2015 Bookish Survey

To get out of my end of the year non-blogging slump I'm participating in the 6th Annual End Of Year Survey hosted by The Perpetual Page Turner.

Number Of Books You Read: 67
Number of Re-Reads: 4
Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?

 I can't split out by book, so I'm doing the entire series since I read them all in 2015: The Elemental Trilogy.  So freaking good!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

City Love, I had high hopes, but it was awful.

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss.  I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did.

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

 Since the stipulation is "and they did" it'd have to be The Golden Compass (granted he's only 1/3 of the way through, but he's actually reading it!).  Otherwise it'd be The Burning Sky, that one I told 2 people to read and one kind of not really started and the other probably will read it this year.

 5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

Aside from The Elemental Trilogy (which would be all three)...

 Started: Illuminae

Sequel: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Ender: Winter

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015?

 Sherry Thomas

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

 Becoming Josephine.  I don't typically read historical fiction unless there's a cool twist to it, but this was just a straight up accurate history through the eyes of Josephine Bonepart (hence the fiction).  It was really awesome!

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

 Illuminae

 9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

 Either Illuminae or Reawakened

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2015?

 The Thing About Jellyfish.  I chose this book purely based off of the cover, it's fantastic.

11. Most memorable character of 2015?

A.  He's such a unique character, I can say with certainty there is no other character ever written quite like him.

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015?

The Hero and the Crown.  There's a reason why I keep coming back to this book.  It's one of the best books I've ever read.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015?

The Unconscious Confessional yes, I know next to no one has ever heard of this book.  But it was the most thought provoking.  This is my friend's book, so after reading it I really had to focus on structure and themes and character voices.  It was an eye opening experience to the world of book writing.  I suppose you could call it life-changing to, because it brought us closer together as friends, before we were merely co-workers who shared a mutual love for Doctor Who.

 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read? 

 A Clockwork Orange

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?

"I never got to experience this overabundance of male pulchritude myself" - Immortal Heights

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015?

Shortest: The Golden Compass Graphic Novel, Volume 1

Longest: Winter

 17. Book That Shocked You The Most

We'll Never Be Apart

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

There were so many...

Iolanthe and Titus, Simon and Baz, every couple from Winter, Kady and Ezra, Sydney and Adrian.  If I had to choose a favorite it'd probably be Simon and Baz, but that's just my mood at the moment.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Lizzie and Nell

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2015 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

 The Name of the Star 

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

 Everyday (thanks Nori!)

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015?

Bo from Dumplin'

23. Best 2015 debut you read?

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

The Dinosaur Lords Paradise sounds so cool!  The more I read about it the more I wanted to know about the world itself.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2015?

Owner's Share

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

The Elemental Trilogy.  This series should get WAY more love than it does, I don't understand why there's next to no hype around it.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Waving Backwards: A Savannah Novel it was so bad, just so so bad.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2015?

Illuminae

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Fans of the Impossible Life I was mad at pretty much everything the characters said/did.

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?

Daniel is Reading

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015?

The Thing About Jellyfish

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

Didn't really have one, goes back to me being awful at responding to comments.  Hopefully this year I'll do better!

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I really only did BEA, and participating in Top Ten Tuesday, which is my favorite blog meme

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

Receiving my first comment on a post (that wasn't from a friend).  People were actually reading my blog!

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

Since I started my blog this year, it would be that, figuring it out and learning how to successfully write reviews and post things without a lot of downtime.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

by views it's Summer 2015 Giveaway which is totally understandable, who doesn't want free stuff?
by comments it's Top Ten Tuesday [13]

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

My Short Story Sunday posts, when I actually get around to posting them...

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

OwlCrate

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes, my goal was to read 50 books, I read 67 (only 65 according to GoodReads because I couldn't count my friend's book and I didn't mark Fangirl as re-read).  I didn't do as well with the PopSugar reading challenge, I was 18 books short because I wasn't counting books for double things.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016?

Rodin's Lover.  I will read this before I go back to France! (although, I also need to read Anna and the French Kiss and Isla and the Happily Ever After before I go back too...)

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)?

Winds of Winter it better come out this year!

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Probably Bookishly Ever After.  I don't really get super excited over debuts, I'll read them and love them, but I never eagerly anticipate them.

 4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016?

Aside from Winds of Winter (Song of Ice and Fire) it would be Gemina (The Illuminae Files)

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2016?

Be more vocal outside of the actual post.  Meaning, have more than GoodReads updates on my twitter and respond to comments

6. A 2016 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:

I don't believe I've read any 2016 releases yet, so, none.  

Waiting on Wednesday [28]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating

This week I am waiting on The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry (January 26, 2016)

Summary from GoodReads

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

Why I'm Waiting

This sounds really intriguing, minus the football-ness to it.  The disappearing world sounds so interesting! I can't wait to see what it actually is, a parallel universe or a vacuum within the existing world.  Either would be awesome!

Top Ten Tuesday [27]

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that allows bloggers to share their top ten lists for that week’s topics

Top Ten Resolutions I Have for 2016

1 - Finish Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I'm over halfway done, but I've been working on it since 2005)

2 - Read the two books that have been sitting on my night stand for over a year - Rodin's Lover and Les Adventures de TinTin before I go to France in May.

3 - Beat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  I haven't been playing this one too long (for me) only a year or so, but I do want to finish it before it drags on too long.

4 - Beat Persona 4 before Persona 5 is released.  This one will be trickier, I'm almost done with it, but Uncharted is so much more entertaining at this point!  And my PS4 is shiny and new :)

5 - Watch The Last Unicorn.  My best friend has been telling me to watch it for years, I finally got a copy fall of '14 and I still haven't watched it...

6 - See more Broadway shows.  2015 was a poor showing, only 4 (espcially compared to 2014 when I saw 9!).  So far I have one confirmed: Hamilton (!!!!!!!!!!) so I need to work on what other shows I'm seeing.

7 - Start learning Swedish again.  I was really into it last year, but then I stopped and never got back into it.

8 - Catch up and stay caught up with my TV shows.  I really only stay on top of Doctor Who.  I at least need to with iZombie and I'm so far behind on Verbotten Liebe, I don't even know if it's even worth it since Christian left the show, but it ended so I should at least watch Ollie to the end.  Not to mention all of my other shows I love and can't seem to keep up with.

9 - Reach my weight loss goal.  This is a big one for me, I tend to self-sabotage a lot when I'm trying to lose weight, so I'm going to try really really hard not to this time and actually achieve my goal - and maintain it.

10 - Stop being passive about certain things in life.  Another big one for me, I hate being forward with stuff, I kick back and wait for things to happen to me.  It's never worked out well in the past and I really want to try to overcome that so things can actually have a chance to work in my favor rather than not start at all.

December Round Up

My December

So December has been insane, which is why there haven't been many posts, and why this one is posted late. I had so much vacation time that I had to use so I took a trip to New Mexico to visit my cousin, which was awesome. We went on lots of hikes and I found some really cool pottery and worked stone (top and bottom respectively in the right picture) as well as dinosaur fossils and petrified wood (the fossil is in my hand in the left picture).

The scenary in New Mexico was amazing, I've never been to that part of the country before, I've really only done the coasts and Chicago.  Note the snow on the ground, it was colder there than it was in Connecticut!

Then I got back to work and was slammed with extra stuff to do, and to top it all of the renovations on the house are still going on and so my life is a hectic disarray.

I went into the city to see Allegiance, sadly my only Broadway show this fall, which was amazing!  Lea Salonga and Telly Leung were brilliant and George Takei was awesome.  I'm so happy I got to see it with the original cast!  I hope it can beat out Hamilton for some Tony's...

When I was in Time Square I saw this billboard and it made me smile.

Unfortunately when I went in it was Santa Con, so it was crazy, but I did get some good laughs at what people where wearing.  I even saw some Whos from Whooville (not pictured).

I got my December OwlCrate right before I left work for the year.  I'm excited to read Da Vinci's Tiger it sounds really cool!  I also got a really cute to-do list, a scented candle, a super adorable Le Petit Prince magnet and a journal to list the books I've read - it's pretty much obsolete because of GoodReads, it's what people would have done 15+ years ago to keep track of their books, and the way it's set up you can't even really re-purpose it.  Oh well.

December's Artsy Stuff

I didn't do too terribly much this month.  When I was in New Mexico I made some pottery on my cousin's wheel.  It was the first time I'd ever used one.

I also learned how to turn a wooden bowl from my cousin's husband.  The bowl on the top had a crack in the wood so it shattered when I was hollowing it out, so I have a pendant that I can make a cool necklace out of as well as a shallow bowl.  The bowl on the bottom was my first attempt at it and I love it!  The wood I used is awesome too!

I made this guy for my friend for Christmas, I absolutely love it!  I almost wanted to keep him for myself!  I think he's my favorite mouse I've made (narrowly beating out my Link mouse I made a few years ago for another friend).  It's the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) from Doctor Who if you couldn't tell.  I even made him a sonic screwdriver!

I did some of my typical over-the-top baking as well - my annual Bûche de Noël aka Yule Log, aka Yule Bûche (according to my brother).

Also, I did my nails twice this month (well, aside from plain colors)

This is Miss Jen Fabulous's design (if you like nail art, check her out, she's amazing!), the polar bear is super cute!  I did this one for Christmas.

This was my New Years Eve design, I found a similar one on Pinterest.  I absolutely loved this one, it took forever to do and sadly didn't last long.

December Blog News

Since I've been so busy I haven't had much time to read, let alone write/post.  I'm going to try my hardest to get back on track for January, but stupidly I grabbed two insanely long books to read, a biography on Alexander Hamilton (I'm a little bit obsessed with the musical right now - I blame my friend 100% for that) and The Way of Kings.  I'm going to try to break up the reading with shorter books so I can get some reviews done, but it may be difficult to get away from Hamilton, he's so interesting!  Don't give a history nerd an amazing historical figure to read about when they don't have time to devote to it.  Seriously, I'm itching to write a thesis on the revolution and I can't stop reading about all the players in it!