In My Mailbox (1)

Well, I decided to join the fun and take a part in this cool feature, In My Mailbox, which is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren. Since it's my first time, I will include all the books I've recieved lately, probably in the last month. And.. my post is also a little different- I have Hebrew translated books, too, would you like to see them? (:

I've already finished some of them (Review is coming!) and returned them to their owner (library or my friends), but this list is going to include all the books I had and read in July. 

Borrowed: 

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2) by Steig Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3) by Steig Larsson

Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) by Charlaine Harris

    

Library: 

One False Move (Myron Bolitar, #5) by Harlan Coben

Brisingr (Inheritance, #3) by Christopher Paolini

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón- Read my review here. 

The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon #3) by Dan Brown

Here their hebrew covers: 

       

Won: 

Ecopy of The Keepers by Monique O'Connor James (at Young Readers)

Forgotten by Cat Patrick (at I'm a Book Shark)

  

Bought- 

Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1) by Rachel Hawkins

Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer 

The Iron King (Iron Fey) by Julie Kagawa

Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1) by Kiersten White

And the hebrew ones.. I haven't planned any buying when I walked into the store until my eyes saw the first Sarah Dessen's translated book! How could I resist it? So, there was this deal and I bought three! :D

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen  

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush #1) by Becca Fitzpatrick

I think Lock and Key cover is ok, The last song's is amazing, and Hush Hush (They called it "An Angel From The Sky" in Hebrew) is.. terrible. But I heard the book is good so I got over that. 

Audiobooks- (downloaded for free)- 

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) by Holly Black

 

*I downloaded more audiobooks (Thanks to Sync!) but I'n not sure I'm going to listen to all of them so I didn't include them this time. I'll see about that next time.  

So, again, It's my first time and I'd like to hear what you're thinking. Would you like to see more hebrew covers? And what do you think about those? 

Thanks for visiting! 

Rose

Review: The Shadow Of The Wind

I picked The Shadow Of The Wind in the first time in the library a couple of weeks ago, remembering someone recommend it to me. I still can't recall who this person was, but I'm very thankful.

This book can be easily rated as five stars, and has all the things a good book should include. It is written very well, has a variety of good characters and a complex plot. The book tells us a man's story, actually two men's stories. Daniel's, a boy who finds a forgotten book, and Julian's, the author. The book is a journey, one that starts in the first page of the book and ends only in the last. You have no choice but getting carried away and find out what all the mystery's about.

However, I feel like I didn't like the book as much as it deserves. I mean, I liked it a lot, but apparently not enough. I'm not sure why, maybe the language was too difficult for me so I shouldn't have read it in English. Maybe there are some parts which were too long. I took a break for a week and continued the last 150 pages today.. I don't regret finishing it.

Overall, this book was amazing. It has unique plot that shows the power of one book and its impact on the writer and the reader as well. I loved how past and present got united by those stories, bringing to life old stories and memories. This book helped me realize again why writing and reading are so important to me.
It'll be hard to forget this one.

_____

My first review on the blog. Tell me how I did? (:

Why I Shouldn't Be Planning.

I'm not good at all when it's about planning. I mean it, not only about writing. I can plan the whole day- what to do every moment, but there is always something that goes wrong.
Well, think about it, it's really impossible to plan every detail in your life. I try to do it and fail every single time.

A few years ago, I had a story that I planned everything it it. I knew what's going to happen every chapter, from the begining to the end. I still love the plot I created and I think it could work, but then.. I got frustrated in the few first chapters. I used to skip chapters only to write the interesting ones, those I planned in my mind countless times. It's useless to said it didn't work well, I've got bored and abandoned my story. I loved it, but it wasn't interesting for me anymore, since I knew what was going to happen.

Maybe it sounds weird, I know it might, but it's how I've felt. I still feel the same. My last story, the only one I've ever completed (besides a short one, a few years ago), was supposed to be a fantasy. I wrote three chapter and everything was fine, but then I started writing the part when the plot was going to the fantasy direction. I felt it wasn't good so I sent it to one of my friends. She told me something like that: "Look, I love your writing and this story, but I think it shouldn't be fantasy."
I thought about that, deleted the part, and wrote another one instead. I had no direction and I wasn't sure where the story was headed when my main plot was gone, but I kept writing. I never regret it.

One of the things I loved about writing is finding your way in the middle. You know, writing is like living for me, I just keep writing until I find something that disturbs my plans. I take a step back, checking the options, getting frustrated because I hate changes, but finally I find my way back on the road. I start writing first chapters without realizing what I'm writing about, and then I can discover my characters and my story. Sometimes I keep writing because I really want to know what happen next, I really don't know. But I will, and I do, every time, and I love it.

It's not easy, it's like finding your way in the dark, trying to find how to turn on the light. It's like being in a place you don't know and you're afraid you can't get out. You know what? I'm being afraid every time, I'm not brave at all.. but I'm doing it because I have no other option.

So, I keep bringing a map and extra money every time I go to another city with my friends. I'm checking bus and train's timing, and I'm stressful. I try drawing main direction to my story, and to decide where it's going..
But I'm not good at all about planning.

An Opening Post

As you probably have already figured it out, I am a writer. Most of my life I handled it alone, I can't recall when exactly I started, but only in middle-grade I started taking it as a real hobby. Well, most of the time I've been writing alone. When I say "alone", I mean no one read it and almost no one knew about it.
A few years ago, I told my friends. Well, I didn't exactly "tell" them, I think they already knew about it, but it's not the point. Twitter was the first time I talked about my writing in public, it's not much, but it's all I've got. I've known there people who would like to support, no matter who you are.
I finished my first completed story three months ago. Right now I don't care about publishing and I don't think it's  good enough to be published. I wanted to finish it in order to prove myself that I can, that my love for writing is more than just as "a hobby", more like a way of life. I wanted to know that not only can I start a story (a novel, I guess, by its length), I can finish it too. I did it after almost a year.
I'm not sure when the problems started- aren't there always?- but lately, they seem more than just rocks in the path. Now that I think about that, maybe it had to do something with me being serious about writing, I don't know.
I've started struggling, getting frustrated and even considered quitting. I couldn't. I just kept opening the file every couple of hours and thought how I could do it better. I couldn't do that too. I erased over 7k, a big deal to a person who writes slowly.
So now it's better, now I have fewer struggles to win over and I think I've done the right thing. It doesn't mean problems are over, of course. I don't think they ever are.

I'm opening this blog to tell you all about me, my writing and my story. Maybe a little bit about everything.
I'd like to get your comments and I hope you'd enjoy the visit.

P.S. Maybe it seems my writing isn't that good, but it's because I'm writing now in English. My stories are written in Hebrew, and I think my writing is way better than this (;

Thanks for visiting, I'd love to hear your thoughts.