Happy mid-August, everyone! In the last week this is what has happened in my life:
– I reached 60,000 words on Wanderland, my WIP at the moment, which is quite exciting
– I read my 100th book of the year, which was The Cinderella Moment by Jennifer Kloester – loved it!
– I got my exam timetable. THREE WEEKS until my exams, people. That’s scary. But when I don’t have exams I get to stay home, which is nice.
– My mum booked our plane tickets to England. HOW EXCITING IS THAT? We’re going for a month after Christmas to visit my relatives. I saved up for my own ticket so that’s a nice feeling. And now that I’ve reached my goal I might rewards myself with (duh) a book. I’ve been eyeing this one for a while…
It’s expensive but it’s got BOTH stories in it, plus heaps of other stuff, and it’s so pretty I think I might cry. Plus, I’m writing an Alice retelling. It’s totally research.
– After the PTAChat on…Wednesday night, I think, I discovered the delights of Booktubers. In particular, polandbananasbooks, aka Christine May. Her videos are quite long but I watched SO MANY of them. In case you haven’t watched her before, I’ve included one of her videos below, “The noob’s guide to contemporary reads”. It’s great.
This week I am also stacking the shelves!
Stacking the Shelves is a book meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.
The Books
FOR REVIEW
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan – thanks to Text Publishing! This one is in verse, and it’s by David Levithan, and it looks AWESOME.
The Book of Days by K. A Barker – this one’s thanks to Pan Macmillan. You know when you send a review request and you don’t hear back and then SURPRISE, it turns up in your mailbox??? This was one of those. I like days. And when a book blurb includes “mercenaries, flying cities, airships and a blind librarian,” you just KNOW it’s got to be good.
WON
This is a SIGNED copy of A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty. I won it from a competition run by Inside a Dog a while ago, and I kind of thought it wasn’t going to come, but IT CAME. And this books looks SO GOOD. Yayyyy.
FROM THE LIBRARY.
The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins. FUN FACT. On Friday, I was in the library for 3 out of 4 of my classes. My classes are 80 minutes each. So that’s. Um. 240 minutes, which is like…….
Give me a minute.
LIKE FOUR HOURS. And I only borrowed ONE BOOK. Do you understand how difficult this was, how I LONGED to borrow more? But my TBR is getting ridiculous, guys. I need to read some of the books I have. And I didn’t necessarily like Unbecoming all that much, but my sister ensured me the second one was better.
Speaking of which, my sister and I will be reviewing Unbecoming sometime soon. So that’ll be fun.
Books Read Since Last Week
The Cinderella Moment was awesome. I finished it last Sunday.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was, as I said, not fantastic. But I’m looking forward to the creepiness in the second book.
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People told me the second book was better, but I am astounded by HOW MUCH I LOVED IT compared to Throne of Glass. Also, nobody told me it was sad. Also, it should be illegal to end a book with a cliffhanger like that. ILLEGAL.
*runs to find The Assassin’s Blade*
Currently Reading
Hate List by Jennifer Brown. This book is so good. And tragic. And amazing.
Reading Next…?
Choose which book I’m reading next by letting me know in comments. You have a choice of Everybody Sees the Ants, The Rapunzel Dilemma, The Summer of Kicks, The Realm of Possibility, The Book of Days or The Evolution of Mara Dyer.
I would have just included a poll but it is NOT WORKING. WordPress doesn’t like me much at the moment.
Gif of the Week
(I mean, it’s Harry Potter…come on)
Posts on the Blog
Monday: I reviewed the lovely, lovely The Cinderella Moment by Jennifer Kloester
Tuesday: I talked about the books I’m kind of iffy about reading
Wednesday: I confessed that sometimes I count how many pages are left in the books I’m reading
Friday: I reviewed Half Bad by Sally Green. It wasn’t half bad. GET IT? GET IT? Okay I’ll stop.
Saturday: I interviewed Daisy, the main character in my novel The Daisy List. There was a lot of sobbing involved.
ALSO. I have been really bad at catching up with comments. I’m trying, I promise! Just bear with me 🙂
Coming up on the blog this week, I might do a bookshelf tour, because WHY NOT? That’ll be fun. If I get around to it. I love reading them/watching them so I hope you like mine.
The Loony Teen Writer 
Great books! And what a nice trip to look forward to. Good luck with the exams!
Yes, and YES. And…ugh, exams D:
I love Christine’s videos! She and abookutopia are my favorite channels.
The only sad part about Booktube is the “related videos” section, so I just end up clicking more and more and more and pretty soon more time than needed to be spent on YouTube has passed by xD
*runs to look up booktopia* Oh my goodness, I have also fallen prey to the “related videos” section. Sometimes I can’t get off Youtube for HOURS.
CROWN OF MIDNIGHT AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
*rushes to Amazon to see when Heir of Fire comes out*
September 2nd? Well, that’s not so bad….
but why can’t it be sooner?
I want to read The Cinderella Moment now…
Great post!
THAT’S VERY CLOSE. I hope I get to read it soon 😀 Ooooh, The Cinderella Moment is awesome, you must read that one 😀
Awesome! I read my 100th book this week too 🙂 I love Christine’s videos as well. She was actually the first booktuber I watched. The Hate List is so amazing and beautiful and tragic – I’m sure you’ll love it!
YAY, go us 🙂 *high five* She’s the first booktuber I’ve watched as well. I’m looking forward to watching more. I just finished reading The Hate List and it was awesome.
What is the cinderalla moment about?
It’s about a girl who changes identities with her best friend so she can go to France and pursue her dreams of fashion design 😀
I am so jealous that you’re going to England! It’s been my dream to leave the Americas. (Have to reword “another country” since I’ve been to my neighbor, Canada.) The Throne of Glass covers are so much color in the UK version than US (They’re almost the same, but I really like the white background and the color splashes.) Christine is one of my favorite Booktubers! Have you watched any of Katytastic’s videos? She’s probably my favorite I watch. She’s an aspiring author. Her and Christine moved in together so that means double the reader videos! 😀
I’m almost jealous of MYSELF, to be honest. I can’t wait!! I love both the Throne of Glass covers – I think it’s one example of them doing it right 😀 Oooh, I’ll have to look up Katytastic. And an aspiring author? Even better. HOW COOL that they moved in together! That is awesome!
They are definitely some of my favorite book covers. She is really awesome. She vlogs every year for NaNoWriMo.
Oh wow, congrats on saving up your ticket to England, that would be so exciting! I actually haven’t gotten into Book Tubers yet because I don’t have the patience to sit on youtube for hours on end, but I’ve heard that they do some pretty creative stuff. I got The Book of Days too and it sounds awesome! Have a lovely week Emily ❤
It’s SO exciting! I haven’t been since I was about 7. About the Booktubers, lol, most of the things I do require patience, but watching Youtube does not 😛 The Book of Days looks really great, I can’t wait to get stuck into it.
I love Christine, she is so awesome, admittedly she is the only booktuber I’ve watched, but I would recommend her to anyone.
I loved A Corner Of White, hope you do too.
Congratulations on reading 100 books and saving up for a ticket to England, that is very impressive.
I’m suppose to be getting Book Of Days as well but it hasn’t arrived yet, hopefully it will soon.
Great post, thanks for sharing 🙂
aha she’s the only one I’ve watched so far as well. If I start watching more I’ll never have time for anything! A Corner of White has been on my TBR for aaages so I’m very happy to own it 😀
Hopefully you get THe Book of Days soon, it looks so great 😀
I want it to stay warm forever and never ever get cold again. *is in denial that it’s still winter* I’M SO TIRED OF WINTER. Anyway. Heh. I feel your pain at only borrowing one book. But good on you! I was actually abandoned at the library for an indefinite time and I still only managed to borrow one book. I was so proud of myself. I nearly borrowed a 2nd to celebrate but….hey wait. >.>
I’ve never actually read anything by David Leviathan. I mean. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! I ought to fix that. When I too get my TBR under control, hehe. I actually only have 4 ARCs to read and the rest are library books/own it, which I’m very happy about. ^_^ I would love, like, just once to have 0 books on my stack so I can go on this epic library trip. Just because.
CONGRATS ON READING 100 BOOKS.
Winter has gone on for waaaaay too long, hasn’t it? And when I go to England it’s going to be ANOTHER winter, practically! *cries* Abandoned at the library and only borrowed ONE BOOK? Now that is impressive 🙂
HOW have you not read anything by David Levithan? I demand you read Every Day. It’s his best one, I think. Absolutely amazing. Oooh, 4 ARCs, that’s impressive. I have…six at the moment. But one’s not out til November so it’s pretty reasonable 😀
I haven’t got Crown of Midnight yet, but I’m telling you now, as someone who finished it, like, 5 minutes ago…DON’T READ THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE!! IT’S A TRAP!
*inserts the appropriate gif here*
I mean, it was great, don’t get me wrong, but THE FEELS!!
You didn’t like Mara Dyer? I loved it. The final one is (finally) coming out in November and I am SO EXCITED!
Good luck with your exams!
(I do not miss school one bit…but, then again, I am doing maths and physics at uni…some call me insane)
I’M GOING TO READ THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE. YOU CAN’T STOP ME. I AM HEREBY PREPARED FOR FEELS.
I hope I like the second Mara Dyer book, given how underwhelming the first one was.
Maths and physics at uni? WHAT? You are insane!
What?! It’s mid-August? Already? Where does the time go?? Congrats on reaching 60k on Wanderland, by the way — that’s a really awesome milestone. There’s something nice about reaching a high number. 😛 How long do you think it’ll be?
I am just behind you! (Uh. Not literally. That would be creepy.) In reading, I mean — I think I’m currently reading my 100th book at the moment. Exciting! I only made a goal of 100 books for the year, but I’m guessing I’ll have to up that number, now. ^_^ You know what? I’ve never actually watched a booktube thingy before. I probably should, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. xD
I didn’t really like The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, either, but I did enjoy the second one *slightly* more. And I’m so glad you liked Crown of Midnight. The ending of The Assassin’s Blade broke my heart. =/
Good luck with your exams! 🙂
Congrats on the word count and reading your 100th book! Those are awesome milestones!
Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
Ooh! A trip to England sounds fun! Reading Alice in Wonderland should definitely help put you in the right mood for the trip. I might want to read The Hate List. It’s one of those books that I’m on the fence about because it sounds interesting, but it also deals with a really scary and sensitive subject. No fair that it’s getting warmer where you are; it’s getting slightly colder where I am.
The Book of Days looks so amazing. I really want to read that one too! And yay for booktubers! I love them, I just feel like they don’t love us. Like we’d watch their videos but they would never read our posts? I don’t know, I just think it sucks that most of them don’t like the blogging medium. :3 Sorry for ranting all over the place haha! 😛