November Wrap Up

I'm back! At least I hope that I'm going to be able to keep up with posting consistently now. The plan is going to be 4 post a week (Mon-Thurs) and I will adjust from there if necessary. November was an interesting month for me since I had fall break, which was 10 days off from school. As expected I was able to read a lot during those 10 days and that is reflected in my total of 8 books for the month!

1. Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith (4 Crowns)
2. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (3 Crowns)
3. Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray (5 Crowns)
4. The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (4 Crowns)
5. Compulsion by Martina Boone (4 Crowns)
6. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (4 Crowns)
7. Stand-Off by Andrew Smith (5 Crowns)
8. Instinct by Sherrilyn Kenyon (4 Crowns)

I'm currently in the middle of Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith and I'm really enjoying the latest Robin and Cormoran book.

How did you do in November? Let me know in the comments!

October Wrap Up

If you have not noticed, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging. School has really picked up since we are three weeks away from finals, so I have not had enough time to read, let alone put posts together. I have a week off for Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping to get back on track then. That being said, I still wanted to do a wrap up for October. I actually read 7 books this month, but that included a lot of binge reading.

1. Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty (4 Crowns)
2. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (4.5 Crowns)
3. The Martian by Andy Weir (4 Crowns)
4. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (5 Crowns)
5. Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephanie Meyer (3 Crowns)
6. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (4.5 Crowns)
7. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman (4 Crowns)

My TBR is currently out of control since I preordered so many books and have not been reading enough to keep up. It currently sits at 82. Which is 25 more than it was last month. I probably should cut back on buying books, but there are just so many I want to read and I cannot help but want to buy them right away.

How did you do in October? Let me know in the comments!

September Wrap Up

So school was in full swing this month and I had way less time than I ever though to read. I still feel like I did good though. I just wish I could have read more.

1. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas (5 Crowns)
2. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (5 Crowns)
3. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (4 Crowns)
4. Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin (4 Crowns)
5. Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard (4 Crowns)

I also have just over 100 pages left of The Wrath and the Dawn that I was hoping to finish but alas I did not.

If you haven't noticed I'm behind on reviews. I have not posted any reviews for books I've recently read instead reviews have been stockpiled from what I read during the summer. That being said, I will eventually get reviews posted for all of these except maybe Queen of Shadows because it would have to be a spoiler review.
 
TBR currently sits at 57, so I did not increase from last month even though I acquired many books. But with new books constantly coming because of preorders and my lack of reading time, my TBR may get out of control.

Look for my October TBR tomorrow. How did you do in September? Let me know in the comments!

August Wrap Up

August was the month I started Grad school, so I knew my reading would be severely impacted. And it may not look like it, but since I started school on the 17th, I have only read 1 book. The other 10 books were read prior to then. I'm hoping with school and everything that comes with it, I can read a book a week, but we shall see how it goes. As for what I read in August there are 11 books, 7 of which I read during the BookTube-A-Thon. As always, links to reviews if I have them!

1. Tithe by Holly Black (3 Crowns)
2. Nil by Lynne Matson (3.5 Crowns)
3. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (4 Crowns)
4. The Girl in 6E by A. R. Torre (4 Crowns)
5. One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart (3 Stars)
6. Beastly Bones by William Ritter (4 Stars)
7. Armada by Ernest Cline (3.5 Stars)
8. I Am Number 4 by Pittacus Lore (2.5 Stars)
9. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (4.5 Crowns)
10. The Magicians by Lev Grossman (3 Crowns)
11. A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (4.5 Stars)

This month I read 4,014 pages which is pretty good all things considered.
 
TBR currently sits at 58 which is not terrible, but it also is not the best. I've kind of come to the conclusion that for the rest of the year, my goal needs to be not increasing my TBR each month. With school that may be challenging, but it is what I'm hoping for.

Look for my September TBR tomorrow. How did you do in August? Let me know in the comments!

BookTube-A-Thon 2015 Wrap Up

So I was 216 pages away from being 100% successful completing all the challenges. My downfall was picking a 600+ page book for author sharing same first letter of your last name. I could not quite finish The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

The six books I completed were

Nil by Lynne Matson

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre
One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart
Armada by Ernest Cline

Not pictured is Beastly Bones by William Ritter.

This readathon really helped me finish some books and add to my queue of reviews. Since I'm starting grad school in less than two weeks, I know I will not have nearly as much time to read, so it will be harder to maintain three new reviews a week, but I'm hoping to stockpile a bunch so that I can do maybe do two a week. So look out for reviews for these books in the future. You can see initial thoughts on my Goodreads.

Oh and I read a total of 2539 pages during the readathon!

July Wrap Up

July was a really interesting month for me. I was not really doing much, so I had lots of time to read, but I was very slumpy and just did not feel like reading. As a result, I read way less than I normally would. And I completely failed when it came to following my TBR. The worst part was when it got to be the last part of the month, I felt like I had failed because I had not ready 15+ books like I have been doing in the past. I realized that I've been having such amazing months reading that 6 books and 3 graphic novels felt like failure to me. This also made me realize that reading 6 books is amazing, that is more than one a week and that is more than many people accomplish and I should be proud of myself instead of mad because I did not have an amazing reading month.

So long story short, I did not read as much in July as I normally do, and while my TBR may still be out of control, I'm happy with being able to read 6 (or 9, depending on how you look at it) books this month! As always links to reviews, if I have them!

1. Locke and Key Vol. 2 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (4 Crowns)
2. P. S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (3 Crowns)
3. Ensnared by A. G. Howard (4 Crowns)
4. Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George (2 Crowns)
5. The Collector by Victoria Scott (4 Crowns)
6. Locke and Key Vol. 3 (4 Crowns)
7. Locke and Key Vol. 4 (4 Crowns)
8. The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd (4.5 Crowns)
9. The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent (4 Crowns)

I was also in the middle of Tithe by Holly Black at the end of the month and have since finished it, but technically finished it in August not July.

This month I read 2,829 pages which is still amazing even if it is way lower than my normal total.
 
#0by16 is getting to the point where I'm probably going to fail, but I'm trying not to put that much pressure on myself. I'm at least keeping my TBR constant at around 60 books, so I'm not increasing it drastically each month, which is an accomplishment. Hopefully I can continue to lower that number by the end of the year.

Look for my August TBR later today. How did you do in July? Let me know in the comments!

June 2015 Wrap Up

So if you did not notice, this month I'm splitting up my June Wrap Up and July TBR into two separate posts. The posts were getting so long that I decided it was time to split them up. As for reading, I had a really good month. I participated in two different readathons, the #TBRTakedown and the #rainbowthon. Both these helped me read consistently, but I also had a lot of time to read since it is the summer. In terms of following my TBR from last month, that was an epic fail. I did good with my TBR jar picks, but I did not even start Under the Dome, nor did I finish the eARCs I wanted to. That being said I still read 17 books this month, plus a graphic novel, which is crazy good! As always, links to full reviews if I did them.

1. Sekret by Lindsay Smith (4 Crowns)
2. Allegiant  by Veronica Roth (2 Crowns)
3. Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter (4 Crowns)
4. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (4 Crowns)
5. A Letter to My Mom by Lisa Erspamer (3 Crowns)
6. Velvet by Temple West (3.5 Crowns)
7. I Was Here by Gayle Forman (4 Crowns)
8. Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck (4 Crowns)
9. The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz (3.5 Crowns)
10. Naked by Stacey Trombley (4 Crowns)
11. Zom-B by Darren Shan (3.5 Crowns)
12. A Court of Fives by Kate Elliott (4 Crowns)
13. Lullaby by Amanda Hocking (3 Crowns)
14. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley (3.5 Crowns)
15. Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn (4 Crowns)
16. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (4 Crowns)
17. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (4 Crowns) 
18. Locke & Key: Volume One Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez (4 Crowns) 

And with all those books, I read a total of 6,345 pages this month! I starting keeping track in the middle of May just as a way to see how much I read on average each day.
 
#0by 16 is currently a mess, I'm acquiring way too many books. But I can happily say for the first time all year my TBR is in the 50s. It currently sits at 56!!! I'm not sure how it is going to get all the way down by the end of the year, but I'm still convinced I can do this.

Look for my July TBR later today. How did you do in June? Let me know in the comments!

The Reading Rainbow Readathon Wrap-Up

So I was semi-successful with completing the Reading Rainbow Readathon last week. And for the most part I enjoyed the books I read. I did end up only reading 5 books rather than the chosen 6. However, the book I read for yellow, I'm going to count as both orange and yellow, so I still completed the rainbow part of the challenge. I went out of town for a short trip for two days and that really hurt my reading and is the big reason I didn't even start In a Handful of Dust.

The five books I read were:

Zom-B by Darren Shan

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Lullaby by Amanda Hocking
Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

This readathon yet again helped me get another five books off my ever growing TBR. My TBR currently sits at 60, which means it is holding pretty steady because I have a book buying problem. This readathon was fun to read books of all different colors and got me to pick up books I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile. 

#TBRTakedown Wrap Up

So I was successful with completing all five challenges for the #TBRTakedown Readathon last week. And for the most part I enjoyed the books I read. I did end up changing the book for the challenge: a book from your latest haul. I ended up reading The Queen of the Tearling rather than Outlander. And this was done solely based on being more busy than initially anticipated this weekend so I was not confident that I would have been able to finish Outlander in time.

The five books I read were:

Sekret by Lindsay Smith

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

A Letter to my Mom by Lisa Erspamer

This readathon helped me get another five books off my ever growing TBR. My TBR currently sits at 61 but I know I have more books coming in the mail because I have a book buying problem. Anyways, this was a really fun readathon to get me to read books that I would not just randomly pick up. I know there is another readathon coming up in a few weeks that focuses on a Rainbow of Books, that I will definitely be participating in. 

May 2015 Wrap-Up/June 2015 TBR

This was a weird month reading wise for me since it was end of the semester with finals and also graduation and moving back home for me. And then we went on vacation for over a week, so my reading schedule was wonky, but I did manage to read 16 books. That being said, I also had a fantastic month in terms of enjoyable books. There were really only 3 that were disappointing. As always links to my reviews if I have one!

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (5 Crowns)
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (5 Crowns)
3. The Heir by Kiera Cass (3 Crowns)
4. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (4 Crowns)
5. All the Rage by Courtney Summers (5 Crowns)
6. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (5 Crowns)
7. The Clouded Sky by Megan Crewe (3.5 Crowns)
8. Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper (4 Crowns)
9. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen (4 Crowns)
10. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (4 Crowns)
11. Lady Thief by A. C. Gaughen (4 Crowns)
12. Unhinged by A. G. Howard (5 Crowns)
13. Betrayed by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast (3 Crowns)
14. The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker (4 Crowns)
15. Wool by Hugh Howey (4 Crowns)
16. Graceling by Kristin Cashore (3.5 Crowns)

#0by16 is still going decently. I only read 2 ebooks this month, however I acquired a lot of new books. My total TBR stands at 63 right now, which is only one less than last month...

Other than the 5 books I chose for #TBRTakedown, I have chosen 3 more from my TBR Jar and then some based on needing to review and what I'm feeling like reading. It is going to be a very heavy review books month.

1. In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis
2. Zom-B by Darren Shan
3. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
4. Under the Dome by Stephen King (this is going to be the huge book to read in June, really nervous about getting through this)
5. Ensnared by A. G. Howard (I just want to finish this trilogy so bad right now)
6. Court of Fives by Kate Elliot (just got the ARC and need to read)
7. Naked by Stacey Tombley (got this for review and it comes out in July)
8. Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George (again comes out in July)
9. A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
10. Beastly Bones by William Ritter (I was trying to wait until closer to release- September- but I cannot wait any more)
11. If You're Lucky by Yvonne Prinz (this is the last eARC I have on my NetGalley shelf).

If you couldn't tell, this month is definitely focused on getting all my review books completed. This is not going to help with #0by16, but it will help me be on top of review copies. I have a few more physical ARCs that I really need to get around too, but for June I'm going to focus on the eARCs.

How did you do in May? What are you planning for June? Let me know in the comments!

April 2015 Wrap-Up/May 2015 TBR

I was actually pretty successful when it came to sticking to my TBR. Only thing that was a slight fail was my DNFing of Not Cool. I read 25% and decided that there was no reason to finish it. As for books I actually completed, I read 11, which is less than normal, but as you will see there were a lot of really big books this month. As always links to my reviews if I have one!

1. Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes (4 Crowns)
2. Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes (4.5 Crowns)
3. Rumors by Anna Godbersen (3 Crowns)
4. The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons (3.5 Crowns)
5. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (4 Crowns)
6. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (4 Crowns)
7. A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic (4 Crowns)
8. We Are All Suspects Now by Tram Nguyen (3 Crowns)- read for school
9. This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl 
10. Awakening by Shannon Duffy (3.5 Crowns)
11. Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe (3.5 Crowns)

#0by16 is still going decently. I only read 4 ebooks again this month and those were all for review, except Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. My total TBR stands at 65 right now, so I'm starting to get a little nervous about finishing but I'm still confident. The only books I bought this month were the HP Special Edition Box set since it was on sale. And those books I have read so they do not count against the TBR pile. 

I'm currently in the middle of All the Light We Cannot See and I will be finishing it shortly. Other than finishing that one in May, I have again picked 4 books out of my TBR jar. May is when I graduate so I will have 1/2 the month of finals and craziness related to graduation, but after that I have the rest of the month to just read! Due to the free time I will be having, my TBR is more ambitious than normal. The first four are what was picked from the TBR, the rest are personal picks. As always links to Goodreads.

1. Betrayed by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
2. Invaded by Melissa Landers
3. Wool by Hugh Howey
4. Graceling by Kirstin Cashore
5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (meeting her the 11th, so have to have it read by then)
6.  Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen (this is a reread, but I do not remember really anything from it)
7. Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen (want to have this read so I can get Lion Heart)
8. Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper (going to his show on the 16th so want to read this before then)
9. The Heir by Kiera Cass (new release so have to get to it right away)
10. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (I have 3 huge books that I have not read yet, so I'm going to read one in May, one in June, and one in July) 
11. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (slightly embarrassed that I own two copies of this book and still have not read it)

Only books I have for review are A Letter to My Mom by Lisa Erspamer and The Clouded Sky by Megan Crewe. It will be very interesting to see if I actually accomplish reading all of these or if being at home with all my books makes me pick up other books instead! 

How did you do in April? What are you planning for May? Let me know in the comments!

March 2015 Wrap-Up/April 2015 TBR

I completely failed this month when it came to sticking to my TBR. While I was wildly successful when it came to my #Gautierathon, it was an epic fail when it came to reading the books I chose out of my TBR Jar. I read a total of 14 books and am currently in the middle of one. As always, if I wrote a full review it is linked, so you can see my full thoughts.

1. Vicious by V.E. Scwab (5 Crowns)
2. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (4 Crowns)
3. Red by Alyxandra Harvey (2.5 Crowns)
4. Red Hill by Jamie McGuire (3 Crowns)
5. Angelfall by Susan Ee (5 Crowns)
6. The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith (4 Crowns)
7. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (4 Crowns)
8. Invicible by Sherrilyn Kenyon (3.5 Crowns)
9. Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon (4.5 Crowns)
10. Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon (3 Crowns)
11. Illusion by Sherrilyn Kenyon (4 Crowns)- Review of series so far.
12. The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma (4 Crowns)
13. Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh (4 Crowns)
14. World After by Susan Ee (5 Crowns)

#0by16 is still going decently. I only read 4 ebooks this month and those were all for review. My total TBR stands at 70, and that is due to my Mom taking me out to get some new books. I still think it is doable to get down to zero, but that is going to involve absolutely no more buying. I'm clearly struggling with not buying books and a lot of that is due to me wanting new releases and then caving and getting them.

So if you don't remember at the beginning of March I pulled Tumble & Fall along with Rumors out of my TBR Jar. While I'm in the middle of Rumors right now, I still didn't finish it in March. As for Tumble & Fall, it has gone back into the jar to be chosen at a later date. The winners for this month are (links to Goodreads as always):

1. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
2.  All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
3.  This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl

This month I only chose 3 books because I want to get caught up with the Falling Kingdoms series by reading Rebel Spring and Gathering Darkness. So I will hopefully be reading those two along with the 3 chosen. As for review copies I will hopefully get to Not Cool by Greg Gutfield and A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic. And I do realize that most of these books are large, so it will be interesting to see if I can read them all or if I deviate again. Plus they are different than the kinds of books I have been reading recently.

How did you do in March? What are you planning for April? Let me know in the comments!

February 2015 Wrap-Up/March 2015 TBR

I was in a major funk for part of this month and a large part of that was sticking with a book I should have put down way earlier, but I will talk about that in a bit. As for books I actually read, I read 12 books. I'm pretty happy with this number all things considered.

As for #0by16, I'm going home for Spring Break this month so I'm going to get an actual number so I can give better estimates. But I did acquire more books that I wanted to this month. I did not spend any of my own money for these books which is good. However, I will never accomplish #0by16 if I acquire too many more books. After The Alex Crow and The Infinite come next week, I will be doing a book haul to show you what I have acquired since my last one.

As for what I actually read, here is the list:

1. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (4 Crowns)
2. Pig Island by Mo Hayder (4 Crowns)
3. The Glittering World by Robert Levy (3 Crowns)
4. Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee (4.5 Crowns)
5. Wither by Lauren DeStefano (3 Crowns)
6. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (4.5 Crowns)
7. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (4 Crowns)
8. Jackaby by William Ritter (3.5 Crowns)
9. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger (4 Crowns)
10. Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh (3 Crowns)
11. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (3 Crowns)
12.  The Infinite by Lori M. Lee (4.5 Crowns)

As you may recall, one of the books from my TBR jar for February was The Calling (Endgame). From the first moment I picked up the book, I was not at all interested in it. The writing was odd, there were too many characters to follow, and I just did not care about them. Add to that the short chapters and the constant POV changes and I was far from intrigued. At first I told myself I was going to get through it. But after putting it off and reading and enjoying other books, I decided to DNF'd it. I just could not justify forcing myself to finish it, when I could be reading something better (If you couldn't tell I'm really torn about DNF books in general).

March TBR

Keeping with what I did last month, I will again be picking four books out of my TBR jar. I also will definitely be reading The Alex Crow as soon as it comes and I would like to start the Chronicles of Nick series during my spring break, but we will see.  

And the winners this month are...
 

1. Red Hill by Jamie McGuire
2. Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts
3. Rumors by Anna Godberson
4. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (I promise I actually picked this out of the jar)

As always let me know how you did in February and what your plans are for March! Or if you have any thoughts on DNF books.

#ProjectTBR Read-A-Thon Wrap Up

As expected I was fairly unsuccessful in this read-a-thon. School just kind of got overwhelming last week and I was not motivated to read as much as I would have liked. I finished 3 of the 5 books I wanted to read. I know that sounds good, but I didn't even start Afterworlds (which was the more than 500 page book).

Basically, I first read Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith which I thoroughly enjoyed. I just love Andrew Smith's writing.

After that, I picked up Jackaby. If you read my review you will see that I struggled with rating this book. There were aspects that I absolutely loved and aspects that were bothersome. Overall, though I really enjoyed the characters.

And then finally I read, Shovel Ready. This was a mediocre book. It did however have an interesting plot and a unique writing and storytelling style.

So there you have it, I completed the challenges for green on the cover, under 250 pages, and underrated book. Hopefully the next read-a-thon I do, I will be more successful. But I did get three more books off my TBR so I'm getting closer to #0by16