Alice im Wunderland & Alice hinter den Spiegeln - 4 stars

Mister Lugosi und die verschwundenen Kinder - 5 stars

Die Insel der besonderen Kinder - 5 stars

Favorite book(s) of the month: all of them

Books started this month but haven't finished yet: Stopping the Noise in Your Head, Shopaholic, Here I am, The Fearless Travelers' Guide to Wicked Places, Goddess of Poison - Tödliche Berührung, Girl Online Going Solo

Well, well, well.

Here is the thing, when you have too many interests, sometimes you can't get anything done. Here's another thing, I won't force myself to read. If instead of reading, I just wanna lie on the couch, do some knitting and finally catch up with 1823919 tv shows and vlogs on youtube, I'm going to do that instead of reading. And one more thing, I have to realize that three books aren't really that bad, especially when you really LOVED them. Quality over quantity, right?! (ButI still feel really guilty about all the ARC's. Dang!!!)

German and english review

Ich glaube ich hab jede Version der Filme gesehen, die es im Moment gibt und trotzdem haben mich beide Geschichten total überrascht und im Fall von Hinter den Spiegeln, war alles vollkommen neu für mich und nicht das was ich erwartet habe. Aber das sehe ich eindeutig nicht als etwas negatives.

Ich fand den Schreibstil unheimlich schön und vor allem einfach zu lesen (was nicht immer der Fall ist, bei solchen Klassikern). Die Story war so interessant und einfallsreich (gerade im zweiten Teil, die Anlehnung an ein Schachspiel, von dem ich absolut keine Ahnung habe, es aber trotzdem wunderbar funktioniert hat), teilweise ein bisschen verwirrend aber ich finde, dass macht den ganzen Charme dieser Welt aus, in die wir zusammen mit Alice eintauchen. Die Welt ist verwirrend, ein bisschen frustrierend aber unheimlich interessant, genauso wie jeder der einzelnen Charaktere.

Gerade in dieser Version der Bücher, fand ich die Zeichnungen einfach total schön und neu.

Alles in Allem, waren beide Geschichten, ein wirkliches Abenteuer, dass ich richtig genießen konnte und das ich nur weiter empfehlen kann.

***

I think I have watched every movie version that is out at the moment and still, both stories really surprised me and in the case of Behind The Looking Glass, everything was new to me and so different from what I expected. But that is in no way something negative.

I thought the writing style was so beautiful and very easy to read (which isn't always the case when it comes to classics like that). The story was so interesting and imaginative (especially the second story, the referring to a chess game, that I have seriously no clue about, but it still worked wonderfully.), in parts it was a bit confusing but I think that's part of the charm of the world that we get to experience together with Alice. The world is confusing, a bit frustrating but mostly very interesting, just like every single one of the characters in it.

In this version of the books, I especially loved the drawings, so beautiful and new.

All in all, both stories were an adventure that I really enjoyes and that I can really recommend.

I finished Alice's Adventures In Wonderland today and read the first few pages of Through The Looking Glass!!! I will do a joined review for both these books when I finished the second book.

Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Author: Lewis Caroll

Original Published Date: 1865

Pages: 106

Edition Language: English

Format: Hardback

Category: Children's, Classic, Fantasy,

Review: Like Peter Pan, I do not think a summary will be needed here. If I am wrong, it is about a little girl called Alice who falls down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland, which is a crazy odd place, where animal talks and wear waistcoats, hatters are mad, food shrink and enlarge people, cats grin strangely and disappear, and the Queen is a playing card and loves to behead everyone.

Sounds confusing? Well, for Alice it was! It is nonsense and it is awesome! Alice cried: "Curiouser and curiouser," and indeed it was. 

What I found pleasing was that there are many segments I remembered from the Disney movie (which is my 2nd favorite Disney) and others I didn't, so I felt curious reading the book.

I enjoyed the language. I love delicate English and so indeed this was. A big joy reading it! Funny book. Love the nonsense it has all over, and not having English as my born language, some of the gibberish verses and dialogues puzzled me. I was trying to find its meaning like Alice, and who am I kidding? It is the non-sense that makes it so funny! I mean... Why is a raven like a writing desk? What the hell had that man eaten when he combined ravens and writing desk and then come up with the answer: No idea... I think it is funny. And the weird characters - there are no logic in any of it and that is what makes it so wonderfully weird and funny. I believe the real Wonderland must be in Caroll's head.

I have a big minus though! The illustrator really made Alice look really, really scary! What is wrong with her eyes? She looks so evil. I am not kidding. But I guess I cannot blame the author for having creepy illustrations and it is not like it ruined the book or anything... But come on! Wouldn't this give you nightmares?

No, this is not why I am not giving it the last half star. Even though I liked it very much and have almost only good words for it, there were still some few short passages where I became a little... impatient, like "Yes, move on to the funny part, please!". It was not many times, like Peter Pan, but I do not want to have that feeling, when I am reading a book. It will be "only" 4,5 stars!

So, I just finished Trough The Looking Glass and what a fun read! It's that I like surrealism so much so I loved the conversations between the animals and Alice and her thoughts. 

I understand why adults read that story and why it was a hype back then. It came out in the 19th century: there wasn't any fantasy stories such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings etc. I think this was one of the first fantasy/surrealism stories ever written. People back then wanted to read something that wasn't about the real world. 

That's why I really like this story so much. It isn't my all time favorite book, so that's why I gave it 4 stars, but I think this is one of my favorite classics. 

Have you read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass?