First week Wrap Up

What is it about starting over the year that refreshes my interest in reading? Is it setting a new goal? I'm not sure but whatever it is, I've started and finished 4 books this week. I also DNF'd one.

The first I read was Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It's a graphic novel about growing up in Iran during the war and revolution. It was funny, sad, and enlightening. I gave it 4 stars. I am excited to read the second installment whenever my library gets it in stock.


Next I read Saga Volume 8 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. I preordered it and was ecstatic to receive it in the mail. Once I started it, I didn't put it down until I was finished. It was very good, but not quite as good as volume 7. I gave it 4 stars and am now eagerly waiting for volume 9.


I then picked up I am Malala: The Story of the Girl who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafszai. I read about 60 pages before deciding to quit. While the concept was interesting to me, the writing was disorganized, was often nonsensical, and overall left me not wanting to pick it back up.


Next I picked up The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I found out she will be coming to my town in the next few months and wanted to read her work before meeting her. I thoroughly enjoyed this book while at the same time feeling incredibly uncomfortable. It is such an important book and really well written. I gave the book 4 stars.

Lastly this week, I picked up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I had heard a lot of buzz about this book and was worried it was overhyped. It was not. At first glance, it appears to just be women's literature, a cheeky beach read. But it goes much deeper than that. The characters are realistically and beautifully flawed. The love in the story is so authentic and the characters' losses are nearly palpable. It made me sob. It made me angry. I both hated and loved Evelyn Hugo. I gave it 5 stars.

This has been a very strong first week. I'm at a loss as to what to read next because I know I can't keep this streak up forever.

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.