All Of The 2016 Books I Meant To Read

Hey guys. I know, I know, “Two Top Ten Tuesdays in a row!”. I’m working on a year long streak of them.  You can find out more about Top Ten Tuesday here.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is “Top Ten 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To (But TOTALLY plan to)“. This is basically my kind of topic. Again.

I went through an absolutely ridiculous reading slump last year. I call it, the lost year. Let’s not talk about it anymore, it’s too painful.

How about I get to the books now? As usual, I have more than ten! I decided to pick sixteen in honor of 2016. And you’ve probably seen me mention all of these lovely, amazing, fantastic looking books before.

1. This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills
2. Be Good Be Real Be Crazy by Chelsey Philpot
3. Still Life With Tornado by A.S. King
4. Wrecked by Maria Padian
5. Beast by Brie Spangler
6. Into White by Randi Pink
7. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
8. Whisper To Me by Nick Lake
9. The Memory of Light by Francesco X. Stork
10. Afterward by Jennifer Mathieu
11. Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
12. Jerkbait by Mia Siegert
13. You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour
14. Autofocus by Lauren Gibaldi
15. Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel
16. Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

I have almost every single one of these books, so there’s no reason for me to not have read them. Absolutely NO reason. Minus work, home, slumps and sleep. No reason at all, guys.

Would you like to know which books I own? I’ll just tell you the ones I don’t have in one format or another: Be Good Be Real Be Crazy, Rani Patel In Full Effect, and Into White.

I feel really connected to Still Life With Tornado, Girl In Pieces, Whisper To Me and The Memory of Light even though I haven’t read them. I feel like when I do read them, I’ll love them.

---

Have you read any of these books? How did you like them? What are some books you meant to read last year but didn’t?

Where Have I Been?

It’s no lie that I spent much of last year being, well, absent from my blog. A lot of things just kept coming up, I got a job and I just couldn’t balance both of them. I meant to post a lot of times, but by the time I got around to needing my post to be up (around midnight), I’d be too tired to finish it. I meant to do monthly recaps and a yearly review, but knowing how much time I spend on those, I just couldn’t. It was too daunting to even try. I’ve wanted to post reviews, but with my already being a procrastinator, nothing in my life made it easy to do that.

It’s made me so sad to see my blog almost slowly die and with it, my actual contribution to the blogging community. I’m hoping this year will be better, but I don’t know. I’m still shaken by events that have happened last year along with the results of the election.

I’m going to try to post regularly, one of my goals for the year is to post at least three times a week. So far, I’ve been handling that okay. I hope it continues too.

I guess this is just a post to kind of share why I wasn’t around last year. I want this whole…blogging slump to end. Maybe if I put it in writing, it will actually happen.

Top Eleven Debuts I Cannot Wait For

It feels like it has been forever since I’ve done a Top Ten Tuesday. Top Ten Tuesday is done by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. They post a new list every week for people to participate in.  I couldn’t pass this one up because I love any chance to talk about the books I’m excited for.

~*~Top Ten 2017 Debuts I’m Excited For~*~

~One~

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 

I’m going to be hopefully reading this book this week. I’ve heard nothing but great things about it and it is so, sadly,

timely.

~Two~

It’s Not Like It’s A Secret by Misa Suglura 

I love all the diversity this book has in it, so I’m hoping when it’s published that it is pretty good.

~Three~

Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin 

I love the format this is going to take with two types of narrative going on, including a play which fascinates me so much.

~Four~

(No cover)

Dear Martin by Nic Stone 

This is another timely book dealing with #BlackLivesMatter. I love that the main character, Justyce is going to be writing letters to Martin Luther King. I love when characters write letters so this should be interesting.

~Five~

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon 

I am really interested in this dealing with arranged marriage and it’s going to be done with such care. It’s told in two point of views too, which I love in romance novels.

~Six~

(No cover)

You and Me and The End of The World by Amy McCellan 

I fell in love at…actually, I’ll just share the Goodreads summary.

Debut author Amy McClellan’s You and Me and the End of the World is a YA novel pitched as Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist meets Eleanor and Park . In the book, the fates and hearts of two teen outsiders collide when they meet cute in the dark at a party to end all parties.

So much to love. I loved Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I love seeing love interests meet. I’m hoping this takes place over one night because, yes, that’s my weakness. I’m actually not sure if this book is happening or not, but one can hope.

~Seven~

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera 

I’m super excited to read about this Latinx book as I haven’t read very many books with Latinx. Not to mention it also deals with privilege and it sounds so lovely.

~Eight~

After The Fall by Kate Hart 

After The Fall deals with sexual assault and reputation. I’ve been wanting to read this since I discovered it last year when it was due to come out.

~Nine~ 

The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz

I love that The Gallery of Unfinished Girls has a lot of creativity with painting.

~Ten~ 

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

I love everything about the summary here with Fabiola having to experience the United States essentially on her own. I’m interested in seeing what she thinks and what she deals with.

~Bonus~

Speak of Me As I Am by Sonia Belasco 

Speak of Me As I Am is about grief and two teenagers connecting and a play. I really like plays in books though I rarely read books with them in it. I like how the main characters are going to connect with their common grief.

---

So that is it for my eleven debuts. I could have thrown in a few more, but I wanted to narrow it down. What books are you looking forward to? Have you read any of these?

Bout of Books 18

Hi everyone. I am making my link-up post for the Bout of Books 18 read-a-thon. If you’re not familiar with Bout of Books, this is the description:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I’ve done Bout of Books a couple times and I think my best reading track was done the first time around. I’m going to make my goal at only four books plus finishing the current book I’m reading.

I have two days off of work this week along with Sunday, so I’m hoping that will help quite a bit. 🙂 I read three books in the period of two days last month, granted, I was without the time-sucker known as the internet. Still, that’s good progress!

Now, as for the books I want to read? Well, let’s see.

I want to finish American Girls, I’m about 76/286 pages into it.

I’d also love to read these four:

   

Yep, I’m ready to get my heart repeatedly snatched out and broken with every book.

So, I received Allegedly from @KainesCat on Twitter.

The Hate U Give is an eARC I can’t wait to get into it.

History Is All You Left Me and a List of Cages are two ARCS from BEA.

It’s quite amazing I hadn’t read HIAYLM because that was one of my top-priority books, after Holding Up The Universe, which I still have yet to finish. Oops.

Anyway, wish me luck! Let me know if you’re signing up and what your goals are. I’d love to hear them.