Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 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...

 Like I mentioned when I rolled for options for realistic fiction, I have read this book before, but I didn't review it on here. I'm so glad I picked it up again and reread it. I finished this book in one day, it's quick, engaging, and powerful. Melinda Sordino is an outcast. Her friends have all abandoned her and no one will speak to her. What's worse, Melinda finds herself not caring about anything. Her grades slip, she cuts class, and she almost doesn't care about her complete lack of friends. She also stops speaking, almost entirely. What happened?  This book does deal with sexual violence and rape, however I believe that it's a story that must be told. So many young girls (predominately) will find themselves in a position where they don't consent to what's happening to them (and let's be clear, minors CAN'T consent) but they don't know how to stop it. After it's happened, they also don't know how to talk about it, or how to tell ...

 Continuing the Inheritance Games  series, I was really excited going into this book. I've enjoyed all of the characters and the story, the riddles and puzzles, so I was so eager to continue in this series. The Final Gambit  raises the stakes of the series immensely. Toby has been kidnapped, and Avery must find him before it is too late. Each clue seems like a dead end, and when Toby's daughter shows up at the House, the stakes rise even further. Will they be able to find out who is behind it before it's too late? This book was intense from start to finish. Barnes made the stakes high with the abduction of Toby, and that intensity carries throughout the novel. I loved the added character development in this book, especially in Avery and Jameson. I also liked that as part of that development, we started to move past the love triangle that The Hawthorne Legacy  set up. It was good to see Grayson finally letting someone in, and watching his character fail in The Final G...

 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...