2017 Reads

Hey guys! I thought I would make a complete list of the books I've read in 2017, with links to any reviews I've written. Just, you know, in case you were interested or whatever... You probably aren't, but let's be honest, this isn't about you. ;)

I believe I had originally set my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal this year to 30, because that's how many books I read last year. I quickly reached that goal, so I pushed it up to 52. I had reached that by the end of... October, I think? At that point I decided not to set a higher goal, but just see how many books I would end up reading by the end of the year. As things progressed I unofficially gave myself a goal of 75, and I have managed to achieve that!

Reading went really well for me this year! I didn't go through many reading slumps, and I consistently read a minimum of 4 novels per month, at my normal pace - no stressing or pushing to read faster. At the end, I'll admit I read a few shorter books in order to complete a couple challenges and reach my "unofficial goal," but they're still books, and I did read them! ;) There are probably a few areas of my life that I didn't pay as much attention to in order to read more (other hobbies, mostly), but aside from my penpals, I don't think my reading twice as much this year has had much affect on anybody else. I will admit that my penpals may have suffered a bit of neglect this year... :/

According to my Goodreads Year in Books, the most popular book I read was All the Light We Cannot See, and the longest book I read was Wildwood. As you can see from the list below, I was doing alright with reviewing for a while, but I quickly got sidetracked (by reading more books!). I think one of my goals for 2018 will be to set aside time every 3-4 weeks to review any books I've finished in that time period. Or to try to review as soon as I've finished (that would be ideal). Actually, ideally, I should take notes as I'm reading, but that would just require too much organization and commitment on my part! ;) 

1. Flawed by Cecelia Ahern (****) - review here
2. The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister (***) - review here
3. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (****) - review here
4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (*****) - review here
5. Da Vinci's Tiger by L.M. Elliott (**) - review here
6. The Woman Next Door by Barbara Delinsky - audio (***)
7. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (*****) - review here
8. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth (****) - review here
9. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (**) - review here
10. This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (*****) - review here
11. P. S. I Like You by Kasie West (***) - review here
12. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - audio (***)
13. The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry (****) - review here
14. Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerill (*****) - review here
15. Caraval by Stephanie Garber (*****) - review here
16. Seven Deadlies: A Cautionary Tale by Gigi Levangie (***) - review here
17. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (audio / reread) (*****)
18. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (*****)
19. Grounded by Kate Klise (****)
20. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (****) - review here
21. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (*****) - review here
22. Servants' Hall: A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance by Margaret Powell (***)
23. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (*****) - review here
24. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - audio (*****)
25. Wildwood by Colin Meloy (*****) - review here
26. Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell (***)
27. Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child (****)
28. The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts (****)
29. Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch (*****) - review here
30. Sweet Misfortune by Kevin Alan Milne (****)
31. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (****) - review here
32. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (*****)
33. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill (***)
34. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (*****) - review here
35. Wonder by R.J. Palacia (*****) - review here
36. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (*****)
37. The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands (*****)
38. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (****) - review here
39. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (*****) - review here
40. Future Perfect by Jen Larsen (****)
41. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (****)
42. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (*****)
43. Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller (*****) - review here
44. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (***)
45. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (****)
46. All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps by Dave Isay (****)
47. New World: Rising by Jennifer Wilson (****)
48. Peter Pan by E.M. Barrie (****) - review here
49. Everland by Wendy Spinale (****)
50. Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (*****)
51. What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum (*****)
52. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad (**)
53. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee (*****)
54. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - audio (**)
55. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (*****)
56. Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst (***) - review here
57. One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake (*****)
58. Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (*****)
59. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (****) - review here
60. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - audio (*****)
61. A Good Day to Buy by Sherry Harris (****)
62. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith - audio (*****)
63. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (****)
64. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco (****)- review here
65. Warcross by Marie Lu (****)
66. Glass Houses by Louise Penny (*****) - review here
67. Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan (***)
68. Dear Santa: Children's Christmas Letters and Wish Lists, 1870-1920 (*****)
69. Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (***) - review here
70. Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows (****)
71. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (*****)
72. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (****)
73. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (****)
74. Matchless by Gregory Maguire (***)
75. For One More Day by Mitch Albom (****)

And that's it for 2017! I think this is the most books I have ever read in a year, and I'm pretty stoked about that. If it isn't, it certainly has been years since I've been able to achieve that.

So, I've just set my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for 2018 to 80. Five more than 2017, which I think should be achievable. Providing that the new year goes as smoothly as this past year, with no real obstacles... We'll see! I will definitely try to continue reviewing the books I've read this year (or at least the ones I really liked), and will try to be more on top of the blogging/reviewing situation in 2018.

Happy New Year everyone, and happy reading!

Book Review: Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

Wild Beauty

by Anna-Marie McLemore

Source: Received in an OwlCrate box (October "Find Me In The Forest")

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magical Realism

Synopsis:

Love grows such strange things.

For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.

The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family

Review:

I'm not sure if it's the magical realism, or the author's writing style, or what exactly it was that I didn't like about this book, but I was disappointed. We received it in the October OwlCrate box, which I was soooo excited about! I had added this one to my Goodreads To Read list ages ago, because it was so gorgeous. Then when we got it in the box, with the exclusive cover, I was just over the moon. So I read it fairly soon after, and, well... Not what I was expecting or hoping for from this book.

I have a huge tendency to not really read too much about a book before I pick it up. Very generally speaking, if somebody posts a picture of a book cover on Instagram with a little blurb (ex: it's about this family of women who live in a beautiful garden and grow flowers from their hands), that's usually enough for me. Sometimes I will read the full synopsis on Goodreads, or if I'm holding the physical book I might read the flyleaf, but I really truly unapologetically judge books by their covers and the recommendations of my peers. Not reviews - I never read reviews before I read a book - but if someone I know says "I loved this book!" and it's a genre I enjoy, and it has a pretty cover, to boot... good enough!

All that to say that I honestly hadn't read what the book was about before it came in the OwlCrate box. The synopsis is intriguing, so I was anxious to read it, but, I had a really hard time enjoying it.

The imagery is absolutely beautiful, there is no denying that. The author's description of flowers and colours is exceptional. The story itself, I felt a bit lost in. I see how everything tied together in the end, but getting there... there were many things that just felt like distractions from the main story, or unnecessary embellishments, or I don't know... I really wasn't sure where things were going or what the purpose of all these characters was, or anything until probably 2/3 into the book. The characters also weren't all that special to me. I liked them, but didn't feel there was much to connect to, and there were so many!

I may give the author's other books a chance, should I ever come across them, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find her books, based on how I felt about Wild Beauty. They all have great synopses, but so did this one, so...

In the end, it was an ok read for me. It only has a 3.73 star rating on Goodreads so I obviously am not the only one who feels it may have missed the mark. Not sure I would recommend it, but I know that a lot of people on the Life & Lit and OwlCrate Society groups loved it, so... Read at your own risk, I guess! :)

My Goodreads rating:

It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #7

So I will be writing a Year in Review type post next week, most likely, but I just felt like I haven't been super active in the last couple weeks, so I thought I would write a quick Monday post!

One of the Facebook groups I'm in, called Life & Lit, has been doing different challenges and activities all month long, under the theme of Yule Ball (from the Harry Potter books/movies). One of the biggest challenges is the Yule Bingo. The bingo card is divided into 16 squares, with one column for each of the four houses (Griffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff), and each square is a character or major element from the Harry Potter stories, which represents a theme of a possible book (ex: Butterbeer is a for a sweet book, and Harry is for a book with the "chosen one" trope). You get one point for your house per square you block off, and if you block off the whole column for your house, you get a bingo, which means 5 points! It's a lot of fun!

So, I've been working away at the Yule Bingo. I have read five books so far this month for that. I need to read two more from the Ravenclaw column to get bingo, and then if I read just one more book after that, I will have reached my unofficial goal of 75 books! I think it's totally achievable! At the end of November I wasn't so sure I'd be able to make it, but I've been doing really well. Admittedly, a couple of the books I've read this month were shorter/kids' stories, but still!

I got into a bit of a slump over the weekend, but my current read is The Glass Spare by Lauren Destefano, which came in the November OwlCrate box. It sounds good, and what I've read so far has been good, but I just haven't felt like reading that much lately, and I had other stuff going on this weekend.

After I finish The Glass Spare, I intend to read Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire. It's a shorter one, so I should be able to finish it in a day, depending on what else is going on. And then I think I'd like to try to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, before I give it to my nephew for his birthday on January first!

What are you guys reading this week? How have you done with your reading goals this year?

Book Review: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove

by Fredrik Backman

Source: Found a used copy in a book sale

Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Humour

Synopsis:

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.

Review:

This book had a slow start for me. It didn't quite grab my attention at the start. That was partially due to the fact that I was (once again) attempting to read several books at once. However, I had heard some really wonderful things about this book, so I definitely wanted to stick with it and give it a solid shot. I decided that I would need to set aside any other books I was reading and force myself to read A Man Called Ove, otherwise I would be too tempted to read faster paced Young Adult novels.

 

Once I was focused on this book alone, it was still kind of slow for me. There were some funny parts (poor old Ove just can't catch a break!), but it still didn't really mean much to me, and I was finding the flashbacks a bit annoying.

After about the 3/4 mark, however, I was completely invested. It wasn't that anything significant happened, or anything like that; something in my mind just clicked, I guess, and I suddenly really needed to know what was going to happen to Ove and his neighbours. I suppose I was also starting to see the picture the flashbacks were tying to show us.

And then the ending... Well, once I got there, I finally knew what everyone had been talking about! This certainly is a very moving story, with a tear-jerking ending. As curmudgeonly an old grouch as Ove is, he's a really loveable character. I enjoyed how we see Ove's crusty old frozen heart slowly melt and soften to encompass those around him - both new and old.

It was especially funny entertaining for me to read this story, as I work with the elderly on a daily basis. Trust me, I've met a few Ove's. Of course, Ove isn't really as old as he acts, which I suppose is part of his charm.

Overall, a touching story, and I do recommend it!





























My Goodreads rating:

Book Review: Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Glass Houses

by Louise Penny

Genre: Mystery, Contemporary, Fiction

Synopsis:

When a mysterious figure appears on the village green on a cold November day in Three Pines, Armand Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, knows something is seriously wrong. Yet he does nothing. Legally, what can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.

From the moment its shadow falls over Three Pines, Gamache suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. When it suddenly vanishes and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.

In the early days of the investigation into the murder, and months later, as the trial for the accused begins in a Montreal courtroom on a steamy day in July, the Chief Superintendent continues to struggle with actions he’s set in motion, from which there is no going back. “This case began in a higher court,” he tells the judge, “and it’s going to end there.”

And regardless of the trial’s outcome, he must face his own conscience.

In her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.

Review:

As always, I must warn you that this post may contain spoilers. I don't find that I have much of a filter when it comes to these things.


Honestly, I don't think I will ever not like a Louise Penny book. I'm only sorry I didn't read this one sooner, and that when I did start reading it, I didn't give it the attention it deserved. I adore the world that Louise Penny has created in these books. Not just Three Pines, and not just because it's set in the region where I live... I love the people as if they were my own friends and neighbours, and I love the atmosphere, and I love the attention she gives to food.

So before I read it, I saw a ton of reviews that toted this novel as her "best one yet" and everyone saying it was their favourite... I won't say that, but I will say that it took on a slightly different feel, and I liked it. It made me cry, and that's usually a sign of a very good book. (Or maybe I was just an emotional wreck when I was reading it... Who knows?)

The story goes back and forth between the events leading up to a murder that took place in Three Pines in November, and the Montreal courtroom in July, where the case is being tried and Armand is giving his testimony.

Of course there is more to the story than the murder itself. In previous books, Louise dealt with corruption in the government; in this one she addresses drug cartels. In order to stop this one significant source of crime and death in Quebec, Gamache and his team must launch a huge top secret undercover operation which results in many more deaths, and crimes that they themselves must commit, for the greater good. The line between right and wrong is not always clear.

I mentioned it in my Goodreads review, but I'll say it again here, the last three chapters were really what got me. The major action scenes happen then (which were what made me cry), we finally discover who the murderer was, as well as the identity of the head of the drug cartel, and we are left in suspense to find out whether or not Armand Gamache will maintain his title as Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec!

My Goodreads rating:

Progress Report: October - November 2017

*Phew*

 

Let me tell you, I thought that the summer went fast, but the last two months were like a flash! Ok, so maybe October dragged a bit for me due to personal reasons, but November... Where did it go?!

 

Alright, so I just thought I should do another brief overview of my reading for tthe last two months. In October I read the following 5 books and 1 audiobook:

 

My fave October read

 

 

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake *****

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater *****

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ****

The Cuckoo's Calling (audio) by Robert Galbraith *****

A Good Day to Buy by Sherry Harris ****

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater ****

 

And in November I read the following 4 books and 1 audiobook:
 

Even though I rated a
couple others higher,
this was my fave
November read!

The Silkworm (audio) by Robert Galbraith *****

Stalking Jack the Ripper (ebook) by Kerri Maniscalco ****

Warcross by Marie Lu ****

Glass Houses by Louise Penny *****

Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan ***

 

I had reached my Goodreads goal of 52 in September, and decided not to increase it, just to see how many books I would read without feeling the pressure of a deadline. As of today, I have read 67 books in 2017! I was sort of unofficially aiming for 75, but that might be a bit of a stretch at this point. I'm not sure exactly how much reading time I'll be putting in between now and Christmas, what with work and Christmas parties, and gifts to finish crafting/buying... But we'll see! Maybe I will surprise myself! ;)

Just to finish the update, I am currently reading Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore. It is mystical and magical and intriguing, but I'm not feeling a real connection to the story or characters yet. I don't think I like the way it is written, but I'm going to stick it out and see if my opinion changes. Last week I picked up, but haven't dug too deep yet into, Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown. And last night (technically December 1st, but we are the first, so... I'll mention it...) I started Dear Santa: Children's Christmas Letters and Wish Lists, 1870-1920. It should be a very sweet Christmas-y read to kick off the season.

I'll be back at the end of the month for a complete 2017 Year in Review post!