Rose Freyn

A Very Large Expanse of Sea - Tahere Mafi

This book talks about Shirin, a muslim girl in America in 2002. It mainly deals with how the terrorist attacks of 9/11 influenced her life, and how she is constantly fighting and struggling to deal with racism. Her solution is to build walls around her, so that nothing can hurt her anymore. But then she meets Ocean. And suddenly her walls are crumbling down. 

I read this book in Dutch, so technically I read a translation heheheh. Anyway, I really really liked this book. I’ve gotten to know Tahere Mafi through her Touching Juliette Series, so this was something completely new. I was happy to discover that her writing style is still the same, I absolutely love how Mafi can capture emotions in her sentences. 

Oosterschelde Windkracht 10 - Jan Terlouw

This is about one of the first books that I consciously remember reading. It’s about a young couple - Henk and Anne - who live in the Netherlands. The book deals with the dikes disaster in 1953. Because The Netherlands are situated below the sea-level, the country would be flooded if it wasn’t for the dikes. But in 1953, a particularly heavy storm breaks right through dikes, flooding several parts of the country and killing 1836 people in the progress. This disaster is also known as ‘Oosterschelde Windkracht 10′. Oosterschelde because of the place where it happened, and ‘Windkracht 10′ can be translated to wind force 10. Anne and Henk survive, but barely. Anne loses her younger brother, and Henk spends about 2 days stuck on a floating rooftop on the sea. 

Twenty years later, almost all of the estuary are closed off to protect the islands from ever flooding again. Only the Oosterschelde is still open, but will be closed soon. The next generation - including Henk and Anne’s sons - however are protesting against the closing of this estuary, because it will kill the precious nature. What follows is a clash between generations, between fear and hope. 

I really really like this book because of several reasons. 

1. I’m a history nerd. I absolutely love all books about history, and the more detailed the better. This books deals with a topic that is not so widely know, the only sad thing about it is that has not been translated to English. (Some of the other books that Jan Terlouw has written have been translated, such as How To Become King and Winter in Wartime.) 

2. As a kid, Jan Terlouw was basically all I read because his books would always have a deeper meaning. It would explaing something about history or politics, and I loved that. (I still do.) 

3. It reads really fluently. I finished this book in one day, because it reads so easily. 

Ashen Shadows - Ewe Linka

A country terrorized by an evil queen. A young woman who needs to hide because of her identity. A princess who has never disobeyed her mother. A thief who does not do feelings - they only get in the way. One person who knows everything. And one chance to bring down a dying kingdom.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about this one. I really enjoyed reading it, but at the same time I feel like the story was a bit superficial. The characters were amazing, and it was not so difficult falling in love with them. There were some obvious underlying currents that could impact the story a lot, and it kept you lured in. But I feel like those twist were maybe kept bottled up too long, making them lose their strength. Basically everything gets uncovered in the last chapter, and through a letter, making the reaction of the characters disappear. (If there would come a second book however, I feel like that could be something really great.)

Second Chance Summer - Morgan Matson

Taylor Edwards is an expert in running away. Whenever things get difficult, she simply turns around and walks away. It has proven to be an effective method to dealing with things. Until her dad becomes sick, and she encounters something that she can’t run away from. 

Her dad decides to spend their last summer together as a family at their summerhouse at the lake. And for Taylor, that does not only mean that she will have only one summer left with her dad, but it also means that she will have to face her past. 

Taylor will have to face those that she hurt the most by running away, and maybe she will get a chance to make it right. 

A Mortal Song - Megan Crewe

Sora grew up on Mount Fuji as the heir to the spirit kingdom. She was supposed to be the most powerful one, the best at everything, unbeatable. Until the day that she turned 17, and found out that it was all a scam. 

Instead of being the powerful kami that she was led to believe she was, she is just another normal human, a replacement to keep the real heir safe until she came off age and could take her rightful place on Mt. Fuji. Now the day has come for the heir return, but things did not go as planned. Instead of a peaceful exchange of girls, an army of ghosts has attacked the Kami, and only the heir can save them now. Sora will have to train the real heir in order to save her home - even though it hasn’t been her home all along. 

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 

I was a bit apprehensive of reading this one, even though I’ve had a copy for a long time. I generally enjoy reading classics, but I tend to lose my concentration easily when reading those, mainly because the ‘moral message’ is usually more important than the plot and story-line. But once I had started, I couldn’t stop reading about Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Definitely a recommendation! 

Norris has moved to the other side of the North-American continent in the middle of junior year, and he does not know how to survive it. As a black canadian, he suddenly finds himself in the mids of Texas, with only his sarcasm to protect him. But soon he finds out that there are actually some people he likes, like Maddie, the cheerleader slash his co-worker. Or Liam, who convinced him to start his own hockey team. And let us not forget Aarti, who certainly has the capabalities to become a love interest. But then Norris takes the sarcasm a step too far, and everything comes crumbling down... 

Simon is supposed to be The Chosen One, but so far, he hasn’t been doing a good job of it. According to various prophecies, he would be the one to save the Magic World from the Humdrum, a magic-eating monster. But in reality, Simon can’t even cast a spell half of the time. And as if that isn’t enough, he has been sharing a room with an infuriating stuck-up magician all year round since year one.

But at the start of Simon’s eight - and last - year at Watford, it’s clear that things are coming to an end. Simon has to defeat the Humdrum, and quick. But what is worse, is that Baz did not even bother to show up for Simon’s epic demise. 

In Wayward Son, the story of Baz, Simon, and their friends continues as they decide to take a road-trip across America. The final book of the trilogy, Any Way the Wind Blows, is supposed to be released by the end of 2020. 

These books are just so damn good. 

Simon and Baz made their first appearance in Fangirl, another book by Rainbow Rowell. Later on, they got their own series. 

At first glance, it might seem a bit like a new take on Harry Potter, but Carry On is so much more than that! It’s a refreshing way of combining romance and fantasy, with the stress on the romance (which is way better than you’d think.) 

Rosie and Alex are best friends, and have been so since kindergarten. Their friendship survives everything, even not being invited to Alex’ 10th birthday party, or being continents apart when Alex moves to Boston. Rosie even applied to Boston College, so that she could be with Alex again. 

But then, right before she is supposed to leave for Boston, Rosie gets pregnant. And suddenly everything changes. 

Told through a lifetime of letters, birthday cards, and newspaper excerpts, the story of Rosie and Alex slowly evolves right before your eyes. 

Disclaimer: It’s not a great book to read on an e-reader (at least it was not for me), because some lines ended up wrong, which made it really difficult to keep track of the story when it was being told through a ‘chatroom’ or e-mails. 

This book has also been turned into a movie with the same title, and it’s definitely worth watching. Sadly, the storyline is totally not the same as the book, going as far as messing with family trees and characters. But it’s still a really nice movie. 

It’s a really funny and nice book to read, but the story slows down after page 100, which kinda sucks. At some moments, I really had to push through to get the book finished, simply because the story was going so slow and tended to lose its interesting factors because of that. 

The Idiot - Elif Batuman

Selin is attending her first year at Harvard, and she is struggling with life. How can you make friends and find love? What is the purpose of life? What is man? Who is she? 

She falls hopelessly in love with Ivan, who has a girlfriend but is also definitely leading her on. Meanwhile, she is searching for the meaning of life in language.