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Ana AZ's ATY 2023 Challenge (which I will actually finish)
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September Week 3
- Finished Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
- 3 stars
- It's a weird little horror book that's not super scary. Great for a readathon since I finished it in a few hours.
- Finished The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
- 4 stars
- I'll use this for prompt 35: "A book with a school subject in the title" because of "languages".
- A great book, definitely should be reread often. Didn't like the religious stuff though, mostly by the second author, Ross Campbell.
DNF: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
- I have very complicated feelings about this book because there are some parts I want to give 5 stars to and some that I want to give 1 star to, and everything in between... But I don't think giving an average rating will properly convey how I feel so for now, I left it with no star rating.
September Week 4
- Finished Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
- 4 stars!
- This was a really fun rom-com with LGBT+ representation. Personally, I couldn't read the spicy scenes. I skipped over those. But everything else was great!
- Finished Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
- 5 beautiful stars! This is my favorite of the month.
- I can't believe it took me so long to finally pick this series up. It's worth the hype! It's a fun fantasy book with all the beloved tropes, but with fresh takes on those tropes too.
***SEPTEMBER WRAP-UP***
*I read eight books this month, and DNF'd one.
*My favorite book of September is Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
*ATY books read so far: 50/52
*Sequel read: Going Solo by Roald Dahl. This is Part 2 of his autobiography.
*Book formats:
ebook - 5
print - 3
*Genres:
sci-fi - 1
fantasy - 3
nonfiction - 2
horror - 1
romance - 1
October Week 1Currently reading, hoping to finish:
✓ 1. Ink Blood Sister Scribe - BOTM read - 4.5 stars!
2. Letters from a Stoic - ATY
TBR:
✓ 4. The Well of Ascension - to continue Mistborn!
5. The Atlantis Complex - for a sequel read
6. The Heart's Invisible Furies - ATY, the last one!
7. The Eye of the World - to tackle physical TBR
8. The Secret History - to tackle physical TBR
✓ 9. A Study in Drowning - Book club with The Hidden Library
10. Beartown - because I already have book 2 physical
October Week 2
- Finished reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
- This is book 2 of the Mistborn series
- 5 stars! I loved it. This is added to my favorites.
- Side-read. Not for ATY
- DNF-ing Happy Place by Emily Henry. It was not as "happy" as I thought it would be.
- This is a DNF for now, not a DNF forever though.
October Week 3
- Finished A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
- 3 stars!
- It's for The Hidden Library Book Club, and I can't fit it in any of my remaining ATY prompts
- This has fairytale vibes, which I really like. It's also dark academia. It has a lot of good parts, and some iffy (Effy) parts. It's fine, like 3-star fine. I will still read other works by this author.
- Finished Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
- 4.5 stars! It's so good!
- side read
- It was a slow start, but at the halfway mark I couldn’t stop reading! Two sisters are involved with magical books. Those books are the target of dangerous people.
No updates for October Week 4
***OCTOBER WRAP-UP***
*I only read three books this month, and DNF'd one.
*My favorite book of October is Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs. A close second is The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.
*ATY books read so far: 50/52 (still)
*Sequel read: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. It's Book 2 in the Mistborn series.
*Book formats:
ebook - 3
*Genres:
fantasy - 3
November Week 1Currently reading, hoping to finish:
✓ 1. Weather Girl - ebook, for ATY
2. Letters from a Stoic - for ATY
✓ 3. Beartown - because it's highly recommended
4. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy - reread and to refresh on some cognitive behavioral therapy
TBR:
✓ 5. Belladonna - ebook, for The Hidden Library Book Club
6. Us Against You - Beartown's sequel
7. Last Argument of Kings - to finish a series I'm in the middle of
✓ 8. River Sing Me Home - ebook, BOTM book
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- Finished The Hero of Ages, Mistborn 3, by Brandon Sanderson
- A very complicated 3 stars. There were parts I really liked, and parts I really disliked.
- This is the final book in the Mistborn (Era 1) trilogy. It's my least favorite of the three books, but it was still pretty good. I thought that despite the problems I saw, it's still a good ending to the series.
November Week 2
- Finished Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
- 4 very cute stars!
- For ATY prompt 32: A book set in a UNESCO City of Literature. The city is Seattle
- This was a cute romance that still explored some deep issues like depression and family trauma related to that, and also touched upon Jews being a minority in the workplace, and how women TV personalities are perceived, while still being a sweet rom-com.
- Finished Defending Elysium by Brandon Sanderson
- It's a short story prequel to Skyward
- 3 stars. It was just okay.
- Side read
- Just finished Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- For prompt 27: A book by an author from continental Europe -- my final ATY prompt!
- 4 stars
- It was good, really heavy, with a few shining moments from the characters, but I found the pacing so slowww. I'm still going to continue with the series and excited to see what will happen to the hockey club. I enjoyed A Man Called Ove better than this one.
Finished today, November 12, 2023.
- 5 Star books that I read for the ATY Challenge
I have a few more 5 stars but they were side reads.
- Any twists on the challenge? (ie in order, all nonfiction, all picture books, etc)
None
- My most creative twist on a prompt
None
- The prompt I "cheated" on
For TJR's After I Do, I checked out other covers till I saw something that could fit into a prompt. I found the Polish version which has a sun on the cover so I put this down for prompt 38: A book with the sun, moon, or stars on the cover
- My favorite prompt
"A book published in 2023" because I'm trying to read more new releases.
- My least favorite prompt
Western and Unseco City of Literature. I had such a hard time looking for books that fit those.
- A book I might not have read if not for the ATY Challenge (but I’m so glad I did!)
Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon for the Unesco City of Literature prompt. This book would have been pushed aside in my TBR if it weren't for this prompt. I really enjoyed this rom-com.
- A book I might not have read if not for the ATY Challenge (and I wish I hadn’t!)
Verity by Colleen Hoover for the prompt " A book found by inputting a favorite author on https://www.literature-map.com" where I put in Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book was just a big mess. Gave it 2 stars.
November Week 3
- Read Belladonna by Adalyn Grace for a book club
- 3 stars
- It's a YA gothic, fantasy, mystery. It's fun, but not amazing. Would still read book 2 if I want something quick
- Read River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
- 4 stars
- Read this because I wanted to read as many GR Choice Awards nominees as I could before final voting ends
November Week 4
- I read A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
- 4.5 stars
- It's classified as a horror but it's really not that scary. There were just a few creepy elements here and there. Mostly I found this funny and I really enjoyed it! I also read this for the GR Choice Awards.
***NOVEMBER WRAP-UP***
*I read seven books this month, and DNF'd one.
*My favorite book of November is A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
*ATY books read so far: 52/52!!! Finished it this month. Woohoo!
*Sequel/prequel read: Defending Elysium by Brandon Sanderson. It's the prequel to the Skyward series.
*Book formats:
ebook - 6
physical - 1
*Genres:
horror - 1
historical - 1
fantasy - 2
contemporary - 1
sci fi - 1
romance - 1
Wow, this month's the most varied one I've had.
December Week 1(Can't believe it's already December!)
Currently reading, hoping to finish:
✓ 1. Letters from a Stoic
✓ 2. Us Against You - sequel read
✓ 3. The Woman in Me - ebook
✓ 4. Elantris
TBR:
✓ 5. The Only Survivors - BOTM box read, ebook
6. Man's Search for Meaning - non-fic
7. The Rose Society
8. Gallant - GR Choice Awards 2022
9. Defiant - ebook
10. The Secret History
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- Finished The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
- 4 stars
- I'm not a super fan of Britney, but her songs were part of my childhood, and I guess I feel a sort of connection to her since we have the same birthday, and I do like some of her songs. Reading this brought some nostalgia, and also a bit of horror about the kind of things she had to go through with that conservatorship.
- Finished Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
- 5 stars!!!
- This is book 2 of the Beartown series and it is heart-wrenching.
December Week 2
- Finally finished Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- 2.5 stars
- Ancient philosophy is not for me, or maybe it's the translation? This was mostly boring. I do like reading Ryan Holiday's books though, which are based on these ancient philosophies. I think I'm better off reading Holiday's modernized interpretations of stoicism than reading the original sources.
December Week 3
- Finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- 4 stars
- This is the first published book by Brandon Sanderson, but it's not the first that I read by him. It's a very interesting fantasy, and I really enjoyed it.
- Finished The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda
- 4 stars
- This was pretty good! I'm surprised by the low average rating. I liked it. It was an exploration of grief, trauma, and guilt more than being a thriller. I have a feeling it's being labeled as a "thriller" contributed to its low rating. It only had hints of being a thriller, and just slightly more hints of being a mystery.
- Finished The Eleventh Metal by Brandon Sanderson
- 3.5 stars, rounded down
- This is a short story in the Mistborn era 1 series about Kelsier, one of the main characters. It was just alright. It didn't really talk about the eleventh metal, even though that's the title.
- Decided to read this short story so I could just chill till the end of the year, not feel too pressured to finish two more books. I want to end the year with 80 books. With the short story, I now have 79, so just one more to go! (Also me: Maybe I can end the year with 85 books!)
- FInished Cards Against Anxiety: A Guidebook and Cards to Help You Stress Less by Pooky Knightsmith
- 5 stars
- I thought it did what it sought out to do: provide quick guide exercises to stress less.
- This is my 80th book. I think I want to push my goal to 85, but I'll go for short books.
December Week 4
TBR for the last week of the year:
✓ 1. Defiant - CR
✓ 2. Man's Search for Meaning - CR
✓ 3. The Hope of Elantris
✓ 4. Lamb to the Slaughter
5. Five Silver Rings
---
- Finished Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
- 4 stars!
- It's a short story by Roald Dahl. It's a little dark. Well, a lot dark. I've actually read it before somewhere, but I forgot when, and I even forgot that this was by Roald Dahl.
- Finished Defiant by Brandon Sanderson
- 3.75 stars
- This is the last book in the Skyward series and I enjoyed it well enough. It wasn't super amazing, but I thought it was a good ending for the series.
- Finished The Hope of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- 4 stars
- This was a moving short story set in Elantris. I was going to give this 3.5 stars, but the story behind this short story was so sweet I had to bump it up to 4 stars.
- Finished Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
- 4.5 stars rounded up
- I am not the target audience for this letter. I'm not Christian nor do I live in the nation (USA) alluded to in the title. But I like and agree with the points mentioned in this letter and wish that people would be more open-minded about books like these.
- Finished Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- 4 stars
- I finished this 5 minutes before the end of 2023, so I definitely need to reread this. It describes some of the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and how some people are able to survive something so terrible.
***DECEMBER WRAP-UP***
*I read twelve books this month, 3 of which were short stories.
*My favorite book of December is Us Against You by Fredrik Backman. It's the second book in the Beartown trilogy.
*Sequel read: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman.
*Book formats:
ebook - 7
print - 5
*Genres:
sci-fi - 1
fantasy - 3
nonfiction - 5
mystery - 2
contemporary - 1
***2023 READING WRAP-UP***
My Top 10 Reads:
- Hello Beautiful - My number 1 BEST book of the year! It made me cry so many times, plus I'm just a sucker for multigeneration family dramas.
- A Man Called Ove - My second best book of the year, also because it made me cry so many times. But it made me laugh and smile a lot too.
The next books are in no particular order:
- Daisy Jones & The Six - This is my first TJR read, I listened to it on audio, and was blown away. I didn't think I would enjoy a book about rock stars, but the audiobook made the characters feel so real.
- Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares - So these two are actually the best series that I read this year, and both really have to be here. I can't separate them. This is such a beautiful fantasy story unlike any other.
- Mistborn: The Final Empire - This is not my first Sanderson, but it's the first fantasy series that I read by him. This was so amazing and nostalgic (even if I haven't read it before). I guess it was nostalgic in a sense that I really let myself get sucked into the fantasy world, same as when I was younger and would read a fantasy book.
- The Well of Ascension - This is the second book in the Mistborn series and I was just amazed by the continuation of the story, the world, the characters. The third and final book in the series isn't here even though I also read it this year because I had complicated feelings for the last book.
- Us Against You - This is another second book in a series. I liked the first book, but found it so slow. This time, I knew what to expect, so I just really savored the story. Backman writes relationships so well, it's heartbreaking.
- Ink Blood Sister Scribe - This is a debut novel and it was so, so good! I like the characters so much that I wish this was a series.
- Ninth House - This was amazing. I haven't read a lot of dark academia, but if they're like this, then I want more. It's creepy, but so good.
New Favorite Authors:
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fredrik Backman
Brandon Sanderson
Pleasant Surprises:
These are books that I really didn't expect to enjoy so much
Worst Book of the Year
This is one that I actually finished, but I gave it 2 stars because it was a quick read. The 1 star DNF that would take this spot if I finished it would be Immortal Longings
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And that's a wrap. Goodbye, 2023, hello, 2024.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Daisy Jones & The Six (other topics)Strange the Dreamer (other topics)
Hello Beautiful (other topics)
Immortal Longings (other topics)
Muse of Nightmares (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Taylor Jenkins Reid (other topics)Fredrik Backman (other topics)
Brandon Sanderson (other topics)
Taylor Jenkins Reid (other topics)
- Finished Going Solo by Roald Dahl
- 4 stars! Really good.
- This is part 2 of his autobiography. I can't believe it took me so long to pick this up though I've owned it for years. Dahl is really a great writer.
- Finished Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
- 4 stars
- This is my first book by Kingfisher and I really enjoyed it. It has amazing fairytale vibes.