Most Anticipated January 2019 Releases

I can hardly believe it's already 2019 tomorrow! 2018 flew by in a lot of ways and brought so many big changes to my life. But I'm not letting go of my blog yet, especially because it's the best way to blather to the universe about all the books I'm excited for. My friends and family love me, but there's only so much they can take of that, lol. January and February have a LOT of great-sounding titles, so here's hoping most of these anticipated books will be hits!

Waiting For

1. Black Enough by various authors (1/8/19)

This has promise to be one of the best anthologies this year.


2. Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon (1/15/19)
I really like friendship stories.

3. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (1/22/19)

It's the sequel to one of my favorite titles of 2018, so obviously I needed this one, like, yesterday.

4. All Is Fair by Dee Garretson (1/22/19)

Most of 2019's historical fiction titles are the standard WWI/WWII fare, but I still want to read them all.

5. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (1/29/19)

Nikolai was always my favorite part of the Shadow and Bone trilogy.

6. Spin by Lamar Giles (1/29/19)
I've enjoyed Lamar's past books, and I got to meet him at a book fest last fall. He was super cool and engaging, and I'm definitely interested in his latest title.

Already Read - You Should, Too!

1. Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills (1/15/19)

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Emma Mills is an auto-buy author for me at this point. She writes such effortless contemporary stories.


2. The Girl King by Mimi Yu (1/8/19)
A refreshing addition to YA fantasy.

Rewind & Review #125

Created by Shae Has Left the Room.

~Had my last week of work before the holidays. I've been home, relaxing, since last weekend, and I'll head back to the city in a couple days.
~Once I was home, my family and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns.
~I edited my spreadsheet for the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge a little, and removed a bunch of books because it wasn't clear if Rory had read them or not. While this cut how many I'll have to read, I unfortunately had to remove a bunch I'd already read. So now the challenge is down to 146 books, which I've read 26 of; that equals 18%. I've definitely gotta get a move on with this challenge.
~I did my annual bookshelf cull, where I pull the books I don't want anymore and/or probably won't ever reread. I think my stack is a bit smaller this year than in the past, which might be a good thing? Maybe I'm getting better at buying books I truly want.

Books I Received for Review

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan (from Wednesday Books via NetGalley)
Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon (from S&S via NetGalley)

Books I Won/Traded for/was Gifted

Yours Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick
Snow in Love by various authors (from my parents)
Archenemies by Marissa Meyer
The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson (from my aunt and uncle)

Books I Bought

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Tales of Horror by Edgar Allan Poe
Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (big thank you to my employee discount)
Puddin' by Julie Murphy
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Books I Read

To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin (4 stars)
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (reread)
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan (4 stars)
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin (DNF)
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (reread)
Puddin' by Julie Murphy (4 stars)
A Desperate Fortune by Susannah Kearsley (4 stars)
Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers
Snow in Love by various authors (4 stars)

Blog Posts You Might've Missed in the Last Few Weeks

   (from 12/17-12/22)

• Help Emma Tackle Her Backlist TBR
• Top Ten Tuesday: Winter 2019 TBR List
• Emma's Favorite Things Giveaway
• Three Bookish Things Tag

   (from 12/23-12/29)

• Review: Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills (5 stars)
• Merry Christmas to the Book Characters: Here We Go Again
• Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookish Christmas Wishlist
• Looking Back on My Eighteen 2018 Reads
• Random Friday: Favorite Movies of 2018

Random Friday: Favorite Movies of 2018

Want to participate in Random Fridays? Just do the following:

• Include the above image in your post and link back to my blog.
• Blog about this week's topic (or a variant of it).
• Add the link to your Random Friday post at the bottom of this one.

I've actually seen a lot of movies this year! (Enough that not every single movie I saw was a favorite, haha.) This summer had some great releases, and I was right by an AMC so I could do $5 Tuesdays any time I wanted. 

1. Black Panther

Listen, I literally saw it three times, and I hyped it up so much that my MOM wanted to see it, and she doesn't like superhero or sci-fi movies.

2. Mamma Mia 2

Despite some plot holes, this one was a delight. I'm hoping it'll be better in a home theater since there were some attendees at the showing I went to that kind of ruined it for me.

3. Incredibles II

(More like fourteen years, but my point stays the same.)

4. Ocean's 8

Such rollicking fun.

5. Crazy Rich Asians

What a pleasant surprise! I really didn't expect to cry during the wedding scene, lol.

6. To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Such a lovely adaptation. It's always going to drive me crazy that they moved the setting from Virginia to Oregon for no apparent reason, but the actors are all great.

7. The Hate U Give

I saw it three times in theaters, and I cried so hard, y'all.


8. Mary Poppins Returns
Quite delightful, although there were a few moments that didn't feel quite in-character for Mary (book or original movie version).

What were your faves of 2018? If you haven't seen those on my list yet, I highly recommend them!

Inlinkz Link Party

Looking Back on My Eighteen 2018 Reads

Although I just had that post a few weeks ago about the success of my yearly lists, it's now time for the proper wrap-up of my Eighteen (Fifty-Four, really, lol) 2018 Reads.

READ AND LOVED/LIKED

Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (4 stars)

The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman (5 stars)

The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth (4.5 stars)

Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West (4.5 stars)

Nothing Happened by Molly Booth (4 stars)

So, counting the books from the check-in post, I liked/loved eighteen of the books. Which I think is highly ironic.

READ AND WAS NEUTRAL ABOUT

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore (3.5 stars)

Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch (3 stars)

Love a la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm (3 stars)

Not the Girls You're Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi (3 stars)
The Resolutions by Mia Garcia (3.5 stars)

In total, I felt neutral about eight of my picks.

READ AND DISLIKED

Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder (2.5 stars)

Rule by Ellen Goodlett (DNF)

I disliked five total.

REMOVED FROM TBR LIST

The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

I removed twelve of the titles, which is the most so far.

STILL NEED TO READ

Dare You to Lie by Amber Lynn Natusch

PUSHED TO A LATER RELEASE DATE

(so many of them *weeps*)

Semper Augustus by Mackenzi Lee

A Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (1/15/19)

Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers (2/5/19)

Dark of the West by Joanna Hathaway (2/5/19)

Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks (2/12/19)

Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter (3/19/19)

Night Music by Jenn Marie Thorne (3/19/19)

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee (8/13/19)

At least no other titles were pushed back? I knew all of these were moved to 2019 back in June.

Now to start thinking about my Nineteen 2019 Reads. :)

Top Ten Tuesday: My Bookish Christmas Wishlist

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Today I'm going to list the books I hope I find under the tree today.

1. Yours Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

The last Harry Potter I need, and incidentally, my least favorite of the series, haha.

3. Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

4. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

5. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

6. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

7. Cream Buns and Crime by Robin Stevens

A novellas bind-up for the Murder Most Unladylike series that, alas, isn't available in U.S. bookstores.

8. Inspired by Paris by Jordan Phillips

9. Snow in Love by multiple authors

10. One Giant Leap by Heather Kaczynski

What books do you hope to receive this holiday season?

Merry Christmas to the Book Characters: Here We Go Again

Can't stop, won't stop with this series.

To dearest Rachel from Devoted...

I can't stop gifting her books. I know Rachel seems to like other worlds best, so we'll keep up that trend with...

And then a classic I'm not sure she will have read:

To Stevie Bell from Truly Devious,

who loves mysteries so dearly...

To Twinkle Mehra from From Twinkle, With Love...

To Cat from the lovely Caterpillar Summer,

who deserves all the wonderful sibling stories...

To Sophie from the upcoming Famous in a Small Town...

(which is absolutely amazing; y'all should read it. It comes out January 22; preorder it!)

And finally, for each of the Garret girls from The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls...

Des: 

Bea: 

Kat (who loves the drama as much as it loves her): 

Vi (who already reads plenty of YA but hopefully I've picked something she hasn't read yet): 

Ahhhh I love doing this post series so much. Merry Christmas Eve to all who celebrate!