Culling the TBR 2014

I wish I had time to read every book on this list, I really do! But, it's time to thin down my list of books "to be read." If you see any that are so wonderful that it would be a terrible, terrible mistake to take them off my list, let me know in the comments and I'll consider adding them back on. You know what's funny? I was looking at one of my first "Did Not Finish" lists from several years ago, and I did finally get around to reading at least 4 or 5 of them, so you just never know.

The Hungry Games

Leave it to Sesame Street to put a wacky spin on The Hunger Games. Here, Cookieness Evereat competes to win. May the cookies be ever in your flavor!

Top 10 Books I'm Excited For 2014

I guess this should be a list of "debut" authors I'm looking forward to in 2014... but there are so many great series I'm in the middle of. These are the books I'm most looking forward to this year.

17 First Kisses - Rachael Allen

The One - Kiera Cass

The Inventor's Secret - Andrea Cremer

Alienated - Melissa Landers

Infinite - Jodi Meadows

Free to Fall - Lauren Miller

Enders - Lissa Price

Hollow City - Ransom Riggs

Flame - Amy Kathleen Ryan

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor

What are you looking forward to this year?

Marked review

Marked
by P.C. and Kristin Cast
St. Martin's Griffin
May 2007

Imagine if you were a vampyre... and unlike urban legend, becoming a vampyre isn't transmitted by a bite, it's a natural process that happens to a small percentage of teenagers as they transition to adulthood. The House of Night is a finishing school to help fledgling vampyres negotiate the change they are undergoing.

After the distinctive tattoo-like markings common to vampyres appear, 16 year old Zoey Redbird is ostracized by everyone in her straight-laced family except for her Native American grandmother. Zoey is whisked away from her mediocre human high school in order to deal with the unusually strong gift of magic powers granted to her by the vampyre goddess, Nyx. Almost immediately, she's invited to join the Dark Daughters, an exclusive sorority, and befriends her roommate Stevie Rae as well as a few select outcasts, including her gay friend Damien. Together, they form a new nexus of influence at the school, upsetting the delicate balance of politics and machinations that develop amongst the vampyre cliques there. 

The school sounds more like a cross between a summer camp and a high end boarding school. Students enjoy lessons in Equestrian studies, drama, economics and modern English classics with smart, challenging, vampyre teachers who treat their young charges with the independence and respect usually only accorded to successful college students. (They're even allowed to drink alcohol.) In the college campus-like environment, there's plenty of opportunities for students to hook up as well, which scandalizes Zoey.

I was unsure what to make of Zoey's Native American heritage. Some of it seemed to be accurate and specific to the place (Oklahoma) but it seemed like the magic system was a mish-mosh of traditions from paganism, Greco-Roman myths, Harry Potter, and Twilight. Spelling vampire with a "y" irritated me. Plenty of pop culture references make the book feel just a bit dated. Zoey has the makings of a Mary Sue, with her perfect looks, super powers and bevy of male characters who fall for her, but readers who enjoy vampire books or boarding school books may enjoy this one. 

Compare to:

Evernight - Claudia Gray

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

Infinite Days - Rebecca Maizel

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

I borrowed this book from the library.

New Year Resolutions 2014

Wow. This past year went by fast. It's time - to make some new resolutions!

Last year I pledged to write 3 posts a week. That has always worked really well for me in the past. I did slow down to only one post a week by the end of the year though. What can I say - I just got really busy! Going forward, I'm hoping to do 2 posts a week - every Tuesday and every Friday.

Last year I resolved to review less picture books. I also came across a number of things I could have posted about but didn't, because I only wanted high-quality posts. I think that, plus being really busy, is what slowed me down towards the end of 2013. This year, hopefully I won't let perfect be the enemy of good, and if something seems halfway decent or interesting to talk about, I'll just throw it on the blog. 

I'm resolving right now, to get caught up on my backlog of books to be reviewed. I have so many books that I need to review - I'm embarrassed to admit, it's actually a pile of  over a dozen. It really is easier and more fun to review a book immediately after reading it. I want to create a nice buffer of posts so I can plan ahead more. I'd like to include some more posts about libraries, in addition to more book reviews.

For reading - I'm going to make a couple of resolutions. First, I need to tackle more of the ARCs sitting on my nightstand. Actually, I'm pretty sure you can't even tell there's a nightstand under there. Read 'em, review 'em, and donate 'em! That's my plan. I want to read more middle-grade fiction this year. Bar none, I get more questions from my library patrons about middle-grade fiction than any other topic. So, I definitely need to stay ahead! And I'd like to fit in some more digital ARCs from NetGalley and Edelweiss on my reading schedule as well.

I'm going to knock my TBR list down, hopefully by quite a bit. I'll do a culling of the list at the beginning of the year, and again at midyear.

Last year I set my reading goal for 104 books, and I thought I'd meet that easy peasy. That's just two books a week! But, towards the end of the year, it was tough. I raced through a ton of books in November and December just to get "caught up" - I thought for sure I'd be waaay over 104 and instead needed to scramble. It turns out I didn't even break a hundred - I only read 97 books last year. This year, I need a goal that's a little easier than that. I'm going to try to read 55 books. That's a book a week, plus a little more.


What are your New Year's Resolutions?

Read in 2013

January
1. Amulet #5: Prince of Thieves - Kazu Kibuishi
2. The Accidental Courtesan - Cheryl Ann Smith
3. His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
4. Deadlocked - Charlaine Harris
5. Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style - Tim Gunn
6. A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines
7. The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken
8. Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik
9. Black Powder War - Naomi Novik

February
10. Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik
11. Secondhand Charm - Julie Berry
12. Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory - George O'Connor
13. Love Times Three - Joe Darger
14. The Feminist and the Cowboy - Alisa Valdes
15. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend - Rachel Bertsche
16. The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet - Dara-Lynn Weiss
17. Legends of Zita the Spacegirl - Ben Hatke
18. The Selection - Kiera Cass
19. The Princesses of Iowa - Molly M. Backes
20. The Future of Us - Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
21. Salvation - Anne Osterlund
22. Crewel - Gennifer Albin
23. Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik

March
24. Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik
25. The Borrowed Bride - Elizabeth Lane
26. The Wallflower, v. 1 - Tomoko Hayakawa
27. Front Row: Anna Wintour - Jerry Oppenheimer
28. Formerly Shark Girl - Kelly Bingham
29. Lulu and the Duck in the Park - Hilary McKay
30. Lulu and the Dog from the Sea - Hilary McKay
31. The Alchemy of Forever - Avery Williams
32. Reading Women - Stefan Bollman

April
33. Glamour in Glass - Mary Robinette Kowal
34. I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had - Tony Danza
35. Alex Ko: From Iowa to Broadway, My Billy Elliot Story - Alex Ko
36. Out of the Easy - Ruta Sepetys
37. Crossed - Ally Condie
38. Possession - Elena Johnson
39. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front-Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture - Peggy Orenstein

May
40. Shades of Earth - Beth Revis
41. Vibes - Amy Kathleen Ryan
42. Meant to Be - Lauren Morrill
43. The Five Love Languages - Gary Chapman
44. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy
45. I'm Going to College, Not You! - Jennifer Delahunty, ed.
46. Allegiance - Cayla Kluver
47. Claim to Fame - Nancy K. Wallace
48. Out to Lunch - Nancy K. Wallace
49. The Mystery of the Golden Key - Nancy K. Wallace
50. Freakling - Lana Krumwiede

June
51. The Earl's Intended Wife - Louise Allen
52. Tempest - Julie Cross
53. The Truth About Style - Stacy London
54. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
55. Just One Day - Gayle Forman
56. Season of the Witch - Mariah Fredericks
57. The Color of Rain - Cori McCarthy
58. The Three Martini Playdate - Christi Mellor
59. The Search for Delicious - Natalie Babbitt
60. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World - A.J. Jacobs
61. Revived - Cat Patrick

July
62. Companions of the Night - Vivian Van Velde
63. Dark Mirror - Mary Jo Putney
64. God's Debris - Scott Adams

August
65. Defiance - C.J. Redwine
66. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

September
67. Instant Mom - Nia Vardalos
68. Asunder - Jodi Meadows
69. This Wicked Game - Michelle Zink

October
70. Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
71. Sacrifice - Cayla Kluver
72. Parallel - Lauren Miller

November
73. All the Truth That's In Me - Julie Berry
74. Fortunately, the Milk - Neil Gaiman
75. Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius - Frank Asch
76. Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery - David Adler
77. The Devil's Storybook - Natalie Babbitt
78. Fake Mustache - Tom Angleberger
79. Dragon's Egg - Sarah L. Thomson
80. The Elite - Kiera Cass
81. The Devil's Other Storybook - Natalie Babbitt
82. Emmaline and the Bunny - Katherine Hannigan
83. Starters - Lissa Price
84. The Spindlers - Lauren Oliver
85. The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson
86. Happy Families - Tanita S. Davis
87. What's Left of Me - Kat Zhang
88. Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List - David Levithan & Rachel Cohn

December

89. United We Spy - Ally Carter

90. The Flint Heart - Katherine Paterson

91. Eve - Anna Carey

92. The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily M. Danforth

93. What Colleges Don't Tell You (and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know): 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid Into the Top Schools - Elizabeth Wissner-Gross

94. The Infinite Moment of Us - Lauren Myracle

95. The Whole Story of Half a Girl - Veera Hiranandani

96. Breathe - Sarah Crossan

97. The Five Fists of Science - Matt Fraction