Top Ten Tuesday: End of Year TBR | Blogmas Day 14

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl!

Happy Tuesday! Today’s post is about all the books I’d like to get to before the end of 2021. I have seven books to go on my Goodreads goal, so I’m hoping to finish at least that, but any additional ones would be great too.

So here’s my list of potentials:

My three current buddy reads, which have all picked back up, albeit slowly on my end, now that I’ve birthed and gotten my life somewhat organized again. I don’t know if any of these will be finished by the end of the year, but I’m definitely going to be reading them at least.

Nightbitch is my current solo read, though I admit it’s taken a back seat to my buddy reads. I don’t read my solo books unless I’m caught up on my buddy books and I’m fearfully behind at the moment so… I’m hoping to get to this one in between of the above ones.

And these are all the manga I want to hop into in between the books. I could read multiple volumes of them so that would put me up past the seven I need, hopefully.

---

And that is it. Buddy reads and manga for me from now til the end of the year! See ya tomorrow!

January Currently Reading! ’21

Well hi! Today is my first post after Blogmas, and it’s what I’m currently reading!

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett – I’m only a couple chapters into this one, and I’m reading it with my buddy Meredith @allboutthembooksandstuff!

So far it’s definitely interesting, and I’m already picking up on some humor laced throughout the narrative that I really like. I’m hoping this becomes a new favorite!

The Book of the Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick – Technically I was aiming to finish this during the dead days – between Christmas and New Year’s – but I didn’t finish in time. It’s pretty good though. It has a nice rich tone to it that I really like.

Hood by Stephen R Lawhead – This is one of the oldest books I own. I’ve had it since I was about fifteen years old and never read it. Soooo I picked it up on audio book and am listening to it. So far it’s pretty decent. The writing at the beginning was a bit difficult to get into but now that I’m into it, I’m enjoying it.

And that’s it! I do plan on picking up another buddy read here in a couple days but as I’m not ‘currently’ reading it, it doesn’t make the list. 😛 So it’ll either show up on the wrap up if I finish it this month or on next month’s currently reading. We’ll see!

Happy reading friends.

10 in 2021

It’s that time of year again – time to make a list of books I wanna read the most. It’s funny  – this will be the seventh year I’ve made one of these lists, and I have yet to actually complete one.

Maybe 2021 will be my lucky year (for reading, I’m too jaded to hope for more than that :p)

As of right now, out of the books on my physical TBR, these are the ones I want to read the most in 2021:

• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
• Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
• Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
• The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey
• The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

And that’s it! Caliban’s War I’m almost through already but I haven’t touched it in months, so I’m counting it. I need to actually finish that bugger. 😛 I also have buddy reads set up for a couple of these, so I’m sure I’ll get to them. For the rest, we’ll see, now won’t we.

If you’ve read any of the above, lemme know!

End of Year TBR potentials – My book buying ban is complete!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl!

Happy Tuesday! Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books on my Winter TBR, so I’m kinda warping it and combining it here with my book buying ban info, so bear with me.

Yay! I’ve completed my book buying ban! I put myself on one back in September or so, during my last book haul.

So during the past few months, I’ve purchased 0 books in an effort to get my physical fictional TBR down. And today is the last day, it’s over! I’m also happy to say that because of it, I’m definitely gonna reach my goal. I’m 1 book away, and with this TBR listed below, I’ll 100% achieve it, yay.

Though I gotta say, I probably won’t buy any books until after Christmas. I requested a few from friends and fam, and they’re the top ones I’d like, so I don’t wanna go buy them now.

After Christmas though, it’s on, man.

Speaking of Christmas

Starting this Saturday the 19th, I’m on vacation until January 4th. I have an entire 16 days off work in a row and because of the plague, I won’t really be going anywhere. Sure, I’ll play porch santa with friends and family – dropping their gifts off and running away – but I won’t be socializing or sharing meals with anyone aside from my husband. We might do some video calls to family but otherwise, nothing much.

That means I’m going to have a lot of open time, particularly the 21st through the 23rd, as I’m off work and my husband isn’t. So I’m gonna do a lot of reading. At least, I’m going to try to.

This is what (tentatively) I plan on picking up:

 

The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh – I picked this one up last night and am only a few pages in so far. I was luke warm to the first one, so I’m hoping I will enjoy this one more.

Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead – This is my current audio book and again I’m only a tad into it. I think I bought this book when I was 14 or so. It was one of my first purchases when I really got into reading fiction, but for some reason I never actually picked it up. So here’s hoping I love it.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin – This is a buddy read I’m doing with a friend irl and honestly I feel like I’m reading a different book than everyone else. It gets super good reviews but honestly so far I’m not super impressed. Granted, I’m only about half way through so that could change but honestly it kinda reads like a fanfiction to me. If you’ve read this and loved it, please tell me what I’m missing (without spoiling if you can, please). This book we have on schedule to finish by the new year.

Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb – This is another buddy read! I’m reading this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks and it’s a bit slow-going. I don’t know what it is about this book, but it’s lagging for me. I’m enjoying it for what it is, mind you, but it’s not the kind of book I can binge read. We’re doing four chapters a week at the moment, so this probably won’t be finished until 2021 unless something happens in the plot where it makes us go ‘LET’S JUST READ THE LAST 300 PAGES IN ONE SHOT NOW, OK’. But yeah, will be reading this, but probably won’t finish it with the pace (and I don’t know if my brain would let me even if we wanted to).

The Book of the Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick – This is another book I’ve owned for a long time, but haven’t read yet. I figured, it’s the perfect time of year. The Dead Days referred to in the book are the days between Christmas and New Year’s, so I’m gonna read it then! This is a favorite book of a buddy of mine so I’m hoping I love it too.

Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori – I used to love this series as a teen and figured it was time for a reread. I have the box set so I’m hoping to get through the whole thing. I feel like it’s been ages since I picked up a manga due to me trying to make that physical TBR goal so I’m particularly pumped about this.

Hands Off! by Kasane Katsumoto – This is another one I read back when I was a teen, and am rereading. I’m about half way through the series – on volume 5 out of 8, so I’m hoping to finish this one as well.

Hotel Africa by Hee Jung Park – I read vol 1 of this last year and loved it. I’m about half way through this one and am liking it as well! I only have volume 2 to read. There is a mysterious volume 3 listed on Goodreads but I don’t know if it ever actually came out or not. Ho hum.

~~~

And that’s it! I’m hoping to get to more manga as well honestly, but I don’t wanna lock myself into what exactly I’m going to read. Let me know what you’re planning on doing for the rest of the year because really, I’m just gonna be a lump and I’m so excited.

Finishathon TBR!

Hi! I’m gonna participate in a readathon at the end of the month! The point of it – as hinted by the title – is to finish the books you started but never finished for some reason. So I’m gonna pick up the books on my back burner and finish out a series lent to me by a friend literally years ago.

The readathon dates are from July 27th – August 2nd, and if you’d like to participate, all the details can be found here.

This is what I’m gonna read!

The Wolf by Leo Carew – This is going to be my first priority. I received it as a Christmas gift from a friend, and then started it and promptly got distracted. It’s a fantasy and from what I’ve gotten into so far, I dig it.

Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey – This is actually going to be my third priority, just because at this point I’ve watched the tv show and I’m past this point plot-wise, so it’s a be repetitive. So if I don’t totally finish this one I won’t be heartbroken. I hope to, though.

Y: The Last Man vols 8-10 by Brian K Vaughan – I borrowed this series forever ago from my friend and it’s about time I finish it. This’ll be my second priority/first priority when I don’t feel like actually reading a novel.

If things go well, I should be able to finish all of the above. I have the most left to go in The Wolf, but the graphic novels should be quick, as should Caliban’s War, as I only have about 200 pages left in that. If you’re participating, let me know!

TBR Lows and Highs #4

Hi! It’s been a long while since I’ve done one of these, and I think my Goodreads lists needs a good clean-out, so the lows are going to go over ten books.

Rules:

• Link back to the original post at Howling Libraries

• Sort your Goodreads TBR shelf by date added, ascending

• Find 5-10 (or more, if you feel ambitious!) titles to purge from your TBR (the “lows”)

  • ALTERNATIVE OPTION: Find 5+ titles that are at the BOTTOM of your TBR—books you want to read someday, just not right now!

• Post those 5 books in the list, with a brief explanation

• Next, sort your Goodreads TBR shelf by date added, descending

• List the last 5 (or more!) books you added to your TBR, with a synopsis or your brief summary of why you added it (the “highs”)

The lows

As I said, there are a lot. I’m purging 114 books this time around. Because of that, I’m not going to go into them, just show their covers:

114 books, luckily none of them I actually own. All of these are books that I went ‘huh that might be neat’ to over the years, but obviously never got to them. Some of them I’ve held in my hands at the store and ended up putting back on the shelf. So if that doesn’t say ‘I don’t wanna read this’ then I don’t know what does.

The highs

Pandora Hearts vol 2 by Jun Mochizuki – I picked up the first volume of this a couple weeks ago or so and really enjoyed it. Due to the plague I haven’t been out to get more yet but this is definitely high on the list.

Goodreads synopsis of vol 1: The air of celebration surrounding fifteen-year-old Oz Vessalius’ coming-of-age ceremony quickly turns to horror when he is condemned for a sin about which he knows nothing.

Thrown into the Abyss – an eternal prison from which there is no escape – Oz meets a young girl named Alice who is not what she seems. Now that the relentless cogs of fate have begun to turn, will they lead only to crushing despair for Oz, or will Alice provide him with some shred of hope?

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green – I added this right after finishing the first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I believe this comes out this summer so I’m pretty pumped about it.

Goodreads synopsis of book 1: The Carls just appeared.

Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship–like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor–April and her best friend, Andy, make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world–from Beijing to Buenos Aires–and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.

Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Devolution: A First Hand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks – This is the same guy who wrote World War Z, which is also on my list. This just sounds utterly bizarre though and I’m fascinated.

Goodreads synopsis: As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.

But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing–and too earth-shattering in its implications–to be forgotten.

In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.

Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us–and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Harpy’s Flight by Megan Lindholm – It’s Robin Hobb, how could I not?

Amazon synopsis: Harpies don’t give up of blood debts. Neither do the men who serve them. A life must be given in return. Devastated by the slaughter of her family and haunted by memories of her own violent revenge, Ki rejects the comfort of her husband’s gypsy people and wants only to wander in solitude as an outcast. Across mountains sheathed with ice, through the treacherous shadow of the impassable Sisters, Ki finds herself running for her life, pursued by frenzied Harpies sworn to vengeance; and by one stubborn, dark-haired man who seems intent on being part of her future.

What’s Michael? Fatcat Collection vol 1 by Makoto Kobayashi – I’ve actually started reading this one! I never had the whole series when I was younger, just bits and pieces, but man it’s so nostalgic. It’s just a collection of Japanese one-off comics about this cat named Michael and the people he’s around. It’s cute and funny and I love it so far.

Goodreads synopsis: What’s Michael? FatCat Collection Volume 1 contains the out-of-print original What’s Michael? Volumes 1 to 6. Over 500 pages of tumultuous fun, including the out-of-print volumes Michael’s Album, Living Together, Off the Deep End, A Hard Day’s Life, Michael’s Favorite Spot, and Michael’s Mambo.

---

And that’s it! I shaved enough books off my list now that I have more listed as ‘Read’ on my Goodreads than ‘Want to Read’ and this is the first time that’s ever happened. I think it’s kind of neat! The next time I post one of these, it’ll definitely be back to five and five.

Happy reading!

OWLs Magical Readathon 2020 TBR!

It has come again! The OWLs for the Magical Readathon start April 1st, and I’m pumped about it. If you’ve noticed, I kinda fell off of doing readathons lately. This one is too much fun to not do, though.

For the full info on how the readathon works, please watch the announcement video:

So I’m not going into all the details on how this thing works, that’s what the video is for. What I am going to do is going into my chosen career and my TBR for it.

Last year, I chose Alchemist, which was crazy, as it was the most challenging career out of all available at the time, and surprisingly, I achieved all the requirements for it, both in the OWLs and the NEWTs. This year though I’m going for an easier one, because I’m also planning on participating in Camp Nanowrimo in April so I need to be able to balance.

This year, I’m going to go with

Magizoologist

Magizoologist focuses on working with neato animals, and it has four OWL prompts, so I figured it was totally doable. In addition to my career, I’ve picked up an extra training that only Magizoologists can do!

Dragon Tamer Training

This training adds one additional prompt to my TBR, so that’ll be five total. I plan to read manga for as many as I can to make it easier on myself: I really plan to dive into Nano with full force.

So my prompts for the OWLs are:

Care of Magical Creatures: Hippogriffs – creature with a beak on the cover

Charms: Lumos Maxima – white cover

Herbology: Mimbulus Mimbletonia – title starts with M

Potions: Shrinking Solution – book under 150 pages

Dragon Tamer Training: A book containing dragons

And my TBR to fulfill these prompts is:

I Hate Fairyland vol 1 by Skottie Young – This books is under 150 pages, so it’ll fulfill my Potions prompt!

Pandora Hearts vol 1 by Jun Mochizuki – White cover, Charms!

Model vol 1 by Lee So-Young – Starts with M so it fulfills my Herbology prompt!

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – I’ve owned this one for ages and am pumped to be picking it up. And considering it’s literally about a woman studying dragons, it’ll be perfect for my Dragon Tamer Training!

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson – It has a raven on the front, aka a beak-ed creature, so it fulfills my Care of Magical Creatures prompt!

None of these books are super long. The dragon book is by far the longest, and it’s only 330-something pages. So with these two books, two manga and one graphic novel, I feel like I can finish both the OWLs readathon and my Camp Nanowrimo project, which I’ll post about later on.

Let me know if you’re participating. Happy reading!

Christmas Vacation TBR!

Happy Friday! If you are reading this the morning it comes out, I’m currently at work, but today is my last work day of the year! I saved up six PTO days, and between them, holidays, and weekends, I’m getting twelve days off in a row and I’m so ready for it, man. I’M SO READY.

So I’m gonna celebrate by hopefully reading a lot. This is what I plan to read for the rest of the year:

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier – I’m buddy reading this, and should have it done by next weekend if all goes well. I’m about 3/4ths through it, and I’m really enjoying it.

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente – I’ve been in the middle of this book for a while, it just hasn’t been a focus recently, but I’m hoping to finish it as it’s a 10 in 2019 book.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice – In addition to fulfilling the ‘read a book about a vampire’ prompt in Fantasy Bingo, it’s also the last remaining 10 in 2019 book on my list, so if I get this one and the one above done, I’ll be happy.

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard – This is my current audio book, and it’d be nice to finish it honestly. I like it so far, I just haven’t focused on it recently.

Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey – This is one of the many ‘I’ve been reading this forever’ books that I’d like to finish. Out of all the ones listed, this has the lowest priority, so I’ll get to it if I have time, but otherwise it’ll be a 2020 read.

---

And that’s it! Twelve days, five books. Doable? Maybe!

Asian Readathon TBR!

Hello, I’ve decided to participate in the Asian Readathon! If you’d like the full details, you can check out the announcement video here!

It’s been about a week since I’ve posted so also hi.

To compose my TBR, I’m gonna attempt to cover all five challenges. For this you can combine books to fulfill multiple challenges, but I think I’m going to read five. After the OWLs readathon, five in a month should be totally doable. It’s also suggested to try include five different countries of origin – each book either be about a character or  written by an author with a different ethnicity. So I’m going to note those and see if I can pull it off.

Challenges

Read any book by an Asian author

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (Singaporean). This book was my ‘I’m bad’ purchase before my buying ban started. I’m trying to keep myself to five books purchased her month, aaaaand this one was my last buy, number seven. Oop. I might have a buddy read going for this need too! Just need to confirm. :”D

Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or written/drawn by an Asian author

Priest vol 4 by Min-Woo Hyung (Korean). I read the first three volumes of this ages ago, so honestly I’ll probably reread them before going into this one.

Read a book featuring an intersectional Asian character or written by an intersectional Asian identity

The Poppy War by RF Kuang (Chinese). I know this is stretching it a bit – just being female may or may not count as another intersectional identity depending on where you are, etc. But considering the plot of this story and what being a woman counts as in the world that’s created within, I’m gonna count it. So if you really feel like it doesn’t count, you can be like ‘oh she’s only doing four challenges after all’. 😛

Read a book by Asian author that was originally written in their native language

Attack on Titan vol 18 by Hajime Isayama (Japanese). After this volume, I’ll be caught up to all the AoT volumes that I own. I know there are more out… I just don’t have them. :”D

Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by a million authors (A million). This is an anthology of stories written by many different Asian authors from many different Asian countries. I don’t own it, so it’ll be a Scribd or library borrow. :”D

---

And that’s it! If you’re participating in the readathon, lemme know!

February Currently Reading | ’19

Hello, happy February. Nothing interesting happens in February, so I’m gonna read some books to try to ignore it.

This is what I’m currently reading!

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Still reading this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks. I’m hoping to finish it this coming week. It’s probably my favorite book in the series out of the four, so hoping it finishes strong!

 

 

Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik

I also hope to finish this one this coming week – I have four or so chapters left, and the audiobook is quoting it around 3 hours. So, here’s hoping this book doesn’t show up on next month’s currently reading!

 

 

 

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

I picked this up on release day but unfortunately haven’t had the chance to fully dive into it yet. I was planning on doing that this past weekend, along with reading City of Dragons, but I ended up being social instead and barely read anything. Hoping to get it done either this week or next weekend!

 

 

 

Back-burner books

This is basically the same list as last month, but I’ve trimmed a few off. I haven’t actually decided to quit any of them, but instead set them aside and back to ‘Want to Read’ on Goodreads until I’m actually ready to pick them up again. I don’t like having a huge back burner list, so doing this helps my sanity.

---

And that’s it! I love currently reading posts, they’re so short and sweet. Are you reading any of the above? Let me know what you think of them! Happy reading!