It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: bookish discoveries I made in 2019 (these could be books, authors, blogs, websites, apps, products etc.).
I know I’m sounding like a broken record every time I say that 2019 was an insane bookish year but it really was. The number of bookish discoveries were plentiful, which makes choosing a focus for this week just a little tough. In the end, I decided to share a random mix of a very small number of my new favourite things!
I was waffling on whether I wanted to join this challenge but then I finally caved because #FOMO and I really just want to read more of the Asian authors that exist on my shelves. Seeing as one of my main bookish goals this year is to also read diversely I thought it’d be perfect to join The Year of the Asian 2020 Reading Challenge to hold myself accountable! #YARC is hosted by CW @ The Quiet Pond, Vicky @ Vicky Who Reads, Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea and Lily @ Sprinkles of Dreams and the idea of it is pretty simple: read as many books written by Asian authors as you can! These books can be backlist titles (i.e. released in 2019 or earlier), new releases, and ARCs, and they can be books of any genre, format, and length. You can find out more information and sign up here.
Level 2: Indian Cobra (11-20 books)
There are quite a few levels that you can aim for (including a panda!) and I’ve decided to aim for the Indian Cobra(11-20 books). I have a surprising amount of books written by Asian authors just sitting on my shelves and I don’t really have a reason for why I haven’t read them yet, so I’m more than happy to have a great reason to prioritise them now. Here’s what I got:
Young Adult
Adult
I know I have other books by Asian authors sitting on my book shelf but I can’t recall them off the top of my head right now. But I think this is a pretty solid list of 20 to start with. I hope that I’ll be able to get my ass in gear and read all of these–I know some have been languishing on my shelves for way. too. long.#forshame. On that note, I’ll post my progress on my monthly Reading Challenge Updates post that I’ve literally just this second decided to schedule. Hopefully I’ll already have something to update by the end of this month!
Are you participating in the Year of the Asian 2020 Reading Challenge too? Do we have any of the same books to read? What’s on your list?
It’s the first Goodreads Monday of 2020, friends! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.
This week’s book is Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. I think this is a pretty well known novel that was originally published in 1979 and is classified as a mix of historical fiction and science fiction (time travel)! I added it to my Goodreads TBR in January 2018. On Goodreads it has an impressive 4.24 average stars with 80k+ ratings and 9k+ reviews.
This year I also joined the #ARMEDWITHABINGO reading challenge hosted by Kriti and Ariel @ Armed with a Book. I thought this sounded cool as it’s a personalised book bingo challenge with regular check-ins, book giveaways, guest posts and more! The challenge has 24 prompts that require individual books for each square (except for the book over 500 pages long, which counts for two!) and it runs throughout the year.
The sign up is open until 15 March, so if this sounds like a fun challenge to you, head on over to their page and let’s BINGO! 😃
So what’s in the bingo? My personalised card below has all the prompts:
I know my announcement is coming in pretty late into January *cough* so I’ve actually managed to already cross of four of the squares so I’m just a tiny bit closer to bingo 🤣
I still haven’t figured out the books I’m reading for all of the prompts but I do have some ideas. Part of me wants to just “wing it” and see if what I read throughout the year will fit any of the prompts, but that attitude is what caused me to bomb hard last year? So I’ve already started identifying options for some of the prompts 😅 Consider this my mostly “loose” possibility pile. Since I’m trying to cut down on spending most of these are books I already have on my shelves–though I’ma be nice to myself and allow for some of this years’ releases because I mean… I’m only human riiiiiiight? 😬
I’ll be sharing progress updates for this along with all the other challenges I’m doing this year in a monthly reading challenges recap post, so be on the look out to see if I’ve managed to cross any other boxes by the end of this month!
Are you joining this reading challenge too? What do you think of my choices? Do you have any suggestions for any of these spaces that you think I must read?
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
Today I spent the day in bed re-reading Thunderhead (Arc of Scythe #2) by Neal Shusterman. I’m eager to continue on with this series so that I can finally read The Toll! My memory is so bad but all I remember is feeling heartbroken after I finished this book when I read it a few years back. It was wonderful and painful 😂
Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.
Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?
I skipped last week’s prompt because I wasn’t feeling it but I’m back this week for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books. This week’s topic is: books over five years old! Unless it’s a new release, I don’t usually pay attention to publication dates but thank goodness for handy dandy Goodreads because now I can look at what books were released before 2015 that are high on my TBR. I’m going to try to pick one book for each year so let’s see what we have:
2014
I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while now. It sounds so interesting and I love the cover!
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: most anticipated releases for the first half of 2020. It’s amazing how one year of immersing myself in the book community has made me so aware of upcoming releases. I still don’t keep track as much as others do, but before 2019 I had zero clues. Honestly, I still don’t even know what or how I’d find books to read before then 😂 On that note, there are quite a few releases that I’m keen to get my hands on this year (unfortunately for me, I’m locking down on my spending this year so I’ll only be adding a select few to my shelves in 2020)! I’ve already mentioned five books in this post, but here are ten more that I’m super keen for:
Friends, it’s the last #TopTenTuesday of this year and decade! How insane is that?! I just wanted to say that wherever you are and whatever you do to ring in the new year, I hope you have a wonderful 2020. For those who’ve had a particularly trying 2019, I hope that the fresh year will bring more light into your life. And as always, I hope everyone has a very amazingly book-filled year ahead! – 🐼💙
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: favorite books I read in 2019. Last Friday I already tried to narrow down my list of favorite reads from the 200+ books that I read this year. I broke it down into categories and I managed to narrow it down to five books per category, which left me with a Top 30–it was hard 😅 Lol I think I just feel guilty because in narrowing it down I end up not mentioning the other amazing books I’ve read, and it’s like I’m ignoring them or not acknowledging the hard work the authors did? 🤣 Is that just me? I’m determined to still try and narrow it down to a Top 10 though so here goes nothing. I’m also gonna keep it short and sweet and stick to pictures.
★★★★★
HOLY HECK, THIS WAS SO DIFFICULT! What books made it into your Top 10 reads of 2019? Did we pick any of the same books as top reads this year?
I wasn’t tagged to do this one but I first saw it on Jenn @ Jenniely’s page and immediately thought I’d love to do it, especially after doing the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag! I really can’t believe it’s the end of the year already. We’ve got less than one week until we’re ringing in 2020, friends! How is it even possible when sometimes it still feels like February only just ended the other day?! Craziness… Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to it!
Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?
I started The Goldfinch during The Worst Reading Slump of 2019. It was a bad time for my mental health and now whenever I think of picking it up again, I just feel dread… I wanted to read Good Omens before the show came out but I wasn’t in the mood for it and it was tough to concentrate. The same goes for My Lovely Wife! I hope I can at least finish one of these before 2019 ends!
Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?
I’m… Not sure what this means? An autumnal book? But… It’s not autumn? Or am I just confusing myself? Lol
Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?
I’m taking this question to mean are there any more books that are coming out that you’re looking forward to and the answer would be no! 2019 has been an incredible year for books but there’s nothing else I’m waiting on now!
What are three books you want to read before the year ends?
If I really only had to pick three of the many, it’d be these: The Queen of Nothing (I just finished TWK and I’m not putting this off anymore!), The Toll and Well Met!
Is there a book that you think could still shock you and become yourfavorite of the year?
Ooh, I feel like this is a pretty tough question to answer because I’m not even sure if I can say what my favorite of the year is! I’m notoriously bad at making these kinds of decisions. I’m thinking of all the books that I still want to read before 2020 (beyond the three above) and I think there’s a strong possibility for one of them to be a contender… I’m not going to name which book though because I don’t want to jinx myself 🤪
Have you already started making reading plans for 2020?
I’m surprised to say YES to this question! In previous years I’ve never really made plans for reading but now that I have a blog and am participating in blog tours and have eARCs to read before certain dates, I’m hoping to get better organised by setting up a proper calendar for when I need to finish books! I really want to get on top of my eARCs (NetGalley mostly) in 2020 because then I won’t feel so guilty requesting more books to read 🤣
And that’s a wrap folks! I still can’t believe 2019 is pretty much over. I still have to think about my favorite books of the year and that’s for sure going to be a tough one since I’ve never read so many books in one year until now 🤣 I think I’m looking forward to the challenge though! Let’s see if I’m saying that by the end of it lol
I TAG…
It’s okay if you don’t like tags or don’t feel like doing this one. No pressure at all! Also, even if you’re not tagged and want to do it, consider yourself officially tagged! Don’t forget to link back so I can see your answers 😉
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: books I hope to find under my tree. My family actually doesn’t celebrate Christmas and neither do we have any kind of Balinese/Indonesian tradition that involves gift exchanges etc. The closest we get to the very festive and jovial mood of Christmas is on New Years Eve. But this year we’re actually planning to do a very small White Elephant round and I’m looking forward to it. I don’t think I’ll be finding any books under “my tree” 😅 but STILL a girl can hope right?! But I also just like to make these lists so here’s what I’d hope to get:
dinipandareads 