February and March Wrap Up

February and March were two months where I read books that I would consider important reads for people of all ages. Only one of the books would not be categorized as Young Adult, but could be read by anyone. These were books that I wasn't forcing myself to read. I picked them up, because those were the books that I wanted to read in that moment. That helped a lot in helping me read the books quickly and take them in as much as possible. Towards the end of March, those last three books I read were pretty close together.

February 2017

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
It took me a long time to get through this book, but it wasn't the actual book that slowed me down, it was me. I just wasn't motivated to pick up the physical book, but once I was able to borrow an e-book version from the library I got through it a lot quicker. I also saw the movie and I can't really say that I loved it. So far my favorite book has been Prisoner of Azkaban.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers
I finally picked this book up after seeing it at Barnes and Noble almost every time I went in there. This is not a traditionally formatted book. It's written in the form of a screenplay. These different book formats are interesting, but can sometimes take away from the story. That was not the case for this book. It's not the type of book where the ending is going to make complete sense and makes you think about why certain things happen and how they got to that point.

March 2017

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
I love Trevor Noah's comedy and his stand-up, and that's how I've gotten to know about him. He took over The Daily Show in 2015, so most people probably know him from that. Born a Crime is a collection of stories about his life growing up in South Africa during apartheid. It's a perfect blend of his comedy, story telling, and information about living in South Africa during that time.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I went out to get it as soon as I could and read it right after that. I wanted to read it before people really started sharing their opinions on it. Without giving too much away, this book was initially inspired by Oscar Grant and the Black Lives Matter movement. Other books have touched on the subject, but the hype that The Hate U Give got months before it even debuted brought an attention to it that was well needed. This gives you another perspective to something that is discussed on the news, but we never get to see the personal side of it.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Initially I wasn't going to read this book. Then my thirteen year old brother picked it up. Soon after that I started seeing the trailer for the Netflix show pop up everywhere. I borrowed it from my brother and started reading it really knowing nothing about it. I had a hard time deciding what to rate this, so I didn't. It's an important read, especially for someone around my brother's age where they're about to begin high school and these sort of experiences start happening more. Maybe not even to them personally, but just so that they're aware that bullying, sexual assault, rape, and so many other things that most are unaware of are things that kids deal with.


I'm currently reading something completely different. After reading books that dealt with heavy topics, I wanted to take a bit of break and then maybe I'll pick something else up related to those books.


Currently Reading
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Currently Reading, but sort of on the back burner
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Paper Princess by Erin Watt

#0by18 Reading Challenge

The #0by18 Reading Challenge was started by Erin from Reading with Wrin and Valerie from He Said Books or Me. The challenge is a way to read as many books that you own before 2018. I'll be updating this post and cross off titles as I read them, and if I get any book throughout 2017 I'll add them to this list.

Books on My Shelf
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Defiance by C.J. Redwine
The Outsiders by S.E. Hington
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Why I Write by George Orwell
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Emma by Jane Austen
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Endless Night by Agatha Christie
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

Books I Bought in 2017
none yet.

The One Where I Stopped Rating Everything | January 2017

This was the point where I stopped rating every single thing I read because I found it difficult to put my feelings into words and give a star rating after reading some books. Also this is where I set my Goodreads challenge to 12 books. One book a month is my goal for 2017 not including comics or graphic novels. New year, new me?

January 2017

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

This had been sitting on my shelf for the longest time and I'm glad I finally picked it up. It's the story of Sutter Keely in his senior year of high school. Academically he's an underachiever with no plans for college. What I learned about Sutter Keely by reading this book is that he likes to drink. A lot. He likes to party. A lot. He meets Aimee, a quiet girl from school that he had never noticed before  meeting her when he wakes up on some random person's lawn one morning.

I don't know. I liked that it dealt with some serious issues and wasn't sugarcoated, but there were moments where I wasn't sure if I was just uncomfortable or if I really hated Sutter. I didn't end up rating this book, because I didn't hate the story, but I wasn't in love with the characters. If you don't want to waste your time reading it they made a movie that's a good adaptation.

Girls Like Me by Lola StVil

This book is written in verse and text messages which I would have had no problem with if there had been a reason why. I thought I was the only who thought this, but after reading some of the reviews I realized I wasn't the only one. It just doesn't make sense. Because of this the story suffers. The characters aren't developed enough. The main character is the most forgettable one. I felt like I never really got to know her and I don't think there was any growth. I liked the concept behind this one, but unfortunately the execution fell flat. 2/5

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

I had been meaning to pick this book up ever since it came out. There aren't enough books out there that feature Latina main characters especially in original and unique stories. This is an amazing diverse book set in Los Lagos, a beautiful fantastical world. Alex is a bruja (a witch), on her Death Day she wishes that she didn't have her powers anymore and instead of getting rid of them she gets rid of her family. 

There were a few bumps in the story where the pacing slowed down for me. It felt like the characters or the story were just going in a circle. I loved the family members and their relationships with Alex. I loved Nova, and the piece of backstory we get for him. I didn't like Rishi. I found her annoying at times and felt like she almost dropped in out of nowhere. (Bad pun. I know.) I'm interested in seeing where the other books go as they follow the other sisters.

Currently Reading

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

February TBR

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi (TBR Jar Pick)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

The Wrap Up I Almost Forgot To Post

Basically what the title says. As you may notice by taking a glance below, I read one short e-book in the month of October, and then read nothing at all in November because of a little thing called NaNoWriMo also known as National Novel Writing Month where writers think it's completely normal to attempt to write 50,000 words in a single month. In December I began to freak out because of the beautiful Goodreads challenge. To say the least I completely and utterly failed that and have since then changed my outlook on what it means to me. But seriously...I read almost nothing in three months, but here's my wrap up anyways.

October 2016

Zenith: The Androma Saga Part 1 by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings
This is sort of a weird book to review, because what I read wasn't the actual complete story. This was initially set up to be the first part of a six (I might be wrong on the total amount) part series of e-books that would make up the story The Androma Saga. It was going to be self published, but after hitting the #1 New York Times Bestseller list for Young Adult E-Books it was picked up by Harlequin Teen where the entire story will be published. 

This first part sets up the characters and where they are on their journey, but never really takes off. (Bad pun not intended.) I can see how they had planned to continue the story, but had they continued releasing it in parts I don't know if I would have picked up the next one. I did find the characters interesting. The group and their friendships reminded me of Rat Queens. Now that it's going to be released in its entirety I'll most likely be picking it up in August. 3/5

December 2016

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
It took me a while to get through this mostly because I found it hard to get through Elias' chapters. I just didn't care about his storyline and what ultimately happened to him. Laia was the one character that I found myself more attached to. The world and world building,inspired by ancient Rome, was interesting and my favorite part of this story. 4/5

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
This is a collection of short essays related to Christmas and the holidays (like the title suggests). I'm pretty sure this book is out of print, at least that's what the sticker on the book said when I bought it. My biggest problem with this book was that the stories were not all equally as good. David Sedaris is quirky and funny, but there were a couple of pieces that didn't seem to go with the others. 4/5

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
I got this book on BookOutlet because of Liana's Reviews, an Australian booktuber. I loved this book. I had never heard about it before, and didn't know there was even a movie. It's a coming of age story featuring Josephine Alibrandi in her last year at her Catholic high school. I'm glad I hadn't heard about it before, because I went in with no expectations and was definitely surprised by how much I enjoyed. It's a bit like an older, more serious version of the Georgia Nicolson books. 5/5

Jonesy, Vol. One by Sam Humphries, Caitlin Rose Boyle
I have a review of this which you can read here. This is a cute and colorful comic about a girl named Jonesy who has somehow received the ability to make people fall in love except with herself. It's a fun and diverse read that you should definitely pick up. 5/5

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Graphic Novels/Comics

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week's theme is Top Ten Favorite Graphic Novels/Comics or Top Ten Graphic Novels/Comics on my TBR. This is my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays. This is probably one of my favorite genres. I could talk about comics and graphic novels forever! All of these are comics except one, but I've included some volumes of some of the titles if they're out. Volumes are basically a collection of the first five or six issues of a comic. Even though I love Saga I'm not including it, because I feel like everyone's heard of Saga already.

Archie | Volume One

By Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, and Veronica Fish

This Archie reboot is great if you weren't really into the old Archie comics. It's a bit more modern and less cheesy than the original ones. Even if you did like the older ones it's a great take on the same characters you've probably grown to love.

Lumberjanes | Volume One: Beware the Kitten Holy

By Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, Brooke A. Allen

I would describe Lumberjanes as a Cartoon Network show in print. One of the big criticisms that I've heard about Lumberjanes is that there storyline is all over the place, but I think that's what I like about it. There's so much going on that it's hard to contain. The characters are are vibrant in more ways than one. The characters are diverse and unique.

Ms. Marvel | Volume One: No Normal

By G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona

Ms. Marvel has become one of my favorite superheroes and my favorite comic. It's about Kamala Khan a teenage girl from Jersey City. She idolizes Marvel superheroes like Captain Marvel. Then one day, thanks to a mysterious fog, she develops superpowers. I've read the first four volumes so far, and I love the series more and more with each one that I read.

Scott Pilgrim | Volume One: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

By Bryan Lee O'Malley

This graphic novel series is made up of six volumes following Scott Pilgrim. He falls in love with this girl named Ramona Flowers and in order to get her he needs to defeat all seven of her evil ex-boyfriends. It seems a little odd, but I became so obsessed with this series when I first read it. They even made a movie of the series that, in my opinion, was really well done. They recreated a lot of the frames directly from the book into the movie. They stuck real close to the book and is one of the best book to movie adaptation. 

Seconds

by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Another one by Bryan Lee O'Malley! This is quite different from Scott Pilgrim. Seconds follows a young chef, Katie. This mysterious girl appears with these magical mushrooms and offers them to Katie and tells her that by eating the mushrooms she can get a second change or a do over at something. It still has the signature Bryan Lee O'Malley style characters, but the storyline is what sets it apart. Really great read.

Morning Glories | Volume One

By Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma

It's been a while since I've read this one, so most of the details are fuzzy. It's about a group of kids all born on the same day who go to this boarding school (or maybe it's an academy). There's a reason to why they've been all gathered together, but we don't know why. I never really found out because I never got around to picking up the second volume. If you're not into a straightforward linear storyline this one's probably not for you. Things get a little weird.

Rat Queens | Volume One: Sass and Sorcery

By Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch

Rat Queens is about this group of diverse badass woman. If you've read Lumberjanes and it wasn't your cup of tea, but you liked the girl power and friendship this might be more for you. It's like a more grown up version of Lumberjanes. There was an incident with the creators of Rat Queens which you can probably Google to find out more about, so some people have decided to not continue with this after volume three. I've only read the first volume and I loved it, so if anything I would recommend to pick that one up.

Paper Girls | Volume One

By Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson

This is one of the ones that's best going in knowing little. It takes place in the late '80's and follow four 12 year old newspaper delivery girls who encounter something strange one night. This comic is fairly new, the first two volumes are out now.

Slam! | Issue #1

By Pamela Ribbon, Veronica Fish

Slam! is actually one of the newest comics out there. They are currently only three issues in. The third issue just came out like last week. If you liked Whip It with Ellen Page, you'll most likely really enjoy this. It follows two girls who just started skating. They tried out for a league and made it onto two different teams, and it follows their journey. I've only read the first issue and I'm already in love with this comic.

The Backstagers | Act One

By James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh

This is another new comic from Boom! Box (There the one's who put of Lumberjanes, and Slam!). The first five issues are out, but if you want to wait for Volume One, it comes out in July of this year. Jory is a new student at St. Genesius and while he's at a meeting for the drama club for the first he's sent off on an errand to find the backstage crew. When he finds out what they're up to he realizes he might have found where he belongs. Again, I've only read the first issue, but I'm already loving this series.

This has honestly been one of my favorite Top Ten Tuesday posts I have ever put together. I'm excited to see what everyone else put on their lists and check out everyone's favorite books this TTT. Please leave links to your posts below and share your top ten tuesday picks!