3 Month Wrap Up

So I've read a fair amount since I updated so I decided to break it up by star rating each month. I read a good number of enjoyable books and only abandoned 3.

October: 13 books

5 Stars:
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
Saga Volume 6-7 by Brian K. Vaughn

4 Stars:
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
Saga Volume 4-5 by Brian K. Vaughn
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Warcross by Marie Lu
Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beacon

3 Stars:
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan MacGuire
Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander



November: 6 books

5 Stars:
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

4 Stars:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

3 Stars:
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Dear Farenheit 451 by Annie Spence




December: 14 books

5 Stars:
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Harry Potter 1-4 (re-reads) by J.K. Rowling

4 Stars:
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
The Martian by Andy Weir


3 Stars:
Matilda by Roald Dahl


2 Stars:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Talking as Fast as I can by Lauren Graham



DNF:
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Steifvater
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Christmas Haul

I don't typically buy too many books because I only have one bookcase and its already full but I requested plenty for Christmas. Here's what I received or bought:

Bought for myself:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Received as presents:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lioner Shriver (also recently watched the movie. Meh and weird.)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline


I have read all of these except The Outsiders and Little Fires Everywhere. I plan to read these in the year 2018.


Funny aside: My mom bought me Between Shades of Gray and was convinced it was the popular erotica novel. Nope mom, this is about work camps. Not sexy at all.

2018 Goals and January TBR

I got a little busy and forgot about my blog. I have been reading so I'll update you on what I read in a future post. This will be my 2018 goals and my TBR.

1. I will read 40 books for the Popsugar Challenge. I think I'm going to do 38 off the "regular" list and 2 from the "challenge" list. The reasoning for this is that I want to challenge myself but I don't want to read a book I have literally no interest in. (i.e. the book about sports)

2. Total book goal is 90. This can include re-reads, graphic novels, children's, and everything in between. (I read 85 books this year and I felt like I was reading a lot but I had a three month slump where I read nothing.)

3. Re-read. The last 2 years I've not been re-reading and its been sad. I know I want to finish re-reading the Harry Potter series (started a couple weeks ago...just couldn't hold back) and a few of my favorite books.

4. I would like to read at least 2 books off my shelf per month. (I don't own a huge amount of unread owned books but it is close to 50 so I want to get through them.)

I'm terrible with TBR lists because I'm a mood reader and my moods can shift quite suddenly but these are the books I would like to get to in January.

January:

- Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash
-A Brief History of Time Lords by Steve Tribe
-Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
-The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
-In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
-I am Malala by Malala Youfasazai
-Bird Box by Josh Malerman (Yes, I know this has been on my TBR before.)
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
-How Green was my Valley by Richard Llewellyn
-My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
-The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
-The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
-The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
-Saga Volume 8 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples


Realistically, I won't get to all of these and I will find new ones I will read on a whim but its a good guideline for me. I'm pretty sure I'll get to In Order to Live because I will be reading it for a book club and Saga Volume 8 because I pre-ordered it.

September Wrap up

--Edit-- I wrote this on the last day of September but forgot to publish it because I hadn't quite finished the last book. Better late than never I guess.


Like I mentioned before, I'm not going to review all of the books I read. That is just too time consuming and it takes away from reading time. However, I will let you know what I'm reading, give it a star rating (out of 5), and review books from time to time.

Here's what I read in September.

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood   4 stars
2. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini 3 stars
3. A.D. After Death by Scott Snyder 2 stars
4. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent  4.5 stars
5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis  4 stars
6. Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples  5 stars
7. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin 3 stars
8. Janie Face to Face by Caroline B. Cooney 3 stars
9. Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples  5 stars
10. Saga Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples  4 stars
11. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward   3.5 stars
12. Honestly Ben by Bill Koningsberg    3 stars
13. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab  4 stars

October Mid-Month Wrap-Up

Hi everyone!

I have read 7 books so far, though not all of them were originally on my TBR. I will list the books and give them a star rating out of 5. These are in chronological order, not rating order.

1. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
3.5 stars  The writing seemed pretty amateurish including so many similes and it ended pretty abruptly. However, it had an interesting concept so I will probably pick up the sequel.

2. Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
4 stars. Funny but too short. I wanted more. I know there is a sequel so I'll probably pick it up in the future. Very reminiscent of a coffee table book.

3. Saga Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughn
4 stars. The many plotlines are getting a bit confusing but it ended on a cliffhanger and I'm on my library's waitlist to get the next one. I'm eagerly anticipating what will come next.

4. Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling
3 stars. I've desperately wanting to re-read Harry Potter and thought a taste might satisfy my craving. It was somewhat interesting but I had hoped for more anecdotes rather than just "facts" that seemed pulled from thin air.

5.  The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
3 stars. This was really good. I did see a minor plot twist coming but another one took me by surprise. The characters were pretty likable and I look forward to reading the next one.

6.  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4 stars. I feel like if I had read this when it first came out back in the 1800s I would have been totally blown away. However, I was familiar with the plot twist. It still made me think a lot about the duality of man and how our choices shape who we become. This may be my new favorite classic. The writing is a bit slow but incredibly thought-provoking.

7. Warcross by Marie Lu
4 stars. I really liked this. Again, there were two plot twists. I guessed one and the other surprised me. It definitely set up for a sequel which I will eagerly read whenever it comes out. The writing was a little bit redundant sometimes but overall plot was interesting.

So if anyone is keeping score, I've only read 4 on my original TBR list. I did start The Ninth Hour and Briar Rose but have put them down and not picked them back up. I probably will read them at some point but right now I'm not in the mood.

Let's add to the DNF

Well, I have a new book to add to my DNF list: Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov. I was trying to buddy read it for banned books week but honestly the book is so slow and the scenes made me really uncomfortable. Are we supposed to be rooting for the pedophile? It also had so many French phrases that I constantly needed to look up. I made it a whopping 64 pages out of 331.

I have found (with a few exceptions) that I really don't like classic literature. Oh, well.

DNF books

For the longest time, I have plowed through books I didn't like just because I didn't want to abandon them. Sometimes I felt I hadn't given them enough of a chance but other times I felt like I had invested too much time to quit. The first book I remember quitting was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. This was back when it was quite popular but I just couldn't get into it. I finally reminded myself that my main purpose for reading is enjoyment. Since I was not enjoying it, I should abandon the book.


I still have this idea that I owe it authors to finish what I've started and because of that, I have only abandoned a few books. Several of them were quite popular too.

Here is my list of abandoned books:

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Bossypants by Tina Fey
3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
4. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
5. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
7. The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak

Admittedly, I only gave a little time to the 1st, 4th, and 5th books. However, I made it halfway through both the 3rd and the 6th books before realizing I just couldn't finish them.

Are there any you think I should give a second chance?

October 2017 TBR

I haven't actually created a TBR list before. I have a huge list on goodreads of books I want to read (currently over 600) but I've decided to cut it down into a manageable size chunk to read this next month. I'm definitely a mood reader so narrowing down my list was difficult, but I like setting goals so I'll give it my best.

1.  The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
2.  Warcross by Marie Lu
3. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
4. Saga Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
5. The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater
6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
7. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
8. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
9. Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani
10. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

*Extras*
- Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
- Bird Box by Josh Malerman




  

Reviews and What I'm Currently Reading

So I have finished the three books I was reading.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. I gave it 3.5 stars. This was a character-driven story which tend to not be my favorites. If I were to explain the plot to you, I'd say not much happens. However, I really liked Ward's writing and one of the flashbacks she wrote moved me to tears. This may grow on me more in time. I did like it enough to add her first book Salvage the Bones to my list.

Honestly Ben by Bill Koningsberg - I gave it 3 stars. I loved the first book in the series, Openly Straight much more. I felt this was still entertaining and I loved to find out more about Rafe and Ben but I felt Rafe was a much more interesting character. As the title suggests, it focuses more on Ben. I did like the contrasts in how each of the families felt about homosexuality.


Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. I gave it 5 stars. I have never been much of a graphic novel reader but I love this series. The characters are snarky, clever, and fairly likable. I did almost knock it half a star because some of the humor relies too much on shock value but most of the time, I was genuinely laughing out loud. This one ended on a cliff-hanger and I could not wait to pick up the next one.

Currently Reading:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
  

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
 

I love books- the beginning

I have always loved books. I am a book worm, a reader, an addict. When I was a child, my book tastes were pretty limited. I stuck only to realistic fiction. As I grew older, I started exploring mysteries, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, biographies, and graphic novels. I like to continue consuming a wide variety. Now, I admit, I do not love non fiction as much. I am slow to pick up poetry and short stories but I want to rectify that too.

I discovered booktube and goodreads. Ever since, my reading appetite has become insatiable. While I love booktube, I'm honestly too shy to get in front of a camera and tell you my thoughts on books. So I thought this was the perfect platform to talk about what I've read.


In the month of August, I read or listened to 20 books. I will not review all the books because honestly that would be too much but I will review the best and the worst books I read.


Currently reading:

A graphic novel series

A gritty contemporary

A YA contemporary