Bout of Books 9.0 Day 5 update

Bout of Books Day 5 was pretty good. I'm please with my progress so far, as this is my first time participating in a read-a-thon of any kind. My cousin will be able to start Insurgent by Veronica Roth with me tomorrow, so I wanted to start something that I could finish in one day. That book turned out to be A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

What can I say about this book? This is one I couldn't have read eight years ago....or even five years ago. My mother passed away eight years ago after a brave and courageous seven year battle against two types of cancer. She beat the breast cancer, but the ovarian cancer was a stealthy bitch. It still took two and half years for the ovarian cancer to take her from me....in the end, she was tired and ready, me...well, I had to get there. My mother had been, and still is, my rock...the foundation that I was built upon. She will always be the strongest woman I have ever known.  Because of this, I could relate to the character of Conor...maybe a little too much. I was much older than the thirteen year old Conor, but like him, my father wasn't in the picture.

I thought I would breeze through this book. I read the paperback (but will be investing in the hardcover soon), and at only 225 pages in length with a larger font than a normal book, I figured I could read this in only a few hours. However, the memories of dealing with my Mom and her illness would creep into my thoughts as I was reading. This didn't take away from the experience, in fact it actually made it better. I wound up taking my time and savoring every word.

This was my first experience with Patrick Ness, and it won't be my last. I know this was a little rambly, and maybe it won't make sense to anyone other than me...but these are my thoughts on the book, as scattered as those may be.

FRIDAY'S TOTALS:

PAGES READ: 225

BOOKS COMPLETED: 

TOTAL BOOKS READ SO FAR: 

4 BOOKS AND 1 NOVELLA

TOTAL PAGES READ SO FAR:

1,OO4


  NEXT BOOKS:

After being put through the emotional wringer with A Monster Calls, I need something a little light, fluffy, and a bit sexy. I love the Entangled Brazen line, and I recently picked this up for just .99 cents on my Kindle. 

I plan on reading How to Love and Insurgent at the same time. My cousin has finally finished Divergent, so we are going to read the second one together.