Hello rosebuds!π
March was the best reading month for me so far, as I ended up completing a total of five books. Even though I failed at the Irish readathon and zodiacathon, I don’t care, because I set a new record for 2019.
THE BOOKS
1.Β Gulliver’s Travels
by: Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels was the first book I completed for the Irish readathon. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved this story, as I wasn’t expecting to think really anything of it. What shocked me the most however, was the plot. We all know from the movie, that Gulliver gets stranded on an island full of tiny humans. In addition to that country though, Gulliver travels to many other lands that are full of bizarre inhabitants ranging from friendly giants, and going all the way to wise horses. My favorite territory to read about was definitely Brobdingnag, or the land of friendly giants.
Considering Gulliver’s Travels was published close to 300 years ago, the writing was a bit outdated, and in all honesty, just not my cup of tea. This is pretty much the only reason as to why I didn’t give this classic a solid five flowers.
My Rating:
2. Charlotte’s Web
by: E.B. White
This was my first time reading Charlotte’s Web, and boy did I love it. It did however, take me a while to pick up, as I had to mentally prepare myself for what I guessed would be a pretty dismal ending.
For those of you who don’t know me, I am an extremely emotional person. I have the tendency to cry while reading pretty much every book. Even if there isn’t necessarily anything depressing going on, I will always find a way to get emotional. You can darn well bet that while reading Charlotte’s Web, I was ugly crying to the point of hyperventilating.
With that said though, I often find that some of the best books are the ones that can produce reactions such as that. Charlotte and Wilbur’s story was absolutely beautiful. I really felt for every character, and found myself caring about the fate of each. I highly recommend this book, not only for the kids in your life, but the adults as well. Charlotte’s Web has something for everyone.
My Rating:
3. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
by: Edith Holden
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady is a facsimile of Edith Holden’s original diary from the Edwardian era. In it, Holden chronicles her observations of the plants, animals and landscapes throughout each month in England, starting with January. In between are some illustrations of what she saw as well as poems that relate to the current time of year. This is a stunning book, as the publisher basically just took her original diary, and put it into a readable hardcover. All the text inside is Edith Holdenβs actual handwriting.
Although I did enjoy this for the most part, I think I would have gotten more out of it if I was a professional gardener, and not just an enthusiast. There were a lot of flower names thrown around that I wasnβt familiar with. I think it would have helped if I could actually envision them to get the full effect. Either way, this was a beautiful book, I just didn’t love it as much as I had hoped to.
My Rating:
4. Clara Voyant
by: Rachelle Delaney
I would be lying if I said that Clara VoyantΒ didn’t somehow manage to disappoint me. While I did think this a fun and quick read, there was way too much build up where I was just waiting for the climax to happen. What really disappointed me though was how misleading the synopsis was. Yes, Clara does cover the horoscopes section in her school newspaper, but the so-called predictions she made seemed more like observations that anyone could have guessed. There didn’t seem to be anything clairvoyant about her character until the last 25 pages.
While I was pretty disappointed in that aspect, I did still enjoy a majority of this story. There was a decent amount of things I loved, which is why I didn’t give Clara Voyant a lower rating. I am going to do a full review on this book soon, so I will go into more detail then.
My Rating:
5. The Secret Garden
by: Frances Hodgson Burnett
This was obviously a reread for me, and I loved it just as much as the last time. I adore rereading my favorite books, because I am always finding even more reasons as to why love them so much. This time around, I realized how much Dickon’s character reminded me of my father. I won’t go too in depth on this, but if you want to know what I am talking about, check out my Top Three Children’s Classics post here.
My Rating:
I hope you enjoyed reading my March Wrap-up!
Until next time,
The Garden of Read-En 