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2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Showing posts with label Aubrey Hartman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aubrey Hartman. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 02, 2024
Top Ten Tuesday: The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag
7:42 PM
Today's TTT prompt is a nice, easy one: Top Ten Books With My Favorite Color on the Cover. As much as I love green, though, I'm just not feeling this topic today. Since today is the mid-point of the year (2024 is flying by!), I thought I'd hop on the Mid-Year Freak Out tag bandwagon and take a look at how my reading year is shaping up. I'm not entirely sure where this tag originated—someone said it started with Ely over at Earl Grey Books some years ago—but it's been all over the blogosphere lately. I saw it most recently over at Girl Plus Books, so that's where I grabbed the questions from. There are other versions floating around as well.
As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.
Before we get to the tag questions, let me just summarize where my reading is at for the year.
Every year, I set my Goodreads reading goal at 200 books. Last year, I read 223. I'd love to beat that number, but I at least want to get to 200. I'm on track so far (well, 9 books behind according to Goodreads, that great naysayer) with 91. I'm in the middle of reading/listening to two chunksters at the moment. They're slowing me down a tad, but I'm really enjoying both of them, so who cares??
I'm notorious for my annual taking on of too many reading challenges. This year is no exception. I've got 15 of them going on at the moment. I like to reach the halfway point with all of them by July 2 so that I'm on target to finish them by the end of the year. (Although I do enjoy reading challenges, I never take them too seriously. If I finish them, fabulous! If I don't, no biggie.) I'm rocking them this year, as you can see from my left sidebar. The only one I'm really slacking on is the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and my own Bookish Books Reading Challenge. I'm making progress on both, just not super fast progress. The Pioneer Book Reading Challenge is still on my sidebar, but I've kind of given up on it. It's a local reading challenge based in a city I don't live in, but that I usually visit 1-2 times a year. You have to pick up your prize (a generous gift certificate) in-store and use it that way too and that's unlikely to happen for me this year. Oh well.
Back to the tag...
I've read a handful of books this year that I've really enjoyed, but I have to go with Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson for this one. It's a YA fantasy—not my usual thing at all—but I enjoyed it immensely.
I'm always going on about the Rip Through Time series by Kelley Armstrong, so this one is no surprise. Disturbing the Dead is the third installment in the series. It's just as enjoyable as its predecessors.
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager is probably the new release I've been most looking forward to and haven't read yet, but guess what? I made it to the top of the library's waitlist. Yay! I'm going to pick up the book tomorrow.
My last two Top Ten Tuesday lists were on this very subject (check out Part One and Part Two). Of the 20 books on those lists, I'm most excited about Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman. She's an auto-read author for me, so I'm always up for a new one from her.
I hate to label a book a "disappointment," but Trouble Island by Sharon Short is a historical mystery that I was really, really looking forward to reading. I enjoyed the atmospheric setting as well as the And Then There Were None plot. The characters were not very likable, though, and in the end, the novel just wasn't nearly as satisfying as I wanted it to be.
Not gonna lie, the cover of The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman does not appeal to me. I'm just not much of a fantasy reader. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by how much I enjoyed this engaging middle-grade novel.
Of the 91 books I've read so far this year, almost half of them were written by new-to-me authors. I don't know if an author can become a favorite with just one book, but here are some writers I'm definitely planning to read more from: Kat Ailes, Benjamin Stevenson, Jamie Sumner, Gabrielle Meyer, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Jenny Adams, Annelise Ryan, Kayvion Lewis, Katie Tietjen, Elizabeth Lowham, Kristen Perrin, Aubrey Hartman, and more.
I'm not a book boyfriend kind of person, so how about favorite literary couple/duo that I've encountered this year? No surprise here: Mallory Atkinson and Duncan Gray from the Rip Through Time series by Kelley Armstrong. As of yet, they are not officially a romantic couple, but they share a professional partnership and a personal friendship that are mutually supportive, kind, and fun.
I love Michael Rosario from The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly. He's a sweet, quiet kid who is wholly devoted to his hardworking single mother. He's also gentle, loyal, thoughtful, and always concerned about becoming a better person.
I'm a sap, it's true, but I still don't cry very often over books. I can't think of any tearjerkers I've read so far this year...
Most of the books I read are of the moody, broody variety. The Jane/Mary series by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows is the opposite. Although they do deal with serious subjects sometimes, the books are upbeat, hilarious, and all kinds of entertaining. They make me happy for sure. I've read four of them this year and, while I enjoyed them all, My Plain Jane is probably my favorite.
I'm not usually a big fan of book-to-movie adaptations. However, I really enjoyed A Haunting in Venice, which is based on Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie. I'm normally a staunch book-before-movie person, but my husband was too impatient to see the film, so I watched it first. Gasp!
(This isn't book related, but right after watching this movie, we viewed Belfast, another Kenneth Branagh production. It's excellent. We thought it was going to be heavy and depressing, but it's actually very funny and heartwarming [although there is some heartbreak as well]. I highly recommend it.)
Let's see...which of the two reviews I've written this year should I choose? LOL. Back in the day, I reviewed every book I read on my blog. These days, I'm a huge slacker and I mostly just make Top Ten Tuesday lists. I have managed to write two reviews in 2024: one for Artifice by Sharon Cameron and one for Dust by Dusti Bowling.
Have you seen a paper copy of Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson? They're GORGEOUS.
Since I still need to read 109 books to meet my Goodreads goal, I have quite a few I still want to read. I won't list them all. You're welcome.
I'm super chintzy with my star ratings. So far this year, I've only awarded two books with the coveted 5-star rating:
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
Dust by Dusti Bowling
I'm not a big re-reader, but I do read or listen to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens every December. Last year, I listened to the audio version narrated by Tim Curry. It's fantastic, so I'll probably enjoy that one again this year.
In a few months, my book club will be reading The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. I can't remember a whole lot about who's who and what's what from the first book in the series, so I'll likely re-read The Maid as well before moving on to its sequel.
I expect The Women by Kristin Hannah will be a 5-star read for me.
Phew! That was a long tag/Top Ten Tuesday post. Thanks for hanging in there! What do you think of my answers to all these questions? How would you answer them? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your post. I also reply to the comments you leave here on my TTT posts, although I'm a little behind from last week.
Happy TTT!
Thursday, February 01, 2024
The Bookish Books Reading Challenge: February Book Ideas and Link-Up for Reviews
6:23 PM
It's the first day of February already. How did that happen? How's 2024 going so far for you? I'm sick with a cold that's slowing me down, but otherwise, I'm hanging in there. I hope you are well. If you are, enjoy breathing easy for me! I never think about how nice it is to breathe without restriction until I can't.
I didn't have any plans to read bookish books in January, but I ended up finishing a few anyway. Bonus: I enjoyed them all. Here they are in the order that I read them:
The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman—I loved this debut novel about a girl who gets more than she bargains for when she makes a deal with a water nymph. Her wish is inspired by her love for The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
Last Word to the Wise by Ann Claire—This is the second installment in a cozy mystery series featuring two sisters who run their family's bookshop in Colorado. When the sisters reluctantly agree to be guinea pigs for their cousin's new bookish dating service, they end up in the middle of a murder investigation, with one of them as the prime suspect.
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows—This YA novel is part of a series of alternate history stories starring famous females. Not all of the installments are bookish, but this one is. It features Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre (the "real" one) as they help to solve a murder. Oh, and Jane can see ghosts. The story is all kinds of fun! I especially enjoy these books on audio.
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson—The hero of this clever mystery novel is an author who self-publishes guides to writing Golden Age-style crime fiction, even though he's never written a novel before. He uses all the knowledge he's gained from studying detective novels to solve a series of murders that occur at a reunion of his dysfunctional family.
---
I have a couple bookish books planned for February. Right now, I'm listening to another installment of the Lady Janies/Marys series:
My Imaginary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows—This novel features Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, and Ada Lovelace, who was a mathematics prodigy and a brilliant inventor. Although the two never met in real life, in this book they become friends and co-creators of an automaton that comes to life. It's not my favorite book in the series, but it's a fun listen nevertheless.
This one is my book club's pick for February. Even though I will be out of the country for the discussion, I'm still planning to read it.
Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson—This rom-com stars Savannah Cade, a woman who secretly writes romance novels while working for a publishing company that only prints highbrow literary works while looking down its nose at romance. When she accidentally leaves her manuscript out at work, causing a mysterious editor to make astute comments in its margins, Savannah's forced to seek him out in order to get her manuscript into shape so she can submit it to the famous editor who has agreed to look at it—if it's finished before her very imminent retirement. Sounds fun!
I'm also interested in this one, which comes out on the 13th:
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown—A New York City bookseller's life is changed when she's gifted a mysterious book by a favorite customer. It's the Book of Doors and it contains a magic that allows its owner to go anywhere via a series of doors. While experimenting with its wondrous powers, the bookseller finds that possessing such a treasure has made her a target for the dangerous people who will do anything to take it from her.
How about you? What bookish books did you read in January? Which ones are you planning to read this month?
If you are participating in the 2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge, please use the widget below to link-up your January reviews. If you're not signed up for the challenge yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to join the party.
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