January Wrap Up 2017

This month I completed four books.

The first book that I completed this month was one that I started in December. That book is Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallace. I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads.

I picked this book up because (I think) I remember Trina from Between Chapters on YouTube talked highly of it.

I know that normally people like to discuss why they did not like a book. Today I want to tell you why I liked this book and gave this book 3 stars.

1. This book was about getting out of your comfort zone.
2. Zelda made Parker come out of his shell. She did not let him hide behind the fact that he didn't speak. She made him talk to other people.
3. The ending! The ending made me question the entire book and I love when books do that!

This is one book that I will definitely be rereading. Next time I want to try and read it in the span of a day. I think if I would have read this book in a day or two I would have given it a higher rating. 

I went into this book knowing hardly anything about it. This is one book that I want to encourage people to go in blind.

The second book that I finished this month was Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. This book for me was a let down. I found so many issues with each story that I could not love the book as much as I hoped I would. I wanted a sappy good old Christmas romance that was the perfect dose of cheesy and unrealistic. Sadly that did not happen. I got a girl who found out that she did not like her boyfriend, a boy who wanted to see cheerleaders, and a snobby girl who wants her boyfriend back. This book was just filled with drama.

If I had to pick one story that was my "favorite" I would pick the first one. The Jubilee Express has many issues, the awful boyfriend and the girl finding out that she didn't actually like him. This story to me was the one that had an actual thought out plot.

( I know that I said earlier that I wanted a sappy good old Christmas romance that was the perfect dose of cheesy and unrealistic. The last sentence that I just wrote might be contradictor of the previous statement but I feel like you can have a cheesy and unrealistic novel with out compromising the plot. When I say cheesy and unrealistic I am talking more about the romance than I am the plot. I want the book to have a plot that has depth.)

Even though I am being very critical of this book I ended up giving it a 3 stars on Goodreads, which I am thinking about changing to 2 stars. I did enjoy the fact that these stories were loosely connected. I didn't hate it but I certainly did not love this book.

The third book that I completed was The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West. I bought this book from my local library thinking that this would fill one of the Pop Sugar reading challenges, it didn't. This is one that I did not have any feelings after reading.

While reading I did not like the main character and I waited for her to realize what she was doing.

But overall I didn't hate or love this book. I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads.

The fourth book that I "read" this month was one I actually listened to. I started and finished it in one day and that book is Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. I seriously enjoyed this book. This is a book that I want to buy, go back and read, and then put up quotes in my room to motivate myself.

This book made me want to do things but it also made me feel guilty and unaccomplished because when I was 12 I was stressing about math homework. When Anna Kendrick was 12 she was working. She was building herself a resume.

I gave this book a 4 stars. I  enjoyed it and wished I had a pen and paper ready to write notes. (I listened to this while driving, which is why I have no notes.)

Currently Reading:

I am in the middle of one book right now that I wished I could have finished before February and that book is The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oaks.

 So far I am enjoying this and I can't wait to finish it.

Well that is it for my reading wrap up for the month. Let me know in the comments what books you completed this month.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you have a great day!

~Mariah

Jan. Book Haul (2017)

Remember when I said that I wanted to refrain from buying books? 

I genuinely wanted to stick to that goal but my library had a sale and I could not help myself. I paid $1-2 for most of the books that I bought from the library. I also bought one book full price this month and handful of books that I am going to show you today were given to me. 

After all that explaining lets just get to the books I got this month. 

First I am going to start with the books that I got from the library for $1-$2 a piece.

Brooklyn Story by Suzanne Corso was the first book that I picked up this month. If you guys have been reading my blog for a little while you would know that I was obsessed with the movie Brooklyn. I just needed another story set in Brooklyn.

My next book purchase was the Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West. I read this book this month so lookout for my thoughts on it in my wrap up.

I bought these next three books just yesterday and I can not get over the condition that these books are in. The 5th Wave still has the Target 20% off sticker on it!

I got the 5th Wave for the challenge of a bestselling book from a genre that you have not read. I have never read a book about aliens before and I have heard that this book is good.

I got this Agatha Christie book because it fills the challenge to read a book recommended by a librarian.

I did not get Shatter Me for a specific challenge. I just haven't read this series and I am interested to see if I like it or not. 

This next book was the only book this month that I bought full price. 

I read the majority of the Lunar Chronicles (I still need to read Winter) in 2015 and I am excited to read another Marissa Meyer book.

The next bunch of books I did not buy. My lovely mother was clearing out her bookshelves and she knows that I love Jodi Picoult so she just gave me these. 

Well those are all of the books I got this month. Let me know what books you got this month!

Thank you for reading.

I hope you have a great day!

~Mariah

Advanced Pop Sugar Reading Challenge

I just saw that there is an advanced section for this challenge. I don't know if I will complete this section or not but I thought I might include it here.

• A book recommended by an author you love-?
• A bestseller from 2016-The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid
• A book with a family member in the title- The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. (I don't know if this counts for this challenge. Let me know.)
• A book that takes place over a characters life span- The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss
• A book about an immigrant or refugee-?
• A book about a genre or sub genre that you have never heard about-?
• A book with an eccentric character-?
• A book more than 800 pages- Can I double up on challenges and say The Name of the Wind again?
• A book you got from a used book sale- The Giver by Lois Lowry
• A book that has been mentioned in another book-?
• A book about a difficult topic- The Shut Out by Kody Keplinger 
• A book about mythology-Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge TBR

I thought I might make a TBR for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. I might stick to this or I might not. I just wanted to write down some of the books that I thought would go with the challenges.

• A book recommended by a librarian-?
• A book that's been on you TBR list for way too long- Princess Academy by Shannon Hale or Magyk by Angie Sage
• A book of letters- Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
• An audiobook- Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• A book by a person of color-Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi ( I searched in Goodreads for books in this category. I have not heard much about this book so I can't wait to read it!)
• A book with one of the four seasons in the title- Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
• A book that is a story within a story-?
• A book with multiple authors- Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
• An espionage thriller- The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (I am not sure if this is an espionage thriller but it sort of sounds like one..)
• A book with a cat on the cover- A Georgia Nicolson novel by Louise Rennison (I want to read all of them. I think I read the first two in middle school.)
• A book by an author who uses a pseudonym- The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
• A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read- A Million Suns by Beth Revis (I don't read many science fiction/space novels and Beth Revis is a New York Times Best Seller. The back of the book said it was published in 17 languages! Wow!!)
• A book by or about a person who has a disability-I'll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin
• A book involving travel-Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (Its about a circus!)
• A book with a subtitle- Stars Between The Sun and Moon One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang and Susan McClelland 
• A book that is published in 2017-?
• A book involving a mythical creature- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• A book you have read before that never fails to make you smile-A Georgia Nicolson novel by Louise Rennison (I remember in middle school just laughing while reading these so I can't wait to get back into them.)
• A book about food-?
• A book with career advice-?
• A book from a nonhuman perspective-The Bees by Laline Paull 
• A steampunk novel-Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
• A book with a red spine- Three Cups of tea by Gregg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• A book set in the wilderness-The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• A book you loved as a child-?(I am going to have to look through my shelves.)
• A book by an author from a country you have never visited- And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 
• A book with a title that has character's name-Winter by Marissa Meyer 
• A novel set during a wartime- Frontlines by Michael Grant or The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman
• A book with an unreliable narrator- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• A book with pictures- Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (art by Ellen Forney)
• A book about an interesting woman- Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
• A book set in two different time periods-Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
• A book with a month or day of the week in the title-?
• A book set in a hotel-Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallace
• A book that is becoming a movie in 2017-The Circle by Dave Eggers
• A book set around a holiday other than Christmas-?
• The first book in a series you haven't read before-Across the Universe by Beth Revis
• A book you bought on a trip-Brooklyn Story by Suzanne Corso (bought this on my trip to the library!)

There are a few that I do not have books picked out (the highlighted ones) for the challenges but I think this is a good list to start with. Most of the books on here I have. Some I will have to borrow from family or from the library. 

If you have any recommendations for the challenges that I do not have a book for please let me know.

Also Let me know if you are participating in the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge this year and some of the books you plan on reading for the challenges.

Thank you for reading! 

I hope you have a good day!
~Ma