Rewind to 2017: What Got Me Through Life

Usually I just do this post as books that got me through life, but there was also some great music, TV shows, and movies that helped me power through this mixed bag of a year.

Books

  
 
All books I highly recommend.

Music

 


My three favorite singers.

TV Shows

(Which I've been cruising through since my plane rides at Thanksgiving.)


(Always.)


(Season two isn't on Netflix yet, but shhh.)

Movies

Only one, but it's a good one...


(DIANA.)

Were there any specific books, music, TV shows, or movies that helped you get through 2017?

Rewind to 2017: Best Sophomore Authors

Today's post is a new topic to my Rewind series, but 2017 was absolutely the Year of the Sophomore Author, so this is a shout-out to all the amazing people whose second novels were as good as or better than their debuts.


1. Mackenzi Lee (The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue)

Since sci-fi isn't quite my thing, Mackenzi's debut, This Monstrous Thing, wasn't my favorite. But I eagerly anticipated all her future writing, because I always hunger for more historical fiction. TGGTVAV was an epic ride, and I can't wait for the sequel featuring Felicity, which releases this fall.


2. Heidi Heilig (The Ship Beyond Time)

Heidi's duology is epic fun. I love how twisty it is and how neatly she managed to wrap up the story.


3. Becky Albertalli (The Upside of Unrequited)

Becky is one of the Queens of Contemporary, and I loved Molly's voice, passion, and worries. I loved that she was Jewish and fat and that her story was about family as much as it was a romance.


4. Francesca Zappia (Eliza and Her Monsters)
 
So I actually read Francesca's sophomore novel before her debut, but Eliza was everything to me. I appreciated the portrayal of anxiety as well as her creativity and the positive look at fandom (without painting it as too perfect).


5. Lily Anderson (Not Now, Not Ever)

While I think The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You will always hold the number one spot in my heart, Not Now, Not Ever was just as much nerdy fun. 


6. Roshani Chokshi (A Crown of Wishes)

With a cover just as beautiful as The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani once again created an epic fantasy story set in a rich, fascinating world.


7. Emily Henry (A Million Junes)

So haunting and beautiful. Just picture me looking like the heart-eyes emoji right now.


8. Carrie Firestone (The Unlikelies)

I love contemporary novels where the characters genuinely want to change the world and do good, even in the smallest of ways. I also appreciated that Sadie's trauma was not brushed over.


9. Riley Redgate (Noteworthy)

Like Pitch Perfect, only better. Also perfect for fans of As You Like It and Twelfth Night (all of which sounds very catnip-py to me).


Who are your favorite sophomore authors of 2017?

Rewind to 2017: Favorite Blog Posts

This year, I posted less than I have since 2013. But that's ok! Life has been one hectic ball of stress, and I'd rather take small steps back from blogging rather than overwhelm myself too much. But anyways, here are my favorite posts from this year. We'll start with mine, and then I'll share some from other blogs.

January: Eighteen 2018 Reads

February: Emma and Bookstagram

March: So You Like... #46 and How to Be an Amateur Bookstagrammer

April: Top Ten Tuesday - Things That'll Make Me Want to Read a Book

May: Top Ten Tuesday - Reading Wishlist #2 and So You Like... #50

June: The FRIENDS Book Tag

July: Québec Travels, Part One

August: Québec Travels, Part Two and Bookshelf Tag

September: Interview with Kathryn Ormsbee

October: Interview with Francesca Zappia

November: none (it was a slow month)

December: So You Like... #63 and So You Like... #64

OTHERS' POSTS

Ten Libraries You Have to See to Believe

A Beautiful French-Inspired Picnic

How I Got My Agent


What are your favorite blog posts from 2017?

Rewind to 2017: Reading Stats

Wondering how my 2017 reading breaks down? You're about to find out. (And I'm going to repeat a disclaimer from last year: some numbers aren't going to quite add up, and I don't want to take the time to find out why.)

Number of Books I Read

(including DNFs and [multiple] rereads)

323 books

(not including DNFs and rereads)

228 books

Number of Rereads

(including multiple rereads of the same book and rereads of a book I read for the first time in 2017)

84 books

Pages Read

(DNFs and rereads not included)

According to Goodreads... 77,228 pages. That and my overall book total are more than last year! :D

Longest and Shortest Books Read

(rereads not included)

Longest: Anna Karenina, with 894 pages

Shortest: A Room of One's Own, with 114 pages

Number of Books Acquired

(Not including e-galleys; also, I should disclose that I have sold some of the books since and traded/given away some of the ARC. Another disclosure: I didn't buy all these books; if I had, I would be sooooooo broke.)
163 books. Excuse me while I collapse from shock.

Number of Books Reviewed

61 books. Yay! That number went up from 2016, although it's still down a bit from 2015.

Number of Books Read by Diverse Author/with Diverse Characters

(This category is always a guessing game because sometimes it is unclear if a character is diverse, and authors don't always disclose personal details. [Which I'm not shaming them for; that's their choice.])

(Rereads not included; authors may be included more than once)

Authors: 53 

Books: 79

Number of Books Read by Genre

(rereads not included)

Contemporary: 81 books

Fantasy: 37 books

Historical fiction: 23 books

Science fiction: 5 books

Mystery/thriller: 8 books

Middle grade: 20 books

Memoir: 20 books

Classics: 5 books
Christian: 12 books

Other: 29 books

Number of Books Read by Rating

(rereads not included)

5 stars: 9 books (Less than last year, boo.)

4.5 stars: 3 books

4 stars: 82 books

3.5 stars: 21 books

3 stars: 83 books

2.5 stars: 4 books

2 stars: 25 books

1 star: 2 books

DNF: 11 books

Average Rating per Genre

Contemporary: 3.2 stars (Well. At least it went up a tenth of a star?)

Historical fiction: 3.2 stars (Same change as contemporary.)

Fantasy: 3.4 stars (Same amount of change as the last two genres.)

Science fiction: 2.6 stars (That one DNF really killed this average.)

Mystery/thriller: 2.75 stars

Middle grade: 3.2 stars (Stayed the same.)

Memoir: 3.1 stars

Classics: 3.6 stars (First time I'm including this category, so I'll call that rating a victory.)
Christian: 3.2 stars

Other: 3.3 stars (It went up! Yay!)

Number of Books Read by Publisher

(rereads not included)

Bloomsbury: 12 books

Canterbury Classics: 6 books

Disney-Hyperion: 6 books

HarperCollins: 53 books (HC reigns supreme again.)

Little, Brown & Co: 8 books

Macmillan: 25 books

Penguin: 34 books

Random House: 30 books

Scholastic: 4 books

Simon & Schuster: 23 books

Other: 38 books

Average Rating per Publisher

Bloomsbury: 3.7 stars

Canterbury Classics: 3.8 stars

Disney-Hyperion: 2.8 stars (A DNF killed this average.)

HarperCollins: 3.3 stars

Little, Brown & Co: 3.1 stars (Yikes, this one slipped.)

Macmillan: 3.6 stars (Up two-tenths of a star!)

Penguin: 2.9 stars (Ouch.)

Random House: 3 stars (Up seven-tenths of a star!)

Scholastic: 2.7 stars (This one dropped a whole point, wow.)

Simon & Schuster: 3.7 stars (Yay, S&S went up!)

Other: 2.7 stars (I blame all the books I had to read for school that I really didn't like.)

Books Read per Month

(DNFs and rereads included)

January: 29

February: 19

March: 20 (I like to call this, Emma got the flu over spring break and didn't feel up to reading.)

April: 29

May: 32

June: 34

July: 22 (July's usually a great reading month, but this is thanks to all the traveling I did. I didn't have much time to read.)

August: 29

September: 24

October: 25

November: 24

December: 35
For an average of...26 books. Not bad! I'd like to give a shout-out to Christmas break, when I did SO MUCH READING.

Average Rating per Month

(DNFs included, rereads not included)

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it now. 2017 was a rough reading year. Overall, my average rating was, according to Goodreads, 3.4 stars

January: 3.4 stars

February: 2.7 stars

March: 3 stars

April: 2.9 stars

May: 3.6 stars

June: 3.2 stars

July: 3 stars

August: 3.1 stars

September: 3 stars

October: 3.2 stars

November: 3.4 stars

December: 3.3 stars

Any reading stats of your own for 2017 that you want to share? How many books did you read last year? Did you meet your reading goal?

Rewind to 2017: Best Debut Authors

Happy New Year, everyone! I couldn't resist doing another edition of the post series I've done the last few years. I've got a new post this year, combined two of them, and I've got a whole bunch of authors that should be on y'all's radar. So first up...my favorite debut authors of 2017.

1. Akemi Dawn Bowman (Starfish)

 

What an emotional, beautiful book filled with art and life. I loved it and can't wait for Bowman's sophomore novel, out this year!

2. Whitney Gardner (You're Welcome, Universe)

Gardner wrote a book I'm proud to recommend as a read-alike for Switched at Birth. There is so much Deaf culture in YWU, and it's awesome.

3. Katherine Webber (The Heartbeats of Wing Jones)

 

More than just a pretty cover, The Heartbeats of Wing Jones is a story about people, family (there's feisty grandmas, and I like them a lot), and expectations.

4. Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)

Angie is having an epic debut year - and for good reason. The Hate U Give is eye-opening and inspirational.

5. S.K. Ali (Saints and Misfits)

Saints and Misfits is very much underrated; I've heard next to no one talking about it, and although it was a tough read at times (TW for sexual assault), it was really beautiful and such a great #ownvoices read.


6. McKelle George (Speak Easy, Speak Love)

Not only did McKelle George write a great historical fiction retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, but she also sent out some amazing preorder swag.


7. Nic Stone (Dear Martin)

If you liked The Hate U Give, y'all definitely need to read Dear Martin. It was hard to read in the best way.


8. Heather Fawcett (Even the Darkest Stars)

The world needs more strong, creative fantasy books like Even the Darkest Stars.


9. Margaret Rogerson (An Enchantment of Ravens)

Even though I like Sarah J. Maas's books, Rogerson handled the fair folk/fae wayyyyy better. They're dark (sometimes) and creepy and super cool.


Who were your favorite debut authors of 2017?