Tag Archives: sciencefiction

Top 10 Tuesday: Books I’d Gladly Throw in the Ocean

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about books I’d gladly throw in the ocean!

Normally for these posts I focus on either books I’ve read and enjoyed or books that I’m still looking forward to reading. However, for this post I got to think back on books that I haven’t enjoyed so much. To be fair, even with books I don’t enjoy, I would never go as far to destroy any of them (or in this case, throw them in the ocean). Normally I would just donate them, but I have to say it was fun to reminisce and remember those books that made me feel… strong feelings. Without further ado, here are my top ten books that I’d gladly throw in the ocean!

Top 10 Tuesday: Places in Books I’d Love to Visit

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about places in books I’d love to visit!

It was initially places I’d love to live, but I changed it to visit because, well, I’m a homebody and I don’t really want to move anywhere far away (not permanently at least). It was so difficult to choose for this one! There are so many book settings I’d love to visit for a short amount of time, and it was fun to reminisce on all of the great places books have helped me travel to. Without further ado, here are my top ten choices for places in books I’d love to visit (in no particular order)!

Book Review: “Friday Black” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Spring Break is coming to an end, as is March! While this month didn’t feel as long as January, it certainly has felt pretty long. I didn’t manage to read as much as I wanted to, but that’s ok! I’m just glad that during my break I managed to make time for self-care in other ways, and that I really enjoyed what I did manage to read!

I’m actually still catching up on my reviews for the books I read in February, and Friday Black was certainly a stand-out read from last month! I don’t often read collections of short stories, but I’m so glad I took a leap out of my comfort zone for this one. I discovered this book through going to my city’s book festival in fall of 2018. I picked this particular book talk because it featured Luis Alberto Urrea, one of my favorite authors! Adjei-Brenyah was another novelist featured in this panel, and it was so wonderful listening to him speak. And his book sounded incredible! My now-husband and I immediately purchased his book after, and then stood in line to meet him and get it signed. He is such a kind man and talented writer.

While it may not be a book for everybody, it is definitely a powerful and well-crafted collection of short stories. It is very dark and violent at times, but the commentary contained in this speculative fiction is well worth the discomfort caused by some of the darker, bloodier stories. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Spoiler-Free Review: “Friday Black” is a powerful collection of speculative fiction short stories. These short stories explore everything from…

Top 5 Saturday: Books with a Unique Format

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a unique format.

I had a lot of fun with this one! I enjoy finding books to read that are out of my comfort zone, and one way I do that is by finding books to read with a format that is “atypical” for me. For this post, I decided to sort it by format rather than by specific book, as there were several categories for which I was able to think of multiple examples. So here we go! Here are my top five categories of unique formats for books (in no particular order)!

Top 10 Tuesday: Books Written Before I Was Born

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about books written before I was born.

I had so much fun with this one! Many of my favorite books were written long before I was born. I also frequently read books that aren’t recent releases because I tend to feel like I’ve missed out on books published either when I was too young to enjoy them or before I existed at all. Therefore, I had a lot of options to choose from! Here is my top ten (in no particular order)!

Top 10 Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about authors I read that were new to me in 2020.

I was really excited to put together a list for this challenge! I appreciate how the focus is on authors that are new to me, but not necessarily new in 2020. For instance, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time last year, but Bram Stoker certainly isn’t a new author! I tend to prioritize older books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, rather than new releases each year. It’s not that I don’t read more current releases, it just isn’t usually what I prioritize. On this list, you’ll find a mix of authors that were new to me in 2020 as well as authors that were new to everyone last year! These were all authors that were not only unfamiliar to me, but whose work I truly loved. Here is my top ten…

Top 5 Saturday: Books About Competition

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books about competition.

I don’t read a lot of sports books, but I actually managed to think of several books I’ve read that revolve around competition in some way! Very few of them actually have to do with sports, so it was fun to think of other ways to approach this prompt. Here are the five books I came up with…

Top 10 Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2020 But Didn’t Get To

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about books that I meant to read in 2020, but didn’t get to…

Top 5 Audiobooks of 2020

As rough as 2020 was, being stuck in quarantine sure did make more time for reading! Without my commute to work, I listened to fewer audiobooks but was also able to get to more books in my physical TBR pile! Even with the reading slump I hit this summer (amidst pandemic wedding planning), I still managed to read an astounding (for me, anyway) 100 books, with many of my favorites being from the very beginning and very end of the year.

I have my top books divided up among physical books and audiobooks (since this greatly impacts the reading experience). I considered dividing the lists by genre or by target audience (adult, young adult, children’s), but decided to go by format instead since a great book can be written for any audience and from any genre. I also didn’t commit to a specific number of books to acknowledge for each category, I just identified my standout reads from the year and ranked them within that range.

Without further ado, here are my top audiobooks of 2020!

Top 8 Physical Books of 2020

As rough as 2020 was, being stuck in quarantine sure did make more time for reading! Without my commute to work, I listened to fewer audiobooks but was also able to get to more books in my physical TBR pile! Even with the reading slump I hit this summer (amidst pandemic wedding planning), I still managed to read an astounding (for me, anyway) 100 books, with many of my favorites being from the very beginning and very end of the year.

I have my top books divided up among physical books and audiobooks (since this greatly impacts the reading experience). I considered dividing the lists by genre or by target audience (adult, young adult, children’s), but decided to go by format instead since a great book can be written for any audience and from any genre. I also didn’t commit to a specific number of books to acknowledge for each category, I just identified my standout reads from the year and ranked them within that range.

Without further ado, here are my top physical books of 2020!