Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed but Rarely Talk About

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

I have read a lot of books that I enjoyed, but since I don’t have many friends in real life that read as much as me, I often don’t have anyone to share these books with. So, here are the top ten books that I have read.

Have you read any of the following? Let me know what you thought about them!

As always, happy reading! 🙂

March Wrap-Up and April TBR!

Well this month is finally over. It did not seem like it was ever going to end! Thankfully we are on to the start of a new month and hopefully it does not feel as long as March did. With all the craziness of moving back home and doing online school, I still managed to get an immense amount of reading done. Here are all the books that I managed to read this month!

(Any books that are italicized are books that I had read for school)

(Any books that are underlined are NetGalley ARCS)

March Wrap-Up

Five Stars – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp and Manuel Prietano (Read my review HERE.)

Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

Four Stars – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Jezebel by Irene Nemirovsky

Three Stars- ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn (Read my review HERE.)

The Test by Sylveian Neuvel

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

A Compendium of Collective Nouns by Jason Sacher

Two Stars – ⭐️⭐️

Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos

Therese Desqueyroux by Francois Mauriac

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With all of the insanity of the world right now, I somehow managed to read a grand total of sixteen novels! I am honestly amazed and shocked by the sheer amount of books that I managed to read.

Since I am home most of the time now, as basically everyone has to be, I have a lot planned for this month as well. I still have a bunch more to read for school, but I want to take this time and start tackling my ever growing TBR as well. As always, I am not confining myself to this list, but here are the books that I anticipate reading this month!

(Any books that are italicized are books for class)

(Any books that are underlined are NetGalley ARCS that I acquired)

April TBR

• The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson
• Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 
• Henry IV, Part One by William Shakespeare
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murikami
• The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
• The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello 
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino 
• Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
• American Royals by Katherine McGee
• Been Here All Along by Sandy Hall
• Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson
• Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith
• Locke and Key vol. 1-6 by Joe Hill

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I know it seems like I am taking on a lot here, and in all honestly, I am. However, under the intense circumstances that everyone is under right now, I truly want to get a large chunk of my TBR knocked out so that I can start making way for series and the books that are coming out in the coming months. There are so many books on my TBR that are either a part of a series or still have yet to come out, so I want to take the opportunity to knock out the ones I have access to reading while I have the chance. As stated, my TBR is subject to change since I am such a mood reader, which is also why I have a wide variety of books on the list.

Let me know down in the comments what you read in March and what you plan to read on April! Have you read any of the ones that I have read/plan to read and have your own thoughts on them? Comment your opinions on them!

As always, happy reading! 🙂

Overview of 2019!

2019 was a roller coaster to say the least. It was a hectic year and while the ending of 2019 wasn’t the greatest, I am happy to get a fresh start with a brand new year, and a brand new decade.

However, while 2019 wasn’t the best, in terms of reading, I read the most amount of books I had ever read in a single year. Without further ado, here is everything that I read in 2019!

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January

• 1/3/19 – Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert – 4 stars
• 1/5/19 – The Steel Prince Volume #2 by V.E. Schwab – 4 stars
• 1/5/19 – The Steel Prince Volume #3 by V.E. Schwab – 4 stars
• 1/8/19 – Poems That Will Change Your Life by Various – 2 stars
• 1/16/19 – The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker – 3 stars
• 1/26/19 – Fat Pig by Neil LaBute – 2 stars
• 1/28/19 – The Steel Prince Volume #4 by V.E. Schwab – 5 stars

February 

• 2/4/19 – Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously by Adam Ellis – 4 stars
• 2/6/19 – The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi – 5 stars
• 2/7/19 – Sheets by Brenna Thummler – 2 stars
• 2/8/19 – Wit by Margaret Edson – 3 stars
• 2/11/19 – The Study of American Folklore by Han Harold Brunvand – 4 stars
• 2/20/19 – Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen – 4 stars
• 2/21/19 – August: Osage County by Tracy Letts – 5 stars

March 

• 3/4/19 – Barbecue / Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara – 4 stars
• 3/6/19 – Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi – 2 stars
• 3/8/19 – Oil Culture by Ross Barrett – 1 star
• 3/15/19 – What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee – 3 stars
• 3/18/19 – Sundiata by Mamadou Kouyate – 3 stars
• 3/21/19 – The Four Branches of the Mabinogi by Sinoed Davies – 4 stars
• 3/27/19 – Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange – 2 stars
• 3/29/19 – The Red Letter Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks – 4 stars
• 3/31/19 – The Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tartar – 4 stars

April 

• 4/3/19 – Here by Richard McGuire – 4 stars
• 4/8/19 – Arab Folktales by Inea Bushnaq – 3 stars
• 4/11/19 – Planting Gardens in Graves by R.H. Sin – 3 stars
• 4/14/19 – Folktales from India by A.K. Ramanujan – 4 stars
• 4/21/19 – Japanese Tales by Tyler Royall – 3 stars
• 4/22/19 – Angels in America by Tony Kushner – 4 stars
• 4/26/19 – The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin – 2 stars
• 4/27/19 – Planting Gardens in Graves II by R.H. Sin – 4 stars

May 

• 5/1/19 – A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam – 3 stars
• 5/4/19 – The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson – 3 stars
• 5/15/19 – A Fire Story by Brian Fies – 4 stars
• 5/17/19 – Planting Gardens in Graves III by R.H. Sin – 3 stars
• 5/20/19 – A Psalm for Us by Reyna Biddy – 2 stars
• 5/21/19 – Make Yourself Cozy by Katie Vaz – 3 stars
• 5/22/19 – Soft Thorns by Bridgett Devoue – 2 stars
• 5/23/19 – Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman – 4 stars
• 5/27/19 – Tomboy by Liz Prince – 3 stars
• 5/29/19 – Masquerade by Cyrus Parker – 2 stars

June

• 6/3/19 Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson – 2 stars
• 6/5/19 – The Prom by Saundra Mitchell – 2 stars
• 6/7/19 – Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli – 4 stars
• 6/8/19 – Waves by Ingrid Chabbert – 5 stars
• 6/10/19 – Oh No by Alex Norris – 3 stars
• 6/10/19 – You’ve Guac to be Joking by Cat Faulkner – 2 stars
• 6/11/19 – Vengeful by V.E. Schwab – 5 stars
• 6/13/19 – Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe – 4 stars
• 6/17/19 – If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser – 4 stars
• 6/20/19 – Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi – 2 stars
• 6/03/19 – Brave Face by Shaun David Hutchinson – 5 stars

July 

• 7/22/19 – Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds – 3 stars
• 7/25/19 – The Lady Rogue by Jean Bennett – 2 stars
• 7/27/19 – In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang – 3 stars
• 7/27/19 – Cast No Shadow by Nick Tapalansky and Anissa Espinosa – 2 stars
• 7/30/19 – Book Love by Debbie Tung – 5 stars

August 

• 8/1/19 – Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung – 5 stars
• 8/2/19 – The Umbrella Academy Vol. 1: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba – 2 stars
• 8/5/19 – Puddin’ by Julie Murphy – 4 stars
• 8/16/19 – Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige – 3 stars
• 8/21/19 – Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – 5 stars
• 8/23/19 – Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle – 2 stars

September

• 9/5/19 – The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros – 4 stars
• 9/9/19 – Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite – 3 stars
• 9/10/19 – Stitches by David Small – 3 stars
• 9/18/19 – Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel – 2 stars
• 9/20/19 – Have You Seen Marie? by Sandra Cisneros – 4 stars
• 9/20/19 – Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell – 4 stars
• 9/21/19 – Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin – 5 stars
• 9/22/19 – The Iliad by Homer – 3 stars
• 9/24/19 – House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig – 1 star
• 9/25/19 – Antigone by Sophocles – 5 stars
• 9/27/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughn – 4 stars
• 9/27/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughn – 5 stars
• 9/29/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughn – 4 stars
• 9/29/19 – Poetics by Aristotle – 2 stars
• 9/30/19 – Dear Martin by Nic Stone – 4 stars

October

• 10/4/19 – The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert – 4 stars
• 10/7/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughn – 4 stars
• 10/8/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughn – 4 stars
• 10/8/19 – Paper Girls Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughn – 4 stars
• 10/10/19 – With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevado – 4 stars
• 10/11/19 – Now Entering Addamsville by Francesca Zappia – 3 stars
• 10/12/19 – Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker – 2 stars
• 10/14/19 – Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell – 4 stars
• 10/17/19 – If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan – 3 stars
• 10/17/19 – Oedipus the King by Sophocles – 3 stars
• 10/19/19 – Far From the Tree by Robin Benway – 4 stars
• 10/20/19 – Medea by Euripides – 3 stars
• 10/20/19 – Baby: A Soppy Story by Philippa Rice – 4 stars
• 10/23/19 – These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling – 2 stars
• 10/25/19 – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne – 4 stars
• 10/26/19 – Bird Brain by Chuck Mullin – 4 stars
• 10/27/19 – The Spinner of Dreams by K.A. Reynolds – 2 stars
• 10/30/19 – The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate Williams – 2 stars
• 10/31/19 – The Opposite of Falling Apart by Micah Good – 4 stars

November 

• 11/7/19  The Giver by Lois Lowry – 4 stars
• 11/10/19 – When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis – 5 stars
• 11/17/19 – The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys – 5 stars
• 11/17/19 – The Divine Comedy Vol. 1: Inferno by Dante Alighieri – 3 stars
• 11/20/19 – Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot – 3 stars
• 11/22/19 – Legend by Marie Lu – 5 stars
• 11/24/19 – Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Alien Too by Jonny Sun – 5 stars
• 11/24/19 – Empty Bottles Full of Stories by R.H. Sin and R.M. Drake – 3 stars

December

• 12/2/19 – Fights by Joel Christian Gill – 4 stars
• 12/2/19 – Reverie by Ryan La Sala – 4 stars
• 12/4/19 – At the End of Your Tether by Adam Smith – 3 stars
• 12/8/19 – Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart – 3 stars
• 12/12/19 – The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio – 3 stars
• 12/17/19 – 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston – 2 stars
• 12/25/19 – Louder Than Hell by Jon Wiederhorn – 5 stars
• 12/26/19 – The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand – 2 stars
• 12/27/19 – Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer – 5 stars
• 12/28/19 – Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles – 3 stars

–

So there you have it, all 115 books I managed to read in the year 2019! Hopefully I can make it to the 100 mark again this year and maybe even surpass 115!

While this post is over a month late, I am really going to try to get back into blogging. I am finalizing a posting schedule that I will attempt to stick to, provided that school does not kill me slowly. Overall, I am happy to be back in my little bookish corner on the internet and I hope you are happy that I am back as well.

As always, happy reading! 🙂

Review: When the Stars Lead to You

Title: When the Stars Lead to You

Author: Ronni Davis

Dates Read: 11/6/19 until 11/10/19

Pages: 400

Publication Date: November 12th, 2019

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Format: paperback, owned, ARC from BookCon

Rating: 5 stars – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis (taken from GoodReads): 

Eighteen-year-old Devon longs for two things.

The stars.
And the boy she fell in love with last summer.

When Ashton breaks Devon’s heart at the end of the most romantic and magical summer ever, she thinks her heart will never heal again. But over the course of the following year, Devon finds herself slowly putting the broken pieces back together.

Now it’s senior year, and she’s determined to enjoy every moment of it as she prepares for a future studying the galaxies. That is, until Ashton shows up on the first day of school. Can she forgive him and open her heart again? Or are they doomed to repeat history?

From debut author, Ronni Davis, comes a stunning novel about passion, loss, and the power of first love.

–

“I used to be the same way. But I’ve learned there are things more important than how blue your blood is or how much wealth your ancestors have accumulated. Love. That’s what’s important. And if you have one person you truly love and who truly loves you, then that’s all the wealth you need.” pg. 280-281

–

What I Liked About this Book:

Themes: I loved how this book did not stray from harsh themes. This book talked about some major issues, such as mental health and racism, and it went full force, unflinching. It was really interesting to read the way that the author talked about these two tough topics and to see how it developed the book as a whole.

Writing Style: Davis’ writing style was so simplistic, it made this book fly by. I really enjoyed the simple style to her writing. It helped add. to the contemporary feeling of the story.

Characters: I absolutely adored the main characters, Ashton and Devon. They were both very unique and helped shape each other to be the characters that they ended up being, while also becoming their own separate characters.

Plot Line: I really enjoyed this plot line and felt as though it was well thought out. While the romance was a main focal point, it wasn’t the only plot point driving the story forward, which is really key in a romance novel.

–

What I Disliked About this Book:

Lack of Trigger Warnings: This book should definitely come with a list of trigger warnings in the front, the biggest one being suicide. This is a really good book, one of my favorites of the year, but please proceed with caution if you do plan on picking this one up at some point.

–

Overall, this book absolutely broke me. I finished reading it and my boyfriend asked me what was wrong, because I was just staring at the wall. This book made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me smile, it elicited every emotion that one could ever hope for from a book. This one is definitely one of my favorites of the year. Please do yourself a favor and pick this one up.