Bookish Tags and Memes – Page 40

Can’t Wait Wednesday – BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

January 29, 2020/18 Comments/by Suzanne

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, which is a sci-fi/fantasy retelling of Les Miserables so I’m excited that we only have a couple more months to wait to get the much-anticipated sequel.

BETWEEN BURNING WORLDS by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

Publication Date: March 24, 2020

From Goodreads:

Laterre is on the brink of war. The Third Estate are rioting against the injustices of a corrupt system. The Patriarche, reeling from the murder of his only heir, makes brutal attempts to quash the unrest, while a new militant faction launches a series of deadly attacks.

Marcellus is now a traitor to his planet, willing to do anything to stop his grandfather from seizing control of Laterre, even if it means joining the Vangarde, a rebel group back from the dead.

Chatine is a prisoner on Bastille. Desperate to survive the harsh conditions of the moon, she becomes embroiled in the Vangarde’s dangerous attempt to free their infamous leader.

Alouette is a fugitive who has been lied to her entire life. Searching for the truth about her mysterious past, she soon finds herself hunted by the Regime for reasons she’s only beginning to understand.

But when Laterre is threatened by the emergence of a deadly new weapon, these three renegades must risk everything, traveling to the far reaches of the System Divine and into the white hot center of a planet ready to ignite.

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday – I’ve Been Framed – My Favorite Book Covers that Feature Eye Glasses

January 28, 2020/36 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is a Book Cover Freebie (choose what kind(s) of covers you want to talk about: prettiest, most unique, most misleading, weirdest, most memorable, creepiest, ugliest, etc.).

I decided to focus on book covers that feature eyewear. I don’t know if it’s because I wear glasses myself or what, but I’m always drawn to covers with glasses. Regular glasses, sunglasses, goggles, you name it, they all grab my attention. I’ve put together a collage of some of my favorites to share with you today. If you want to know more about any of the books I’ve featured, use the links below.

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My Favorite Book Covers that Feature Eye Glasses

(in no particular order)

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Maria Semple

MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro

FUMBLED by Alexa Martin

DEATH PREFERS BLONDES by Caleb Roehrig

SLAY by Brittney Morris

THE HEART PRINCIPLE by Helen Hoang

THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL by Abbi Waxman

AMERICAN ROYALS by Katherine McGee

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by J.K. Rowling

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Do you have any favorite covers that feature glasses?

Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE KINGDOM OF BACK by Marie Lu

January 22, 2020/30 Comments/by Suzanne

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is THE KINGDOM OF BACK by Marie Lu. I love Marie Lu’s writing, historical fiction, and stories about siblings so this book sounds like a perfect choice for me.

THE KINGDOM OF BACK by Marie Lu

Publication Date: March 3, 2020

From Goodreads:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu comes a historical YA fantasy about a musical prodigy and the dangerous lengths she’ll go to make history remember her—perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke and The Hazel Wood.

Two siblings. Two brilliant talents. But only one Mozart.

Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish—to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she’ll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age—her tyrannical father has made that much clear.

And as Nannerl’s hope grows dimmer with each passing year, the talents of her beloved younger brother, Wolfgang, only seem to shine brighter. His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true—but his help may cost her everything.

In her first work of historical fiction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu spins a lush, lyrically-told story of music, magic, and the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday – The 10 Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

January 21, 2020/38 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is The 10 Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf. This was of course an easy topic since even though I say my goal is to read the books I own, I still can’t seem to stop adding new books to my collection. I will say I did have to go back all the way to the beginning of December to come up with ten new titles though so I’d consider that baby steps in getting myself under control when it comes to accumulating books faster than I can ever hope to read them.

(Find out what it’s about…)

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Question: What are some of the latest additions to your bookshelf?

Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE EXTRAORDINARIES by TJ Klune

January 15, 2020/26 Comments/by Suzanne

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is THE EXTRAORDINARIES by TJ Klune. I’ve always heard good things about TJ Klune’s books so he has been on my list of authors to try for a while now. I just mentioned in my goals post earlier this week that reading one of Klune’s books was a priority for me in 2020 so I was thrilled to then find out he’s actually has his YA debut coming out this year. It sounds great too. I was sold as soon as I saw the Fangirl meets Renegades comparison.

THE EXTRAORDINARIES by TJ Klune

Publication Date: May 5, 2020

From Goodreads:

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune’s YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl meets Marissa Meyer’s Renegades in TJ Klune’s YA debut.

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday – My Reading/Blogging Goals for 2020

January 14, 2020/36 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is actually supposed to be Bookish Discoveries I Made In 2019 (these could be books, authors, blogs, websites, apps, products, etc.). I wasn’t really feeling that topic so I decided today would be a good day to talk about my reading and blogging goals instead. Those goals are driven by things that happened (or probably more accurately, didn’t happen) in 2019, so it’s not totally off topic, right?

Anyway, I don’t have a ton of goals because I honestly just want to have fun and enjoy my reading and the bookish community in 2020, but there are still a few things I’d really like to focus on in my bookish life.

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My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2020

1) My number one goal this year is to read more of the books I own. ARCs are great of course, but I have so many unread books piling up around me that I don’t really even have room for more at this point. Something’s got to give. To that end, the only challenge I’m taking part in aside from Goodreads is the Beat the Backlist Challenge. I’ve set a goal there of reading at least 50 books from my backlist so here’s hoping I put a serious dent in my unread shelves. (Of course so that I can make room for more unread books, lol).

2) I really want to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book. As of right now, I have three more blog tours on my calendar for January and February but they are specifically for books I had already been approved for and I really want to stick with this so that I don’t accidentally over commit and create stress for myself.

3) Finish or at least make major progress in the following series:

Throne of Glass
An Ember in the Ashes
The Nevernight Chronicle
Arc of a Scythe
Red Winter
The Wrath and the Dawn
The Folk of the Air
Cursebreakers

4) Aside from wrapping up those series, I actually really want to focus more on standalones this year.

5) I really want to focus more on my Bookstagram account. Right now I typically only post once, maybe twice a week so I’d like to bump that up to 2-3 times a week. I’d also like to focus more on actually interacting more with the bookstagram community. Sometimes I’m just so short for time that I just ‘like’ photos without commenting and I really want to make more time for commenting since I think it’s important.

6) Try books by at least five authors who have been on my TBR for years. My priorities are as follows:

Martha Wells
Becky Chambers
Ilona Andrews
Louise Penny
TJ Klune

7) I’m not officially signing up for the Discussion challenge this year, but I would still like to aim for at least 12 discussion posts this year. I always feel bad because I love doing the discussion posts, but when I’m short on time, those are always the ones I kick to the curb since they take longer to do.

8) I really want to be more consistent when it comes to blog hopping. I’m still debating the best method to achieve this – devoting specific days to it vs. just trying to squeeze in a bit here and there as I have time, but I need to figure out a better system for myself. Right now I’m just consistently inconsistent.

9) Blogging ahead more is another big goal of mine. I doubt I’ll ever be one who has weeks and weeks’ worth of posts ready to go, but I’d love to at least get to a point where I get all of my posts for the upcoming week ready to go over the weekend. I get so stressed when I wait until the last minute to work on posts.

10) Finally, my overall reading goal for 2020 is to read at least 150 books. I managed to read 153 in 2019 and that was with 2 1/2 George R.R. Martin bricks thrown in the mix, so I’m hoping 150 will be doable this year, especially since I have now fully embraced audiobooks.

Can’t Wait Wednesday – CHASING LUCKY by Jenn Bennett

January 8, 2020/34 Comments/by Suzanne

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is CHASING LUCKY by Jenn Bennett. Jenn Bennett is one of my favorite YA contemporary authors so I was excited to see she had a new book coming out in May. The beautiful cover drew me in, and as soon as I read the synopsis and the teasers about the history between Josie and Lucky, I immediately wanted to get to know them and see what happens when their paths cross again.

CHASING LUCKY by Jenn Bennett

Publication Date: May 5, 2020

From Goodreads:

In this coming-of-age romance perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen, scandal and romance collide when an ambitious teen returns to her hometown only to have her plans interrupted after falling for the town’s “bad boy”—a.k.a. her childhood best friend.

Sometimes to find the good, you have to embrace the bad.

Budding photographer Josie Saint-Martin has spent half her life with her single mother, moving from city to city. When they return to her historical New England hometown years later to run the family bookstore, Josie knows it’s not forever. Her dreams are on the opposite coast, and she has a plan to get there.

What she doesn’t plan for is a run-in with the town bad boy, Lucky Karras. Outsider, rebel…and her former childhood best friend. Lucky makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the newly returned Josie. But everything changes after a disastrous pool party, and a poorly executed act of revenge lands Josie in some big-time trouble—with Lucky unexpectedly taking the blame.

Determined to understand why Lucky was so quick to cover for her, Josie discovers that both of them have changed, and that the good boy she once knew now has a dark sense of humor and a smile that makes her heart race. And maybe, just maybe, he’s not quite the brooding bad boy everyone thinks he is…

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday – Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First Half of 2020

January 7, 2020/48 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First Half of 2020. I have so many anticipated releases for the first half of the year that it was nearly impossible to pick just ten. The ones I’ve chosen to feature this week are new releases from favorite authors, new books in some of my favorite series, and a MacBeth retelling that sounds really good.

Happy reading, everyone! I can’t wait to read all of your most anticipated lists!

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Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First Half of 2020

(in no particular order)

UNDERCOVER BROMANCE by Lyssa Kay Adams

SHOREFALL by Robert Jackson Bennett

THE HONEY-DON’T LIST by Christina Lauren

THE DARK CORNERS OF THE NIGHT by Meg Gardiner

FOUL IS FAIR by Hannah Capin

YOU ARE NOT ALONE by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

YES NO MAYBE SO by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN by Brigid Kemmerer

THE UNWILLING by John Hart

HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas

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What were some of your most anticipated releases for the first half of 2020? Do we share any?

Goodreads: My Year in Books for 2019

January 1, 2020/26 Comments/by Suzanne

I had been debating what kind of year end wrap up I wanted to do, but then the wonderful Esther from Bite Into Books tagged me to do the Goodreads: Your Year in Books Meme for 2019. Since Goodreads is where I most accurately keep track of what I read each year, this seemed like the perfect fit for me so thank you, Esther. 🙂

SOME OF MY BOOKISH STATS FOR 2019:

As of December 30th, I have read 58,107 pages across 152 books.

My average book length was 382 pages.

The shortest book I read was All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio, at 240 pages.

The longest book I read (or re-read in this case) was A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, at 1,010 pages.

The most popular book I read was also from George R.R. Martin, but this time it’s the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, which has been read by 1,995,594 other people.

The least popular books I read was Hands Up by Stephen Clark, which has only been read by 31 other people so far.

My average book rating for 2019 was 4 STARS.

The highest rated book I read this year was Michelle Obama’s Becoming, which has a 4.58 star average.

My first review of the year was for White Stage by Kara Barbieri, which I rated 3.5 stars.

My final review of the year was for You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley, which I rated 4 stars.

I had 23 5 star reads in 2019. Here are some of the stand outs for me.

WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

Participating is easy:

1) Write your own Your Year in Books post.

2) Link back to Esther’s post.

3) Enter the link of your post in the widget there.

4) Tag your friends (if you like).

5. Check back to enjoy other people’s posts!

I’m terrible about tagging people but please consider yourself tagged if you would like to participate in this year end round up. 🙂

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Top Ten Tuesday – Best Books I Read in 2019

December 31, 2019/36 Comments/by Suzanne

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Best Books I Read in 2019. I had a great reading year so it was tough to narrow down to a list of favorites. I’m actually sharing my Top 13 today because I couldn’t narrow to just 10 favorites. In looking at my year, the one thing that really struck me was that only one fantasy novel made my Best Of list, while several romances did make the cut. That is a huge change for me and very symbolic of the slump I was in this year when it came to fantasy. I’m thrilled that I had so many great romance reads since that’s usually an area where I struggle, but I really hope I have better luck with fantasy in 2020.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a great reading year for us all in 2020!

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