Top Ten Tuesday #53: Books of TBRs Past

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic:

Books From My Past Seasonal TBR Posts I STILL Haven’t Read

I got excited when I saw this topic because I was thinking to do something similar soon. I enjoy making TBRs, but I suck at following them during the time limit I set for myself. However, going through the TBRs I’ve made over the years, I realized that I eventually managed to read the majority of books on them.

Well, here are the remaining books I’d like to FINALLY read. (Totally didn’t realize it’s supposed be for seasonal TBRs. I included some for readathons and other reading events.)

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Best Books So Far in 2022

The fact that I only have six books to show reflects how my reading has been going so far this year: not good. I’m reading slower and reading less, mostly because finding the time or interest to read has been scarce.

I’ve managed to complete 26 books, comics, and picture books so far. Of that bunch, these are the ones I gave high ratings because I greatly enjoyed them.

Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
★★★★☆ ½

SUMMARY

It’s the third novel in a fantasy trilogy about a god-touched courtesan who’s trained as a spy and uses her skills to save her country and the people she loves many times.

Picture Books I’ve Read So Far | July 2022

Let’s talk some more about the picture books I’ve read so far this year. They aren’t many.

In addition to Every Tree Has a Story, which I reviewed last week, I’ve managed to read only three other children’s picture books. The other three also contain patterned illustrations and touch on nature in some way. They are all beautiful products.

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How the Stars Came to Be by Poonam Mistry (illus.)

Genre

Kids Fantasy — Folklore

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2020

From Goodreads

Have you ever wondered how the stars came to be in the sky?

The Fisherman’s Daughter loved to dance in the sunlight, and bathe in the glow of the moon. But when the moon disappeared for a few nights each month, she worried about her father and how he would find his way home from the sea in the deep darkness. When the sun finds her sobbing one night, he takes one of his rays and shatters it onto the ground, creating the stars and giving the girl the task of putting them into the dark night sky. This beautifully illustrated story gives us a new folk tale, and a new way to look up at the night sky. (Goodreads)

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My thoughts

How the Stars Came to Be tells the story about how the stars in the sky were made. A girl was worried about her father fishing at night and being unable to find his way home whenever the moon disappeared. So the sun shattered one of its rays so the girl could use it to create stars in the sky.

Drunk Book Tag

Well, I spent the past weekend drinking wine most nights, so I guess I may as well do the Drunk Book Tag. I found it over on Milliebot Reads, but it was created by booktubers Chelsea at ChelseaDolling Reads and Julie at Pages and Pens (looks like both videos were taken down).

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Wine Coolers: You’re 16 and you finally managed to sneak one of your mom’s Smirnoff Ices. What is one of your most guilty pleasure reads?

Kissing Tolstoy by Penny Reid

I guess for me that would be romance novels. I chose to go with Kissing Tolstoy for this since I never mention it, except when I reviewed it. It’s a romance novella about a young woman in college who enters into a romantic relationship with her Russian lit. professor. It’s not the best thing I read, but it was entertaining and has the kind of taboo romance trope I like.

Top 5 Tuesday #75: Comics Set at School

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

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This week’s topic:

Top 5 books set at a school

Here are five comic books that take place at a school of some kind or involves characters attending such institutions.

Archie, Vol. 1: The New Riverdale by Mark Waid, illus. by Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, and Veronica Fish

This is the first volume in the reboot of the classic comic book series staring the all-American teen, Archie, who attends Riverdale High with his friends Betty, Veronica, and Jughead. This first volume mostly introduces us to the characters. I remember not being very impressed by it, so I didn’t continue with the series.

“Every Tree Has a Story” by Cécile Benoist, transl. from the French by Sylvia Rucker, illus. by Charlotte Gastaut

This is such a gorgeous book, and I’m so glad I bought it and FINALLY got around to reading it. I picked it up at one of my favorite bookstores because I couldn’t look away from the cover. I was transfixed by the illustration and knew I had to own a copy, and now after reading it, I’m glad to have this as part of my collection.

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Genre

Kids Nonfiction — Nature & Environment

Series

n/a

Pubbed

2018

From Goodreads

This visually stunning book is an exploration of unique trees—from the tallest Sequoia in California, to a very special forest in India, to a lone Acacia in the Sahara desert—offering a window into different cultures around the world.

Spectacular art enhances twenty fascinating stories about unique species, traditions, and the people who both nurture and destroy different trees from every corner of the world. This beautiful book improbably tells the story of women’s equality in India; endangered species in the Seychelle Islands; and the green belt movement in Kenya—among other true tales of the tallest, broadest, most interesting, significant trees on every continent.

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag: 2022

It’s that time of year when we check in on our reading progress with these types of tags. Last week, I did the Half-Year Book Tag, and now it’s time for the Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag, which was created by Chami and Ely Jayne.

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BEST BOOK I’VE READ SO FAR

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

It’s a scifi novella about a lonely scientist at a secluded outpost on another planet who gets caught up in the affairs of the planet’s inhabitants, although he’s supposed to just observe them. I really enjoyed reading this, which I didn’t expect, and loved the way it’s written.

2022 Reading Wrap-Up: Second Quarter

The second quarter of 2022 has come to a close, and although my reading and blogging aren’t back to the levels they were at before, I’m happy I’m still going at it. As usual, I’m busy, but now I’m adjusting to a new schedule, which has thrown off my already lacking and inconsistent reading and blogging.

I didn’t read as much in the second quarter despite taking part in two reading events — the Magical Readathon and Wyrd & Wonder. I completed the Magical Readathon by focusing on short, quick reads, but I didn’t do as well on Wyrd & Wonder as I’d have liked. However, I wasn’t too worried about my performance on these events since they were both “at your pace” type of events.

Well then, here’s how I did during the second quarter

BOOKS | AUDIO | COMICS | PICTURE BOOKS

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Comics Roundup #65: Romance Comics — Moonstruck, Virtually Yours, Bingo Love

My catching up on reviews continues with these three comics I read that all focus on romance. All three are diverse, inclusive reads that focus on characters of different age groups.

Moonstruck is fantasy but focuses on characters in college and seems geared toward a YA audience. However, I’d argue that it could be recommended to older middle grade readers as well. Virtually Yours is contemporary and focuses on characters who’ve recently graduated from college and are beginning adult life; it seems geared toward older YA and new adult audiences. And Bingo Love is also contemporary but focuses on older adults and is geared toward audiences that are YA and older. All were pretty good reads.

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Moonstruck, Vol. 3: Troubled Waters by Grace Ellis, illus. by Shae Beagle and Claudia Aguirre

Genre

YA Fantasy; YA Romance

Series

Moonstruck

Pubbed

2020

Quick summary

Moonstruck is a fantasy graphic novel series that takes place in the supernatural college town of Blitheton and focuses on Julie, a girl struggling to accept that she’s a werewolf. In this volume, spring has arrived, which means it’s time for the annual mermaid festival, the Unfreezing Festival. Julie usually attends the festival with her best friend Chet (a centaur), but this year Chet and their partner Manuel are attending a NewPals (like Neopets) internship, so Julie will instead attend the festival with her girlfriend, Selena, and Selena’s best friend, Skyla, a mermaid.

As usual, Julie feels awkward and anxious, which is increased when she receives an ominous warning from her prophetic friend Cassie saying she must break up with Selena and when she realizes she has attracted the attention of a strange Finstagram influencer called Kit. So again, lots of shenanigans happen, Julie and Selena argue, and nothing goes according to plan — including the NewPals internship. (Goodreads)