August Recap: 9 Books That Kept Me Hooked

August has been a good month from many points of view, but especially because I managed to read 9 books, which is my record so far, but I am quite sure I can beat it easily since I've read 4 books in October until now, and it's not even the middle of the month.

However, while I've already wrote about my September Recap, I was really impressed to see so many people (still) interested in reading, so I wanted to share what I've read in August also. Actually, August is also the month when I thought about making this kind of monthly post with what I've read, but my attention went in many directions, so I missed the chance to write it down. Hopefully, it's not considered weird to do it now, though.

1. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck

by Mark Manson ★★★★★

The month began with a lot of interest in Mark Manson's books and some sort of easy self-help and personal development that I constantly feel like I am missing.

However, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck was not only that, but also like a good friend you could have around you anytime you would open the book. Nevertheless, reading it came in a very delicate moment when I felt los,t which is quite a frequent mood I have lately, but accompanied by the right book, it really helps take that mood away at least for a while and even feel more determined to prove wrong to those who have a wrong impression of yourself, such as being a weak person.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

2. The Subtle Art of Seduction

by Mark Manson ★★★★☆

The next book I've read, written by Mark Manson, was The Subtle Art of Seduction, which caught my attention from the title from the first moment I saw it released in Romania as well.

However, despite being used with women being the ones who seduce men and constantly looking for more ways to conquer new hearts, I was a bit disappointed to see this book entirely dedicated to men, where, even if it's interesting to get into the head of a man and see the opposite approach, I couldn't really find it useful for me. But it was a really fun and interesting read that every man out there should have, in my opinion.

Arta subtilă a seducției [The Subtle Art of Seduction]: Cum să fii atrăgător prin onestitate [How to Be Attractive Through Honesty] by Mark Manson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3. Everything Is F#cked: A Book About Hope

by Mark Manson ★★★★☆

The last book I've read from Mark Manson was all about hope, yet another feeling I could feel like missing at the time of the read. However, also in this case, I had to take out one of the stars from my review, sadly.

First, the book begins with a really interesting case study from a man who was a prisoner in Auschwitz, where it's perhaps one of the few places in this world where you can't really have hope anymore. Anyway, it was sad to see this end up pretty quickly and have the rest of the books based on various other case studies that I couldn't feel as deeply in my heart as I felt the first one. I also felt like some of the ideas were constantly repeated unnecessarily, which could make the read get a bit boring, but just like the other books written by Mark Manson Everything Is F#cked was an easy and quick read, very friendly with the reader without getting you into a lot of terms you are not familiar with.

Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4-5. Elevul Dima dintr-a saptea (Vol. 1 & 2)

by Mihail Drumeş ★★★★☆

The next two reads happened on the suggestion of my boyfriend, who is a big fan of Mihail Drumeş, the author of the books, who is also Romanian. He constantly told me about some of Mihail Drumeş's works as being amongst his favourites, referring to the attached two volumes as reading them four times already, which are such a fun and nice read.

I'd lie saying that these are the usual books I read, but as I like trying new things and I don't have a specific genre I'm focusing on when reading, I wanted to give them a try. The newer version of the book might be easier to read, but the ones we had are the first releases, where the text from some of the pages was slowly fading away, plus the type of writing was adjusted to those times rather than the current ones. All these made me take one star away from my feedback, but other than that, they are indeed a great read with a bit of humour, a bit of romance and a bit of everything in general.

Elevul Dima dintr-a VII-A by Mihail Drumeş
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

6. Shadows

by Jennifer L. Armentrout ★★★★★

Although this is a book that was released a few years later after the Lux Series from Jennifer, I always thought that the first volume began quite abruptly, constantly thinking if we would ever get a bit of inside from what happened before, and thank God, this became possible through Shadows which is the 0.5 Volume of the Lux Series, basically an intro to the story.

Hence, this is a very short read with a bit over 200 pages, but with lots of action and interesting aspects that make the rest of the volumes make a lot more sense. While 2 of the volumes didn't catch my attention as the rest, I really enjoyed reading Shadows and it was such a good read, seeing a different perspective over one of my all-time favourite series of books.

Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

7-8. After: The Graphic Novel (Vol. 1 & 2)

by Anna Todd ★★★☆☆

When it comes to Anna Todd, I can easily say that she's one of my all-time favourite authors because of her writing style and love stories that come with so many emotions that make you feel like being part of the story in a blink.

So while the "After" series is also one of my all-time favourite series of books, the author decided at one point to turn the books into movies, which sadly, weren't the best. An even more recent approach is the comic books that share the story visually. I won't lie, I am a big fan of comic books, and the inner kid does a happy dance any time I get my hands on a new comic book to keep me busy for the next 1-2 hours. Sadly, these, based on the After series, were not the happiest ones I've read. First, lots of details are lost on the way as you can't transpose a 500-page book into a comic book of just 150-200 pages. Secondly, the comic books were not made after the series of books but after the movies, which I already mentioned aren't the best, as lots of action is lost on the way, and some of the characters are also very different from the book, also speaking about one that was a female in the books and now it's a male. For these reasons, as much I love Anna Todd, I have to take out two stars from my rating for the comic books.

After: The Graphic Novel by Véronique Grisseaux
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

9. Never Lie

by Freida McFadden ★★★★★

Last but not least, the reading list couldn't end in a different way than having another gem written by Freida McFadden, entitled Never Lie.

This one was, actually, my first read from Freida back in August after hearing a lot of good things about this author, but having no idea about her writing style, which is, by the way, so easy to fall in love with. All the plot twists are insane, and Don't Lie is such a rollercoaster of emotions and situations, making you be convinced you figured out who the bad guy is, until... surprise! The ending is nothing like what you could ever have thought about. I'd happily read this book all over again.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

~ @GabrielaTravels ~