Book Review: It's Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa TerKeurst

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BOOK review
Started on: 29 January 2019
Finished on: 5 February 2019

It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered by Lysa TerKeurst

Title: It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered

Author: Lysa TerKeurst
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Pages: 256 pages / 287 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2018
Price: Rp377,737 (https://www.bookdepository.com/)

Rating: 5/5
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"Humans are very attached to outcomes. We say we trust God but behind the scenes we work our fingers to the bone and our emotions into a tangled fray trying to control our outcomes. We praise God when our normal looks like what we thought it would. We question God when it doesn’t. And walk away from Him when we have a sinking suspicion that God is the one who set fire to the hope that was holding us together."

Lysa TerKeurst is an author, speaker, and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries. In this book, she gives us permission to acknowledge our own pain and disappointment by courageously exposing her own. Life often looks so very different than we hoped or expected. And so many times, we feel disappointed, disillusioned, and we quietly start to question God's goodness in our lives. This book will help and guide us to overcome our disappointments and shift our suspicion to God is cruel to the assurance that God is protecting and preparing us. Lysa TerKeurst does it by pointing us squarely to the sovereignty and faithfulness of God.

Book Review: The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #3) by Rick Riordan

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BOOK review

Started on: 19 January 2019
Finished on: 28 January 2019

The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #3) by Rick Riordan

Title: The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #3)

Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Pages: 401 pages / 432 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2017
Price: Rp 283,000 (http://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 4.5/5
*for those who haven't read the first and second book, this review may contain spoiler.
Review for The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan here.
Review for The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2) by Rick Riordan here.

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"The world will end. The big picture cannot be changed. But in the meantime, as Loki once said, we can choose to alter the details. That’s how we take control of our destiny."

Magnus Chase doesn't have time to waste after Loki is free from his chains. Loki is preparing Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, complete with a host of giants and zombies, to sail against the Asgardian gods and begin the final battle of Ragnarok. But to stop him, Magnus and his friends have to race against time to reach Naglfar before it's ready to sail. In the end, Magnus have to challenge Loki and defeat him in a battle that he's not confident in. The fate of the Nine Worlds now rests in his hands.

Book Review: The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2) by Rick Riordan

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BOOK review
Started on: 9 January 2019
Finished on: 18 January 2019

The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2) by Rick Riordan

Title: The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2)

Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Pages: 459 pages / 528 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2016
Price: Rp 118,000 (http://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 5/5
*for those who haven't read the first book, this review may contain spoiler.
Review for The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan here.
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"At this point, most people would have thrown themselves down on the ground and given up hope. And by most people, I mean me."

After retrieving the Sword of Summer and defeating Fenris Wolf, Magnus Chase is back at Hotel Valhalla training alongside his friends on floor nineteen. Everything has been quite normal until a very nervous goat said that a certain object belonging to Thor is still missing. And when the giants noticed that Thor is defenseless, they will soon attack Midgard and endanger the lives of many people. And so once again, Magnus and his friends have to travel across the Nine Worlds in search of Thor's legendary weapon.

Book Review: The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan

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BOOK review
Started on: 24 December 2018
Finished on: 8 January 2019

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan

Title: The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)

Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Pages: 497 pages / 491 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2015
Price: Rp 189,000 (http://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 4.5/5
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"Myths are simply stories about truths we've forgotten."

Since his mother's mysterious death involving wolves, Magnus Chase lived alone on the streets of Boston trying to survive day by day. Until one day, his uncle named Randolph managed to track him down. Randolph tells him about the fact that Magnus is a son of a Norse god, and all the Viking myths are true. To prevent Ragnarok (the doomsday of all Nine Realms), Magnus must search for a weapon that's been lost for thousands of years—the Sword of Summer. But he never thought that it means Magnus had to die before he is able to fulfill his quest.

Top 5 Wednesday: Largest Books on My TBR

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This topic is actually from November's list of Top 5 Wednesday, but I guess it's okay to do it now. It's very rare for me to read a large book because it usually take me a really long time to finish it. But in this post, I'm going to list some of the longest books that I currently have on my TBR (to-be-read) list. Even though I don't know when I'll read these books, I guess this will be a good reminder that I still have to read them someday. Here are the books, listed from smallest to the largest.

Annual End of Year Book Survey | 2018

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Happy New Year everyoneee！🎉

It's been quite a while since I last wrote a non-review post on this blog. The year 2018 sure goes by really fast! And now we are officially welcoming 2019！🎉 I decided to do this End of Year Book Survey, which I did back in 2014 (you can read the 2014 edition here) because I think it will be a fun way to sum up my reading in 2018. This survey consists of numerous questions about books that will be fun to answer. If you want to join in, you can copy-paste the questions from my blog and post your own! If you're doing this survey, please share the links in the comments below so I can check out some of your favorite books from 2018 😊. Okay, now let's start answering the questions! (*You can also click on the book titles I mentioned to see my review on it 😉)