Top Ten Books I Could Reread Forever

This week's theme is books I could reread forever. 

1. The Night Circus. I can't even with this. It's soooooooooo good!

2. Hunger Games trilogy. I love these even more when I reread them. Such a good story. A great reminder that your life can always be worse :-)

3. Grisha trilogy. Well written escape into another world.

4. Six of Crows duology. Think I love these even more than the Grisha trilogy and that's saying a lot.

5. Long Way Down. Words fail me with this one.

6. Heist Society trilogy. A bunch of fun. Cute books. 

7. Shades of Magic trilogy. Schwab is one of my all time favorite authors. Her books continue to impress me.

8. Illuminae trilogy. Even though I haven't read the 3rd one yet, I know I am going to love it. This series is everything!

9. The Newsflesh trilogy. Zombies on steroids. 

10. Harry Potter series. Because Harry.

This was one of the easiest prompts. It was interesting how many of my favorite books are part of a series. Maybe because you can really get to know the characters when you visit them more than once.

Right Now

Right now...

I am without a car. Mine died in the middle of a busy road.
I am so sore and tired. Spent the weekend moving out of a storage unit, then walking the boys to school this morning. Everything hurts. Especially my foot...dropped a huge sheet of pegboard on it.
I am reading The Ice Cream Makers for book club.
I am listening to The Greatest Showman soundtrack on repeat. So good and my boys love it too.
I am watching The Walking Dead. Back from the midseason break and looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

Monkey Mind by Daniel B. Smith {Thoughts On}

Title: Monkey Mind, a Memoir of Anxiety
Author: Daniel Smith
Pages: 212
Rating: 3 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

In the insightful narrative tradition of Oliver Sacks, Monkey Mind is an uplifting, smart, and very funny memoir of life with anxiety—America’s most common psychological complaint.

Daniel Smith’s Monkey Mind is the stunning articulation of what it is like to live with anxiety. As he travels through anxiety’s demonic layers, Smith defangs the disorder with great humor and evocatively expresses its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. Aaron Beck, the most influential doctor in modern psychotherapy, says that “Monkey Mind does for anxiety what William Styron’s Darkness Visible did for depression.” Neurologist and bestselling writer Oliver Sacks says, “I read Monkey Mind with admiration for its bravery and clarity….I broke out into explosive laughter again and again.” Here, finally, comes relief and recognition to all those who want someone to put what they feel, or what their loved ones feel, into words. 

I read this one during the Winter Biannual Bibliothon for the read a book about mental illness challenge. This one caught my eye because it was supposedly so funny. Not so much. There were a couple of amusing stories but for the most part I cringed throughout this book. I went from cringing at things that should have stayed private to being a bit bored with all the history about anxiety that he learned in his journey. I feel like this one would be better for someone NOT suffering with anxiety. I understood much of the symptoms he described and was hoping for more insight into how he "fixed" himself. The cover made it sound like it was hilarious but most of the book was quite boring - lots of name dropping of authors and the like that didn't move forward the book to me. I highly enjoyed the last chapter which is why I rated it a 3 instead of a 4 though.

Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller {Thoughts On}

Title: Otherworld (Otherworld #1)
Author: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
Pages: 355
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

The company says Otherworld is amazing—like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They say it’s addictive—that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true.

Simon thought Otherworld was a game. Turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next phase of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted.

And it’s about to change humanity forever.

Welcome to the Otherworld. No one could have seen it coming.


I had never heard anything about this book until it was announced as the Winter Biannual Bibliothon group read. I read it so I could watch the live show (spoiler...I forgot about the live show). I have to admit that any book I read that is about gaming or gamers or game life is compared to Ready Player One and then I don't enjoy it. 

Apparently there is quite a bit of talk about this one being a rip off of another book. Bless it's heart. It's already being (unfavorably) compared to Ready Player One in my mind and then I hear that it's a rip off? We aren't off a good start.

Although I did enjoy it - it was a solid 3 - I wasn't blown away and I didn't really connect to the characters. The technology was interesting but just wasn't very original. I think that was the biggest problem with the whole thing - that it was just another young adult book set in a future world where you can escape your problems by immersing yourself in a virtual world instead.

I was interested enough to finish it but don't think that I'll bother with the sequel. There are too many other books that I want to get to.

Top Ten Tuesday Love Themed Freebie

This week's theme is a love related freebie. I'm picking my top swoony authors of which there will not be 10. I don't read many books in the romance genre but I have a couple of go to authors if the desire (see what I did there?) strikes me.

1. Leigh Bardugo. This one might be a strange choice at first glance but...the Darkling. Y'all. I can't even with him. He's swoon. And Kaz. Oh my.

2. Kasie West. She writes light, contemporary young adult romances that I actually enjoy. She is one of the few romance writers that I can even attempt to read.

3. Katie McGarry. The queen of swoon. I love her romance books because there are always things going on besides the romance. She tackles tough issues.

4. Marissa Meyer. Her books have good book boyfriends!

5. Tarereh Mafi. I know that her Shatter Me series got mixed reviews but I personally thought that there were some swoony scenes in there.

6. Sarah J. Maas. I haven't complete the Court of Thorns and Roses series yet but wow. Fans self.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds {Thoughts On}

Title: Long Way Down
Author: Jason Reynolds
Pages: 320
Rating: 5 stars

A couple of my favorite booktubers mentioned Long Way Down so I put it on hold at the library. I went into this book knowing very little about it though. It's told in verse which is different from my usual reads. I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed this book. Hmmm, "enjoyed" is a hard word to use here because of the subject matter but it was so well written. I am astounded that a book told in verse can so completely flesh out characters. That it can so completely tell a story.

There isn't much that can be said about the plot without giving away much of the story. Without taking away from your reading of it. Go into it blind like I did. I can wholeheartedly recommend this one even to someone like me who thinks they don't enjoy novels set in verse. You'll like this one. Like I said, I can't say much without ruining it but I can say...

It was amazing. And powerful. Powerfully amazing.

I've read it twice. That's how much this one got to me.

Owlcrate-A-Thon February 10 - 23

Owlcrate-A-Thon runs from today through the 23rd.

The challenges:
Read the Owlcrate book you've owned the longest
Read at least 2 different genres
Read 2 books

I will not be able to start this challenge right away but I want to list it here so I can reference it later.

ARC Envy #25 - Whisper by Lynette Noni

Every week several of my favorite bloggers post vlogs or whatever of all the great book hauls they've received for the week. Since I'm a tiny little fish in the huge book blogging pond, my mailbox isn't stuffed with all the great ARCs that they get. Dana's ARC Envy is my way of highlighting an ARC that I *wish* had been sent to me too. 

Title: Whisper

Author: Lynette Noni

Expected Publication Date: May 1, 2018

Judging a book by its cover:  Not bad!

Know anything about the author?  Nope!

Why do I want it?  Kat mentioned it in a vlog post and it sounds fun.

Summary from Goodreads:

“Lengard is a secret government facility for extraordinary people,” they told me.

I believed them. That was my mistake.

There isn’t anyone else in the world like me.

I’m different. I’m an anomaly. I’m a monster. 

For two years, six months, fourteen days, eleven hours and sixteen minutes, Subject Six-Eight-Four — ‘Jane Doe’ — has been locked away and experimented on, without uttering a single word.

As Jane’s resolve begins to crack under the influence of her new — and unexpectedly kind — evaluator, she uncovers the truth about Lengard’s mysterious ‘program’, discovering that her own secret is at the heart of a sinister plot … and one wrong move, one wrong word, could change the world.

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake {Thoughts On}

Title: One Dark Throne 
Author: Kendare Blake
Pages: 448
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5

***SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THREE DARK CROWNS***

Summary from Goodreads:

The battle for the Crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?

With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.

In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.


Even though there were mixed reviews for Three Dark Crowns, I enjoyed it and was looking forward to One Dark Throne. This one didn't disappoint. I enjoyed being back in the 3 girls' worlds. It took me a while to be able to keep all the characters straight but Blake did a really good job of setting with world building so each were different.

While reading the first book, I had picked a queen I was rooting for but during this one I changed my mind. Without giving a spoiler, certain people seemed to change for no reason and one so was annoying.

Blake planned for this to be a duology but was contracted to make it 4 books instead. I wonder how that impacted this one. It seemed to be going one way and then made a swerve. I look forward to reading the last 2 books in the series. This was a solid 2nd book for sure.

Top Ten Tuesday - Books That Have Been On My TBR the Longest and I Still Haven’t Read

For this week's theme I decided to use my Goodreads list instead of using books on my shelves because I can tell when I added them. The bad thing is that I deleted a ton of books from this list last year because they have been on there forever without being read. These are the ones with the longest dates now.

Added January of 2013!

Guessing I didn't enjoy the first one enough to continue with the series. 

This one needs to be added to my Classics challenge so I can get it off the list.

I love this cover so very much.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Author: Lewis Carroll
Pages: 135
Source: my own
Rating: 3/5


I read this one as the read a book that was mentioned in another book, tv show or movie challenge for the Winter Biannual Bibliothon. It was also my January read for my classics challenge. Plus, and probably best of all, it was a book that is on my shelves so I read one I actually own. Three birds with one stone...errr book.

I am so surprised that I haven't read this one yet since it's so short.

I must say that I felt like it was all over the place. There were parts that I really enjoyed. The parts that I know from Disney movies, in other words. Others were not as interesting. Alice herself has quite a bad temper and was quite the brat.

As a side note, this special OwlCrate exclusive edition is so cute!

January Wrap Up

This was a decent reading month for me. Completed 8 books and participated in the Winter Biannual Bibliothon. 

 

 

  

 

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake - Bibliothon read

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - Bibliothon read

Otherworld by Jason Segel - Biliothon read

Monkey Mind by Daniel Smith - Biliothon read

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard - library's History Book Club pick for January

17 Carnations by Andrew Morton - love all things royal and WWII and this one is both!

For the Love by Jen Hatmaker - ya'll this book! It's so good!

The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone - listened to this one at audio and love that it was read by the author. He's hilarious!