Books I Read in April (short reviews)

Originally I wanted to make this a weekly, not a monthly thing, but since my reading brain only kicks in every 10 working days or so, I thought it would be nice to have a monthly recap instead.
I will keep the reviews as short and spoiler free as I can and I will use a "out of five" system, 0 out of five meaning "burn it and never let anyone read this again" and 5 out of 5 meaning "one of the best books I have ever read" (I'm not sure if this explanation was necessary, but oh well)
A little disclaimer before I begin, my reading list is very mixed, there is some YA stuff, some classics, some books I had to read for uni, some children's classics and others, so I hope this is not too confusing, I tried keeping them in bundles.

Let's start with the ones for uni. These are some of my mandatory books for some of my classes and I did not actively chose to read them (although I did choose my seminars based on the novels we have to read)

The beggar's opera by John Gay 1/5
There is not a lot to say about this one, the rating speaks for itself. I did not at all connect with either the characters or the storyline in this play. I think it is supposed to be a satire comedy or something, but even though I study Literature at university I did not see the value in this play. Maybe I am incredibly wrong and just didn’t get it, but at this point I am just glad that it was such a short play.


The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare 3.5/5
I think with Shakespeare there is not a lot to discuss, you either like his plays or you don’t. For me it is definitely the first, I really like Shakespeare and Merchant of Venice didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t as good as some of his other plays, but it had the typical elements of a Shakespeare play, the weird relationship constellations, the dressing as the other sex as part of a scheme to save or trick someone and the questionable decisions of some of the characters. Not sure what else I can say here, I enjoyed it and I would recommend it to people who like Shakespeare (insert shrugging here)


Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 4.5/5
I don’t think I have mentioned it before, but I love Agatha Christie. Especially Miss Marple, but also her Inspector Poirot stories are just such great books. Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favourite ones so far and although I knew the story from back when I first read it, it managed to confuse my about the murderer to the very last. It is such a well constructed murder mystery and if you like a nice crime solving novel then this is for you (I would recommend it to everyone, but I have a friend who hated it based on the fact that she doesn’t like murder mysteries…)



The Children Act by Ian McEwan 4.5/5
The last book I read for university this month but certainly not the least. Ian McEwan created such a masterpiece and really blew my mind. I’m not giving it five stars for the sole reason that it took me about 60 pages to actually get into the story, but from there on it was a solid 5 star read. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about today’s issues in society and follow along a High Court judge in a morally very difficult case while dealing with her own personal issues.




The following books are the ones I chose for myself because I always wanted to read them, because they are next in my TBR bookshelf or because I finally had to read them to give them back to the friend who lent them to me.

City of Fallen Angels 3/5
City of Lost Souls 3/5
City of Heavenly Fire (all by Cassandra Clare) 2.5/5
Last month I had decided that it was time for me to finally read all my YA collections and I had started with the Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare. This month I finished the series with part 4 to 6 and I am a bit indecisive about it. I loved the universe and the world building, the side characters were amazing and lovely to follow along with, but for the life of me, I can not stand Clairy. Like at all. I’m trying to not ruin it for anyone, maybe it is a personal thing, but for me she was just a screaming girl who brought everyone around her in danger by being “cute and clumsy”.
A second issue for me was the very dissappointing ending which is why the last part has the worst rating. I won't spoil or ruin it for anyone, but personally I felt let down after working myself through six novels and then getting *that* ending,
Still, the whole Shadowhunter world is incredible, I really liked that the fantasy elements were so close to the mundane world, which again is something I know not everyone likes. Overall a nice series and I would probably recommend it to people who are either younger than me or who are used to the stereotypical descriptions of the main girl and the incredibly hot love interest.


The Maze Runner by James Dashner 4/5 
Continuing my YA mission I’m currently reading the Maze Runner series and I think this is one of the only book series that I read after seeing all the films (which are amazing by the way). It was interesting for me to explore the world and the maze despite already knowing what the film made out of it. It is easy to root for the boys in this world and James Dashner really has a talent to make you hate certain characters as much as you learn to love others. This is a YA novel series that I would recommend not only to younger people since it deals with many interesting topics (building a new society, being controlled by the government etc.) and stays away from most stereotypes. At least as far as I can tell from reading the first novel.


The wonderful wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum) 4/5
This is the only classic I read for myself this month and I really liked it. There is not a lot I can say about this, since I think most people are familiar with this lovely story. It has such a nice message to the reader and has yet such a simple story line. For me it was a nice escape from the heavy reading I had to do for uni and the colourful world of Oz is something everyone of every age should at least once step foot in.


I hope that this post was helpful, either to find some new books to add to your never ending TBR pile or to rediscover an old favourite of yours.
If you want to follow my reading “in real time” then I’d love to connect to you over goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/95108873-lena-fiala)
Keep reading and take care,
Lena