Saturday, 3 January 2015

Stacking the Selves #3 : November-December Book Haul


Stacking the Selves is all about sharing the books you recently added to your selves. Wether they are in the form of a paperback, hardpack, ebook, audiobook, or a book you borrowed from your friend or the library and of course review book. It's hosted by Tynga's Reviews!





Purchased





1.  A bind up of 4 novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey) by Jane Austen.

I recently bought Pride and Prejudice and I hadn't planned on buying any other of her novels until I read it but then I saw this absolutely gorgeous bind up in a bookstore a few days ago and I just couldn't help myself! Did I mention the pages are gold?!

I had been debating on buying this one for a long time. So many book-bloggers and booktubers rave about how unique and amazing this series is so I finally gave in and ordered it from the book depository. 



  
3,4. The Iron Queen and The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa


I have the first two books in the Iron Fey series sitting on my selves for over a year now so I decided to buy the last two in the quartet and marathon them! The covers are gorgeous and I've heard so many wonderful things about Julie Kagawa's books! Can't wait to start reading them!





5. The One by Kiera Cass

I read The Selection and The Elite about a year ago and even though I liked them I did have some problems with the series. I decided that I would not be continuing it but, since The Heir was announced, so many people have started reading this trilogy and the majority of them loved it so much that it made me change my mind. So, in short, I'm going to be re-reading the first two books again and then jumping into this one!





I finally have it! I'm so excited to finally start reading the last book in the Mara Dyer trilogy! The first two books blew me away. Hope this one has the same effect!




7. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

I am currently reading Shatter Me and I am really enjoying it so, since I already have Unravel Me, I thought I'd buy Ignite Me too and save me the trouble of doing it later on.


Gifted

Thank you to my family ( most importantly to my mother) for these amazing books!





1. Compulsion by Martina Boone






Borrowed



I started reading On Writing by Stephen King last month and it made a great impression on me. I've never read anything by Stephen King and since Carrie - the only book I own by him- doesn't really appeal to me, I asked one of my best friends to lend me her copy of Doctor Sleep. 


Thursday, 1 January 2015

Happy New Year and 2015 Reading Challenges!

















Happy New Year you amazing people! Wow, I still can't believe 2014 is over! It went by so fast! I hope you all have an amazing year full of love, friendships and a lot of books!


2015 Reading Challenges

In 2015 I will be participating in 3 main reading challenges - at least for now. 


1) The Goodreads Challenge of 2015.

This year I have challenged myself to read 80 books. A bit over my head but I'm very confident I'm going to reach it!


2)  The Debut Author Challenge of 2015 hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl.



This Challenge starts January 1st (Today!) and ends January 31st 2016. During that time you have to read and review 12 or more 2015 Middle Grade, Young Adult or New Adult debut novels.

If you're interested to participate too here's the link where you can't find more information about the Challenge : http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/dac-2015-sign-ups/


3) New to You 2015 Reading Challenge hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup

New to You Reading Challenge


Last but not least, in this challenge you have to read books from new to you authors. It can be from any genre and anyone can join! Authors, bloggers, readers! 

Level 1--   6 "new to you"s
Level 2-- 12 "new to you"s
Level 3-- 24 "new to you"s
Level 4-- 36 "new to you"s
Level 5-- 48 "new to you"s
Level 6-- 72 "new to you"s
   Level 7--100+ "new to you"s

If you're interesting in participating here's the link to go sign up! : http://www.herdingcats-burningsoup.com/2014/11/sign-up-new-to-you-2015-reading.html

I'm really excited to be participating in these amazing challenges! I didn't do really well in the Fall Bingo I participated in the start of October but I'll try my best to succeed in these ones!

I wish you all a Fantastic Reading Year!




Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Top Ten Tuesday #13: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday. This meme is created and hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Every week there is a new top ten list for bloggers to take part in and enjoy!

I am a bit late for this but oh well! Better late than never :)

Bookish


1. Read more, obviously.

From the start of 2014 till the end of summer you would always find me with a book in my hands but since the start of the new school year things have been going down-hill (book-related). High School apparently isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I haven't had much time to read or work on my blog posts but I'm planning to change that. With the start of 2015 I'm going to make more time for the things I love. Books.

2. Focus on finishing some of the many series on my selves.

I have so many series sitting on my bookcase! Some I'm in the middle of, other I haven't even started. This year I've challenged my self to finish at least 7 of them!

3. Collect and finish the Harry Potter Books


... photo embarrassed1_zpsvke2okpv.gif


It's true, I've been caught. I am one of those people who haven't read all the Harry Potter books. To tell you the truth I didn't really know anything about Harry Potter until about 4 years ago. But last year I started reading the books and I'm currently on the 3rd book. This year I'm planning to collect all 6 books and finally finish this series!


Blogging


1. Write Reviews after finishing the book.

I tend to not write the review of a book  for at least two weeks after I finished it which causes me a lot of problems since by then I have forgotten a lot of things. A recent example is Lola and the Boy Next Door. Need to work on that.

2. Actually Post something

Since I started blogging I have not been very keen with posting and I am very disappointed about that. One of the reasons is that I'm not very good with time management and the other is school. In 2015, I think the first thing I'm going to try to do is post more frequently.

3. Expand my coding knowledge and finally learn to use Photoshop

My knowledge of coding in general is very little. I need to start learning more about HTML and how to use Photoshop so I can improve my Blog as well as my posts.

4. Comment more on other blogs... A LOT more...

I am so bad at commenting! Many times I open many blog posts, read them and close them without even bothering to comment... *hides in shame* Sometimes I forget, other times I'm too lazy but I'll definitely try to comment more often this year! It's one of my most important blogging goals of 2015!

5. Start scheduling ahead of time

I am the kind of person that will leave whatever they have to do for the last minute. School essays, french homework, blog posts. So usually I end up being awake all night finishing up whatever I was supposed to do. Not this year! I have set a goal to start doing things ahead of time and not stress about them later on! 

6. Posting something different.

I want to start posting other things than Reviews and Memes. Maybe start doing some discussions or tags. We'll see.


In General

Write more.

A major dream of mine is to be a writer. To do that I have to actually write. I need to start focusing more on my writing and my stories this year...



Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Top Ten Tuesday #12 : Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing This Year

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday. This meme is created and hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Every week there is a new top ten list for bloggers to take part in and enjoy!


It's almost Christmas! Yay! These are some of the books I can't wait to get my hands on and some that I can't believe I still don't own!  (In No Particular Order)


1. Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

'A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don't need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week.' So begins Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic--and sarcastic asides--to the classics. He explains how the world was created, then gives readers his personal take on a who's who of ancients, from Apollo to Zeus. Percy does not hold back. 'If you like horror shows, blood baths, lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on, because it definitely was a Golden Age for all that.' Dramatic full-color illustrations throughout by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco make this volume--a must for home, library, and classroom shelves--as stunning as it is entertaining.


2. This Shattered World


Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

3. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han


To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.



4. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?


5. The Archived by Victoria Schwab


Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.


6. Tha Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater



Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.


His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.


7. The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. 

To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks--all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic...and the growing romantic tension between them.



8. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.


9. The Madman's Daughter by Mega Shepherd


Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.


10. Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley


Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.

So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him.

As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.
At any cost.

Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust...and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.


So what books do you want Santa to bring you this year? Happy TTT!