So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10! Option 1: pick a past TTT topic you’ve done and re-do/update it (Perhaps you’d remove certain books you put on the list back when you first wrote it, or perhaps you have 10 MORE books you’d add to that list now. You could also re-visit TBR posts, whether seasonal or series you need to finish, etc., and tell us if you’ve read them yet or not. Any variation of this idea works. Feel free to be creative.) Option 2: pick a past TTT topic you wish you’d done, but didn’t get a chance to do (the list of topics is below).
Happy Birthday, TTT! What an incredible feat to have such a successful weekly meme that has been running for 10 years with over 500 topics. Very inspiring 🥰 I remember the first time I came across a TTT post and thought wow, I wanna join in the fun! It was in the ‘early days’ of my blogging journey and I remember questioning whether I would even be allowed to do the TTT posts because I was a total noob! Then I remember writing it in March and saying that I suck at making lists (and that’s still very true) and because of that I thought I might not do TTTs regularly. Well, more than one year later and I’ve only missed a small handful of topics and it has quickly become my favourite weekly meme. I’m so glad that I didn’t let my noob fears stop me from doing it and I’ve discovered so many new blogs/blogging friends through it. It has been an awesome experience being part of an amazing community and I hope to continue with it every week for as long as this blog is alive 💜💙💜
For this week’s topic I decided to go with a slightly tweaked version of option one and share with you a list of ten of the TTTs that I’ve done including the very first one. I might include updated notes or comments on some of these but not all because (let’s be real) I’m lazy AF and some of them might not need any changing/updating!
So without further ado, let’s take that stroll down Top10 (memory) lane!
So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Books on my Summer 2020 TBR (or winter if you’re in the southern hemisphere).
It’s already June but also how is it still only June?! Thinking about a summer possibility pile of ten books is tough because there are so many I want to read and how do I even choose?! Since last year when I really got into the book community I’ve tried focusing my June reads on LGBTQ+ books because of pride, but this year is a little different. One because I have really not been reading as much due to Animal Crossing, but mostly because as a mood reader it’s already hard having any ‘fixed’ kind of list, but it’s become even more impossible this year when my moods have been as wildly unpredictable as the year itself. I could just list the blog tour reads that I’ll be doing but I decided to pick a random mix of books that have been on my mind and that my mood has been leaning towards lately, so there’s a somewhat *high possibility* of me reading them this summer 😂
At first I wasn’t sure how to answer this prompt despite how straightforward it is but then I realised that I was unnecessarily complicating things for myself and when I thought that, everything fell into place really quickly 😂 For this prompt, I’m looking specifically at my Goodreads ‘Want-to-read’ list which is currently… a whopping… 1.1k+ books. *COUGH* Yep. That’s insane, right? It really is. It does make me feel better to say that I don’t actually own all these books but because my list is so long, there are undoubtedly plenty that I don’t remember! With my goldfish memory it’s also not surprising that I’ve found more recent adds that I don’t remember adding too 😅 But before I ramble on even further, let’s get to it!
Although these books have been picked randomly, my list was sorted to ‘ascending’ so it turns out that all of these were added between 2017-2018, and I have absolutely no memory of even coming across some of these books let alone ‘wanting-to-read’ them 🙃
It’s been almost two years since Philip left Hell and returned to life—this time for good. But things have changed and so has Philip. He’s haunted by terrifying nightmares and has never felt so lonely. Lonely and angry. Then one day the impossible happens and Philip is brought back to Hell. Not by the Devil, but by the Almighty himself. Although the Great Devil War ended a long time ago, the battle is far from over—and the worst is yet to come.
The Fallen Angel is volume 5 of The Great Devil War series.
Prompts to do with seasons are always a bit tough for me since I live in the tropics and it’s basically summer the year round 😂 But I can get on board with the idea of summer! Thinking of books that give off summer vibes obviously means a lot of cover judging, right? I mean, what catches my eye when I think of summer vibes are bright and vivid splashes of colour leaning towards pinks, yellows and blues. Maybe some flowers, palm trees, beaches (this is sounding cliche, isn’t it? LOL)… In terms of the plot, I think lighter and maybe even shorter reads would do the trick. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with more serious topics being discussed of course but just thinking of that blazing sun slowing down my brain waves definitely has me thinking the lighter the better!
So after a little bit of digging through my TBR and this slightly long-winded post introduction 😂 I’ve come up with this list of 10 books on my TBR that give off summer vibes:
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done some tags so I thought I’d get around to answering one that I was tagged in fairly recently by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black! Thanks for the tag, lovely 🥰 If you haven’t checked out her blog, I strongly suggest you head on over there because her content is great!
If it isn’t obvious from the title, this is a tag that lets you readers get to know me a little better! So if you’re not keen on doing that (which is totally okay), you should probably leave now 🤣 Without further ado… Let’s get to it!
Nominate 5+ bloggers you’d like to know more about, to do this tag
Why did you start blogging? & Why have you kept blogging?
Being very honest, the main reason I started blogging was because I wanted to get (e)ARCs and I thought having a blog was one of the only ways to do that. 😅 When I started I’d already had my bookstagram running for a few months, and I was really focused on that more than my blog, but that’s completely changed now since I’m rarely on there.
I’ve kept blogging because it was so much more rewarding than I anticipated. I used to have a personal blog that I kept for almost 10 years but I stopped because I didn’t feel inspired anymore. Being part of the book community, sharing my thoughts, and having people actually read and relate to them has been so rewarding, but most importantly it’s meeting so many like-minded people that has kept me motivated with blogging! (And I really hope that doesn’t change any time soon!)
What is your favorite type of blog post to write?
I really enjoy writing the weekly meme posts which is what a lot of my blog contains on top of the reviews I write. #5OnMyTBR, Top Ten Tuesday, #WWWWednesday, First Line Fridays and Top 5 Saturdays are so fun to do and even though I’m horrible at choosing/making decisions about favourites, I’ve come to really love making these lists! I think since I blog on top of a full-time job these meme posts are just what appeal to me most because I still have to think but not as hard compared to if I were to write more discussion posts 😂
What are your top three favorite blog posts you wrote?
It’s so hard to pick favourites — I’m rubbish at that! So I’ve just chosen three random posts that I really enjoyed making!
My review for Nevernight (Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff is probably one of my favourite because I mean, I was proper freaking out about how much I loved the book, but there was also a lot of artwork and reaction GIFs that I included, plus it was my first time writing a review in this way and it was just so fun! 🤣
What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?
Well, reading obviously! But I also really love gaming (although that’s not always super relaxing when you’re in battle or on a quest haha). Another thing that really relaxes me is colouring — it’s just so soothing not having to think about anything except what colour I’ll choose next. I also love to throw on my favourite playlists while doing other things (like colouring) or sometimes simply doing nothing but lying back and listening to the song lyrics (while singing along off-key)!
What are three of your favorite things?
My family & friends (who are basically my family!) 💞
Animals (especially doggos, pandas, and elephants)
Food (especially Japanese, Mexican and Chinese)! 🤤
What are your proudest blogging moments?
As of 20 May 2020!
One of the blogging goals that I set for 2020 was to reach 500 followers and I actually reached that goal yesterday! 😭 I’m pretty shook (understatement) because I didn’t even think getting 100 followers would even be in the realm of possibility for me and my little blog! I’m so thankful for this community, for all the people who follow me, for the new friends I’ve made… It’s beyond anything I ever expected when I started this and (sorry if I’m starting to sound like a broken record but) I’m so grateful for all of it! 🥰
What are your hobbies outside of blogging?
It’s a bit sad but I honestly don’t have many hobbies outside of blogging (and reading)! Um… I do love singing and I’m part of a small community choir here. I also really love to bake — pies and cookies are my absolute favourites to make 😍 If this counts as a hobby, I also love colouring 🤣 One time I got a bunch of colouring books from my friends and I was the happiest little panda 🐼 Sometimes it’s the simple things, right?!
Describe your personality in three words
I really dislike answering these kinds of questions because I always have a hard time coming up with answers! If I had to say… Loyal, Compassionate, and Stubborn (AF) 😆
What are your top three pet peeves?
I wouldn’t necessarily say these are my “top three” but… they’re pretty high up on the list!
People holding very loud and personal conversations in public. Must you really? 🤦🏻♀️
People who walk very very slowly in the middle of the walkway/sidewalk — and to make it even worse, those who don’t move even when you say “excuse me”! 🙄
People who are rude to workers. That’s vague but when I say workers I also mean waiters, cleaners/helpers, etc. Okay, this one is definitely in my top three (maybe even top two!) because I can’t stand those who treat people like trash just because they feel they’re better than them. Reality check: you’re really not. This is the toxic environment that I’m leaving and I couldn’t be happier! 😤
What’s something your followers don’t know about you?
Hmm… Hard to choose because I feel like there’s a lot that my followers don’t know about me 😁 But I’m going with the most random thing I can think of (that a lot of people in my real life probably don’t even know about me): I used to teach hip hop dance and break dancing with a friend when I was in high school. When I was in boarding school in Australia, I started an after-school dance club with a friend that counted towards my extracurricular credits! It was heaps of fun 😊
And that’s it folks! I hope you enjoyed reading those little tidbits about me — not very interesting but hey, that’s me 🤷🏻♀️ This was a lot of fun to answer so thanks again for tagging me, Leslie!
I’m Tagging:
Again, no pressure if tags aren’t your thing 😊 Even if you’re not tagged and want to do this, go for gold! Don’t forget to link back so I can read your answers and learn more about you too! 🥰
Today I’m coming at you with one big review for the three books in The Great Devil War series that I read over the last week! I read the first book, The Devil’s Apprentice (read my review here), when I took part in the blog tour organised by Dave @ TheWriteReads. I thought it was a bizarre book but highly enjoyable and like nothing I’ve read before. This was followed by Andersen contacting me on Twitter a couple of months ago to ask if I’d like to be part of his ARC team and I said yes! So a big thank you to Kenneth Andersen for reaching out to me and for sending me the books to read. Of course it goes without saying that this did not influence my reading experience or review, which is, as always, honest and unbiased.
Now let’s get back to the review before I get even further off track! Despite a slightly slow start with book two, I’ve really enjoyed reading these books and I think book four is without a doubt my favourite in the series so far.
So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Opening Lines (Best, favorite, funny, unique, shocking, gripping, lines that grabbed you immediately, etc.)
Who doesn’t love a good opening line?! I certainly do and I usually share some first/opening lines every Friday for my “First Lines Friday” posts! Since this week’s prompt is open to interpretation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do since it’s so hard for me to choose “favourites” — there are always so many, how do I choose?!
(Also, my memory is really not that great 😂)
So I decided to keep things simple, especially as I’m writing this during one of my quick work breaks lol, and look at the opening lines from my last ten ★★★★★ (5 star) reads! Yes, some of these might be more than just the first line, but opening lines plural, right? 😂
We all knew this day was coming right? Animal Crossing New Horizons has… Taken my life and turned it upside down in the most addictively soothing and relaxing way 🤣 We know I’ve been obsessed with it ever since it came out and I’ve not read nearly half as much because I’ve basically spent all those free hours playing 🐼
By the way, if you wanna visit, just add me! Friend code: SW-4593-0344-8127
But anyway, back to the tag at hand… I stumbled across it on Beth’s blog and we know that nobody has to tag me to do this one! This tag was created by Angharad and Becky at Two Book Thieves. Now without further ado, let’s get to it 😍
Past Villager:
Who is a character you found when you were younger that still has a place in your heart?
This was actually a tough prompt to answer because my mind was blanking hard, but after a while I thought of Elizabeth Wakefield of the Sweet Valley Twins — the shy, smart, and bookish sister. I admired her a lot growing up and I think she was the first character that made me feel it was okay to be smart and bookish, and that being ‘popular’ isn’t the end all of your young life 😂 Sounds lame but it’s true!
Blather’s blatherings:
RECOMMEND A HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK THAT YOU THINK EVERYBODY SHOULD READ
I’ve mentioned this book over and over, time and again on here but I feel like The Shadow of the Windis still such an underrated read. We all know I’m not big on magical realism either but everything in this book was just… *chefs kiss!* It was nothing like I expected but I loved every minute of it!
Celeste’s wish:
what is a future book release you wish you could read now?
Right now I’m super keen to read Unravel the Dusk, the final book in The Blood of Stars duology 😍 I read Spin the Dawn in January and absolutely loved it. I signed up for the blog tour with The FFBC for the sequel convinced that I wouldn’t get in on it but… I did and I’m so freaking excited!!!
TIMMY & TOMMY:
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SIBLING RELATIONSHIP IN A BOOK?
The first one that came to mind was the sister-ship between Nishat and Priti in The Henna Wars. I loved it — it wasn’t perfect but it was so real and relatable! Their sibling banter was on point and it reminded me a lot of my own interactions with my sister 😊 Their support and love for each other was so clear to see and it was really heartwarming.
THE EASTER BUNNY:
A POPULAR BOOK CHARACTER THAT YOU’RE NOT A BIG FAN OF
Unpopular opinion time! Please don’t hate me… But the first character that came to mind was Alex from Red, White and Royal Blue. I’m truly sorry that I didn’t love him… He just really grated on my nerves and in the end I only wanted more Henry time! He really should’ve had a POV…
NOOK’S LOANS:
AN AUTHOR YOU’D GIVE ALL YOUR MONEY TO
I can really only choose one? Because I can’t. I’m going to choose two (whatcha gonna do about it): Jay Kristoff and V.E. Schwab. This answer will surprise no one LOL I think they’re the only authors whose books I have special (and multiple) editions of! I love their stories and their characters always worm their way into my heart, plus they just do morally grey characters so well.
THE SISTERS ABLE:
what is your favourite fictional family (found or otherwise)?
Oh man, I think we know by now that I’m a total sucker for a great fictional family, found or otherwise. But I have to shout one of my favourite fictional families is the Knightley family (especially the brothers!) from Meghan Quinn’s Getting Lucky series. They’re all hilarious and I love their love and support for each other! Honestly, just give me all the great family dynamics because I’m all for it 😍
It’s a C+:
what is a trope you don’t like that keeps popping up?
There are only a few tropes that I really dislike but the love triangle trope is really just not my jam and I think people need to stop writing about it. Kidding! But no, I really don’t like that trope. No matter how well it’s handled, I feel like someone always gets hurt. Plus, I usually can’t take the angsty feels! 🙈
the wandering camel:
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK SET IN A LAND FAR AWAY FROM YOURS?
I can’t not go for The Simple Wild for this one! I mean, first of all, I couldn’t pick a further real life location from Bali than Alaska, which I have a slightly low-key obsession with. With the already beautiful landscape and majestic setting, we have fabulous character growth and an absolutely delicious enemies-to-lovers romance that had me swooning for days 😍
what would dodos do?:
a fiction land you wish you could fly away to at any moment
I’m going to choose the great wide galaxy of Saga. I mean, it’s crazy messed up but also immensely cool. Most importantly though, I don’t think I’d die within the first five minutes of setting foot anywhere in this galaxy, which is obviously always very important to consider!
And that was the Animal Crossing New Horizons tag, friends. I’m not tagging anyone specific for this but if you’re keen to give it a go, then go ahead and have fun! 😉
Side note to the actual post: Thanks so much to everyone who was so supportive and understanding of my much needed mini-break last week. I’m back, feeling much better and less drowning-in-my-emotions, and it feels good! I’ll be taking it a bit slow but I’ve missed everyone (and blogging) so much (I know it was only one week LOL)!
So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: The Last Ten Books I Abandoned (this could be books you DNFed, books you decided you were no longer interested in, etc.) (submitted by Claire @ Book Lovers Pizza).
I think we all know by now that I don’t really DNF books and it’s something that I’m (very) slowly working towards. I know, I know—”why read a book if you’re not enjoying it?” It’s a good question and honestly, I’m not going to say anything different to what other non-DNFer’s would say. I feel guilty when I think of DNF’ing and that guilt means that if I abandon the book, it’ll linger in my head for longer than if I push through it. That FOMO feeling in me also always thinks: “but what if it gets better?!” Yeah, it usually never does but 🤷🏻♀️ So instead of listing books that I abandoned, I’ll be looking at ten books that I should’ve abandoned!*
*Possible unpopular opinions ahead! I don’t intend to offend anybody but I’m sorry if anything I say offends you, but please don’t attack me! LOL
dinipandareads 