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text 2015-01-02 02:15
2014 End of Year Book Survey
This survey is the idea of Jamie at Perpetual Page Turner.
Wanna participate? Check her post out here!


Number of Books Read: 159
Number of Rereads: 59
Genre You Read the Most Of: Mystery (37) and Picture Books (37)
Best Book I Read in 2014: What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada
Book I Was Most Let Down By: Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park
Most Surprising (In a Bad Way): Full Blooded (Jessica McClain, #1) by Amanda Carlson
Book I Recommended Most: The Forests of Silence (Deltora Quest, #1) by Emily Rodda
Best Series: Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda
Best SequelDragon's Nest (Dragons of Deltora, #1) by Emily Rodda
Best Series Finale: Changes for Kirsten: A Winter Story (American Girl: Kirsten, #6) by Janet Beeler Shaw
Favorite New Author: Tony Abbott, for his The Secrets of Droon series. I'm not far into it, so there's always the possibility that it'll lose my interest or I'll eventually decide that Abbott's writing isn't for me after all, but of all the new authors I read this year, he's the only one whose book pleasantly surprised me and whose other books I expect to eventually read. Runner up here would be Kobi Yamada, whose book I loved but didn't inspire me to seek out more of his work.
Best Book Outside My Comfort Zone: Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fiztmaurice
Most "Unputdownable" Book of the Year: Moonlight Secrets (Fear Street Nights, #1) by R.L. Stine
Favorite CoverShadow Breakers (Shadow Runners, #1) by Daniel Blythe
 
Most Memorable Character: Jasmine of Deltora Quest, Deltora Shadowlands, and Dragons of Deltora. She's an abrasive, stubborn action heroine survivalist, and she's freakin' awesome. You'll find no Faux Action Girl or Chickification here. As far as kidlit fantasy goes, Jasmine (and the series she comes from) stands above the rest.
Most Beautifully Written Book: The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett*
Most Thought-Provoking Book: What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada
Book I Can't Believe I Didn't Read Sooner: The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet (The Secrets of Droon, #1) by Tony Abbott
Favorite Quote: This passage from The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2) by Lemony Snicket, which I used in my one and only Quotable Thursday post of 2014.
Longest Book: The Book of Cthulhu II at 426 pages
Book That Shocked Me the Most: The Book of Cthulhu II
OPT of the Year: Spike and Drusilla of Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids all in a Row by Christopher Golden
Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of the Year: Kirsten Larson and Singing Bird of Kirsten Learns a Lesson (American Girls: Kirsten, #2) by Janet Beeler Shaw
Favorite Book by an Author I've Read Before: The Castle Crime (A to Z Mysteries Super Edition, #6) by Ron Roy
Best Book Found Via Recommendation: Thanks, Grimlock for Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row by Christopher Golden
Newest Fictional Crush: Nope!
Best 2014 Debut: You think I'm up to date on debuts? Noooope!
Best Worldbuilding: Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda
A Book That Made Me Smile: The Third Wish (Fairy Realm, #3) by Emily Rodda
A Book That Made Me Cry: Nothing this year!
Hidden Gem of the Year: Traitor in the Shipyard: A Caroline Mystery by Kathleen Ernst
Book That Crushed My Soul: 
 
What soul?
 
Most Unique Book: The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak (It's a "picture book" with no pictures, FFS!)
Book That Angered Me the Most: Full Blooded (Jessica McClain, #1) by Amanda Carlson
New Favorite Blog: ...you expect me to pick?
Favorite Review: How about my American Horror Story: Coven review? (Spoiler alert!)
Best Event: #BookBlogWriMo, hosted by Book Bumblings during November 2014
Best Blogging Moment: Successfully completing #BookBlogWriMo after months of stagnation was pretty great!
Most Popular Post This Year: How about a top ten instead?
Post I Wish Got a Little More Love: Is all of them a valid answer? It's obviously my fault for not being more social myself, but...
 
 
Best Bookish Discovery: Readgeek
Pushed Back to #1 Priority of 2015: Spirits of Christmas
Most Anticipated Book of 2015: The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan
Most Anticipated Debut of 2051: Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Most Anticipated Sequel of 2015: The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire, #6) by George R.R. Martin (I have no doubt that this isn't actually going to be coming out in 2015, but I do think it'd be hilarious if he managed to shock everyone by revealing it is! Not that I'm caught up with this series anyway...)
One Thing I Want to Accomplish in 2015: Honestly, I'd like to finish a first draft of one of my own projects this year. I'm hoping to do that during NaNo '15, but... procrastination and I are very good friends. Or worst enemies. However you want to look at it.
2015 Release I've Read and Can Recommend: Aw, you think I'm caught up with my ARCs? How cute!

 
*This is kind of a joke entry. The Girl and the Bicycle is a wordless picture book that manages to tell a really sweet, charming story with illustrations alone.
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text 2014-12-31 21:26
2014 Wrap Up
Voyager - Diana Gabaldon
Seventeenth Summer - Maureen Daly
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Fog - James Herbert
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
The Beet Fields - Gary Paulsen
Ashfall - Mike Mullin
Songs of Willow Frost - Jamie Ford
The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America - Allison Pataki
Legacy - Cayla Kluver

2014 has been a great book year for me! I exceeded my goal of 100 books, finishing out the year with either 106 or 107 books read (I'm still reading one so I may or may not finish it before midnight tonight). I fully expect my rate to be higher next year, as I have to read 60+ books for school by April alone. I'm really happy because the quality of books that I've read this year has been great, too! I've encountered my share of duds, but overall, this has been a really great book year for me. 

 

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text 2014-12-31 19:45
2014 Reading Wrap-Up (The Numbers)

Total Works Read in 2014: 80 (2013: 66)

Total Pages Read in 2014: 14427 (2013: 16695)

 

Length Breakdown:

Novels 32
Novellas 13
Short Stories (Uncollected) 19
Collections 13
Graphic Novels 1
Non-Fiction 2

 

Genre Breakdown (%):

Horror 56%
Bizarro 15%
Thriller/Suspense 6%
SF 9%
Fantasy 5%
Literary Fiction/Mainstream 5%
Comedy 1%
Detective/Noir 3%

 

Star Rating Breakdown (%)

5-Star 11%
4-Star 41%
3-Star 36%
2-Star 11%
1-Star 1%

 

Click here for My Top 10 Reads from the Last 12 Months

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text 2014-11-30 22:06
November Wrap-Up

I had a great reading month this month reading 19 books including two novellas.  

Here's the rundown: 

 

Almost Adept by Olga Godim: A fun, fantasy adventure with a beautifully built world.  Review here

 

Resonant (Reign of Blood) by Alexia Purdy:  Reign of Blood prequel, I have the rest of the books in this vampire series on deck.  Review here

 

Snow White Red Handed by Maia Chance: A fairy tale inspired murder mystery. Review here. 

 

TAG by Shari J. Ryan: A new adult thriller/romance.  I'm really starting to like some of these new adult books!  Review here

 

A Year in the Secret Garden by Valarie Budayr: A month-by-month companion book to one of my favorite movies.  Review here.

 

Roan Rose by Juliet Waldron:  War of the Roses historical fiction about Richard I.  Review here

 

Memory Card Full by Liz Weber: A memoir about love, loss and moving on.  Review here

 

Arcana by Jessica Leake:  Historical fantasy with magic and romance.  Review here

 

The Ripper's Wife by Brandy Purdy: Historical fiction about Jack the Ripper based on the journal of James Maybrick.  Review here. 

 

The Clever Mill Horse by Jodi Lew Smith: Historical fiction centered around the textile industry and the designing of an efficient flax mill.  Review here

 

The Luthier's Apprentice by Mayra Calvani: A unique, young adult, paranormal mystery. Review here. 

 

The Current by Yannic Thoraval: Literary fiction and family drama surrounding an environmental issue- rising sea levels and a sinking Paciific island nation.  Review here.

 

The Vineyard by Micheal Hurley: Drama surrounds three women who reunite on Martha's vineyard for the summer.  Review here. 

 

Neverland by Anna Katmore: A new-adult romance type of fairy-tale retelling of Peter Pan.  Review here

 

Transformed by E.V. Fairfall: Fantasy, paranormal type read about a struggle between Mother Earth and her brother, God.  Review here.  

 

Divided by M.J. Stevens: The second book of The Guardians series, an exciting fantasy and science fiction sequel to Bound .  Review here.

 

Recruitz by Karice Bolton: First book in the Afterworld series, this is what happens after the zombie apocalypse. Review here.

 

Unlocking the Mystery by Eden Baylee: An erotic novella, but with a mystery and very character driven.  Review here.  

 

Devil Music by Carly Orosz: A demon in an 80's metal band tries to solve the mystery of disappearing musicians.  Review here. 

 

Another great reading month!

I had a lot of favorites this month: Almost Adept, Snow White Red-Handed, TAG, Roan Rose, Divided, Recruitz, and Unlocking the Mystery were all solid reads for me.

Not so favorites this month were: Devil Music and Neverland. 

 

Up for next month: Seldom Come By, Lucky's Girl, Light in the Labyrinth, Of Sea and Stone and A Grave Inheritance. 

 

Have you read any of these or are you planning on reading any of these?

 

 

 

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text 2014-11-04 22:21
October Wrap Up!

I am a little late with my wrap-up this month, but I read so many great books that I needed to share.  I love Halloween, so I did a lot of Halloween reading including thriller, horror and fairy tale re-tellings! I also managed to read 20 books this month, that's a lot. Here's the run down:

 

Goddess Born by Kari Edgren: Paranormal historical fiction, review

 

The Furies by Mark Alpert: Witches with a genetic abnormality, more of an action thriller, review.

 

The Girl who Came Back to Life by Craig Staufenberg: A fairy tale of a girl who wants to get her parents to return from the land of the dead, review.

 

When Fully Fused by Shari J. Ryan:  The third book in the Schasm series, a great conclusion to the psychological thriller set, review.  

 

Tortured Souls by Kimber Leigh Wheaton: YA paranormal set near Halloween with hauntings and plenty of ghosts, review.

 

More, The Guardians and Twelve by T.M. Franklin:  All three books in the More series, paranormal super-powers and fighting evil, reviews.

 

The Wastewater Gardener by Mark Nelson:   Non-fiction, part memoir, part how-to garden with your wastewater, review.

 

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth: Part fairy-tale retelling, part historical fiction on how the story of Rapunzel came to be, review. 

 

Maidens in the Night by Mark Morey: A little bit of a Jack the Ripper tale, but mostly about the struggle of women in that time period, review.

 

Visions of Teaoga by Jim Remsen: Middle Grade historical fiction about the treaties between the settlers and the Native Americans at the New York/Pennsylvania border, review.

 

Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner: Paranormal mermaid story with female warriors, review

 

Floats the Dark Shadow by Yves Fey: A dark, historical mystery set in Bel Epoque Paris, review.

 

The Tudor Vendetta by C.W. Gortner: Third book in the Tudor Conspiracy series, a historical mystery in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, review.

 

School of Deaths by Christopher Mannino: Young adult fantasy about the first female grim reaper in a million years, review.

 

Chronicle of Steele: Raven Episode 4 by Pauline Creeden: Last installment in the Chronicles of Steele series, a great ending to the steampunk adventures, review.

 

Naliyah by Shauna Kelley: Fantasy romance with a new twist on vampires, review.

 

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge: Fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast with many twists and turns, review.

 

Into the Blind by Helen Rena: Young adult fantasy with a dystopian edge and a fairy-tale feel, review.

 

Favorite Books of the month: Bitter Greens, Goddess Born, Naliyah, Ice Massacre.

Not-so-Good books this month: Maidens in the Night and The Furies

Overall, a great month with a ton of reading done!

Have you read any of these or are you planning on reading any of these?

 

Upcoming in November:

Snow White Red Handed

The Ripper's Wife

Tag

Roan Rose

Arcana

 

Happy Reading! 

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