Antonyms and Female Authors (#16 & 17)

Last week I was supposed to read a book with antonyms in the title. I had originally intended to read Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, but that didn't work out. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Brey was available as an audiobook from my library so I ended up getting that. I haven't finished it yet, though.

This week I'm to read a book by a female author. I'll be reading Red Glove by Holly Black. It's been three weeks since I read White Cat and I'm eager to get into this one. This is also an audiobook. I seem to have acquired a love of them.

Week 15

Last week I read White Cat by Holly Black for a book with a color in the title. I enjoyed this book. I stumbled a bit at the beginning before I started to understand what the world was all about. 4 stars.

This week I'm reading Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. The challenge was to read a book at the bottom of my TBR. There was no shortage of books to pick for this. There are so many books on my TBR list it's kind of insane. There are 743 books on my to-read list on Goodreads, and there are at least 50 books that I haven't added to Goodreads yet. Yeah.

March Wrap-Up and April TBR

In March I read the following 22 books:

Blood Rites - Quinn Loftis / 4
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green / 5 stars.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han / 4
Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge / 5
The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks / 3
The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale / 4
The Selection - Kiera Cass / 3
The Elite - Kiera Cass / 2
Angel - James Patterson /5
Nevermore - James Patterson/ 3
The Iron King - Julie Kagawa / 4
Winter's Passage - Julie Kagawa / 4
The iron Daughter - Julie Kagawa / 4
The Iron Queen - Julie Kagawa / 5
Summer's Crossing - Julie Kagawa /4
The iron Knight - julie Kagawa / 5
Iron's Prophecy - Julie Kagawa / 4
Every day - David Levithan / 5
beastly - Alex Flinn /5
Obsidian - Jennifer L. Armentrout / 4
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan   / 5
Cloaked - Alex Flinn / 4


These are the books I plan to read this month:

Cinder - Marissa Meyer
Avalon High - Meg Cabot
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
These Broken Stars - Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey
Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi
Through The Ever Night - Veronica Rossi
Into the Still Blue - Veronica Rossi
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews
Delirium - lauren Oliver
White Cat - Holly Black
Red Glove - Holly Black
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future - A.S. King
Just One Day - Gayle Forman

Week 13

Last week I was supposed to read Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. Unfortunately, I'm still on the holds list for it. Hopefully I'll get it soon.

This week I'm to read a book by an author I haven't read before. This wasn't hard to pick for since I live under a rock. I've chosen to read Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I've heard some great things about this book and I'm excited to get started on it.

Weeks 10 & 11

Last week I was to read a quartet, and I chose the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. In addition to the four books in the series, I read two novellas. There is one novella left in the series I haven't read yet, but I have it checked out and will be getting to it in a couple of days.

This week I was supposed to read a book with non-human characters. This is the first time I've read a book by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and I look forward to finishing the Lux series and reading more of her work.

Week 10:

#1 - The Iron King, 4 stars.

#1.5 - Winter's passage, 4 stars.

#2 - The Iron Daughter, 4 stars.

#3 - The Iron Queen, 5 stars.

#3.5 - Summer's Crossing, 4 stars.

#4 - The Iron Knight, 5 stars.

Week 11:

Obsidian, 4 stars

This coming week I'm supposed to read a book that will make me cry. I've chosen Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I'm still on the holds list for this book, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

March TBR & Week 9

I read 17 books in February:

Austenland / Shannon Hale. 4 stars.
Schools Out - Forever / James Patterson. 5 stars.
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports / James Patterson. 5 stars.
The Final Warning / James Patterson. 4 stars.
Max / James Patterson. 5 stars.
Fang / James Patterson. 5 stars.
Paper Towns / John Green. 5 stars.
An Abundance of Katherines / John Green. 5 stars.
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend / Kody Keplinger. 5 stars.
The Raven Boys / Maggie Stiefvater. 5 stars
An Ideal Husband / Oscar Wilde. 5 stars.
The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins. 5 stars.
Catching Fire / Suzanne Collins. 5 stars.
Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins. 5 stars.
Prince of Wolves / Quinn Loftis. 5 stars
The Archived / Victoria Schwab. 5 stars.
Incarnate / Jodi Meadows 5 stars.

I didn't read all of the books I had on my TBR because I had expiration dates for library books creep up on me.

My challenge for week 8 was to read a book with bad reviews. Because I had read it that week, and it has the lowest rating of the series on Goodreads, I'm counting The Final Warning by James Patterson for this.

My challenge for this week is to read a book set in high school. I've chosen To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. I had intended this book for an earlier challenge but was on the holds list for it until recently.

March TBR:

To All the Boys I've Loved before / Jenny Han
the Lucky One / Nickolas Sparks
Angel / James Patterson
Nevermore / James Patterson
The Silver Linings Playbook / Matthew Quick
The Darkest Minds / Alexandra Bracken
The Fault in Our Stars / John Green
The Book Thief / Markus Zusak
The Goose Girl / Shannon Hale
The Selection / Kiera Cass
The Elite / Kiera Cass
Every Day / David Levithan
Looking for Alaska / John Green
Great Expectations / Charles Dickens
Anne of Green Gables / L.M. Montgomery
Obsidian / Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Iron King / Julie Kagawa
The Iron Daughter / Julie Kagawa
The Iron Queen / Julie Kagawa
The Iron Knight / Julie Kagawa
Hopeless / Colleen Hoover

As a side note: The books I read in February were either wonderful, or I need to reign in my star giving. I gave five stars to fifteen out of seventeen books. Interesting...

Snow and Books (Reading Challenge Weeks 5-7)

I've had quite a few books checked out from my library that I needed to read before they expired, so I haven't been able to read the books I've chosen for my challenge in the past couple of weeks. I do have them checked out, so now that I'm caught up on my other books I'll be getting to these this week.

Week 5: A play. I chose An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. The only copy of this my library has available online is a performance of the play, so I'll be listening instead of reading. I'm assuming it's going to be the same as listening to an audiobook. Maybe not quite.

Week 6: A Book With Magic. I chose The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

Week 7: A book from your childhood. I've chosen Secrets Can Kill by Carolyn Keene. Nancy Drew is the reason why I'm infatuated with mysteries and always have been.

We're currently bogged down by snow here in Kentucky and I'm afraid to leave my house. My body doesn't do well with anything cold. This is the reason that I'm able to read a boatload of books in the winter. I'm not brave enough to leave my house in the winter, and most of the time I don't want to leave my bed.

Hopefully we don't get the 18 inches that's being called for. While it might be nice to experience that much snow on the ground at one time, I'm afraid of being in too much pain to enjoy it for very long. I don't want all the snow to melt, though, and have to admit I was too chicken to get out of my house and walk in it for five minutes.

Maybe I'll brave the outdoors tomorrow.

January Wrap-Up & February TBR

I read eight books in January, and for the most part, enjoyed them all.

The Host / Stephenie Meyer, 5 stars. This was the first book I read in 2015, and it was a great start to my reading year. I really liked it, even more so when it made me cry. That doesn't happen very often.

Shadow / Amanda Sun, 4 stars.

Ink / Amanda Sun, 4 stars.

Rain / Amanda Sun, 4 stars. I've really enjoyed the Paper Gods series so far, and I'm looking forward to the release of the third book.

The Angel Experiment / James Patterson, 4 stars. Really enjoyed this book, and I was glad to see that my library has the rest of the books in this series available for checkout as eBooks.

Waterfell / Amalie Howard, 4 stars.

Oceanborn / Amalie Howard, 3 stars. I enjoyed the first book in The Aquarathi series, but the ending of this one sort of ruined it. Unless I was mistaken in thinking this was a duology. If there's going to be a second book, then the ending would be fine. If it was in fact a duology, it should have ended sooner.

Austenland / Shannon Hale, 4 stars. I wasn't too sure if I was going to like this book when I first opened it and saw the format, but I did end up enjoying it.


My monthly reading challenge was to finish a series. That didn't happen (unless The Aquarathi was a duology, then it did, but I don't know). My plan had been to finish reading the Divergent trilogy, but I had a problem with my library card and couldn't log on to access my eBooks, so I missed my turn reading them.

I have deferred that challenge to this month, and will also complete the challenge that I drew specifically for February, which is to reread a favorite book. I have chosen Anne of Green Gables.


There are 13 books that I plan to read, or finish reading, this month. Five more than I read in January. Lots of reading to be done.

The Book Thief / Markus Zusak

The Archived / Victoria Schwab

An Abundance of Katherines / John Green

Paper Towns / John Green

The Goose Girl / Shannon Hale

School's Out - Forever / James Patterson

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports / James Patterson

The Lucky One / Nicholas Sparks

The Murder at The Vicarage / Agatha Christie

Love's Abiding Joy / Janette Oke

Anne of Green Gables / L.M. Montgomery

Insurgent / Veronica Roth

Allegiant / Veronica Roth

Reading Challenge Weeks 3 & 4

Week three's was to read a duology, and I chose The Aquarathi series by Amalie Howard. I did enjoy these books, however the ending of Oceanborn threw me. Either I was off-base in thinking this was a duology, in which the ending would make sense if there will be a third book, or it just wasn't a good ending.

Waterfell - 4 stars
Oceanborn - 3 stars

Week four's challenge was to a read a book by an author that I admire but haven't read yet. I chose to read Shannon Hale. I'd heard a lot of good things about her and was high on my list. One of the available books by her at my library was Austenland.

Austenland - 4 stars

This week I'm supposed to read a book that scares me. I had a bit of trouble with this, as most of the creepy-sounding books I've come across are horror, and as a rule I avoid horror. I just don't think I can stomach it. So I decided it would be best to stick with mysteries.

I've decided on reading Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. I've never read anything by her before, and I am thoroughly excited.

Reading Challenge: Week 2

Week two of my reading challenge was supposed to have me reading a book by an author who shared my initials. That didn't go as planned. I couldn't find an author that had my initials, so I decided to settle for books by two different authors, each with one initial of mine. This also didn't work.

I had chosen To All The Boy's I've Loved Before by Jenny Han and The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. Since I do the majority of my reading from books I've borrowed from my library, I had to wait for others to finish before I could check them out. I was hoping that I would be able to check them both out, but I'm still on the holds list for Jenny Han's book.

I did get to read The Angel Experiment and I really enjoyed it. It gets a solid four stars from me. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series as soon as I've finished the other books I have checked out from my library.

Week 3 challenge: A duology.

There were many duologies on my list that I would have enjoyed reading, but either my library only had the first book, or I would  have been several people back on the holds lists. 

I did some searching for a while, and finally came across Amalia Howard's series, The Aquarathi. I settled on this duology simply because it was the first one that I was able to check out from my library without playing the waiting game with the holds list. I also didn't want to take a chance on someone else borrowing them while I was searching for another.

I love libraries, but sometimes I wish I were able to afford, and had the space to store, all the books I'll ever be able to read. Oh, what a dream.

First Week of My Reading Challenge

My book prompt for last week was a book set in the future. I chose to read The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Partly because I already had it checked out from my library and it fit the prompt.

I really liked this book. I live under a rock, so this was the first book by Stephenie Meyer that I've read. As I was reading it, I was going to give it four stars. I was really enjoying it. Then it made me cry.

I never cry. Okay, maybe once every four or five good months, but that's pushing it. It's like my personal filter for awesome things. If it makes me cry, it's an automatic five stars. I don't care if the rest of a book was mediocre, if it makes me cry because I feel the pain the characters are going through, it's getting five stars.


This weeks prompt is to read a book written by an author with your same initials.

I couldn't find one. So I'm going to improvise. I'll read two books, both written by an author that has one of my initials.

The first is To All The Boy's I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. The Second is The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. I'm on the holds list for both of these books, though there aren't many people in front of me. I may not get to read both of these books this week, but I'm going to hope I will.

Reading Challenges For 2015

If you read my last post, you might remember that one of my goals for 2015 is to read 100 books. To help me reach my goal I will be participating in two reading challenges.

I have written the prompts from each challenge on strips of paper and put them into a jar, so when I need a new book the prompt will be random.

The first is a weekly drawing. Every weekend this year I will be picking a prompt at random, choosing a corresponding book and reading it before that week is up. I did make a slight tweak to this challenge, though. 

In the original version there are only 50 prompts, one of which is a trilogy, for a total of 52 books. One for every week of the year. I prefer, though, that once I begin doing something regularly that I continue to do it, or it messes me up completely and I get off track. So if I pulled the trilogy in the middle of the year, it is very likely that I would forget to go back to the challenge and pull a new one for a couple of weeks. Then once I remembered I would be behind, and there's nothing I hate more than being behind in something and needing to work quickly to catch up. In light of this, I added two prompts. There is now a prompt for every week of the year, for a total of 58 books that I will have read by the completion of the challenge.

Seeing as there was a trilogy already on the list, I simply added a duology and a quartet.

The second challenge is Katytastic's TBR Jar Challenge 2015. This challenge is once a month.

Both challenges will have me reading 70 books throughout the year, so I only have to come up with 30 more to meet my totally attainable goal. I'm not insane, am I?

I drew my first prompts yesterday. My weekly prompt is to read a book set in the future, and my monthly prompt is to finish a series.

I haven't picked a book for my weekly challenge yet, but hopefully I'll be able to find something among the books I've checked out from my library. (Side note: Why was I the only one that didn't know it was possible to borrow eBooks from library's? Seriously?)

My monthly challenge was easy to decide on, seeing as I'm currently in the middle of reading Veronica Roth's Divergent Series. I've read Divergent, have Insurgent checked out in eBook form, but I'm on the holds list for Allegiant. I'm hoping the people in front of me will read quickly and I can check it out before the end of January. There are 50 something people in front of me, but I'm going to think positively.

New Beginnings

I recently turned 19, and it made me really think about my life. It's a bit cringe-worthy.

I made a bit of a fuss over my birthday. I didn't want to turn 19, I dreaded it with no real reason in mind. I realize why now.

I dreaded becoming older because I was stuck, and had been for a long time. I was stuck in the same thought patterns I had been in, and I was acting the way I always had. I felt that the world was moving along at a quick pace, and I was stuck in the same position I had always been in. I feared it would always be that way.

I lost sight of who I wanted to be, and the things I wanted to do. I let myself fall into a pattern of always bending into whatever shape the people around me thought I needed to be in. Always doing the same things, acting the same way. I wasn't allowing myself to be myself. I was allowing the world to go on without me. But no more.

I don't usually make a list of New Year's resolutions, but this year I have. I know what I need to do now. I need to allow myself to be who I am without fear of being considered less than anyone else.

This is my list of the things I'll be doing in the coming year to embrace who I am.

1. Read at least one hundred books. I've fallen out of reading the last couple of years, but with the help of a couple of different challenges I hope to change that.
2. Get my business up and running. It's been a long time coming.
3. Learn to draw well enough to be accepted to, and hopefully receive a large scholarship from, a good art school.
4. Write the first drafts of three or four novels, and complete revisions on at least two of them.
5. Do something writing-related every single day.
6. Exercise often. I hope to begin taking dance lessons this year, and I need to build up my stamina.
7. Learn to read and speak Hebrew. I've been wanting to learn for the last couple of years, but never got much farther than a few basic words.
8. Become as neat and tidy as possible. I am a naturally messy person. I at least need to organize my mess. I'll settle for that.