Friday, December 29, 2017

End of Year Survey 2017!


Thank you so much to Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner for creating and hosting the End of Year Survey every year! It's so fun to fill it out and look back on my reading year! :)


Number Of Books You Read: At the time of writing this post I have read about: 107 Picture Books, 32 MG books, 12 YA books, 12 Adult Books, 2 Classics, 52 Graphic Novels, and 8 Non-Fiction. A total of 225 books!
Number of Re-Reads: About 15 of the Picture Books were rereads, and 1 YA book. I think that's all I reread this year.
Genre You Read The Most From: Probably Contemporary.



1. Best Book You Read In 2017?
(If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2017 release vs. backlist)

I honestly don't think I would be able to just list one book!

I'm probably forgetting a book, but I tried my best to list my favorites!

Listed in order of the authors last name.

My Favorite Picture Books:
Thank You, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex
Star Wars: BB-8 on the Run by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Matt Myers
Monster Trucks by Anika Denise, illustrated by Nate Wragg
The Snatchabook by Helen Docherty, illustrated by Thomas Docherty
Elena and the Secret of Avalor by Craig Gerber, illustrated by Grace Lee
Star Wars: OBI-123 by Calliope Glass and Caitlin Kennedy, illustrated by Katie Cook
The Mother Bruce Books by Ryan T. Higgins
Cars 3: Lead the Way by Ace Landers, illustrated by Garrett Taylor
7 Ate 9 by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Ross Macdonald
Footloose by Kenny Loggins, illustrated by Tim Bowers
Bunny's Book Club by Annie Silvestro, illustrated by Tatjana-Mai-Wyss
Mice Skating by Annie Silvestro, illustrated by Teagan White
Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht, illustrated by Jarvis
Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems

My Favorite Middle Grade Books:
Nutcraked by Susan Adrian
Molly in the Middle by Ronni Arno
The Crooked Sixpence by Jennifer Bell
Junior Lifeguards series by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsey Currie
Ariel Makes Waves by Disney
Cars Origins: Storm Chasing by Disney
Cars Origins: Struck by Lightning by Disney
Frozen: Northern Lights Adventure Notebook by Disney
Saturdays at Sea by Jessica Day George
Spring Break Mistake by Allison Gutknecht
The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke
Riverboat Roulette by Carolyn Keene
The Professor and the Puzzle by Carolyn Keene
Family Game Night and Other Catastrophes by Mary E. Lambert
Crushing It by Joanne Levy
Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Won't-Walk-the-Dog Cure by Ann M. Martin with Annie Parnell
Nightfall by Shannon Messenger
Once Upon a Cruise by Anna Staniszewski
My Top Secret Truth & Dares by Trudi Trueit
Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres
The Lost Frost Girl by Amy Wilson

My Favorite YA Books:
#famous by Jilly Gagnon
The Healing Wars Trilogy by Janice Hardy
Wrong About the Guy by Claire LaZebnik
Changes in Latitudes by Jen Malone
It's Not Me, It's You by Stephanie Kate Strohm
The Date to Save by Stephanie Kate Strohm
Lucky in Love by Kasie West

My Favorite Adult Books:
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton
A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin
Frontier Engagement by Regina Scott
Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber
The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
The Christmas Basket by Debbie Macomber
A Front Page Affair by Radha Vatsal
A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer

My Favorite Non-Fiction:
Unfiltered by Lily Collins
Sandwiches! by Alison Deering, illustrated by Bob Lentz
Shark Lady by Jess Keating, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens
What Makes a Monster? by Jess Keating, illustrated by David DeGrand
History's Mysteries by National Geographic Kids
Weird But True! Christmas! by National Geographic Kids
Paris in Color by Nicole Robertson

My Favorite Graphic Novels:
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
None I'm able to think of at the moment.


3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read? 
The Neptune Project was a good surprise! I didn't really know a lot about it before I got it from the library, so I didn't know if I would like it, but I really enjoyed it!


4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?
Both online and IRL I think I recommended It's Not Me, It's You and What Makes a Monster? the most!


5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best Series Ender of 2017?
Ooh, this is hard!

Best Series Beginning: The Test by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
I actually read all four books in the series this summer, and it was really fun! I don't know if there is going to be more books? I hope there are!

Best Sequel: Nightfall by Shannon Messenger
Love this series so much! I mean, six books in and I'm still eagerly anticipating each new book!

Best Series Ender: Saturdays at Sea by Jessica Day George
LOVE! I'm sad that this series is over (Because it truly is one of my all-time favorites!), but I really enjoyed reading it and it was an excellent book!


6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?
My two favorites would probably be Janice Hardy and Karen Witemeyer!


7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
I don't usually read ghost stories, but I really enjoyed reading The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street!


8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?


9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
A resolution for next year is that I want to reread more next year, and there are a few I want to reread from this year. Two are It's Not Me, It's You (Which I actually read at the beginning of the year, and already reread once this year.) and Lucky in Love! Also, I want to reread the Castle Glower books, so Saturdays at Sea, too!


10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017?
Ooh, this hard, too! There were a lot of covers I liked this year!

But I have to say that the cover of Bunny's Book Club makes me happy!



11. Most memorable character of 2017?
When I read this question, one of the first characters to pop into my head is Avery from It's Not Me, It's You!


12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017?
I really don't know what book to list for this question!


13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2017?
Again, I really don't know what book to list here!


14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read? 
I'm going to go with the entire Healing Wars trilogy here! The first book released in 2009. I binge read the trilogy this summer and it was really good!


15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2017?
These are two quotes I liked/related to this year.

The first is from Nightfall.



The second is from Unfiltered.



16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?
According to Goodreads (And not including Picture Books):

Longest: Nightfall at 816 pages.
Shortest: The Husband Maneuver (A novella) at 96 pages.


17. Book That Shocked You The Most
(Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)
Without giving any spoilers, there were a few moments in Nightfall that fit this question!


18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)
I'm going to say Maddie and Seth from Lucky in Love!


19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
The relationship between Celie and her family in Saturdays at Sea!


20. Favorite Book You Read in 2017 From An Author You’ve Read Previously


21. Best Book You Read In 2017 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich! My Mom recommended it to me, and I really liked it!


22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?
Seth Nguyen from Lucky in Love! My new favorite love interest from her books!


23. Best 2017 debut you read?


24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
The world of the Healing Wars trilogy was really good!


25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
I'm easily able to say It's Not Me, It's You for this question! It had me laughing a lot during it!


26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2017?
There were moments in Nightfall that had me emotional!


27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
I'm going to go with the Junior Lifeguards books! I barely saw them mentioned anywhere, but they're really fun!


28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
Totally don't know what to put here!


29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2017?
I know I keep mentioning this book, but It's Not Me, It's You! The way the story is told is very unique for a book!


30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
I don't know what book to list here...



1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2017?
Both Bookmark Lit and The Caffeinated Bibliophile are blogs I found this year, and enjoy reading!


2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2017?
Just because they are two of my favorite books this year, I like my reviews of Saturdays at Sea and It's Not Me, It's You!


3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
I really loved having both Yay For Middle Grade Books! 2017 (My 2nd year!) and Debut Author Interviews 2017 this year! There were so many amazing authors who participated in those events, and I loved having those events! Also, I'm enjoying the new weekly post I began on my blog, On Hold!


4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
I always have fun participating in Top Ten Tuesday!


5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2017?
Having authors actually want to participate in the events I mentioned before was pretty awesome!


6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?
Finding the time/the energy to blog was difficult this year. (A lot of personal stuff happened this year, and I didn't always feel like blogging.) I think this later part of the year I managed to get a little better at it, though!


7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
In views, the Yay For Middle Grade Books! 2017 Wrap Up post got the most!


8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
Considering I didn't post as much this year as normal, I'm pretty happy with the amount of love my posts got!


9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Ahh, I don't know what to put here...


10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
I set a goal of 25 books and I managed to beat it! I also said I wanted to try and read a little more Adult books, and I managed to!


1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2018?
There are honestly so many books I wanted to read that I didn't get to. There are some that I feel guilty I didn't read... I want to try them in 2018!


2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2018 (non-debut)?
The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd! But there are so many I'm looking forward to reading!


3. 2018 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
I don't think I'm able to just list one here!


4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2018?
The next Keeper of the Lost Cities book, which doesn't have a title!


5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2018?
I want to try and expand my blog a little more. Get more serious with it and post more regularly. I also would like to try to host a Twitter chat this year. I'm thinking maybe with Yay For Middle Grade Books! 2018? Just a thought right now. And my usual 25 book reading goal!


6. A 2018 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):
I haven't read any 2018 books yet, but I have two ARCs on my TBR pile that I'm looking forward to a lot! :)


What were your favorite books of 2017? What books are you looking forward to in 2018? And what are your blogging/bookish goals? :)

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

On Hold Vol. 4


On Hold is a feature on the blog where every Wednesday I talk about what books I have on hold at the library. If you want to join in, feel free to use the image and link to your post in the comments area! :)



I love reading Nancy Drew books! :)


This looks like a good MG book! And I keep hearing good things about it! :)


I haven't heard many things about this book, but I think it looks good! :)

Lots of Middle Grade books on hold this week! What books do you have on hold? :)

Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas 2017!



Merry Christmas!!!!!!! :)

I hope you all have a happy, safe, and fun Christmas, while remembering what the holiday is all about! :)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16



Wednesday, December 20, 2017

On Hold Vol. 3


On Hold is a feature on the blog where every Wednesday I talk about what books I have on hold at the library. If you want to join in, feel free to use the image and link to your post in the comments area! :)


This looks like a fun picture book!


Any book by Kasie West gets added to the TBR list!


This looked interesting, and I'm always up for trying an anthology!

What books do you have on hold? :)

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Christmas Picture Books!


Here is my annual post about what Christmas Picture Books my Mom and I are going to read for Christmas! I'll include a few of our favorites here, and two new ones we have read, too! :)

Here are the ones we read every year! :)













We also read a version of The Night Before Christmas that I've had since I was little, and we usually read one Berenstain Bears Christmas themed book, too! And Olaf's Night Before Christmas, which is a Frozen themed version! :)

And here are two that we read for the first time this year! :)





Have you read any of these Picture Books? And what Christmas Picture Books do you read? :)

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

On Hold Vol. 2


On Hold is a feature on the blog where every Wednesday I talk about what books I have on hold at the library. If you want to join in, feel free to use the image and link to your post in the comments area! :)


This looks like a fun Picture Book! :)


Honestly, anything with spies is pretty much guaranteed to be added to my TBR list! :)


I haven't heard a lot about this YA book, but it looked interesting! :)

What books do you have on hold? :)

Monday, December 11, 2017

Top Ten Favorite Books of 2017!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish blog


Ahh, I didn't exactly list ten in this post. I may have exceeded that number. Just a little. And by a little, I mean, a lot. But there were so many good books this year! I read so many amazing books that I had to list more than ten! :)

And there are seriously so many books I wanted to read this year, that I never got to. There are some that I feel bad about not reading, because I really wanted to. I will read them! Eventually!

Okay! Here we go! Listed in order of Picture Book, Middle Grade, YA, Adult, Graphic Novel, and Non-Fiction! If I read more than one book in a series this year, only one is listed.

Oh! And for more info about my reading year, I will be posting my answers to the End of Year Survey soon. And by soon, I mean whenever I finish answering all the questions, which I am trying to get done by the end of December. :)

Now, seriously, here we go! :)


Top Ten Sixty-Five Favorite Books of 2017

Picture Books:

My Mom and I read Picture Books together, and she helped me narrow down what ones to list here. Because if I listed every Picture Book we enjoyed this year, it would be waaay too long to list them all here! :)


My Mom told me this was her favorite Picture Book we read this year, and I enjoyed it a lot, too!


I really loved the illustrations in this one, and the story, too!


We read all the Mother Bruce books this year, and they are all now favorites! Very funny!


I love Star Wars and I love books that rhyme!


It's BB-8!


This is really fun to read aloud!


I love the Cars movies, and this was a really good Picture Book!


We love Mr. Panda!


Very funny!


This was a really fun remake of the song! Love!


We read this for the first time this year and really liked it!


Fun!

Middle Grade:


The last book in one of my all time favorite series! I'm sad it's over, but I really enjoyed this book!


I love the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and look forward to every book! An all time favorite series!


This was really interesting and different! I enjoyed it!


I liked the characters and where the book takes place!


This was neat!


I enjoyed it!


The idea of this was fun, and the book was as well!


Interesting and enjoyable!


I love the Nancy Drew books! I read more than one this year, but this was the one I decided to list in the post!


Anything with Jack Frost in it gets my attention! And this was good!


These are delightful books!


M!X books are really fun!


I read the other three books in the series as well, and I really enjoyed them! Perfect for summer!


I read the Lightning McQueen origin, too, and they were fun looks into the pasts of characters from the movies!


This was a fun book of what Ariel was like when she was a kid!


It's Frozen! Love!


This was really enjoyable!


Fun!


This was a fun read for Christmas! And I love books that are inspired by The Nutcracker ballet!


I liked reading about Stef, her family, and their food truck!


This is my favorite of the three Once Upon a Twist books I read this year!


Another good M!X book!

YA:


I really liked this one a lot! And Seth is now my favorite of the love interests in her books!


LOVE! It made me laugh a lot! (And I've already reread it!)


This was a fun companion to It's Not Me, It's You! It was fun to read about Angelica, and get appearances by Avery and Hutch! It had me laughing, too!


 I enjoyed reading this book!


This was a really good trilogy! I binge read it this summer, and I really enjoyed reading it!


This was fun!


Another good book by Jen Malone!


Fun!

Adult:


I loved this book, and the companion novella was good, too!


A good WWII novel! (With a nice romance in it!)


My Mom got me to read this, and I really enjoyed it!


In my top three Debbie Macomber Christmas books!


Good!


 Another top Debbie Macomber Christmas book! (The other book in the top three would be Dashing Through the Snow, but I didn't read that one this year.)


I enjoyed this historical mystery and it's sequel a lot!

Graphic Novels:


I read a lot of My Little Pony Graphic Novels this year, but this was one of my favorites!


I'm really enjoying the new Archie series a lot! Volumes 3 and 4 were really good, too!


This was fun!


This was really good!


It's Frozen! Fun!


I'm really enjoying this trilogy, and I'm looking forward to the third and final book a lot!


The first book Compass South was really good, and I enjoyed this sequel to it!


I think if you like the My Little Pony GN's, then you would like this, too! It's fun!


These are interesting and enjoyable!

Non-Fiction:


I really enjoyed reading this book, and reading parts of it aloud to my Mom!


I love sandwiches, to the point where I would eat them every day! This was a fun book that gave me ideas for new ones to make!


My Mom and I both enjoyed looking at the pictures in this book!


The Weird But True! books are fun, and it was neat to read a Christmas edition!


My Mom and I love Pink is for Blobfish, and we really enjoyed reading this book, too! 


My Mom and I really liked learning about Eugenie Clark, and the illustrations were very bright and fun!


This was a really interesting book that I'm happy I read!

Told ya I went way past ten! This took me forever to put together! :)

What are your favorite books of 2017? :)