Tag: 2018 Books

WHERE’S MY NEW BOOKSHELF? : Most Anticipated Summer 2018 Releases

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Summer calls for days spent by the pool and on the beach, catching on TV and movies, and of course, reading ALL the books. Especially some of the amazing new releases lined up for Summer 2018. The books below all come out from June through August, and I actually plan on reading all of them before summer’s end! And don’t mind me while I plan out my anticipated fall releases post– make sure you get some finger workouts in this season for all of that scrolling..

Save the Date by Morgan Matson (June 5)- Save the Date is hands-down my most anticipated release for this summer. I’ve grown to absolutely adore Morgan Matson’s books, and the fact that this book is about a wedding has me ready to read. This blogger LOVES Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings on TLC, and I’m loving this wedding books in June trend continue in 2018 (2017 gave us Sarah Dessen’s Once and For All). I’ve read Morgan Matson’s other books through the library, but I decided to preorder Save the Date because I know I’m going to love it and it has an awesome preorder campaign.

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College YA Meets Music: We Are Still Tornadoes Review & Music Habits Tag

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Summary: It’s 1982, and for Cath & Scott, everything is about to change. Growing up across the street from each other, the pair have been best friends for most of their lives. After graduating from high school, Cath heads off to Wake Forest University, while Scott stays home to work in his dad’s shop and tries to get his band off the ground. Even though the duo definitely expected some changes, neither of them thought life after high school would be this hard. Told in a series of letters, through heartbreak, family drama, and life really, Cath and Scott realize that their friendship means more to them than they could have ever imagined.

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

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My Thoughts:

Michael Kun and Susan Mullen’s We Are Still Tornadoes popped up on my TBR radar thanks to an awesome post about college-set YA novels from BNTEENBlog. As some of you know, I’ll always love YA, but I’ve been craving college YA a lot more lately–growing pains in your reading life are real.

I loved We Are Still Tornadoes as a college YA for providing two different examples of post-high school life. Cath goes on what I guess is the more “traditional” route, heading off to college the fall after high school graduation. Meanwhile, Scott stays at home and works in his family’s clothing store and starts a band. I think Scott’s life classifies the book as a college-aged YA. It was fun reading about Cath’s adventures and misadventures at college alongside Scott’s on-goings at home. I really liked both protagonists, but I must admit that I liked Scott a tad more because of his humor! There were so many times that his jokes and teasing made me laugh out loud. For the sake of spoilers, I will just say that I did not expect that significant change in Scott’s life to occur (my hand went over my heart when I read that line).

The book acts a flashback to the 80s, taking place from September 1982 to September 1983—I liked how we got to experience a full year with our characters. If you look for books featuring music like how I’m always searching for college YA, We Are Still Tornadoes is the perfect combination of the two! Scott often sends lyrics to his band’s songs to Cath (I admit it was hard to imagine the lyrics as songs, but they can really read like poetry), and the two share a love for music. It was fun being able to recognize some of the songs they talked about, even though I admit I only recognized the bigger artists of the time, like The Beatles and Michael Jackson.

We Are Still Tornadoes is similar to the format of I Hate Everyone But You, as We Are Still Tornadoes is told through letters between Scott and Cath and I Hate Everyone But You is told through text messages and emails between its protagonists. However, in my opinion, We Are Still Tornadoes is the better version of the latter.. While I Hate Everyone But You gets points for its focus on female friendship and diverse character,s and by no means am I bashing it because I had a fun time reading it over spring break. I feel that the character development and story was stronger in We Are Still Tornadoes.

I’m giving We Are Still Tornadoes a 5 out of 5 stars not because it’s the most amazing book that I’ve ever read, but because I had such a great experience reading it. I feel like I keep mentioning in my reviews how great such-and-such book is perfect for a readathon (I guess I do read faster than I think I do!), but I wish I had had the time to read We Are Still Tornadoes in one sitting or over the course of one day. Only 2 weeks left of the semester before I can do this!

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Music Habits Tag

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by the lovely Rebecca of bookishlyrebecca to do the Music Habits Tag. Since music plays such a large role in Cath and Scott’s friendship, I thought it’d be include the tag alongisde my review. The Music Habits Tag was created by Sumedha of The Wordy Habitat.

Do you download songs or stream on apps?

Both! I use Spotify to listen to music on my laptop, and I purchase and download songs using iTunes. I know I could easily download Spotify on my phone, but I usually listen to music on my phone while running and I don’t want to use too much data.

What’s your current favorite song?

Blame Love, Simon, but “Rollercoaster” by Bleachers.

Last song you listened to?

“Helpless” from Hamilton 

Who are your all-time favorite artists?

Paramore, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, The Beatles… does Glee count??

Have you been to any concerts?

I’ve been to quite a few. My first was Avril Lavigne when I was five years with my best friend (who’s still my best friend today!). I went through my Disney stage (Hannah Montana and Cheetah Girls included) and saw the Jonas Brothers twice. I’ve seen Paramore once, Fall Out Boy twice, Luke Bryan three times, and Train with Gavin DeGraw and The Script.

Do you play your songs on shuffle or choose a playlist?

Playlist, then shuffle.

Where do you usually find new music?

Movie soundtracks (honestly, I think I got hooked on to Ed Sheeran because of “All of the Stars” from TFIOS), and keeping up with my favorite artists on social media.

Name one song that you think everyone should listen to:

“Found Tonight” by Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda

For the sake of your finger cramps, I did cut out some of the questions from the tag, so make sure to check out Sumedha or Rebecca’s posts for all the questions!

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Have you read We Are Still Tornadoes? What’s your current favorite song? Share in the comments!

Top Five Wednesday: Ideal Mash-Ups & Anticipated Mash-Ups

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You know those blurbs that say The Hunger Games meets The Fault in Our Stars meets Percy Jackson meets Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones meets Outlander meets Stranger Things? Okay, so maybe you haven’t seen that exact synopsis, but books blurbs tend to use other books or media that will entice readers to pick up said book. Today’s Top Five Wednesday is all about mash-ups that would make me want to pick up a book.

“A mix of Jenny Colgan’s Meet Me at the Cupcake Café and Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”

The similarities don’t end in the authors’ first names. While I’ve predicted a To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before spinoff series following Kitty, I’d love to have a book with an NA-aged Lara Jean opening up her own bakery! Anyways, I’d love a mash-up of Meet Me at the Cupcake Café and To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before with a character with a family as great as Lara Jean’s and opens her own bake shop like Issy, who also has a great support system.

“A mix of Sex and the City and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl”

Okay hear me out on this one. I want a mash-up of Sex and the City for its female friendship and four best friends alongside Cath’s passion as a fangirl and love for the Simon Snow series. Now picture four best friends and fangirls living in New York City, going to book stores, cookie dough cafes, author events, and more together. How awesome would that be??

“A mix of Morgan Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone and Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie”

Moxie does feature female friendship, but I’d love a book where two female best friends, like Sloane and Emily (expect without the whole disappearing thing), team up together and spark a feminist revolution in their town during the summer. Because summer contemporaries are EVERYTHING.

“A mix of The Devil Wears Prada and Ashley Poston’s Geekerella”

Okay this is definitely my most out there mash-up, but it can work as such: A girl begins working for a food truck connoisseur in hopes of getting a recommendation for a top-notch culinary school. Add in working for her boss being not such a piece of cake and a cute Harry Potter fan of a guy stopping by everyday, and my pre-order would already be in!

“A mix of Hart of Dixie and Emery Lord’s The Start of Me and You ”

I enjoyed Hart of Dixie for its small-town, Southern charm and I feel like that setting would mesh really well with a book like The Start of Me and You. After facing some personal struggles, girl enters for small Southern town for a fresh start and relationship opportunities.

Top 5 Wednesday is a collaborative group of book bloggers from various platforms who love sharing lists on Wednesdays. The T5W group can be found here on Goodreads.

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Today’s T5W topic and my own anticipation for some 2018 releases has made me consider what mash-ups have inspired me to add books to my TBR. Below are some of my anticipated 2018 releases whose mash-ups made me immediately add it to my TBR shelf on Goodreads.

Love à la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm

Mash-up: “Chopped Teen Tournament and Kids Baking Championship”

Food Network’s Baking Championship series is among my favorite TV shows, and I especially loved this past season of Kids Baking Championship (reminder that I still need to try and make a unicorn cake). I also like putting on Chopped while I’m writing, so once I got to this mash-up, I knew I was sold. The book follows Rosie and Henry as they attend a prestigious cooking program in Paris who must cook like never before while sparks fly between them.

Love & Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves

Mash-Up: “For fans of Becky Albertalli, Matthew Quick, & Ned Vizzini

Okay I admit that Becky Albertalli alone sold me on this mash-up, but I did enjoy Matthew Quick’s Silver Linings Playbook a few years ago. The book has been described as a darkly funny debut about a 19-year old student at Harvard who’s been consumed by love and grief. SIGN ME UP FOR ALL THE COLLEGE-AGED PROTAGONISTS

Would you be into some of the above mash-ups? What are some of your own? Share in the comments!

IT’S TIME TO BUY ANOTHER BOOK SHELF : Most Anticipated Spring 2018 Releases

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We have been blessed with amazing book releases this January and February, and the book gods, otherwise known as authors and publishers, have even more in store for us! There are so many series conclusions and continuations coming out this spring and fall, not to mention ALL the contemporaries. Today, I’ll be discussing my most anticipated spring releases, i.e. books that are coming out from March to May.

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff -March 13- I actually haven’t read the blurb yet for Obsidio, but from what I’ve gathered on social media, we’ll be reunited with our main cast from the first two books as well as some new faces. If you don’t plan on rereading Illuminae or Gemina beforehand like me, make sure to check out Book Series Recaps for a refresh.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman -March 27- I’ll read almost anything Gayle Forman writes, including this YA book about three teens in New York City.

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BOOKS, WRITING, AND LIFE HAPPENINGS: February 2018 Wrap Up

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As I was preparing my traditional What I Read post for February, I realized that I did a few more bookish, fandom, and bloggish things that I want to talk about! Because I don’t just want to discuss books today, I’m going to be guiding you through what I wrote and watched this month, as well as some fun, in-real-life happenings.

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February was a weird reading month because I feel like I didn’t read a lot, between school life and being busy on the weekends, but I managed to read 7 books! I tend to read less during the school year because I like not having to concentrate too much when I get to relax (hence a lot of Youtube and TV watching). I spent a lot of time reading for my English classes this month (2 books from my contemporary American lit class are included down below), and while I’m not including them on my list, I read Logicomix and Berlin: City of Stones Vol.1 for my graphic novels course.

If I don’t talk about the books below right now, it’s because you’ll find reviews for them in the next section.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden | 4.5/5 Stars

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith | 4/5 Stars

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black | 4/5 Stars

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado | 4/5 Stars

Her Body and Other Parties is the second book I’ve read for my contemporary American lit class, and it was a book that was on my TBR radar before I found out it was on the syllabus!?! I’m still slightly in shock that I’m reading books published within the past year in SCHOOL (not-so-patiently waiting for my school to add a YA lit class). Anyways, I really enjoyed Her Body and Other Parties for its genre-bending short stories and focus on women. My favorites include “Inventory”, “Eight Bites”, and “The Resident” (all of which you can find online!).Read More »

The Greatest Spreadsheet You’ll Ever Meet: 2018 Reading with All About Books

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A new year means a new year of reading. I love being organized when it comes to the books that I’ve read and for someone whose least favorite subject is math, I love finding out statistical data on my yearly reads.

Most readers tend to use the Goodreads Reading Challenge to track their 2018 reads, but I’ve seen a few people step away from the challenge this year because they do not want to challenge themselves to read a certain amount of books. I myself have taken the Goodreads Reading Challenge less seriously in 2017 and 2018. I really only set the challenge so I can visually see what books I read throughout the year. I also keep track of what I’ve read in my blogging notebook and in an Excel spreadsheet, but for 2018, I wanted something that would do more than track the amount of books I’ve read. How many pages did I read? What genres did I reach most for? Did I read more backlist books or new releases? I could obviously look up this data myself, but I didn’t know how to easily do so.

Enter the 2018 Books Spreadsheet created by All About Books. I discovered this spreadsheet from Kristin of Super Space Chick and Cassie of Bibliomantics’ Spines With Wines End of the Year Liveshow. The 2018 Books Spreadsheet is available for anyone to use—all you have to do is copy the file and All About Books lists all of the instructions you need for downloading and using the spreadsheet.

So why is this the greatest book-tracking spreadsheet ever??

  1. It’s super organized and easy to use! When you enter the spreadsheet, you’ll see the overview page for your reading/stats, and there are tabs at the bottom where you can fill in the books/authors/anything else about your reading that your heart desires.Screen Shot 2018-01-06 at 7.04.21 PM.png
  2. You can basically track any sort of statistics/data about your reading. Want to know how female and male authors you read? How about how many books you borrowed vs. how many books you purchased? Want to track your average rating in a certain genre? You can do it all and more! The instructions on All About Books’ post tells you how to create your own categories using tabs outside of the categories that they have already created.

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As you can probably tell, I’ll be using the 2018 Books spreadsheet to track my reading this year and highly recommend you do as well. I have it tagged elsewhere in the post but here is where you can find the spreadsheet:

http://itsallaboutbooks.de/2017/12/spreadsheet-books-2018/

How do you track your year in reading? Share in the comments!

ARC Review: A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen

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Summary: From the moment Spencer meets Hope the summer before seventh grade, he knows there’s something special about her. The two quickly become friends, sharing a love for climbing trees, planning adventures, and geeking out over science. Always being teased for his Tourette’s syndrome, Spencer starts to feel that he finally belongs somewhere. Over the years, through new relationships, family tragedy, and growing up, Spencer and Hope’s friendship is put to the test, as their relationship heads toward something more.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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My Thoughts:

I received an ARC of A Taxonomy of Love at Book Con 2017 from Amulet Books, and I am so lucky to have this one before its release date (January 9th 2018) because I think A Taxonomy of Love is a standout for 2018 releases. A Taxonomy of Love reminded me of Jared Reck’s A Short History of the Girl Next Door and Julie Israel’s Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index, but the book is quite unique for having a protagonist with Tourette’s syndrome.

A Taxonomy of Love is primarily told through Spencer, which I found really refreshing for me because not only do I more so rarely read books told from a male POV, but also because we get to learn what it’s like for Spencer to have Tourette’s syndrome. Before reading A Taxonomy of Love, I didn’t know too much aboutTourette’s syndrome and  I learned a lot more about the condition from the novel. A Taxonomy of Love isn’t just told from Spencer’s POV, as we get to experience Hope’s POV through instant messaging and letters to her sister, Janie, who’s traveling abroad. And as suggested through the title, there are plenty of taxonomies created by Spencer. They don’t necessarily depict his interests in science or bugs, but rather they display relationships, high school, and types of people in general. The book is spilt into 6 sections, which each section representing one year of Spencer’s life. I really enjoyed this because I felt that we got to see the characters change and grow up.

One of my favorite aspects of A Taxonomy of Love is our cast of characters. We obviously have Spencer and Hope, whose friendship takes some twists and turns throughout the years. There’s a ton of family in this book, between Spencer’s family—Dean, his dad, his stepmother, Pam, and his grandma, Mimi—and Hope’s family, with a lot of emphasis on her relationship with Janie. More of Spencer and Hoper’s friends came in and out of the novel as well, and I think this bigger cast really works, as we see all the people who played a role in the duo’s lives throughout the years.

There were so many fun quotes in A Taxonomy of Love that I had to break out my page tabs! I really enjoyed this gem from Spencer:

“Hope hates playing Magic. I had to trade her watching High School Musical and High School Musical 2 to get her to play last time. I can only handle so much Zac Efron.”

While the book has plenty of light moments, there are a lot of heavy and more serious topics addressed in the book. There’s a really great scene towards the end of the novel where Spencer’s family talks about racism, which was quite interesting considering that the story takes place in Georgia—it did a great job of de-stereotyping southern beliefs. Through Spencer’s POV, we obviously experience what it’s like for him to have Tourette’s, but we also see how he reacts to being teased for his condition. Additionally, one of the main themes in the novel is death, as one of the character’s in the novel experiences a death in their family. I admit that I didn’t read the blurb too much before reading A Taxonomy of Love, so some of its darker moments took me back a bit, but I felt that these themes made the story feel more realistic.

Overall, I really enjoyed A Taxonomy of Love for a taxonomy of reasons: its focus on family and friendship, its portrayal of growing up, and for featuring a main character with Tourette’s syndrome, which I haven’t seen before in the YA world. My only “complaint” about the book is that there were so many opportunities for our main characters to get together sooner (I complain about this in almost every book I read about “star-crossed” lovers so I was not surprised by my feeling).

Is A Taxonomy of Love on your TBR? Share in the comments!

To Challenge or Not to Challenge: POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2018

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As 2018 comes a bit closer, it’s time to start thinking about reading goals or challenges for the new year! This will be my fourth year participating in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where users can challenge themselves to a read a self-designated number of books over the year. While I participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I never stress over it because I tend to set my reading goal to what I know I can easily read over a year—the point is to not stress myself out over reading. However, there is one challenge that is increasingly coming into my mind for 2018: the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge.

The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge is an annual reading challenge hosted by POPSUGAR, a media and entertainment website. The goal of their reading challenge is to read 50 books based off 50 different book prompts, such as “a book with your favorite color in the title” or “a book mentioned in another book”. This year is a tad different in that the list is separated into two sections: the first section has 40 prompts that necessarily aren’t too difficult to complete, and the second section has 10 advanced prompts that are harder to complete, like “a bestseller from the year you graduated high school” or “a book with a fruit or vegetable in the title”.

Like me, you may be debating if you’ll participate in the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. I am not sure if I’m going to do the challenge myself, as I don’t want to stress myself out trying to find books based on the prompts or read books that I really have no interest in picking up. For me, I know I would probably have trouble finding a book that fits “true crime” or “a microhistory”. I am also a really big mood reader—I’m not going to read a fantasy when all I want is a cute, contemporary love story—so I might have difficulty with some of the prompts based on what I really want to read. However, one of the purposes of the challenge is to push yourself to read books that you normally wouldn’t read, in hopes that you’ll find a new favorite. Ultimately, by doing the challenge, you’ll diversify your reading.

The main reason why I might participate in the challenge is because there a ton of creative prompts, including “ a book that was borrowed or given to you as a gift” and “a book that involves a bookstore or library”, as well as prompts that are quite easy to do: “a past Goodreads Choice Awards Winner” or “a book that you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to”. I am also not intimidated by the fact that the challenge encourages you to read 50 books (even though you could definitely double count books if you wanted to!), as I’ve read well over 50 books each year for the past couple of years.

In the end, I think I am going to participate in the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, but not stress myself out over hitting all 50 prompts. The prompts overall will really help change up my reading, and I already have books on my TBR that I know will fulfill some of them!

Are you participating in the 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge or any other reading challenges? Share in the comments!

My Most Anticipated 2018 Winter Releases 

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2017 was an amazing year for book releases and it seems that 2018 is going to be no exception! Listed below are my most anticipated book releases for this January and February!

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu – January 2nd– You had me at new Marie Lu novel. Mari Lu’s Batman: Nightwalker is the second book in the DC Icons series. In all honesty, I don’t know too much about Batman, but I am excited to see Marie’s take on a young-adult Bruce Wayne.

A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen– January 9th– A Taxonomy of Love is a young adult contemporary novel following the life of Spencer, a teenage boy who has Tourette’s syndrome. I’ve heard nothing but positive things from reviewers who have read the book already, as A Taxonomy of Love emphasizes family, friendship and what it’s like to have Tourette’s.

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