Monthly Wrap-Up

December 2017 Reading Wrap-Up

LeeLeave a comment

The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  December 11 – 12
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Chanters vs. Pirates from the beginning.
Least Favorite Thing:  Ooomg so many sexist desert-dwellers!

I started to reread this series earlier in the year and then just totally got side-tracked, but I’m back now! (Also I think I completely blocked out the end….)

My Posts About The Waterless Sea

The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  December 12
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The reveal about Cal’s family 🙂
Least Favorite Thing:  Um… Keela’s entire original personality?

Man I zipped through this one! I was so anxious because I couldn’t remember in detail how this book went so I just devoured it!

I definitely recommend the Chanters of Tremaris series to anyone who likes YA Magical Fantasy and those who, like me, love stories about nature magic.

My Posts About The Tenth Power

The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  Kinda?
Reading Dates:  December 12
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Lavena had me cackling!
Least Favorite Thing:  Seriously why does her entire family have to be Like That?? I just wanted to climb into the novel and systematically throttle them all…

I was actually surprised by how little of this story I remembered from when I first read it years ago.

My Posts About The Swan Maiden

The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
(Trials of Apollo, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 23 – December 13
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Actually dealt pretty well with the portrayal of a relationship between a child and their abusive parent.
Least Favorite Thing:  Apollo is so fucking annoying. I miss Percy.

Seriously the only parts of the book I truly loved were the parts with Percy. I didn’t even realize he was my favorite, but he’s obviously my favorite. Lovably sarcastic dork….

My Posts About The Hidden Oracle

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
(Brian’s Saga, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  December 13
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  I love the way Brian thinks about things, like referring to the fire as his “new hungry friend”.
Least Favorite Thing:  That moose was a dick. (Honestly, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about the story/writing.)

I’m really glad I decided to try rereading this again. I wanted to see if I still liked it after all these years and I think I actually like it more now.

My Posts About Hatchet

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
(Rise of the Empress, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  December 15 – 18
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Had me totally rooting for someone I knew was technically a villain!
Least Favorite Thing:  I really didn’t need the mental images of killing small animals… (To be clear, it’s not often and it’s not like gratuitous slaughter, it’s just the descriptive language Julie C. Dao is good at made things a little too vivid for me for that particular couple scenes.)

I was so excited to get my hands on this book and it didn’t disappoint! I feel like wandering around town yelling about this book like a street preacher. Seriously, I recommend it to everyone, especially if you like fairy tale retellings.

(I almost put that my favorite thing was that there was literally zero white people in this entire novel, but I thought that might be a little tactless…oops!)

My Posts About Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

Mind Games by Kiersten White
(Mind Games, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 22 – December 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Fia being all small and kick-ass.
Least Favorite Thing:  It just didn’t hold my attention very well…

I think it’s a pretty decent book, there was just something that made it hard to stay in the story. Still it ended on a minor cliffhanger so I guess I’ll be reading the sequel at some point!

My Posts About Mind Games

Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  December 23 – 26
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The photography.
Least Favorite Thing:  I’m surprised to find there isn’t really anything I didn’t like from this book. Everything felt very honest.

I was afraid this book would be really hard to read because of the subject matter, but it moved really well and was a very honest portrayal of grief and recovery.

My Posts About Hold Still

In Progress

November 2017 Wrap-Up

Lee2 Comments

Oh, man! This was such a good month for me reading-wise! I could have done better at actually blogging, but I’m not even bothered because I’m doing so well right now.

Non-Reading Stuff

As far as my health and such goes, the month started off pretty badly, but it’s really improving now. I finally got new meds after my old ones were recalled (blah blah, kidneys matter, apparently) so I’m no longer in constant pain and I can eat normal foods and I’m even getting my appetite back. Hurray! (Also they shoved a camera down my throat, fun fun fun.)

Mental health has been doing better lately, too! I have left the house on 3 separate occasions this month, which anyone who has paid any attention to my tumblr blog knows is a record for any month in the past couple years. I even went into a public place during 2 of those trips outside (not counting the doctor’s office). And, I’ve even been letting people into the house. Only 2 so far, but that’s still a huge deal for me. I couldn’t even let my own mother visit for a long time there, and she’s been over 3 different times this month! Ha!

Oh, also, for those who remember me shaving my head several months back and then proceeding to complain as it grew out because it kept trying to become a mullet:  I got a real haircut and the mullet is dead!

So you can see why I’m not going to beat myself up about not remembering to blog regularly. Now if only my allergies would fuck off… I’m developing a vicious hatred of tissues.

Reading Stuff

I read 18 books in November, and of those I finished 16.
You can view this list of books and my fave/least fave things about them here.

The last week or so of the month I hit a bit of a reading slump, but to be honest I expected it, and the good news is:  I’m already coming out of it! In fact, I’m having to force myself to be typing up my wrap-up instead of reading…

Aaaaand…. My 16 completed books from November officially puts me 5 books from my goal of 75 for the year!

Those of you who were reading my blog around summertime might remember that even though I originally set my Goodreads goal at 75, in summer I lowered it to 50 because I was having so much trouble with my mental health and reading, and I didn’t want to further discourage myself by massively missing my goal. Well after I did so well in October, I decided to go ahead and return to my original goal, which I am 100% confident I can meet (and surpass!) before the end of the year.

Blogging Stuff

I haven’t been doing great at blogging, as I mentioned. Mostly I get so caught up with other things I just forget, but I’m going to be trying harder for December.

I did at least manage to occasionally post for the book memes I follow (which you can find in their respective tags in the sidebar if you are on WordPress) and a Dedication Spotlight, as well as some quote posts and rating posts for all the books I read (links to those categories in the sidebar).

The thing that’s really been bothering me is I haven’t been reviewing at all lately. Partially that’s because I’ve been rereading some books from years ago, and I don’t like to review rereads or classics for various (probably dumb) reasons. I also have trouble when I’m reading really quickly, like with the Rick Riordan books. I don’t take notes when I’m reading that fast, and even if I did I wouldn’t want to stop and review anything because I want to jump right to the next book.

But honestly, I was having trouble reviewing already anyway. I’m not sure why… I finish a book with the full intent to review it, and then find myself with absolutely nothing to say… I’m hoping it was just a case of block, or even just because I wasn’t in the right headspace. If not, I haven’t the foggiest idea how to solve this one. I don’t want to give up on reviewing entirely because I actually like it when I can do it, but I guess we shall see how it goes in December.

Is there something you would like to see (or see more of) on the blog? Let me know! And if you have your own monthly wrap-ups I’d love some links! 🙂 Hope all y’all had good Novembers!