June Recap & July TBR.

Posted on July 1, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

june

Hey!

Where has June gone? Here and gone in a blink of an eye it seems like! I had a pretty good month and I was able to read (and listen) to 14 books! It’s one more than I had last month, which is awesome! I had one DNF book, which was The Partials by Dan Wells; I just wasn’t into it at all.

These are books I physically read myself or the audiobooks that I listened to at work. You can find a list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did one. Shall I get started?

the looking glass wars by frank beddor
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I loved the story. I am sucker for retellings and Alice in Wonderland, so I definitely enjoyed this. I love what was done with the story in this book. I really want to check out the next book in the series.

’89 walls by katie pierson
3 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I didn’t really enjoy this book that much. It had its moments, but I was bored a lot throughout the book. It took me FOREVER to read it. I think giving a 3 is being generous, to be honest.

i hunt killers by barry lyga – BLOG POST.
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I loved this book so much. It caught my attention right away and it never disappointed throughout the entire book. I am dying to read the other books in the series, because I need to know what happens next! Having a serial killer for a father is insane…and I need more.

everything, everything by nicola yoon – BLOG POST.
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Hands down in my top 5 favorite books I ever read! This book was EVERYTHING! Perfection. Brilliant. I was in love from the first page. I couldn’t put it down. I was up until 3:30AM reading this book and long after, because I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I didn’t want to leave the story behind.

the wedding virus and other snippets by natalie shell
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

This was a super quick read and it was actually interesting and funny. I think if you’re planning a wedding though, this would definitely be right up your alley! Lots of funny things in this book and little things to remember the days leading up to your big day and the actual day!

belzhar by meg wolitzer
2 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I barely liked this book. Barely. I was just really bored and I thought it could have been so much better. Nothing really happened until the very end of the book and even that wasn’t that great.

a court of thorns and roses by sarah j. maas – BLOG POST.
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Remember how I said I was a sucker for retellings? Yeah, that’s still true. 😛 I also love Beauty & the Beast, so this was the best! I really enjoyed this book so much. And Lucien and Tamlin…ahhh! Love my boys! I also love Feyre, she’s such a cool character. I was starting to get worried, because lately the track record for sucky main characters has been bad (in my opinion), so glad Feyre was not one of those!

the selection by kiera cass
the elite by kiera cass
the one by kiera cass
4 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR EACH.

I went back and forth on whether I wanted to read this series. I decided to finally give it a chance and I really liked these books. I hated America (remember how I just said the track record for sucky main characters has been bad?…yeahhh….). She was annoying, whiny, and I wanted to punch her in the face every five seconds. The books if you can get past her ridiculousness were great! The only reason I couldn’t give some of these books 5 stars was because I hated her so much. I also did not like Aspen; not at all. I think Prince Maxon deserved better than America. Can I have Prince Maxon? Hopefully, in July I can read The Heir.

the shock of the fall by nathan filer – BLOG POST.
2 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Blehhhhhh. This book was pretty bad. I originally gave it three stars, but I had to take away a star after I finished one of the books below. I liked one of the ones below more than this, so I didn’t feel three stars should have been given to this one. It was boring. It was confusing. I just did not get it. Or like it.

modern romance by aziz ansari
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I enjoyed this book. I love Aziz. I love his stand up. I loved Tom from Parks & Rec. This book was very informative and also hilarious. If you’re into online dating, you should totally check this out. As far as that goes, it’s really informative and I think you’ll like it. I’m not in that target market though, because I got the boyfriend at home and he’s stuck with me until one of us dies. 😛 This is a good book though! It was interesting to read about other countries and their dating styles too. It was also cool to learn about dating in the past versus now.

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling
3 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Okay, so remember how I said I changed my star rating for The Shock of the Fall, because I liked another book better. It was the 4th Harry Potter. I felt like if I gave Harry 3 stars and I actually liked it somewhat, then The Shock of the Fall did not deserve 3 stars, because I barely liked it at all. I didn’t like this one as much as I hoped I would or the others in the series so far. It was boring a lot of the time and I know a few people have told me this was one of their favorite books in the series. Not mine. I liked The Prisoner of Azkaban the best so far. Next month I’ll probably get the 5th book.

none of the above by i.w. gregorio – BLOG POST.
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I loveloveloved this book! I flew through the book and I was really happy with it. We need more diverse books! I’m so glad I finally picked this book up and read it. Kristin is my girl, I love her! I highly recommend it. I won’t say too much else about it though, because I just recently did a post about it (linked above and below). 🙂

There you have it! All the books I read or listened to in June! I am pretty happy with the majority of these books. Below is my July TBR.

july tbr

As far as my July TBR, I’m still not completely sure of all the books I will be reading, but here is a list of some of the ones I really want to get to:

The Heir by Kiera Cass
The Water Travelers by Daniel Waltz
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

I Was Here by Gayle Forman – currently listening to.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart – currently reading.

I also have a couple Netgalley books to read too, so I definitely want to get those at some point this month if I can. My book jar and I are probably going to become best friends this month, because I really have no clue what I want to read next! 😛

I was really good about not buying so many books in June. In May I bought 26 physical books and I got 10 e-books. In June I actually only bought 9 physical books and 7 e-books, so that is a pretty big difference! I was also able to get 11 free books from giveaways in June. I’m both happy and sad about the book buying though, because I want all the books! lol. Anyway, that’s all for this post!

What were some the books that you read in the month of June? What books are you excited about reading in July? Leave a comment below and link me to your recap/wrap up posts! 🙂

Here are some of the recent posts in case you missed them:

Top Ten Tuesday||Top Books I Read So Far In 2015.
Thoughts: None of the Above.
Adventure & New Books.

Until next time, bye! ❤

May Reads Recap.

Posted on May 31, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi 🙂

I am so happy with how my month of May with reading went. I managed to get through 13 books. I am actually pretty happy with all of the books that I read and loved them all! I did have one book that I didn’t finish and I don’t think I ever will. I’m not including it in the 13 books, but if you’re curious it was The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard. I couldn’t get into it and I didn’t want to keep trying and forcing it.

These are books I physically read myself or the audiobooks that I listened to at work. These aren’t really in the order that I read them (at least not completely in the order), but you can find them also listed over here along with all the other books that I have read so far this year. All will be linked to Goodreads below. Shall we get started?

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about this book over here.

Pretty much read my blog post about this book, because it was SO GOOD! I also explained my feelings throughout the book with gifs! Gifs are cool! This book was really good though and it was good from the start. I instantly fell in love and I loved the whole concept of the book and it was just a great read.

House of Secrets by Chris Columbus
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

This was a fun read and I really liked the adventure throughout. I definitely plan on continuing the series. It was fun to get away and jump into some crazy adventures.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I really enjoyed these books a lot and I don’t know why it took me so long to get to them! I know I was so iffy about whether I wanted to read The 5th Wave, but so glad I gave it a chance! Definitely a good series so far.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about this book over here.

I think my blog post says it all! I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH, OMG! Ari and Dante are such great characters and the story itself was so good. I highly recommend reading this book!

End of Days by Susan Ee
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about this book over here.

End of Days! End of Days! Ahhhhhh! I loved this book so much and this entire series is perfect and I want to give Susan Ee a million hugs and a million high fives! Her twist on angels was totally awesome and cool. Read this series if you haven’t already! Like…GO NOW! Starting with Angelfall of course!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I really loved this book in the Harry Potter series the best so far. I’ve obviously only read the first three books, but right now it’s my favorite. I definitely plan on reading the next book once the library gets it back! It was a fun book and it made me more excited about the series.

Broke Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Hallie Hath No Fury… by Katie Finn
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Revenge, Ice Cream, and Other Things Best Served Cold by Katie Finn
5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about the first two books over here.

The Broken Hearts & Revenge series is SO good so far! I am really loving it and even though you’ll get angry a million times and want to throw the book at the wall…it’s GOOD! I’m so excited about the next book. Because this is VERY important I will say it again: Do NOT read the book descriptions of any of these books (besides obviously Broken Hearts) until after you read Broken Hearts. You WILL spoil the book and I promise you that you do NOT want to spoil it! Twists, shockers, fun…love this series!

Rogue by Julie Kagawa
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

I am so excited about the Talon series, but I will say this…I couldn’t give Talon or Rogue five stars, because I really don’t like the main character Ember. She’s so annoying and I really can’t stand her. Everything else in the book is pretty much awesome. Dragons are awesome…dragons that can be human are awesome. This series so far is awesome…except Ember, she’s not awesome. I can’t wait for the next book.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about this book over here.

When I first got this audiobook, I wasn’t sure about it. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to continue to listen to it. OMG am I glad that I continued. It was such a good book. It was also such a fun read! There was some pretty crazy things going on in this book, but it was HILARIOUS! I was cracking up (and sometimes out loud at work). Great book!

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
4 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Blog post about this book over here.

An Ember in the Ashes was so great! There were tons of characters in the book, but so many awesome ones! There were also some that you will hate and want to strangle to death…but you know…it happens. There is also action right away…no time is wasted. You get right into it and that’s awesome! Tons of craziness and surprises.

There you have it! Those are the books that I was able to get through in May. So many good books and I am very excited about June. I’m not entirely sure what all books I am going to read in June, but here are the ones that I know for sure that I will be reading (or listening to):

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – I will be doing this as part of a read along with Josie from Josies Book Corner and Taylor & Stephanie from Bibliophile Gathering. You can check out more about the read along over here if you want to join in.
The Shock of the Fall – This is for the June read for the book club I’m in. Bloggers’ Book Club.
’89 Walls – I really have to get this one finished ASAP! Like…before tomorrow ends! I didn’t get it finished for this month like I hoped I would.
Belzhar – audiobook.
The Looking Glass Wars – audiobook.
I Hunt Killers – audiobook.

I know there are some others that I recently bought (and some from previous months) that I really want to get to, so depending if I decide to stick with my book jar or just automatically grab for those is still undetermined! I guess we’ll see how the month goes!

I will leave you with a picture of the last two books I bought in May. I am really excited about both of these books. In May I bought 26 books physical books and I got 10 e-books. I wasn’t as bad as I was last month, that’s for sure!

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer – already linked above
Anything Could Happen by Will Walton

What were some the books that you read in the month of May? What books are you excited about for June? If you have a recap/wrap up post link me to it! 🙂

Goodnight! ❤

April Reads Recap.

Posted on May 2, 2015 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi 🙂

April has come and gone. This month went by a little slow, but it was a good month with reading/listening to books. It was also a crazy month of me buying a lot of books, OOPS! These are books I physically read myself and audiobooks that I listened to at work. These aren’t really in the order that I read them, but you can find them also listed over here along with all the other books that I have read so far this year. All will be linked to Goodreads below. Shall we get started?

linger by maggie stiefvater
forever by maggie stiefvater
5 out of 5 stars for both.

Back in January I listened to the Shiver audiobook and I really enjoyed it, so this month I decided to continue with the series. Linger was absolutely my favorite from the series. I also really loved Forever too, but definitely Linger was my all-time favorite of them. It was such a great story and I haven’t really read many books about wolves, so this was really awesome.

dorothy must die by danielle paige
4 out of 5 stars.

I was stuck in a reading slump throughout the month of March and when I originally started reading this book. I finally finished this book in April and I was so excited that I did. I really enjoyed the book and I can’t wait to continue with the series. One thing that kind of annoyed me was that on the back of the book it said: “Your Mission: Remove the Tin Woodman’s heart. Steal the Scarecrow’s brain. Take the Lion’s courage. And then – Dorothy must die. Only you can make Oz a free land again”. Nothing like this at all happened until the very end (and I mean basically the last 10 pages) and that was a pretty big disappointment. I am going to assume the next book will carry on with this. I just thought it was dumb that they put this on the cover of the book and it wasn’t really part of the book. I did enjoy the book other than that.

beautiful chaos by kami garcia & margaret stohl
3 out of 5 stars.

I started to read the series in March and I was really enjoying the books and then I got to this book and I was just so bored with it. I couldn’t take the Caster world anymore and was over the entire thing. It wasn’t horrible, but definitely didn’t deserve more than three stars in my opinion.

forgive me, leonard peacock by matthew quick
5 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

I absolutely loved this book so much. I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I chose this book and read the description, but it turned out to be a really great book. I got it from the library, but I definitely plan on purchasing it.

the arctic incident (artemis fowl #2) by eoin colfer
3 out of 5 stars.

I was so disappointed with this book and I hated that I was. I really liked the first book, so I was excited to get to this one. A lot of the time I lost interest in the book and found my mind wondering to other things and other books. It was okay, but I didn’t love it; especially not like I loved the first one. I think I will eventually still continue with the series though.

simon vs. the homo spapiens agenda by becky albertalli
5 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

I’m sure it came to no surprise that I absolutely loved this book SO MUCH! I think I posted it anywhere and everywhere all over my blog and social media. I read it in two days and it was perfect. I recommend it to everyone and I am sure I said that a million times, lol. Go read this book….NOW! Make sure you have Oreos right next to you as you read this book. YOU MUST HAVE OREOS. YOU MUST!

jasper jones by craig silvey
5 out of 5 stars.
“Life might be easier if you give in a little, but it’s better if you hold onto something so hard you can’t give it up.”

Lovelovelove this book! I actually had a book review written up for this book, but forgot to post it. So I’ll just quickly tell you how much I loved this book. I LOVED THIS BOOK! It makes you think how quickly your life can change in literally the blink of an eye. It was hard not to love this book, to be honest. I was laughing out loud at so many parts, but I was also sad and heart broken too. It was a mix of emotions as you read this book. So many great characters in this book, so many! Charlie and Jeffrey’s friendship was one of my favorite parts of the book and they had some hilarious conversations. You can really tell they were best friends for life. I really loved Jasper and he was so smart about a lot of things. My heart broke for him throughout the entire book, because I felt like someone so young shouldn’t be going through what he was. I highly recommend this book.

dash & lily’s book of dares by rachel cohn & david leviathan
5 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

Dash and Lily…I loved Dash and Lily. It was cute, fun, and hilarious! I loved the whole concept of the story with leaving the notebook in a bookstore for someone to find. Dash and Lily take turns writing in the notebook and leaving it around New York for each other to find and they each end up having to do silly little things and it was great. I loved the characters in the book so much and I really enjoyed reading it.

and then there were none by agatha Christie
4 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

This was such a fun audiobook for me to read! It felt like I was listening to it being played out as a movie. BBC had a full cast do the audiobook, so it was awesome! I felt like I was just working (which I was) and had the TV on the background. It was great! I also love “who done it” type mysteries and it was just perfect. I was constantly trying to figure it out myself. It was just so fun and I really enjoyed it.

throne of glass by sarah j. maas
3 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

Throne of Glass was chosen as the book club (Bloggers’ Book Club) book for the month of April. It took me a very long time (250 pages) to actually get into the book and enjoy it. I was bored throughout the first 250 pages and it took me the entire month to actually finish it. It was such a disappointment for me, because I was so excited about it and I seen that everyone loved it. I did enjoy and really like the last 150 pages enough to want to read the next book in the series.

talon by julie kagawa
4 out of 5 stars.
Blog post about this book over here.

Talon was the last book I read during the month of April and I really enjoyed it a lot. I never read many dragon books and I liked this one a lot. It was pretty neat that the dragons could have a human form too. I am really looking forward to reading Rogue and seeing how the rest of the story plays out.

These were all the books I read/listened to in April and I am excited that I got through 12 books! I’ve been staying pretty consistent month to month so far this year. I’ve read 12 books every month, except March I did 11.

Paw (or five 😛 )from ColbyJack for having a good month!

For the most part in May I will be using my book jar to determine what books I read next, but for a fact I know I will be reading/listening to:

House of Secrets – finish up this one. I am almost done with the audiobook.
Red Queen – I am a little bit over halfway done with this, so finishing maybe this weekend.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – book chosen for May for the book club.
End of Days – I can’t wait for my pre-order to load to my Kindle. COME ON MAY 12TH!
The 5th Wave – audiobook.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – audiobook.
The Euthanist by Alex Dolan – Netgalley.
’89 Walls by Katie Pierson – Netgalley.

That’s my recap for April and some of the books I will be reading this month. I am excited about all of these and whatever books I draw from my book jar. This post is pretty long, so I am going to end it here. I am going to the science museum with the boyfriend today. I told him that we should get lab coats before we go and pretend to be real scientists, but he did not like that idea. Maybe next time, lol. I think my bestie (The Art of Failing) would totally do that with me if she were here. She needs to come back to Florida NOW! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Link me to your recap post if you have one or leave a comment with some of the books you read in April or plan to read this month! ❤