2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge - Update #5 & Mini Reviews

Happy Thursday everyone and welcome to my fifth 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge update with mini reviews!  I completed 6 books this month for a grand total of 26 of 50 books finished for the 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge.  I'm just over halfway through!  Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the books I completed in May for this challenge in the order I read them in:

❋ ❋ ❋

I really enjoyed The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman starting off but it didn't stick with me the way I was hoping for it to. I have a feeling I would have adored this when I was in middle school. Why didn't I try it back then? It's definitely old enough. I particularly enjoyed the full cast audiobook production. That was a treat - I wish more were made the same way. I think I'm going to have to try the movie and TV adaptations sometime in the future.

My review is also on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz is beautifully written and definitely worth picking up if you're interested in trying historical fiction with a dash of magical realism.  I liked the level of detail, but overall it wasn't quite for me.  Throughout my reading experience I felt like I was always somewhat out of the loop.  I just was missing something.  I have a feeling it was me, not this novel.

My review is also on Goodreads.

❋

I really wanted to love The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova as I usually enjoy Dracula and vampire stories, but after reading 13 chapters and 98 pages I decided to give up the ghost.  It's just way too slow and the level of detail bogged down the story to the point where I wasn't interested in reading another 544 pages.

My review is also on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ 

The Masked City (The Invisible Library #2) by Genevieve Cogman is a delightful sequel to The Invisible Library.  It's so imaginative and seeing all of those worlds brought to life is a real treat.  Irene is easily one of my favorite characters.  Plus, she's one of the best librarians in fiction.  I can't wait to see what's next for her and Kai in the next book, The Burning Page.  If you enjoyed The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library #1) by A.J. Hackwith and The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) by Jasper Fforde, I have a feeling you'll love this too.

My review is also on Goodreads.

❋

Midnight Sun (Twilight #5) by Stephenie Meyer is totally unnecessary, but I thought I'd try it anyway.  It retells the story of the first book in the series from Edward's perspective.  While that sounds fairly intriguing, it just wasn't working for me to keep listening to the audiobook for a novel that's 658 pages in length.  The narrator did a fine job, but basically the longer I listened the more I realized I just wasn't interested anymore. It's just way too long and drags on and on.

My review is also on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) by George R.R. Martin is my least favorite installment of this series, but all things considered the previous installment set the bar incredibly high.  I think part of my issues with it are that it splits the action geographically.  That means we don't get to see a lot of great characters in this book.  My favorites who appear in this one are Brienne, Jamie, and Samwell.  If anything else happens to Brienne... I'll be really upset.  Since I know she won't appear in the next book, I don't know how I'm supposed to wait for the future sixth installment.

My review is also on Goodreads and in my May the Force Read With You Readathon - Wrap Up & Mini Reviews post.

Have you been participating in this challenge?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!