trace all my books [2022]

 Well, we made it through another year of reading. I did join Storygraph and you can see more stats of the books I read here on my stats page.

For an in-depth list of all 118 books I read, you can click here: profile.

However, I will be showing a visual representation or two here on the blog, and there's always my video where I ramble about some stand-outs worth mentioning. 

Here is the video!

I read 118 books. 22 of them (not listed here, since I was using the app for the first time) were rereads. Here is the picture representation of all of those books. I am happy to answer questions about any of them if you don't want to click on my profile.

I forgot to mention this in my video but my reading goal for this year is to move this needle a little bit:

I bet I could read more than one nonfiction.

If I had to pick one book from the year that I really liked, it'd be Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill.

If I had to pick two, the other one would be The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen.

If I had to pick a nonfiction, well, I only read one. But Proclaim Peace by Patrick Mason was really good actually.

I talked more about fanfiction in the video but I don't feel like writing it down here besides saying the total of novel-length works was 56, so here's another link to the video: you can just watch it at 2x speed

Here's to another great year of reading!

trace all my books [2021]

 I feel like I'm reading all the time but don't feel like a reader anymore. It's all either fanfiction or fluffy romance books and that's life. 2021, babeyy!

Link to Video - Literary Nunnery Roundup 2021

Comforting Rereads mentioned in this video:

Sammy Keyes by Wendelin van Draanen

Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara

Sharon Shinn

Courtney Milan

Jasmine Guillory

Terry Pratchett (not mentioned)

Janette Rallison (also not mentioned)

Shannon Hale (not mentioned, to my shame)

New Romance Novels mentioned in this video:

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (forgot to mention, but pretty sure it was a double check-out as well)

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

New (to me) YA Standout Novels that I said I'd put in the blog post, but I'm realizing there were enough "fine" ones that this list will be long

Better than the Movies by Lynn S Painter

Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

You Have a Match by Emma Lord

Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass (modern Persuasion retelling)

What's Not To Love by Emily Wibberley and the other guy

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon

Between You, Me, and the Honeybees by Amelia Diane Coombs

More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed Masood (this one stands out because it was the first modern arranged marriage YA I've read -- they're Muslim)

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Solomon

How to Speak Boy by Tiana Smith 

10 Truths and a Dare by Ashley Elston (sequel to 10 Blind Dates, which I reread since it's a Christmas book)

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey (this one might be the favorite)

Fanfictions mentioned in the video...available on request.

Also, note! I joined Storygraph for 2022. I've never used a book thinger before (and I already burned out of reviewing the one book I've read so far this year) so who knows what will happen. But it could change this game a bit.

trace all my books [2020]

 Hello!

Here's the link to a video where I talk about these books:

Literary Nunnery 2020

And here's the books! With pictures, when I have them.

Love a la Mode by Stephanie K. Strohm

What I like about You by Marisa Kanter

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Thorn by Intisar Khanani

(and Bloodleaf Crystal Smith)

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Series I'd Like to Talk about:

Twelve Houses Sharon Shinn

Sunshield/Creatures of Light by Emily B. Martin

The Spy series by Mercedes Lackey

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

I also forgot to mention that the Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia C. Wrede holds up! Other books that hold up are For Darkness Shows the Stars / Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund, What Goes Up by Katie Kennedy, Hunted by Meagan Spooner, The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You by Lily Anderson, and just about any Terry Pratchett. (Books that I loved in the past that I wanted to see if I'd still like.)

I also reread some books that I already knew I liked but wanted the comfort anyway. And some new ones that were okay but not worth mentioning. You know, just a regular year.

trace all my books [2019]

Here's my 2019 round-up. I said there weren't that many books but there were more than last year.

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson
The main appeal of this one is the format -- a novel comprised solely of texts between two people's phones. I loved that she was able to tell the entire story that way, without having to hop out to a narrative. The plot is a girl gets a text from a boy, who has a cousin with the same name. She thinks she knows which cousin is texting her...but does she really?
(no picture of this one, I remembered about it from a tweet)

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

Obviously I'm here for Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty adaptations and reimaginings all the time. But I love that Mulan's getting a bit of a spotlight too (with this book and that new movie). (Sure, Mulan might be a real person, but it's probably safe to say it's folklore.) Plot: Mulan has been training her whole life to duel a boy from a rival family to see who gets these cool swords. Most people think of her as her twin brother (who I think is dead*). So it's not that much of a step for her to join the army and save China. I said in the video I liked every part of this book and I'll stand by that.

*in Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim that I did not talk about in the video but was also good, a girl dresses as her brother (who is alive but disabled in the war) to compete to become the Imperial Tailor. And my mind confuses the two stories a little.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Took me a hot minute to get into this book but I spent some uninterrupted hours on New Year's Day reading this until I finished. I liked it a lot. (I also like An Enchantment of Ravens, and it was in searching that out to see if there was a sequel that I found this one. Which is not a sequel.) This girl grew up in a Library and has always had a suspicion toward sorcerers. But when tragedy strikes her home she must team up with one of them. Who happens to be pretty handsome. And who has a demon bound to his will.

There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

The sequel to When Dimple Met Rishi, focusing on Rishi's younger brother Ashish. See, his girlfriend broke up with him and he's lost his mojo. So his parents decide it's time for him to date a nice Indian girl. And they think Sweetie's pretty great. Thing is...Sweetie's mom doesn't have the confidence that Sweetie is great (it's a weight thing; Sweetie is great by any metric). But Ashish and Sweetie decide there's no harm in making his parents happy so they decide to fake a relationship for a while (as long as her mom doesn't find out).

Circe by Madeline Miller

It's about Circe.

Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Already vlogged this one.

Sherwood by Meagan Spooner

No picture of the cover, but as I was reading this note fell out. It's extremely apt because this adaptation is a tale of Marian, learning of her Robin's death and becoming Robin Hood to honor his memory. And Guy of Gisborne will catch her, one way or another.


So there we have it! That's the video, basically. I teased that I'm looking forward to Return of the Thief this year (scheduled to come out last year). The sequel to A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer came out last week, and I'm excited for that hold to come in. (It's a Beauty and the Beast adaptation...loosely.) Sharon Shinn had some books come out last year that I've been reading this month. 2020 will be a good year for books.

AND as far as making a Best of the Decade vlog/post, I find that just really daunting. I'll keep thinking about it but no promises.

trace all my books [2018]

I finally made another vlog. I didn't talk about very many books considering it was for a whole year. I just haven't been into stuff this past year I guess. I took more pictures of books than I'd remembered (also, sorry about the pictures in the video. I'm not smart enough to figure out iMovie enough to get them to look right), but it's okay. I like the focus on my true passion, Pride & Prejudice fanfiction. (At least...in 2018 that was my passion.)

Here's the video! (7 min long)

Books (and other works) featured in this video:

Prince in Disguise by Stephanie Kate Strohm -- the main girl has to go to Scotland for her older sister's reality show wedding to a duke. Luckily she has a friend in a guy her age (who for sure wouldn't be a prince in disguise.......).

Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West -- I don't remember this book any better than I did when I talked about it in the video. There's a girl, she has a list, I feel the feelings.

Party of One by Joy Beth Smith -- being single in the Church. Not doctrinal.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik -- She's a moneylender that has a knack for turning silver to gold. The fae king decides to marry her because of this. (Rumpelstiltskin adaptation, I believe.)

Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst -- Oceans 11 with were-dragons. (Not the actual plot of Oceans 11, just the feel. I assume. I don't think I've seen it.)

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson -- The judge boys have cruelly chased augur Wren her whole life. She's the only one that can infiltrate the judge stronghold to bring power back to the augurs. She has to deal with the judge boys, conflicting loyalties, damaged power sources, and her weird urge to eat banana peels.

Pyeongchang & Prejudice by AMarguerite -- Lizzy and Jamie Bennet are sibling ice dancers that have a goal to medal at the Olympics. Darcy (Charlie Bingley's skating coach) doesn't think they can do it. File available upon request!

An Ever-Fixed Mark by AMarguerite -- It's Regency England. People have the name of their soulmate written on their wrist. Elizabeth Bennet has Fitzwilliam on her wrist. She visits Hunsford and meets Colonel Fitzwilliam. They immediately hit it off and decide to get married. What does Darcy think about all that? Here's the link but I'm not sure it'll work, so for this one...file also available upon request.

I also mentioned The Land of Heart's Desire by MrsVonTrapp -- Incomplete. Anne of Green Gables what-if. What if there had been a boy at Anne's orphanage, so the Cuthberts adopted him instead? Anne and Gilbert may somehow still find each other, but what has changed? Link, but be prepared for the same agony I feel because it hasn't been updated since August.

And for Miraculous Ladybug stuff...I have read so much I don't even remember what the good ones are. I'd be willing to dig if someone wants links, though. I'm also your gal if you want RTD-era Doctor Who fanfiction or Harry Potter fanfiction. Since I'm laying it all out there now.

trace all my books [2017 pt. 2]

Hello and Happy New Year!

In the second half of this year I checked out 40 books from the library (some I had read before, some I had not). From those, I selected my Top 15 and made a video about them. Here it is. Angle's a little weird but since when has that ever stopped us? (Also my mom called when I was almost done with the video, so that's why it has that weird jump cut)

I didn't actually do a great job saying what these books were about in the video (I was rushing so it wasn't another boring 15 minute video like the one in July), so good thing blog posts also exist.

So this one, something horrible happens to this girl and she wonders if she'd made a different choice...or, rather, if the villain could've been persuaded to make a different choice, if things would be fixed. And she's heard of this Library where you can change the past...

Elliot Schafer can apparently see the Wall, which protects our world from the Borderlands or the...Otherlands? Anyway he decides there's no harm in joining the training camp, because it's not like there's anything worth sticking around for in the regular world. Of course he's a terrible person, (AND a pacifist in a war culture) so finding friends is difficult. He'll manage anyway, it just might take 4 years.

The main girl is for sure magical. But that's a big no-no when she's a hostage in the enemy kingdom. But then she gets framed for regicide and has to escape to her home country and everybody's counting on her to wake the land or something. 

The girl. Whose name i don't remember. Knows she's an amazing navigator and is kinda sad that the Royal Explorer is probably going to take her sister on a dangerous expedition. How can she prove herself?

The girl is an amazing painter. Faeries love to get their portraits done by her. She knows how tricky they are, though, so she tries not to accept their gifts. And then the Autumn King comes to get his portrait done and she way messes up by painting him with a human emotion in his eyes and now his rule is in question.

Bonus because I checked it out again.

Ben, Trix, Hero, Prince, Maggie, and Leo are just trying their best in this Prohibition-era world! (a Much Ado About Nothing retelling)

One thing everyone wants is a miracle. One thing everyone fears is what it takes to get one.
Saints are the best at getting miracles for people, but not everybody can get over their darkness revealed.
Set in like 1950s Southwest Colorado.

Plus some other books that I didn't get pictures of...but the only really important one is What Goes Up by Katie Kennedy, because that's the one I read twice in a row. The guy shows up late to his first day of Space Camp where they're going to choose interns, and things go downhill from there. But bad news, he really needs this. But so does she. Her parental expectations are so much pressure on her, she can't fail. And what's the rush, anyway? Are aliens actually about to invade??

So What Goes Up and, I'd say, Speak Easy Speak Love were probably my favorite two.

trace all my books [2017 pt. 1]

Hello everyone!

I've read some great books the past six months and thought I'd make a little video talking about them. Only problem is...this video is so boring. It is 15 minutes of uninteresting blather about books, which is too bad because they're books I like and want you to like too (I guess).

Good news about the video: I look pretty nice. So you can watch it for a couple minutes and relish my face for a bit. Once you get to the part where I couldn't figure out how to edit it you can stop.

Because here's other good news about the video: I'll summarize it in this blog post! You'll still get all the information you otherwise would.



Summary:
Most of the books I read fall under the categories of fantasy, teen romance, fairytale adaptations, and ... other. Here's the books in each category that I've thought were worth mentioning:

Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner: I've already blogged about this one.
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst: Girls with magical skills have the opportunity to go to academy to learn to hone their talents. If they're really, really good, they might become heirs to the queen. The main character comes to the academy, determined. But she's actually a really bad student. So is she gonna fail out of the academy or is she going to be queen? Or something else?
A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi: A princess who's done what she's had to do to protect her kingdom and a prince who's never been allowed to do anything in his empire are partnered in a supernatural tournament where the prize is a wish. The writing in this one is beautiful.

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein: Prequel to Code Name Verity. Julie's last summer at her grandfather's estate.
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald: Sara has come all the way from Sweden to visit her elderly penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. She arrives in a ghost town...but actually everybody's at the old lady's funeral. Sara stays at her house...and the town concocts a marriage scheme to get her to stay forever.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: If you don't know what this book is about, you might want to look it up before you decide whether to pick it up.

Rose & Thorn by Sarah Prineas: A fractured Sleeping Beauty retelling, sequel to Ash & Bramble. It was really enjoyable.
Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison: Second in the Tyme series, a fun adaptation.
Frogkisser! by Garth Nix: A fun fairytale thing. I love fairytale adaptations.
Hunted by Meagan Spooner: Probably the best book of the year so far. I did nothing but read this book. It's Beauty and the Beast but also Russian fairytales.

Guitar Notes by Mary Amato: They schedule the same practice room and start writing notes to each other. Music! Epistolary! Pretty good.
Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett: Mink (or, as she's known IRL, Bailey) just moved to the same town as Alex, her online friend who keeps inviting her to his town for the film festival. But she just...won't tell him. She wants to find him first, to hedge her bets. Meanwhile there's this super annoying guy at work....I really liked this one.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon: Dimple can't believe her parents are letting her go to coding camp without getting on her case about finding a nice boy. Rishi can't believe that he came all the way to coding camp to meet his future wife (according to their parents it's basically a done deal) and she a) didn't know who he was and b) hates him. I love it.
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley: Rachel's moving back to the city after living on the coast with her family for three years. But she can't be around the ocean anymore. The only issue with the city is it's where Henry lives. He was her best friend...but not anymore. I just read this one today.


That's it! That's about how the video went. Except not as interesting. If you thought this summary interesting. Happy Independence Day!

inside the labyrinth walls

It's been a heady, exciting week. You know, I'd almost forgotten what it's like to get a New Book and excitedly read it and discuss with other people who are excited about the New Book and venture outside my comfort zone. But that's what the past week has been!

Last Tuesday I dressed with extra care. I thought my hair had a nice little Queen of Attolia vibe. My lipstick was on point. Fashion was, once again, my armor against anxiety. Why was I anxious, you ask? Because many, many months ago I decided that if I ever bought a book, I would go to the local indie bookstore to do it. (It's called The King's English, by the way, and it's a nice place.) And then the news of the New Book came out and I knew I'd have to buy it. Even though I don't believe in buying books in general (I mean, libraries exist).

Everyone at the bookstore was very nice but it was still very anxiety-inducing (I stood at the shelf for 5 minutes, holding the paperbacks of the rest of the Queen's Thief series, until I got up the courage to ask someone where the new book was).

Anyway, success was mine, I made it out of the store with all five books in the series. I set them in my lap so that on the drive home (which was HORRENDOUS, I live very close to the bookstore and it took me forever to get home) I could give them little hugs every once in a while. I do that with long-awaited library books too. Books deserve hugs too.

And then I took pictures of them and set them on the table for the next few hours while I spackled the walls. Here's the picture:

Almost certainly filtered. It's on Instagram.

Is now a good time to talk about the Queen's Thief series? I don't think I've straight-up ever mentioned that they're the books I'm talking about. They are one of my most favorite series of all time. And it is impossible to talk about them because everything is a spoiler. Gen is a thief and he does things and things happen to him? That's the best I can do.

I stayed up WAY too late reading Thick as Thieves (the newest one), couldn't finish because I started way too late at night. And I made the righteous choice and didn't bring it to work to read "during lunch" because I've learned by now that means I read it "all the time" and sometimes it's nice to actually work.

And then I couldn't even get back to it until late Wednesday night! Two late nights in a row! It was like those previous times in my life when the company of a boy was more scintillating than the idea of sleep. It was just like that! Except it was a book. There were boys in the book. Not quite the same though.

(My review: I hope eventually I'll like it better. I like it fine but I don't love it like I love the others. But that is a usual feeling for me, it's happened with all the other books because they're all so very different. So the outlook is promising.)

Then I decided to get active in the online community of Queen's Thief fans. I made a post that, as of today, has 71 comments on it discussing my insights and questions (and a fair amount of off-topic rambling, I guess that's normal). This is a series that is great for discussing.

I also immediately started rereading Thick as Thieves, in hopes that further exposure will help me love it sooner. Time will tell.

Saturday night! Saturday night I made a big huge leap and decided to go BACK to the bookstore because the author herself, Megan Whalen Turner, was going to be there and so would Shannon Hale (who is great. I love her. I love them both!). When traffic isn't horrendous it turns out the bookstore is only 10 minutes away, then I spent another 10 minutes looking for parking. And then I found the place it would be held and discovered that 15 minutes early is not early enough to get in the front.

I'm going to add pictures from my Snap story to this post for those few that don't check my Snap story. Weird.

I ended up sitting next to a girl from the same online community as me (though of course we don't know each other), so that was kind of fun! And just look at how many people love MWT and the Queen's Thief (and maybe also Shannon Hale)!

I stole this from Shannon's twitter. I am visible in this picture. x

Everyone was pretty excited. It was a good energy (and a beautiful night). I took some bad quality pictures the first few minutes (the only kind my phone knows how to take) and then remembered that I can also take video, so I recorded the rest of the evening. I don't know if that was gauche or not. I wasn't the only one.

There they are!!! So exciting! They're telling us they're not going to talk about children.

Pixelated authors

I am ashamed of myself for laughing as loud as I did when Shannon made that quip.

Anyway after that was when I started the video. It is a 45-min video. The video quality is not good but the audio is sufficient. And I've just listened to it again and it's entertaining! So you can watch if you want. (I thought about just clipping out parts that I thought might be more widely enjoyed, but it's hard for me to know. Lots of bantering and talking about YALLWEST and also no spoilers about the books.)

After we finished we all joined the signing line. There was a little something on the event that said people who bought their books from The King's English would have priority, but that wasn't true. It was fine though. The line was extremely long (I have some pictures of the line but they are not all that interesting).

I finally got to the table and awkwardly (as is my wont) put all my books down on the table, jostling it right as she was about to sign my hardcover. I forgot to mention that I brought all the Queen's Thief books I own (except for The Thief, which I lent out). I didn't want her to sign them all, just touch them. Because I feel like I can have cred when I tell people "The author touched this book. You'll enjoy it." So she did. She thought I was weird but she did it anyway. What a good egg.

This is the first time this has ever happened to me. And probably the last.

Yep, here's the rest of my books. Yep, I toted these around all night while looking for parking and walking from parking and standing in that super long line.

It was a great experience! I don't usually want to go to new scary places by myself but I did and I had a good time. It helped that I really, really wanted to do this. And that none of my friends invited me to do anything that would conflict. I'm glad I went.

trace all my books [2016]

In a lot of ways 2016 feels like a wash as far as my own life went--as far as personal, social, or spiritual development. But then I remembered that I kept my resolution about 60% of the time! That's better than it could be. (And it might've even been more. 75%? The world is my oyster.) (My resolution was to make my bed every day, in hopes that once I was there I would kneel down and pray instead of not doing that...which did not happen 60% of the time. But the only real resolution was making my bed, and I did that a lot.)

We'll see if I can keep my 2017 resolution, which is to shower more often. Starting tomorrow!

I mean, I know I am different than I was at the start of the year. Too many things are the same, but there are some good differences I think. And some bad ones. When was the last time I cooked for myself? Not sure.

There's a lot to be disappointed in myself about, but we're looking forward.

Anyway, I decided to make a year-end vlog to roundup all the books I read this year. It's 10 minutes long so you may not find it worth your time (also because I used my phone to record it all, it's rather quiet). But there's a couple fun things in there. In my opinion.

I tried to say Happy New Year but my phone doesn't start collecting sound for a bit. Didn't know that. Anyway here's the rundown of books I thought were worth mentioning this year. Except I didn't even mention Hamilton. Or Harry Potter.

Books featured in this video:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen

A Taste for Monsters by Matthew J. Kirby

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier

Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley

Authors featured:

Megan Whalen Turner

Diana Wynne Jones

Tamora Pierce

Terry Pratchett

Georgette Heyer

Jennifer Beckstrand

Here's to a good new year.

I can trace all my books [2015]

Happy New Year! Right now I'm uploading a 2015 book recap for my vlog. It's taking forever -- not sure if it's the phone or the internet at home (both unusual quantities for my videos). So I have plenty of time to write a blog post about books too.

Of the ~150 books I checked out this year, I can single out ~30 that I really enjoyed and recommend. Man am I ever grateful I learned how to be picky and not force myself to finish every single book I try.

I am pretty sure I filmed myself liking more than 30 books. And I am kind of regretting not mentioning Bone Gap in my video. Oh well. I guess it's not the be-all end-all 2015 recap. You can also just watch all my vlogs to give you a good sense of the books I liked.

But here's a list. Lists are fun.

In the category of ongoing/finished series that I have enjoyed this year are the following:

• The Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal -- complete (I haven't completed it but the series is complete). First book is Shades of Milk and Honey
• The Paper Magician Series by Charlie N. Holmberg -- complete
• Finishing School by Gail Carriger -- complete (I have the final book on hold)
• Tales of Arilland by Alethea Kontis -- complete (? I think). The first book is Enchanted (and that's the best one)
• The Otherworld Series by Skylar Dorset -- complete. The first book is The Girl Who Never Was
• Duplexity by Amy K. Nichols -- complete (I have the final book checked out). The first book is Now that You're Here
• Tyme Series by Megan Morrison -- just starting. The first book is Grounded
• The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey -- just starting.
• The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows -- just starting
• The Gold Seer Trilogy by Rae Carson -- just starting. First book "Walk on Earth a Stranger"
• The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff -- just starting
• The Starbound Trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner -- complete (I have the final book on hold). First book is 'These Broken Stars"
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer -- complete.
• Elemental Blessings by Sharon Shinn -- complete? First book is Troubled Waters

Haha that's not a ton of books or anything. And I'm not even done.

Here's a list of fairytale adaptations I read this year and also other books by the same author that are not necessarily in a series (how's that for a specific list):

• Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay. Also the author of Of Beast and Beauty which I really liked when I read it in 201...4. Nope, 2013.
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. Also Crimson Bound! I read them both this year
• Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis. I have Spinning Starlight checked out right now and I'm excited

Here's a list of other books I really liked. They're either fairytale adaptations or have heavy elements of fairy and folk tale. I know who I am:

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Valiant by Sarah McGuire
• Illusionarium by Heather Dixon (actually this one is not an adaptation as far as I can tell -- it wins)
• Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (actually this is the most original -- but it didn't come out this year either, so...)

Hey my video is finished uploading! Here it is! If you're wondering why it's worth watching when I've already listed everything right here for you I have two compelling reasons:

1. My face
2. I discuss my reading resolution for 2016! Don't you want to know what it is?

followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 82]

Read this.

“We live in a very poor part of Kenya on the border of Uganda. One of our branch presidents … is a farmer living on an extended family compound. He is a young man with a small family. …
“… He has members of his branch who tell him … that they cannot come to Church on Sunday because … they are afraid to leave their homes for fear their neighbors will steal their crops. … [This] is a very REAL concern. … In fact, people … wait to plant when the other neighbors plant, so they lessen the chance for their early harvest to be taken. …”
“[They also say] they cannot come to Church on Sunday because they must work … because they are so poor.”
“[The branch president] continued, ‘I tell them, “I leave my home every Sunday and stay at Church for long hours of the day. I do not work on the Sabbath. When I return home, I have often found that my neighbors have stolen my [corn], my chickens, their eggs, my fruit because they are hungry and they have no food. Still, I find that when it comes time for harvest, I am blessed because my land produces more than theirs—even though they work each Sunday. My land produces more, and I am blessed because I keep the Sabbath Day holy.”’
“Hearing [this branch president’s] comment, [another branch president] said, ‘I can attest to the same thing. I have 2 acres of [corn]. My neighbor works 10 acres. He works every Sunday. I do not. When it comes time to harvest, I have plenty. My neighbor comes to me for food because he hasn’t enough. I, too, am blessed for living the law of the Sabbath.’”¹¹The Lord’s ways are higher than our ways—and so is His arithmetic. It is different than ours. It is true of tithing, isn’t it? With tithing, 10 minus 1 does not equal 9. The Lord blesses us with what we need and more. That is also true of the Sabbath. There are seven days in a week, but working six of seven days actually provides us with more, not less, of the things we truly need. You can almost hear the Lord say, “Prove me now herewith … if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

source

I can trace all my books [2014 pt.1]

I've gotten into a really, really bad habit lately. I check out more books than I can conceivably read, so I don't even read them all. I start them, and then often will say "Hey, this book is really good" and skip to the end.

(Sometimes I say, "This book is not keeping my interest" and skip to the end, but the result is the same.)

My new standard of whether a book is actually really good is when I actually read the whole thing (even if I skipped to the end first). I thought, since the year is half over, I'd share with you some of these books. Probably all of them. Which means this is going to be a long list.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Salt Lake County Library Services for introducing "Reading History" at the end of January so I wouldn't have to remember what I read. It's all there on the website for my perusal. However, when I summarize the book for you, I'll just be going off what I remember and not what the library says. More fun that way.

Here we go.

Red by Allison Cherry -- In a town where having red hair is key to everything, the main girl has a secret. She's also in high school. I have a soft spot for high school stories.

Across a Star-Swept sea by Diana Peterfruend -- It's a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel and that should be enough. (Set in the same dystopian world as For Darkness Shows the Stars which I also loved.)

Slayers: Friends and Traitors by C.J. Hill -- dragons? Also teenagers. Teenagers are so great.

Women and the Priesthood: What One Mormon Woman Believes by Sheri Dew -- It was an excellent perspective.

I Will Lead You Along: The Life of Henry B. Eyring -- I had to check this book out twice in order to finish it, but it was so worth it to see how a man of God has lived his life.

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel -- most of what I remember about this book was that I had it on hold for four months and was starting to think it was never coming (I was #1 in line). Also that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Court intrigue and stuff.

The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen -- finishes up the trilogy begun in The False Prince.

The Vanishing Thief by Kate Parker -- It's a Victorian Bookshop mystery! I'm not sure I'll remember to ever check back later for sequels, but I did like this first one.

Cress by Marissa Meyer -- I really like the direction these are taking. It's a retelling of Rapunzel, sequel to Cinder and Scarlet.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman -- He's a common soldier risen above his station due to heroism. She is heiress to the entire world, basically. When their spaceship crashes on an unknown world or something, they must figure things out.

Doon by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon -- These two girls end up on Brigadoon and they have really hot guys chasing after them or something. I loved the review on the library website ("The main characters used a lot of slang words and were always talking about how 'gorgeous' these guys were. Would not recommend.")

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando -- teenager stories are my weakness. These two girls end up being assigned as college roommates and strike up an email conversation to get to know each other before the school year. What a summer!

The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain -- Um, a son of Hades or something gets sent to the real world to pick up a "Persephone" but the one he's assigned is not going to come easily. Also some end-of-the-world plots probably.

Doomed by Tracy Deebs -- Okay first off her dad names her Pandora, then he tricks her into uploading a virus that basically destroys the world. Good going, dad.

Death Sworn by Leah Cypress -- This sorceress gets sent to the assassins (after her previous predecessors mysteriously disappeared). There's some plotty conspiracies and magic and stuff.

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins -- This girl ended up becoming some protector or something right before Cotillion. Protecting this guy that she's always had sparks with (the bad kind, totally the bad kind). I laughed out loud like 20 pages in.

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski -- The general's daughter bids more than she meant to on a slave, who is not the most slave-like slave ever. Do they fall in love? Does he totally ruin her life?

Dangerous by Shannon Hale -- teenagers + superheroes. Plus diversity, which is important. If you haven't read this book yet I don't know why.

The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty -- I only just read this (the library website goes by checkout date, and I renewed this a couple times). I loved it so much. Sometimes I skimmed a little of the world-building/philosophy stuff to get to the story, but when the third one comes out I will definitely read A Corner of White and this one again, slowly, to appreciate them. Um, this girl that lives in Cambridge notices a letter stuck in a parking meter. It's from a boy from The Kingdom of Cello, which is totally a different dimension! (Thats's the summary of the first book.) They each have major issues on their sides of the crack, which puts a strain on their developing friendship.

Deep Blue by Jennifer Connelly -- It is a Disney Hyperion book and it reads kind of like a movie. It is mermaids.

The House at Rose Creek by Jenny Proctor -- a Whitney award finalist for 2013, so I thought I'd check it out. This girl has a high-powered job but then she inherits her childhood home. And (spoiler) converts to Mormonism.

Mile 21 by Sarah Dunster -- a Whitney award finalist for 2013 (actually it might have won). She's at BYUI and a widow, but she has to live in approved housing and go to the singles ward.

Plus One by Elizabeth Fama -- The world is divided into people that live in the daytime, Rays, and those that must live in the nighttime, Smudges. Sol, a Smudge, is determined to kidnap her new niece, a Ray, so her grandfather can meet her before he dies. It doesn't go all that well (no thanks to a Ray boy who keeps saving her). This is my kind of book.

Also Known As by Robin Benway -- She is an international spy (a good guy spy) that on her first solo mission gets to go to high school for the first time. Her target: a really hot guy. Things happen. Probably even explosions. I have the sequel checked out right now but haven't read it yet. I have hopes for it, though.

Pivot Point by Kasie West -- Confession: I didn't read this one. This is one that I said "This is really good!" and skipped to the end and then said, "That was really good!" But you guys should read it. I think it won the Whitney Award for 2013 (at least it was a finalist). This girl lives in a place where they have certain abilities. Hers is to live out two diverging timelines from one choice, to see what happens. (Then she comes back to 'the present' and makes her choice based on what she learned in her 'future-seeing'.)

Oh, I guess that's it. The other ten or so books on my reading history I haven't quite read yet. I'll have to hit them at the end of the year.

gotta move, gotta choose

I realized that I was perhaps a bit disingenuous when I deleted my drafts for Epiphany. See, while I deleted 18 drafts and that was great, I still have 100 left. My wording in that post was unclear on that point. I keep a lot of drafts.

But the other day I was voting for Teen Choice awards for YA books in 2013, and in order to narrow it down to 5 I had to go through the list and write down every book I read that I would be willing to see on a top choices list, even if I might not necessarily vote for them. To keep track, I created another draft.

And it's bugging me to have 101 drafts. So here's the 18 or so books I narrowed the list down to before I picked the 5 to vote for (indicated by a hyphen). It was pretty tough; try not to judge me for not voting for a book you loved, because chances are I loved it too.

-All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry
The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson
The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
The Clockwork Scarab by
-A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty
Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike
Golden by Jessi Kirby
Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelly Coriell
-Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Red by Allison Cherry
-The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
-Shadows by Robin McKinley
This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer Smith

There, now I can delete that draft.

reading line by line

I started off this year reading the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, backwards, starting with A Conspiracy of Kings. It's making me question whether I want to keep track of all the books I read in 2014, or just the new ones, or maybe just the good ones.

Especially since I got a bookshelf for Christmas and as part of my New Year's holiday I brought down from home most of my books. Well, at least half of them. And quite a few from home that aren't mine (mostly those are ones that I need to read). But having so many of my favorites in such close proximity makes it all the more likely I'll reread a lot of them.

Since I reread books fairly regularly I thought about making my criteria for what I recommend from 2013 "Books I would read again" but life is kind of short and I really enjoyed a lot of books I don't need to read again.

So that's been my dilemma, and that's why it's been more than a week since I said I would post my recs. But I'm going to do it.

From the last quarter of the year I would highlight: The Chaos of Stars, Shadows, All Our Yesterdays, For Darkness Shows the Stars, All the Truth That's In Me, The Clockwork Scarab.

But you know what I didn't include in that list? Sequels to books I really enjoy!

So here is my list of Favorite Ongoing Series of 2013:

• Sammy Keyes by Wendelin van Draanen -- this series is almost over and I've almost outgrown it, but I'm determined to stick it out through the end
• Finishing School by Gail Carriger -- the first two books in the series are out, Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies and I have enjoyed them both. It's nice to have a YA story set in this world.
• Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein -- Both of these books are masterpieces. I discovered them because someone on the internet was lambasting another WWII-era female protagonist novel for being exceedingly wrong about historical facts and they said "If you want accuracy about what women did during WWII read Code Name Verity." So I did.
• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater -- The first two books in the series are out (The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves), and I hope they don't stress you out as much as they do me (in the best way, though!).
• The Woodcutter Sisters by Alethea Kontis -- When I first read Enchanted I thought it made a great one-off novel that mashed all the fairytales together just the way I like. This year the sequel Hero came out and I just realized I remember about nothing of this book. But I'm still interested in the series.
• The Fire and Thorns Trilogy by Rae Carson -- Good news! This trilogy is now complete. Now I can reread it.
• Elemental Blessings by Sharon Shinn -- I fell hard for Troubled Waters when I got it for Christmas lo these many years ago. I was very excited for an unexpected sequel in Royal Airs and it didn't disappoint. I have been trying to decide if there's going to be another one in the series, and my gut says "yes."
• Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer -- Cinder and Scarlet are out. The next one, Cress, comes out next month. I'm pretty excited about that. (Also how clever is it to call a Rapunzel-like character "Cress"? I love it.)

So there's a touch of recommendation from me. Not meant to be comprehensive (I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to be comprehensive about books people should read).

in mazes lost

So it turns out that I really like a lot of books. Surprise! And I really want one place I can direct people with similar tastes to books that I am willing to reread (many, many times, some of them). Because when people ask for recommendations I am having a really hard time limiting myself. This way they can look through and see which ones interest them.

(Obviously I like more books than I'm listing here. I'm writing this list as if I were recommending books to myself, to read again. Because I do that. If you want different recommendations, look at my booklists and ask me about the titles if you're interested.)

Also, your local library is your friend. We own hardly any of these books.

Authors

Instead of listing all the books by an author I like, I thought it might be more useful to list the authors that have multiple books, and list the standouts from there. We'll see how that goes.


Diana Wynne Jones
Dalemark Quartet: I might be the only one that really likes this series, but I really like it.
Chronicles of Chrestomanci: They are fun.
Also most other things she wrote.

Elizabeth C. Bunce
Haven't reread any of her work yet, but I keep meaning to put "A Curse Dark as Gold" on my reread list.

Hilari Bell
Shield, Sword, and Crown series: For younger readers (or young at heart? ugh). I think they're YA.
Knight and Rogue series: Definitely YA. I can't remember too much about these except I enjoyed them.
Fall of a Kingdom series: If you're into a little more of the epic, these books are long.

Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs is the first in the series. They're mysteries. Do you like mysteries?

Janette Rallison
My Unfair Godmother
Just One Wish
My Double Life
(the other books are okay too. I just mostly like these.)

Jessica Day George
I like the princess books best, but everything she writes is good.

Juliet Marillier
Sevenwaters series...es: I think she has like 4 trilogies out now? As the generations go the stories branch out. They are grownup books but I don't recall anything bad.
Wildwood Dancing: YA that I enjoyed. It's yet another 12 Dancing Princesses remake but that doesn't make it bad.

J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter series: just in case.

Megan Whalen Turner
The Thief: the first one. You have to read it first. Lots of people don't like it as much as the rest of the series, but you really ought to start with it anyway.

Mercedes Lackey
Collegium Chronicles: while I still haven't read the first one in this series, I have enjoyed the rest a lot.
Five Hundred Kingdoms: My favorite is probably "Sleeping Beauty". Some of them are kind of grown up, in the way that you skip a few pages.

Robin McKinley
Spindle's End
Rose Daughter
The Blue Sword
(and the others are good too. I'm just trying to remember the "standouts" I said I was doing)

Shannon Hale
Everything is good, but I especially recommend Princess Academy (+ sequel).

Sharon Shinn
The Safe-Keeper's Secret series: Bonus, it's YA, so you don't have to worry about adult material. I remember really liking them.
The Archangel series: These are first and foremost romances against the backdrop of a fantasy planet. At least, that's how I feel about them. Since they're adult you may have to skip a few pages (if you're like me).
Troubled Waters: A stand-alone novel that I loved.

Terry Pratchett
I think the Discworld is really fun. Tiffany Aching is good. I also enjoyed Dodger when I read it recently.

Wendelin van Draanen
Sammy Keyes series: If you have daughters you ought to read this and see if you want your daughters to read it. It's a mystery series and she's in 7th grade and I've really enjoyed them.
read other books by her too, it's cool

Books

And sometimes I just have one book to put on a list (so far. I don't know, I could probably organize some of these in the other category).

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (cyborg Cinderella!)

Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey (safely YA and I think good? Once upon a time I can only remember I liked it)

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis (Fun times with fractured fairy tales!)

Entwined by Heather Dixon (I think it's also 12 Dancing Princesses it's been a while but it was good)

Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (fabulous)

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt (sometimes I read not fantasy, sometimes I read middle-school boy)

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine (sometimes I read historical fiction)

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen

The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal (I think the juxtaposition of these two is funny. They might even tell the same story I don't remember.)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society (just in case!)

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (This is a story about normal girls living a normal life! That's all it is! It's good!)

The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell (This book was so refreshing when I read it. Well-written, etc. Fairy tale retelling but I'm not quite sure which one?)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Loved it!)

The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley (this is a series! why is it here? anyway it's good I guess)

Wisdom's Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (What is: a book I don't remember at all except that it was pretty good probably?)

THERE IS NO WAY THIS LIST WILL EVER BE COMPLETE EVER WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP WRITING BOOKS

ALSO WHAT CRITERIA DID I EVEN USE TO CHOOSE WHAT I PUT ON MY LIST THIS IS NOT SCIENTIFIC OR ACCURATE it is a mess

So, for those of you looking for book recommendations, enjoy my enormously unhelpful list. This is more than a year's worth. Probably even for me. BUT YOU'RE WELCOME

Title Text: "My Medea" ~ Vienna Teng

I can trace all my books [June 2012]

Hello! It's actually the second day of the month, but yesterday was relatively crazy (either that or I really wanted to take a nap instead of post) and I wanted to make sure and take the time to make this post worthwhile. Since it's all I post these days. (I only have one idea, and it's not good enough.) At any rate, the list:

June
51. Slayers by C.J. Hill
52. Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham
53. A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
54. Daughters of the Sea: Lucy by Kathryn Lasky
55. The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
56. The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind by Meg Medina
57. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
58. Death comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
59. The Selection by Kiera Cass


I've had a request to list the books I've read that I'd recommend for family members and such. I'll include it at the end of my six-month stats here.

Books read: 59 (if I'd known, I'd have squeezed in one more book to make it round. I like round.)
First-time: 56
Reread: 3
Fiction: 58
Nonfiction: 1
Average: 9.83

The reason I haven't made recommendation lists in the past is I read such a variety of books. I never know what will appeal to people. I'll just assume that people have about my same taste.

Stand-out books:
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
I loved the way this story tied together. Some of it was predictable (it's a Cinderella story, after all) but I really liked the differences and the new technology/mythology that the author incorporated. YA fiction, but I'd let anyone with the right reading level get into it. Only problem? It's probably a trilogy.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
He did a great job with the emotions and relationships in this book. (John Green is a fairly popular author for a reason.) Caveat: I definitely remember at least one swear word. And it's YA material. (Oh, and it's about cancer. If that's a problem, don't read it.)

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex
Silly grown-up. This book is for kids! What if cereal box mascots were really refugees from like Fairyland or something? (I remember thinking that children would enjoy this book, and I think I enjoyed it, but it was a little below my level.)

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
Basically this guy ends up going to spy school even though he's not qualified at all, but don't worry, he saves the day anyway. I think. Since everyone at the school is in middle or high school, that's the intended audience. It was a fun book, though.

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen
These orphan boys are told to learn how to become the missing prince, not realizing the danger they and the kingdom are in. Loved this book. It's YA/J? I can't remember if it had any YA material in it. I think it's safely J, and it's fun for boys and girls.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
I loved this book a lot. At first I was a little skeptical -- racing bloodthirsty water horses along the sea where they're more likely to savage people seemed like a recipe for disaster to me, but the relationships sold me, and I truly appreciated the mythology as a perfect backdrop for the way the people on this special island interacted. Spoiler alert: Savaging by mean water horses does happen. Sometimes to people.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
I think the base fairytale is the Frog Prince? But it's hard to tell because this family seems to get tied up into every fairy tale possible! I was impressed at how she was able to incorporate them all into one (mostly) coherent storyline. YA, but I can't remember any reason someone with the appropriate reading level wouldn't enjoy it.



Do you know my problem? I liked every book I've read so far this year, otherwise I wouldn't have read them. I am not sure if the ones I chose are the ones I should recommend. (If you're into YA love triangles, I didn't include those. If you're into Paranormal YA romance, I didn't include too many of those either. I read them though! And liked them.) But you can start with this list and I'll try to be more discriminating in the way I recommend in future.