Tag: book tag

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Halloween Book Covers Tag

speakingbookish

I first saw this tag on Kristin Kraves Books site and thought it looked like so much fun! This tag was originally created by Kit over at Metaphors and Moonlight. Please check them both out! Similar to the way Kristin did her tag I am going to try and stick with books I’ve read but I’m going to attempt to narrow it down even further to 2022 reads whenever possible. Let’s bring out the stunning cover art!

Skull | Skeleton | Bones

Paradise Club was my first horror/slasher. I normally go for creepy, atmospheric horror so this was quite the change for me. I was very surprised what a bloody good time it was! I definitely recommend this indie title to anyone who likes some murdering mayhem.

Pumpkin

I’m cheating a bit with this choice because I’m currently reading The Halloween Tree but I’ll definitely be finishing it in 2022 so I’m gonna go with it. I don’t have a lot to say about this title yet because I’ve only just started it but it does have a fabulously creepy cover!

Blood

I just finished this horror graphic novel by the artistic duo that brought us Monstress. I absolutely loved it- The Night Eaters has a dark atmosphere and lots of gore but it’s also pretty funny. Five stars- absolutely recommend especially if you like Junji Ito or even Lovecraft.

Spiders, Bats, or other Creepy Creatures

The third book in the Small Spaces middle grade horror series has a cover that fits right in with all the rest in the quartet- this giant monster fish gives me the creeps! I finished the fourth and final book in this series a couple of weeks ago and I’m very sad to see the story come to an end!

Something Witchy

What’s more witchy than the cauldron prominently displayed on the cover of this awesome witchy book unique in that it’s set in a contemporary world and follows a coven of elderly witches? This is a fantastic new release and if you love witchy books like I do please give this one a go!

Severed Body Part

“Human” wasn’t specified for this prompt so I’m going with a severed wing- this book is very much psychological horror and I found it quite disturbing. I’m looking forward to reading the other title I have by this author sometime soon.

Full Moon

Here’s another indie but this time in the urban fantasy genre. I was drawn to these books because they’re both supernatural and set in New Orleans- two of my favorite things in books! I’ve been able to find books from this year for every prompt so far… let’s see if I can keep it up!

Cemetery

Another witchy book set in New Orleans… starting to see a pattern here? This is a series I think I’ll have to hold off on continuing until I reread this first book. I liked it but it was definitely confusing at times. what a stunning cemetery gracing the cover, though.

Haunted House

The Me You Love in the Dark is the embodiment of dark & gothic. The house is as spooky as it looks on the cover and so is the “ghost” that calls it home.

Ghost

The graphic novels are really winning tonight! Sheets is one of the most beautifully rendered GN’s I’ve ever read; the color palette in this one is incredibly vibrant and of course it’s chock full of ghosts.

Classic Monster | Vampires, Werewolves, etc.

Dead Until Dark is a book I’ve read and am currently rereading. The Southern Vampire Mysteries series are some of my all time favorites and I also love the showtime adaption, True Blood. As you can see a lovely vampire graces the cover of this one!

Candy

Here is a book I mentioned earlier- the finale to the Small Spaces quartet. The candy is hard to see on this cover but its laying in the road where the clowns are walking in the parade.. luckily this is a scene from the story and the candy actually plays a somewhat important role to move the plot forward otherwise I may not have noticed the candy at all. So lucky I found this one!

Someone in a Costume/Mask

I did have to choose a book from last year for this one although The Halloween Tree also works since there are several children in costumes on the cover.. but I’m only using each book once. Geekerella has our two MC’s dressed up as characters from a movie in the book for a con. Definitely fits the prompt! This is a book I never expected to feel anything but meh about but I actually really liked it and plan on finishing the series (someday).

Orange & Black

Here’s an ombré cover that has orange faded into black. I’ll Fly Away is a poetry collection that was just okay. I’m still searching for a poetry collection that speaks to me. Poetry may just not be for me but I’m not giving up yet.

Something Creepy

I’m going with What Moves the Dead for something creepy. I think a rabbit with a second rabbit growing around it in the form of mushrooms is very creepy.. especially having read the book.

This tag was a lot of fun- it was like a bookish scavenger hunt! I hope that in doing this tag I have also put some great books on your radar. If you also do this tag (and I hope that you do!) please tag me so I can see what books you chose!

I wish you the spookiest of spooky seasons xx 👻

Blog Posts

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag | 2021

speakingbookish

Hello! I CANNOT believe it’s already time for this tag; half the year is over and with it half the amount of time you have to reach your reading goals for 2021. I’m doing pretty well this year. I’ve been bouncing between 2-7 books behind schedule. So nothing that isn’t easily remedied by the end of the year.

As of right now I’ve read 73 books but when I sat down and made some graphs to share and decided on my answers I had only read 65 so all my stats and book choices will be based on those 65 books. Let’s start off with some general book stats!

Graphs are fun, are they not?? Its always so interesting seeing these results. Also, shocking. Like the fact that I read more contemporary/romance than I did fantasy or sci-fi?? Who even am I? Although, there is actually an explanation for this. Audiobooks. I love them. But over the last couple of years I have discovered that I have a hard time enjoying fantasy in that format so I stopped trying. I’ve turned to bingeing long romance series instead- mostly during my commutes and housework. Well, they add up! Not only that but if you combine fantasy and sci-fi together which I often do it brings that section up to 26 books. Back to an even (almost) playing field! I had a feeling I would be leaning more into the adult classification this year. I still love both YA and middle grade and don’t plan on giving up on either of those but I’ve definitely found that YA hasn’t been grabbing my interest as of late. Although I do still have a bunch of YA books on my TBR that I can’t wait to read. As for the publication graph- I have been trying to read more indie whether that be an indie author or indie publisher. Partially because I’ve collected so many and I really need to prioritize them and also because I love finding those hidden gems. I could still do better in this department but I can say for absolute fact that this ratio is an improvement on last year. Lastly, I have to say I’ve been a little more stingy with five star ratings this year. I’m not a critical reader by any means but I have been making an effort to save those top tier ratings for the best of the best.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s move on to the tag questions:

Best book so far this year.

The Silver Cage is so good I’ve already read it twice this year. Both times in one night. It’s not a happy book. Actually, it’s downright heartbreaking, but any book that can emotionally touch you like this book did me deserves the top spot. So far no other book has touched it.

Worst book so far this year.

I wasn’t originally going to choose this book for my answer to this one. But then I realized the book I was going to choose will actually answer the “most disappointing” question coming up so this was it’s runner up. I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but I didn’t like Severance. It was meandering and pointless. I know this story was a metaphor for some profound message blah, blah, blah. I don’t care.

Best sequel you’ve read so far.

This is such a tough one- I’ve read some excellent sequels so far! I’m going with Heartstopper Vol. 4 but there are a few honorable mentions: The Silver Cord by Anonymous, Meat Cute by Gail Carriger, & Beautiful by Christina Lauren. Also, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare is both a sequel and a series starter which is why I didn’t choose it but it absolutely fits for this question as well.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to.

I’m going with a lesser known title for this one- there are many more popular titles that would also work for this question (The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab for instance) but I feel like those books get talked about enough in the book community. I love anything to do with the Titanic, Acrobats (or circus themes in general) the time period and asian culture. So Luck of the Titanic should be a win for me.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

Easiest question ever: Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. Hands down my most anticipated release of the whole damn decade (ok, not really)- I’m literally counting down the days! An honorable mention would be My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 2 by Emil Ferris (I’m hoping beyond hope for this to release this year).

Biggest Disappointment.

The award for biggest disappointment goes to This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. This book was hyped to the freakin’ rafters. I’ll never understand why. Pretty prose isn’t enough to make this a great book. The story should also make sense and be set in a world that you can actually envision in your head. That would be a big nope for this one. Runner up for most disappointing would go to On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. While I didn’t hate this one I was expecting to LOVE it and I didn’t. It was good- but that’s it.

Biggest Surprise.

Another easy answer- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I realize this book got a lot of hype in its day but that doesn’t matter. I’m not a huge lover of contemporary so I thought I’d enjoy this well enough, check it off my list, and move on. Yeah…no. I loved this book. Levi carved out a little inconspicuous hole in my heart and will stay there forever. Who knew? Certainly not me.

Favorite new author (debut or new-to-you).

I’ve only read one book by Layne Fargo so far but she left an impact. I loved They Never Learn and immediately purchased her debut, Temper. a couple other new favorites are Andy Weir (The Martian) and Heather O’Neill (The Lonely Hearts Hotel).

Newest favorite character.

I’m going with Mark Watney- he’s an excellent character and I still remember him in detail like I just read The Martian yesterday- but if I could cheat and choose a book from after the 65 book cut off I would absolutely, without a doubt, choose A.Z. Kimrean (specifically Adrian- the A half of A.Z.) from This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us by Edgar Cantero (another new favorite author that I discovered in 2019 with Meddling Kids).

Book that made you cry.

The Silver Cord is the Prequel to The Silver Cage. This book didn’t break my heart like the first book but it did make me cry. Not like The Silver Cage, though, in which I cried all the way to work the morning after reading it.

Book that made you happy.

Meat Cute will make any fan of the Parasolverse smile. Gail Carriger has a knack for writing silly stories that you find yourself invested in 100%. This short and sweet story finally explains the infamous Hedgehog Incident.

Most beautiful book you’ve received this year.

I’ve added some really beautiful books to my collection this year but some are real standouts. Like the first two books in the Lore & Lust series by Karla Nikole- and they’re even more beautiful in person. Some other stunning editions I’ve received this year are the Illumicrate editions of Spinning Silver and Uprooted by Naomi Novik and the LitJoy Crate editions of Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. I’m also expecting the Bookish Box editions of the Blood and Ash series which I’ve seen photos of but haven’t actually gotten yet.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

This is a very long list- even if I exclude all the ARCs I need to read, sequels, and rereads. But if I had to pick just a few I’d go with Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, Dark Waters by Katherine Arden, and The Last by Hanna Jameson. Again, there are several super hyped and recently released novels that I could have added but I chose to forgo those since they are always talked about. While these are still popular they aren’t being talked about every time I turn around and they are either highly anticipated (Dark Waters) or have been on my TBR forever (all the rest, haha).

And thats a wrap- if you’ve read anything great (or terrible) be sure to let me know in the comments! Talk to you soon 🖤

Blog Posts

Birthday Book Tag | 2021

speakingbookish

I’m a bit late doing this tag since my birthday was June 11th but that whole week was quite busy (I’ll be sharing a bit about that in my next blog post!) and I didn’t get a chance to sit down and do this. I first saw this tag on Kristin Kraves Books blog and I recommend you go check out her awesome content! Anyway- here goes nothing!

Birthday Cake: A book with a plot that seems cliché but you adored it anyway.

This was definitely the hardest question to come up with an answer for since I have a hard time thinking of a book I loved as cliché… but I think its universally acknowledged that most (not all) contemporary romances follow a certain formula and while the formula is the same the details surrounding it are not. That being said- I adored the Beautiful series by Christina Lauren. Beautiful Bastard was great but I’m letting it represent the entirety of the series for my answer. Cheating? Maybe a bit- but its my birthday after all. I’d also like to add that if you’re looking for a binge-worthy romance series to listen to on audio this is an excellent selection. There are several books and novellas to get through plus a companion series with some overlapping characters (Wild Seasons).

Party Guests: You’re most anticipated book release this year.

While the first question was the hardest to answer, this was the easiest. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff is my most anticipated release of the last two years. It was originally slated for a Fall 2020 release but got pushed back a year. We are finally three months away from this book hitting shelves and I am ecstatic. Pictured above are all the copies I have preordered so far. I know this seems excessive and crazy but I feel zero shame. I arrived late to the party with Nevernight and I wasn’t about to make that mistake again! From top to bottom and left to right these are the editions in the photo: Obsidian Mooncrate exclusive edition, Waterstones exclusive edition, Goldsboro exclusive edition, General U.S. edition, General U.K. edition, and the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition. I will link any editions listed that aren’t currently sold out. As an aside- this isn’t me flexing or anything like that. It’s just me celebrating a book I am so damn thrilled about.. and it wasn’t all roses and rainbows. The Waterstones edition sold out 3 times before I was able to snag one- the site kept crashing (a repeating theme here), and I wasn’t even able to get a Goldsboro edition the traditional way. I set my alarm, got up two hours early just to be awake and prepared, I memorized my credit card info and copied the number from another source just to make things quicker, I had three devices open and ready (my MacBook, my phone, and my mother’s iPad). Of course, as predicted by myself and many others, the Goldsboro site crashed. In fact it crashed ten minutes before the preorder even dropped. I then spent several hours refreshing and refreshing the page just to have it crash again and again until finally Goldsboro posted to social media that they were sold out. So that was a big bummer, especially after being as prepared as I was. BUT I was extremely lucky that my mother, knowing how important this edition was to me, went on Ebay and paid an extravagant price for one being sold by a GSFF member that had early access to the book. She did this because it was my birthday and also because I beat cancer last year. I appreciate her so much for many reasons, but especially for securing this book for me when I thought all was lost. I would also like to add an honorable mention: My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 2 by Emil Ferris. I’ve been waiting on this graphic novel for the last year and it looks like it may finally release this fall!

Birthday Presents: A book that surprised you with how much you loved it.

The Thorn Birds is a book my mother insisted I read. It was originally published in 1979 and it’s a brick of a book. It was a slow moving but profound story and I am so glad that I finally made time to read it. An easy five stars. Another book I’d like to mention for this one is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I purchased a copy of Fangirl when I was still trying to decide what I really liked in contemporary books and it ended up sitting on my shelves for an age. Finally, I decided I’d either read it or un-haul it and decided to at least give this hyped book a shot. I could not believe how much I enjoyed it. It’s so far removed from what I’d usually pick up but I’m very happy that I did.

The Happy Birthday Song: A book that certainly deserves all the hype it got.

When this question came up a few books immediately came to mind- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid- but I feel like I’ve talked about all those titles at least a few times on social media. The Martian is a book that I read in the last month and haven’t had much of an opportunity to talk much about. I loved this book so much. I expected to like it since it was so popular in the book world but I had no idea that I would devour it. I immediately watched the movie after finishing it and while I did enjoy it, it couldn’t hold a candle to the book. I did love seeing all the elements of the story brought to life since a lot of the things described were hard to imagine, but the movie just couldn’t beat being directly in the mind of Mark Watney. I have since purchased both Artemis and Project Hail Mary and hope to get to them soon.

Happy Music: A book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes.

There are so many books that could fit for this one but Lady Midnight is one I read very recently and found myself reading and rereading passages just because they were so beautiful. Here is one of the quotes that stuck with me long after the story ended:

These pictures are my heart. And if my heart was a canvas, every square inch of it would be painted over with you.”

Julian Blackthorn

Getting Older: A book that you read a long time ago but you think you would appreciate more if you read it as a more mature reader.

There’s no thinking about it- I KNOW I’d appreciate this more now than I did when I was 11. I read this when I was WAY too young and all that has stuck with me is the bleak atmosphere and the sheer terror I felt while reading. I bought a copy of this a couple of years ago and plan to reread it soon- possibly this fall.

Sweet Birthday Memories: A book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding time in your life.

I mentioned briefly above that I had and beat cancer in 2020 (at the right bold age of 35). Predictably it was one of the darkest times of my life and there was very little joy happening. That being said, there is very little in this world that could extinguish the happy glow emanating from this graphic novel and its other three installments. If you can read this without smiling then you must be dead. Another book I read with a smile on my face nearly the entire time was A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood. This Great Gatsby inspired novel was simply stunning and I loved everything about it!

Well, that concludes the Birthday Book Tag- I had a lot of fun answering the questions and sharing some tidbits of my life with you all. Looking back I think it’s awesome how many different genres were featured here. There is some adult romance, sci-fi, horror, YA contemporary, a graphic novel, both adult and YA fantasy, and even some historical fiction. I’m so glad that I read so broadly because each genre and age category has something wonderful to offer and I want to experience it all! If you’re reading this consider yourself tagged! And if you do it please let me know- I’d love to see your answers as well! Stay tuned for a Birthday Book Haul post coming soon. I don’t normally share book hauls but I had a great time book shopping/ordering and I’m excited to share all the titles with you! See you soon.