2018 Reading Goals

Hello Lovelies!

So, every January I set goals for myself as far as my reading goes.  This year, is no exception.  I will be setting my goal on Goodreads for minimum 80 books throughout this year, I will also be participating in several reading challenges to broaden my reading habits as well as sampling new authors and hopefully finding new things that I like.  I will also be attempting to tackle some of my TBR list backlog.  I will also be attempting to try and review all the books that I've read this year, either an in depth review, or at least making note of something that stood out for me positive or negative. 

I will be updating weekly with books that I intend on tackling for that week or even for the month as a whole, pulled from my Kindle, Libby (the awesome app from Overdrive), from my local library, or from my personal library.  I will be migrating books that I do not finish to the following week, and my goal is to complete all the books set out through that month within the month.  To meet my Goodreads goal of 80 books for the year minimum, I will need to read about 7 books a month, which is something that I know I am capable of doing and should be able to do.

Some of the challenges that I will be doing as far as my reading goes are, Book Riot's Read Harder challenge, A to Z challenge, 2018 Badass Book Challenge, 2018 Newberry Challenge, PopSugar reading challenge, Pages Read Challenge, and the 2018 Review Writing Challenge.  I will include links to as many of the challenges as I can.  I will also be updating my reading log template with the challenges, books and other information, which I will be sharing in a future post.

The initial template is one that was shared last year or the year before through Book Riot, with my own personal additions to it.  That is the best part of the template, because it is customizable to the user's needs and that is something that drew me to it. 

For the Newberry Reading Challenge and the Pages Read Challenge there are different levels, and my level goals are as follows:

-Newberry: Lowry which is the 60-74 point range for reading Newberry and Caldecott Honor and Medal books.
-Pages Read: Douglas Fir level which is 72,000 pages read in the year. 

Those are my goals for those two challenges along with the total of 80 books and hopefully 80 reviews minimum throughout the coming year.  As for the PopSugar challenge, I've not yet decided if I'm going to attempt the advanced level of the challenge yet or not.

Challenge Links

2018 Badass Book Challenge

Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge

2018 Newberry Reading Challenge

PopSugar 2018 Reading Challenge

2018 Book Dragon's Pages Read Challenge

2018 Review Writing Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wishlist Wednesday: Jan 2017 Releases

There are loads of books coming out this month and I'm absolutely looking forward to all of them!  Seriously!  I want them all and I want them now!  Gimme!  

Ahem...I mean, now I'm done channeling my inner Varuka from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Let me share with you the fantastic books that I want to get my hands on this month! 

The final book in the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning.  I am anxious and a bit saddened that this series will be over so soon.  However, I have absolutely loved every single pulse-pounding moment of this series.  I cannot wait to see what conclusion has been crafted for MacKayla Lane and Jerricho Barrons.  This one hits shelves on Jan 17th and I must have it! 

This book is the first book in a new series by Veronica Roth.  This one, I'm a bit critical going into it, however, I am looking forward to it.  It is touted as a book that will appeal to Star Wars and Divergent fans so we will see how this shapes up.  I did enjoy the Divergent series, and I am a Star Wars fan.  I am willing to give it a chance, and eventually, I will be offering my own review on this book.  It just might take some time.  This one will hit shelves on Jan 17th. 

City of Saints & Thieves! This cover is absolutely eye catching and totally makes me a sucker for wanting this book.  Well, to be honest, I'm looking forward to the story that's written on the pages as well!  This thriller is set in Kenya and involves a girl who essentially doesn't exist. She attempts to figure out who killed her mother and it takes time before she ultimately begins to find out what she has been waiting for.  This one will hit the shelves on Jan 24th. 

This is a story about a landmark civil rights case that allow for marriage between races.  Richard and Mildred Loving were the subjects of this civil rights case.  They faced discrimination, hatred, ultimately their love won and interracial marriages were legalized.  This story will hit shelves on Jan 31st. 

What books are you looking forward to this month? 

You remind me of the babe...

Those six words popped up on my Facebook newsfeed, and when someone starts a song from one of my all time favorite movies...I must continue the song! I did, the entire opening verse to Dance Magic Dance by David Bowie from Labyrinth.

I'm glad I did.

Why? Because they were worth a fantastic gift from author Sinead MacDoughlas.  A $10 Amazon gift card...which by the way was mapped out to the last two pennies before the email even hit my inbox.  As if reading my mind, I'd checked one of my daily deal mails that had also popped up in my inbox and one of my favorite books is on sale for $2.99...so guess which book ended up on the list?  Exactly.

So, wanna see the new books added to my Kindle?

1.) Fractured Fairy Tales by Catherine Stovall, Leah D.W. Victoria Kinnard, Sinead MacDoughlas (and many more!)

This book has been on my wishlist since it came out in December last year.  I am really looking forward to getting into this book...I think it just managed to worm its way to the top of my TBR pile, and will be read as soon as I finish Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.











2,) Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

I have read this book before, absolutely LOVE it!  There are not enough words to express how much I absolutely adore this book and the subsequent books in this series (though I've not yet gotten my hands on book three).  This book was the one that I mentioned earlier that was on sale for $2.99 and I had to add it to the list of what I'd purchased with this gift card because otherwise it would have cost the bulk of the gift card to get! Will more than likely get the other two with my Christmas gift card.  We will see.

3.) Whispers from Mirrowen Trilogy by Jeff Wheeler


This book actually caught my attention, and the fact that all three books in this series were on sale (and I had money to spend),  I figured I would give the trio a try.  I will decidedly let you know at least how the first book is, and more than likely, knowing my book OCD I will finish the series anyway.

Bibliophile's Wish List: 1-14-14

Welcome to this week's, and the first edition of Bibliophile's Wish List of 2014!  There are so many, many books coming out this week, it was hard to choose from those that I wanted to showcase this week.  There is one that was mandatory for me to showcase because it will be the second book in a series that I've already read, and will be rereading so I am once again refreshed with the first book.  

Without further adieu, I present to you the books that are gracing my wish list this week. 

Who doesn't love it when people dabble with creation?  Seriously? Nothing bad EVER happens when people start playing with genetics and things like that right?  Jurassic Park, that was all just a big misunderstanding right? Well, in this new novel by Jessica Khoury, the scientists are at it again, dabbling with things that are best left alone. 

On a remote island in the Pacific, Corpus scientists have taken test tube embryos and given them life.  These beings - the Vitros - have knowledge and abilities most humans can only dream of.  But they also have one enormous flaw.

Sophie Crue is determined to get to Skin Island and find her mother, a scientist who left Sophie behind years ago.  She enlists hunky charter pilot Jim Julien to take her there.  But once on the island, Sophie and Jim encounter more than they bargained for, including a charming, brilliant Vitro named Nicholas and an innocent, newly awoken one named Lux.

In a race for their lives, Sophie and Jim are about to discover what happens when science stretches too far beyond its reach. 

This is a new series by Brian Staveley, and it is one that I am looking forward to getting my hands on.  It seems rather interesting and the world that has been crafted is definitely one that is rich in complexities.

The emperor of Annur is dead, slain by enemies unknown.  His daughter and two sons, scattered across the world, do what they must to stay alive and unmask the assassins. But each of them also has a life-path on which their father set them, destinies entangled with both ancient enemies and inscrutable gods.

Kaden, the heir to the Unhewn Throne, has spent eight years sequestered in a remote mountain monastery, learning the enigmatic discipline of monks devoted to the Blank God.  Their rituals hold the key to an ancient power he must master before it's too late.

An ocean away, Valyn endures the brutal training of the Kettral, elite soldiers who fly into battle on gigantic black hawks.  But before he can set out to save Kaden, Valyn must survive one horrific final test.

At the heart of the empire, Minister Adare, elevated to her station by one of the emperor's final acts, is determined to prove herself to her people.  But Adare also believes she knows who murdered her father, and will stop at nothing - and risk everything - to see that justice is meted out.

Historical fiction can be done right, or it can end up like the drivel that Hannity writes with Lincoln showing up in a car...I'm hoping that this story by Jennifer Chiaverini proves its worth, and I will have to find the other book she's written Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and see just how well she knows her history.

Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer.  Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, while aspiring to even greater heights. 

 Beautiful, intelligent, regal, and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society as a future presidential candidate.  Her efforts were successful enough that The Washington Star declared her "the most brilliant woman of her day.  None outshone her."

None, that is, but Mary Todd Lincoln.  Though Mrs. Lincoln and her young rival held much in common - political acumen, love of country, and a resolute determination to help the men they loved achieve greatness - they could never be friends, for the success of one could only come at the expense of the other.  When Kate Chase married William Sprague, the wealthy young governor of Rhode Island, it was widely regarded as the pinnacle of Washington society weddings.  President Lincoln was in attendance.  The First Lady was not.

This one...what can I say, I'm a sucker for an interesting cover and I love the concept of this one.  I really, really do.  I am guilty of more than once judging a book by it's cover and usually I'm right on par with the book and the cover art.  Imagine if there was another serial killer on the loose, but one that lacks the emotion known to Jack the Ripper....

When a rotting torso is discovered in the vault of New Scotland Yard, it doesn't take Dr. Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, long to realize that there is a second killer at work in the city where, only a few days before, Jack the Ripper brutally murdered two women in one night. 

Though just as gruesome,  this is the hand of a colder killer, one who lacks Jack's emotion.

And, as more headless and limbless torsos find their way into the Thames, Dr. Bond becomes obsessed with finding the killer.  As his investigations lead him into an unholy alliance, he starts to wonder: is it a man who has brought mayhem to the streets of London, or a monster?

SQUEE! Yes, I did squee like a fangirl, because I am a fangirl of this series.  I am greatly looking forward to the release of this book.  Second book, I'm hoping will not disappoint, though I already have a feeling I am going to be quite pleased with the playing out of the story.  I am also looking forward to seeing what new vintage photographs will show up in this book.

The second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended.  Having escaped Miss Peregrine's island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world.  Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.  

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

What new books are you looking forward to getting your hands on this week?

Bibliophile's Wish List: 11.10.13

There are quite a few good books that have caught my attention this week! Here they are just for you to lust after or ultimately add to your own bookshelves!

This book caught my attention, not necessarily for the story that is being told - which is definitely a good story and one that I will enjoy reading - but for the title.  Ketchup Clouds is just a nifty little title and I enjoy it! The story, itself is a unique one, about fifteen-year-old Zoe has a secret, and there is no one that she can share her story with.  However, she soon learns of a criminal, Stuart Barnes, who is locked up on death row.  He is no stranger to secrets, lies or murder.  Ultimately, Zoe begins writing letters to Stuart on the back of a geography worksheet.

Tess and Ian have been living in the high city of Esperanza for years, along with Tess's niece, Maddie, and her partner, Nick Sanchez. They thought they could rest, that they had defeated the brujo threat to our plane of existence. But they were wrong.  This book caught my attention by the cover, I love covers that have mysterious men on the cover...or sexy men, or all of the above.  Beyond that, the concept seems interesting, and I am greatly looking forward to reading this book as soon as I can.

This is the second book in the Elemental series by Antony John, and I am greatly looking forward to it.  I will hopefully be reading the first book in this series before this one comes out - otherwise, I will be waiting until I can get my hands on Elemental, the first book in this series, simply because I cannot allow myself to read books out of order...ever. 

The Granger brothers left behind their family's Virginia estate-and the bad memories it holds-years ago. But their dying grandfather's request brings them home:to a failing business, a legacy of secrets and a deathbed promise to make things right.  This is a new series by New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson.  Yes, this is a romance, and yes I do have a soft spot for them at times.  So, I will be adding book one of the Granger Brothers series to my bookshelf.

Okay, I have to admit, the title of this one is what caught me first and foremost.  The F--- It List by Julie Halpern is a book that encourages you to simply live.  Becca and Alex are friends, they have always been friends.  However, Becca does something unforgiveable at Alex's dad's funeral.  Eventually, Alex decides to forgive Becca, however, Becca has cancer and will not be able to complete everything on her bucket list.   This is where Alex comes in, along with a mysterious and guarded boy, will Becca get to cross things off her bucket list, and just maybe Alex will get to cross a few things off hers. 

What's On My Kindle? New Acquisitions

Welcome to the ninth installment of What's On My Kindle?

What exactly is What's On My Kindle?  This is my own little thing that I am going to be getting out every Sunday.  Within this post I'll list a few of the books that are currently on my TBR list on my Kindle.  Some are freebies (or were when I bought them), and others I paid for with gift cards, or had a few spare bucks to spend on a book.
All of them, I fully intend on getting to, at some point (and taking a massive chisel to my to-read list and hopefully hack it down to under 1000, again).

Okay, so like any and all bibliophiles, I may be reading half a dozen books right now, and at any given time - I still BUY more! Well, constantly raid the freebies on Amazon (addicted...like no tomorrow). I will get to them eventually, but the stacks will continue to get bigger and bigger knowing my luck.  

But, I figure this week I will share with you some of my most recent acquisitions that have been added to my ever growing to be read pile.

1. Ripple by E.L. Farris - When high-powered attorney Helen Thompson discovers that her fifteen-year old daughter has been sexually assaulted, she takes drastic measures. Finding herself in trouble, Helen must relinquish control and put her faith in a process she knows to be flawed.

As a team of lawyers, therapists and women from a safe house help Helen and Phoebe find hope and healing, a sociopath lurks, waiting for his moment to strike.

A lyrical, dark fairytale that will resonate with fans of women’s literature and psychological thrillers, Ripple delves into the nature of evil, without seeking to provide final answers to the issue of what makes a human commit evil acts. And while the author takes readers to scary places, she ultimately shines a light on the human condition and celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the face of great tribulation. I was given this book in exchange for an honest review, by the author.

2. Spark by Brooke Cumberland - When your past controls your future, how do you move forward?
Velaney Wills knows about that all too well.
Weak, powerless, and fearing the one person who has hurt her the most…can she overcome the barriers to move forward?
Being saved by a muscled Godsend was never on her agenda, but when firefighter, Eric Reilley comes into her life unexpectedly, everything changes.

Velaney has never felt loved or cared for, and her past prevents her from letting anyone in. Eric manages to break down her walls—despite the repercussions that come for them afterwards.

They have an undeniable spark—something she has never felt before, but will it be enough? Can love overcome all obstacles? Can they save each other to protect their love or will her past shatter everything she never knew she needed…?  This book is for MATURE audiences.

3.  A Mind Abducted by Corinne Leigh Donovan - Josie, responsible beyond her age, is helpful around the house, takes good care of her younger sister, and always follows the rules.

This is not enough to prevent her from being abducted by a madman. Making it her mission to fight back, she gives everything she has to outsmart her abductor.

With the help of an unexpected ally, she learns how to keep herself alive long enough to come up with a plan. But, will the plan work?

Will she die at the hands of her captor? And if she survives, will she make it back to her family?

4. It's Just A Dog by Russ Ryan - Charlie Keefe is not just your typical dog lover –– he's a world famous dog painter, a.k.a. "The Picasso of Pooch Portraits". Unfortunately, Charlie's muse, Pete, his beloved Jack Russell terrier, has just died. And he's totally devastated by the loss of his furry best friend.

So, after months of grieving over his dearly departed soulmate and wondering if he ever made it to the Rainbow Bridge, Charlie reluctantly agrees to foster a new puppy –– a cute Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Brownie from the local shelter. Soon after, Charlie is surprised to find himself falling head over heels with this new puppy girl –– his 'Rebound Dog', as he calls her –– as well as being romantically attracted to Janelle Jordan, the head hound at the dog rescue.

What new books do you have?