February Wrap-Up: I actually didn’t hate “King of Scars,” y’all are just sour

• A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
• The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer
• Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
• The Farm by Joanne Ramos (ARC)
• The Guest Book by Sarah Blake (ARC)
• The White Book by Han Kang (ARC)

• Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
• King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
• Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
• The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
• The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron
• A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman by Margaret Drabble
• City of Glass: The Graphic Novel by Paul Karasick and David Mazzucchelli
• Kimi ni Todoke vol. 10 by Karuho Shiina
• Ao Haru Ride vol. 1 by Io Sakisaka

As I was reading Girls of Paper and Fire on the train this month, someone in the seat behind me tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around so annoyed because I was clearly reading and I also had headphones in (no music playing, just like an added boundary). But the guy was like “wow you’re reading a book! no one does that anymore!” and a large part of me was like “ugh stop bothering me I’m trying to read” and a smaller part of me was like “yeah, I mean almost everyone around me on the train is on their phone.”

I guess to people who don’t read as frequently as I do, 9 books in a month is honestly impressive. But when I’m constantly surrounded by the hype of new releases and great reviews its hard to prioritize what I want to read because it sounds interesting, and what I want to read because I’m going to love it.

February in Review: 9 Books

By the time I end up posting my February wrap-ups it will be time to write my March ones! 😑

nbd it’s fine I’m just over here apparently in a month long reading slump and trying not to stress about it.

I read a total of 9 books in February, which is significantly less than the 19 books I read in January. However, my goal is to read 8 books each month in 2019, so I still beat my goal. Looking back, I feel like I had a pretty mediocre month in terms of content, but many of the books I read I gave high ratings too?? I don’t know, my brain just feels foggy.

Different from my monthly wrap-ups, which focus more of patterns in my reading habits and is just me rambling on forever (because that’s my brand), monthly reviews are more like lists: easy to scroll through to get the whole picture of my reading month. Listed is the title, author, publication date, and cover along with the genre and age range (if applicable). I also have my rating and a three-word description of my reading experience! The links will either go to a longer review I wrote on this blog or a shorter review I wrote on Goodreads. All the cover photos are linked to their Goodreads page.

📘 February TBR
📙 2019 TBR
📕 Prior TBR
📗 Down the TBR Hole

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy 📗 
Published: Sep 15, 2015
YA Contemporary
twangy, bold, heartwarming
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo 🔵
Published: Jan 29, 2019
YA Fantasy
dramatic, glittery, slow
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan 🔵
Published: Nov 6, 2018
YA Fantasy
cinematic, dark, dynamic
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Review: Literary nostalgia with complicated drama in Mandy Berman’s “Perennials”

Page Count: 288 pages
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Publisher: Random House Trade
Audience: Adult
Source: Purchased
cw: sexual assault

Have you ever read a book that was so harrowing, not because of the content, but because of how eerily similar it was to your own life?

Literally, this entire book was déjà vu. I spent pretty much the whole time in perpetual tears.

Perennials takes place at a co-ed summer camp in Connecticut (😭). The first few chapters take place in the year 2000, and then it jumps to 2006 for the last 75% of the book or so. Each chapter is told from a different point of view, whether it’s a counselor or a camper, but the majority of the story follows two young women, Rachel and Fiona, as they come back to camp as counselors for the first time since they were younger.

✨Announcing REREADATHON✨

I am SO excited to announce that I am one of the hosts for Rereadathon! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

baby Seal all grown up and co-hosting her first readathon ☺️

Rereadathon is a week-long readathon dedicated to rereading your faves! It’s going to take place in March from the 10-16, so you’ll have plenty of time to cull your TBRs.

This is going to be a very laid-back readathon; there are a total of seven challenges but you’re not required to hit a certain amount of books! You can double-, triple-, quadruple-up for the challenges, or you don’t even have to complete the challenges at all! Read as much or as little as you want.

Challenges:

1. Game changer: a book that opened your eyes to/made you love a new genre
2. Giving a book a second chance
3. A new favorite
4. An old favorite
5. Underrated or unpopular book
6. Popular book
7. Childhood favorite

This readathon is unique in a few ways. There are a total of 21 (!) hosts across three different bookish platforms: booktube, bookstagram, and book blogs. Each day of the week will be managed by one host from each platform, and the hosts will be running separate giveaways! There will be 3 flash giveaways each day, one giveaway per platform. That means 21 opportunities to win free books!

Below is the schedule for Rereadathon, complete with a list of hosts and who will be running giveaways and posting content on which days. Each day hosts will be posting blog posts, videos, photos, etc corresponding to the topic, as well as hosting reading sprints on twitter and running their giveaways!

January in Review: 19 Books!

What a hectic month!

I randomly stumbled across my small town library’s graphic novel section, and it didn’t end well. Ever since the last Manga Madness readathon in November, I’ve honestly been on such a manga/graphic novel kick and it’s clearly not going anywhere anytime soon!

I read some really surprising books this month. It was also the first month following a highly structured TBR, and I didn’t do too bad! 7 of the 19 books I read were from my tbr this month, 2 books were rolled over from my December tbr, and 2 books were also on my tbr for the year.

Different from my monthly wrap-ups, which focus more of patterns in my reading habits and is just me rambling on forever (because that’s my brand), monthly reviews are more like lists: easy to scroll through to get the whole picture of my reading month. Listed is the title, author, publication date, and cover along with the genre and age range (if applicable). I also have my rating and a three-word description of my reading experience! The links will either go to a longer review I wrote on this blog or a shorter review I wrote on Goodreads. All the cover photos are linked to their Goodreads page.

TOTAL BOOKS: 19

🌟: 0
🌟🌟: 2
🌟🌟🌟: 5
🌟🌟🌟🌟: 7
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟: 5

📘 January TBR
📙 2019 TBR
📕 Prior TBR
📗 Down the TBR Hole

The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand 📕
Published: Oct 24, 2017
YA Fantasy/Paranormal
creative, funny, heartwarming
🌟🌟🌟

Perennials by Mandy Berman 📘
Published: Jun 6, 2017
Contemporary
nostalgic, dramatic, vivid
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Emma vol. 8 by Kaoru Mori
Published: Mar 17, 2009
Historical Fiction
beautiful, descriptive, wonderful
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Review: Feel-Good M/M Romance in They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

 

Page Count: 368 pages
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Range: Young Adult
Source: Purchased
rep: bi and questioning main characters, Puerto Rican main character, Cuban main character, main character with anxiety
cw: death, grief, attempted suicide

I purposefully picked up this book looking for a nice depressing read with some teary reading sessions but… I did not cry. At all. Y’all have mislead me.

They Both Die at the End is about two teens boys, Mateo and Rufus, who get a phone call from a company called Death-Cast telling them that they will both die before midnight. Seeking solace, they join an app for people who also received the Death-Cast phone call, as they start talking, of course they fall in love.

This is a very stereotypical YA romance and yet not once was I bored. The story was very propelling and it read it very quickly, which I think was due to the incredibly short chapters and alternating points of view. 

Series Review: An Informative Jarring History in March, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell

Page Count: 128 pages
Publication Date: Aug 13, 2013
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Age Range: Adult
Source: Library
content warning: police brutality

 

 

Page Count: 192 pages
Publication Date: Jan 20, 2015
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Age Range: Adult
Source: Library
content warning: police brutality

 

 

Page Count: 246 pages
Publication Date: Aug 2, 2016
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Age Range: Adult
Source: Library
content warning: police brutality

I’ve always felt like I had a pretty solid foundational knowledge of US History but WOW reading March was an incredibly humbling experience and basically I’m convinced that I basically don’t know anything!!

Some contextual evidence: I went to a public school in a pretty middle class/upper middle class, predominantly white, liberal suburb. In addition to taking AP US History in high school, I felt like my US History classes in middle school did pretty well with providing me with a good grasp on major events of US history. This was even further proved to me in college; there were multiple times where I had some background knowledge of events, eras, laws, etc that my friends or classmates didn’t.

However, there were so many people in March that I didn’t even know existed, and honestly I feel robbed. 

Review: An Unconventional Holiday Rom-Com with The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand

 

Page Count: 400 pages
Publication Date: Oct 24, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Range: Young Adult
Source: Library
Goodreads: The Afterlife of Holly Chase

 

I forced myself to read a Charles Dickens book before reading this (vom dot com). Was it worth it? Eh…

I really only like reading cheeseball romantic comedies in the summer when I’m lounging at the beach (which is like maybe once a year, sadly) or in the two week period right before Christmas.

The Afterlife of Holly Chase is honestly the perfect book to read right before the winter holidays. It’s very festive and heartwarming and just a really fun book.

Cynthia Hand wrote a retelling of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol which is a paranormal story disguised as a contemporary. It follows Holly Chase as she works for a company called Project Scrooge which employs staff to reenact A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve every year, trying to guarantee a change of heart for a different “Scrooge” every year. Holly has a lot of a experience with this because she was a failed Scrooge; instead of seeing the errors of her selfishness she ends up dying, just as she is warned.

Review: A Survivor’s Struggle and Strength in The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

 

Page Count: 370 pages
Publication Date: Jan 2, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Age Range: Young Adult
Source: Purchased
Goodreads: The Cruel Prince
cw: murder, physical and sexual abuse, suicide

 

I really forced myself to just to power through this one but dang am I glad I did.

When I was younger, my family would spend our entire summer at the town pool. My brothers would always rush right in, but I’d camp out in my mother’s favorite spot by the picnic tables in the shade. I’d put on my sunscreen, maybe read a little bit of my book (one summer I outlined my entire 40 chapter fanfiction in one afternoon at the pool) and then was I was ready I would get in line at the diving board and dive in literally head first.

That’s literally how I start reading hyped books.

I’m slow you guys. I don’t jump on the bandwagon right away. But eventually, when I get there, I’m obsessed.

Review: A Deserving Diverse Formulaic Fantasy in Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeymi

Page Count: 525 pages
Publication Date: March 6, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Age Range: Young Adult
Source: Purchased
Goodreads: Children of Blood and Bone review

me: i don’t read trilogies!!!!!!!
me: i don’t read fantasy!!!!!!!!

me: *takes two long months to read Children of Blood and Bone*

Here’s a brief overview of my history reading trilogies:

• Book 1: read within the first year of it’s release, and/or immediately after the sequel is released
• Book 2: read within the first weeks of it’s release
• Book 3: ………………………………. 😐

I cannot even tell you how many trilogies I haven’t finished. I usually read the second book and then get distracted/bored/uninterested/etc by the time the third book comes out! The only way to I finish a series is if all the books are already published and I acquire them all in one giant sweep. (Guys I honestly think the last series I finished in real-time publication might have been Twilight.)

Anyway, the entire time reading Children of Blood and Bone, in the root of my gut I just feel that this series won’t be any different.