Do you like setting goals for yourself in the new year? I know doing New Year’s resolutions is a big thing, but I prefer setting goals rather than resolutions – it’s really just semantics tbh but to me goals are smaller things and resolutions are these big nebulous things and harder to achieve (and easier to give up on). Maybe it’s all just in my head haha but this is how it works for me. So here are a few of my goals, just the book related ones!

This year has been very good to me, reading and book wise. One of the best things has been finding a new favorite author!! Not only that, but an author who has a RIDICULOUS amount of books published already. Sooo many more books to read and look forward to! Seanan McGuire has very very quickly become one of my top five favorite authors.

First encounters:

I read Middlegame in late April, right before it was released. At the time, this was her most recent novel. I am like…still blown away by how fucking GOOD this book is. You can read my full review of it here, but like, it’s probably my favorite read of 2019. I don’t think anything else really comes close. It was so dark and complex and mind blowing, and everything I could possibly want in a book. Middlegame blends science and magic and mystery, and tackles subjects like isolation due to others being unable to understand you, suicide attempts, greed, and attaining the ultimate power. The best part though is that it’s really about a sibling relationship at it’s core, and that drives the novel. It’s brilliant and you all must read it!

Jana (That Artsy Reader Girl) hosts the Top Ten Tuesday tag, and while looking at the topics (and her blog) I found this fun book tag! To be honest I don’t love Christmas songs haha. Mostly just because they’re overplayed – however! I love seeing the ideas/prompts that came out of each of these songs.

She answered her questions with books that she read this year, which I think is a great idea so I’m going to do that as well! As much as I can anyway.

1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You”: Favorite bookish couple.

Okay I’m going to do two, one that is non-spoilery and one that is kinda spoilery. I don’t know how to make the text secret so the spoiler one will just be at the end of this section.

So the non-spoiler one! Josh and Hazel from Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating!! I love each of their personalities separately and I love even more how they are with each other.

SPOILERS FOR THE OCTOBER DAYE SERIES!!!!

(I love Toby and Tybalt!!!!!! I knew from the first book it would happen and when it finally did I was so happy).

END SPOILERS.

2. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”: Name a book where a character is away from home (school, vacation, etc.).

Gideon the Ninth! By Tamsyn Muir. Takes place at a semi-creepy crumbling down house (think more like mansion) where they can’t leave or contact anyone on the outside!

3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: Name your favorite “little” book (children’s book, short story, novella, etc.).

Way back at the beginning of the year I read The Test, a novella by Sylvain Neuvel. It was an easy 5 stars from me! It’s definitely better to go into it not knowing much, but it’s a really great sci-fi/dystopian novella.

4. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town“: What book(s) do you hope Santa brings you this year?

SOooooooo many. The new box set of the first three books in the Expanse series, Senlin Ascends, A Labyrinth of Scions and Sorcery.…I could go on forever haha.

5. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”: Which book turned your nose red (made you cry)?

Magic of Blood and Sea by Cassandra Rose Clarke! It’s not really a sad book at all haha it’s just that some of the scenes reminded me a lot of certain emotions I was dealing with at the time.

6. “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”: Your favorite book/kind of book to read during the holidays.

I’m not too much of a mood reader but I like being able to read series over the holidays! Since I have a lot of free time to binge read whole series haha. So I think this upcoming holiday season I’m going to continue the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire! I binge read the first 6 books in early October (whoa, how fitting for her name – didn’t even realize that at the time) so now I’m ready to continue Toby’s journey.

7. “We Three Kings”: Your favorite trilogy.

I didn’t actually read/finish many trilogies this year! But I did read The Queen of Sorrow which was the third in the Queens of Renthia trilogy. This is a super underrated adult fantasy trilogy that I love! And this installment was amazing.

8. “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”: A character you would love to be snowed in with.

I’m cheating and I’m gonna pick a group of characters rather than just one – I pick the characters from A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe! It would definitely be an entertaining day with all of them.

9. “Last Christmas”: A book that seriously let you down.

Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye 🙁 I loved the premise of this one! But it just really fell flat for me and it’s one of the rare books that I actually dislike (rather than feel ambivalent towards).

10. “White Christmas”: An upcoming release you’re dreaming about.

Probably The Shadow Saint! I still haven’t finished the first book (The Gutter Prayer) but the first half of it was AMAZING so I’m already looking forward to the second book! And I already have it preordered too haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my choices! And if you haven’t read these, I hope you check them out 🙂

Hello friends! I said I was back to blogging and then didn’t post for weeks – classic. Haha well you know, life just gets busy sometimes! But since it is now December – dang!! – I thought I’d get back to it and share a wrap-up of my reads and etc from the past month.

Do you ever set monthly TBRs? I used to, but I kinda feel like that puts too much pressure on me to read certain things, so I don’t do it anymore. I’ve been working on reading all of my owned books, so really what I’ve been doing is trying to read books I have and not buy too many new ones. This proves difficult since I’m fortunate enough to have easy library access 😂so I cheat on my “owned books” goal with library books.

This month, I read 4 books that I owned and 3 books from the library! Over all of those, I read 2986 pages, and had an average rating of 4.1. I also have now read 101 books this year! I wasn’t expecting to hit that so early, since the past few years I’ve reached around 100ish right at the end of the year. So let’s get to the good stuff – the books themselves!

Have any of you heard of Book Outlet? I think it’s most useful for those living in the US and Canada but basically they have VERY discounted books with good shipping prices. The best part is they have EVERYTHING. Classics, adult fiction (sci-fi and fantasy and mystery and literary fiction), and TONS of young adult books. There are a lot of popular releases, but also a ton of lesser known books.

Anyway the point is I was on the Book Outlet website, as I frequently am, and I came across this book. It sounded pretty good, and had pretty good Goodreads reviews so I thought why not.

AND I’M SO GLAD I BOUGHT IT. This book!!! Was so!! Good!!! Whip-smart and disabled main character! Stalwart bodyguard who acts as her father figure! Skyships!!! Floating islands that make up the world!!! YES.