2015 Favorites | Books & More

2015 is over, and 2016 is here. To be honest, most of 2015 was kind of a shit year for me, and I'm for the most part relieved that it's over. Hopefully 2016 will be much much better. I have neglected this blog a lot in 2015, and I'm sad that I did. I want to continue blogging, but I just haven't been able to get myself to write anything even remotely coherent. This is also why, most of my latest posts have been 'Top Ten Tuesday' posts. I do plan, and hope, to blog a lot more, and more consistently in 2016. Well, here's to hoping!

Anyway, this post is all about those things in 2015 that were amazing and all kinds of awesome. I really wanted to share all the things I've loved this past year, and that's how this post came to be. Not that it's revolutionary or anything. Most people have posts like this around this time. There isn't really any rhyme or reason to these lists other than their overall category. 

Favorite Books of 2015

2015 was not the best reading year for me. I read a lot in the first quarter of the year, but then it all went down hill for me. I read a lot of 'meh' books in 2015, and I wasn't really invested in what I was reading, no matter what it was. However, I did manage to read some really fantastic books, and some of them I'm definitely thinking of re-reading in 2016. These books aren't in any order what so ever.

Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell

This is the third book in the Something Like series by Jay Bell, and I think that this may be my favorite book of the series so far. I knew, going into this book, that it would break my heart, and oh boy, did it do that. I loved getting backstory on Jace, and it made me love the character even more. I'm so in love with this series, and I can't wait to continue it in 2016.

Carry The Ocean by Heidi Cullinan

Honestly, I think that this was probably my favorite book of the year. This book deals with a lot of different topics including depression, sexuality, and autism spectrum disorder. It's such a beautiful book, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to re-read it in 2016.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

This is one of the last books I read in 2015, and it was amazing. I don't venture out of my contemporary comfort zone a lot, but with this book, I'm glad I did. I loved the main characters, adored the world, and I was intrigued by the plot. I'm so excited to read the next book when it comes out.

Fawn by Nash Summers

This short story, I decided to read on a whim. Actually I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to read it when I first saw it, but I'm happy that I did. The writing was beautiful, and it made me cry in several places. It's a beautiful story, and I might re-read it this year.

Take Them By Storm by Marie Landry

This book made me smile. There were so many things I loved about this book, and I actually have a review up of this, so if you want to know more about my thoughts, you can check that out here.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

I have a review up of this one too – I’m on a roll here. I went into this book with very high expectations, and this book completely exceeded those expectations. I read this one in a day – which I’m still surprised that I actually managed, but I just couldn’t put the book down. This was a beautiful story, and even though it could be a little slow at time, I still loved it.

Love Lessons series by Heidi Cullinan

Okay, so this is not one book, but a whole series. Again we have something written by Heidi Cullinan on the list. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about this series when I started it. However, it grew on me, and just got better and better. The characters were fantastic, and the writing really drew me in. This series has a diverse cast, including a trans character, very briefly a bisexual character, and an array of representation from the G side of LGBTQ. I would highly recommend this series. My review of the first book in the series can be found here.


Honorable mentions: Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz, Anything Could Happen by Will Walton, Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.

Favorite Movies of 2015

I feel like I didn't watched a lot of movies in 2015. Most of my time has been spend on catching up with various TV series, so I’ve kind of neglegted watching movies. And when I finally sat down to watch a movie, I reached out for an old favorite, instead of watching something new. However, I did manage to watch some new releases. My favorite one has to be Star Wars The Force Awakens. Actually I’ve watched it twice, at this point. This year was also the year where I went to the movies with my younger brother a lot. Three of those movies has made it to my favorite list - Fast and Furious 7, Big Hero 6, and Straight Outta Compton, and there were all pretty darn awesome in their own ways. I would highly recommend all four of them.

Favorite TV Shows of 2015

Now, I watch a lot of TV. Probably a little too much, but it takes my mind of off things. I have three series that are pretty much my all time favorites, and two new shows that I absolutely adore. But let's start with the three oldies. Criminal Minds, Castle, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit are some of my all time favorite shows, and this year I watched maybe a little too much of them. I usually have one of these three shows running in the background when I’m writing, or really, doing anything. As of new shows, this year I’ve absolutely loved Jessica Jones, and Daredevil. Both shows are incredible, and I can’t wait for the second season of Daredevil.

Favorite Music of 2015

I have listened to a lot of music this year, and I have definitely expanded my horizon. According to Spotify my two most listened to artists in 2015 were Beyonce, and Nicki Minaj, and if you know me, that is not really a surprise. I absolutely adore both of these ladies, and I'm sure I'm going to keep listening to then far into 2016. Next are two artists that I haven't listened to much before, but I'm very happy that I've started to listen to them. Those two artists are Angel Haze, and Drake. Drake is all my brothers fault. Seriously, he listens to a lot of Drake, like a lot, and now I do too. As for Angel Haze, I've known about them for a while, but have just never listened to any of their music, but holy hell, I'm glad I did, because it's pretty darn amazing.

Favorite Moments of 2015

Even though there were a lot of bummer moments in 2015, there were some really amazing moments that I fondly look back on. One of those is when I went to London back in July. I went with my mother, younger brother, and cousin. It was such a lovely trip, and it made me want to travel so much more. Another moment was when I, in June, passed my Danish Exam, and I can now technically call myself a Danish teacher. I'm still not done with my teacher's education, but it's two years, out of four down, and it removed a big weight off of my shoulders. The last is not really one moment, but a series of moments with my two favorite people in the world. I spend a lot of time with my cousin Charlie, and my best friend Marie, and I'm so grateful for all that time. Basically those times are some of my very favorite moments from 2015. 


So these were my favorite things of 2015. Sometime in the next couple of days I will post a '2016 reading and blogging resolutions' post. Hopefully. Anyway, I hope you had a great 2015, and that you entered 2016 in an awesome way.

Top Ten Tuesday || 2016 Debut Novels I'm Looking Forward To

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week I'm talking about some of the 2016 debut novels I'm looking forward to reading. Honestly, I hadn't heard much about most of these, and they were pretty much all found on a late night GoodReads browse. However  I like the sound of all of them, so I'm definitely interested in getting them, or you know, at least reading them. (also, as far as I know, all of these are debut novels, but if not, then you're welcome to tell me so)

1. Jerkbait, 2. Symptoms of Being Human, 3. If I Was Your Girl, 4. Shallow Graves, 5. Beautiful Broken Things

6. Please Don't Tell, 7. These Vicious Masks, 8. The Girl From Everywhere, 9. The Love That Split The World, 10. The May Queen Murders

11. True Letters From A Fictional Life, 12. Seven Ways To Lie, 13. Underwater, 14. The Way I Used To Be, 15. This Is Where It Ends

I didn't really feel like I could narrow it down to 10, so the list ended up having 15 books instead. Oh Well. These are in no way put in any order of release date, or even which I'm most excited to read. Of course there are some that I'm more excited to read than others, but isn't there always? I think that If I Was Your Girl, These Vicious Masks, The Girl From Everywhere, and The Way I Used To Be are the books I'm looking forward to the most. At least as of right now, but it might change. 

What 2016 debut novels are you looking forward to reading?

Review || Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson

Title: Trust the Focus

Author: Megan Erickson

Publisher: InterMix

Published: March 27th 2015

Format: eBook

Genre: NA, LGBTQ

Series: In Focus #1

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Find on: Goodreads

Summary:
With his college graduation gown expertly pitched into the trash, Justin Akron is ready for the road trip he planned with his best friend Landry— and ready for one last summer of escape from his mother’s controlling grip. Climbing into the Winnebago his father left him, they set out across America in search of the sites his father had captured through the lens of his Nikon.

As an aspiring photographer, Justin can think of no better way to honor his father’s memory than to scatter his ashes at the sites he held sacred. And there’s no one Justin would rather share the experience with more than Landry.

But Justin knows he can’t escape forever. Eventually he’ll have to return home and join his mother’s Senate campaign. Nor can he escape the truth of who he is, and the fact that he’s in love with his out-and-proud travel companion.

Admitting what he wants could hurt his mother’s conservative political career. But with every click of his shutter and every sprinkle of ash, Justin can’t resist Landry’s pull. And when the truth comes into focus, neither is prepared for the secrets the other is hiding.

Thoughts:

I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. The premise of it all sounded interesting, and I think it delivered what it set out to do. It was very sweet and cute, but in the end, I wasn’t blown away by the story, and I was left with wanting more from it. Or, I think I expected to get something more from it. The story deals a lot with growing up. Both boys have just graduated college, and is at that point in life where they need to figure out where to go. I really liked how the theme was shown throughout the whole book.

The romance in the story was so sweet, and there were some absolutely adorable moments between the two characters. These were usually scenes where not much was happening, but it was the small things that mattered, and that absolutely melted my heart. However, I would have liked some more build-up to that romance. Because we don’t get that much back story on the characters, and where they have already been in regards to the romance, it loses some of what could have been a build-up to it.

“Trust the focus and put down the camera.”

  

The characters made the story interesting. I really liked both characters, even though they could be difficult to tell apart some times, because their voices were, in many ways, very similar. I feel like we got to know so much about Justin and not enough about Landry. I would have loved to get more back story on him, which in turn, I think, would round the character more, and make him stand out from Justin Not having that much on Landry made him seem a little flat and, at times, unrealistic as a character. But besides them falling a little flat from time to time, they seemed real to me. They both got frustrated, and they both lashed out, and when they did, it felt real – that’s something I really appreciated about the book and the writing.

I enjoyed reading from the perspective of Justin. I think he made for an interesting main character, but at the same time, I would have liked, again, to hear from Landry. Granted, it made parts of the book seem more real, and more uncertain, because we had no idea what was really going on, but that also frustrated me to no end. There were some intense parts in the book, but they seemed far to short. That's one of the problems I have with this book. I kept wanting more, more drama, more intense scenes, more yelling and conflicts. It could be because of Justin's personality, that he wants to avoid the all too intense feeling, but as a reader, it gets frustrating to read. 

I think that the photography aspect tied the story well together. In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure how it would be incorporated, but the way it played into the story just worked so well. I’m glad that it wasn’t just a fleeting theme throughout, but that it actually brought something to the story and the plot.

The ending, for me, was a little bland. I feel like there could have been done something more with it. It was beautiful, and as a whole I liked the ending, don’t get me wrong, but I would have loved a little something more, and I kind of wanted the story to go off with a bang (not literally though).

Wrap-up & favorites (+ I'm back!) || September 2015

*taps the mic* is this thing on?

So, I’ve been missing in action for about two months or so (probably more). Honestly it wasn’t something I planned to do, but life went in that direction, and so here we are. It turned out that I needed to take the summer, and more, off – mostly to actually think about whether I wanted to continue this blog. In the end I decided that I do want to continue. I can’t promise that I will post regularly or anything, but I will try to get at least one post out a week – hopefully more.

So what have I been doing since you last heard from me? The answer is not that much. Okay, I have done some things. I spend 5 days in London with my family, and I had such a great time. I want to go back there some day and explore even more. Basically I want to see more than just the outside of Wembley Stadium. I mean, it’s a beautiful stadium, but it gets old pretty quick. But besides that, I haven't really been doing that much, other than relaxing a whole lot. School has started again in the beginning of September, and I'm currently not technically in school, but out teaching, which is tough, but I'm loving it.

I haven’t really read anything all that much while I’ve been away from the blog either. I wouldn’t call it a reading slump exactly, but yeah, it pretty much was a reading slump. Most of the time I wasn’t in the mood to read anything, and when I finally was in the mood, I ended up reading a shit ton of Teen Wolf fan fiction. Oh well, at least I was reading.

But without further ado, here are my September wrap-up and favorites. (I'm not posting a wrap-up + favorites for October, because honestly, I haven't really done/read anything)

|| BOOKS READ ||

I read 2 books, 1 graphic novel, and 4 short stories/novellas in September. It may not seem like all that much, but I think it was a pretty decent reading month. I have reviews for some of these coming up sometime in the near future.

Lonely Hearts by Heidi Cullinan ★★★★

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang ★★★

Wonderboy by Angel T Kirkegaard ★★★

Fawn by Nash Summers ★★★★★

Waiting For Clark by Annabeth Albert ★

The Best Man by Olley White ★

Tonight by Karen Stivali ★

|| BOOKS ACQUIRED ||

I bought way too many books in the month of September (I know, I'm sorry), but they are all ebooks, so I don’t feel that bad about it. It didn’t put too big of a dent in my budget. I want to try and spend less money on books, because quite frankly, I have too many right now that I need to read, and I can't really make room for book buying in my budget anymore. So, September is hopefully going to be the last month in a while where I buy a shit ton of book. Nevertheless, here are the 16 books, yikes, that I bought in September.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Him by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen

Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Crossroads by Riley Hart

Your Voice Is All I Hear – Leah Scheier

Good Omens – Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

Sabriel – Garth Nix

Magonia – Maria Dahvana Headley

Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon

Charm & Strange – Stephanie Kuehn

Sex & Violence – Carrie Mesrobian

Two Boys Kissing – David Levithan

Ketchup Clouds – Annabel Pitcher

Nick and Charlie – Alice Oseman

Afterworlds – Scott Westerfeld

|| MOVIE & TV FAVORITES ||

Most of September was spend with re-watching Castle, and Queer As Folk. I haven’t watched season four of Castle in a very long time, so it was lovely to revisit the series again - same thing with Queer As Folk (just.. the entire series). I also went to the cinema with my younger brother to watch Straight Outta Compton. I really enjoyed the movie, but I think it got even better because I watched it with my brother. He does know a little more about the music than I do. I do have a couple of problems with the movie, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

|| MUSIC FAVORITES ||

As a result of watching Straight Outta Compton, I spend the rest of the month listening to a shit ton of Ice Cube and N.W.A. I put it on when I’m on my way to school, and it wakes me up pretty great. Besides that, the past months or so, I’ve finally started listening to Halsey, and I absolutely love her music. It has taken over my playlists, and I’m not mad about it at all.

|| LIFE FAVORITES ||

September was a whirlwind of a month. I started school again, and within the first two weeks felt the stress and the pressure. Luckily there were things in September that made some of that stress go away for a little while. One Saturday in September I went out with my cousin, and we danced the whole night. It's been such a long time since I've done that, and we had such a fun time. Another thing is the fact, that I finally decided that, yes, I do want to continue blogging. And though it may not be consistent for the first month or two, I really want to stick with it this time around.

Top Ten Tuesday || Books On My Halloween Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week is a Halloween freebie, and I decided to list some books that I would love to read this Halloween - not that I think I will.

Steam, Horns, It, Gone Girl, You

The Merciless, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Woman In Black, Night Film, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Okay, truth time, I don’t actually have a Halloween reading list. I don’t even really celebrate Halloween at all. I mean, I do read a scary book (read: try to), watch a scary movie with my dad, and then stuff my face with Halloween chocolate, but that’s about it. Nonetheless, I do love reading creepy books, even though I don’t do it that often – that needs to change (perhaps a 2016 bookish resolution?). These books are not necessarily all horror books, but they are books that I think/I've heard are going to be creepy reads. All of them are books that I, in a perfect reading world, would love to read around Halloween time (not all the books at once, but maybe one or two). Steam, I'm definitely going to read this Halloween, but I still want to try and read one of the others as well.

Bonus - two Halloween-esque movies I'll probably watch this year + one I wish I was watching:

Before I was a reader, I used to spend all my money on DVD's. Honestly, if it wasn't for Netflix, I probably still would.  So as a tiny bonus to this Halloween Top Ten Tuesday, I'm going to list some movies perfect for Halloween.

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: One of my favorite movies of all time. I mean, not it's not a scary movie, but do Halloween movies really need to be that? I don't think so, and I'm definitely going to watch this a little closer to Halloween.

2. Sleepy Hollow: This is a creepy movie. It's a Tim Burton movie, so it's kind of a given. Again, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, and I'm happy to re-watch it once more.

3. It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: I feel like this is such a Halloween classic. I remember watching this on TV as a child, and absolutely loving it. I don't own it, so I can't actually watch it, but I definitely would if I could.

So this was my top ten tuesday for this week. What are some of your favorite movies for Halloween? And what are some of your favorite creepy reads?

Top Ten Tuesday || Books On My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week I'm back in the blogging game, and I'm going to talk about some of the books I would love to read this fall. Knowing me, I probably won't read any of them this fall, but let's hope.

Sabriel, Charm and Strange, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, A Darker Shade of Magic, Only Ever Yours

The Art of Being Normal, Annabel, Everything Leads To You, Prisoner of Night and Fog, Your Voice Is All I Hear

So I haven't actually been reading all that much in the past months - but more on that in another post. Therefore, I'm not really sure that I'm going to get to any of these, but I certainly hope to. Most of these books have been on my running TBR list for a long time, and I think it's finally time to read them. Then again, isn't that the case with most of the books on our TBR lists? Oh well.  I am very excited to get to all of these. Most of these are on my eReader, so luckily they will be very to lug around, especially when I start teaching again in October. Hooray for not having to carry a million books at a time. Also, all of these books are some that I already own. I do have books that I want to read, that either isn't released, or that have been released, but I just haven't gotten my hands on them. However, I have no idea when I'd get to them, so I decided not to put them on this list.

So these are some of the books on my fall TBR list. What books are you planning on reading this fall?