Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag!

Oh yes, it is that time.

If you’ve been a long-time reader of my blog, you know by the time June comes around I will do another “Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag” installment. I never thought it would turn into a trend for me, but honestly, I love doing this every year. I usually don’t have a full on freak out, but still it makes you remember you’re halfway through the year and your TBR (to be read) list is screaming at you…

So, let us get to know each other’s reading favorites and habits in 2023.

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Best Book You’ve Read So Far

This was difficult, despite the fact that I’ve read 24 books, it was still hard to choose the “best” one.

For those of you, who love the Little House on the Prairie books, you should check out one of my absolute favorite books of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, it is called Farmer Boy, and what I found so interesting the most was it is the fictional tale of Laura’s real husband Almazo’s young life.

After that, I didn’t think I would find another book that would bring out those same emotions, and then I found this one.

What I loved most about My Antonia by Willa Cather was, I found this story to be amazing in its own way; instead of seeing a pioneer life from a girl’s point of view, we see our main character discussing his early life in Nebraska with a bohemian family living “next” door. It’s such a great story, and full of ethnics wanting to make it in the new frontier, and the fact that a child is narrowing the story with a native but realistic outlook of the life that’s in front of them.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far

I actually haven’t read a lot of sequels this year.

My favorite was, Melanie Karsak’s Gambit of Swords. It was the end of Ervie’s story, but it was the final book on the characters mentioned in her previous Viking series, “The Road to Valhalla”. Despite all of this, it was a good book. It was full of emotion, and I cried through most of it. These books in general were really amazing, and the characters were everything for me in the past year and a half, so if you enjoy reading about Vikings, I highly suggest checking out these nine books..

New Release You Haven’t Read, But Would Like To

Ooooh, I haven’t been keeping up with new releases (again!) but every time a new month begins and Kindle Unlimited updates their “recently added” section, it’s like my mind statics and I immediately want like three books but doesn’t end up reading any of them. I’m awful about doing this! What is even weirder is that, I don’t try to get out of this habit either…

Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of The Year

Melanie Karsak will be releasing her next Celtic-based series, called The Blackthorn Queen. It is about Princess Cartimandua, who was the first Queen crowned in England. I’ve never heard her before and thought Empress Matilda/Maude was the first… I’ll put the blurb here so you can see whether or not it’s up your alley.

Britain, AD 38, Princess Cartimandua—Carti—of the Brigantes tribe faces an uncertain future when her father’s sudden death ignites turmoil. Suspicion falls on the Crow People of the Votadini tribe, straining the fragile peace between the factions.

But they’re not the only ones bearing a grudge.

A tangled web of political games soon unfolds. When enigmatic Prince Cormag of the Votadini shows the princess unwanted attention, the Brigantes’ alliance with the Carvetti is shaken. Cartimandua’s dream of marrying gallant Prince Venutiux of the Carvetti is put at risk. Soon, Carti finds herself at the center of a whirlwind of divided loyalties.

Yet amidst the misty forests and the blackthorn trees, the Cailleach, the ancient dark goddess of the Brigantes people, whispers that all is not as it seems. With the fate of her tribe at stake, Carti must learn to navigate the treacherous waters of politics, duty, magic, and love.

Biggest Disappointment

Last year, I read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and I loved it. I was in the mood for something slightly creepy around late September or early October, and I had already reread The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and found this as an audiobook on YouTube afterwards and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

However, for the second book by du Maurier was My Cousin Rachel and it was one of the most annoying books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read my fair share of bad books in the past…

I remember it was once an answer on Jeopardy! and it had said something like, what phrase was repeated over 120+ times. This should have been my warning! The kicker was, the story itself was pretty interesting but I could have done without listening to “my cousin Rachel” in almost every paragraph!

Biggest Surprise

A couple of years ago, I started looking into fairy-tales or childhood films I didn’t know they were originally a book, like James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and I’ve really enjoyed them now as an adult. I’ve been trying to listen to them as audiobooks, and it’s been an interesting journey lately.

At the beginning of the year, I listened to Cinderella by Wilhelm Grimm, and I knew this wasn’t the right version of the story as in the credits of Disney’s Cinderella says it was based off of the story written by Charles Perrault instead. However, I had this on my screen, and it was one of the strangest stories – I still consider Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to be the frontrunner of the pack, but this takes the #2 spot…

Anyways, I recently found Perrault’s take, which is originally tilted, The Little Glass Slipper and I thought this was really cute. After having a great experience with that story, I found the audiobook for Sleeping Beauty (in the Woods), and again, it was adorable! I’d like to get both of these stories for my niece someday. By the time this post goes out, I’ve probably made it through Puss In Boots by Charles Perrault (absolutely hated it!).

Besides the fairy-tales, there was another book I was thoroughly surprised about, as I’ve never read the Bible, My mom tried to read some stories to my sister and I when we were younger, but for the most part we could never last past the story of Adam and Eve.

At the end of spring, I found a book called The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I knew it was about a woman mentioned in the Bible, and it was turned into a miniseries on Lifetime a few years ago, but that was it.

I am still unsure why I grabbed it, but I certainly don’t regret it. It was very intriguing to me, as I had watched the film, “The King of Dreams” as a child, so I knew a bit about the abuse of his older brothers Simon and Levi, but that was it. However, for this book, instead of focusing on the sons of Jacob, it is put in his daughter Dinah’s point of view, as she looks back at the women of the tribe. The Red Tent is a place of honoring a woman’s cycles, everytime they have their period, they go into the red tent to pause their lives and take a moment to appreciate their bodies and the sisterhood,

Found this on Pinterest, but it’s @aileen_reads book shelf template.

Favorite New Author (Debut or New For You)

I find it odd that I would answer with two classics for this. I have seriously enjoyed Charles Dickens and Daphne du Maurier, although I’ve only read two books from both authors, I consider them a favorite new author to me. I want to continue checking out their other works in the year. I’d like to read them as audiobooks, because I seem to understand them better that way, but I haven’t found a lot of Daphne’s books on YouTube as I have with Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop and A Tale of Two Cities.

Newest Fictional Crush

I haven’t been reading my romance books, but my love for the character Hofund in “The Road of Valhalla” and “The Shadows of Valhalla” series is still so strong. He was the main reason why I cried the majority of the time while reading Gambit of Swords this past winter!

Book That Made You Cry

The most recent was The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe. I will be publishing my review for that book on Friday, so I’ll try to be brief here.

This is about Miss Madeleine Force, a young debutante in New York’s early 1910s, and it’s about how she meets and marries John Jacob Astor IV. If these names sound familiar, they were featured in James Cameron’s Titanic as they were on the actual ship that fateful night, April 15th, 1912. Despite the fact the book is focused more on the Titanic, you do see a beautiful and deep relationship start to form between these two characters, and since I know what happened to them, I did not expect to bawl my eyes out that much.

Book That Made You Happy

Last year, I read three and a half “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and thoroughly enjoyed them, and even though I haven’t actually ran out of her stories, but I didn’t think I’d find more stories like them written by other authors, that is, until I found My Antonia by Willa Cather. I found Jim and Antonia’s friendship so sweet; they each had a different view of being part of the prairie and what it’s like to be an immigrant going over to basically start over again.

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year

Ooooh!

Honestly, I haven’t found that book I would consider to be “beautiful” both physically and story. If you know me well enough, you know I’m all about the cover of the book. We can say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I do. I’m horrible about it, but in my defense, I haven’t had many duds; for the most part the look of the book has to speak to me as I scroll down the endless rows of books. An interesting cover will stop everything in that moment and drag me towards it.

As for story, My Antonia is fairly close to that spot, but I’m not convinced enough. I have six months left (technically, it’s four but we won’t get into that right now.) to find that ideal book. I have hopes to accomplish it.

What Books Do You Still Need To Read By The End Of The Year?

I am very much a mood reader, I don’t like being forced into a genre, but I would like to kind of branch out of this historical fiction spree I’ve been in for a year now. Don’t get me wrong, I love and appreciate the ones I have found on KU, but I have nights (yup, I went there!) where I want to read my trustee Kennedy Fox and Vanessa Vale books again. I need some hot cowboys in my life and for some odd reason I haven’t found my way out of the trend.

I would like to get back into books I’ve stopped earlier in the year–they were White Oleander by Janet Finch and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I’d really like to finish a couple others as well, but we’ll have to see what I will be in the mood for in the next half of the year.

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I found this really cute bookshelf template on Pinterest a couple of months ago, and I decided to put some of the books I have read after I published my review of, I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy in April. I also try to have an overview template on my Instagram and Facebook at the end of each month. I’ve included the person who created the bookshelf in the caption, so you can do something similar with Aileen’s designs.

If you decide to do this tag on your blog or YouTube channel after checking out my post, leave me your link below in the comments. I’d love to see what you’ve been into so far this year.

Are you into doing book tags? Which one was your favorite? For those who are not into it, why do you dislike about them?

November Playlist

Hello!

Since I’ve been kind of turning these monthly playlists into mini wrap ups, I figured this was the perfect way to talk about October and why exactly I was staying at a nursing home for a bit.

So, let’s rewind back to around August as it was the month where everything went up a notch.

My dad has a lot of health issues, but at the end of summer, we started noticing he was losing the usage of his right arm. He has had many MRIs and X-Rays in the past few years and the majority of his trouble areas are in and around his neck and spine. He has broken several discs in the past, but now as he ages, he’s continued to add more arches and pains. He has been told to have surgery since I was a kid, but he’s always turned them down for risking his ability to take care of me. If you’ve ever met my dad, you know how stubborn he is, so you wouldn’t expect anything less from him, especially for something like this.

Four years ago, when my mom had her surgeries, I made the decision to staying in a nursing home while she was there in the hospital and recovering, and since she is a nurse at a really great residential home, and at the time where my nana was living, the idea was simple but most importantly practical for everyone involved. I would spend my week there, before going to stay at my sister’s on the weekend. I was having my mom’s co-workers and friends basically take care of me like the rest of the people there. I was even allowed to get my hair cut by the hairdresser there! Honestly, I had a lot of fun spending time with my nana and the other ladies, and of course playing bingo too!

Fast forward to now, the idea of dad having surgery and knowing how indeed stubborn he truly is, made my mom and I make that crucial decision of staying at the nursing home for two weeks. We had made this decision pretty quickly, because we knew if we had it planned out well enough, my parents could essentially forget about me, and focus on dad’s surgery and recovery. We figured it out within a month or maybe less than that, because we discussed it quite a bit beforehand, so it’s difficult to narrow down the timeline.

This time was completely different.

There were things that I expected like my tiny calf muscles screaming at me during the first week because I was rolling around in my wheelchair the entire building, and like my dad, I am also stubborn and rarely asked for help, because I actually liked it. It was when I was pushing my folded bed in breakfast table with some stuff I had I would need for that day, down the massive hall that I was actually allowing myself a break and had someone carry it to my destination, which was always the activity room.

What we didn’t intend on happening was the edge of my knees, all the way down to my ankles and toes would become very swollen. I have never experience this before, it actually freaked us out because my feet felt like balloons and looked like they were going to explode at any moment. After that, I was put on a water pill and gradually it helped with the swelling, but I would still have some issues around the ridge of my feet, especially on my left foot, which makes sense considering I was using that foot to push myself around, but yeah that was a fun little surprise.

I was only supposed to stay there for two weeks, but I kept having the date to go home pushed back… twice.

My nana had moved up north with my aunt and uncle a few months later, so I would be alone this time around, and I’ll be honest I was worried about being on my own, but I was in really good hands too, as the longer I was there, the more I was making friends with the other residents too. This was my first time having a roommate since 2002, and she was a lovely lady and we sat together for meals, and we would go to the different activities. The first I participated in were these weaving pumpkins. They gave us a wired outline of a pumpkin and there were two different types of yarn to us, i went with the skinnier and darker orange whle my roommate went for the Cheeto-like yarn as it was bright orange and very puffy!

Besides doing lots of crafts, they played a lot of games too!

The first full day, not only did I weave a pumpkin, but I played Screamo for the first time ever. What is Screamo you say? Well, like my dad said, it’s like Yahtzee and it is, you have two dices and a sheet with the numbers 1-12 including 12 chips or coins, and the group goes around and rolls the dice and whatever it lands on, like a four and five which adds up to a nine, so you can cover those numbers or eight and one, or just the nine, but it is smarter to get rid of the 1 first as it can be tricky to get it as you cover the others. Once you’ve covered the entire board, you scream it out and win. It is easy to follow and would be really great for kids who have trouble with math, and you could switch it up to subtraction and maybe even multiplication if you feel like getting really creative with it.

Three weeks after I came home, I introduced it to my four-year-old nephew, and he literally kicked my butt in three games. However, I will overlook the loses as he thoroughly enjoyed himself and to me that is even better than winning any game with him. Speaking of which, I will be doing a post about fun games to play during the holidays for Blogmas, so keep an eye out for that coming soon.

I was able to spend my birthday there, it wasn’t planned as I was supposed to come home that weekend, but my gal pals really wanted to throw me a party and I thought it was too sweet to tell them no, so after playing Bingo, we had a party and my mom, sister, Nolan and Kimber came out to help celebrate it. I heard the “happy birthday” song three times and by the second time, where everyone in the dining room sang to me, absolutely terrified me, because I don’t like being the center of attention at all. I felt very loved, which was their intention of course, but again, totally out of my element.

The last day I was there was bittersweet as it was nice. I had a lot of people trying to keep me there, but I needed to go home too. While I was there for four weeks, I had missed my dad (he did come to visit me), Rumer, and the cats. My cat Stormy became fairly sick before I left, he’s been really snotty and his allergies really took hold of him, so while I was gone, I kept getting updates from my parents on him, and I enjoyed the pictures my mom would send me, but my ultimate favorite was this one. He felt good enough to climb up to the back deck, which wasn’t something he could do before I left. My mom was so proud of him she opened the patio door and allowed him to enjoy his lunch on the kitchen rug. He now has a bit of a head tilt, but he seems to be doing better. He has been coming up and meowing to us whenever we call him.

November was chaotic in those first two weeks. I had a really heavy time of the month and then on top of that, I either contracted food poisoning or stomach flu. We think it might’ve been the latter since my mom was also affected by it too, although, she wasn’t too bad, I definitely made up for her that’s for sure! Once I was through with both of them, the month started to perk up a bit. We had to have Thanksgiving two days earlier than usual; my mom tends to work on Thanksgiving, so we try to have it on Black Friday, but we had a conflict with other schedules, so we had it on Wednesday.

While I was in the nursing home, I ended up starting and finishing two books I found there. I read Murder on The Orient Express by Agatha Christie and The Duchess by Danielle Steel (the review will go out on Wednesday!) and I still have my third book which is, The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin. It is about Anne Morrow Lindburgh, who was the wife of Charles Lindburgh, but I actually haven’t been doing any reading lately, which is sad, but I read over 50 books this year so I’m not too mad about it honestly. I’m just not going to enjoy updating my stats on Wednesday because that is going to be a real bitch, but I think once I’m done with all of my blog work for the year, I will be able to get back into it again.

I have one more thing to say, since I wasn’t able to get everything done for my final installment of the “Garden Tour” I will be waiting until January to publish it. I am going into Blogmas content on Friday and will not have time to do anything with it for a while, so I just wanted to give you a heads up on it.

And now, I can finally give you the November playlist. If you would like to hear the rest of the playlist, click here

End Of The End by Blastoyz featuring Reality Test, UNSECRET and Krigare
Rise Up by 2WEI x Edda Hayes
Ghosts by Xandria
Hold Me, Help Me by Halocene
Vivien by Crosses
Wake The World by Epica featuring Phil Lanzon and Tommy Karevik
I Like It by Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin
Shut Down by BLACKPINK
Dark Sun by Ros Stephen x Power-Hus
Believer by Lea Michele
What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
House On A Hill by Kamelot featuring Simone Simons

How was your November? What were you listening to?

Book Review: “Shield-Maiden: Gambit of Blood” by Melanie Karsak

Hello!

I am still impressed with myself on what I was able to accomplish in the month of July. I started off in the best of indentations, but then I got sick, and I did not read for like five days in a row. I wasn’t very happy about it since I had successfully read every single day the previous month, so what really surprised me was getting to 30 books on my 2022 goal, and I finished not one, but TWO series!

After I completed “The Road to Valhalla” series, I knew I wanted to give the spinoff series another shot. I’ve sort of read the first five pages of the novella back in December, but I wasn’t into reading about the Vikings at that time, and so to be able to get back into the story of Ervie, was almost like full circle, well it will be once I get through the novella itself, which is next but knowing me, I’m probably already done with it by the time this post goes up. I have done reviews on novellas in the past, but I’ve decided to not do one of “Winternights Gambit”.

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An orphaned descendant of Loki.
A princess without a kingdom.
A shield-maiden plagued by the shadows of Valhalla

Born to rule two jarldoms, Ervie should of had a life of ease. But fate has not been kind. Her parents’ jarldoms destroyed in the wars of a previous generation; Ervie is set adrift in the world. Taking refuge in the lands of the famed King Gizer, Ervie finds a temporary retreat from her aching sense of loss. But when Gizer’s warband is summoned to defend one of his staunchest allies, the journey promises more than just battle for Ervie.

As it turns out, the Norns have been weaving.

Once, Ervie’s parents were considered the most powerful practitioners of Norse magic in all of Scandinavia. That same magic has been sleeping under the shield-maiden’s skin. Soon, this descendant of the trickster god will find herself on a path to reclaim what was lost…and follow her destiny.

Fans of Vikings and The Last Kingdom will relish The Shadows of Valhalla series. This sweeping Viking historical fantasy retells the story of the second legendary heroine named Hervor—called Ervie by those who know her well—the inspiring shield-maiden from the Norse Hervarar Saga.

Readers of The Road to Valhalla series will love this next-generation tale in a beloved Viking world.

taken from Goodreads.

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The one thing I am still kicking myself about, is that I should have waited at least a day after I finished with “Under the Dark Moon” to begin this book. I was not in control of my emotions so any mention of Hervor, Hofund, Svafa, and even Sigrun, made me cry again 12 hours later! I was an absolutely idiot but, in a way, I knew this book would have some of the beloved characters mentioned in that series. I just underestimated my thoughts at the time and after I finished one chapter, I made myself stop and take a break from it all but was right back in within a day or two later.

“Ervie. Princess of Reindeer. Daughter of Blossoms.”

For this story, we follow Princess Hervor or Ervie as she prefers to be called; although I think she may accept her namesake and the legend of the shield-maiden Hervor later on, but we’ll see about that. Anyways, Ervie is very far from home, after the death of her mother Blomma, she left her twin brother Prince Loptr and grandfather King Hofund in Grund behind to escape all of her reminders. You could see her pain a mile away and it hurt you as the reader just as much Ervie in a way.

Four years later, she’s found a place among Kind Gizer and Queen Kára’s brood of boys: Dag, Bjarki, Kettel, Gauti, Thorir, Wigluf, and only daughter Eyfura in Skagen. She fights on the battlefield with the same brutality and stamina as the brothers and claims her prizes humbly. She doesn’t just have a good relationship with Gizer’s kingdom, but with her cousin Prince Angantyr, son of Prince Heidrek of Grund and Princess Helga of Jutland, who was originally called Prince Heidrek at the end of “Under the Dark Moon” The name change fits him well, but he isn’t as loved by his grandfather King Harald, but then again you can’t quite blame him for it. He was mostly cared for by Lady Svafa and this time she got to keep her memories. However, by the time we see these characters, Svafa is very blind and old, but she radiates love and joy to everyone around her.

“What lies deep in the Myrkviðr, a dark place where none of these daring warriors dare to enter?”

The first Act of this story was huge, it’s actually the bulk of the plot itself but I really think there were a lot of filler information as well. I understood the reason why Melanie included so many familiar characters, especially Prince Heidrek, as they are all needed, and they become reasons for Ervie to find herself in Myrkviðr. When she makes her way there, the forest is dense, but she finds it inviting at the same time. When we get to this section, Ervie started to remind me of Yrsa, and her bears and cave on the ledge. By the time we enter this phase, we hit 65% overall and I became fairly worried on how much information would be available for everyone. I still think there were missed opportunities on while King Ormar and Audr were training Ervie and why the King chose not to discuss the invasion of The Huns with Audr and Ervie.

The biggest surprise of the whole thing was the entrance of Prince Hlod as that was a brilliant twist to not only Ervie’s storyline but what could ensue for King Hofund, his heir Loptr, and also Prince Angantyr, as there is even more news about King Harald and his family. Once this was revealed to the reader, you are instantly wondering how it will all play out, and I will say, I understood why so much material was in the beginning, but I still say there were some that did not belong there at all or yet.

Have you read the first book of this spinoff series, “Shield-Maiden: Gambit of Blood” yet? I’d like to know your thoughts about it in the comments section below.

Book Review: “The Raven and The Dove: A Novel of Viking Normandy” by K.M. Butler

Hello!

I am here with my first book review of 2022. I really thought about making you wait until Monday, but I knew I would have to fix everything in my previous post, so I just decided to give it out anyways!

This book was a surprise, even for me, because I am not into reading Viking stories. I’m not even into all of these shows on various channels. I’ve tried reading other books in the past, but I hadn’t found one that really meshed with me, that is until I came across this book at the start of January.

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890 A.D. Shieldmaiden Halla hungers for death in battle and a place in Valhalla until a Frankish sword shatters her expectations of a glorious end. In the space between life and death, she instead confronts the emptiness of a wasted life.

Hiding from the Norsemen among shattered abbeys and abandoned towns in northern Frankia, Christian landowner Taurin fears the day a dragon-headed longship rediscovers them and drags his people away as slaves.

Their worlds collide when Jarl Rollo of Rouen annexes Taurin’s town and appoints Halla as ruler. United in an uneasy political marriage, Halla and Taurin must confront their conflicted feelings and their peoples’ mutual hostility. Tensions strain their fragile marriage. Christians who refuse to obey a woman stoke rebellion. Glory-seeking Norse raiders terrorize Halla’s domain. If they can’t unite, the threats surrounding them will tear apart their new family and swallow both of their peoples in war and ruin.

taken from Goodreads.

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I want to read more historical fiction books for 2022 and I am really glad that I gave this book a chance because it was well written, and it is full of humor too. They each like to make fun of the other, especially when Taurin first meets Halla and her group in the beginning. Despite their large facades they like joke with one another and it is a blast! If you think it doesn’t have any stories of their notorious violence, the author does include the battle aspect of the Norsemen. It is featured throughout the entire book, and it is one of the reasons why Halla takes the opportunity to create a place with both the people of Lilliebonne and Norse farmers together as a larger trading port.

I have always wondered how Vikings died out, what was it that drove them away from their raids, mythology, and general lifestyle, and it was so neat to get a peek into how this could have happened. However, I also thought about how the English natives thought about the Norsemen, I mean, besides grief and horror from the way they have treated them in the past, between collecting the riches and massacring the nearby villages, how willing were they to accept authority from a Norse lord?

“Perhaps we are not so different after all.”

Despite being a fictional based story, this gives you a way to see on everything. The characters were very thought out, based how they saw one another through their gods and rituals. Creatures like Father Norbert are always tricky to me, because he actually has a lot of power among the aldermen and the rest of his congregation. Priests were the only ones allowed to read the bible, so villagers believed anything they said because they didn’t have any other way to guide them through daily life. However, the Norse made their mythology available for everyone. They told celebrated their gods with poems and songs. It didn’t matter on their age or sex; everyone knew the same stories. It was also because of this openness, that they allowed women become part of their armies as shieldmaidens.

Halla and Taurin are opposites on all sides, but they were curious about the other and I found this very comforting. You wouldn’t think these characters would feel anything for each other, but it was interesting to see their perspectives change about the new neighbors. Although Taurin doesn’t fully understand Halla’s world, and he was very vocal about that in certain sections–and it got very boring as we went on, but I think the turning point for them was after the blot. Halla gave a harvest ritual and Taurin’s feelings about the whole thing pretty much ruled the last half of the book, but it was interesting to see Father Norbert’s thoughts about the Norse kind of switch in a way.

I don’t know whether the author will make this into a series, a part of me hopes for the possibility, because I would like to see how these characters move on, but I also thought the way it ended was basically perfect, so we’ll have to see what happens later on in the year.

Have you read “The Raven and The Dove” by K.M. Butler yet? If you know any other Viking books like this one, please send me some suggestions in the comments section.

The Goodreads Challenge | Hopes for 2022

Hello!

This year I am doing something completely different on my Goodreads Challenge. If you don’t know what this is, Goodreads is an app that allows you to find books. You can make up lists or shelves as they call them to categorize all of the books, like fiction and nonfiction. At the start of a new year, they give you a spot to choose a number of books you want to read in the 12 months. I’ve tried to make one in the last five years I’ve had it. Since 2019, I’ve been trying to up the number of the previous year, and even though I did get to 40 books in December, I decided to go for it in 2022.

I like the Goodreads Challenge a lot. I’m not one to make any big goals for the year anyways, so being able to set a somewhat large number of books for one year can be thrilling as a whole. I am always so pumped to start on a new one, but this time I decided to change it up a bit. I had the though back in September of splitting it up to focus on books that have been turned into movies. I love movies, and last year I learned how much I missed making time for them so I thought I could connect the two and hope I could make room for both loves. At the moment, I’ve only done one but I have been very distracted lately so I hope I can up my game a bit as the year goes on.

There is one drawback about this. I am not sharing my thoughts about these books and their film adaptions on my blog. I actually have a separate idea for that, but don’t worry I have two books that I am getting ready to publish–one might be coming out this Friday! I couldn’t just stop creating my book reviews though. I like being able to talk about thoughts on certain books and it just seemed silly to quit on all fronts, so I will continue doing those posts every month.

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Now you’re probably wondering I am doing with the books on my other list. I do have something really cool to share with you today.

Around the same time, I came up with first idea, I was watching a lot of videos on YouTube about these reading journals. I was puzzled by them at first, but then I started watching like 10 a week and I knew I was hooked on the idea of creating a different space away from my blog to talk about my books. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I am always looking for something to be more creative and I thought this would be pretty cool to try out.

I ended up talking about it a lot with my mom and she agreed that it would be a good idea to try something new. Once I found out about monthly trackers, I was pretty much sealed on the deal and basically asked for a brand-new journal, calligraphy markers and pens, and more books that were being turned into movies this year on my Christmas list. I did receive the dotted notebook I asked for and it’s been a learning curve for me so far! I have the markers and pens as well, but I haven’t really used them that much. And out of all the books on my Christmas list, I got one book and it was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.

In the videos I’ve seen of these reading journals, everyone comes up with a different theme and I decided on Harry Potter, and I hoped to capture a bit of the Wizarding World and place it throughout the different spreads, but I’ve had a rough time just making simple banners, so it is a bit plain in some areas, but I am getting better at it. I also have the standard bookshelves but I totally forgot to include the House colors for the various types of reading, because I want to explore them as well, so, gray is for Kindle while pink is for Audiobook and Print is in the color turquoise. I don’t include the titles on the spines because I write too large to do that and I just want to see which way wins.

One thing I have learned in the past two years is that I am obsessed with words. Every time I found one that seemed unique, or it was used in another way than we normally say it, I wanted to collect it for later, so when I got my journal, I decided I would make a section just for my words and it’s been a fun thing to keep track of, and even my parents have enjoyed them too!

Here were the words I was obsessed with in January, and I have to apologize if any of the words are misspelled as well.

Words included are: synapes. candytuff, cur, filgree, ells, hewed, crux, tedium, signews, skein, bishopric, morose, trounced, brocade, whetstones, alight, coffer, chignon, commencement, gythia, truncated, primsigned, saccade, demesne, vehemence, daub, architaves, granary, manses, crux, hinterland, and picaresque

The last spread I made in my green journal was my end-of-the-month-stats. I want to keep track of everything like how many books, days, pages, and words I would make it to every month. I have these long rectangles going vertically on two pages (I actually have three because I made the boxes too big to include November and December!) and I assign different colors for each one and it’s easily my second favorite thing in the journal.

After hearing me complain about it in the beginning, my mom found a little book called “My Reading Life” by Anne Bogel on one of the people she follows on Instagram and we looked at it because despite my best efforts, I knew I needed some help, so I got it around the second week of January, and the main thing I use in it is the monthly tracker. I really love those pages, because it is so easy, but you have to be really careful because you only get little diamond shapes in each block, and you can feel lost once you get into the thick of a month.

I only have one book written in there already, and it was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I like to start a new year with disability themes. I just like to get them out of the way honestly! I found this book featured on Kindle Unlimited and it was a great read but I’m so thankful I’ve only watched the film once since it came out in like 2016. There were some changes made throughout, I really like Julienne Moore and Kristen Stewart for both Alice and her daughter Lydia. My second book will be 12 Years A Slave for Black History Month and I have always wanted to watch the film and luckily HBOMAX played it all month long, so I have that to look forward once I’m finished. And yes, I have decided on my March read but I’m keeping it a secret for now.

I am reading rather slowly, and I don’t know why I’m doing this because I’ve always read multiple books with opposite genres at once, but I think it has something to do with the fact I hadn’t published this post out for January and I wasn’t able to relax in between the two areas, so let’s hope I zip right through the incoming books and their respectful movies too!

How many books do you hope to read in 2022? Do you have an app to help you keep track of your books like Goodreads or are you one to use a reading (bullet) journal instead?