Least Favorite Books of 2017

After going through all the books I read this year, these five stood out as the ones I had the least fun with. Luckily, I had a very good year of reading so I didn’t have to slog through loads of low ratings to pinpoint these. As much as I love talking about books I love, talking about books I don’t like is worth it in a different, rather cathartic, way.

Please keep in mind that these are my opinions and I’m not trying to slander the good names of these books, insult anyone’s opinions, or hurt any feelings- what it comes down to is that they’re just not for me!

A-Z Bookish Tag

 

I saw Kristen Kraves Books do this tag, and thought it looked fun so I gave it a go for myself. Go check out her blog if you haven’t!!

Five-Star Read Predictions

Rachel from pace, amore, libri challenged me to predict my own 5 star reads….and I have accepted! This challenge was started by Mercedes on booktube.  You pick out 5 books on your TBR that you think are going to be 5-star reads. When you finish, you can come back and make a post letting everyone know how you got on.

The Absolutist by John Boyne

In my recent post about books I’m thankful for, I posted a screencap from a conversation with Rachel telling me to read this because it’s painful. And since I live for painful WW II stories, and the last John Boyne book I read, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, was one of the best books I read this year, I would bet a lot of money this will be a 5 star read for me.

Book Review: Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Bird Box by Josh Malerman / ★★★★★

Summary: When Malorie goes outside with her children, she must blindfold them and then herself. Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. And five years after it began, not many people are left.

The moment between deciding to open your eyes and then actually opening your eyes is as scary a thing as their is in the new world.

Boston Teen Author Festival Experience!

GUYS! So I went to the Boston Teen Author Festival this past Saturday, and basically it was one of the best days ever so I just want to share a bit about it.

First of all, two of my best friends came along with me, who are awesome and indulge me in all of my bookish whimsies and for that I am very grateful. We also made a new friend, a girl who had shown up by herself and stopped to ask us if she was in the right place, and we asked her to join us because book festivals are much more fun with people than alone. I gave her the name of my blog so if she’s reading this, hi Kelsey!! I should have taken a photo of the four of us but I was On a Mission to see all the authors and I didn’t think of it.

Anyway the festival started off with a panel of ALL THE AUTHORS.

Hiatus-y

Hey friends.

So after a long, long weekend in which my cat fell suddenly very ill and I spend a night in the ER with him, I learned tonight that he has cancer. He’s 15 and I don’t want him in any more pain, so we’re going to go put him down. He’s my family cat, and unfortunately my entire family was away this weekend, so it was just me and him, but I’m glad I got to spend his last few days with him, just the two of us, even if it wasn’t the most fun of times. He’s my little buddy and I’ll miss him forever, and I’ll always be happy that the last thing he did before I took him to the hospital was snuggle up to me on the couch.

My head’s in a cloud of blackness and I’m really in no mood for reading or blogging right now, but I’m stuck between wanting to talk to people about it and just cry and cry alone, so I’ll probably be around, just less. I’ve seen it coming for a few months, so I’m not blindsided, but it still hurts horribly.

Thanks for all the friendship and understanding, guys ❤ ❤

Our last photoshoot last Saturday

I’ll miss you, little guy.

❤

Book Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season #1) / ★1/2☆☆☆

Summary: Paige Mahoney is clairvoyant in 2059 London, where it is illegal to be clairvoyant. When she is kidnapped by unearthly beings and taken to their prison in Oxford, she begins to realize exactly who it is that rules her world, and that she needs to figure out a way to escape.

There was no normal. There never had been. “Normal” and “natural” were the biggest lies we’d ever created.

July Wrap Up

July was a funky month of reading, and it’s entirely because I read A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara at the beginning of the month and it’s such an engrossing, heartbreaking book it’s impossible to get back to reading ~normal~ books afterward. It’s the highlight of my month. The highlight of my year. I also got a new job this month, so hopefully it won’t affect my blogging. I think I’ve been pretty consistent so far.

 This month’s favorite (can you guess)

Books I Loved as a Kid

I own a few bookshelves, mostly stacked with books from my teen years up until now (I’m 25), and I have a shelf at the very bottom of one of them where I keep some of the “chapter books” I had read as a kid. Normally I don’t touch these books, or even pay much attention to them, but out of curiosity I started flipping through some of them…and was immediately overtaken by some intense nostalgia from kid’s lit of the late 90’s/early 2000’s.

I thought I’d share some of the ones  that meant a lot to me as a child – most of them about goofy, brown haired girls like myself just trying to survive the struggle of elementary school. Important stuff!

Also, I’m working purely off my memories of these, so if I’m grossly wrong about any of them- sorry! It’s what 8 year old Steph remembers and took away from them.

Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

I found these books hilarious as a kid. I loved how messy, crazy, and goofy Junie B. was, and as a 6/7 year old I think I saw a lot of my own childish goofiness in her- that, and I think I wanted to be her. I was a very shy and quiet kid in school, and Junie…was not. I admired her, wanted to stand out like her, but a part of me was also glad I didn’t get in half the trouble she did, despite my admiration. Junie’s antics were super entertaining and I will always look back on these books with so much love.

My Kind of Romance

Okay, obligatory romance Valentine’s Day post time.

The thing is, I really like reading romance. The other thing is, it takes a lot to make me invested in a romance. I was thinking about why this was, and while there are many specific qualities I like in a romance, the one that encompasses all of them is that I need the characters to earn it. Like, I need them to go through some trials to develop and discover their feelings. No insta-love here.

So, to name a few books and series that have romances I’ve really enjoyed:

 

The Raven Cycle

I know I’ve raved about this series a million times, but truly, The Raven Cycle has the epitome of my kind of romance. Like, if one of the characters kisses her true love, he’ll die. What could get better than that? I believe Maggie Stiefvater said, “Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody.” There’s lots of tension and pining and fighting each other and fighting together. This series seriously makes you earn the romance, and I LOVE it.