The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1)

“It was an annoying name to have. People tended to spell in Mangus, rhymes with Angus. I always corrected them: No, it’s Magnus, rhymes with swagness.”

Do you feel the sass already? Because I do. God, I can’t even write this without at least chuckling. So, The Sword of Summer is the first installment in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, Rick Riordan’s fourth mythology-based children fantasy book series. After two book series revolve around Greek mythology, and one book series revolves around Egyptian mythology, Uncle Rick finally write something about my second favorite mythology, Norse.

Critical Eleven

“Expectation is a cruel bastard, isn’t it?”

Critical Eleven is my entry for this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge on the category ‘A Book Recommended by Family Members.’ This book is recommended by my little cousin A, who is actually a 14 years old girl, and that makes me have a mixed feeling. I tell you why later. So, do you ever feel something like, that moment when you met someone new, and then you feel like that person kind of resonates with you on personal level. But then, when you takes your time and get to know them more, it turns out that they’re the kind of person that you despise? It’s like when you receive a birthday gift, and the wrapping is so pretty and the size is huge, but the inside is just full of shredded papers and styrofoam bits and the actual gift is kind of meh? Well, that’s how I feel about this book.

Dangerous Girls

“Wouldn’t we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?”

I’ve got to start this review with cussing, sorry, but HOLY FUCKING HELL!!!! This book, this damn book! I don’t understand why are there so few people talking about this beautiful book? AAARGGHH!!! Okay, I need to calm down and carry on with the review.

The Night Circus

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.  You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

This is gonna sounds so cheesy, but that quote above is exactly how I feel when I finished this book. The Night Circus is a stand alone fantasy book written by Erin Morgenstern. The story revolved between two magicians who set against each other in a magical challenge by their venerable masters with Le Cirque des Rêves as their battle ground. Things get complicated when the two of them start to fall for each other and their thread of fates got tangled with others who live inside the circus.

And Still Peace Did Not Come

“Reopening old wounds will be painful, but in the end, the scar will be smaller.”

When I pick this book, it was meant to fulfill the ‘Political Memoir’ category on this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. But, after I read this book, I realize that this book isn’t only a political memoir  of a country, but also an autobiography of a woman.  This is a woman journey to help rebuild and bring peace to her country. This book tells stories about Liberia journey through their Civil War, or like they called it in this book, their own version of ‘World War I’ and ‘World War II’. War that last from 1989 to 2003, between the government, rebels, and warlords. Wars that make the lives of so many Liberian children turn into nightmares and terror, as they forced them to be child soldiers. It’s also a story of a woman named Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna, who largely escaped the worst effect of the war, but ended up as a journalist trying to bring peace to her country by talking about what really happened in these wars.