Booking It

Top 12 Books of 2012 (Plus 12 More Favourites!)

My favourite “twelve” books of 2012! Includes some series, because I’m a cheater. Each one of these is highly recommended! Companion post on all the books I read this year can be found below.

2012 Books of the Year: The Complete List

All of the books I read this year! My favourites of 2012 are in the companion post above.

Books of the Month: October & November 2012

Sarah Rees Brennan’s latest book is like brownies baked in a cheap stove. Wondering why? Find out below!

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12 Books to Read in 2012: 2012 YA Releases!

Filmed, edited, and promptly forgotten. I give you a very belated 2012 releases video, filmed, as you can tell, in March. Sorry bout that :/

Goal-setting is good. With that in mind, I’ve realized I’m being altogether too optimistic about my reading abilities! Here’s what I plan to crack open in April:

1) Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers: A killer historical fantasy featuring assassin nuns. When I drafted my TBR a couple of days ago, I didn’t realize how quickly I’d blast through it! It’s already been released, and I’ve just finished reading it as of this post - so look for a review sometime in the (hopefully) near future.

2) The Peculiars by Maureen McQuerry: An interesting mix of steampunk and paranormal, this one features a teenager named Lena on the search for her missing father, who disappeared into a mysterious wilderness populated by “Peculiars” many years before. (Potentially disastrous? Potentially awesome?)

3) Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott: With a fairytale-esque premise, and some dark undertones, Shadows is about a young girl named Suzume capable of re-creating her identity through the magic of shadow-weaving. Looks absolutely gorgeous!

4) The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa: Holy freak. Need I even explain? In case I do, this is the delightful Julie Kagawa’s take on vampire mythology. Let’s hope she can infuse some of her magic into this sadly over-worked genre. So very, very excited!

5) The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda: A Hunger Games feel with a vampiric spin, Hunt deals with a human boy forced to run with a pack of vampires, all the while trying to resist the allure of a girl he can’t have.

6) Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco: This one is a thick, journalistic graphic novel about Joe Sacco’s experience talking to the victims of a historically-footnoted incident in the 1950s Gaza Strip, relating to the war between Israel and Palestine.

7) Diamond Grill by Fred Wah: Another prescribed piece of Can Lit, this time a collection of prose-poetry dealing with Wah’s experience as a Chinese-Canadian, seen through the lens of the eponymous Diamond Grill restaurant.

8) The Fox by D. H. Lawrence: Technically a novella, Lawrence’s modernist classic presents two parallel stories (a fox menacing a chicken farm, and a man menacing the two women who own it) in a social commentary.

9) Molloy by Samuel Beckett: I wish I could tell you what this book is about. Kind of an ambitious read for me - the first paragraph is 82 pages long! That’s right… What am I getting myself into?

10) The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah: Sadly all of the images of this one’s cover are extremely tiny, extremely blurry, or both. A piece of African literature dealing with a railway clerk living in modern-day Ghana and dealing with the issues that no doubt arise from such a situation. 

Left unread from my March TBR and thereby transfered over is Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta. There are a couple of reasons I didn’t get to this one in March, and hopefully I’ll be able to shed some light on that in my review! Which should actually be posted this month. Hopefully.

Book Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Ehhh. It was… ehhh.

Book Haul March 2012: “The Sequels Haul”

The Stuff:

- Hallowed by Cynthia Hand*
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- The Nightmare Garden by Caitlin Kittredge*
- The Crow & The Singing by Alison Croggon*
- Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl*
- Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver*
- Legend by Marie Lu
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
- Starters by Lissa Price
- The Passage by Justin Cronin

* denote sequels, hence “The Sequels Haul”

Yes. I’ve decided to start doing that thing.

I’m considering this a goal - not necessarily an achievable one, due to pursuits aside from Tumblr (as though such things exist). Which means that you probably won’t be seeing reviews on these books. But hey! Maybe you will! And I seriously have to cut down my TBR. Seriously. Drowning in the sea of pages here. (Although if you have to drown… books aren’t such a bad thing to drown in, I don’t think).

Anyway, you’re here for the books, and I can’t blame you. Here’s my (unambitious) (for me) TBR for March! It doesn’t include course books (James’ What Maisie Knew, Ford’s The Good Soldier and other fun stuff), so it’s purely recreational. My favorite kind of reading :)

1) Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta: Because it’s fantasy, and it looks great, but primarily because I also have to read

2) Froi of the Exiles: which is the sequel/companion, and also looks great. I’ve got a review copy, and I’m so, so, so utterly bad at putting up reviews of those before the book comes out. So I’m crossing my fingers I can get ‘er done and throw together a review before this comes out on the 16th!

3) Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Schultz: A bit of fluffy, insubstantial paranormal Harlequin TEEN romance sequelfoolery. I have yet to review the first book, Spellbound, so watch out for that. Also an advanced copy. Also hoping to get up a review before/around the release date.

4) A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink: Remember when there was all that buzz about Prophecy of the Sisters? Yeah, I never read it. But surprise! This is another ARC I haven’t read! I’m such a bad reviewer! But I’m actually really pumped for this - magic, mayhem, romance, that cover…

5) Croak by Gina Damico: Another review copy I never got to. This one’s about a teen grim reaper and touted as a bit of a dark comedy/satire. It’s also a series-opener (like anything isn’t a series opener) so that should be interesting.

And that’s the roundup. It’s only five books, but I’m pessimistic - mainly because I’m pessimistic about everything. And I really desperately want to read Divergent. If I get a spare hour somewhere near the end of March, I’m squeezing that in. Must. Be. In. Loop. Agh, I’m such a bad reviewer.

Aside from that, this looks like a freaking sweet month of reading! What’s on your TBR?

12 Books To Read In 2012: Everyone’s Read It But Me!

12 books I’m definitely reading in 2012 that everyone else has already read! Wow, I’m so behind… Stick around for 2012 releases I’m planning on reading, and 12 series I want to catch up on! Miniseries, whoot! Let me know what you haven’t read yet below :)