I’m already missing summer! The first day back for teachers in my district was July 29, which means no more lounging around and reading books all day or watching anime. The dread typically starts to set in the first week of July, so I made sure to make the best of my last few weeks of freedom. Hit that ‘Continue Reading’ button below to see my quick thoughts on my July reads.
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Original Title: The Tower by Nicole Campbell
Edition: ARC, 342 pages
Published: June 21st, 2017 by Nicole Campbell Books
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary: On our sixteenth birthdays, our kind is gifted with awesome powers. Except no, not really, because this isn’t Narnia, or Hogwarts, or whatever other mythical realm where witches supposed live. This is Elizabethtown, Illinois, and much to the chagrin of the local chapter of Susie-Homemakers, we live here.
All witches understand that the universe is a scary sort of powerful on a good day. On a bad day? Well, that’s when The Tower card shows its face during a reading. As summer draws to a close before the beginning of junior year, Rowyn Black is tired of seeing that card stare up at her from the table. Rowyn, Reed, and Rosalyn have made it through just about every dramatic storm their sarcasm could weather during their seventeen year friendship, and it would be nice to have a quiet semester. Rowyn hopes that the only thing The Tower foretells is the frightening sight of the school parking lot come the first day- full of more jacked-up trucks and cut off shorts than a Luke Bryan video. True to its nature, however, the universe doesn’t care much for hopes and wishes, and when the promise of The Tower comes crashing down, they might fall right along with it.
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So, I’m blogging from my phone because my landlord still doesn’t offer Internet. On the upside, I’m reading much more than I usually do.
I read 5 books this month which is a record for me. I’m halfway done with Trylle #3 as I type this.
It’s hard to say that I have a favorite from the bunch. Most were all 3 star reads, which means that I liked and enjoyed them, but they’re not amazing. I’m looking forward to finishing The Selection series, Trylle series, and Dorothy Must Die series.
This is my first quarterly wrap-up because it’s been over 3 months since the last time I wrote a blog. It’s been longer than that but I’m not going to think about what I didn’t do in 2016. I’m a terrible, terrible blogger now but it is what it is. So here’s my wrap-up for January, February, and March.
My favorite book so far (and probably for the rest of this year) is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. If you live under a rock and haven’t heard about this book yet, it’s a fictional but very accurate account of the Black experience in America, for those of us who grew up in predominantly Black low-income neighborhoods. It stems from the Black Lives Matter movement. The story is told from the perspective of 16-year old Starr Carter, who witnesses the murder of her childhood friend Khalil by a white police officer. Although most people focus on the BLM aspect of the book, it really is so much more than that. It’s the catalyst that sends the protagonist on her journey of self discovery, but Angie Thomas did an amazing job of recreating this environment that most people who aren’t forced to live in don’t see or understand. I could easily call to mind classmates, friends, and relatives who could easily be any of the characters in this book, mistakes and all. Most importantly, it really challenges readers to look past the ideas and misconceptions that you have about Black people based on what they look like or where they’re from. It challenges the images that the media constantly shoves in our faces that demonizes Black victims. And this is so important for people, Black, white, or whatever, who have grown up in the suburbs and with certain privileges–people who’ve gone their whole lives without meeting a Khalil, or meeting a Devante, or even meeting a Starr–a character that I see so much of myself in. I hope that everyone reads this book with an open mind, and that when you’re done with it, your heart is more open too.
You can check out my Goodreads for thoughts on most of them. Others I’d highly recommend right after THUG are The Heartbeats of Wing Jones by Katherine Webber and The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli.
Between January and February I only bought 3 books, 2 of them were digitals on sale for $1.99 each: The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee and Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy. I bought a hardcover of Deep Blue by Jennifer Connely used.
But then in March things got a little… out of control. Here’s a picture of what I got. I think the titles/authors are pretty clear so I’m not going to list them because laziness wins. I didn’t spend as much as it looks like though. Chamber of Secrets was given to me as a gift and We Can Be Mended was a Carve the Mark pre-order gift. Six of Crows was a trade. The Casual Vacancy was another cheap used buy. The rest I bought but they were part of really, really, really good sales.
I completed my Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge by 148%, reading 37 of 25 books this year. Go me! I read a mixture of books this year including some highly anticipated new releases by my favorite authors, debut authors, independent authors, diverse authors and stories, and so on. I also completed my first audiobook and my first graphic novel. This year I really wanted to explore books that were outside of my usual picks (especially trying to read more grounded and contemporary fiction), and for the most part, I ended up loving every second. Without further ado, here are my Top Ten Favorite Reads of 2016.