it I got so excited. This book takes place in the 18th century. Our main character Henry "Monty" Montague was raised to be a gentleman but he is a far cry from even being close to this. He would rather go out gambling, get drunk, and sleep around with anyone that he can. 

He embarks on a grand tour of Europe in an attempt to have all the fun he possibly can before he has to help his father with the family estate. His father is greatly against Monty's lifestyle and is forcing Monty to start behaving himself or he will lose his inheritance. Monty takes his childhood best friend, Percy on the journey, who he helplessly loves and adores. Also, he has his sister too. Their trip goes off track after they find a mysterious object that leads them from Paris to Venice in a manhunt, fighting highwaymen, pirates, and forbidden feelings for each other. 

This book is hilarious and had me laughing so loudly that I disturbed my cat at multiple times. 🙀

I loved the characters in this story and just could not get enough of them. Monty is so bad in this story and does so many stupid things but I could not help but love him. The romance was adorable. His sister, Felicity was an amazing female character that held strong in a world of the past. After reading the book I found out there is going to be a sequel next year with her as the lead. I will 100% be picking up that book. 

Overall this is one of the best books that I read this year and held up to my high expectations for it. Also, the cover and book are stunning. The map is awesome. 

All I can say is read it. But be prepared for cuteness, some inappropriate behavior, butt-kicking characters, and one of the best historical fiction novels. At least to me. 

June: Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz Retellings Month

June Reads:

 Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz Retellings Month

Click on the image if you want to see it larger. 

Alice from Disney's
Alice in Wonderland

Dorothy from
MGM's
Wizard of Oz 

Every year for the last three years I have reread Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and for June I plan on rereading it again. I will also be spending the month on some Alice in Wonderland retellings and also Wizard of Oz Retellings. In the picture above I have the books that I will be reading this month. Most likely I may read more than this but these are the ones that I want to at least read. Starting this month I will also be reading at least one classic a month (Alice will work for this) and also a nonfiction book (The Story of Alice book will work for this). Every month from now on I will be reading a classic and a nonfiction book. Also in the picture above I have two dvds that I will be watching this month: The Wizard of Oz and Disney's Alice in Wonderland. I plan on reviewing these and spending some time most likely comparing them to the books they are based on. This I will decide on as the month goes on. This is going to be a fun month of reading that I cannot wait for.


The books I am going to read this month:

The Alice Retellings: 

The Hatter illustrated by
John Tenniel 

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll- I have decided to start the month on this book. The edition I decided to read this month is my Anna Bond edition. It is so gorgeous. I'll show pictures in my review that will most likely be up tomorrow or the next day.

2. Alice I have Been by Melanie Benjamin- This book is a historical fiction novel about the girl that Alice is based on, Alice Liddell. I cannot wait to read this.

3. The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst- A nonfiction novel about Lewis Carroll and how he created Wonderland. Another book that I have been looking forward to for a long time. This is a gorgeous edition that I found that I will be showing in the review.

4. Heartless by Marissa Meyer- This will be my first Marissa Meyer novel and I am so excited to read it. I have all of her Lunar Chronicles novels  but I wanted this to be my first of her books. Heartless is a book that I have been excited to read since I had first heard about it. I love Queen of Hearts retellings.

Wizard of Oz Retellings: 

From The Wizard of Oz movie

5-8.  Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige- I read the first book when it had first came out but then I did not read the rest of the books because I wanted to wait until all of them were out. The End of Oz,  the last book, came out in March, so I now want to read all of the books. I may also read the novellas along with these. I do not know about that yet though.

Alice and Wizard of Oz Retellings: 

9. Twisted by Elizabeth Montogomery- I thought this book would be perfect to read this month because it is both an Alice and Wonderland retelling and also a Wizard of Oz retelling. I was originally going to read this book in April but then I came up with the idea for the theme of this month and decided to read it now. Another great book that I cannot wait to read.


Like I said at the beginning of this post I will most likely be reading other books than these nine this month, but these are the ones that I want to make sure to get to this month. I will also give recommendations of other Alice in Wonderland retellings that I have read.

Have a great month of reading everybody. 

May Reads: Classics Month Part 2: End of the Month Reviews

Classics Month Part 2:

May Reads

(Mostly Greek Mythology)

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?" - Odysseus from the movie Troy which is based on The Iliad. My favorite movie quote and it definitely fits this story and the characters. 

For the month of May, I decided to again read classics. This month became an almost complete reading of Greek Mythology classics because of how they were picked out (I had my brother decide on the order that I read my classics these last couple of months).  It was an interesting month of reading and I am so glad that I spent my month reading these classics. The stories are ones that I have known for most of my life and are ones that I enjoy so much. This month I read four classics: The Iliad, The Great Gatsby, The Odyssey, and Troilus and Cressida.  

The Iliad by Homer-  Read May 4th-9th
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This epic was so brutal and I loved how great the tale was. I have known this story my whole life. It is the tale of the battle of Troy. The Iliad is considered one of the greatest war stories of all time and I can see why. This description of it does not even begin to describe this story. It begins around nine years into the battle. The Greek (or the Achaean) forces captured many women for their war prizes. Achilles has Briseis as his war prize and Agamemnon takes Chryseis as his, which causes many problems for the Greeks. Apollo sets a plaque on the Greek camp because they took his priestess, Chryseis. After many of the men die, Agamemnon finally has his men bring the priestess back. He then decides, stupidly, to take Achilles' war prize, which makes Achilles angry. He believes that he is being insulted so he refuses to fight in the war any longer for them. And this is what starts all of the problems for the Achaean army.

The story continues on after this with the Greek Gods choosing sides in the battles and causing problems for each side based on their own opinions. It does not cover the beginning of the war where the Greeks come to Troy to rescue Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta after she was abducted by Paris, a prince of Troy.

Achilles is a character that I cannot help but love. Yes, he does not have all great qualities but his want for honor is something that I can really understand. He and his mother Thetis, want him to have honor for what he is doing and Agamemnon does not even realize what he is causing by making his choices.

There are a lot of brutal scenes throughout the epic that surprised me a bit. This goes into great detail of the many deaths with the descriptions getting quite graphic. I loved the detail that was put into this. I listened to the audiobook with the Samuel Butler translation and that was remarkable. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this tale

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald-  Read May 10th
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" 'If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay,' said Gatsby. 'You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.'
Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. " - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books of all time and it is definitely my favorite classic. This story is something that I could never get enough of. Gatsby is a character that I love so much and his story is one that I adore the most. The novel is set in the 1920s and is the story of Jay Gatsby. He is a lavishly wealthy man who tries to use his wealth in his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, the woman that he loves. Gatsby's story is a representation of the people at that time and shows a man that does everything to make someone love him. Even at the expense of those around him and himself. It is a story of a man's want for the American Dream and how unattainable it is.

This is the second time that I have read this novel and I cannot get enough of it. It was so much better the second time around. I love it with all my heart.

" 'They're a rotten crowd,' I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' " - Nick Carraway to Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Odyssey by Homer- Read May 13th-16th
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It's funny that every single time I read The Odyssey again I love it even more than the first time. I love this epic poem so much. This is the third time that I have read it and this time I listened to the audiobook which I enjoyed immensely. I listened to the one read by John Lee. He was the perfect reader of this and I could not stop listening to it at times. I know the story by heart but that did not stop my interest in it.

The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus, a cunning man on an overly long journey just trying to get home to his wife, son, and kingdom. Odysseus is on this journey for twenty long years (this is not a spoiler. It is literally mentioned on the first page). His voyage is not only long but is also very taxing on him and his men. The truth though is that his troubles are caused by his own hubris and his mistakes because of this hubris. Yes, Odysseus makes many mistakes and so do his men but his determination to get home and his cunning ability to think on his feet are something that I cannot get enough of. This was the third time that I have experienced this tale and I can honestly say that I was listening to the audiobook waiting for what would happen next. I love this tale so much.

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare- Read May 29th
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I looked forward to this play when I had first heard that it was about the Trojan war. When I started to read it though I could really tell that it was not something that I was going to enjoy. I love a good amount of Shakespeare's plays but this is one of the worst to me.

The love story was not something that I could ever get into. It was similar to Romeo and Juliet, in the aspect that both Troilus and Cressida "fall in love" quickly. This love story though I believe is even worse than Romeo and Juliet's story, which I have never enjoyed. Cressida and Troilus never show their love for each other other than compensating it with a sexual act that her uncle wanted to happen. Gosh, I hated both of their whining attitudes. I'm not going to say what happens with their relationship but really it did not matter to me.

Also, every character in this play becomes very unlikable. I will say that I am biased towards The Iliad and The Odyssey.  I love Greek Mythology and have always loved it since I had first watched Disney's Hercules and books that I had read about the Greek tales. So many of these characters are not morally right or wrong. They have a gray area that makes them have good qualities and not so great qualities. Shakespeare, I could tell did not like that many of the characters, like Odysseus and Achilles, are considered heroes. He took out every single heroic quality from these characters and many others and made them basically villains. I'm not saying that Achilles or Odysseus do not have their flaws because they do, but it bothered me to see his depiction of them. Achilles does have a reason for staying out of battle which I put in my Iliad review but Shakespeare takes this out. This makes him seem horrible for what he is doing.

He takes a lot of the most powerful scenes in this story and makes them anti-climatic. There is a point to why he did this because he does not want to glorify these characters. These scenes such as the battle with Achilles and Hector at the end are made to be something he barely even mentions. I understand that this was his adaptation of it but I did not like these changes to the stories that I have grown up. These are stories that I have been reading since I was around nine years old and it disappointed me to read something that sort of undermines it. Also, this was more of a Roman take on the story which I have never really enjoyed, to begin with. He focused on both sides but it was obvious that he was on the side of the Trojans completely (he made Hector the only character that was redeemable).

One other detail that bothered me was the fact that the Greek Gods are not characters in the play. They are mentioned sometimes but they are not active players in the battle. In the original myth, the Gods hold an active role in the tale. They cause a lot of the issues to occur and are the reason that so many things happen in this. They are not even in this play at all! I assume this might have been because England at the time that this was written was Protestant but this changes the story so much.

This was not a piece I enjoyed much at all. There are some great lines in this play that I liked reading and I can understand why many of said that there are beautiful lines in this. This does not make me enjoy this play though and was not enough for me to say that I even liked it. It was okay but I certainly would never recommend it. At least I can now say that I have read eleven of Shakespeare's plays. I have a lot to go.

This book also got me to my goal on Goodreads!

May Reads: Classics Month Part 2

Will be released on May 16
One of my most anticipated
reads this year. 

For my second month of classics I decided to read four different classics: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare. Also during the month, I plan on reading at least five other books plus the books I am reviewing. The other books I plan on reading are Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Traveler by L. E. DeLano which is the first book in a duology, Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi, Can you Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella and The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich (which comes out on May 16th).

I have eighteen books until I make my Goodreads goal of reading 100 books this year and I most likely will be able to accomplish that this month! 

The Classics

The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer: 

For these two epics, I decided to read editions of the books that I had never read before. The first time I read The Odyssey was in my senior year of high school and then in my sophomore year of college, I read the same edition. The edition that I decided to read is an edition of both that is written in prose. This is going to be an interesting read. I have never read The Iliad before but I have known the plot of the story for most of my life. I look forward to reading both of these and finally knowing the full story of The Iliad.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classics of all time and I have been waiting for a while to do a re-read of it. The first time I read this was in 2013 and I believe that four years is a long enough wait to read it again. I cannot wait to pick this one up this month.

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

This will be my first time reading this play by William Shakespeare. I thought it would be an interesting one to pick up and it seems like fate to read this the same month I'm reading The Iliad and The Odyssey (my brother picked the order I would be reading my classics these two months). This play takes place during the Trojan War. I do not know a ton about it other than that it is a love story between Troilus and Cressida. It will be great to read another Shakespearean play. I hope it is as good as I believe it will be. 

The Other Books

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi 

I have been waiting to read this book since I had first heard about it sometime last year. Tahereh Mafi is one writer I have wanted to read a book from for quite awhile but I just never had. This I believe will be a great start into her books. I bought this book last year when it released and have been waiting for the right time to read it. I believe that it is the right time now. This is another book that I have high hopes for. I hope I love it as much as I believe I will.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Every year for the last couple of years I have read at least one Neil Gaiman book. In May I want to take the time to read Coraline one of Neil Gaiman's novels that I have been wanting to read for years and I never took the time to read. It looks like it will be something I will enjoy immensely. I love Neil Gaiman's books so much. He is one of my favorite authors but likes to spread his books out so I'm not reading a bunch of his books in one year so I never read more than two Neil Gaiman books that I had never read before. This year I plan on also re-reading Stardust which is my favorite of his.

Can you Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

I have been wanting to read a Sophie Kinsella book for a long time. This is one that I thought would be a great start. She is known for having funny little books and I figured that this would be a great book to read in between classics, especially books like The Iliad and The Odyssey. This is about a woman named Emma who has been holding in a bunch of embarrassing secrets. Then one day she reveals them to a stranger on an airplane, who she finds out is the CEO at the company she is working for. This is all that I know about the story but it looks like it is going to be a fun read that I am looking forward to reading.

Traveler by L. E. DeLano

This is a debut novel from L.E. DeLano that I wanted to read from the minute that I had first heard about it. It is a book about alternate realities and characters coming out of stories. This is the first book in a duology that I cannot wait to read. May is going to be another month of debut authors and reads. This book is one of the many books that I have been anticipating for a while. It came out in February but I have not wanted to read it until now.

And finally...

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

I had first heard about this from an article at the beginning of the year saying the YA books coming out in 2017. From the first time, I heard about this book I wanted to get it and I pre-ordered it so I could read it the day it comes out. I cannot wait to read this book and it is one of my most anticipated reads of 2017 right below Chris Colfer's Land of Stories: Worlds Collide.


I will be doing a full review for each of these books when I read them along with the other books I am reviewing this month. It is a good amount of books for this month but I believe that I will be able to do it. We will see at the end of the month. This is going to be one interesting and eventful month of reading. I cannot wait. 

April Wrap-up: Classics Month Part 1

In the month of April I completed one of my first reading challenges that I had given myself, to read five classics during the month. I decided to read Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I had read The Inferno and Winnie the Pooh previously and I wanted to read mostly classics that I had never read before. In May I will also be reading classics.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville- Read April 3rd- 25th

Rating: 📚📚📚

"I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing." 

I had a hard time trying to figure out a rating for this novel when I had finished it. The overall story was interesting when the narrator, Ishmael, stuck to the actual plot. There were plenty of instances though that he would either get off track or would go into long flowery descriptions of whales that would last for a number of chapters. These described the use of blubber, how to dissect a whale, and many other descriptions of the anatomy of whales. 

The overall story focuses on a man named Ishmael who is telling his story of a whaling expedition that he was going on. What Ishmael does not know is that his captain's, Ahab, actual reason for wanting to go whaling. He wants to take revenge for the loss of his leg to the "Great White Whale." Ahab's obsession leads them on this voyage to go after the whale in a mission "to kill the beast." It is the story that many people know. I wish that Melville would have stayed on the actual plot more and I believe that it would have been so much better. That is my opinion though and I can see why this has become a classic but I did not like it as much as I wanted to. 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum- Read April 8-9th

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." 

Before I read this novel I had only known the story from the 1939 movie and the many television shows I have seen based off of the novel. The story is similar to the movie. A little girl named Dorothy is swept up in a tornado because she is not able to get out of the house in time. She lands in the house on a witch in Land of Oz. There she finds out from the Witch of the North (one of the differences between the movie and the novel) that she should go to the Wizard of Oz and he may help her get home. On the way to the Wizard she meets three characters: the Scarecrow, The Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. Each has a reason to go and meet Oz. 

One of the differences that I was surprised about was the Wicked Witch of the West, who was one of my favorite characters in the movie. She is not in the novel that much and really is in the novel as comedic device. I did think that the witch was funny but this is one of the reasons that I did not love the novel. The Wicked Witch of the West has become one of the biggest and most known villains of time and I kind of wish that she had more of story in the novel. I loved her in the movie but I only liked her in the book. 

This novel was one that I have been wanting to read for a long time and I am glad that I read it. If you like the movie, I believe that you will enjoy the novel. It is interesting and a great piece of children's literature.  

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri- Read April 13th-18th 

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

"Abandon all hope ye who enter." 

This was the third time that I read The Inferno. I was first introduced to Dante's work in my senior year AP English class. I will always remember a classmate asking my teacher at the time why we were reading a book about Hell. He said that The Inferno was the most interesting out of Dante's Divine Comedy. It's ironic that the epic about Hell is considered by many as one of the most interesting. I cannot say anything to this because I have never read Purgatorio (Purgatory) or Paradiso (Heaven). I can say though that The Inferno is a carefully laid out piece that I enjoy wholeheartedly. 

Dante's Divine Comedy tells the tale of Dante's journey towards God and away from sin. The Inferno starts shortly before Good Friday and continues on until the morning of Easter Sunday. Dante is the narrator of the epic poem and it shows his trek throughout Hell with his guide Virgil (one of the most famous poets from Ancient Rome). He is being led away from sin by learning of the other sinners and of their punishments. Each of the punishments that Dante gave to the sinners in Hell are symbolic of the sins that they have committed on Earth. Dante divides it into nine Circles each getting worse as they go down. The first circle being the least and the ninth being the worst. 

He lays out his own idea of what he believes The Inferno would look like based on Catholic beliefs. Dante is believed to have invented the poetic form that he wrote in: terza rima. This is made up of stanzas with three lines each. The first and third lines in each of the stanzas rhyme while the second does not. The second line then will rhyme with the first and third line of the stanza after it. This type of rhyme scheme is meant to continue on throughout the whole poem until the end where the poet usually will end on a one line stanza to end the rhyme. Many of the English translations of The Inferno use this poetic form but many do not. I read a translation with the rhyme scheme. Being a poet myself I admire someone that can use a rhyme scheme like this and make it work well. The idea of three also goes along well with the other ideas of three throughout the epic: father, son, and the Holy Ghost; Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; and the groupings of sin Incontinence, Violence, and Fraud represented by the three beasts at the beginning. Dante put a lot of thought and time into this piece and I cannot help but admire this carefully laid out epic. 

This is a challenging read but I would recommend reading it. There are many websites that can help out with understanding and many editions of the epic have little descriptions at the beginning of each of the Cantos (similar to chapters). Here is one of the websites that I have used in classes that are quite interesting: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/index2.html. I would recommend looking at this website after reading the Cantos. The information on this website is definitely a great addition to reading the epic. 

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne- Read April 18th- 19th

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

I have already spoken on length about this novel. This was a great addition to the classics that I have read this month and I am very glad that I read this. Here is a link to my full review of the novel. http://whattoreadwithcag.blogspot.com/2017/04/winnie-pooh-by-aa-milne.html

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Read April 20th- 26th 
Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

" 'Harry,' said Basil Hallward, looking him straight in the face, 'every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.' "

Dorian Gray is a self absorbed man who treats the ones that love and care about him horribly. He becomes completely enamored by a portrait of himself that his friend, Basil Hallward painted of him. After another friend, Lord Henry mentions that he will eventually lose his beauty he becomes obsessed with the idea of how the painting will never lose its beauty but he will. Dorian sells his soul so that he would never age as his portrait changes. Over time he changes into a man that only cares for himself and uses those around him. The portrait then starts to reflect the man he truly is, a corrupt man who is vain. 

It is interesting to watch Dorian's self destruction as he loses every bit of redeemable qualities that he once had. The story is slow at the beginning but it is completely worth getting through the first thirty or so pages. Dorian becomes a detestable man that it is hard to feel a bit sorry for him but his decline into narcissism is one of the most interesting stories I have ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone. His self-absorption in the fact that his beauty will eventually end is quite fascinating and I kept wondering what else this man would do. 

Oscar Wilde's discussion of the human mortality throughout the novel also kept me wanting to read. He has his character Lord Henry discuss this aspect to Dorian at the beginning of the novel. Dorian's own fear of his mortality causes him to destroy his many relationships and to destroy his own soul in the process. He wants his beauty to be immortal and this ruins him. His friends in the novel do not have many redeemable qualities themselves. They all state their interest in Dorian and their love for him though this love is because of how he looks. These characters show a shallow way of life that is very much similar to the characters that Jay Gatsby surrounds himself with in The Great Gatsby. This idea of mortality also reminds me of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, where he shows how fleeting mortality really is. The idea that the picture really will live on after Dorian is similar to the idea of the Sonnet living on forever.