Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2019

Favorite Books of 2019

The Top Ten No Matter Age Category: Begone the Raggedy Witches by Celine Keirnan The Faithful Spy   by John Hendrix The Lost Girl  by Anne Ursu Lovely War  by Julie Berry On the Come Up  by Angie Thomas The Princess Who Flew with Dragons   by Stephanie Burgis Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George Spinning Silver  by Naomi Novik There's Something about Sweetie  by Sandhya Menon Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind them All  by Laura Ruby Top MG: Top YA: Top Adult: Top Non-Fiction:

2019 in Books

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 Rogerson Book

Quarterly Review and Round-Up

This is a look back on my reading of the past three months: the best of the best, the books I couldn't finish, and the non-fiction and adult books I don't review on the blog. These only cover new-to-me books and not rereads. The Non-Fiction: The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler  by John Hendrix The Adult Fiction:  Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (contemporary) The Flatshare  by Beth O'Leary (contemporary) The Gaucho's Lady  by Genevieve Turner (historical romance) Meg and Jo  by Virginia Kantra (contemporary) Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors  by Sonali Dev (contemporary) The Best of the Best: 

Favorite Characters of 2019

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

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All

When I found out Laura Ruby had a new YA book coming out in 2019, I immediately pre-ordered it. My love for Bone Gap  knows no bounds, and I was looking forward to this new book with great anticipation. I went into expecting to love the writing, but I was a little wary of one part of the premise. Even after a third of the way through, I wasn't expecting to love this wholeheartedly. But reader, I do. Doors can be dangerous. you never know what's on the other side, what you're letting in.... In stories, girls are always opening doors, always the wrong ones. Always crossing thresholds thinking they're getting away free. Nothing is free... It doesn't matter which door you open...Three or ten or thirteen doorways, there are wolves behind them all. I'm going to do something I don't typically do and just use the publisher's synopsis for this one to avoid all any accidental spoilers: The unforgettable story of two young women—one living, one dead—deali

TTT: Holiday Reads

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: Holiday Reads I have a thing for romance and Christmas, so the majority of my December reads coming those two things. The Ones I Read Every December:  * *Only "A Rose in Winter" by Laura Florand The Ones I TRY to Read Every December: Are there any books you read every December?

October-November 2019 Stats

Due to busyness I was unable to past a Stats post for October, so I am combining October and November. Here are my Favorite Reads: October-November in Numbers New Reads: 11 Rereads: 10 MG: 4 YA: 3 Adult: 14 Fantasy: 4 Contemporary: 7 Historical: 9 Non-Fiction: 1 We are not discussing the current state of the TBR shelf.

The Princess Who Flew with Dragons

It's great to have those authors you can always count on to provide a good story. It is even better when those authors consistently provide excellent series with multiple characters to love. Stephanie Burgis is one of those authors for me. The Princess Who Flew with Dragons  is her latest MG novel and continues the world she developed in The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and The Girl with the Dragon Heart . Princess Sofia has lived her entire life feeling second rate. Her older sister runs the kingdom of Drachenhiem ruthlessly and brilliantly. Sofia feels second best and second rate in comparison. All she does is make messes for her sister to clean up. The only time Sofia feels fully, comfortably herself is when she is immersed in one of her books or corresponding with Jasper, her dragon penpal. She can be herself with Jasper because she knows they will never be meeting, and therefore, he will never know what a disaster she is. When her sister sends her to the country of Ville

Future Favorite Friday November 19

I take the 2nd Friday of every month to highlight some upcoming releases I am looking forward to that I hope are Future Favorites. Feel free to do your own post, just please link back to my blog and tell me about your post in the comments. Soooo....Elizabeth Wein has written another WWII historical that Jamie will be a character in. That's it. That's my lead in. Enough said. 1940. Facing a seemingly endless war, fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something-anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action. But when she accepts a position caring for an elderly German woman in the small village of Windyedge, Scotland, it hardly seems like a meaningful contribution. Still, the war feels closer than ever in Windyedge, where Ellen McEwen, a volunteer driver with the Royal Air Force, and Jamie Beaufort-Stuart, a flight leader for the 648 Squadron, are facing a barrage of unbreakable code and

YA Gift Guide: 2019 Edition

As promised last week, here is the book buying guide for those who love to read Young Adult books. I hope this is useful to you as one more resource for finding the right book for a young adult in your life. Note: YA tends to refer to ages 13 up, but there is a lot of range in how mature the books are in the issues and situations they deal with. If you have specific questions about content, feel free to ask me. If you don't want to ask in the comments, you can always email me. (See the contact information tab for my email address.) Links are to my reviews. For Those Looking for Fun and Romantic (with excellent banter): From Twinkle, with Love  and   There's Something about Sweetie  by Sandhya Menon Speak Easy Speak Love by McKelle George Pride  by Ibi Zoboi Don't Date Rosa Santos  by Nna Moreno Things I Should Have Known  by Claire LaZebnik For Those Who Enjoy Realistic Tales of Family and Friendship (both easy and hard) On the Come Up and