February Wrap-Up

 I really only picked up audiobooks this month! That really isn't normal for me. I think part of it is that I've been fighting to make myself read this one ARC and I'm not having a funky time with it so I'm in a state of banned (by me) from reading any new physical books but also (again due to me) not reading it. I think it's going to be my first DNF of the year and I'm not a huge fan of DNFing things so it's causing me a level three crisis.

January Wrap-Up

My January book experience was... mostly audiobooks. Partly because I commuted a lot on a school bus (my university bus is a school bus with seats spaced for children 4 ft. tall or less) and audiobooks are great for that! Also for walking and grocery shopping. Basically if I'm out of the house and not in class, I'm listening to an audiobook.

9th Annual End Of Year Survey

The Annual End of Year Survey is hosted each year by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page-Turner.

2018 READING STATS

Number Of Books You Read: 102 total, according to Goodreads
Number of Re-Reads: 12 of my total were rereads, more were listening to audiobooks of books I've also already read
Genre You Read The Most From: fantasy

June Wrap-Up

Read

• Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley 
• The Martian by Andy Wier
• From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion
• Compulsion by Martina Boone
• Rook by Sharon Cameron
• Cutlass by Ashley Nixon
• Every Word by Elizabeth Marney
• End of Days by Susan Ee
• The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
• The Bitter Kindgom by Rae Carson
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Acquired

From Chronicle Books, Armchair BEA prize pack (thank you!):

• A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz: I'm picky about my fairies, but I'm hoping to like this one.
• House Arrest by K. A. Holt: Contemporary middle grade, written in verse from the looks of it, which is off the beaten path for me.
• The Chess Queen Enigma by Kathleen Gleason: I still have to read The Spiritglass Charade, but I'm planning on reading them back-to-back soon.

Purchased:

• Fullmetal Alchemist Omnibus Volumes 22-23-24 by Himoru Arakawa: I was unsure about my decision to purchase the 3-in-1 at first, but it was much more affordable than buying the individual volumes.
• Fullmetal Alchemist Omnibus Volumes 25-26-27 by Himoru Arakawa: And now I finally have the whole manga. I can do a reread!
• Arthur Spiderwick's Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Holly Black and Tony diTerlizzi: I got super excited when I found this on Book Outlet! Its a gorgeous book (you're probably sick of me saying this by now, but I love Tony diTerlizzi's artwork).
• Jackaby by William Ritter: I have a soft spot for paranormal historical fantasy. Especially if there are detectives.
• Compulsion by Martina Boone: Another Book Outlet purchase. I quite enjoyed the atmosphere of this one.
• In the After by Demitria Lunetta: I liked the sound of this (Book Outlet again), I've been considering reading it for about a year, and I'm looking forward to starting it the next time I'm in a post-apocalyptic mood.

May Wrap-Up

This is late because I dropped the ball. In more ways than one, since it kind of turned out to be a bad reading month (I blame exams, but really, I think I've just been in a bit of a reading slump).

Read:

• The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melissa Salisbury
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
• The Start of Me and You by Emery Road
• The Wondrous and the Wicked by Page Morgan
• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
• The Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
• An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
• The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

Re-read:

•  Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
• Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Purchased:

• Outbreak! Plagues that Changed History: There was a copy of this in the back of the math classroom when I was in eighth grade, and I was fascinated by it. I've wanted to get a copy of my own since then.
• The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi: I already have a bind-up, but I caved and bought these for vanity reasons (I love Tony DiTerlizzi's art on the original hardcovers.)
• Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre: I've been meaning to read this since it was first released.
• The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson: I have  weird relationship with the Shadowhunters books (I've decided to call them that, for simplicity's sake).
• Deadly by Julie Chibarro: *Suddenly notices epidemiology theme of book purchases*
• Rebel Nation by Shaunta Grimes: I read Viral Nation a while ago, so I snagged this off Book Outlet
• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry: This was a fun Middle Grade novel.
• Summer and Bird by Kathrine Catmull: I'm smitten with the cover, and the story sounds neat.
• The Shadowhunter's Codex by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis: See above comment on my feelings about these books. Overall, I enjoy them, I also really like Cassandra Jean's artwork.
• Sea Change by S. M. Wheeler: This caught my eye a while ago, it sounds beautiful.
• The Search for Wonderla by Tony DiTerlizzi: I believe I've mentioned how much I like Tony DiTelizzi's art? 

April Wrap-Up

This is late because I dropped the ball. In more ways than one, since it kind of turned out to be a bad reading month (I blame exams, but really, I think I've just been in a bit of a reading slump).

Read:

• Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
• Midwinterblood by Marcus 
• Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong
• Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
• Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
• The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Re-read:

• Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

Purchased: I only bought one book in April! 

They had this a few days early at Chapters, and for 40% off.

March Wrap-Up

March was stop-and-go for books. I would read several in a week, then only one the next. This month in books:

• I finished The Silmarillion, overall I really enjoyed it, a lot more than I was expecting to. The running commentary is still running on my tumblr. because I let myself get behind updating. This was more dense than I'm accustomed to, but I'm looking forward to more Tolkien at some point soon.
• The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
• Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
• Suspicion by Alexandra Monir
• Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross
• Rain by Amanda Sun
• For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund (reread)
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black (reread)

The books I acquired this March. Featuring terrible lighting and my office floor, as usual.

• The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski: I was eagerly anticipating this release, I finished it at two in the morning.
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: Am collecting the trilogy in paperback, just waiting for Ruing and Rising to come out in paperback now...
• The 100 by Kass Morgan: I read this two years ago (wow, it doesn't feel like that long), and I've been meaning to pick up a copy. It was on Book Outlet.
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black: I snagged this after my reread, realising that I'll probably reread it again.
• Lone Survivors by Chris Stringer: I'm a human evolution geek (evolution in general, really).
• The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean: And also a genetics geek.
• Improving Your Soil by Keith Red: One day I will start a blog about biology and gardening. It will probably be terrible.

I'm participating in a read-a-thon over on tumblr. next week, which is likely to seep over into this blog. We shall see.

February Wrap-Up

February was a month of unfinished books in a lot of ways. This month in books:

• I'm working my way though The Silmarillion, it is a different reading experience from most of what I've read before, different even from the other Tolkien that I have read. I've got a running commentary going on my tumblr...
• Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson
• The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson (I did a mini-review for this, but I'm tempted to talk more about it)
• Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
• I also reread Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst for the Re-Read Challenge

Audiobooks:

• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
• This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Remember the office floor from my January haul? You get to see it again! The lighting is slightly better this time around, because I planned a bit better and photographed during the day.

I said that I didn't usually purchase enough books to do a haul in January, and this is still an abnormal number of books for me to purchase. It was a Book Outlet order, actually, and consists of a lot of books I've wanted to read, or have already read and wanted to buy, for a while now:

• A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix: I've borrowed it from the library a lot, and I've started it before, but it had to be returned. I did enjoy the start, though, so I'm taking a gamble that I'll like this
• A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sarah Biggs Waller: Surprisingly, I didn't already have one of my favourite debuts from last year. I like the hardcover better than the paperback, though, so I jumped when I found it on Book Outlet.
• The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson: It sounded like fun. 
• For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund: I read and loved this in 2013, and I was just waiting for the paper back of Across a Star-Swept Sea to purchase them... then I forgot to until now.
• Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande: This was one of the first YA novels I ever read *reminisces* wow, that was a while ago...
• Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick: I've heard excellent things about this, and I tend to enjoy Printz-award books.
• Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
• Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff: Steampunk Japan caught my interest. 

January Wrap-Up

The month in books:
January was quite a good reading month for me. I've been listening to audiobooks more and more recently. This month I listened to two new ones.

• Winterspell by Claire Legnard
• Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers
• Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub
• Death Sworn by Leah Cypress
• Zodiac by Romina Russel
• The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
• Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (review to come)
• The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black
• The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney
• Fairest by Marissa Meyer
• Ticker by Lisa Mantchev

Audiobooks:

• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (I read the book when it came out, but I like the really enjoy the audiobooks for this series, too).
• Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

January book haul featuring the office floor and terrible lighting because it is 7 pm in Canada and thus there is no natural lighting whatsoever.

I don't usually have enough books to do a haul on, but here's my January mess. I didn't actually get purchase most of them in January, but they came in January, so that counts. Most of them are from the Book Outlet (they had a boxing day sale, and most of these were books that I've had my eye on for a while).

Book Outlet:

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer (the hardcover was about $3.00, and I've wanted to get a hardcover of this for a while now)
• Death Sworn by Leah Cypress
• Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson
• Nation by Terry Pratchett  (the hardcover, this time for a non-ridiculous reason: I find the trade paperback very uncomfortable to read)
• The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahney 
• Thumbs, Toes and Tears by Chip Walter
• Blonde Ops by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman
• Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (I'm getting them in paperback, since I really enjoyed them when I borrowed them from the library)
• Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution by David Rothenberg

Chapters:

• Fairest by Marissa Meyer (I got it 40% off... it was on sale for some reason, not that I'm complaining)
• Spiderwick: The Completely Fantastical Edition by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi: this is a beautiful bind-up, it has sketches in the back
• The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

So, probably don't expect a book haul with next month's wrap up (we'll see), because I rarely anywhere near this many books in a month.