Mid-Year Book Freak Out [BOOK TAG]

I can't believe it's already halfway through the year 😱

I just started reading books more in March? But I've read so many more books than I usually do and I feel quite accomplished 😌

I spent most of this half-year reading books that are much beloved by the bookish community since there are so many books and series that I haven't read yet. Some of these books that I've finally read are: Six of Crows Duology, Call Me By Your Name, The Raven Cycle, & Carry On. I really enjoyed most of these very hyped books!

I'm glad I ended up mostly reading books that I loved and I've learned a lot about what I like as a reader. I found out that I actually really enjoy what many consider "pretentious writing". I've also found out that fantasy books are, to me, the ultimate comfort books. I love reading a good, adventurous fantasy book after reading a heart-wrenching contemporary book. I've also found out that contemporaries are usually the books with the most potential to hurt me the most. And I've also found that with contemporaries, I either really love them or I feel quite indifferent towards them.

Since it's the middle of the year, I'd like to share a couple of my stats for this year so I can look back and compare in the future!

By Genre:

(some books fall under several genres)

• Historical Fiction: 3
• Contemporary: 11
• Fantasy: 15
• Romance: 7
• Mystery/Thriller: 2
• Classics: 1

Star Ratings ★:

(This is atypical but 4.75's are rounded down to 4.5, 3.75 to 3.5)

• 5★: 13
• 4.5★: 7
• 4★: 5
• 3.5★: 4
• 3★: 2
• 2.5★: 2

I probably shouldn't have so many 5-star books, but I admit I read a lot of really good books this half-year :")

I took a lot of time doing this tag, since I initially started with a lot of answers for each question but I went back and tried really hard to limit my answers to one book per question. It was...quite difficult...

I've always wanted to do a book tag so yea here we go!

1. Best Book you've read so far in 2020?

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is the most amazing book I've read in my life. I related so damn much to everything Nath and Lydia were going through and I shed tears multiple times while reading everything they were feeling because they were my feelings and I just felt heard and understood, if that makes any sense. 
This book felt as if it was written for me and it just means so much to me. I hope everyone will give it a try sometime.

2. Best Sequel you've read so far in 2020?

It was really hard to choose one out of all the sequels I've read, but I'd have to say one book that really gave me a lot of feelings is Ravensong by T.J. Klune. Though I loved Heartsong with my entire heart, I felt that Ravensong was the best sequel since it did the best job at pushing the narrative forward. And I felt it was the most emotional. I can't recommend this series enough please read it!

3. New Release you haven't read yet but want to?

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender sounds SO GOOD. I've heard so many good things and this just seems like such a great read so I'm hoping to get a copy and read this soon! Also the cover is so beautiful :")

4. Most Anticipated Release for the second half of 2020?

Definitely Brothersong by T.J. Klune! This is my absolute MOST anticipated release I would sell my soul for this book. This series has taken over my life in such a short amount of time and I am in love with Carter and I can't wait to read his story. I am beyond excited for October to come around.

5. Biggest Disappointment?

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is such a well-loved book in the book community, but I was just okay with it. The more I thought about it the more I found things that irked me...

6. Biggest Surprise?

My biggest surprise would have to be liking a series about werewolves? Written in the 1st Person?! I hate 1st Person POV's, yet this series? My favorite. I swore I wouldn't touch anything werewolf or vampire related with a ten-foot pole and here I am, completely gone for this werewolves series. Can I recommend the Green Creek series by T.J. Klune enough?

7. Favorite New Author?

T.J. Klune, who is the author of my new favorite series Green Creek. I just love how poetic his writing style is. There's also this one chapter in Ravensong that I absolutely fell in love with, and it solidified Klune's spot on my list of favorite authors (the chapter in question: green creek/please just wait). Klune's writing has given me a new appreciation for 1st person POV's. I hated 1st person before reading Klune's Green Creek series, and making me realize that 1st person is not that bad is a huge feat in and of itself. I also really loved his new standalone novel The House in the Cerulean Sea. One of the best comfort reads ever.

8. Newest Fictional Crush?

Oh no this one is so hard because it's been a while since I've had a fictional crush... I used to joke it was Ronan's BMW (I still want his stick-shift BMW this hasn't changed) but I think I do have an answer now and it's Declan Lynch from Call Down the Hawk. I love how much he loves his brothers, and I love how everything he does is with them in mind. Everything that makes him who he is—the blandness, the invisibility—they're all for Matthew and Ronan and my heart bleeds for him.

9. Newest Favorite Character

Okay I tried to limit this to a couple but I couldn't. God I have a lot of picks for this one. Characters really make a book for me so I have a long list of characters that I absolutely fell in love with since I can't just choose one:

• ROBBIE FONTAINE (Green Creek)!!!
• Is this even a surprise? I just love how sweet and funny he is and I just really felt for him especially in Heartsong. All he's ever wanted was to find a place to belong and people who are home, and I love him so much for it. 
• Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle) 
• He made me laugh so hard throughout The Raven Cycle series and Call Down the Hawk, but he also made my heart ache with how much he loves and cares for the people around him. Also his BMW & his love for cars >>>>>>>>
• Wylan Van Eck (Six of Crows) 
• He is sunshine personified. He is my comfort character and I fall back on him whenever I'm having a bad day. Jesper's nickname for him, Wylan van Sunshine, is such a perfect fit for him. Such a strong character I love Wylan van Eck.
• Inej Ghafa (Six of Crows) 
• a QUEEN. She is so wise and so good and so strong, I am in constant awe of her. She has such a kind heart and so much love, forgiveness, and resilience in her, she is the kind of person I aspire to be. 
• Adam Parrish (The Raven Cycle)
• a character I had a very complicated relationship with. He is full of so much pride that sometimes he's frustrating to read about, but I think that's what makes him so endearingly human (or maybe he reminds me too much of myself I want to hug him close and never let him go?).

10. Book that made you cry? 

My absolute favorite question. There are a couple this half-year actually since I made it my personal mission to find books that would make me cry, but this was my most recent read and it made me cry the most tears as well.  The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is such a heart-wrenching and beautiful book I highly recommend it to everyone.

11. Book that made you happy?

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston was a joy to read. I laughed the hardest I've ever laughed for a book while reading this gem. I am so in love with Alex and Henry and I adore their relationship so much. The minute I started this book I honestly just couldn't put it down. This book was honestly such a fun time I cannot recommend it enough.

I'd also like to give special shout-outs to these books for making me smile:

• The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

12. Favorite Book to Movie Adaptation you saw this year?

I don't watch a lot of movies, but earlier in the year I watched Call Me By Your Name earlier this year and I loved it a lot! Wasn't the hugest fan of the book but the movie was so beautiful I wanted to watch it all over again for how beautifully shot each scene was. Time to add Italy to my travel bucket list!

13. Favorite Review you've written this year?

Well this is a very difficult question to answer, but I put in a lot of thought and effort into my series review for The Raven Cycle so I'm pretty happy with that one too. Even though this is entire blog is just an outlet for all my thoughts, I've had a lot of fun writing these reviews.
I also recently wrote a review for Everything I Never Told You that I'm pretty proud of :D

14. Most Beautiful Book you've bought this year?

This is really hard because I don't think I bought any truly beautiful books this year? So I'm going to mention a book I bought last year that still takes my breath away whenever I see it on my shelf:

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Thailand for vacation last year with my family, and while exploring the Kinokuniya there I found the thai version of Scum Villain's Self Saving System (人渣反派自救系统) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭) and it is still the most beautiful thing to ever grace my shelves. One of my most prized possessions.

15. What Books do you need to read by the end of this year?

Just a couple books on my TBR that I've been itching to read for a long time but haven't gotten to because I'm honestly really scared I won't like them as much as other people do:

   

• Circe by Madeline Miller
• I really enjoyed The Song of Achilles, and I'm really excited to read Madeline Miller's beautiful writing once again.
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• This is well overdue. I promised my roommate months ago!!! But also I heard it's a little slow and I need to be in the mood for a slower book
• Beartown by Fredrik Backman
• I've heard so many good things, but every time I want to pick it up I chicken out because I know I will feel lots of emotions.
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• I need to read this book I've heard amazing things about it. I've also heard many good things about Thomas's other book On the Come Up and I heard she has another book coming out soon about a character in The Hate U Give so I am very late to this.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The question is: why can't I finish this book? I started it back in March (?) and then my copy of The Dream Thieves came and I dropped everything for it and never picked it back up LOL I know I'm not one for classics but this one hasn't been too bad so far? A few parts that dragged but it drags a lot less than other classics in my opinion
• Vicious by VE Schwab
• It was between this and ADSOM and I decided to feature Vicious since it's been on my TBR longer. But I want to read my very first VE Schwab book! I've never read a Schwab book before!
• A Little Life by Hana Yanagihara
• I had actually taken this off the list because I started reading it earlier in June, but I stopped because it didn't feel like the right time to read it (lol) but yeah one day I will read this and finish it. I actually really like it so far I got 100 pages in? And it was good I like Yanagihara's writing a lot, so one day 😔
• The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune
• By the time I'm writing this & probably posting this, this book hasn't been released yet, but I'm such a huge fan of T.J. Klune. At first I thought maybe it isn't Klune, maybe I just secretly like werewolves. But then I read The House in the Cerulean Sea and it's not just the werewolves, Klune is an amazing writer and storyteller, so yea!
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
• I've heard so many great things about this series and I honestly haven't read enough adult fantasy so I want to read this soon!

Hmm I only listed 9 books here so I should be able to read them all by the end of the year right 😅 ? The problem is I always end up spontaneously wanting to read something when the time comes to pick a new book... The books mentioned are definitely books that I would feel compelled to spontaneously pick up if I weren't reading anything right now.

—璇