Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 I lucked out and got to go to the bookstore twice recently. Here's what I got this time: I got Love and Gelato  for book club. I loved Project Hail Mary  so much I had to buy a copy. I only have a fancy copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , so I bought this one so I don't have to use my fancy one. Then I've seen Assassin's Apprentice  by Robin Hobb be recommended so much, that I decided to pick it up and add it to my TBR.

 I've once again read through my entire rotation. Here are my categories as they stand now: Fantasy:  The Courting of Bristol Keats  by Mary E. Pearson (100%) Sci-Fi:  A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle (62%) Realistic Fiction:  Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman (100%) Young Readers:  Old Yeller  by Fred Gipson (21%) Brandon Sanderson:  The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  (61%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (48%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (4%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (12%) Historical Fiction:  The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah (70%) Audio:  Three Dark Crowns  by Kendare Blake (37%) I need to roll for fantasy and realistic fiction. For realistic fiction, I'm going to be reading Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch for book club. It happened to slot righ...

 One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting books, and I've gotten several lately. Someone in my neighborhood hosts a book exchange for the ladies in the neighborhood. It's one of my favorite parts of the year, and I always buy my books well in advance. This year, I took The Midnight Library  by Matt Haig. I ended up with The Last Bookshop in Prague  by Helen Parusel which is a historical fiction. My coworkers also host a book exchange, and it is legitimately one of the highlights of my year. We do this so we don't have to worry about getting each other gifts, and it is so much fun. We all look forward to it, and again, I buy my books well in advance. This year, I took Everything is Tuberculosis  by John Green and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I got back: Fractal Noise  by Christopher Paolini, and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones I'm super excited to add both of these to my TBR lists. We also had a really big health scare for me around Thank...

 Since I finished both A Monster Calls  and Speak  pretty much back to back, I had those two categories to roll for. I rolled first for young readers: For this one, I took a percentile die and a D10. The roll was 18, which turned out to be Old Yeller  by Fred Gipson. I have actually never read this one - I read Where the Red Fern Grows  instead. So that'll go into my rotation. Next, I rolled for realistic fiction: I rolled a 5 for this one, and that was.... GO TO THE BOOKSTORE!!! 🎊 So we went to the bookstore, and I bought Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman for a book club I'm excited to be joining for this year. So, there we go, two new books added into the rotation!

 I set out this year with the goal to read 15 books. I ended with 19, which was exciting. This year, I read:  Mistborn: Secret History  by Brandon Sanderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Return of the King  by J.R.R. Tolkien ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Hobbit  by J.R.R. Tolkien ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Chodenko ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Hawthorne Legacy  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Woman of No Importance  by Sonia Purnell ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The House of My Mother  by Shari Franke ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Midnight Library  by Matt Haig ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Doomsday Mother  by John Glatt ⭐⭐⭐ Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Project Hail Mary  by Andy Weir ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beyond the Wand  by Tom Felton ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Golden Orchard by Flora Ahn ⭐⭐⭐ Ready Player One  by Ernest Cline ⭐⭐⭐ Tress of the Emerald Sea  by Brandon Sanderson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Final Gambit  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Monster Calls  by Patrick Ness ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Speak ...

 I've almost read through my whole rotation, and I've settled into how I think I'm planning on doing that for the time being. I think I'll read all the way around, then roll for finished genres, and add them to the back. I've just had surgery this past week, and will hopefully have more time to read in the next couple of weeks. Here's where I stand with the rotation: Fantasy:  The Courting of Bristol Keats  by Mary E. Pearson (74%) Sci-Fi: A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle (17%) Realistic Fiction: Speak  by Laurie Halse Anderson (100%) - Gotta roll for this next! Young Readers:  A Monster Calls  by Patrick Ness (100%) - Gotta Roll for this one too Brandon Sanderson:  The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  (12%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (12%) Classic: Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (2%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (0%) Hist...

 I finished reading The Final Gambit  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and now need to choose my next mystery read. That's a 1, so I get to read... The Brothers Hawthorne ! Lucky me, I get to continue reading the series. Look for my post about The Final Gambit next week.

 I've been to the bookstore a couple of times in the last couple of weeks, thanks to my husband. Here's what I got: I bought The Most Boring Book Ever  by Brandon Sanderson for my kids. I added the following books to my TBR and collection: Edgedancer  by Brandon Sanderson Between Shades of Gray  by Ruta Sepetys The Life Impossible  by Matt Haig Glorious Rivals  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Katabasis  by R. F. Kuang At the second bookstore, I bought: How to Stop Time  by Matt Haig My Friend Anne Frank  by Hannah Pick-Goslar I've been really excited about Matt Haig lately, after revisiting The Midnight Library  this summer. In part, it's for my English 12 classes, and the other half...I just really loved Midnight Library . I also always love Brandon Sanderson, and Ruta Sepetys has her good moments. I picked Katabasis  because a couple of my coworkers are obsessed and highly recommended it. And then I had to get Jennifer Lynn Barnes to cont...

 All right, at work on Wednesday, I pulled Les Misérables , A Wrinkle in Time , and Speak  from my shelves. I forgot that my copy of Speak  got horribly water damaged at one point (it happens) and I need to replace it. So that one might not be going back to school. But I've added them to my currently reading shelf, and will be working through them as they come up in rotation.

In case you haven't noticed, I read a rather wild assortment of books. Some of that's because I'm a teacher, and I'm trying to read widely for the sake of my students, and some of that is because I have an insatiable desire to read every book ever published. Just kidding. But really.  One of my coworkers reads in a rotation format, and late last year, I decided to give it a try and see how it goes. For one, I love reading multiple books at once and seeing how many I can keep straight at a time (turns out it's quite a few). For another, it's helped me get out of some slumps ( Fourth Wing , I'm looking at you). By rotating through, I know I have several other books that come in between having to read a book that I'm not as into (but don't want to DNF). This has been a marvelous way to get myself motivated to read, and to get out of my slumps.  So I did a crazy thing and I took all of my books that I haven't read in my house and put them in a giant ...

 I thought it might be fun to look at my reading challenge from last year and look at what I enjoyed the most. I picked my top 5 favorite books from 2022 to highlight one more time. Choosing only five was actually more difficult than I imagined, since I had a lot of favorites. It was also hard to rank them if I'm completely honest, but here is my list! #5 - The Girl Who Drank the Moon  by Kelly Barnhill I loved this book. I loved the whimsical storytelling style and the plot. I loved the characters and how they were developed. I loved how the author carefully crafted the foreshadowing and how she carefully guided you through the mystery of Xan's memories. Overall, this book was so well written. Even though it was a middle grade book, I found myself unable to put it down. #4 - I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys If you've followed my blog, then you probably know that I don't usually care much for Ruta Septys's writing. It's not that I dislike the stories she tells,...

 Baby came on June 22, so I will be taking a leave of absence while I rearrange my life and get time to read again.

 With teaching the way it is in 2021 (aka I've worked 50-60 hour weeks since August), I haven't had much time to read. Hopefully, that will change over fall break, but I'm not holding my breath. I did just finish reading The Great Gatsby and A Monster Calls with my students this term, and I still love them just as much as I ever did. I'm currently reading: The Inheritance Games (I LOVE THIS BOOK! I loved it from page 1) A Torch Against the Night I will be getting ready to read Code Name Verity  and Warriors Don't Cry  with students this coming term. I also need to read Cemetery Boys  for book club. We'll see if I make it to my reading goal on Goodreads this year or not haha. Hopefully, I'll be back soon with reviews of a couple of new books!