Posted in Book Tags, Books

Books and Bakes Book Tag

Happy Friday, bibliophiles!

I feel like I haven’t done a book tag in a while, so I figured that I’d have some fun and do one today. I found it over at Leigh Hecking’s blog, and the tag was originally created by  Life is a Page Turner. This looked like such a fun tag to do–and since my sweet tooth is out of control, of course I had to do it.

Let’s begin, shall we?

CUPCAKES: Name a collection of short stories, poems, or anthologies where you couldn’t read just one section and had to go back for another.

Cupcake Gif By Shaking Food GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
Tennyson: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series) - Kindle ...

I bought this lovely collection of Tennyson’s poetry last year, and I enjoyed every page of it!

LEMON POUND CAKE: Name a book that has 400 pages or more that you considered a comfort read and a classic.

Lavender Lemon Pound Cake (Tea Time) | Savory dessert, Lemon pound ...
Scythe (Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition) (Arc of a Scythe ...

Scythe is 435 pages long (the last two books are even longer), and ever since finishing book 3, I can say with certainty that this is one of my favorite series!

RED VELVET CAKE: Name a book that you thought was one thing, but ended up being something completely different.

Satisfying Red Velvet GIF by emibob - Find & Share on GIPHY
Amazon.com: Descendant of the Crane (9780807515518): He, Joan: Books

I went into Descendant of the Crane thinking that it would be more fantasy-oriented, but it turned out to be a blend of the former, political intrigue, and a touch of murder mystery. Highly recommended!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH: Name a book or a book series that you can read over and over again even though you know that it’s bad for you.

Which Cookie Dough Has The Most Chocolate Chips? | Secret cookie ...
Amazon.com: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle Book 1) eBook: Kaufman ...

I need a running tally of how many times Aurora Rising‘s snuck into my book tags…

But truly, I could never get tired of this masterful series, and book 3 can’t come soon enough…

APPLE PIE A LA MODE: Name a book that was really good but could have been better with a little bit of ice cream. 

Apple Pie GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY
Amazon.com: The Weight of the Stars (9781250101631): Ancrum, K.: Books

I finished The Weight of the Stars yesterday and liked it, but almost the entire cast of characters were self-destructive jerks (on some level), so that aspect took away a little of my enjoyment.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES: Do you like your gingerbread cookies crunchy or soft?

Gingerbread People: How to win the #bestdressedcookie competition ...

Soft, all the way!

IF YOU LIKE YOUR COOKIES SOFT: Name a book that was squishy in the middle, but the beginning and end were really good

IF YOU LIKE YOUR COOKIES CRUNCHY: Name a book that you wanted to throw at the wall/snap

Amazon.com: Elatsoe (9781646140053): Little Badger, Darcie, Cai ...

I loved Elatsoe, but there was a lull in the middle; luckily, it picked up by the end. I got an eARC of this one, and it comes out in a matter of days!

BROWNIES: Are you a middle piece or a corner piece?

Brownie GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Middle piece! Can’t say no to the soft texture…

IF YOU’RE A CORNER PIECE: Name a book that started off strong and then all came apart

IF YOU’RE A MIDDLE PIECE: Name a book that kept you in the feels the entire time

Amazon.com: On a Sunbeam (9781250178138): Walden, Tillie: Books

On a Sunbeam absolutely fits the bill for my middle piece–I was already excited for it, but I had no idea how gripping and atmospheric it would be!

BIRTHDAY CAKE: Name a book series or an author that you feel like keeps coming out with a book, short story, or novella every year

Birthday Cake GIF by GIPHY Studios Originals - Find & Share on GIPHY

My first thought here was Amie Kaufman; at this point, she’s become such a prolific author, what with all of her YA and MG series. (Anybody else excited for The Other Side of the Sky? I preordered it!)

CARROT CAKE: Name a book that sounded healthy for you but ended up being unhealthy, either with content or by putting you in a reading slump

Carrot Cake GIFs | Tenor
Amazon.com: When We Were Magic (9781534432871): Gailey, Sarah: Books

I had my expectations high for When We Were Magic, but though it was entertaining, it was…decent. Not bad, but not spectacular for me. I have distinct memories of staring at the cover, but thinking that the book wasn’t nearly as gripping…

I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PARTICIPATE!

Baking Cookies GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Today’s song:

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags, Books

Do I Have That Book? Book Tag

Happy Friday, bibliophiles! I hope today finds you all safe, healthy, and in good spirits.

I found this tag over at Words and Stitches, and the tag was originally created by Keeping Tabs on Booktube. It sounded like a super fun tag, and I’m excited to participate!

Rules

1. Time yourself trying to find each prompt on your shelf
2. Try and beat the time of the person who challenged you.

3. Don’t forget to tag your challenger and the original creator!
4. Have fun!

Let’s begin, shall we?

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH DECKLED EDGES?

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess ...

Yep! The Tale of Despereaux has been on my shelf for quite a while, and it definitely has deckled edges.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH THREE OR MORE PEOPLE ON THE COVER?

The Ruby Key (Moon & Sun, #1) by Holly Lisle

The Ruby Key features a trio on the cover! I got this one as a Christmas gift.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK BASED ON ANOTHER FICTIONAL STORY?

I own a few retellings, but they’re all based on real-life events, so…

Danny Devito No GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH A TITLE 10 LETTERS LONG?

A Map of Days: The Fourth Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar ...

[frantically scours bookshelf] AHA! A Map of Days!

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH A TITLE THAT STARTS AND ENDS WITH THE SAME LETTER?

Amazon.com: Soul of Stars eBook: Poston, Ashley: Kindle Store

Soul of Stars–Ashley Poston

DO YOU HAVE A MASS-MARKET PAPERBACK?

Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet): Card, Orson Scott: 8601401251873 ...

I got Ender’s Game from my school library, but it was originally a mass-market paperback.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WRITTEN BY AN AUTHOR USING A PEN NAME?

Magicians Nephew Study Guide | Progeny Press Literature Curriculum

This isn’t the edition I have, but I have almost the entire Chronicles of Narnia.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH A CHARACTER’S NAME IN THE TITLE?

Amazon.com: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle Book 1) eBook: Kaufman ...

Dread it…

Run from it…

Aurora Rising still arrives…

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH TWO MAPS IN IT?

Amazon.com: The Kingdom of Back (9781524739010): Lu, Marie: Books

The Kingdom of Back–Marie Lu

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT WAS TURNED INTO A TV SHOW?

Amazon.com: Shadow and Bone (Grisha Trilogy) [Assorted Cover image ...

Shadow and Bone is soon to be a TV show…

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO WAS ORIGINALLY FAMOUS FOR SOMETHING ELSE? (CELEBRITY/ATHLETE/POLITICIAN/TV PERSONALITY ETC.)

Oh No Pikachu Gif - IceGif

N/A for this one…

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH A CLOCK ON THE COVER?

The Witches - Scholastic Shop

The Witches–Roald Dahl

DO YOU HAVE A POETRY BOOK?

Amazon.com: Tennyson: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets ...

I bought this lovely collection of Tennyson’s poetry last year!

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH AN AWARD STAMP ON IT?

The Sun Is Also a Star Collector's Edition (Signed Book) by Nicola ...

The Sun is Also a Star–Nicola Yoon

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WRITTEN BY AN AUTHOR WITH THE SAME INITIALS AS YOU?

Mmmm…I don’t think so…

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES?

The Illustrated Man: Bradbury, Ray: 8601400321720: Amazon.com: Books

The Illustrated Man–Ray Bradbury

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT IS BETWEEN 500-510 PAGES LONG?

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe): 9781534417861: Amazon.com: Books

Thunderhead is 504 pages long!

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT WAS TURNED INTO A MOVIE?

Amazon.com: Everything, Everything (9780553496673): Yoon, Nicola ...

I haven’t seen the movie adaptation, but Everything, Everything was recently turned into a movie.

DO YOU HAVE A GRAPHIC NOVEL?

Amazon.com: Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal (Ms. Marvel Series) eBook ...

I have a shelf dedicated to graphic novels, some of which being G. Willow Wilson’s (AMAZING) run on Ms. Marvel.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK WRITTEN BY TWO OR MORE AUTHORS?

Amazon.com: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files) (9780553499117): Amie ...

Illuminae–Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PARTICPATE! Feel free to do the timed part of it, I just chose not to, but do whatever you’d like. 🙂

Thumbs up for Dropbox | Gif pictures, Cute gif, Animated images

Today’s song:

I just discovered Josh Cohen on YouTube, and he does the most STUNNING piano covers! I highly recommend that you listen to his stuff 🙂

That’s it for this book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Book Tags, Books

Get To Know Ya Book Tag

Happy New Year, bibliophiles!

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I found this tag on A Little Haze Book Blog, and I’m so excited to take part! Let’s begin, shall we?

 

FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME

Oooh…hard decision, but if I had to pick, I’d go with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I read it a little under two years ago for the first time, and it’s never left my thoughts since.

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FAVORITE BOOK FIVE YEARS AGO

The entire Search for WondLa trilogy captured my heart around middle school, but my favorite of the three was the beautifully written (and illustrated) and shocking finale, The Battle for WondLa. 

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FAVORITE DUOLOGY/TRILOGY/SERIES

Hands down, Ashley Poston’s masterful Heart of Iron duology. Both books are so lovable in every sense of the word.

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LAST BOOK YOU READ

I’ll be reviewing this one later, but I just finished up Supernova, the last installment in Marissa Meyer’s Renegades trilogy. Such a stunning end to the series!

Image result for supernova marissa meyer

 

LAST POETRY BOOK YOU READ

I bought a collection of Tennyson’s poetry in April, I think. Such remarkable and heartstring-tugging words…In Memoriam was probably my favorite.

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WHAT BOOK MOST INFLUENCED YOUR LIFE?

Alright, sorry, I know I keep coming back to this, but The Search for WondLa was not only my gateway to my favorite genre, science fiction, but what inspired me to be an author. Tony DiTerlizzi will never stop being my hero, just for that series alone.

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BOOK THAT MADE YOU UGLY CRY

Yeeeeeeeesh, A Monster Calls SLAYED me when I first read it. I had to re-read it over twice, and both times, I ended up bawling my eyes out at the end. GOD. 😭

Image result for a monster calls

 

BOOK THAT MADE YOU LAUGH

Good Omens, without a doubt. I don’t think a book has made me laugh as much as that in a very long time.

Image result for good omens book cover

 

CHARACTER YOU’D LIKE TO BE FOR A DAY 

Hmm…the first character that came to mind was Alosa from Daughter of the Pirate King duology.Oh, to be a fearsome pirate queen on the high seas (with fabulous hair)…

Image result for daughter of the pirate king

 

BOOK SO GOOD YOU DREAMT ABOUT IT

I can’t quite think of any books that come to mind other than WondLa, and I’ve already mentioned that one in two of the questions, so…sorry about that.

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BOOK YOU DNF’D

Oh, there’s a long, long list…

But the most recent book I DNF’d was Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters. Such an interesting concept for a plot, but the dialogue made it crash and burn. Curse you, deceptively gorgeous cover…

Image result for lifestyles of gods and monsters

 

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU EXCITED TO READ?

I loved The Hazel Wood, and I just found out that the sequel, The Night Country, will be released on January 7th! REJOICE!

Image result for the night country melissa albert

 

That just about wraps it up! If you’d like to do the tag, feel free to do so. Please be sure to link back to this post if you do so 🙂

 

Today’s song: “One and a Half Stars”–Wilco (listening to this as I wrap up this post!)

 

Have a lovely rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

thank you for reading.jpg

Posted in Books

My 5-Star Reads of 2019

Hi there, everyone!

As 2019 (and this decade) draws to a close, I’ve decided to make a comprehensive lists of all of my 5-star reads for this year, and, by proxy, my favorite books that I’ve read this year. Most of these are what’d you’d expect, if you’ve scoured my book tags and reviews, but I know there’s a few that I haven’t talked much about. These are in chronological order of when I read them, though their actual rankings vary a fair bit.

Now, without further ado…this year’s 5-star lineup!

 

KING OF SCARS–LEIGH BARDUGO

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Bardugo’s veritable masterpiece, all at once a rollicking adventure and an exploration of internal conflict, was my first 5-star rating of this year. And…Nikolai. ‘Nuff said.

Read my review here!

 

THE ILLUMINAE FILES TRILOGY–AMIE KAUFMAN and JAY KRISTOFF

illuminae-files.png

I mean, I read all of these in the span of a few months, and I gave all three books five stars…

For good reason, I think. I doubt that we’ll ever come across a trilogy quite like this in a very long time.

Read my review (Illuminae) here!

 

NEVERWHERE–NEIL GAIMAN

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I’ve been a fan of Gaiman’s work for some time, but I chose this one for an English project, and I fell so in love with the fantastic world-building, as well as each and every character.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

ONCE & FUTURE–AMY ROSE CAPETTA and CORI MCCARTHY

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A feminist, LGBTQ+ retelling of the legends of King Arthur…need we say more? A wonderfully fast-paced space adventure, reminiscent of Captain Marvel.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

HONOR BOUND–ANN AGUIRRE and RACHEL CAINE

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Even more daring than its predecessor, Honor Bound is a complex space opera to die for.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

TENNYSON: POEMS–ALFRED TENNYSON

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Yes, I was/still am that kid who sits in the corner reading depressing, 19th century poetry. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

AURORA RISING–AMIE KAUFMAN and JAY KRISTOFF 

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You’ve already sing praise of this one innumerable times, so I’ll just leave it at this: I FOUND MY DREAM BOOK, PEOPLE. THIS IS EVERYTHING.

Read my review here!

 

THE PIONEER--BRIDGET TYLER

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An inventive, heart-pounding sci-fi adventure, The Pioneer was very nearly flawless, and I’m itching to get my hands on the sequel next spring! 😀

Read my review here!

 

AN ANATOMY OF BEASTS–OLIVIA A. COLE

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Delving deeper and growing even twistier than its predecessor, A Conspiracy of Stars, this novel is dazzlingly well-thought out, the prime example of what speculative sci-fi should be.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES–RAY BRADBURY

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Did I mention how much I love sci-fi? No?

Ray Bradbury is a talent to be reckoned with, able to deftly weave together a thought-provoking story in the span of under 100 pages with ease.

Also, I was today years old when I realized that the hand on the cover has six fingers.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

SOUL OF STARS–ASHLEY POSTON

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The epic conclusion to the Heart of Iron duology, Poston deftly wraps together a complicated universe of familial bonds and political intrigue. Love, love, love, LOVE…

Read my review here!

 

FAHRENHEIT 451–RAY BRADBURY

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Again, Ray Bradbury. I rest my case.

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Find it on Goodreads here!

 

SPARE AND FOUND PARTS–SARAH MARIA GRIFFIN

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A futuristic Frankenstein for the modern age, this is a grossly underrated writing, atmospheric and poetic.

Read my review here!

 

THE DEMON WORLD–SALLY GREEN

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The pulse-pounding sequel to The Smoke Thieves, Green delivers an even more potent punch of her signature world-building and fantasy action.

Read my review here!

 

HOUSE OF X/POWERS OF X–JONATHAN HICKMAN

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The newest installment in the legendary X-Men mythology, Hickman weaves a mythical and symbolic world, with a hopeful conclusion and the potential of many mutant tales to come.

Find it on Goodreads here!

 

LIKE A LOVE STORY–ABDI NAZEMIAN

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Would you look at that…I think this is the only historical fiction in this post…

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A hearstring-tearing and poignant coming-of-age LGBTQ+ novel. So many feels. INFINITE feels.

Read my review here!

 

THE TOLL–NEAL SHUSTERMAN

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The conclusion to the unforgettable Arc of a Scythe trilogy, this novel is solid proof that Shusterman is a sci-fi author to be reckoned with.

Read my review here!

 

Man. What a year this has been…

 

Have you read any of these novels, and what did you think of them? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

 

Have a lovely rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

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