Worst Books I Finished in 2018

These are the worst books I managed to finish in 2018:

Sex Criminals Volume 1 by Matt Fraction
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Descender Vol 1 by Jeff Lemire
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Heartland by Sarah Smarsh

Definitely #1 Worst goes to:
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

Best Books I read in 2018

Best Books I read in 2018. In no particular order:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Nevermoor  by Jessica Townsend
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Evicted by Matthew Desmond

2019 New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions

I didn't used to be a making resolutions person but I did very well on my bookish resolutions this year and have decided to continue to make them. I have 5 book resolutions.


1. Complete 40 books for the Popsugar Challenge.
2. Complete 24 books for the Read Harder Challenge.
3. Accept, read, and review at least 6 ARCs.
4. Read at least 2 books from my owned TBR each month.
5. Read at least 5 translated books.

Last December Update

These past couple weeks I participated in the Magical Readathon hosted by G over at Book Roast.
This is what I read:

Finish your coursework: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I thought this was fairly saccharine but overall a cute story with likable characters. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Help Hagrid decorate the trees: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
I was really enjoying this story about a low-caste girl being selected as a king's concubine and rebelling against her position. I thought it might even possibly be a 5 stars book until the ending which I thought was very lackluster. It's obviously setting up for another book, possibly more. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Meet at the 3 Broomsticks for some mulled wine: Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
This was a short picture book about a father trying to get his son out of war-torn Syria. Their journey is dangerous but the best option they have. It was incredibly moving but I wish it had a bit more. I gave it 4 stars.

Give Dobby some socks: The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
This was an interesting look into caste systems in India. It is about two women and how their lives intertwine. The characters were incredibly well developed but I was dissatisfied with the ending and it chooses a big moment in a character's life to just stop. I gave the book 4 stars.

Wear a Molly Weasley sweater: Saga Volume 9 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Oh, I love Saga and this was a great one. It ties up some of the running story elements and is incredibly sad. I loved it. I gave it 5 stars.


After that I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with my family on Christmas Eve.

I haven't read anything else and probably won't until January. Happy New Year everyone!

Weekly Update 2

This past week I've finished two books.

The first was Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. This is one of his many Discworld books (and excitingly my first!) The premise is that a con man who is about to hang for his many crimes is given a chance by a politician to become a postmaster of a now-defunct post office. This was a hilarious book, with many tongue-in-cheek moments that made me laugh out loud. I gave it 4 stars and will definitely pick up more.

The second was was A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I was hesitant to pick up another book by John Boyne after loving The Heart's Invisible Furies so much earlier this year. However, he is a skilled and prolific writer so I picked up his latest novel. I admit, it was a bit odd. There were multiple points of view with a central protagonist. I often didn't know whose points of view we were reading until well into the chapter which I found confusing. The story is of Maurice Swift, an ambitious writer who will do anything to succeed. He is incredibly unlikable but once I knew whose head we were in, I found the story engaging and that ending was phenomenal! I gave this book 4 stars.

Harry Potter Christmas Magical Readathon

The Harry Potter Christmas Magical Readathon is happening between December 17th- 26th. There are five challenges with the reward concluding with watching a Harry Potter movie. There are different possible paths but this is the path I'm choosing.




Finish your Coursework: I think this will be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Help Hagrid decorate the trees (golden detail on book)- Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Visit the 3 Broomsticks (read a book that only takes 1 day/evening)- Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

Sneak into the kitchen to gift Dobby odd socks (read book with item of clothing on cover) – The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

Knitted sweater from Molly Weasley (read a book focused on family)- Saga Vol 9 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples.

End with watching a Harry Potter movie. I will be with my family for the holidays so they can choose any Harry Potter movie they would like. 

Weekly Update 1

This week I read two books.

I read The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. I posted a standalone review for this book and will summarize. The book is about a mysterious sleeping sickness that quickly infects a small college town in California. The book focuses on too many characters which inhibited my ability to really connect with any of them. It was initially very exciting but started to drag in the middle. I gave it 3 stars.

The second book was a memoir called When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him. This was her account of growing up in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. She and her family, along with huge populations of cities, were sent to labor camps where many died. They died from starvation, easily preventable illnesses, or were straight-up murdered by the Khmer Rouge. They were trying to implement a communist society run entirely by peasant farmers and were not accepting of anyone educated. This was a horrific, yet riveting tale which illuminated a situation I didn't know much about. I gave the book 5 stars.

Review of The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

Review of The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker


The book starts out with a young college student coming home from a party complaining of feeling ill. She goes to sleep and doesn't wake up. This "sleeping sickness" quickly spreads to other kids at the college and then to many people throughout the town. Many disasters befall the town because so many people get sick that there aren't enough citizens to keep the town functioning. The book primarily follows:

Mei- roommate of patient zero
Matthew- another college student
Rebecca- another college student
Ben and Annie- a married couple who have a newborn baby
Libby, Sara, and their father who is a doomsday prepper and conspiracy theorist
Nathaniel- a biology professor whose lover is in a care home due to dementia
Catherine- a psychiatrist who evaluates the sickness from a psychological perspective

I felt like there were way too many characters. This lack of focus made it hard to care if they developed the sickness or died. Initially the story was very exciting and felt post-apocalyptic but around the halfway mark it started to drag. It focused a lot on people's dreams. Some were interesting and/or relevant to the story, but most were boring and felt unnecessary. The ending felt abrupt and tied things up a bit too neatly to feel realistic. I gave the story 3 stars for initially grabbing my interest but by the end, I was dreading picking it back up.


This book comes out January 15th, 2019.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC.