We’re well past this year’s halfway mark, and with that, I’m happy to announce that I’m actually ahead of my Goodreads Reading Challenge of reading fifty books in 2019. This time last year I was flailing around, trying to catch up with my annual reading goal by hosting a personal Post-Mid Year Freak out Read-a-thon. It seems that the same strategy I usually employ to catch up on my reading goal—picking shorter books and reading contemporary fluff—helped put me ahead of schedule. Ultimately though, it was the huge chunks of time I’ve had being in the waiting since I graduated combined with a streak of great book recommendations that allowed me to stay on top of the challenge.
It’s time to pay it forward by highlighting the best of the great book recommendations that I read. Here are my favorite books of 2019 (so far):
One of the perks of being a book blogger is that it *automatically puts you in the running to receive an ARC, or advanced readers copy.
ARCs are “almost-complete” versions of books that publishers send to reviewers to promote the title and gain feedback. This practice isn’t only advantageous to the publishers as the book reviewers literally get FREE books to read (and review) ahead of everyone else. It’s certainly one way to set your book blog apart (although ARC reviews aren’t incredibly uncommon in the blogosphere).
Here’s where I retract my earlier wording. Being a book blogger doesn’t “automatically” put you in the running to receive an ARC. At least when you first start out, you have to put in the time and work to request the title from a publisher which can be done through multiple avenues.
While the idea of receiving a free book is certainly enticing, I still haven’t requested an ARC after three years of blogging for these reasons:
I haven’t been nominated for an award since The Sunshine Blogger Award, so thank you Hannah from But First, Fiction for nominating me! It took a while, but I finally got around to doing this post 😁.
Book to movie adaptations are cool and everything, but what about book to video game adaptations?
Even cooler. Imagine running, jumping, and interacting with the characters you read about on a paperback. Sure, you aren’t physically doing all those things—it’s your thumbs on the game controller doing the bulk of the action. But, being able to see and hear a world you could only conjure in your head, even if it’s only from a device, is an enterprise worth marveling. Here are five books I think would make good (if not great) video games:
Only a few of my closest friends and family know about my book blog.
I don’t go out of my way to hide it from people—I’ll admit to having one if someone asks—but it’s also something I don’t advertise. It’s not that I’m ashamed of it, I just prefer to keep it on the DL. I’ve narrowed my reasons for keeping my blog a ~leetle~ secret down to two, quick points that maybe you can relate to:
Goodreads Description: milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look
Bestsellers usually make their way on to my TBR, unless they’re from certain genres I steer away from, like poetry.
I’ve never been able to stomach poetry. Maybe I’m not good with my emotions, too judgmental, or just don’t understand it, but a lot of poetry tends to make me feel uncomfortable. My impression of poetry has been skewed by poems in Tumblr posts and Instagram captions that always seemed more cringey than “𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹”. So, even though everyone under the sun had already read Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, I never had any intention of reading 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐦𝐬.
Goodreads Description:Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
Let’s get right into it: this book was disappointing.
Wildcard was the much-anticipated, second book in the Warcross duology by Marie Lu. It bums me out that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would because I was so blown away by the first book, Warcross. The technology, asian american representation, and eventual shocking plot twist in Warcross had me itching for Wildcard’s release.Needless to say, I had high expectations—and that’s my fault.
Honestly, I didn’t learn anything after reading Warcross though. Like, ᴅᴏɴ’ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴇxᴘᴇᴄᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴs. (Specifically, don’t expect that a book is a standalone—but you can read more about that particular frustration in my book review for Warcross.)
I like to procrastinate reading by watching videos about people who are reading.
It’s truly a strange world we’re living in.
I’m sure some of you have also caught yourself in the same loop. You’re searching for a new book to read, watch some book recommendation videos, find a book to read (!!), and… continue to watch booktube videos.
The cycle is inevitable.
(Lol. Okay, Thanos.)
Anyways, here are some of my favorite booktubers to watch while I procrastinate 🎉:
Goodreads Description:An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.
After putting this book on the back-burner for over two years, it has officially made it to my all-time favorites list.
First off, it was not what I was expecting at all. I committed the age-old crime of judging Station Eleven by its cover and, based off the (truly minimal) stars on the front, I assumed the story would take place in space. That, plus the fact that Station Eleven sounded like a space station (which I technically wasn’t wrong to believe), the book gave me the impression of being a space opera. While that wasn’t the case, I was pleasantly surprised that the book was so much better than my initial estimation of it.
I know some of you are thinking, “But, the book is clearly not about space in the synopsis,” and, I agree. Buuuut, 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩. We’ve already established that I’m a sheep.
My bookish habits have gone through a fair amount of change these past few years, largely due to the blogosphere.
Sometime between scrolling through all the book blogs and seeing many similar-themed posts, my brain reached a tipping point and was rewired to think more like the rest of the blogging community (🐑 <— me, a sheep). There were some bookish things that I refused to accept until you all, without meaning to, knocked some sense into me. Here are five bookish things I’ve changed my mind about (thanks to you all 🥂!):
Belle Can Read 