My 2021 Re-Read Challenge!

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One of my reading goals for 2021 is to re-read some of my all-time favourite books, and see if they still rank on my favourites list! To do so, I am going to pick one favourite book to re-read every other month from this list. I have been wanting to do this re-read challenge for so long, and I am very excited to try to do it this year!

The first book I want to read for my re-read challenge is CINDER by Marissa Meyer. The Lunar Chronicles series was one of my favourite book series ever, but I actually never found time to read the conclusion of the series, WINTER. While I plan on reading the first one, I hope to actually complete the series throughout the year and see if it still holds up overtime.

The second book I hope to re-read is DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth. This book was the book that hooked me on reading, so I am really looking forward to re-reading it. I can’t even remember the last time I read a dystopian novel, but I hope this one is just as good as I remember it to be. If I am not mistaken, I have actually re-read this novel a few times, but not in recent memory.

The third book I hope to re-read is THE STARTER WIFE by Nina Laurin. This book was my #1 favourite book of 2019, but unfortunately, I remember next to nothing about it. Hopefully it surprises me and is just as enjoyable as it was during my first read almost two years ago!

The fourth book I hope to re-read this year is THE LAND OF STORIES: THE WISHING SPELL by Chris Colfer. The entire Land of Stories series is one of my all-time favourite series, and certainly my favourite middle grade book series of all-time. I have re-read this particular book countless times, but not within the last four years. I cannot wait to dive back into this world!

The fifth book I hope to re-read this year is BEHIND HER EYES by Sarah Pinborough. Whenever people ask me what my favourite book of all time is, I always say this one. This was my #1 favourite book of 2018, and the best book I had ever read at the time. I am really excited to re-read this one and see if it is solidified as my favourite book of all time!

The final book I hope to re-read this year is THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLLY CHASE by Cynthia Hand. This is my favourite holiday season book, and was in my top 3 books of 2018. Ever since I read this novel, I have read and loved a lot of other Cynthia Hand novels. She has a more mature YA title coming out this summer, and I am hoping to have this one read before I dive into her newest release!

Those are the six books I hope to re-read this year! Have you re-read any of your old favourite books? If so, how do they typically hold up overtime?

Good Night Book Owls!

My Exciting Plans for the 2020-2021 School Year!

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In Ontario, Canada, if it wasn’t for COVID-19, every single public school student would be going back to school tomorrow! Unfortunately, many school boards in Ontario have decided to postpone the start of school for another few weeks, however, I will be going back virtually starting tomorrow at a brand new school!

As many of you know, in June, I graduated from high school and officially earned my high school diploma!

For the 2020-2021 school year, I will be attending a local university in Toronto (not UofT) for an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in the English program! I am beyond excited to officially begin studying English full time, and cannot wait to e-meet all of my fellow book nerds!

To document the process, I will be sharing some posts semi-frequently about my experience as an English major. These posts will mostly share what books I have been reading, what classes I have been taking, and my overall university experience!

I am beyond excited to start my university journey, a dream that I have been thinking about my entire life!

Good Night Book Owls!

Netflix Announces a Nurse “Ratched” Original Series!

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As part of my AP English course that I took last academic year, I was required to read, analyze, and write about One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Keesey. I had never heard of the novel before, and was weary about reading it because I normally do not enjoy books that mostly take place in hospitals. However, to my surprise, I enjoyed the book immensely and absolutely loved Nurse Ratched.

The novel, itself, takes place in a psychiatric hospital ward. Nurse Ratched is the antagonist, who oversees the operations of the ward, and is loathed by practically every patient in the novel. I was immediately drawn to her character, as I typically enjoy reading from the perspective of, or about, a villainous characters. And Nurse Ratched was no exception! For our final project to complete on the novel, we had to create a very lengthy and detailed character analysis, and I chose to complete it on Nurse Ratched herself!

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After watching the Les Miserables: Staged Concert on my TV (do yourself a favour and purchase a copy from your digital media provider – it was extraordinary!), I went on YouTube before finishing up my night by starting a new novel! Coincidentally, Netflix had posted a new original trailer titled “Ratched”, that seemed to be getting a lot of buzz.

It wasn’t until the trailer hit the middle section until I realized what it was about. Netflix was going to be releasing a TV series about one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest! If you haven’t seen the glorious trailer, featuring none other than Sarah Paulson, find it below!

The series will essentially be a prequel to the original novel, sharing the origin story of Nurse Ratched.

According to Netflix, the first season of the series will be coming out on September 18 (were they prepared for COVID-19 or what?!). We also know that Brandon Flynn and Sophie Okonodeo will play major roles in the series.

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I can’t remember the last time I watched a TV series on Netflix, but this one will be watched immediately upon release! I have never done a TV series review on the blog, but that will be changing after I watch “Ratched” in full!

Are you excited for this new Netflix original series? Will you be watching it?

Good Night Book Owls!

July 2020 TBR

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

I hope you are all doing safe and well during these very interesting times (to say the least)! I am trying my best to stay home as much as possible, and whenever I am going out, I always wear a mask. Wearing a mask is NOT a political statement, it just means that you care as much about your own health as the health and safety of others (TLDR: you are a kind person!). I encourage you all to do the same 🙂

Anyways, I have been struggling with blogging frequently for a few reasons, one being that I was very busy finishing up my last and final semester of high school (woohoo!!!), and secondly, I have been having trouble with making authentic and quality posts. I have always been someone who would love to post daily and make new and interesting content on a regular basis, but that always seems to be a bit challenging for me. Whenever I post TBR videos, I always pick out a ton of books that I know other people are interested in, but I never end up reading them because I am a) not super interested in them and/or b) a mood reader. SO, I have compiled a list of books – and stuck them all on the same shelf – that I would like to read sometime this summer. These are all books that I already own and have been wanting to read for quite a while now, and REALLY need to read them over the next two months!

This month, I am going to be strictly reading based on my mood and what I am interested in at the moment! I think that will help prevent a reading slump, and will allow me to continue this great reading kick I have been on! In June, I read 8 books – and I decided to make a BookTube video on them! You can watch it here. I will NOT be using BookTube as my main book platform (even though I have been giving it a few moments of thought), because I have been dedicated to this book blog for so long now, and will forever use the gift of writing to share my love of reading to others. That is, of course, not to discount BookTube videos in any way (gd knows I spend WAY too much time watching them), but I think this blog is a lot better for me, and reaches a lot more people than my videos ever will. I have been writing on this blog for over six and a half years, and still love it as much as I did when I first created it. My June TBR will be the only video on my BookTube channel that will not have a corresponding blog post, so if you are interested in hearing my thoughts on the books I read this past month, please watch the video!

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Currently, I am about half-way through The Guest List by Lucy Foley and am really, really enjoying it so far! Look out for a review of it in the coming weeks!

And that is it for today’s long and rambly post! I cannot believe we are already half way through 2020! What are you planning on reading this month?!

Good Night Book Owls!

 

Three Thrillers I DNF’d

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

Recently, I have realized that recommending great books also means sharing your honest opinion on books you did not enjoy. My favourite genre to read from is Mystery/Thrillers, which is a genre that usually features a lot of polarizing novels. Some people absolutely adore a handful of thrillers, while others can have horrible opinions on that same handful. During my recent reading slump, I tried to trek through some popular mystery/thriller novels, and unfortunately these three really did not work for me. This does not mean that I will never pick them up, but I don’t foresee myself reading them all the way through anytime soon.

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The first thriller I DNF’d recently was The Other Woman by Sandie Jones. I know a lot of people love this thriller, but I could not seem to get really into it. I found it really slow and boring. While I did not bother to even predict the ending, I thought of some elements of it, and if they were true, I had no interest in continuing it.

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The next thriller (horror?) novel I did not finish was The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor. This was one did not hold my attention span nearly as much as The Chalk Man (also by C.J. Tudor), therefore I chose to put it down. I also frequently read a lot at night, and this one was just a tad to scary for me to continue reading nightly!

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The last thriller book I DNF’d recently was You Are Not alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. This is their newest release and third collaborative book. I picked this one up on a whim at Indigo, and was really enjoying it initially. However, by the middle of the novel, the pace had yet to pick up and I found it really slow. I know there first book had excellent reviews and very high praise, but it seems like each book after that one has yet to reach the same ratings.

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Those are the three thrillers I DNF’d recently. Have you read any of these? Let me know your thoughts on them in the comments below!

Good Night Book Owls!

2019 ARCs I Need to Read in 2020!

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As I shared in an earlier post, I unfortunately wasn’t able to finish several of the ARCs I received last year. In my bookish goals for 2020 post, I shared that this year I am determined to stop requesting so many ARCs, especially since I have quite a few from last year that I want to finish. These are all of the ARCs I still need to read and review, and a lot of them you have recommended me to read already!

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The first ARC I need to read this year is CHARLIE THORNE AND THE LAST EQUATION by Stuart Gibbs. This book seems like it will be so fun to read, and I am really looking forward to doing so very soon! Thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC!

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The next ARC I need to read this year is SLAY by Brittney Morris. I have selected this book as our book club pick of the month, and am planning to read it this month! Thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC!

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The third ARC I want to read this year is FRANKLY IN LOVE by David Yoon. I read the first 50-pages of this book in September last year, but had to read something else and didn’t have a chance to pick it up before the end of the year. However, I am eager to finish it and find out why everyone loves this one so much! Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for the ARC!

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I then want to read BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY by Brian Francis. There was so much praise for this book that was shared at HCC Frenzy Presents in the summer of last year, which made me very intrigued. I am really looking forward to reading this one! Thanks to HCC Frenzy for the ARC!

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THE BABYSITTERS COVEN by Kate Williams was one of my most anticipated releases of last year, so I am disappointed that I wasn’t able to squeeze it into my 2019 reading plans. I hope to read this one at some point this year and absolutely love it! Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for the ARC!

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The next ARC I hope to read very soon is A TALE OF MAGIC by Chris Colfer. This too was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, especially since I loved Colfer’s “The Land of Stories” middle grade series. Truth be told, I was never in a mood to read fantasy at any point last year, so I hope that changes this year when I read this book. Thanks to HBG Canada for the ARC!

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Even though I am not a diehard fan of our real-life royal family, I am still looking forward to reading AMERICAN ROYALS by Katharine McGee! I have heard a lot of great things about it, and I hope to read this one very soon! Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for the ARC!

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The last ARC I need to read this year is THE LIARS OF MARIPOSA ISLAND by Jennifer Mathieu. I read MOXIE by Mathieu early last year and loved it, so I hope I love this one just as much! Thanks to Raincoast Books for the ARC!

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Those are the 2019 ARCs I need to read this year! If there are any ARCs you think I should get to first, let me know in the comments!

Good Night Book Owls!

End of Year Book Tag! 2019 Edition

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In Canada, Christmas decorations are already lining Chapters Indigo, Walmart, and Costco, which can only mean one thing… it is almost the end of 2019! With the end of the year comes the time where you evaluate all of the reading you have done so far this year, and see exactly how far you are from your Goodreads goal among other things!

I saw this End of Year Book Tag floating around on BookTube, but I haven’t seen many of these posts on book blogs yet!

  1. Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?
  2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?
  3. Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?
  4. What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?
  5. Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?
  6. Have you already started making reading plans for 2020?

Summer Reading List 2019

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

Over the past few months of the year, I have often looked at my bookshelf and thought “I want to read ____ in the summer!” Today, I have compiled that small and mighty list for you, which is made up of back-list books that I hope to read this summer!

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The first book that I hope to read at some point during this summer is THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER by Emily X.R. Pan. I am determined to read this one within the next few weeks, as it has been sitting on my shelves for a while now and I have heard absolutely phenomenal things about it. I don’t think I have read one negative review for this book!

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The second book I want to read this summer is THE ONE by John Marrs. I semi-recently picked up this one for $15 at Chapters Indigo, but have yet to read it. I actually loaned this one to my aunt a few weeks ago, and she loved it (she told me it was one of the best books she has read in a long time), so I hope it lives up to my expectations!

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I then hope to read THE HATING GAME by Sally Thorne. I am going to try to read this one in August, but we will see if I can get it done earlier than that. My mom has read both this book and 99 PERCENT MINE (which I own but don’t plan on reading anytime soon), and like most of you, she preferred this one a lot more.

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The fourth book I hope to get to at some point during this summer is WAR CROSS by Marie Lu. I picked this one up on Book Outlet (click here for $10 off your first order!), but it hadn’t really peaked my interest until I watched BooksandLala’s most recent challenge video. Late last year, I read and loved the first two books in the OTHERWORLD series, and this one sounds like it has a lot of similarities to it!

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I recently picked up THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY at a local library book sale haul. I was shocked to see a copy in perfect condition at the sale, and I knew I needed to purchase it! I have read some great reviews about this book on Goodreads, and can’t wait to read it!

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The last book I hope to read this summer is ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER by Stephanie Perkins. I have read one of Stephanie’s books before and really enjoyed it, so I hope to enjoy this one as much!

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Those are the top back-list titles I hope to read at some point this summer! Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!

Good Night Book Owls!

 

VOTE READING, READING, READING FOR BEST BOOK BLOG OF 2019!

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

I am finally finished all of my exams and am officially in summer mode! Even though I work at a summer camp, I still usually read a lot of books in the summer and post a lot of reviews! You will be finding out more about my summer blog plans in a few days, but in the mean time I have something to share!

The annual Book Blogger Awards are slowly approaching, and it’s time to nominate your favourite book blogs! If you enjoy reading my blog posts, I encourage you to click this link and vote for my book blog, “Reading, Reading, Reading”, in these categories:

  • Best of Their Age: Best Pre-Teen/Teen Book Blogger (I’m 17!)
  • Best Genre Blogger: Young Adult
  • Miscellaneous: Best Small Book Blogger

There are also a few other categories that my blog fits in, so feel free to change up the nomination categories if you are voting! To read more about the Book Blogger Awards, click here.

As always, I will be nominating my personal favourite book blogs for awards, and hope that you will be nominating a lot of your favourite bloggers, too!

Good Night Book Owls!

Quick update!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. over the past week or so. I got really sick last week and wasn’t able to post anything on here or on Instagram. I had two pre-scheduled posts prepared for the week, however I was only able to post one (you can read it here), because the publisher I was posting the second post for sent me an email in the early hours of the day the post was scheduled to go live, saying that they were no longer working on the project I was going to promote for them (to say I was upset about getting three hours notice is an understatement). That’s basically why I haven’t been posting. There have also been A LOT of technical issues I’ve been trying to work out, which explains why you’ve probably been getting emails from my blog with a title but no content (this should be fixed now).

Since I’ve been sick, I also haven’t been reading. It’s the eleventh day of the month and I still haven’t read one full book yet! Since this week is March break/spring break, I hope to get quite a bit of reading done. Regular content will resume in a few days when I have a review to post!!!

Good night book owls!