Elsa deals with the loss of her grandmother by going on a hunt for letters left behind from her grandmother.

I enjoy the authors writing style immensely, he tends to make all the characters connected in a way to where each character no matter how minor has some kind of tug at your heart.

An account from an unnamed man‘s encounter with the aggresive martians who invade London.

A quick read that kept my attention.

The tale of Sephe‘s family free from slavery dealing with the consequences of her actions to save her children from becoming slaves again.

This book is heartbreaking and devastating to know that the harsh, repugnant treatment of African Americans in the United States happened in real life and people should never have to deal with the trauma of not owning their own life.

A compilation of ten stories by nine authors about some “bad” kids who are in the woods trying to make it back to camp.

Excellent read, but read at your own risk, some heavy subjects in a few stories.

Edward, a newspaper writer, seeks to go on an adventure like no other to impress his girl, Gladys. This adventure takes Edward to an undiscovered part of the world that hosts some creatures never before seen alive before.

Slightly droning, long story that took forever to get to the interesting part.

Book 2 in the Red Rising series, Darrow has made it past the tests from the first book and finds himself in a series of other tests to gain leadership amongst the golds.

For me, this book dragged a little bit in the middle like the author could not figure out what needed to happen but the ending definitely packed a wallop to keep you wanting more.

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94

1) I play a daily puzzle/word game on my phone every morning. I feel like it helps wakes me up and gets me ready to start the day. At night, I put my boy to bed and hold him for a little bit watching him sleep. His little baby snores and sounds takes all the stress of the day away.

2. I try to, but not always.

3. I need noise. @Texreader that tinnitus is the worst sometimes.

Thanks for the tag @Texreader

One day, Ed witnesses a pathetic bank robbery and stops the robber. Since that time, Ed begins to receive an Ace from the card deck with a list of people to give a message to. Each one is different from the next as Ed moves forward with these weird requests.

An enjoyable short novel written by the author of one of my favorite books.

For the first time in several years, we have been able to enjoy free comic book day.

Darrow, born a red, must become a gold to start a revolution of his people.

A way more hard core hunger games. Highly recommend

A romance of true love.

I needed a break from long novels.

A tale of a dog named Buck who moves from California to the cold of the Yukon and his little adventures to becoming wild.

Definitely recommend this book. I love the poetic descriptions of Janie‘s life and world and the love she comes to find.

I can‘t tell if I liked this book or was completely bored by the book. I felt like I was slightly going mad from it. Maybe that was Dostoyevsky‘ point.

Scary! 😳

Danny Torrance has something called the shining. When his dad gets a job at the hotel during the winter, they learn that the hotel has some secrets of its own.

I started off thinking I was not going to like this book *judging a book by its cover*, however, I really enjoyed Emma terrible attempts at matchmaking and her conversations with Mr. Knightly.

After the sinking of the Galaxy, a yacht filled with the rich and famous, Benji and a few others survive on the lifeboat with a man who claims he is god.

I loved this book. It is hilarious, I was expecting this book to be serious like most classics. However, I giggled so much as each person went through their mess.

Yunior narrates the story of Oscar Wao, an overweight Dominican growing up in New Jersey.

The story focuses on how his family has bad luck, fuku, and trying to defeat but I think most of their problems would be solved if they didn‘t believe liars so much.

I really enjoyed this tale immensely even if half the time, I was getting frustrated with their decisions.

After the superflu wipes out most of the population, a battle of good versus evil takes over the country.

Definitely worth the 48 hours of listening. I‘m beginning to consider myself a Stephen King fan.

A tale set during the French Revolution.

The first two thirds of the books was impossible to follow, the last third was quite good. I am not entirely sure what happened and had to read the synopsis on Wikipedia to really understand what happened in the book.

A grueling tale of love found in the midst of the Holocaust.

This was a hard book to listen to, several times I wanted to stop because of the harsh realities that they had to face.

Hunter, a hunter for all things cool, runs into the mystery of what happened to his cool boss. With the help of Jen, an innovator, they follow the trail to something much more.

I always like the weird history that Westerfeld includes in each book, but I really couldn‘t get into this book. I read it once before and didn‘t care for it. This will be the last time I read it.

A quick little novel about Andy Dufresne and the man who can get you things inside of the prison Shawshank.

I‘m really enjoying Stephen King, I‘ve always avoided his novels because he writes horror, and I‘m not a fan of being scared, but his novel/novellas are worth it.

Linus, a reviewer of magical children in orphanages, gets assigned to a special orphanage near the cerulean sea.

What a wonderful story, I just love all of the characters, the story, everything about this book.

Christian, a teenager stuck in Romania during the oppressive regime of Ceausescu.

Ruta Sepetys is definitely my favorite author. Every novel is impossible to put down and chills me to the bones the amount of oppression people have faced.

It finally came in. Ruta Sepetys new book! Time to lose some sleep!

Frey is the secret twin sister of Ravi, a princess to a terrible ruler. The ruler makes a deal with a neighboring kingdom, his daughter for some land. Frey gets to see how life is not being invisible. Set in the Uglies universe.

I like this story more than the old stories of Tally and Shay. There is no best friend rivalry which is prevalent in the old stories.

Billie Jo details her life in the dust. A heartbreaking tale of a child‘s life during the dust bowl.

I forgot how sad this story was, I needed a change of pace from my previous book but this was just as depressing.

A harrowing read about the injustices of the justice system and the battle to release the wrongly accused from prison.

This is a hard book to take, but definitely an important one.

An in-depth guide to the world of Uglies.

It‘s odd reading this 16 years later.

Jacob grows up with a group of friends playing a game of tag called Eureka. After being tagged, that person has 15 minutes to change their outcome.

Many years ago, I happened upon the rough draft of this book and found it to be a page turner. I have thought of this book many times throughout the years and was glad to find it as a book, so of course I bought it. The characters are not always the most favorable but it‘s an interesting read.

The story of Anne, an orphan and girl with a big imagination.

I liked and didn‘t like this book, I liked the story but the main character is really quite annoying in my opinion. She doesn‘t stop taking, overreacts to minor slights, and is very vain. As time went on, these things lessened but I already was annoyed with her by the end of the book.

Malala details her life in Pakistan fighting for the rights of education to all children.

Worth the time to read/listen to.

A young boy finds a book by a little unknown author in the cemetery of lost books. This book leads the boy on a long mystery to the truth.

I found this book to be intriguing, keeping my attention the entire time. It‘s amazing on how much I pushed away classic novels only to enjoy them so much now.

Tally and Shay are now special.

Sadly, I‘m well past liking these books anymore. It was a struggle to finish but I did. I was such an avid westerfeld fan for such a long time, it‘s amazing what time can do.

An in-depth analysis on the Alamo.

Being raised in Texas and taught in Texas schools, we are given a specific narrative of how the Texans bravely fought the Alamo. This book does not dispute the bravery but goes into depth about how some aspects that are prominent in our education may be false.

Tally finds ways to be bubbly with the help of some friends. The second book to the Uglies series.

Ben provides advice on how to be a CEO.

I‘m not entirely sure why I listened to this book, but it was on my list. He doesn‘t really provide advice other than the choose he made for his many times as CEO. This was more of a book to toot his own horn than anything.

Amy and Elder uncover the lies on board of the ship Godspeed flying to another Earth.

This book held my attention trying to figure out the mystery behind the inner workings of the ship. At times, it was easy to guess what happened and others, it was a surprise.

Book 5 of 2022

A memoir of Maya‘s childhood.

I found this book fascinating except the one part that hits a lot deeper now that I have a kid and it would have been deep prior to motherhood. I almost had to stop the book.

Book 4 of 2022

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. Tagged
2. To read more deliberately as opposed to getting numbers in.
3. Grateful that my baby boy has finally cut his two top teeth and is sleeping more through the night.

@Texreader thanks for the tag!

Junior decides to leave the Rez for a better education.

I enjoyed this story of Junior, there were a lot of sad moments but it was so witty and the cartoons rounded off everything nicely. I‘m glad I didn‘t listen to the audiobook on this one.

Eddie details his experiences of the Holocaust and gives advice to everyone on how to be happy.

It‘s interesting the differences between Frankl and Jaku‘s viewpoint of the world after the Holocaust. Frankl is more forgiving while Jaku holds anger in the choices that some people made. As well as Frankl doesn‘t strive for happiness but understanding in suffering while Jaku focuses on being happy.

Book 2 of 2022

Frankl dives deep into the meaning of life.

I had a tough time reading this book because I‘m not really a non-fiction reader, but he had some very good words of wisdom in regards to finding meaning in suffering.

Book 1 of 2022

2021 year in review

Finished reading 176 books

Mostly audiobooks.

My favorites were from Ruta Sepetys and Fredrik Bachman- Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, Fountains of Silence, Anxious People, and A Man called Ove.

My least favorites were Paper Towns, Things Fall Apart, and Pride and Prejudice.

I read a ton off of my shelf and many classics.

My goal for next year is to continue reading as much as I can for myself and my baby boy

A little late in the tally of points for the #wintergames.

This month flew by along with having a sick and teething kid, I finished with 247 points, mostly through watching Christmas movies.

#mistletoemaniacs @Clwojick

I did not expect to enjoy this book, however, I stayed interested in it all the way to the end. Typically, with long tedious books, I never make it past the halfway mark either through audio or reading so I am pleasantly surprised that I was able to finish it.

Elie describes his life in the concentration camps.

Christopher conducts an investigation on who killed his neighbors dog.

I really enjoyed the way the main character explained things from his viewpoint.

#mistletoemaniacs #wintergames