Bumper Post of New Year Tags!

Hello all!! So it’s a bit late to still be doing end of year wrap ups, but since I was tagged for quite a few end of year tags, I figured it was a fun lazy-Sunday activity to go through a few of the questions. I hereby present to you: THE BUMPER POST OF NEW YEAR TAGS (although admittedly I won’t be answering all the questions…)

Best of 2016

Thank you so much to incredible Eve Messenger for tagging me to do this one!!

Favourite New Author

I have a few: Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Terry Goodkind, Isaac Bashevis Singer

Favourite Series

Books So Fun They Felt Like Reading Parties

Best World-Building

Favourite Indie Series

I don’t know!

Best Female Protagonist

Ayaan Hirsi Ali- it’s a bio, so not really protagonist, but whatever, I’m gonna keep pushing this book regardless!

Best Male Protagonist

Scrooge!

Favourite New Book Boyfriend

Ronan- who else?

Best Setting

Favourite Plot Twist

Hard! I can’t remember back over all the plot twists of 2016, but probably the one in Gone Girl, even if I knew it was coming!

Best Cover

Most Devastating Read

I’m gonna steal Eve’s answer and say the Serpent King

Favourite Audiobook

Well I only listened to two audiobooks, so I’ll say Hitchen’s cos of his voice, but it’s not a great book…

Best Small Press Standalone

No idea!

The #1 Book No One Else Seems to Like But Me

Hmm not many other people have read Singer or Potok, so I guess that counts?

End of Year (2016) Fiction Favorites Tag

Annnd onto the second tag! Thank you to the absolutely amazing Rivermoosereads for tagging me to do this one!

Rules:

• If you do this tag please tag me at Kate@meltingpotsandothercalamities(I’m the only writer or Kate at this blog, but that’s just my tag name).
• Please answer the questions. What’s the point of the tags if you don’t answer the questions?
• You can tag as many people as you like!
• Oh, and to clarify: the show or book or whatever do not need to have been created IN 2016, like, you can say your favorite book is The Green Mile, which is okay for this list if you read it for the first time in 2016.

Like Sam, I’m going to talk about new things I got into in 2016- not things I continued liking. And I’m mostly sticking to books (though there will be the occasional TV/movie mention)

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK AND MOVIE FROM 2016? TV SHOWS OR WEBTOONS/ COMICS ARE ALSO ALLOWED, BUT AREN’T NEEDED.

Book: Shadow of the Wind

TV Show: Hustle! It’s a really old show, but I watched it for the first time this year- so good!

Movie: Bridge of Spies- partly cos it made me realise my taste in films might be maturing

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR OF 2016? SCREEN WRITERS ARE ALLOWED.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ACTOR AND ACTRESS OF 2016?

I’m just gonna go with Adrian Lester, partly cos of my aforementioned Hustle obsession (but mostly cos he’s hot)

WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS OF 2016? LIMITED TO TEN CHARACTERS.

Book: Ronan, Han, Theo, Scrooge, Anne of Green Gables, Bobbie, Mark Watney and basically everyone in War and Peace

TV Show: Monel from Supergirl (again, it’s cos he’s hot)

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL COUPLE AND BROTP?

Book: Adam and Ronan!

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL ANTAGONIST?

Book:  Amy from Gone Girl and AIDAN from Illuminae

WHAT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING YOU SAW ON TV, MOVIES, COMICS, OR BOOKS?

Book: This beautiful edition to my bookshelf…

2016 Year in Review Book Tag

And lastly I’ve picked a handful of questions from the rather inventive 2016 Year in Review Book Tag. Quick thank you to the awesome Never Seen a Nevergreen for tagging me to do this!

7. Brexit: Name a book you have an unpopular opinion towards

Easily the God Delusion!

11. Leonardo DiCaprio FINALLY won the Oscar: What was your most anticipated book release this year?

13. Samsung phones: One book that blew your mind this year!

And that’s it from me for now! I’m not tagging anyone for this specifically cos I kinda missed the boat- but if you would like to do any of these please do! 

Let me know in the comments what you’re doing this (admittedly quite grey and overcast) Sunday afternoon!

My Bookish Overview 2016

Hello all! I thought I’d cram one more post into 2016 before I rush off to start ushering in the New Year!

This year has been an absolute rollercoaster for me in the reading department (and in a lot of other ways too!) and I somehow managed to read 153 books! I know- I can’t believe it either!! But the number of books I read is not the only thing I want to measure. If you remember (and to be honest, I barely remember doing it) I made three bookish resolutions at the end of last year, and I’m gonna look back over them now to see how I did!

I have had an amazing reading year- and a lot of that is thanks to *you*! All of your amazing recommendations meant that my average rating was 3.5 (higher than normal) and I rated a whopping 76 books 4-5*. I also managed 40 classics/modern classics this year! There is no way I would have thought at the beginning of the year I would read this volume of books and maintain the quality I wanted- but somehow I did! All in all I’d say I successfully hit the target. And let’s be real, one of those books was War and Peace, so I’d have said this was a success even if the rest of my reads had been 1* airport fiction.

I did this… and I also didn’t. The issue is I kept buying books- and have still more coming in the post! Out of the ones I had on my TBR till the end of time, I read all the physical books I owned- but not as many on the Kindle. Next year I’m gonna have to change that- but until then, I’d say this was a success.

Well…. This was a whopping failure. I managed to do a tag week, like I promised- but I didn’t even get close to doing this. I’m going to try and tackle more next year, but let’s face it, there’s no way this is gonna be a resolution again!

And that’s it from me! No more wraps ups and no more 2016… Have a great new year and an awesome 2017!

Top Ten Books of 2016

Alrighty then- it’s finally time for my top ten of 2016!!! I’m really pleased to say competition for a spot on my top ten was really tough this year- I’ve read some incredible books- so much so that I felt the need to highlight my honorary picks yesterday in a post all of their own! Honestly, it got to the point in the year when I felt like I should stop reading good books so there would be less competition on this list!

For that reason this year’s list is special- these aren’t just great books- but books that are going to stay with me for years to come. I hope that some of them will do the same for you. Without further ado- here’s my top ten in ascending order:

(All reviews are linked to the pics)

This is the only book on the list I didn’t review- but that was actually because my emotions were too fraught after reading to come up with anything coherent. What I will say now is that it was nothing short of beautiful– beautifully written, beautifully conceived and beautifully illustrated. It was quite simply, the perfect story. (For the record it gets *all the bananas* from me!)

Such an important book to read– this book is only lower down on this list because, while brilliant, it is a heavy subject. That description of FGM at the start is not for the faint of heart!

This series blew me away. It’s bloodydamn brilliant!! Shout out to Kat and everyone else that told me to read this- so, so grateful!

One of the best things to come out of this year has been my sudden interest in sci fi- I am so excited to read more in the coming years, but I feel like this was my gateway drug. Ever since I read it, I just kept going back to how perfect it was- sciencey terms and all! (Come on, it’s got Mark Watney!)

I can’t believe this was the year I finally read War and Peace! This tome has been on my tbr forever- but this year I felt spurred on to tackle it- and I’m so glad I did, because it turned out to be rewarding for all the right reasons: fantastic plot, realistic characters and thoughts that will make your head hurt! (In a good way 😉 )

And this is the point in the list where things get really personal. This may be a children’s story, but I was moved so much by this and found Singer’s version to be truly telling about some of the horrors faced by Jews during the pogroms.

I read the second one of the series the other day and was just as blown away as with the first one. The imagery and symbolism here is simply magnificent. I love what this series is doing and adore Riggs unique style.

This book didn’t just feel personal to me, it had a universal message– the central allegory of this story, of letting go of baseless hatred, is one I think we can all learn from. This story is bound to stay with me for quite some time!

A book about books, when it’s done well, has to be one of my favourite things ever! And this book is one of the finest I have ever read. Imaginative, philosophical and just plain beautiful- what more could one ask for! I am also eternally grateful that this book was recommended to me by Zezee– book blogging gets you the best recommendations!

Yes, the top two books on here are books about books! This book is up there for me as one of the best books I have *ever* read. It is in the realm of the Book Thief and is without a doubt the best book I have read this year.

That was so fun to do! Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? And what was your favourite book of 2016? Let me know in the comments!

 

Books That Really Deserved To Be On My Top Ten For 2016

…But didn’t quite make it…

So this is breaking all the rules of having a top ten, but as I was writing my posts for my favourite books for 2016, I realised I had more honorary mentions than space on the list- so I thought I’d do a little teaser here, just to whet the appetite. Here are the books that really deserved to be on my top ten (and probably would have made it in any other year)…

 

 

Okay, now that’s done, better go and finish writing my top ten… wish me luck!

My Most Disappointing Reads of 2016

2017 is fast approaching and it looks like it’s time to start wrapping up 2016! But what would be an end of year wrap up be without discussing my most disappointing reads of 2016? These aren’t necessarily terrible books by any stretch of the imagination- but they are the books that I had high expectations for and that let me down. All the books I did reviews of will be linked to- enjoy! Without further ado- here are my worst books of 2016 in order of how much I disliked them:

While this had a pretty cover, what’s inside wasn’t up to much. This was made worse after I went to Amsterdam and saw the real dollhouse this was based on. It was just too pretty to have such a rubbish story attached to it!! Here’s my mini review for more details of why I wasn’t overly impressed.

As you may or may not have seen in my review yesterday I was left pretty deflated after this one- frankly it bored me to tears- I did get to write a fun book trailer about it though!

I don’t know why, but I thought this might be a really good romance. It wasn’t though. In my review I talked about how I wasn’t sure about the plot- and you know what? Months after writing that, I’m still not sure…

I had a ton of issues with this book- but here’s a list of 13 problems that I had.

Really blah- I can’t remember much about it except that I didn’t get anything out of it.

I have only read one other book by Wilkie Collins and I loved it- sadly this book did not live up to that at all- with a plot I couldn’t follow and characters I didn’t relate to in the slightest, this book bored me senseless.

I have loved every single one of Maas’ books before this one- so I was incredibly disappointed with this one- you can read my review here to understand why this left me prickly. That said- I have good feeling about the sequel!

This book is one of those books that’s supposed to be one of the best books of all time… but it didn’t do it for me. Not at all. Here’s why…

I can’t say I wasn’t warned that this wouldn’t be romantic- but the true title should have been “This Is A Love Story About A Road”- a very specific road in North West London that the author seems obsessed with even though most of this book takes place in Amsterdam.

Oh gosh this one is easily my least favourite book I read this year. This book made me absolutely furious. I think this book has the longest rant I wrote this year! Plus it spawned a rant about why I hate moralising books.

So what do you think of this list? Agree? Disagree? And what were your worst books of 2016? Let me know in the comments!

 

Top 5 Most Anticipated Books of 2016

Okay, so I missed the Top Ten Tuesday train *and* I didn’t make it to ten. Although that’s just cos I wanted to share the ones I am most excited about, even though I’ve seen loads of other books on various blogs today that I’ve added to my tbr (oh my goodness- that thing is like a monster that’s growing out of control- soon it’ll overtake all the books I’ve ever read in my life). It’s also a little weird to me that I’m looking forward to 2016 before I’ve properly wrapped up 2015- I still finalise my choices for my top ten so I can post it!

Alright, enough digression, here’s my most anticipated releases of 2016:

1. Throne of Glass 5

I don’t need to explain this, do I?

2. Heartless by Marissa Meyer

I loved her other fairy tale retellings- need I say more?

3. A Gathering of Shadows

Ahh I’m in  love with this series- can’t wait to see where it goes

4. Lady Midnight

Let’s face it, at this stage, if it has Shadowhunters, I’m sold.

5. Winds of Winter

Okay, this one’s fairly optimistic- cos no one knows if the date will be pushed back again. But if it does come out you can bet I will be freaking out!!

Alright, that was a fairly quick update- I doubt I really needed to explain any of these- hope you enjoyed my two cents anyway 🙂