Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Jamie at Perpetual Page Turner hosts this great survey every year that is a fun way of looking back at my year in books. Number of Books Read: 131 Number of Rereads: 47 Most Read Genre: Adult Contemporary Most Read Age Category: Tie Between MG and YA Favorite Adult Novel Favorite YA  Novel Favorite MG Novel  Favorite Non-Fiction Book I Was Excited For But Ended Up Not Loving As Much As Expected: A Skinful of Shadows  by Frances Hardinge  Most Surprising (In a Good Way-I wasn't expecting to love it but I did!): Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson Best Series Started: The Wild Magic Trilogy by Celine Kiernan Best Series Ender: The Princess Who Flew with Dragons by Stephanie Burgis (I don't want it to be over. 😩) Best Out of My Comfort Zone Book: Educated  by Tara Westover (I usually dislike memoirs, but I couldn't put this one down.) Most Unputdownable Book: Sorcery of Thorns  by Margaret ...

It is time for my Favorite Characters of the Year post. As I've said many times before, I am a character reader. I read for character arcs and development and the messy wonder of human relationships. Every year I like to do a post that covers some of the characters I fell in love with over the course of my reading year. (If I read a book from a series that I've already mentioned in a previous year, you can assume I still love the characters. This is for brand new characters I encountered.) Links are to my reviews. Descriptions are (for the most part) snippets from my reviews. Mup and Crow from Begone the Raggedy Witches   by Celine Kiernan Mup is such a delightful heroine. She begins her begins the book as a sheltered, rule-following, and seemingly meek little girl. As danger upon danger meets her, Mup discovers a core of strength and defiance in herself that serves her well. She has strong convictions about what is right and what is wrong. Crow is Mup's catalyst for d...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Rainy Day Reads Rainy Day Reads can mean so many things. Is it literally raining? Is it metaphorical for a sad mood? I decided to go with the former. If I'm Embracing That Rainy Atmosphere: If I Want to Add A Little Sun: I will read these with cups of tea and some dark chocolate whichever category they fall in. Which books do you like to break out on a rainy day.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Favorite Couples in Books The Valentine's Week TTT is always a conundrum for me. I love romance and the whole psychology behind the process of "falling in love", so I write about my favorite love stories often. My favorites being this one and this one . I wondered if doing one more would just be superfluous, but I honestly couldn't resist. I also think favorite couple can be different than love story (which is often what I write about). Many times a love story ends with the formation of a couple, and you don't actually get to see the pair be a couple and handle the world together. Although. of course there is crossover. The King and Queen of Attolia ( Queen's Thief Series ) Sometimes talking about these books can be so frustrating. Almost everything is a major spoiler. And yet, this is my favorite...

As you can probably tell by how quiet it's been around here, this hasn't been the best year of reading for me as far as numbers go. There are a lot of reasons for this. The books I am reading though are great, and there have been some truly fantastic ones. Here are some of those: What are your favorite books of the year so far?