April 2021 TBR

Happy spring! It is hard to believe that it is already April 2021 but I’m definitely not complaining. I don’t know about you guys but I am so ready for spring. This has been one of the easiest winters for me in quite awhile but it’s still my least favorite season. Since I am still working from home, I didn’t have to drive to or from work in any snowstorms and am so grateful to have had at least one winter off from that. But enough about that… Today I am presenting to you my April 2021 TBR in all its singular glory. That’s right, folks, there is indeed only ONE book on my TBR this month. And no, this is not an April Fool’s joke! 🙂

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace is a mighty tome that I have been wanting to read for many years now and I decided that this would finally be the year that I would make it happen. I spent the past few months consuming books in the attempt to get a good start on my Goodreads reading challenge before I would have to devote a lot of time to reading this Russian classic. Clocking in at 1,440 pages, I knew that I would need to block off at least a few weeks, if not more. A couple of weeks ago I sat down with my copy and in addition to relaxing the spine a bit to prevent the dreaded broken spine, I also leafed through and tabbed off the volumes and parts of the novel in an effort to come up with a loose schedule for reading it. There are 4 volumes plus an epilogue and within those are 17 parts total. I figure that if I can read one part every couple of days, I will need just a little over a month to complete the entire book. Once I start reading it I will be able to better gauge how quickly I can read it or how slowly I want to take it. From what I’ve gathered doing research on this book, this is not one to rush through.

When I first decided to read War and Peace this year, I wanted to do a little research on the different translations to find the right one for me. This article from Tolstoy Therapy really helped me start to narrow down the translation I wanted to read. I already owned a used copy of the Aylmer and Louise Maude translation but after finding a blog post by The Ardent Biblio where the author included a single line from three of the more popular translations, I decided that it was not the translation for me. I ended up choosing the Anthony Briggs translation which just seems to flow a little better for me. If you are wanting to read this book, I highly recommend doing some research to decide which translation will fit better for you. What works for me may not work for you or the next person.

I am really excited to get started on this book and I am hoping to do a few updates here on the blog and Instagram as I read.

Are you a fan of reading the classics? What’s the biggest book you have ever read?

February 2021 Wrap Up

Hey everyone! I’m a little late on this one but better late than never, right? I read some great books this month and I made some great progress on my Goodreads goal for the year. For the first few months this year I wanted to get ahead of my goal by quite a bit because one of my goals this year is to finally read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. With that book sitting around 1400 pages, I need some wiggle room so I don’t get behind in my goal. I’m currently 25 books ahead of schedule so my plan is to start War and Peace on April 1st. Anyways… more on that another time.

I also did a lot of re-reads in February to refresh for a couple of new releases. I re-read The Bone Season books plus the new novella to prepare for my current read of The Mask Falling which was published in January. I also re-read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series to refresh for Nesta and Cassian’s book, A Court of Silver Flames which I ended up finishing at the end of the month. I also got some library holds in for books that I have been wanting to read forever – The Silent Patient and Where the Crawdads Sing.

• February 2021 Books Read: 17
• 2021 Year To Date Books Read: 35
• February 2021 Pages Read: 7,762
• 2021 Year To Date Pages Read: 15,482

February 2021 Books Read:

• A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon – reread
• The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon – reread
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – reread
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon – reread
• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – reread
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas – reread
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas – reread
• The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
• A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
• The Dawn Chorus by Samantha Shannon

Favorite Book Read

Least Favorite Book Read

February Book Haul: I ended up getting a lot of books throughout the month as well. I was finally able to get copies of the rest of the Bridgerton series as well as the prequel series. I’m really looking forward to continuing with those and seeing what’s in store for the rest of the Bridgerton family. Both Target and Amazon had a buy 2 get 1 free sale so of course I had to jump on that. From Target I got Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson, The Guest List by Lucy Foley, and The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse. I was super excited that Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, The Four Winds, was a choice for February Book of the Month. From Amazon I got What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon and a couple of the Bridgerton books.

For March I’m going to be focusing on The Mask Falling and also catching up on some advanced copies that I’m pretty far behind on. I want to start April off with a clean slate so I can focus on War and Peace.

What books did you read in February?

WWW Wednesday – September 2, 2020

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words.
Each week we answer the following three questions:
-What have you recently finished reading?
-What are you currently reading?
-What are you reading next?

It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a WWW Wednesday! This year has been so crazy and everything feels like it’s topsy turvy. All of my blog posts lately have been book reviews which is so weird for me! It’s been fun though because I have been reading some pretty good books including a new favorite that will be featured in today’s post.

• Fable by Adrienne Young – This novel was absolutely incredible. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of it and I loved every second of it. I preordered a finished copy and also preordered the sequel which is due to be published in March! Check out my review here!
• Teen Titans: Beast Boy by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo: Another advance copy that I ended up really loving! A super fun graphic novel of Beast Boy’s origin story. Definitely left me wanting more. Check out my review as well as a book trailer and sneak peak here!

• The Lost Queen by Signe Pike – The tagline for this book, not to mention the cover, had me totally hooked. “Outlander meets Camelot…” yep, I am there for it. I’m not too far into this but so far I am really liking it. I love the setting and the characters are definitely growing on me.

• The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike – The sequel to The Lost Queen. I have an eARC of this and it publishes on September 13th so I definitely want to dive right in after I finish The Lost Queen. Really looking forward to this one!

As far as anything else, I’m not really sure. These are both fairly dense books so I think they will pretty much take my entire focus over the next week or so. We will see though.

What have you been reading lately?

20 Books of Summer: 2020

Hello! I’m here for another attempt at the 20 Books of Summer challenge! I don’t know that I’ve ever read all of the books I’ve picked for my challenge TBR but it’s fun to put them together anyways. I am a mood reader so I put together a different variety of genres to keep me interested all summer long. I will also be focusing on ARCs as I mentioned in my last post but I decided not to include those in this list. So here we have my book choices for the next three months. I don’t have them in any particular order so I will just pick and choose throughout the list as I go. The two books marked with an * are books I need to read before two of the ARCs on my list for June.

(All links are to each book’s Goodreads page)

1. Recursion by Blake Crouch
2. The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
3. Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
4. Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
5. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
6. Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan
7. The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh
8. The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab
9. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
10. Misery by Stephen King
11. The Lost Queen by Signe Pike*
12. Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
13. Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
14. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
15. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
16. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
17. Postscript by Cecelia Ahern
18. DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff*
19. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
20. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The following are the ARCs that I will be focusing on for the month of June. As I mentioned above, two of these ARCs I need to read a preceding book for and I included those books in my challenge TBR, marked with an *. I also marked the corresponding ARCs with an *. I put these in order of publication date and my plan is to read them in this exact order.

 

1. Blood Countess by Lana Popovic
2. Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan
3. A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones
4. Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
5. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
6. The Dilemma by B.A. Paris
7. TRUEL1F3 by Jay Kristoff*
8. The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike*

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Have you read any of the books on my list?

 

 

Big Update: January-May 2020

Hey everyone! It’s been quite awhile since my last post. I’ve been taking a break away from blogging while all of this coronavirus stuff has been going on. My anxiety has been pretty high the last few months so I haven’t been able to concentrate on reading books outside of listening to audiobooks while I work. I started working from home towards the end of March and I am so grateful that I am able to do so. But even though that somewhat lessened the anxiety I was feeling about the whole situation, I still didn’t feel like reading books until the last week or so. First world problems, I know. Huge thanks go out to all of the people who have been working on the frontlines while this has been happening worldwide. You guys are heroes.

Something else that has had my attention since April is Animal Crossing: New Horizon. Ashley @ Socially Awkward Bookworm got my hooked on it and I’ve played every day since then. I have a cool outdoor library, created my own Craigh Na Dun and dressed my character up as Claire Fraser, and reached 5 star island status!

It’s also been super fun to visit her island and have her visit mine.

One good thing to come out of this year is that I’ve been really good about limiting book purchases. So far this year I have only purchased 9 books and I’ve already read 5 of those books since buying them. My goal was to limit purchases and read the books I do buy as soon as possible.

2020 Book Purchases So Far:

• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
• The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (read)
• Postscript by Cecelia Ahern
• A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer (read)
• The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
• The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan (read)
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker (read)
• Wild At Heart by K.A. Tucker (read)

As far as books read this year, the majority have been audiobooks that I’ve borrowed from the library. Some have been really awesome like Daisy Jones & the Six and some a little disappointing like The Pioneers by David McCullough. Here is everything I’ve read the last few months broken down by month.

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JANUARY

• January 2020 Books Read: 27
• 2020 Total Books Read: 27
• January 2020 Pages Read: 9,951
• 2020 Total Pages Read: 9,951

1. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
2. Everless by Sara Holland (audiobook)
3. The White Darkness by David Grann (audiobook)
4. The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey (eARC)
5. Wonder Woman: Warbringer graphic novel (eARC)
6. Hunted by Meagan Spooner
7. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
8. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (audiobook)
9. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
10. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
11. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (audiobook)
12. A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
13. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (audiobook)
14. The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
15. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig (audiobook)
16. The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas (audiobook)
17. Well Met by Jen DeLuca
18. Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
19. The Outsider by Stephen King
20. The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (audiobook)
21. 1776 by David McCullough (audiobook)
22. The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood (audiobook)
23. Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (audio re-read)
24. Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris (audiobook)
25. Fallen by Lauren Kate (audiobook)
26. The Violets of March by Sarah Jio (audiobook)
27. American War by Omar El Akkad (audiobook)

January Favorite

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FEBRUARY

• February 2020 Books Read: 4
• 2020 Total Books Read: 31
• February 2020 Pages Read: 2,268
• 2020 Total Pages Read: 12,219

1. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (audiobook)
2. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (audiobook)
3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (re-read)
4. Wild At Heart by K.A. Tucker

February Favorite

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MARCH

• March 2020 Books Read: 12
• 2020 Total Books Read: 43
• March 2020 Pages Read: 4,327
• 2020 Total Pages Read: 16,546

1. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (audiobook)
2. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (audiobook)
3. Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
4. The Curse of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones (audiobook)
5. Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones (audiobook)
6. The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (audiobook)
7. Serenity Harbor by RaeAnne Thayne (audiobook)
8. The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones (audiobook)
9. Wyoming Legend by Diana Palmer (audiobook)
10. Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski (audiobook)
11. The Trouble With Twelfth Grave by Darynda Jones (audiobook)
12. Summoned to Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones (audiobook)

March Favorite

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APRIL

• April 2020 Books Read: 5
• 2020 Total Books Read: 48
• April 2020 Pages Read: 1,919
• 2020 Total Pages Read: 18,465

1. Under Currents by Nora Roberts (audiobook)
2. The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox (audiobook)
3. The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams (audiobook)
4. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (audiobook)
5. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (audiobook)

April Favorite

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MAY

• May 2020 Books Read: 11
• 2020 Total Books Read: 59
• May 2020 Pages Read: 4.387
• 2020 Total Pages Read: 22,852

1. Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (audiobook)
2. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (re-read)
3. Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (audiobook)
4. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (audiobook)
5. Rose Madder by Stephen King (audiobook)
6. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (audiobook)
7. The Pioneers by David McCullough (audiobook)
8. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (audiobook)
9. The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan
10. Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater
11. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (re-read)

May Favorite

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And that’s about it. Those are all of the books I’ve read this year so far. According to Goodreads I am 2 books behind schedule to meet my goal of reading 150 books this year which hasn’t happened in a very long time. I’m hoping that now I am back in the mood to read that I can get caught up. My plan for June is to focus on all of the ARCs that I am behind on. I am also going to attempt the 20 Books of Summer challenge again so stay tuned for my TBR post tomorrow.

How has everything been with you? Any good book recommendations?