Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

Hello Lovelies!! Perhaps you remember at the beginning of 2015 this little graphic going around the internet (or I posted about it here on my blog):  Well I didn't quite finish the list, but here's what I read for each category. 1.  A book with more than 500 pages : The Diviners by Libba Bray 2.  A classic romance : Persuasion by Jane Austen 3.  A book that became a movie : The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (READ THE BOOK SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MOVIE) 4.  A book published this year : Fairest by Marissa Meyer 5.  A book with a number in the title : Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker 6.  A book written by someone under 30 : Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas 7.  A book with nonhuman characters : Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo 8.  A funny book : Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman 9.  A book by a female author : The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma 10.   A mystery or thrille r: Charlie, Presume...

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Published: June 13, 1995 Publisher: Putnam Adult Received: Borrowed from my best friend "What had she thought, that love was a toy, something easy and sweet, just to play with? Real love was dangerous, it got you from inside and held on tight, and if you didn't let go fast enough you might be willing to do anything for its sake." Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned at a young age. They are sent to live with their aunts: two older women who are known throughout their small Massachusetts town as witches. Both girls grow up resentful of their aunts and their aunts' practice, but the girls take this resentment out in different ways. Sally doesn't believe in the aunts' power, but she's always a good girl. She takes care of Gillian, the house, and ultimately her own family. After her husband's untimely death, Sally takes her two girls and moves away from the aunts. Gillian had left years earlier. She sough...

The Wrenchies by Farel Dalrymple mostly just left me feeling confused. I'm honestly so ambiguous about this book because I feel like I have no idea what happened. I needed to read a graphic novel for the Popsugar challenge, and I'm always up to reading new and interesting graphic novels. I had seen The Wrenchies on Amazon and thought it sounded really cool, so when I saw it at my library, I picked it up. Instead of a super cool, superhero-eque storyline, I found a mish-mash time-travel pseudo-plot with largely one-dimensional characters and no explanations.  It seems like Dalrymple spent so much time on the idea of the world and the creatures which embody the antagonist that he left no room for who or why. I didn't necessarily hate it. I just feel nothing for it at all. The art style is pretty cool, occasionally more graphic than I would prefer, but that's just me. I also really like certain spreads, like this one:  I just wanted something more from...

Mastiff by Tamora Pierce provides a less than satisfactory ending to The Hunt Records. So, before I turn this into a rant, let me give the people who care a quick recap. Beka Cooper is one of the finest Dogs in the Provost's Guard. It's been three years since the end of Bloodhound, and she has only become more renowned with her partners, Tunstall, and Achoo, her scent hound. This book features the three being joined by a Mage to find something that's been taken from the rulers of the realm. MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. I seriously can't talk about this book without spoiling it, because I am so furious. First of all, the book opens with Beka's boyfriend/fiancee being buried. He has never shown up in the previous books and it's very very jarring. Then we find out that she didn't love him in the first place? And he was sort of abusive? And we're supposed to believe that Beka would have stayed with him and let it get to the point wher...

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen is a fun, contemporary novel about finding yourself. I've had this book for two years, and even though I've loved Dessen's other works, I kept pushing it aside for other reads. I think part of it was my copy (a slightly water-damaged garage sale find with this truly atrocious cover), and part of it was just that I kept wanting to read other things more . But when I was looking over my bookshelf, I realized that this was the book that I'd moved across the country that I'd owned the longest. And I was feeling like a fun read. Like I needed to feel like it was summer outside and that all the possibilities of the world were at my fingertips. Maybe that was too much pressure to put on one book. This one didn't quite live up to my expectations. But it still left me feeling a little warm and gooey inside. Colie is the daughter of Kiki Sparks, fitness guru extraordinare. Both Kiki and Colie were overweight. But Kiki got her ...

Ticker by Lisa Mantchev is a delightful steampunk novel. I've really haven't read much in the steampunk genre (Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and the first book of the Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger, although I'm sure die hard steampunk fans might have issues with both of those). But I loved the cover of this one (I know! But I can't lie, as I get older, I judge covers even harder). I requested it from Netgalley and received my first egalley for review! This was also the first whole book I read on my kindle (fun fact.). Ticker is about young Penny Farthing. The women in her family inherit a mysterious heart ailment. Both of her sisters have died from it. She is saved from dying by an augmentation: a replacement, clockwork heart. However, the person who replaced it for her has been accused of several heinous murders, and is currently on trial. Then Penny's parents are kidnapped. Ticker is an adventure of a novel. There are very few slow points, a...

Hello Lovelies!! Welcome to 2015!! Sure looks a lot like 2014 to me ;) I'm not great at New Year's Resolutions, but I am great at books. So while my Goodread's challenge is to read 150 books, and when I saw this Reading Challenge floating around the internet, I was psyched. This is a great way to read 52 books, and get through some of my TBRs. Any of you have reading challenges? Let me know in the comments! And if anyone wants to follow my progress with this one check my popsugar challenge shelf on my Goodreads Account .