My Bookish Life : Christmas Book Haul and The Drawing of The Three Book Review

       Hello everyone! I hope all of you are having a merry Christmas! I know I had a really good one!

    I think I want to start this article off by talking about some books that I got for Christmas. Then after that I'm going to review The Drawing of The Three by Stephen King. So let's get started!

1.

Given to me by : My mother-in-law

Title: The Institute

Author : Stephen King

Synopsis: The playground was surrounded by a chain link fence at least ten feet high, and Luke saw cameras peering down at two of the corners. They were dusty, as if they hadn't been cleaned in a while . Beyond the fence there was nothing but forest, mostly pines... Whatever the Institute was, it was in the middle of an over grown forest, which meant in the middle of nowhere. As for the play ground itself, Luke's first thought was that if there was ever a prison yard for kids between the ages of six and sixteen, it would look exactly like this.

Thoughts on the gift: I'm really thankful my mother-in-law got me this. I have been really wanting to read it for a long time now! I've heard it's really good and I'm really looking forward to starting it!

  

2. Given to me by: My brother-in-law

Title : Lock Every Door

Author: Riley Sager

Synopsis: These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most glamorous and secretive buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is captivated by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms , ready to leave her past life behind. 

As she gets to know the residents of the Bartholomew , Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly reminds her of her sister who vanished eight years ago . When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and that the dark history hidden beneath it's gleaming facade is starting to frighten her , Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story...until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance , Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's sordid past and the mysteries kept within it's walls . What she discovers pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the buildings hidden secrets, and escape a dream apartment that has quickly became a nightmare.

Thoughts on the gift: This is another book I have been wanting to read for a good bit. I discovered it through booktube and the stuff most people say about it has made me really curious about this book! I want to start reading it really soon!

Now let's move on to my book review:

Title: The Drawing of The Three: Dark Tower II

Author : Stephen King 

Genre: Fantasy, Horror, sci-fi, western

Pages: 463 

Rating: 5 stars!

Synopsis: In 1978 , Stephen King introduced the world to the last gunslinger , Roland of Gilead . Nothing has been the same since. More than 20 years later, the quest for the Dark Tower continues to take readers on a wildly epic ride. Through parallel worlds and across time , Roland must brave desolate wastelands and endless deserts , drifting into the unimaginable and the familiar . A classic tale of colossal scope -crossing over terrain from The Stand, The Eyes of The Dragon, Insomnia, The Talisman, Black House, Hearts In Atlantis, Salem's Lot and other familiar King haunts - the adventure takes hold with the turn of each page.

And the tower awaits...

While pursuing his quest for the Dark Tower through a world that is a nightmarishly distorted mirror image of our own , Roland is drawn through a mysterious door that brings him into contemporary America.

Here he links forces with defiant young Eddie Dean and with the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes in a Savage struggle against underworld evil and other worldly enemies.

My thoughts on the book: This is another reread for me. I love this series in general. However, The Drawing of the Three could very possibly be my favorite Stephen King book out of the ones I've read. 

Roland's quest toward the Dark Tower really kicks off in this second book in the Dark Tower series. It's really fast paced and full of adrenaline and very hard to put down. This book in the series also contains the introduction of the character Eddie Dean who for me is one of Stephen Kings best characters . 

This book is has really good characters and it also tales a very good story . It's very fun and fast paced. I love it and I will always give this book 5 stars! 

I have also decided I'm going to start doing paintings based off of one of the books I read each month. The painting below was inspired by The Drawing of The Three

December TBR update :

I think I can possibly finish London by Frank Tayell before the end of the month but, I don't think I'll be able to finish the James Patterson and Jacob Appel books.

General Blog Ideas: I want to add new books to my TBR jar at the start of next year . If you would like for me to read and review a certain book leave it's title and author in the comments section of this post. I will add all the suggestions to my TBR jar that I pick books out of every month.

Also, I want to do a reading challenge next year . I know about a few reading challenges but can't really pick which one to do. If you know of any reading challenges also leave info about them in the comments section and I will do a drawing next month to decide which challenge I do. The Goodreads challenge is excluded from this because I already do that one every year.

That's it for this update. I hope you all had a merry Christmas! See you guys later!