I’m simultaneously pissed and thrilled that I read 113 books this year. Pissed because I didn’t nail my original goal of 150, thrilled because 113 is an impressive stack of books.
According to Goodreads, I read 40,509 pages. I read about 810 words a minute, according to super official free online reading speed tests. There are generally about 275 words per page, so that’s roughly 13,740 minutes of reading time, or 229 hours. AKA 9.5 straight days of reading. Damn.
I love my book blogger life. ❤
It’s that time of year, when everyone is thinking about the fresh start looming ahead of us and what we can do differently to make the next year even better than the last. With that train of thought in mind, here are a few things that are inspiring me for this coming year…
Books for the successful woman… I’ve read Bossypants, the next ones up are How to be a Woman, Why Not Me?, and #girlboss. I also really want to read Leave Your Mark and I’ve heard really good things about I Am That Girl so it’s on the list too… I’ve been feeling lately like I have two (or more) paths ahead of me and I need to figure out which one I want to take. I’m hoping that reading these types of books will help me make my decision without wasting more time. I’m taking the Spring semester off from school and transferring in the summer so a lot of things are up in the air right now, so to speak.
I really really love this take on digital detoxing – I think I’m going to talk to the hubs and see if he’d be on board for once a week or once a month digital detoxes – our phones and/or laptops are constantly glued to our sides when we’re at home and I’m over it.
It’s no secret (or maybe it is?) that I have a shopping problem… I spend way too much money on clothes for myself that I generally don’t really need… it’s my way of making myself feel better when I’ve had a bad day and I’d really love to learn how to not rely on that outlet. I’ve heard a lot about no-spending and no-shopping years in the good ol’ blogosphere, and I think 2016 is going to be my year… I’m going to commit to buying no clothes for an entire year. This terrifies me. I really like this take on the whole process, and while I’m not going to go as hardcore as she did, I am determined to end next year without a huge pile of new clothes I’ve collected throughout the year. My only exceptions to the no-clothes-buying rule are going to be (1) underwear and bras (because the size of certain things gets out of control sometimes), (2) if something I wear regularly gets ruined, (3) workout clothes within reason and (4) I will make exceptions for smaller sizes… I’m on a workout program and getting my thyroid medications figured out, so if I lose weight and cannot fit in the clothes I currently own, I will not force myself to deal with them longer than I have to for confidence reasons. I think that’s it though. Wish me luck!
P.S. Sorry for this ridiculously long post 🙂
P.P.S. I want to read ALL of these books. Damnit.
P.P.P.S. 2015 is officially over and while I didn’t hit my Goodreads reading goal (50 books… I feel like such a failure), I DID read more this year than last year. For 2016, I’m not setting a number for a goal, my goal is just to read more than I did this year. Happy 2016!!
I used to be a real fan of resolutions. Get healthy, be successful, travel more, do fun things…but the problem is, resolutions aren’t measurable, attainable goals. Sometimes they are, but often they’re general. /rant over/
My 2015 Goodreads book challenge was to read 150 books. I was doing pretty well until we bought a house and I lost four weeks of reading time. I hit XXX books (or XXXXX pages), though, which I’m pretty damn proud of.
My 2016 book challenge goal is slightly more attainble — 125 books — but I’m also participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge.
Read a horror book, a collection of essays, a food memoir, a book with a person who identifies as transgender. The list is pretty impressive, and will definitely challenge me to step out of my fantasy comfort zone.
Anyone else participating?
We can’t believe we’ve been blogging for two years. We never thought we’d stick with it for six months, much less four times that. Though we took a hiatus earlier this summer to focus on our lives, this is still a huge part of who we are and what we love to do. Thank you for supporting us! If you have a WordPress blog, we encourage you to check out your own year in review.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?!?! I am probably more excited than I should be, but whatevs. Cannot wait to see it!! & there’s this wonderful list from Buzzfeed to go along with the trailer. As soon as I heard ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ the tears welled up. I wish they would do theater showings of the HP movies so we could get the experience all over again.
Another Harry Potter related tidbit… Hermione Granger was cast for JK’s new play HP & the Cursed Child… and I LOVE the choice. Harry and Ron were cast as well, but I’m not as excited about them… it’s weird seeing HP as someone other than Daniel Radcliffe. What are your thoughts on the casting??
That’s all from me today, I’m off to spend some much needed time with the family & in the kitchen (all of the FOOD!).
See you next week & have a very Merry Christmas!!
6. Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth At A Time by Jeffrey Pfeffer | I’m just kind of obsessed with leadership nonfiction.
7. Start with Why by Simon Sinek | Like, really obsessed.
8. You Need More Sleep: Advice From Cats by Francesco Marciuliano | Meow 🙂
9. AP Style Guide | I desperately need a new edition.
10. You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day | This looks funny and like something I can relate to.
Legend says if you consume the heart of a mermaid, you will know all of a man’s secrets
Ailin doesn’t care if the legend is true or not – she’s stuck in a crate on her way to feature as the main course at a lavish banquet. Her heart to be served while still beating for a cruel noble while the rest of her is sliced into sashimi. Unless she can escape.
Across the ocean, Fenton longs for a different release. Sold as a child by men who labelled him a mistake, a failed experiment. Except he has one valuable skill, he can summon the dreaded kraken. Bought by a pirate, he has only known life at sea, wielded as a tool by the captain.
Two lives collide when the pirates capture the vessel holding Ailin. The kraken holds the key to Ailin’s freedom but in summoning the beast one last time, Fenton must choose between losing his life or his heart… – Goodreads
I really do enjoy Exley’s work (obviously…considering I just put down Ella the Slayer and picked this one up). This one wasn’t a total ‘love’ for me, but it wasn’t bad, either. I’d consider it a vanilla middle-of-the-road-needed-something-easy-to-read-while-life-shakes-me-around-like-a-ragdoll kind of read.
My biggest pet peeve with the entire book were the editing mistakes. It wasn’t just one or two—there were many, and they were noticeable and made the story confusing at times until I sat there and played the Autocorrect game where you try to figure out WTF should have been written. Misspellings, punctuation, grammatical errors, swapped names…things that should have been caught.
The characters were alright. Fenton is the creation of ore-mancers—they experimented on him as a child to make him a useful tool for sailors. And useful he is — he can conjure a kraken on command. He was bought by the pirate captain and commanded on a regular basis to destroy other crews so they could pillage their wares.
Ailin is a mermaid who is captured. See, if you eat a mermaid’s heart, you’ll learn the secrets of all men. That’s a pretty hot commodity.
Fenton meets Ailin and boom, they’re in love. And that’s literally all they can think about. Love, love, romance, kissing, love…oh wait, I can’t be with you, you’re a landwalker. You’re a mermaid. But I luuuuurve you. Oh. I need to set you free.
In short, I would have liked to know their backgrounds more. The only thing you know about Ailin is that she’s single and lives with a group of mermaids. I would have liked to know more about the mermaid’s world. And Fenton’s history, too.
In all, it was a quick, easy read. I rated it a 3/5.
After the bloody French Revolution, Emperor Napoleon’s power is absolute. When Marie-Louise, the eighteen year old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that the Emperor has demanded her hand in marriage, her father presents her with a terrible choice: marry the cruel, capricious Napoleon, leaving the man she loves and her home forever, or say no, and plunge her country into war.
Marie-Louise knows what she must do, and she travels to France, determined to be a good wife despite Napoleon’s reputation. But lavish parties greet her in Paris, and at the extravagant French court, she finds many rivals for her husband’s affection, including Napoleon’s first wife, Joséphine, and his sister Pauline, the only woman as ambitious as the emperor himself. Beloved by some and infamous to many, Pauline is fiercely loyal to her brother. She is also convinced that Napoleon is destined to become the modern Pharaoh of Egypt. Indeed, her greatest hope is to rule alongside him as his queen—a brother-sister marriage just as the ancient Egyptian royals practiced. Determined to see this dream come to pass, Pauline embarks on a campaign to undermine the new empress and convince Napoleon to divorce Marie-Louise.
As Pauline’s insightful Haitian servant, Paul, watches these two women clash, he is torn between his love for Pauline and his sympathy for Marie-Louise. But there are greater concerns than Pauline’s jealousy plaguing the court of France. While Napoleon becomes increasingly desperate for an heir, the empire’s peace looks increasingly unstable. When war once again sweeps the continent and bloodshed threatens Marie-Louise’s family in Austria, the second Empress is forced to make choices that will determine her place in history—and change the course of her life. – Goodreads
Well, this wasn’t my favorite Michelle Moran book, but I still enjoyed it. It took me a while because it was a bit slow in parts and I never became totally attached to a character.
First of all, Napoleon is a total douche. I know, I know, we all knew that. But to read about his character…ergh. He made me so mad. He is power hungry and gives zero shits about anyone’s life but his own. Can you say narcissistic?
His sister, Pauline, was just as bad—though the clap made her actually nuts. Not only does she want to do her brother so they can conquer Egypt together (because she’s obsessed with the ancients), she’s materialistic and narcissistic. She also slept around a lot, but that didn’t bother me nearly as much as the other stuff (she did toy with mens’ emotions and send them to the front lines of battle to die when she was done seeing them. That’s a shitty way to break up with someone). The only nice thing she did was bring Sigi, Marie-Louise’s dog, to France for Marie-Louise.
My favorite POVs were through Marie-Louise and Paul (who is Pauline’s servant…who she renamed…after herself…)
Mary-Louise is an Austrian princess who has to marry Napoleon. She leaves behind the man and family she loves to fulfill her duty. Napoleon (who is no thin mint himself) is constantly commenting on her weight and even shoves her face into some food. Asshole.
We get a pretty good glimpse into how Mary-Louise feels and what’s happening to her, which I appreciated. I did feel that she could have been developed more.
Paul was my favorite. He’s a little bit obnoxious in the lovesick-for-Pauline kind of way, but he is down to earth and smart.
The worldbuilding was alright. I thought that it could have been fleshed out more. I had a hard time picturing Paris, the castle, their attire, etc.
In all, it was a good read, but not my favorite. I rated it a 3/5 on Goodreads.
I AM SO EXCITED!!! The first trailer for the BFG has been released!! Sophie’s glasses look exactly like the ones I wore when I very first read the book like 20 years ago. LOVE.
And of course, here are some more really awesome gift ideas for the book lover in your life!
This year saw the release of some REALLY REALLY good books & I’m so glad that Saint Anything made it on this list. There are also a ton of other amazing books too! Any that surprised you?
I may have to recruit Lauren to make some DIY Harry Potter ornaments with me… so adorable!
I am ridiculously excited for the new books coming out in 2016 and this list has SO MANY that I cannot wait for. WHY WHY WHY is Heartless not coming out until next November though?! 😦
lifebetweenreads.com 