For the month of July I gave myself a bit of an ambitious TBR. I had an overall goal of nine books. Six of those nine were part of my O.W.L.s readathon. I won’t go into detail on what the readathon entails, but I will give you a link to Book Roast’s announcement as well as the included documents. My previous TBR post can also be found here.
Unfortunately, I was only able to get to four of the six books on my O.W.L.s TBR, and zero of the others. That still gives me four options for subjects I can participate in for my N.E.W.T.s this August.
There were 12 subjects total, you could choose to participate in with designated challenges. The six I chose to attempt were:
1. Ancient Runes: A book with a symbol on the cover
2. Arithmancy: Read a book with a number on the cover or in the title
3. Astronomy: Read a science fiction novel
4. Charms: Read a fantasy book
5. Herbology: Read a book with a nature related word in the title
6. Muggle studies: Read a muggle non-fiction book
Below I will tell you which challenges/books I was able to complete. There was one book that wasn’t on my TBR, but I still counted for one of the challenges. So, without further ado, let’s get into today’s post!
O.W.L.S READATHON BOOKS
1. Fruits Basket
by: Natsuki Takaya
Subject/Challenge: Arithmancy: Read a book with a number on the cover or in the title
Fruits Basket is a graphic novel that follows an orphan girl named Tohru Honda who at the start of the novel is living in a tent. After the mysterious Sohma family offers to take her in, Tohru discovers a deep family secret of their’s. Upon being hugged by a person of the opposite sex, each member of the family turns into a different animal from the Chinese Zodiac.
I chose Fruits Basket for the Arithmancy challenge because there is a number 1 on the cover. It was such an enjoyable, fun read. It only took me four days to complete, and like I said in my TBR post, I probably could have finished it in one sitting. In the end, I decided to give it a 4.5 flower rating. The only reason it didn’t get 5 flowers is because it seemed to be missing something. There just wasn’t that wow factor which 5 flower ratings normally get from me.
My Rating:
2. Thirteen Rising
by: Romina Russell
Subject/Challenge: Astronomy: Read a science fiction novel
Thirteen Rising is the fourth book and conclusion to the Zodiac series by Romina Russell. As always, considering this is a sequel/finale I won’t tell you really anything about the synopsis for this specific book. The series as a whole though, takes place in a futuristic world where each planet in the galaxy is inspired by a different zodiac sign. The Main character, Rhoma Grace, is from House Cancer.
Thirteen Rising was an excellent conclusion to a kick butt series. It was however, my least favorite Zodiac book. I gave Thirteen Rising 4 out of 5 flowers for one main reason. Rho, the main character was not enjoyable to read about at all in this book. Her persona changed so much after the events that occurred in the previous book Black Moon. For a good part of the book, I wanted to kick Rho, and slap some sense into her. She just wasn’t very likable. By the end of the story though, she did realize what a horrible person she was being which sort of made up for all of her previous mistakes.
I plan on doing a full spoiler free review of Thirteen Rising real soon. Possibly after I post one for the third book, Black Moon.
My Rating:
3. Elizabeth and Her German Garden
by: Elizabeth Von Arnim
Subject/Challenge: Herbology: Read a book with a nature related word in the title
My original choice for this challenge was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Although I am almost done reading it, there is a slight chance I won’t finish by the end of this month. I have high hopes that I will though, and hopefully by the time this post goes up, it will be off my currently reading shelf on goodreads. Considering the fact that I was doubtful about whether I would complete The Goblet of Fire in time, I chose to pick up Elizabeth and Her German Garden as a back up, since ‘garden’ is a nature related word.
Elizabeth and Her German Garden is an extremely short book at only 104 pages. It is told through a series of diary entries from the author Elizabeth, and follows her throughout the course of one year. Elizabeth often discusses how she has found the utmost happiness in her garden. We also get appearances from her three children who she refers to as the April, May and June babies, as well as her husband, ‘Man of Wrath’. .
I have to be honest when I say that this book was a total disappointment. The writer Elizabeth was an annoying narrator who thought she was better than everyone around her. Her husband was also a horrible sexist who constantly complained about women. The only characters I really enjoyed reading about were Elizabeth’s children. I won’t go into too much detail on my thoughts, because I am planning on doing a full review of this book real soon.
My Rating:
4. A Victorian Flower Dictionary
by: Mandy Kirkby
Subject/Challenge: Muggle studies: Read a muggle non-fiction book
I found this edition of A Victorian Flower Dictionary at the Molly Brown House Museum near my apartment. It is a non-fiction companion novel to a book known as The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Each page features a different botanical illustration with a description of the selected flower as well as the meaning of it according to the Victorian era.
Although this book was very informative, I often found myself drifting. I’m not a big fan when it comes to the Non-fiction genre, but I honestly couldn’t pass up a book about flowers. At first reading about the meaning of each plant was fun. I got to see some illustrations and there were also poems scattered throughout here and there. With that said though, I can only read so many facts about flowers until the information starts to bore me. In the end, I gave A Victorian Flower Dictionary 3.5 out of 5 flowers.
My Rating:
I hope you enjoyed reading my July O.W.L.s Wrap-up!
Until next time,
The Garden of Read-En 