† ETERNALPORCELAINDOLL †

Another month of this year has passed and I finally got back into the reading spirit. I was in a slump in April so I didn't do a wrap-up then. Here now I will talk about everything I read in April and May because of that. Including the comics (as eBooks), I read 17 books over the last two month. At 3,628 pages read, this averages to about 59.48 pages a day. If I were to adjust this for the books I read in each month things would look differently. In May I mostly read about a 100 pages each day on my way from and to work, 50 pages for each direction. As I also listened to an audiobook I've got the number for that as well. The time I spent listening to it averages to 2.75 hours a day which is quite accurate I'd say. Books read: - " Aftermath " by Chuck Wendig - 3.5/5★ - " Aftermath: Life Debt " by Chuck Wendig - 4/5★ - " Aftermath: Empire's End " by Chuck Wendig - 4/5★ - " Eine unbeliebte Frau " by Nele Neuhaus - 2.75/5...

"Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that... in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime." After reading and loving The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six, I had to read at least one of TJR's other books. Most of them are a lot more chick-lit than the two I read before but I felt like I would actually enjoy them. I was definitely right with this one. "Forever, Interrupted" tells us the story of Elsie who after a short whirlwind romance gets married and looses her husband soon after that in an accident. This leads to her finally meeting his mother whom she never met before and who didn't know about Elsie. This is a cute and simple love story on one hand and a cute and comforting story about grief and healing on the other. Both...

"Here we go. I know you can't understand me; but put down the stapler, or 'I' will electrocute 'you'!" © Warner Bros./Legendary/Pokemon Company/Toho Co./Nintendo; taken from imdb We all love nostalgia to some degree. Especially at the moment movie studios are caching in on that again a lot. Detective Pikachu isn't different but I'm definitely not here to complain. I love me this kind of nostalgia a lot. Detective Pikachu tells us a cute Pokemon story about Tim Goodman who partners up with a Pikachu only he can understand and who used to be his father's Pokemon partner in his job as a police detective as Tim's father disappeared after an accident. This story was just such a throwback to my childhood in combination with modern possibilities. As a Millennial born in 1991, this whole movie was right up my alley and will be so for most of our generation. Detective Pikachu is also not just a story about and with Pokemon. It has...

"Lies go out, but the truth stays home." What do you get when you mix fantasy with Italian mafia clichés? This book. "The Lies of Locke Lamora" tells the story of the Gentlemen Bastards, a band of thieves from a city state called Camorr. They work by deceiving and playing the rich noble class but don't give anything away. Raised to be extraordinary thieves, the likes of which people haven't seen before, they are working on one of their biggest hauls so far. Until things in the city turn sour. Locke Lamora, Jean Tannen, Calo and Galdo Sanza, and little Bug are a group you will love with all your heart. They are fun, they are intriguing, and they are just really cool characters. Everyone of them has their specialties in working as thieves, making them all important in their own way to this group. And their relationships work well and are nicely fleshed out. Especially Locke's and Jean's friendship will grow on you. These two have a great arc...

"We hunt the flame, the light in the darkness, the good this world deserves." An evil forest creeping closer, a caliph dead, a dangerous assassin, a strange witch, and a young hunter just trying to survive. The world of Arawiya is struggling. There used to be magic, countries had different climates, people didn't have to fight so hard to survive in this world. That was until magic disappeared. Now the young hunter - who actually is a huntress called Zafira - and the dangerous assassin - called Nasir - are both on their way to a dangerous island to achieve different outcomes to the question if magic can be restored. This young adult high fantasy novel, strongly inspired by Arabic mythology, is a tale of hope, of people learning to trust, about truth, about the fight for the right thing and that it's not always easy, and that as sentient beings everyone is not just good and evil. We Hunt the Flame delivers a beautiful world with interesting world building an...

"All of life will be dead because politics is slower than a mud-stuck AT-AT."  - Aftermath: Empire's End Politics. As mentioned in my prequels essay they are an important part of the franchise. The politics of the GFFA are complicated and offer further background on what we know today as the Original Trilogy. But they also show us well what happened after it. The Aftermath trilogy is a fun and enjoyable ride, full with colorful characters, brilliant action, and also a nice dose of politics. This is the story of what happens after a rebellion won and how difficult it is to get a government back on track after long years of a fascist regime and a war that span most places. All three books offer something new to the story. We get interesting new characters you will love and we spend some more time on a few planets we haven't seen before or we haven't spent enough time on. Wendig opens up the GFFA and paints us a picture of the difficulties of politics in a ...