Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Jen's September 2015 Book Haul


Left side: 
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Sweet Evil, Sweet Peril & Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins 
Devoted & True by Hilary Duff
Pure, Apollyon & Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

Right side: 
Grey by E.L. James 
The Intern by Gabrielle Tozer 
Books 1-7 in the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella 
  #1 The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic
  #2 Shopaholic Abroad
  #3 Shopaholic Ties the Knot 
  #4 Shopaholic & Sister 
  #5 Shopaholic & Baby 
  #6 Mini Shopaholic 
  #7 Shopaholic to the Stars 
Frigid & Scorched by Jennifer L. Armentrout 


















 
These are books I bought back in June but for some reason they never made it into a book haul so I thought I'd just include them in this one. 


We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 
Angelfall, World After & End of Days by Susan Ee 
Dark Heart Forever, Dark Heart Rising & Dark Heart Surrender by Lee Monroe 
The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns & And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Stephen King Haul




Mum decided to give me a bunch of her Stephen King novels, and since I'll never turn down a free book or fifty, I gladly added them to my collection! So, the books here are:

The Dead Zone
Different Seasons (short stories including The Body, which was renamed Stand By Me for the film adaptation)
Skeleton Crew
The Eyes of the Dragon
Danse Macabre
Cujo
Carrie
Christine
Night Shift
It
Misery
The Tommy-Knockers
Delores Claiborne
Thinner (Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman)
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Saturday, 3 October 2015

October 2015 TBR


Jen
A Dance with Dragons Part 2: After the Feast by George R.R. Martin 
(I started this in September after finishing Part 1 and I am so excited to finish this book and finally be all caught up with this series.)
Elixir by Hilary Duff 
(I started this book in September but I put it down to read other books and just never got back to it so I really want to finish it in October.)
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon 
(This was actually one of the September picks for the Readalongs with April group on Goodreads, but I couldn’t get my hands on a copy until now so I will be reading it this month instead.)
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin 
(This is one of the October picks for Readalongs with April and I am so excited because I have been wanting to start this series for some time now. It’s actually been on some of my past monthly TBR lists but I just didn’t get to it.)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 
(This is the October pick for the Read-a-Long with Priceiswong Goodreads group and yet another book that I’ve been really wanting to read.)
Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker 
(This is the third book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series. The second book wasn't great but I do want to continue on so I will be reading the this book.)
Between the Lines & Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer 
(It has been one of my goals this year to read all of my unread Jodi Picoult books and these are the last two on the list. Hopefully I can get to both of these this month and it will feel like such an accomplishment when I finish them!)
Harry Potter: The Character Vault by Jody Revenson 
(I pre-ordered this one and it just arrived in the mail. So excited to read this!)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: The Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay 
(I also pre-ordered this one and I cannot wait to finally get my hands on this book! I don’t think I will be reading it fully as I completed a re-read of the entire series earlier this year, but I will definitely be devouring all the beautiful illustrations.) 


Mel
I might go with whatever I feel like this month, instead of trying to read the books on my currently reading list on Goodreads. But I'm definitely in the mood for:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - I would love to finish the audiobooks (I'm almost done with Order of the Phoenix) before my copy of the illustrated edition of Philosopher's Stone arrives. I can't wait to see all of the gorgeous illustrations! I'm waiting to see if I'm in the mood to read the whole thing though. I just might!
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas. I am 1/3 the way through so far (impressive since September was a reading slump) but I will be speeding up progress through the book by skipping or skimming the witchclan chapters. I don't like those characters and I get bored reading them. If it becomes necessary to read them fully, I'll set aside some time specifically to focus on those chapters.
Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan. I am up to the third book in the series and I have the Heroes of Olympus series on laybuy (I picked up over $100 worth of books, hence the laybuy) and I'm really looking forward to catching up both series before moving onto Riordan's new book.
 The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. I finally bought this book! So I can't wait to continue the series.
Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier. I finally bought this one too! Yay!!
Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. I've been seeing people review this series on Booktube lately, so now I'm in the mood to start it. 

Thursday, 1 October 2015

September 2015 Wrap Up


Jen
September turned out to be quite a varied reading month for me. There was a mixture of physical books, ebooks, graphic novels and audiobooks. In terms of genre, I ended up reading fantasy, survival, contemporary, mystery/suspense and science fiction. While there were some disappointing reads (including one I didn’t finish), there were also some fantastic books that may end up being added to my favourites list.


Thirteen by Shannon Peel → 4/5
Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes → 5/5
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder → 3.5/5
The Ellie Chronicles by John Marsden (all on audiobook)
- While I Live → 5/5
- Incurable → 3/5
- While I Live → 3.5/5
If I Stay by Gayle Forman → 4/5
Where She Went by Gayle Forman → 2.5/5
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart → 3/5
The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham (audiobook) → 5/5
Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham (audiobook) → 5/5
Frigid by Jennifer L. Armentrout → 4.75/5
Scorched by Jennifer L. Armentrout → 5/5
Grey by E.L. James → 4/5
One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker → 2/5
Saga graphic novel series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
- Volume 1 → 4.5/5
- Volume 2 → 5/5
- Volume 3 → 4.75/5
- Volume 4 → 4/5
- Volume 5 → 4/5
A Dance with Dragons Part 1: Dreams and Dust by George R.R. Martin → 3/5
The Martian by Andy Weir → 5/5
Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham → did not finish
I tried, but I just couldn’t get into this book. I couldn’t connect with the characters and the plot just wasn’t interesting enough to hold my attention. Rather than force myself to read it, I decided to put the book down so that I could focus on other books instead. 



Mel
It was a really slumpy month for me. I was sick for a few weeks (flu + laryngitis) and I actually was reading so slow, progress was non-existant. So I stuck to watching TV shows and eventually picked up where I left off in the Harry Potter audiobooks. Then I dug up some old favourites...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (audiobook)  5/5
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter  5/5
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter  5/5
The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter  5/5
The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse by Beatrix Potter  5/5