Top Ten Tuesday: Books I can't believe I haven't read

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at its new location at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

I'll admit that this week's prompt stumped me. books you can't believe you have read. There aren't really any books that looking back I can't believe that I read! Sure there might be one tragically bad book that I really should have just put down and not soldiered on to the end, but one book does not a list make.

I had resigned myself to just skipping this week's prompt and waiting till next week when I came across I Wish I Lived in a Library's post. She decided to interpret the prompt with books she can't believe she hasn't read yet-- and when I saw that, I realized it was the perfect interpretation of the prompt for me! So thank you to Katherine and without further ado I will shamelessly use her interpretation:

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden : I've talked about wanting to read this book so often on my blog I'm almost sick of it. And somehow I haven't managed to read it? I'm 75% sure that I have a hold on the ecopy of this book at my library so maybe one day it will magically appear on my tablet and I will finally read it.

The Trespasser by Tana French: When I first saw this book on my TBR list on Goodreads I was like 'oh no that must be a mistake how can there be a Tana French book that I haven't read??' BUT turns out I haven't read it?!? Tana French is perhaps my all time favorite mystery author so this whole situation needs to be remedied quickly.

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness: The reason I'm surprised I never read this is because I devoted like three weeks of my life to reread the second book in preparation for reading the end of the trilogy. However the second book was so obnoxiously long I was sick of the story by the end and never managed to pick up this next book....

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis: One of my favorite authors, a seminal book on Christianity, and somehow I've never managed to find the time? This will be a perfect read for my nonfiction reading challenge!

Austenland by Shannon Hale: Okay so I admit this book doesn't have the highest ratings on Goodreads per se. However it looks right up my alley. It's the sort of book that really could go either way-- interesting homage to Jane Austen, or a cheesy annoying ploy. Only time will tell!


That's it for me! Thanks again to I Wish I Lived in a Library's post for the inspiration for today's post :)
What about you? What are the books you can't believe you haven't read yet? 

Dear Sunday: Unexpected Warmth

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.


This past week was:

• brownies, birthdays, and bowling with my church group
• a day so preposterously warm I pulled my rusty bike out, dusted it off, and took off down the trails. The trail was muddy and my tires were underinflated which meant it was a far more intense workout than I was expecting but it was a beautiful surprise considering that it is still January. 
• I finished my first non-fiction book of the year! If you recall, I'm doing a nonfiction reading challenge with the goal of one nonfiction book a month (I'm barely squeaking by this month!). Look out for a review of Julia Child's My Life in France coming soon to a blog near you! (this blog. it's coming soon to this blog)

• Dear Sunday: Gospel Choir
• TTT: Books I liked but can't remember now
• 4 Mini Reviews, covering everything from nonfiction to historical fiction

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can’t Believe I Read
• (I haven't decided how I'm going to interpret this yet...)
• Review: My Life in France by Julia Child

That's it for me! I have a busy week ahead of me-- mostly due to fun social stuff, but I also have my first biochem exam looming closer and closer so there is that. Hopefully I'll have time in between frantic studying to both blog and visit everyone else's blog!

4 Mini Reviews: romance, fiction, nonfiction

Today I am trying something a little different! Sometimes when I finish a book I don't feel like writing an entire post devoted solely to that one book-- but I still want to let you know what I thought about it! Thus I have four short reviews for you to peruse:

To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander

This is a historical fiction romance set in the South just after the Civil War. I thought the time period sounded really intriguing-- I mean imagine living in the defeated South right after the war ended! When I first started reading the book the romance felt wayyy too predictable. However the author avoided this by very quickly ending the will they/won't they troupe by focusing instead on the difficulties of a relationship between two people from very different backgrounds.
Something I loved about this novel was that it felt well-researched; there were plenty of facts thrown in that weren't necessary to the plot but they worked to create a rich atmosphere.



The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil

This is one of those novels where you start to think like the author speaks after a while-- it has a very distinctive voice and a very strong tone. Now if you like the fast paced witty voice-- as I did-- then great but it is definitely something that could cause someone to put the book down completely.
Overall: a charming read about a single mother trying to breath life into a knitting store while navigating the complexities of dating and raising two little boys and all the mess and beauty that goes into that. It is a fun, quick read.




The Darkling Bride by Laura Anderson

Ahh and now we come to my first DNF ARC which is a bunch of letters to disguise the fact that I did not like this book given to me for review. At all. It tried to encompass way too many genres and did not do any of them justice, every single character had mother issues (odd coincidence), and really life is just too short to finish a book you do not like. It has promise-- it wants to be sort of a modern Victorian gothic but it also tries to be everything else and....did not work for me!





Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food by Megan Kimble

And straight from my least favorite to my most favorite! This was an incredibly engaging nonfiction book about the author's search for authenticity in her food. From figuring out what she even meant by 'unprocessed' to interviewing countless small farmers, ranches, wheat enthusiasts, beer brewers-- the author manages to pack in a ton of interesting information in a easy to read format.
I never read nonfiction but this was so engaging I had no issue making my way through it. It inspired me to shop locally-- I can't wait for summer when more produce is locally available-- and showed me the cost of a society which demands ALL the fruits/veggies at ALL the times. It walked a delicate line of being informative without being judgemental. I also loved reading about her struggles through the year of trying to make almost everything-- from bread to chocolate-- herself.


That's it! What did you think of this mini-review format? Like it? Hate it? Couldn't care less? Let me know! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I liked but can't remember

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at its new location at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

Hello and welcome to possibly the FIRST top ten tuesday where I might actually have ten books?

Eh, probably not. But still this prompt is awesome! There are so many books that I look back on fondly but if you asked me for any basic details-- plot, character names-- I might stare at you blankly.

((PS it hurts my soul to put this put up without any pretty pictures or graphics but y'all this semester is kicking my butt and I'm lucky to have this up at all SO without further ado))


Catch-22 : Ah, a book that I love to reference. A book I am glad that I read. And a book that I hated every second of reading it.

The Time Traveler's Wife: I remember bawling at the end. And that's about it.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: I read this. I'm pretty sure of it. But all I remember are snatches of the movie version-- and even that memory is hazy! For example I was shocked to find out Rory from Gilmore Girls was in it!

Sabriel : I remember brief scenes and I remember adoring it. It wasn't until a couple years ago when a friend learned that I read the book, and started talking about it, that I realized I remembered so little of it!

The Awakening : I saw this book on some must-read list somewhere and early 1900s feminism sounded interesting. I have no clue what actually happened though.


Whew! Okay so that's not actually ten books but since I don't believe I've ever had ten books on a TTT post maybe I have a rebel reputation to uphold or something?

What about you? Have you read any of these? Do you remember what actually happened? 

Dear Sunday: Gospel Choir

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

Last week was:

• concert week for my gospel choir
• the concert itself was such a blast! Coming from a more traditional religious background, it is always refreshing to sing with a choir that has so much spirit 
• first week of classes
• OH and guess who is enrolled in a graduate level biochemistry class WITH no academic background in biochemistry? OH RIGHT. ME. This is the largest reason why I might become more absent here this semester-- I am scrambling to get caught up on biochemistry. 
• the coldest week I have ever lived through
• seriously. the wind chill was literally -20 F. -20!! Thank goodness that cold spell has passed us. The high for today is 60 F....ah, isn't weather interesting? 

I would like to apologize for the complete lack of the review post I promised last week. My hope is that since my choir commitment is over for the semester it will be easier to juggle my research, my biochem class, and this blog without having to drop the ball on the blog as much. 

Only time will tell! 

• Dear Sunday: Winter's Chill
• TTT: 2018 Bookish Goals

(or not. who knows! the universe is a vast and chaotic place)

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I liked but can't remember much about
• ((isn't this the best prompt ever?? I have like a 100 of those...))
• Mini Reviews-- books I've recently finished but didn't feel strongly enough about to write an entire blog post 

That's it for me! What about you? How is your spring shaping up for those of you lucky enough to not be enslaved to the academic calendar? ((oonnee day I'll be like you!))

Top Ten Tuesday: 2018 Bookish Goals

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at its new location at That Artsy Reader Girl! 

I have to be honest.

I don't really understand New Year's Resolutions. I've never really made them-- it feels too arbitrary to wait to the start of a new year to set up goals, or to make lifestyle changes. Yearly goals are too vast and vague-- I prefer monthly goals or heck even weekly goals.

However, in the spirit of new beginnings and all that, I've scrumaged up five bookish goals I have for 2018.

As I talked about earlier, I'm looking to read more nonfiction books this year. Last year I read one nonfiction book? I loved it and it made me realize that there are probably some really cool nonfiction books out there that I never gave the time of day to.

Last year I read 59 books and that was awesome. I feel no need to increase that number-- and if January is any indication that number may actually go down a little this year. However I'm hoping to stay between 50-60 because that felt like an achievable number of books.

This is something that I feel like I do a somewhat decent job at already and it's definitely something I want to keep up in 2018.

I have all the opinions and I write like none of the discussion posts? That has to change. I stumbled upon a discussion post challenge on someone's blog and I decided to unofficially take part in it. I'm hoping to get up maybe one discussion post a month.

Okay so this is perhaps my most random/self-indulgent goal. I've been toying with the idea of writely a (monthly?) series featuring different hobbies of mine, as I also do all the hobbies. These posts might be tips and tricks to embroidery (my newest fav) or my favorite cheap watercoloring materials or updates on a massive art project I'm doing-- you get the idea. Just a window into my non-book related hobbies. What would be really cool is if I could do a link-up or something and encourage all of y'all to tell me about your weird hobbies! I love hearing about people's hobbies. :)

That's all for me! What about you? What are you 2018 book goals? Would you be interested in a non-book hobby series?

Dear Sunday: Winter's Chill

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

It's been cold here. As in negative wind chills while walking to work, cold. We've had blustering threats of ice, a smattering of actual ice, and now, as I type this post, a surprise little snow shower-- the only acceptable form of winter weather if you're asking me. 

Last week was good, a little hectic getting back to a more normal working routine. Also I did a lot of baking using vegetables and that was surprising ((chocolate zucchini cake is a win, apple chips in the oven is a total win providing you cook them long enough)). 

This week classes officially start and it's concert week for the local choir I sing in which means 2-hour rehearsals just about every night this week. yay? After this concert I'll be taking a choir-break for this semester and I am excited to have more free time. Maybe some of that free time could be devoted to reading/commenting on everyone's blog? I always feel like I need to do that more. 
 

• Dear Sunday: Back to Normal
• TTT: 4 Books I mean to read in 2017...but didn't
• Review: The Witches of New York
• surprise post! Nonfiction Reading Challenge
• my first challenge! I'm excited. and a little worried. 

• ....providing this week doesn't bury me under an avalanche of work and commitments
• Top Ten Tuesday: 2018 Book Goals
• 4 Mini Reviews
• in which I try out a new format of reviewing where I post some brief opinions about some books I finished recently

That's it! I'm off to stare out the window like a kid watching the snow flurries. I hope you have a great week! And I hope the only winter weather you see is some harmless snowflakes. 

Nonfiction Reading Challenge

I don't read nonfiction. I can count the number of times that I have eagerly sat down with a nonfiction book on one hand and have fingers to spare.

I'm not sure why, but I often find nonfiction too dry to capture my interest. Maybe it's because I love plot-driven books and nonfiction tend to be more introspective or tells the story of many people, as opposed to focusing on a central character.

What I do know is that I want this to change-- I want to read more nonfiction but since I don't normally gravitate towards them, I knew I needed a challenge. And when I stumbled upon Doing Dewey's nonfiction reading challenge I knew it was exactly what I needed.

Doing Dewey's nonfiction reading challenge is a very open ended challenge-- letting me choose my pace and my goal. After some brief introspection I settled on the possibly-ambitious, possibly-too-easy goal of 12 nonfiction books in 12 months.

One book a month seemed a great way to dip my toe in the nonfiction waters and making a post about it almost guarantees that I'll stay on track.

As I don't read nonfiction, I assumed I would have no nonfiction titles on my TBR list but lo and behold I had ten! Like do I know myself. I guess not. These titles have languished on my list for far too long-- it's time to crack down and read them. Here are some of the titles I might read this coming year:

          

What about you? Have you read any of these books? Which one should I start with? 

Ready to be transported into a world of magic? || The Witches of New York

The Witches of New York by Ami Mckay

Genre: Historical Fiction, Paranormal

Eleanor and Abigail are witches. Luckily for them they live a couple hundred years after the fever of witch hunting burned its brightest; ghosts and seances are all the rage, in the right crowd of course. They keep to themselves in their tea shop, doling out herbal remedies, peering into the future, and helping women in need. And when Beatrice, a young wistful curious girl from the countryside, sees their flyer looking for an assistant [[those adverse to magic need not apply]], she jumps at the chance for adventure.

The Witches of New York is a mesmerizing novel which balances introspection with a fast paced plot. It features magic which honors tradition while also allowing for enough innovation to hold my interest. It is populated by a vast array of characters-- perhaps one of my only drawbacks to the novel. When your narrative focus switches between a whole host of characters, it can be difficult to really see character growth. There were a few side plots which I felt were unnecessary to the novel as a whole.

However for the most part I think the author weaves all the stories together in a way that made sense. The characters were easy to fall in love with and easy to root for. They were strong, independent, well written, and it was fun to see them work together/against each other throughout the novel.

The novel is interspersed with newspaper clippings, old stories, flyers, etc. I read this as an ebook and I think the formatting may be better in a print book-- but it was still an enjoyable way to read the novel.

Overall I adored this book; it was lyrical and the magic was so effortless yet avoided falling into cliche. I highly recommend this book; especially if you are interested in historical fiction with a twist.

What about you? Have you read The Witches of New York? What is your favorite witch novel?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2017

This post brought to you by the Top Ten Tuesday series over at The Broke and the Bookish. For the last week! Starting next week the series will be hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Times they are achanging. 

When I first heard this prompt I promptly shook my head. Not for me. As if I had any plans on when to read books. 

My TBR list is massive but it's sprawling in an unorganized sort of way. I'll read them when I read them type of mentality. I want to start all of them at roughly the same time, so the idea of picking out a few of them that I was going to read in 2017 and subsequently failed seemed like an impossible task.

But when I sat down and skimmed my TBR I realized that there were a few gems that constantly percolated to the top of my to-read shortlist. Books that I really did want to start next, but for some reason or another, constantly failed to. Either they were on hold or well..on hold (I'm an almost 100% exclusive library reader).

Regardless here are four books that I really did mean to read last year and totally will read (or not, only time will tell) in 2018. It's a decently diverse list-- one nonfiction  travel journal by a super awesome woman (Abundant Beauty), one super iconic nonfiction (My Life in France), one that the internet has convinced me will be superb (The Bear and the Nightingale), and one that looks right up my alley (Ready Player One).

What about you? Any books that you totally actually for real meant to read in 2017...and just didn't?

Dear Sunday: Back to normal (ish)

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

This Christmas break was wonderful and busy and relaxing but I'm almost looking forward to getting back into a more normal routine when I head back to school this week.

However before things go back to normal I was able to steal down a couple hours south and meet up with a couple of close college friends I hadn't seen in years! One of them (Lee) actually has a blog-- I would like to claim credit in convincing her of how amazing blogging is but it was something she did on her own. It was a blast being able to see my friends-- we didn't take any photos but I did snap this one of our dinner at a local dumpling place so there is that. 

Visiting them is why this post is going up a bit late-- totally worth it ;)
 

• Dear Sunday: Hello 2018
• Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors
• 2017 Bookish (and lifeish) wrap up

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I meant to read in 2017...
• Review: The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

That's it for me! I need to pack and plan and come to terms that my sleeping in is going to very quickly come to an end D:  

2017 Bookish Wrap-up

2017 was the start of my new book blog! On May 21st I published my first post. I've always been enamoured with books and reading. The pleasure of reading a good book is almost equaled by the pleasure of convincing someone else to read it. As I have had notoriously bad luck when it comes to making my friends to my bidding helping my friends to find their next favorite book, I decided to take my quest to the internet and try to convince total strangers to read amazing books. Along the way and quite by my surprise, I found an amazing community and discovered some of my all time favorite books.

By the numbers:

97 posts written.

25 book reviews posted.

This coming year I hope to: continue posting with some attempt at regularity; write more discussion posts (I have ALL THE OPINIONS but also never write discussion posts?!); continue to read and comment on other book blogs!

I've always been a reader, but I struggled to find enough time to read during college and grad school. Last year I read 22 books. Grad school was finally beginning to slow down as I headed into a research-intensive but non-intensive course work stage of my schooling. I realized that I definitely had time to read, but that I wasn't prioritizing reading; choosing instead to spend my free time on Youtube and other internet things. This year I set up a Goodreads challenge-- I wanted to read more books. Throughout the year I kept increasing my target number of books. I read 59 books this year and I couldn't be happier. Among those books are some of my new favorites ((too many to number!)), books I struggled through, books I ranted about, and books I raved about.

By the numbers:

I read 19,576 pages across 59 books

---

 

SHORTEST BOOK

96 pages

Binti

by Nnedi Okorafor

LONGEST BOOK

662 pages

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss

AVERAGE LENGTH

332 pages

---

---

MY AVERAGE RATING FOR 2017

4.1

DNF: 1

Audiobooks: 7

eARCs: 5

-----------------------

Historical Fiction: 21

Mystery: 11

General Fiction: 9

Sci-Fic: 7

Non-fiction: 6

Fantasy: 5

((I had no clue how many historical fiction  novels I was reading!))

This coming year I hope to:  Keep reading. My goodreads goal for this year is 55 books-- I don't need to read more books, I'm quite happy with what I read this year. I can't wait to discover more books this coming year!

2017. I figured it would be easier to wrap up in photos instead of words. Below you get a brief glimpse into what the year held for me: getting back into bike riding after years of not owning a bike; having the most amazing vacation with my college friends; solar eclipse; learning how to weave; moving into the coolest apartment ever; seeing a really big tree; watercolors; historical finds; and a moonlit ocean.

Here's to another great year!