Top Ten Tuesday #5: Best Books So Far in 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far in 2015

These are the stories I enjoyed the most thus far. I didn’t give them all 5 stars on Goodreads for various reasons but they are all gripping and I enjoyed them immensely. They are listed in the order that I read them.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

★★★★

Summary: The story follows Seraphina, a musically gifted girl who’s half-dragon, as she accepts her identity and helps the Prince uncover a plot to destroy the peace treaty between humans and dragons.

Why I enjoyed it: This one was a reread. I liked it the first time I read it back in 2012, but loved it this time when I reread it. What drew me were the world-building and Seraphina, who is both smart and brave and grows to appreciate who she is.

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Book Haul #7: Don’t Judge Me

I bought more books. I had a coupon and I swindled my way out my house, down the street, on the bus, on the train, up the escalator, up a street, and into a Barnes & Noble store because I reeaallyy wanted a copy of Fangirl.

It’s a problem.

I’m therefore on a book-buying ban for the month of July. That is after I use my remaining coupons. Coupons should not be wasted. Anyways, the books.

Weekend Reads #9: I’m not a fan of dystopian novels

Ah ha! I FINALLY post a Weekend Reads entry on the day that it is due. That’s the positive. The negative is that I intended to write a review and found it hard to concentrate so I did a meme instead.

Weekend Reads is a Goodreads group created by Nici, a booktuber over at LitPixie. Basically book lovers can record a video or write a blog post about what they plan to read on the weekend, and also answer a fun question.

The question for this weekend:

Pros and cons of living in your favorite dystopian novel.

Top 5 Wednesday #2: Characters I Wound Dunk

Yea, I’m doing a Wednesday meme on Thursday. June has been a busy month since my grandparents are in town and family members have been dropping by to visit so there’s hardly a quiet moment because my family LOUD. I haven’t even written up all the reviews I had planned for the Write Those Reviews Party. I only managed to complete one. 😦 But anyways, this meme.

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme created by GingerReadsLainey. For more information on this meme, visit the Goodreads group. This week’s topic:

Characters You Wish You Could Drown

There are a few characters in books and movies that I wish I could kick in the arse but these are the ones that readily come to mind. They’re listed in the order that they pop in my thoughts.

Clary from Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones

Weekend Reads #8: I invite Tyrion and Prof. McGonagall to dinner

Weekend Reads is a Goodreads group created by Nici, a booktuber over at LitPixie. Basically book lovers can record a video or write a blog post about what they plan to read on the weekend, and also answer a fun question.

The question for this weekend:

Which bookish family or group of friends would you happily host dinner for? What would you serve?

“A Long Day’s Evening” by Bilge Karasu

Note: I started writing this on Saturday, June 13. Got lazy and stopped, then procrastinated.

It’s a contemplative Saturday. A day spent in deep thoughts as I consider this crazy world I live in. Even the sky is moody with storm clouds rolling in, blocking the brilliant sun. I woke early this morning because all last night I felt like writing but was unable to because I was tired. I was excited to be up early before the noise and tension that would come as my day progressed and my family woke with a clash and bang that would reverberate through my thoughts preventing me from thinking. For now, they are quiet. They are asleep.

My writing morning began with my Weekend Reads meme, which was on diversity in young-adult novels. It threw me into a deeper pensive mood. I sometimes hopped over to Facebook, which is rife with posts on the Rachel Dolezal fiasco and it tore my mind in two. I find the entire thing hilarious and I’m shocked that this White woman successfully posed as a Black person for 31 years, even becoming president of a NAACP chapter, but I’m also upset with her because part of me thinks—feels—that she took my culture and history for puppetry. Maybe that wasn’t her intention. Maybe she loves the Black culture so much that she wished she was Black and made herself so. After all, she did advocate for Blacks. I am confused. I don’t know how to feel.

I guess that’s why I see this time—this mood—fitting for writing about Bilge Karasu’s novel A Long Day’s Evening. One of the protagonists is also upset and confused by the changes in his society.

Top 5 Wednesday #1: I gobbled these in one go

It’s my first Top 5 Wednesday post! My addiction to booktube drove me to participate in this meme. Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme created by GingerReadsLainey. For more information on this meme, visit the Goodreads group. This week’s topic:

Books you read in one sitting (or close to)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

2014 U.K. cover by Jonny Duddle

I was in Jamaica visiting family when this book was first published and I begged my father to purchase it and carry it with him when he visits the island. He did and I was happy. I read and completed it on the same day my father arrived.

Top Ten Tuesday #4: Summer 2015 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Books on My TBR for Summer 2015

Most of these are books I recently bought because though I don’t mind having an extremely long TBR list stored on my computer or on Goodreads, I don’t have space to store a teetering TBR pile.

So these are the books I have planned today. The list changes according to how I feel so who knows what it’ll look like next week. But I’ll definitely read You or Fangirl or Snow Like Ashes next, maybe.

What’s your summer reading plans?

More Summer 2015 TBRs

• The Books I May or May Not Read This Summer (itstartsatmidnight.com)
• (32) Top Ten Books on My 2015 Summer TBR (skizzles22hu.blogspot.com)
• Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR (Help Me Prioritize!) (recoveringpotteraddict.blogspot.ca)
• Ten Books on My Summer To-Be-Read List (perpetualpageturner.com)

Crashing the Write Those Reviews Party

I found out about this event on Analee’s blog, Book Snacks, and immediately decided to join so I can get caught up on my reviews. I’m not too far behind but this week will be hairy so it’s best I participate and push myself to get these reviews done before I fall too far behind.

As you can see from the banner above, this is a week long event (June 13-20) hosted by Ashley at Bookz4Nerdz and Xander at Forever Bookish. I’m two days behind so if need be, I’ll add two additional days after the 20th. But for more information about the event, click here.

Well, here are the reviews I have lined up:

A Long Day’s Evening by Bilge Karasu

Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander

Unteachable by Leah Raeder

—and if I finish it this week—

Talon by Julie Kagawa

See, not much. But if you’re behind on reviews, then I encourage you to participate. The twitter handle for the event is #WRITETHOSEREVIEWS (I gotta make sure to spell review right. I always have to double-check that word and receive.) and you can follow Ashley and Xander on Twitter to get updates about the event as well as information on writing sprints.

Book Haul #6: No good reason

Another book haul? Only a week has passed since the last one. Yes, that is true; but my addiction to Book Outlet knows no bounds. Plus, I forgot to include two books in my last haul and then I made some e-book purchases because I’m running out of bookshelf space and….I’ll stop the rambling and get to the books.

Barnes & Noble

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch