Tag: TBR Book Tag

I am always so happy to find out that I’ve been tagged in things, so a big thank you to Alyssa @ A Lovely Book Affair for tagging me in this one! I haven’t done this one yet and… my TBR is always kind of a disaster. My Goodreads account is really misleading, that’s for sure.

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How do you keep track of your TBR list?
I have so many ways that I keep track of my TBR.

• Goodreads | I mostly use Goodreads to keep track of books that I want to eventually buy. I also add all the ARCs I’m approved for to my next-up shelf so I can keep track of them.
• My TBR page | I have a list here on my blog of all the books that I own that I need to read. It’s separated into low, medium, and high priority, but in reality, that doesn’t mean much and also I’ve been kind of terrible about updating it recently.
• Piles throughout my house | I have piles in my bedroom and my living room and in the little loft area on my second floor… basically I just have piles of books everywhere. Books I’ve already read are on my bookcases, but books I need to read just hang out all over my house.
• Sticky notes in my planner | If you’ve recommended me a book, I wrote it down on a sticky note and stuck it in the back of my planner. I actually open up this list all the time and randomly buy books from it even when I shouldn’t be spending any more money on books than I already have.
• The Libby app | I do a lot of impulsive library holds, so the Libby app is kind of a lifesaver. I get emails about books that I forgot I put holds on months ago, and then I forget that I have them because usually they’re ebooks. The Libby app at least shows me all of my library books in one nice list that’s sorted by due date.
• My… memory | In addition to my five other ways of keeping track of the books I want to read, I also have tons of books swimming around in the back of my mind!

Is your TBR mostly print or e-book?
Most of the books I own that I haven’t read are ebooks, because it’s easier to ignore books you can’t see than it is to ignore a pile of books staring you in the face while you get ready for work.

How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?
ARCs are always first, followed by library books, followed by reading challenges, followed by whatever the heck I feel like reading next. Sometimes that hierarchy goes straight out the window, though.

A book that has been on your TBR the longest
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger! I bought it in high school and then totally forgot about it, lost it, and bought it again a few weeks ago. Hopefully I’ll be reading it soon this time.

A book that you recently added to your TBR
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand is the last one I put on my Goodreads TBR.

A book on your TBR list strictly because of its beautiful cover
Probably Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore, which is in one of my piles. I only bought it because it’s pretty, so I hope it’s good.

A book on your TBR that you never plan on actually reading
I don’t think I have any books on my TBR that I don’t actually plan to read. I usually take books off my Goodreads TBR if I don’t want to read them anymore. I also fully intend to eventually read every book that I own.

An unpublished book on your TBR that you’re excited for
– Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett
– The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
– WHAT IF IT’S US BY BECKY ALBERTALLI AND ADAM SILVERA!!!
– 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
– The Witch Elm by Tana French

A book on your TBR that basically everyone has read but you
The Name of the Wind, which I am going to get to very soon! As soon as I’m caught up on all these ARCs!

A book on your TBR everyone recommends you
Maybe Geekerella? I think a couple people have recommended that one to me.

A book on your TBR you’re very excited to read
I think I’m most excited to read Furyborn ever since I found out that Claire Legrand is the librarian at my library.

The number of books on your Goodreads TBR shelf
Only 143, which really isn’t bad. But, again, my Goodreads TBR is misleading.

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Time for tags:

🖤 Rebecca 🖤 Daniel 🖤 Kalina 🖤 Kaleena 🖤 Gerry 🖤

Here’s my usual disclaimer that I hope you don’t feel pressured to do anything I tag you in! Feel free to ignore me if you don’t like tags or if you’ve already done this one. And if I didn’t tag you and you want to do it, YOU’RE TAGGED. Go ahead. And please link back to this post so I can see your answers. ❤

ARC review: Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton
Series: Die Salvation #1

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: September 4, 2018
Source: ARC from publisher (via Netgalley)

In 2204, humanity is expanding into the wider galaxy in leaps and bounds. A new technology of linked jump gates has rendered most forms of transporation–including starships–virtually obsolete. Every place on earth, every distant planet mankind has settled, is now merely a step away from any other. And all seems wonderful…until a crashed alien spaceship is found on a newly-located world 89 light years from Earth, harboring seventeen human victims. And of the high-powered team dispatched to investigate the mystery, one is an alien spy…

Bursting with tension and big ideas, this standalone series highlights the inventiveness of an author at the top of his game, as the interweaving story lines tell us not only how humanity arrived at this moment, but also the far-future consequences that spin off from it.

Alright, I’ve been putting off writing this review for a couple days, but I think that I finally need to just do it. It’s hard because, while I wanted to love this book, I just didn’t. I might think that something’s wrong with me — after all, I haven’t enjoyed most of what I’ve read recently — if I wasn’t 100% in love with a book I’m currently beta reading. But anyway.

I would consider myself a fan of Peter F. Hamilton. I’ve previously read both the Void trilogy and The Abyss Beyond Dreams, which are set in his Commonwealth universe. I honestly adored both and was fully expecting to have the same feelings about Salvation. Maybe I wasn’t in a sci-fi mood, or maybe I just wasn’t in a Salvation mood, but as much as I wanted to like this book, it really fell flat for me. I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t really feel much of anything for it.

As usual for Hamilton’s books, we’re all over the place. The book takes place over many years, over many continents and planets, and involves a whole lot of people. And also, as usual, everything is connected. The problem is that I never really felt any connection to any of the characters. I also felt that the book was unnecessarily long and ended up skimming a lot of the chapters.

I know that this review sounds pretty negative for a book that I gave three stars, so I feel like I should say again that I didn’t actually dislike this book. I think that people who read a lot of sci-fi would probably enjoy it. It’s a slow start to a new universe, but given what I know about Hamilton’s writing, I’m sure that it’ll all be worth it in the end.

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Have you read Salvation? Are you a fan of Peter F. Hamilton?
Let’s talk in the comments!

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Tag: Book Blogger Memory Challenge

Thank you to Jennifer for tagging me in this one! You know that I love tags and this one was a lot of fun! ❤

The Rules:

You must answer these questions without looking anything up on the internet and without looking at your bookshelves!!

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The Questions:

1. Name a book written by an author called Michael.

The first book (or, actually, series) that came to mind was Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations. I bought this for my boyfriend one Christmas maybe four or five years ago and he never read it. I would like to be offended, but that would make me a hypocrite since I own how many books that I haven’t read??? (Although, just saying, I’ve read every book he’s ever given me.)

2. Name a book with a dragon on the cover.

Somehow I haven’t read Eragon, but it’s the only book I could think of with a dragon on the cover!

3. Name a book about a character called George.

George has been on my TBR for awhile now and I’m hoping to read it soon!

4. Name a book written by an author with the surname Smith.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is one of the first ever ARCs I got! And surprisingly, I can’t think of any other authors with the last name Smith…

5. Name a book set in Australia.

The one that came to mind first was On the Jellicoe Road!

6. Name a book with the name of a month in the title.

June is a person, but A Million Junes still counts, right??

7. Name a book with a knife on the cover.

I have somehow made it through five years of my life as a book blogger without reading anything by Patrick Ness (I’m going to fix that soon), but the first book that I thought of was The Knife of Never Letting Go.

8. Name a book with the word ‘one’ in the title.

My favorite book with ‘one’ in the title would have to be Ready Player One! I read this a couple years ago and I really loved it!

9. Name a book with a eponymous title.

Truly Devious counts, right?

10. Name a book turned into a movie.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the last movie that I watched and I’m maybe still swooning a little bit. I still need to read the third book in this series.

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I’m tagging:

❤️ Krisha  🧡 Thrice Read  💛 Bethany  💚 Jamsu 💙 Katie  💜

As always, no pressure to do the tag if you don’t want to! Let me know if you like tags because I would love to tag you in things! If I didn’t tag you and you want to do this, please consider yourself tagged and link back to this post so that I can see your answers! ❤

Book review: Burn the Fairy Tales by Adeline Whitmore

Burn the Fairy Tales by Adeline Whitmore
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: July 29, 2017
Source: Borrowed

Kill the prince. Give the princess a sword. Send her into battle. Watch her win. This poetry book is a work of feminist self-empowerment for women and of understanding for men. It deals with love, loss, self discovery, self love, grief, and inspiration.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I went from reading no poetry over the course of my life to reading a ton of poetry in 2018. I’m not sure what happened, really, other than I started using my library a lot more and I have made more bookish friends. Anyway, Gerry recommended that I read this, not in a “wow, I really loved it” way but more in a “hmm, I didn’t like it and I think you won’t like it either but I’d like to hear your thoughts” kind of way. In other words, I was basically advised to hate-read this, and if that’s not my favorite, I don’t know what is. Thank god this was free via the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Anyway, I decided that the best way to review this collection is to just type whatever comes to mind while reading, so here you go. My more-or-less linear thoughts while reading Burn the Fairy Tales.

Some sections of some poems are okay:

you
were whole before him

you
are still whole without him

do not
define yourself by him

define yourself by yourself

— whole

But also some have grammatical errors and holy hell, if that doesn’t drive me crazy:

[…]

let me peak
into the depths of your soul

[…]

— depths

(A “peak” is a high point, like the top of a mountain. A “peek” is a glimpse, a look, a view.)

Some non-poems (remember, sentences with line breaks aren’t poetry):

if a man
has sex
with a woman who is

unconscious
drugged
drunk
or doesn’t
actively consent

it’s rape
end of story

— sex part 2

(I appreciate the sentiment but this is a sentence, not a poem.)

if he apologizes but doesn’t change the apology
means nothing

— sorry

Again, this is true, but it’s literally just a sentence with one line break, I don’t understand how this is poetry.

every
tiny detail about you
is beautiful

— beautiful

And yet again, this is just! a! sentence! with! line! breaks!

And now I feel really awkward because I am hating this book and I just got to this poem:

i don’t want
to keep putting in hours for someone else

i want
this book
to sell well
and i want
to live my life
in financial freedom

so please
post about this book tell your friends leave reviews

this
is my future on the line

and it
is in
your hands

— independent

😬😬😬

Another non-poem:

not everything you lose is a loss

— loss

(This one doesn’t even have a line break??)

Oh, it’s done. I mean, I’m not like a poetry connoisseur or anything, but I feel like this wasn’t good. It’s also really weirdly formatted, which shouldn’t really figure into my rating, but it does. The title of the next poem was often smashed into the last line of the previous poem, which was just weird and confusing.

It’s definitely got the same vibes as the two collections I read by Amanda Lovelace: it’s a little angrier than the princess saves herself in this one and not quite at the anger level of the witch doesn’t burn in this one. I think Amanda Lovelace’s poetry is more poetic than this, which is mostly just sentences with line breaks.

I’m glad I didn’t pay for this.

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Have you read Burn the Fairy Tales? 
Let’s talk in the comments!

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Spotlight: On a Tuesday by Whitney G.

On a Tuesday by Whitney G.
Series: One Week #1
Links: Amazon • Audible • Goodreads • iTunes
Publication Date: September 19, 2017

We met on a Tuesday.
Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday.
And everything fell apart on a Tuesday… 

Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I’m a “domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego.” (I do have something huge. It’s not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She’s sexy as hell…And a virgin.

At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for.

Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set:
Professional football for me. Law school for her.

But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life.

Until tonight.

We met on a Tuesday.
Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday.
And now it’s seven years later, on a Tuesday… 

**This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele’s “When We Were Young”**

About the author:

Whitney G. is a twenty-eight-year-old optimist who is obsessed with travel, tea, and great coffee. She’s also a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of several contemporary novels, and the cofounder of The Indie Tea–an inspirational blog for indie romance authors.

When she’s not chatting with readers on her Facebook Page, you can find her on her website at http://www.whitneygbooks.com or on instagram: @whitneyg.author. (If she’s not in either of those places, she’s probably locked away working on another crazy story.)

Don’t forget to sign up for Whitney’s monthly newsletter here: http://bit.ly/1p9fEYF

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Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for
your chance at a $25 Amazon gift card!

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 Have you read anything by Whitney G.? Do you like new adult second chance romances? Let’s talk in the comments!

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Find me all over the internet: Goodreads | Twitter | Bloglovin’