Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday #44


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Top Ten Most Anticipated Debut Novels for 2015


Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
expected publication: February 2015



A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas 
expected publication: February 2015



Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton
expected publication: February 2015



The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
expected publication: February 2015



The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace
expected publication: March 2015



The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
expected publication: April 2015



The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
expected publication: June 2015



Valiant by Sarah McGuire
expected publication: June 2015

Ok, so most of these are just debut novels I could find when I did a search back in Nov/Dec. I wanted to list at least 10 so I did but they aren't exactly my most anticipated debut novels of 2015 since I really don't know what those are yet besides 'Red Queen'. Now if this list were for new releases by previously published authors, I'd have filled the list up pretty quickly! 

Monday, January 5, 2015

2015 TBR Pile Challenge - Sign Up & Goals


If you want to participate, make sure to sign up before January 16th! 

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I'd like to read more but I think I'll stick with the 11-20 books 'A Friendly Hug' goal.

I have A TBR shelf that I've hardly touched in the past few months because it's hiding behind excess junk in my office which I haven't been in lately. It's double stuffed and can't fit another book on it so every new book I've gotten has ended up in a pile in my living room. I should really get to that hidden shelf but I think I'll stick to the newer books that are in the living room for now (some are review books). So the following are some of the physical books from my newer TBR pile that I want to read so I can get to that old TBR shelf without having to start a second shelf since my shelves really are getting out of hand.

Books On My TBR Pile That I'd Like To Read Throughout The Year For This Challenge
(Just a reminder to myself that only books published in 2014 or before count!)


We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Storm Siren 
Talon by Julie Kagawa
The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
A Thousand Pieces of You

and a few older books from my shelf off the top of my head:

Alice in Wonderland
The Light Between Oceans
The Sound and the Fury
The Crucible
Never Let Me Go
Franny & Zooey
The Bluest Eye
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn -------

Are you participating in this challenge? Feel free to link to your blog so I can check out your goals and progress! 



Sunday, January 4, 2015

Bout Of Books 12.0 Read-a-thon



The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On A Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01 am Monday, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

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The Bout of Books Read-a-thons are always fun to participate in! I won't have a ton of time to read for this read-a-thon, but I want to join in anyway. My goals will be rather small so hopefully I can get somewhere with them! 

GOALS

*Read at least half of or finish North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell*

*Read a YA book from my TBR shelf*

AND that's it. Small goals for now! 

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Are you participating in the 12.0 read-a-thon?

Want to participate? Sign ups are open until Jan. 6th! 

Book Blogger Hop (Jan 2 - 7)



The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer and this week's question is: 

What is your Blogger's New Year Resolution?

Honestly, it's just to keep this blog updated despite that I'll have very little time to do so. (Babies are time consuming!)

I have a whole list of resolutions that I *might* follow through with that I posted on the 1st if you are interested! 

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Stacking the Shelves #44


Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by TYNGA'S REVIEWS that features the books we bought, borrowed, were gifted, and were given for review.

{Covers link to Goodreads}


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I'm a little late getting this up. The past few weeks have been really busy! 

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ARC FOR REVIEW
(via Goodreads 'First-Reads')



Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I'm pretty excited to read this but it doesn't release until June 2015 so I'll probably wait to read and review it.

GIFTED



Maisy's Christmas Tree by Lucy Cousins
We received this is the mail a few days before Christmas from Candlewick Press. It was Josie's first (after-birth) book present!
Thank you, Candlewick Press!
Amazon Freebies



Tortured Souls by Kimber Leigh Wheaton
|Amazon|




The Starborn Uprising (1, 2, & 3) by Jason D. Morrow
|Amazon|



Cursed by Tara Brown
(The Devil's Roses #1)
|Amazon|



1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts by Ryan Andrew Kinder
non-fiction
|Amazon|



Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
children's fiction
|Amazon|



The Golden Sword by Rosie Morgan
Arthurian fiction

|Amazon|

Friday, January 2, 2015

Anticipating January 2015 - New Releases


January 2015
New Releases

{Covers link to Goodreads}

MOST ANTICIPATED




PIQUES MY INTEREST




OTHERS
Sequels to series that I haven't started yet!





Thursday, January 1, 2015

2015 Reading Resolutions


Happy New Year, Readers!!!

I like to start every new year with a whole bunch of resolutions. 
Some people don't like resolutions and feel pressured by them but I prefer to see them more as guidelines than as rules. I create the resolutions and I have every right to follow through or not. It's not something that
needs to be done 'or else'. No one is going to punish me if I don't do everything on my resolutions list! 

Take the Goodreads Challenge, for example. I can set that baby at 100 books and only have read 25 half way through the year. Rather than get stressed out about having to read 75 more books in 6 months, I can just edit the goal to something more reasonable. I've even seen some readers who change their goal to one book more than they've already read every single time they finish a book.

I usually set unrealistic goals for myself up front, that way I'm working towards something and that keeps me driven even if I never get close to those goals. 

This year my goals are going to be rather small. Why? Because I have a newborn who demands the majority of my time and I'm actually thrilled about it. For the first time, in probably ever, something is more important to me than reading! But reading to my baby girl is also very important to me so this year will probably be filled with a plethora of picture books rather than my regular reads. For that reason, I'm setting my personal reading goal at a very low
 25 books! 

That seems reasonable but it's also very likely that I might not even get around to reading 10 this year. Who knows?! But I'm a bit of a list junkie and I can't pass up the chance to make a resolutions list. 

And now for the unrealistic goals and challenges!
(Because there are just too many books that I want to read!)

Key
* = a book I physically own

BOOK TO MOVIES ADAPTATIONS
(because reading the book first is always ideal)

Already a movie:
Gone Girl
The Crucible*
North and South
Anna Karenina

Upcoming movie adaptations:
The Light Between Oceans*
Paper Towns
Not A Drop To Drink
Dark Places*
The Scorch Trials
 
The Sound and the Fury*
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Jungle Book


1001 Books To Read Before You Die List

The Crucible*
Never Let Me Go*
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*
Through the Looking Glass
The Sound and the Fury*
North and South


1001 Books To Read Before You Grow Up List
(These will most likely be read aloud to my daughter but are more substantial than picture books and therefore will probably be counted towards my 25 books)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time*
Harriet the Spy*
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*
Through the Looking Glass
Black Beauty*
The Borrowers*
Caddie Woodlawn*
Little House on the Prairie*
Little House in the Big Woods*
Watership Down*


For Review
(I should really put these first!)

The Warded Man*
Assassin's Apprentice*
The Darkening Dream*
Uprooted by Naomi Novak*


Banned Books

The Absolute True Story of a Part-Time Indian*
Eleanor & Park


Sequels

Cress
Winter
Wednesdays in the Tower
Thursdays With the Crown
The Scorch Trials


KINDLE EBOOKS
(I bought a really cheap tablet to read ebooks on and since I've accumulated so many in the past year it makes sense to read some of them! Here are a few that I'd love to get to.) 

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (#1)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (#1)
Coral & Bone by Tiffany Daune
Everville: The First Pillar by Roy Huff (#1)
The Unearthly by Laura Thalassa (#1)
Prophet by R.J.Larson (#1)
Witch Song by Amber Argyle (#1)
Witch Rising by Amber Argyle (#2)
Fall of Sky City by S.M. Blooding (#1)
Knight of Wands by S.M. Blooding (#2)


OTHER GOALS:

- Read 5 Books Published in 2014
- Read 5 Books Published in 2015

- Participate in at least one read-a-thon
- Participate in Book Bingo
- The ABC Challenge
- Finish at least one series!