March recap

MUG FROM SOCIETY6

So, March has felt like quite a long month to be honest! I got a ton of books in the first weeks and I read a ton in the beginning of the month too! I feel both accomplished and disappointed, weirdly enough. But March was a good month for me and I hope it was a good month for you too.

blogging goals
Well, I haven't really blogged that much this month and I'm quite sad about that! I've been neglecting my memes and to be honest, I just haven't been in the mood to blog at all. 

I'm still using my review spreadsheet which I found in January and I'm still loving it! I just added a new feature to it so I can keep track of my read short stories, novellas and graphic novels. I don't count those as books but I still want to keep track of them. 

Even though I've updated libib with all my new books this month I haven't fully updated it. I still need to update my status, tags etc, for each new book. 

I haven't used my blog planner this month, well, I've looked at it but I haven't actually used it. I've therefore tried to transfer it into my bullet journal for April because I hope it's a better format! Hopefully it works! 


reading goals
I'm actually quite proud of myself when it comes to my reading goals this month! At the moment of typing this I've read 9 books which adds up to 3366 pages! I hope to finish A Clockwork Orange before the month is over but I don't think it's realistic since I'm in a reading slump at the moment. The  9 books I read this month is;

1. The Shamer's Daughter + The Shamer's Signet (The Shamer Chronicles, #1-2) by Lene Kaaberbøl ★★★★
2. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt ★★★.5
3. The Serpent Gift + The Shamer's War (The Shamer Chronicles, #3-4) by Lene Kaaberbøl ★★★★.5
4. Silverhorse (Katriona, #1) by Lene Kaaberbøl ★★★★
5. The Ermine (Katriona, #2) by Lene Kaaberbøl ★★★★
6. Midnight (Katriona, #3) by Lene Kaaberbøl ★★★★
7. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen ★★★★
8. The Wondrous and the Wicked (The Dispossessed, #3) by Page Morgan ★★★★
9. January (Calendar Girl, #1) by Audrey Carlan ★★★★.5

This actually means that I finished a total of 3 series this month! And I read two complete series, out of those 3, this month! My total of finished series is now up to 9 and my goal was 7-10 so that's quite good - if I may say so myself. 

1. The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbøl
2. Katriona by Lene Kaaberbøl
3. The Dispossessed by Page Morgan

I didn't read (much) less YA this month since 6 out of those 9 books are YA - but I enjoyed all of them! 5 of those is also written by a Danish author, whom I absolutely love, so I enjoyed them nonetheless! And that was actually my reason for reading less YA - I didn't enjoy the majority of the ones I read last year. 

I reread the first book in The Shamer Chronicles, The Shamer's Daughter, this month and I really enjoyed it! The series got better and better for each book! 

8 out the 9 books I read were from my shelves (one from my digital shelf!) and I think that's the best I've done so far this year! I've read a total of 15 books from my shelves towards my goal of 50! So I need to get a move on - but April won't help with any of my goals... You'll find out why soon enough. 

I read a single classic, so now I've read 5 classics this year! I didn't finish a single audiobook and I've totally forgotten about my two yearlong reads; The Happiness Project and 365 stories. 

I almost forgot! I read a single graphic novel this month which is; Nimona by Noelle Stevenson! I gave it 5 out of 5 stars and I'm just waiting for my paycheck so I can buy myself a copy! It's definitely one of my favorite reads of the year so far! 

New on the shelf

Somehow I managed to acquire 24 new books this month - but I got rid of 15 books I'm not going to read. I also got rid of 3 books I know I'm not going to reread so at least I had space for all my new books! 

BIRTHDAY BOOK HAUL

MY FIRST OWLCRATE

Reflecting on 2015

2015 was a year full of new books! It was a year where I evolved, where I became aware just how much I can handle and I realized that I'm not sure who and what I want to be yet. It was also a year filled with milestones;

In 2015 I turned 18
In 2015 me and my boyfriend celebrated our 3 year anniversary
In 2015 I graduated or I became what we call 'student' here in Denmark
In 2015 I received my first proof copy
In 2015 I received my first actual ARC
In 2015 I reached 100+ followers on G+
In 2015 I reached 1000 followers on Instagram
In 2015 I started receiving physical books for review from Danish publishers and a Danish site
In 2015 I created a new blog in Danish called Frk. Litteratur (Miss Literature)

So, that's a quick summary of my year. The majority was reached in the last 4-6 months! I'm quite proud of everything I achieved this year.

Let's talk literature;

In 2015 I read a total of 130 books! I'm quite astonished with that number since my goal was 75. Aside from that I read 32 childrens books, short stories and novellas in total, I also read 3 graphic novels. Yes, I like to keep it separate since I don't think graphic novels count as books!
According to goodreads I read 43. 487 in 2015 - I have no idea whether that's true or not but it's probably around that number.
The best books I read in 2015 was;

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) by Sarah J. Maas
• The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
• Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
• I nærheden (Nearby) by Peter Hugge
• All of the Above by James Dawson
• You (You, #1) by Caroline Kepnes
• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
• If You Find This Letter by Hannah Brencher 

 I quite like that it's a mix of YA, adult and nonfiction!

When it comes to the amount of books read July was definitely an amazing month! Somehow I managed to read 20 books! I believe cramathon made that happen! I read the least amount of books in September where I managed to read 4.

The longest book I read was A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin with a whopping 780 pages - close second was Dublin or The Princes of Ireland - which is the original title - with 768 pages!
The shortest book I read was The Pearl by John Steinbeck though and I was not a fan!

The book which surprised me the most was The Selection (The Selection, #1) by Kiera Cass. I picked it up on a whim expecting a mediocre but fast read and what I got was definitely a fast read but I loved it. I'm waiting for the last book to be released to I can marathon The Heir and The Crown since they are about the daughter!
I've also had some disappointing reads, as I'm sure everybody have. I have two that really disappointed me; 99 Days by Katie Cotugno and Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer.

Since I don't have any goals, except for reading 75 books, I really have nothing else to say about 2015. Here's to a great 2016!

December wrap up

December has been quite hectic even though I didn't have any things to do. Quite weird actually. I started singing in our local church choir again last month so I've been quite busy with church stuff, I also had my second bookclub meeting where we discussed Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk.
I kind of neglected blogging in December, I also neglected reading to a certain point. I feel a bit bad for 'leaving' you but hopefully I can do better now!

In the course of December I managed to read 7 books, not bad but I've read more in a month;

1. To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1) by Jenny Han ★★★★★
2. Dublin or Princes of Ireland (The Dublin Saga, #1) by Edward Rutherford ★★★
3. Sanddrømmeren (Sanddrømmeren, #1) by Sidsel Katrine Slej ★★★★★
4. Runemagikeren (Sanddrømmeren, #2) by Sidsel Katrine Slej ★★★★★
5. The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann ★★★
6. My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga ★★★★
7. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt ★★★★★

I hadn't expected to love To All the Boys I've Loved Before as much as I did! I panicked afterwards because I didn't have the sequel on hand.. Now that I have it I'm scared to read it because I know it's the end. It's a mean thing to do Jenny Han! 

I finally finished Dublin, which is normally called Princes in Ireland. I enjoyed it but definitely not as much as I thought I would! Also, it's quite a big book - 760 odd pages! 

So, I read 2 Danish books, or rather, books that are actually written by a Danish author. I have no idea how to translate the titles but it's about Northern mythology and it's YA. Again, I didn't expect to love them that much, I expected to really enjoy them! I'm definitely anticipating the next (maybe last?) book in the series because of the ending - quite a cliffhanger. 

I received all 6 of the Penguin Christmas Classics from an online book store but the only one I managed to read in December was The Nutcracker and I was quite disappointed. I'm going to give it a couple more chances though. 

The Danish translation of My Heart and Other Black Holes was released a couple of months ago and the publisher kindly sent me a copy for review. I definitely enjoyed it but it doesn't exactly stand out from all the other books with similar topics, if you catch my drift. 

Lastly we have Tell the Wolves I'm Home which I finished on New Year's. To be completely honest with you guys; I loved it. It's so different from all the other young adult books and I just really enjoyed it. 

I can't remember whether I told you guys about my Christmas calendar I made myself with shorter pieces of literature. I had made a list with titles and dates.. Sad thing is that I totally failed. I managed to read a few though; 

1. The Chimes by Charles Dickens ★★★★
2. Miss Muffet's Christmas Party by Samuel McChord Crothers ★★★★★
3. The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen ★★★★
4. A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott ★★★★
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss ★★★★★ (childrens book, reread)
6. The Polar Express by Chris van Alssburg ★★★ (childrens book)

That was the last month of 2015! It was definitely a great year! Happy New Year guys and may your new year be filled with books! 

Sunday Post : Nothing much, to be honest

Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. To be brutally honest: this week was not eventful at all - nothing happened. I stayed at home watching TV and wrote the occasional blog post - I didn't even read. So, we'll skip the 'books read' part this time! But let's look at the rest.

Posts and other happenings this week

• My first post this week was a review of More Than This (More Than #1) by Jay McLean
• I then of course had my Top Ten Tuesday; Top ten books that would be on my syllabus if I taught fairytale retellings 101
• Wednesday was a tag, to be specific; the 'I mustache you some questions' tag
• A quite rewarding post came on Thursday in the form of a blog award: Blog Award : Sisterhood of the World
• Friday was of course another meme; book beginning: All of the Above by James Dawson - a book I read and loved this month. 
• Saturday brought another review: Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas 
• I signed up as a tour host at a bunch of different blog tour companies
• I organized a bunch of things like; checklists for certain posts and my blog planner
• I've been thinking about writing a lot. After reading All of the Above I feel quite inspired. 

Upcoming posts and events

• Tomorrow I have my august - or ARC August wrap up
• Tuesday is Top Ten Tuesday as always - this time the characters I didn't click with
• Wednesday brings my reading que for September (TBR) and a cover reveal! 
• Since Monsters by Emerald Fennell comes out on Thursday I have a review scheduled! 
• On Friday I'll share a beginning from an October release by Ginger Scott! 
• Saturday will bring an excerpt from Gut Feeling by Victoria Browne 
• and Sunday will of course be another Sunday Post - with a bunch of news hopefully
• Well, I start uni on Tuesday! Wish me luck! 

Around the web

• Ria wrote this great post about the reasons she loves blogging - I might have to steal her idea.. I'll give her credit of course! 
• Lisa @ Read.Breathe.Relax  Best Young Adult Book Reviews      have this post about how you judge whether a book is good, I've definitely saved it! 
• Because of Greg from Book Haven I found this great game thingy called 'Press start to play'. Apparently it's a way to promote this new book coming out. 

How was your week?

Sunday Post : ARC August, freetime and relaxing!

I really like making these Sunday Posts! In fact I just love making wrap ups! I love having these posts  where I can look back at what I made in that year/month/week - it's so nice and sometimes you stumble across something you'd forgotten about!
Since I still have a week before I go back to school I've just been relaxing, watching TV and written a bunch of posts! But let's go a bit more into detail:


ARC August update
I haven't read that much this week, so this will be quite a short update:

Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Choldenko ⎜Gut Feeling by Victoria Browne ⎜Third Time Lucky - The Honey Trap (Third Time Lucky #1) by Victoria Browne

All of the Above by James Dawson

I also began reading All of the Above by James Dawson and it's really good! On Friday I shared the beginnings of both Gut Feeling and Third Time Lucky - The Honey Trap, you can find the post here.

UPDATE: I finished All of the Above late last night and I loved it!


Posts you've might have missed and other things that've happened this week

• On Monday I posted a review and giveaway of The Violet Hour (The Violet Hour #1) by Andrea L. Wells. I absolutely loved the book and Andrea is just the sweetest person! 
• As usual I participated in Top Ten Tuesday on Tuesday. This time it was all about our top ten auto-buy authors and this was a hard list to make for me!
• Then I had a guest post! The author of Molly Lee - Andrew Joyce - stopped by to talk about Molly Lee and give away two copies of his book
• Then I had another review! Black Cairn Point by Claire McFall - I really enjoyed it! 
• On Friday I had my book beginning and Victoria Browne, the author of Gut Feeling and Third Time Lucky - The Honey Trap, let me share the beginning of both of her books! 
• The last post this week was a post about series - all the series I won't finish! 
• I updated my review archive! I had to delete the old ones since I couldn't edit the colors (it kept on being yellow) and I also updated all my reviews to the new design. I have quite a lot of posts so I still have a lot to update but at least all my reviews are updated now! 
• Nicolette @ A Read-aholic nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award! 

What to look forward to in the coming week

• Tomorrow I have another review for you! I read More Than This last week and absolutely loved it so I wanted to share my thoughts with you as soon as possible and tomorrow it is! 
• The Top Ten Tuesday this week is going to be the top ten books which would be on our syllabus if we taught x 101 - and I've chosen fairy tale retellings! So there's going to be 10 of my favorite fairytale retellings this week
• I have a tag coming on Wednesday. Theepika @ It's Theepika tagged me to do the 'I Mustache You Some Questions' tag 
• On Thursday I'll talk a bit about reading nonfiction - how to do it right! 
• Lastly I'll have another review, this time of one of my most anticipated reads of 2015: Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas.
• Next week is my last week off before I start University and even though I like having a bunch of freetime I also can't wait to start school again! 

Around the web

• I found this great article on bookbub which made my day: 12 things adult who read teen books are sick of hearing. I definitely laughed and nodded while reading this! 
• I recently found this great post from Fiona @ The Girl Between the Pages: Things that draw me to a book
• Reads and Recipes made this great post about funny dedications and I wish I'd had that idea! 

Remember to leave your Sunday Posts in the comments! 

Top 14 of 2014

Last year I made a top 13 of 2013 and I had a hard time finding 13 since I didn't have that many over the top favorites of 2013. This year I had the opposite problem.. I have about 30 books I've rated 5 stars during the year, so narrowing that down to 14 was tough - but I made it. The books are not in alphabetical or ranked after favorite-least favorite but in order of how I read them so: January through December.

The first five-star read I read in 2014 was The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson. I loved every aspect of this book and I think the only thing that's made me hesitant to start the other books in the series is the size.. They're massive. I miss the world though so I might have to start the sequel(s) sooner or later.



The second five-star read of the year was Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I wrote quite a long review of Wonder because I loved it so much and I even went out and bought the book because I wanted to be able to re-read it whenever I want. Even though that hasn't happened, yet, I still love the book and recommend it to everyone.





I also read and adored the entire Across the Universe series by Beth Revis. It is my first actual science fiction series and I've been craving a series like it ever since. I believe I devoured this entire series in the course of a few weeks because I couldn't wait to find out what happened and I wanted to get lost in space!




I picked The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight up on a whim and I received it by chance, but nevertheless I absolutely loved it and I did definitely not want it to end! I've always loved the title because it's so long and different. The story is sweet and the characters are quite relatable - in short: it's a wonderful book






I was quite hesitant to start Pivot Point but I loved it! It was incredible and so entirely different. I loved the main character, the plot and the setting. It was wonderfully action-packed without losing the main focus. I love the aspect of the story - powers of the mind. I also adored and devoured the sequel Split Second.





The Edge of Never was one of my very first new adult books and it did definitely not let me down. It was different, due to the sex scenes, but I still liked it. Even though it was, and still is, out of my comfort zone I read this book in a few days and I did not want to put it down.





I tried to space out my Rainbow Rowell books but I just had to start Eleanor & Park since I know it's a favorite among a lot of Rowell fans. It's not my absolute favorite one of her books but it still got a 5 star rating. I loved that this was about teenagers with problems - whether it be personal or life in general. It is not like other YA books and it's quite enjoyable.. I have a love-hate relationship with the ending though.





I didn't even read the entire synopsis of this one, I read 2 lines and I had to read it. It took a while before I read it but it was amazing! It is so light even though it's a tougher theme - teenage pregnancy and all. I loved it and I wish I could go back and read it for the first time.





I love how I have 2 Rainbow Rowell books on my favorites list - just like last year. I wish I'd waited and read this during wintertime but I loved it nevertheless. I don't love that many adult books but I could somehow relate to this - maybe because of all the flashbacks to her younger years. I adored this book and I loved all the references - especially when she meets Cath and Levi from Fangirl!



I discovered fairy-tale retellings last year, I believe, and I have loved the majority of the retellings I've read. I received an e-arc of Tear You Apart and I read it in a single setting. I love how this combines all of the fairytales and that the fairytales are curses - it's amazing and I can't wait to read all of Sarah Cross' other books







I was quite hesitant about Between the Lives and kept going back and forth on whether I should request it or not - I ended up requesting and loving it! This has a similar feel as the Pivot Point duology and it's perfect for fans of those books!





I adored The Boy with the Tiger's Heart, even though its quite short it's so deep and keeps you wanting more. It's a modern fable so it's not a book for everyone, but it's so vivid and creative that I want everyone to love it even though I know it's impossible.







I picked Accidentally Married up on a whim and I flew through it! It is so funny and I literally laughed out loud a bunch of times. It's not that long but it definitely feels longer. I loved Madison Nichols, she was so quirky and she's definitely the reason I loved this book so much.





The last favorite of the year is an anthology, surprise! It's My True Love Gave To Me and even though I didn't love every story, I loved most of them so I had to put it on this list. Rainbow Rowell's story was probably my favorite...

I read A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall shortly after making this list, and I have to say it should have been on here.. I absolutely loved it, but I couldn't find a book to 'through in the bin' and let A Little Something Different take its place... 

What was your absolute favorite book of 2014?