The Sunday Post #25 — Hiatus

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news.

You guys probably haven’t seen me around the blogosphere lately. I’m home from my California/Nevada hiking trip, but I’m leaving for my Kentucky school trip in a few days. I’m going to be on a blogging hiatus from November 12-22. I have a Top Ten Tuesday scheduled, but nothing else currently. It’s going to get very quiet around here.

On The Blog last week

• On Monday I reviewed The First Part Last by Angela Johnson.
• On Tuesday I showed pictures of my unpopular opinions.
• On Wednesday I reviewed How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
• On Thursday I wrapped up October.
• On Friday I possessed an author (exorcism style) and forced her to do my bidding.
• On Saturday I showed you my most-anticipated book haul.

On The blog this week

• On Monday I review Looking for Alaska by John Green.
• On Tuesday I list the movies I’ve failed to see.
• On Wednesday I review American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.
• On Friday I show you which books amused immature child-me. 

  

In My reading life

November is going to be such a bad reading month. I’m embarrassed to say that it’s November 8^th, and I’ve read nothing this month. I have started two books. One of them is The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson and the other is The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.

In My Blogging Life

I’ve been posting my Printz Award reviews. Check them out if you haven’t already.

I’m way, way behind on answering comments and commenting back. If you’ve left a comment on my blog in the past week or two, I promise I’m not ignoring you. I’m also way behind on emails and Goodreads messages.

In the rest of my life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. My hiking trip was awesome. I have so many pictures to show you.
2. My hiking boots didn’t tear up my feet too badly. I only have three blisters.
3. New books were waiting for me when I got home.
4. I got accepted to the workshop I want to do next spring. Now I need to find the time to get all the work done for it.
5. We spent the last day of the hiking trip in Las Vegas, and I got to eat at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. I’ve been watching Gordon Ramsay on TV for years. I’ve always wanted to try his food, and I finally got to! It was really good. Here are some dark, unedited pictures of it.

I hope you had a great week!

A Most-Anticipated Book Haul

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten recently.

A few of my most-anticipated releases of 2015 came out in September and October, so here is my most-anticipated book haul.

Carry On – Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen. 

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. 

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up. 

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

A Madness So Discreet – Mindy McGinnis

Grace Mae knows madness. 

She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum. 

When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.

Walk on Earth a Stranger – Rae Carson

Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend—who might want to be something more. 

She also has a secret. 

Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it. 

When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California—where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey.

The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson

Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”

FF Friday: In Which I Possess An Author (Exorcism Style) And Force Her To Do My Bidding

Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

This week’s question: If you could take the place of one author, which author would it be, and what changes would you make to his/her writing style?

Answer: I don’t want to change any author’s style because I like the variety of books and writing styles in the world. I can find something I love in almost any author’s style. However, if I could crawl into JK Rowling’s mind, I’d make her write another book set in the Harry Potter universe. I really want a prequel about Harry’s parents’ time in Hogwarts.

The follow part: If you are a book blogger and you leave a link to your blog in the comments below, I will follow you on Bloglovin’. I’d love it if you also followed me. If you want to be friends on Goodreads, Twitter, BookLikes, or G+, that would be awesome, too. Click the links to go to my pages on those sites. I’m looking forward to “meeting” you.

October Wrap-Up

October Overview

October was a really good month. I finished my second semester of graduate school, went hiking through Death Valley, and got a ton of reading done. The blog hit 300 Bloglovin’ followers and 15,000 pageviews. Thank you to everybody who takes the time to read my braindead ramblings.

I got home from Death Valley very late on Tuesday night, so I haven't had time to go through my pictures, but the trip was a lot of fun. There was a sandstorm on the last day. I had never been in a sandstorm before. Getting sandblasted was an interesting experience. I might be able to do some travelogue posts if you guys want to see more of my trip.

Post-sandstorm selfie. Who knew that hair could hold so much sand?

Books I Read

I read 14 books in October! See how productive I can be when I have slightly less schoolwork? Unfortunately, November is going to be a horrible reading month. I will be traveling a lot and starting school again. I’m actually going to have to take a blogging hiatus from November 12-22 because I won’t be home.

Here are the books I read last month. Reviews for most of them are up or will be up in the next few weeks.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Vengeance Road – Erin Bowman

The Weight of Feathers – Anna-Marie McLemore

Monster – Walter Dean Myers

Kit’s Wilderness – David Almond

A Step from Heaven – An Na

Postcards from No Man’s Land – Aidan Chambers

The First Part Last – Angela Johnson

Jersey Angel – Beth Ann Bauman

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

Looking for Alaska – John Green

American Born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang

The White Darkness – Geraldine McCaughrean

Tilt – Ellen Hopkins

Best Books of October

Since I read so much, it was really hard to pick favorites, but here are my top three:

3. Looking for Alaska – John Green

2. How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff

1. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Most Popular Reviews

Here are the most-viewed reviews I posted in October:

1. Vengeance Road – Erin Bowman

2. Postcards from No Man’s Land – Aidan Chambers

3. Love Letters to the Dead – Ava Dellaira

Most Popular Posts

These are October’s most-loved non-reviews:

1. 10 Signs That You Read Too Much Young Adult Fiction

2. Top Ten Tuesday: Series I’ve Quit This Year (So Far)

3. I Saw The Martian Movie!

Tentative November TBR

November is going to be a bad reading month. I know I’m going to read The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. Other than that, I have no idea. I would like to continue reading the Printz Award winners because I’m enjoying them so far.

All The Things!

All The Things (AKA the number of unread books on my TBR shelf) = 33 books.

I’m currently reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.