Top 5 Wednesday l February

February 7th & 14 : M/M Couples &  F/F Couples

I don't like romanced focused novels of any kind, and as I have moved away from Contemporary and YA. You find less and less information about your characters sexual preference. 
For people who are calling BS. Every detective ever is broody with a poor romantic history or a platonic romantic history (sometimes we get any info, more often not really..)

I can only think of one couple for each.. 
1. Magnus and Alec, The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare 
2. Pippa and Felicity, Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray

February 21st: Favorite Romance Novels (Authors)

1. Mary Janice Davidson
2. Dark Hunter Novels, Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. Sisters of the Moon, Yasmine Galenorm
4. Katie McAlister
5. Immortals After Dark, Kresley Kole 

February 28th: Favorite Urban Fantasy Books *Book Babble Crossover Topic*

To stay in the Valentines spirit I am not really going with my favourite, but with the ones that learn and rotate heavily around only LOVE

1. The Daughter of Smoke and Bones Trilogy, Lani Taylor
2. Fallen, Lauren Kate
3. The Nightside Series, Simon R Green. * This is actually one of my favourite series and it has very different and interesting romances. 
4. Night Huntress, Jeaniene Frost
5. Spiders Bite, Jennifer Estep

Top 17 of 2017

Top 17 Books Of 2017

The Top 3

In order, #1 being the best of them all

1. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
2. The Necromonicon : The Complete Works Of, HP Lovecraft
3. The Dark Tower Series, Stephen King

The Next 5

In no particular order

1. The Butterfly Garden, Dot Hutchison
2. Heartless, Marissa Meyer
3. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones
4. Rage, Stephen King as Richard Bachman
5. The Martian, Andy Weir

The Remaining 9 

Again in no particular order

1. Feed, Mira Grant
2. World War Z, Max Brooks
3. The Lesser Dead, Buelmhan
4. The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare
5. Sugar, Salt, Fat, Michael Moss *Non Fiction
6. Cannibalism : A Perfectly Natural History, Bill Schutt
7. Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin
8. 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher
9. American Gods, Niel Gaiman

Stephen King l 2017

1. The Shinning
2. Carrie
3. It
4. The Green Mile
5. The Dead Zone
6. Bag of Bones
7. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
8. Cell
9. Cujo
10. The Tommyknockers
11. The Mist
12. Under the Dome
13. Dr. Sleep 
14. Joyland
15. 11/22/63
16. Blockade Billy
17. Black House
18. Christine
19. The Colorado Kid
20. Cycle of the Werewolf
21. The Dark Half 
22. Desperation
23. Dolores Claiborne
24. Gerald's Game
25. Salem's Lot
26. The Stand
27. Misery
28. Insomnia
29. Mr Mercedes
30. Finders Keepers
31. End of Watch 
32. Skeleton Crew
33. Nightmares and Dreamscapes
34. Night Shift
35. Just After Sunset
36. Everything's Eventual
37. Different Seasons
38. Four Past Midnight
39. The Gunslinger
40. The Drawing of the three
41. Wastelands
42. Wizard and Glass
43. Wolves of the Calla
44. The Song of Susannah
45. The Dark Tower
46. Sleeping Beauties

Richard Bachman

1. Rage
2. Thinner

Wrap Up - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2017

I am a huge fan of both series and stand alones but my TBR series list is continuously getting out of hand. I am always trying to finish at least 6 series at once. 

Completed

Duologies

Alices Adventures in Wonderland & Alice Thorough the Looking Glass and What She Found There, Lewis Carrol

Shame and Daughters of Shame by Jasvinger Sanghera

Trilogy

His Dark Materials, Phlip Pullman
The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare
Gemma Doyle, Libba Bray
Fred The Mermaid, Mary Janice Davidson
Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones
Age of Legends, Kelley Armstrong

Series

The Dark Tower, Stephen King (7 Books)

The Selectio,Kiera Cass (5) + Companion

Graphic Novels

Bone, Jeff Smith (9) + Prequels (2)
Overwatch, Various Authors (10)

Started

Dragonlands (3/?)
Matched, Allie Condi(1/3)
The Hatching & The Skittering, Ezekiel Boone (2/3)
Newsflesh, Mira Grant (1/3)
Fallen (3/5)
Lincoln Rhyme, Jeffery Deaver (3/?)
Aliens, Steve Perry + Various  (3/?)
The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare (5/6)
The Collector, Dot Hutchinson (1/3)
Chrestomanci, Dianna Wynn-Jones (4/6)
Verhoven, Pierre Lamaitre (3/4)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (1/3)
Stevens and Windermere, Owen Laukkkanen (1/?)
Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice (3/12)
A Song of Ice and Fire (3/6)

The Posts from Previous Years :

Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies - 2015/2016/2017

 Series, Trilogies, Duologies Completed 2016- December 31 2016
Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2015!- December 27 2015

Ongoing, Unfinished & Won't be Finishing Series - June 9 2015
Completed Series Trilogies and Duologies - June 7 2015

Wrap Up l December 2017

1. A Storm of Swords, George RR Martin (Song of Ice and Fire #3) *audiobook
2. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles Book #2)
3. The Queen of the Damned,Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles Book #3)
4. The Snowman (Harry Hole #7), Jo Nesbo
5. HP Lovecraft Short Stories Collection
1. Dagon
2. The Music of Erich Zann
3. The Others
4. The Evil Clergyman
5. The Fisherman of Falcon Point
6. From Beyond
7. The Other Gods

Started

1. A Feast For Crows, George RR Martin (Song of Ice and Fire #4) *audiobook
2. The Body Thief, Anne Rice

Top 5 Wednesday l December

December 6th - Bookish Things You're a Grinch About

-- Since being a grinch is a funny thing, try not to make this serious topics that make you angry (like lack of diversity or abusive relationships in fiction, etc) as this is supposed to be more of a petty bookish things you hate. This can be stuff about covers, dumb tropes, etc. Have fun with it.

1. When one book cover is beautiful and gets super popular so then you end up with 1001 copycats
2. Books with super small print, you buy them because they make the whole book smaller but then you have to read that little print. 
3.  Amazing Books With Ugly Covers, this doubles down when they change the covers from something ok (or heaven forbid beautiful) to something ugly
4. When they mix and match the books in a series, 2 hard cover and then a paperback, changing the covers. So stressful. I mean really!
5. Sales Stickers / Recommendation Stickers on my book.

December 13th - Characters on the Naughty List

Characters You Don't Like

1. Clary and Jace, separately and together, I don't like these two at all. The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare
2. Gwendolyn, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Dianna Wynne Jones
3. Tressa, Dragonlands, Megg Jensen
4. Hanna, and Just about everyone else in 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher - this is a tough one because I liked the book overall, but I have huge issues with how it comes across. I have several rants about this already, but back to my point. The characters are all very whiney and shallow and one dimensional and have no redeeming qualities... 
5. Queen Levena - A whole book just trying to redeem her character, and it still wasn't enough. But I do love to hate her. 

December 20th: Top 5 Books of 2017 

1. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
2. Heartless, Marissa Meyer
3. The Cellar, Minette Walters
4. The Dark Tower, Stephen King
5. The Butterfly Garden, Dot Hutchison

December 27th: 2018 Wishlist
--Looking forward into the new year, this is a list of the types of books you'd like to see more of in 2018! Try to avoid actual titles, and discuss themes, genres, or tropes you'd like to see more of in the new year!

1. Creature Features
2. The Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice) and Sleeping Beauties (Stephen King) have both opened the doors to worlds that are 100% women (or at least 90%) using elimination techniques or science to both procreate or curb the male population, it is a really interesting concept and someone could really write an original and interesting book on a variety of premises in this setting. (if they are low key on the crazier feminist, pushy statement, angle)
3. Horror : Short Story Collections
4. A really good non-fiction on the issue of "popularizing problems" (warning this would be SO controversial). Though a variety of sources - non-fiction reading, TED talks, conferences, statistics, being an older sister, and simple observation - I have noticed that people love to belong (common well known fact) but what about when people want to belong to something incredibly risky and potentially destructive? For example its been "popular" to have various mental illness in particular lately Depression and Bipolar (which was ADD and then ADHD when I was a child) which people have been very adept at faking, hand in hand with companies wanting to sell their drugs... studies on "mental illness contagion" "suicide contagion" and any other danger that people are willing to risk in order to fit in. 
5. More books with platonic relationships, with normal people. Romance isn't everything and LGBTQ+ should be represented in literature, but authors are saturating us with these characters now.  Particularly YA. Not that I think we should be pressing the "straight, white non minority" into everyones face either. Plenty of these novels I've been reading would have been amazing and are amazing, for all the other reasons. Unless someones race, gender or sexuality is adding something, you just end up taking away from the story. 

Top 5 Wednesday l Fall 2017

September / October / November

September 6th: Classes Based on Books/Characters 

I haven't read very many school setting books since I was in school 6 years ago... so I struggled a bit with this question. 

1. Talamasca Classes, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Studying Vampires, Werewolves, Paranormal Activity, Psychic Phenomenon with access to all kinds of proof and secret information
2. How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (from World War Z, Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy, The Resident Evil Novels, Everything from the initial outbreak, to weapons and how to use them, how to fortify your structure, the best and worst strategies. 
3. A Magic Class taught by Chrestomanci and or Howl from Diana Wynn Jones books
4. Any Hogwarts classes (yeah yeah not supposed to include this on the list but trying to fill the gaps here)
5. Criminology/ Serial Killer courses. 

September 13th: Books/ Authors to Read without the Synopsis 

1. Stephen King - his synopsis tend to be under-whelming and off topic in a round about way. I have gone into many of his books thinking "this is a witches book" or "aliens" and ended up with so much more than that, or that "topic" was really the smallest most insignificant part of the novel in the end. 
2. Fred The Mermaid, Mary Janice Davidson - This goes for most romance novels, they really can't do a story justice because the novels are character driven and not plot driven. It always makes the novels seem flat and silly in the synopsis (and some are no doubt), and/ or it gives away the entire plot. 
3. YA novels, As a teen (13,14,15) I could spend all day combing through books and reading synopsis and loving every single one. Now it seems like they all say the exact same thing over and over in different words. Good books and Bad books and novels I'm indifferent too are all summed up in the same way.

This question was good if your a synopsis reader.... which I'm not. I go into most books blind (because I like the cover, because I like the author, or because its been recommended).

I might do a list in the future that is best synopsis, which is way harder to find in my opinion (I am talking something really special and different)

_____________________________________________________________________________
September 20th: Favorite Fancasts - Not my thing so no answer sorry people.
_____________________________________________________________________________

September 27th: Authors/ Books/ Series You've Read Because of Booktube/Blogging/etc. 

1. Jane Austen 
2. HP Lovecraft
3. The Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
4. Kelley Armstrong
5. Lani Taylor

So if you know these authors and their books they all have a few things in common, they have lots of book and those books have lots of pages. These were authors that just didn't catch my attention for a variety of reasons, but after hearing so many good things over and over I finally decided to give them a try and ended up loving these series. 

October 4th: Books Featuring Witches 

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling. - This probably made the top of everyones list but.. whatever. 
2. The Crucible, Arthur Miller - Almost non fiction and in my opinion not what readers think of when they think "witch". 
3. The Otherworld Series, Yasmine Galenorn
4. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones
5. Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray 

I have so many books that are all about witches in my TBR hopefully this motivates me to read a few. 

October 11th: Favorite Creepy Settings 

1. Derry, Maine + The Overlook Hotel, Stephen King
2. The Chamber of Secrets and The Haunted Forest, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
3. HP Lovecraft's Existential Beyond + Dunwich
4. The Bamford Apartments, Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin
5. The House on Number 55, Lodovico Street, "Franks Room", The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker

October 18th: Books Featuring [paranormal creature of your choice] : 

Vampires

1. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
2. The Lesser Dead, Christopher Buelman
3. Salems Lot, Stephen King
4. The Strain, Guillermo Del Toro
5. Dracula, Bram Stoker

October 25th: Non-Horror Books that Scared You 

1. Not Without My Sister, Kristina Jones - This is a non-fiction account of the Children of God Cult, and its so horrifying, I had and have (after 6 reads) a hard time getting my head around, the fact that it is a true story. That something like this cult can exist in our modern day world... it just leaves you speechless. 
2. The Watcher in the Wall, Owen Laukkanen - A predator pushing vulnerable teenagers to commit suicide. To say more would give too much away. But this was supposed to be a typical detective novel and ended being way creepier than id anticipated. I think this actually ended up as an episode of Criminal Minds. 
3. A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley - This is a classic satire, that was written to make people think. Which it did, but reading it almost 75 years later and seeing it come true is a creeping, eerie horrible experience. 
4. 1984, George Orwell - Just like the above BNW
5. 11/22/63, Stephen King - Along with the multitude of other Stephen King's that are not classified as horror. They always have something very eerie and/or sinister

November 1st: Genre Benders

1. Stephen King *Doing the T5W enmass like this, I feel like every week at least once I mention King, He's such a big part of my reading (year round, but especially from October - December) that is hard for me to not include him and his 65 books...
2. A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness - This novel had a younger target audience but ended up dealing with very adult topics, it was a YA/ Fantasy/ Horror/ Contemporary / everything book. Haunting and Beautiful
3. My Sisters Keeper, Jodi Picoult - This book covered so many different angles, from growing up (child to teenager, teenager to adult, adult to parent) and in the process having to make impossible choices, illness, death, sickness, life were all present topics as well.  
4. The Dark Hunter Series, Sherrilyn Kenyon  - These are some of the most interesting romance novels I have ever read, way more complex than they have to be, but in an approachable/understandable/easy to read way. She tackles various historical and mythological angles, the topics of rape, child abuse and surviving these situations/coping. All based in a semi contemporary semi high fantasy realm/earth mix. These books range from 100% romance, to YA to mystery/thriller.. she covers her bases
5. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz - This book and this series drove me insane. It fits in no category at all. But was a great read (if its your cup of tea, one of those books that you will love or hate with nothing in between)

November 8th: Problematic Faves

Characters you don't want to love, but you can't help liking. 

1. Gemma Doyle, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray - There are 1001 issues I had with this girl but I still really loved her and the books
2. Edward and Bella, Twilight, Stephanie Meyer - a whole obsessed generation, should be seeing this on everyones list.
3. America, The Selection - such trashy books, but so perfect
4. Uglies, Scott Westerfeld - There is a theme here isn't there? YA's, particularly from that high school period... 

November 15th: Nostalgic Book Boyfriends/Girlfriends

-- Characters you swooned over when you were younger. This was a topic from our suggestion board :)

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling - Is there ever a bookish question that cannot be answered with Harry Potter? I had an equal crush on Ron.
2. John Taylor, Simon R Green 
3. Bones, Night Huntress, Jeannie Frost
4. Ig Parish, Horns, Joe Hill - tortured romantic soul, turned redeeming angel/demon. 
5. Wolf, Scarlett, Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer

November 22nd: Books You're Thankful For

--For whatever reason, big or small.

1. Goosebumps, RL Stine - This spawned my love of reading, and my love of creepy books. 
2. Harry Potter, JK Rowling - Brought me into the book community
3. Redwall, Brian Jaques - 
4. The Nightside Novels, Simon R Green
5. The Tortall Books, Tamora Pierce

November 29th: Authors You'd Want to Write Like

--In honor of NaNo wrapping up, discuss some authors you'd like to write like. Whether its their writing style, what genre they write in, or how many books they manage to churn out a year! 

1. Stephen King - Id like to steal his style, the number of books + short stories he turns out, the spectrum of genre's he covers
2. Brian Jaques - His timeless style, it is simple enough for children and the language / story is child friendly, but it also has layer upon layer of detail and such eloquent language it is just as great a read as an adult. 
3. RL Stine
4. Dr Suess
5. Sherrilyn Kenyon - Just like Stephen King, she has an amazing number of books, that span over a whole set of genre's. She has created a multi-faceted world that is semi-reality. But along with all the little details and complexities, the books are easy to read (which is something King's books are not, not that the reading level is the end of the world, but I feel like you have an even bigger audience if its the more reader friendly style)

Wrap Up l August

A lot has happened this month. I don't normally include a lot of personal details in my posts but maybe it is time to change that. I signed up for the Canadian Armed Forces this month so in about 12 months time that might be the new direction of my life. 

1. The Lives of Christopher Chant (Chrestomanci #2), Diana Wynn Jones *audiobook
2. Witch Week (Chrestomanci #3), Diana Wynn Jones *audiobook
3. The Magicians of Caprona (Chrestomanci #4), Diana Wynn Jones *audiobook
4. Party Games (A Fear Street Novel), RL Stine
5. I am Legend, Richard Matheson *audiobook
6. The Deep, Nick Cutter 
7. Heart Shaped Box, Joe Hill *audiobook
8. Salt, Sugar, Fat, Michael Moss *reread *audiobook
9. Alex, Pierre Lamertier 
10. Ashley Bell, Dean Koontz *audiobook
    
11. The Lesser Dead, Christopher Buehlman
12. Irene, Pierre Lamertier
13. The Red Dragon, (Hannibal Lecter #1), Thomas Harris *audiobook *reread

Short Stories / Comics 

1. The Pearl, John Steinbeck
2. , Edgar Allen Poe
1. The Tell Tale Heart
2. The Masque of the Red Death
3. The Black Cat
4. The Raven 
5. Berenice 
6. The Pit and The Pendulum
7. The Fall of the House of Usher 

Started

The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan *audiobook

Top 5 Wednesday l August 2017

August 9th: Second Book is Best

I have been reading lots of stand-alones lately and I was a little stumped when I saw this question and nothing immediately jumped out at me as an answer. Looking back at goodreads was a little bit of a shock I haven't read a series since May! So older stuff from before 

• Fever, The Chemical Garden Trilogy, Lauren DeStephano
• Scarlett, The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
• Finders Keepers, Stephen King - this is less of "best" than they are equally amazing
• The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien - I was the most invested in this book and its characters during the sequel, it had the most action in my opinion as well
• Visions, Kelley Armstong  - the entirety of book one, was setting up book two. 

August 16th: Characters' Fitness Routines You Want

Weight lifting, strength centred training is my style. Grateful that I do have the time and resources to workout regularly. I always get a thrill out of other girl characters fallowing the same kind of routines (as its not uncommon but its not really common either)

• Shadow Hunters, Cassandra Clare
• Camp Half Blood, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan
• Alanna's Training, Knighthood, The Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce
• Brienne's Training, Knighthood,  A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
• Menolly, Acrobate/Spy, The Sisters of the Moon, Yasmine Galenorm

August 23rd: Books from Before You Joined the Online Book Community

• Firebringer, David Clement Davis
• Redwall, Brian Jaques
• Goosebumps, RL Stine
• Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
• Harry Potter, JK Rowling

August 30th: Favorite Bromances

-- I think we have done this topic before in the distant past, but who doesn't love a good bromance? Bromance = platonic relationship between two characters who identify as male. 

• Harry and Ron, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
• Sam and Frodo, Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
• Sam and John, A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
• Gem and Will, The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare

I am excluding characters where one was gay, just because love/lust motivated half the relationship in many cases and the bromances tend to fall apart once feelings are known (Jace and Alec - Cassandra Clare Mortal Instruments - came to mind right away)

Top 5 Wednesday l Spring 2017

May 10th: Books as Event Themes

1. American Gods, Neil Gaiman - Each party guest much chose his or her god/goddess to personify or support. And whatever your bringing to the party should also be a traditional dish/drink from your god/goddess's home turf. Different sections/areas/tables around the event should be about different pantheons. 
2. Red Hill by Jamie McGuire, Resident EvilNovels by Various Authors and Canibalism a perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. -- Zombie / Cannibal themed party, perfect for halloween. *** This would be my favourite choice 
3. Lovecraft Halloween Party - there are so many options to chose from on how to interpret this party... I wouldn't even know where to begin. Would be very cool for fan's to geek out together though. 
4. The Selection - Kira Cast : Girls Night or Day Event --   Pedicures, Manicures, facemasks... watch a season of the bachelor (which is pretty much The Selection) there are a hundred different things you could do depending on the age range of the guests / number of guests... 101 variables. 
5. Rage by Richard Bachman and This is Where it Ends Marieke Nijkamp : a mystery party where you can #1 try to figure out who the school shooter is or #2 reconstruct the event leading up to _________ (whatever reveal or final event). This is not a topic for everyone and I would be very sure of who I was inviting before doing this kind of thing. But this is one of the events I feel should be talked about but no one does (until just after one of these tragedies). As a society we are slowly starting to talk about mental illness and its effects this is one of the worst outcomes of young people with mental illness and having this staged almost like a murder mystery could be a educational and thought provoking event. 

May 17th: Summer Reads

I struggled a little bit with this question, I first tried to list books that were about summer or set in summer specifically, but I didn't like the list so it vanished, and I decided to do this list. Which is more of a type of read : lighthearted, comedies, easy to read, some YA. Which is my "go to type" around this season. 

1. Mary Janice Davidsons Novels (any of them), they are lighthearted steamy romance novels with quirky characters and lots of comedy.  
2. Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss OR/AND Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser : lots of people think about losing a little weight for the beach for summer. These books take a look into fast food, pre-prepared foods the sales and science behind it all. I have never had to worry about my weight thankfully, but from an educational standpoint these two books did more to discourage fast food in my diet than any self help/weightloss tip  book could have done. 
3. Chrestomanci - Diana Wynn Jones : Harry Potter is the magic lovers go to winter read? well this is the other side of the looking glass. She is also the Author of Howl's Moving Castle (the first novel in the trilogy set within that magical universe).
4. Heartless, Marissa Meyer - I am obsessed with this book and it might become a yearly summer read for a while. 
5. The Hatching and The Skittering by Ezekiel Boone, horror novels about spiders. Which might seem a little bit random as a "summer" read. But these few months are the only times of the year when it is NOT snowing in Canada (ie. spiders can survive in this wonderful weather) and this is the only time of the year when I see any bugs at all so... yea bugs = summer time around here. 

May 24th: Favorite Minor Characters 
 What does this mean?? Ex.  Ron and Hermione side characters, while Lavender Brown, Oliver Wood, and Dean Thomas are minor characters. 

1. The Badger's, Brian Jacques -- I have recently been rereading the Redwall novels, which I was obsessed with as a kid. And while the Badger characters in a couple of books are main or side characters the majority of the time they are minor characters. But they are always interesting and beautiful souls. 
2. Charlotte, The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Claire. -- It really annoyed me that the characters kept referring to Charlotte characteristics in a negative kind of "look down upon" way. There was an emphasis on how her "motherliness" made her seem older than her 23/24 years (can't remember her age exactly) but if you took away the tone she was given. You ended up with a very brave, upstanding citizen who was responsible and clearheaded. Really what women should aspire to be (in my opinion) by that time in their lives (regardless of time period) .
3. The Dark Tower, Stephen King -- This whole series was filled with awesome characters, but a lot of the quick mentions thrown in, where side or main characters from other King novels (I have to have at least on SK rant in each post pretty much I know, but honestly its just so mind blowing) 

I am so much more about the setting, plot, the main characters. Pretty much anything but the side characters (who I find are only really around in YA novels) I am giving this up at 3 because I really don't have anyone coming to mind and only 1/3 so far is a single character. 

May 30th: Fandoms You Are No Longer In 

I am changing this question up a little by listing the 5 reasons I leave any fandom no matter now much I love the book(s)

1. Insane Fans : If people start to lose touch with the fact that the story is fiction, the characters are not real, that every reader is entitled to their opinion, its time to jump ship.
2. Series That Dragged On...  
1. Authors that published slowly; for a while I was out growing the books faster than they could be written, losing interest in the conclusion or start reading other things and just never getting around to the final book(s). 
2. Series that have been extended from a trilogy into more later-on often never had those final books looked at.  
3. Series that just got too long,  3, 4 , 5 books into a series only to realize there were 22 more to go. Often I gave up. Example : Outlander by Diana Gabledon, I liked the first bit of the book that I read, but I not enough for a 10000 page commitment
3. Overly Popular Fandoms -- Hand in Hand with #1 and #2  on this list--  This is when you get crazy people, I am about the book fandoms not the movie fandoms and the two tend to get horribly tangled with these situations and finally this is when those "surprise" extra books start cropping up (written only because of the cash sometimes not because there is more story)
4. Outgrowing  the Fandom : while people of all ages like all kinds of books, there is normally an age range with a majority in any fan base. With "adult" targeted novels this is less of an issue. But as any former YA fangirl can relate too... at 22 I just don't relate so well to 12 year olds anymore.
5. Disagreeing with the Author as a person : Authors have become another kind of celebrity, brought into the media spotlight and sometimes I think this really takes away from the writing. If I disagree with personal opinions expressed, even if they are not present at all in your fiction, it reflects in my experience of the novel (past or present) and has caused me to turn away from a book or series in varying degrees.   

June 7th: Books For Your Hogwarts House

Slytherin

1. Necronomicon, HP Lovecraft
2. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
3. Rage, Richard Bachman
4. American Psycho, Brett Eason Ellis
5. The Martian, Andy Weir 

June 14th: Side Relationships + June 28th: Hate to Love Relationships 

Looking at these two questions only a week apart... I am not going to bother trying to answer these. While I have read tons of books with amazing relationships, I don't have any side ones that really come to mind, and I don't really have hate to love either, I am pretty black and white with this kind of thing, I love two characters as a couple or I don't.

I kind of feel these are YA-ish topics, that makes less of an appearance in my type of adult novels, thrillers and horrors which don't really focus on relationships, love is a fact, often a tragedy in these, and hard to think of in this context. Plus the glimpse we are given into extra characters is often more about memories, or internal character, a lot less to do with who they really are or what their lives are about. 

June 21st: Favorite "Unlikeable" Protagonists

1. Gemma Doyle, A Great and Terrible Beauty + Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Libba Bray *I don't think Gemma is really supposed to be so unlikable, but she is. Selfish, shallow, childish, immature, irresponsible, whiney, need I go on? but despite all she still touched a special place in my heart as did the books (despite many flaws). 
2. Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, Brett Eason Ellis *A murderous fiend, the epitome of protagonists you just love to hate
3. Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, Twilight, Stephanie Meyer *Need I say more?
4. Jamie Lannister + Various Others, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin *Particularly as I get farther into the series, there are so many narrators that are wonderfully terrible people. 
5. Clary and Jace, Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare *Its hard to distinguish angsty teen from "unlikable" these two seem to take turns flip flopping between who is being the bad guy / annoying/ whiney / selfish / ect. ect. ect. again maybe not supposed to be unlikable, but I don't like them very much and yet I liked the books and read the City of Bones at least 6 times + the rest of the series. 

July 5th: Books Without Romance !!!

***A few (very, very few) people complained about the "shipping" topics lately, so I thought it would be good to talk about books that don't have a romantic subplot! This is a really hard one, so if you can't find any, you can talk about some where the romance is super super minor. Like barely mentioned... at all...*** 

Guess who laughed at the above statement? I normally delete that bit of the T5W posts but figured I would leave it here with this one...

1. Pressure, Brian Keene
2. The Colony, AJ Colucci
3. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone
4. Red, Jack Ketchum
5. Rage, Richard Bachman
6. Snowblind, Michael Mcbride
7. Feed, Mira Grant
8. The Martian Andy Wier

I want to be clear that some of these books mention a relationship(s).  So there are relationships and there is love, but those things are present without the romance side / focus on two people and there interactions etc. 

July 12th: Children's Books / Authors

1. Dr Seuss
2. Robert Munch
3. Laura Numeroff (If You Give  Mouse A Cookie) 
4. Eric Carle (Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear Brown Bear) 
5. Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit)
6. AA Milne (Winnie the Pooh)

July 19th: Books That Aren't Set In/Inspired By The Western World

Outside of North America and Western Europe) including fantasy novels (try to avoid medieval settings)

1. Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini *Middle East
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini *Middle East
3. Memoires of a Geisha, Arthur Golden *Asia
4. The Pearl, John Steinbeck *Latin America 
5. World War Z, Max Brooks *Asia + Middle East + Others (World Wide Travel and Narration)

July 26th: Series That Got Better

1. The Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
2. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
3. Redwall, Brian Jaques
4. Tortall, Tamora Pierce

The above books all started off strong, they were good reads (and some great reads), and they just kept building the characters, relationships, atmospheres and settings though-out the series. The more you read the more invested you are in the whole world. This is very much my cup of tea!

      5. Lunar Chronicles, Marrisa Meyers

These books were connected (same as the above books) but what I noticed most was the skill and style of Meyers writing which progress along with the series. Not only did our characters grow, and intertwine but the narration improved - and being able to see that improvement added something to these novels. 

 *

Wrap Up l July

This month started off really well but then I just fell into a slump during the last week and a half. I watched a lot of Bones and Hannibal on Netflix but I didn't do much reading. 

1. The Umbrella Conspiracy (Resident Evil #1), SD Perry *audiobook
2. Sleeping With the Fishes, Mary Janice Davidson (Fred the Mermaid #1)
3. Swimming Without a Net, Mary Janice Davidson (Fred the Mermaid  #2)
4. Fish Out of Water, Mary Janice Davidson (Fred the Mermaid #3)
5. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones (Howls Moving Castle #1) *audiobook
6. Castle in the Air, Diana Wynn Jones (Howls Moving Castle #2) *audiobook
7. House of Many Ways, Diana Wynn Jones (Howls Moving Castle #3) *audiobook
8. This is Where It Ends, Marieke Nijkamp
9. Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1), Kelley Armstrong
10. Empire of Night (Age of Legends #2) Kelley Armstrong
11. Forest of Ruin (Age of Legends #3) Kelley Armstrong
12. Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris *reread *audiobook
13. The Colony, AJ Colucci
14. The Butterfly Garden, Dot Hutchinson *audiobook
15. The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson *audiobook
16. Charmed Life, Diana Wynn Jones (Chrestomanci #1) *audiobook

Started
Caliban Cove (Resident Evil #2), SD Perry *audiobook (the audiobook I got was incomplete so I won't be finishing this unfortunately I think I only had a chapter or two left. So frustrating)

The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynn Jones (Chrestomanci #2) *audiobook

Emoji-a-thon l June 2017

The goal is to complete  at least 4 challenges. I am going to leave all the questions here even if I don't end up reading one of these books it just wont have an answer. 

read a book about a current event

Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss

read a romance or contemporary

The Truth About Alice, Jennifer Mathieu (Contemporary) 

A thriller or horror

Pressure, Brian Keene
Savage, Richard Laymon
Among Monsters, Jamie McGuire
Sparrow Rock, Nate Kenyon

freebie! Read any book

American Gods, Neil Gaiman 

read a book in under 24 hours

Red, Jack Ketchum 

read a 2016/2017 release

Skitter, Ezekiel Boone

A book about a marginalized group

(sexuality based, religious based, race based, etc)

Saving Danny,  Cathy Glass  (Autism) 

read a book that was gifted to you

Game of Thrones, George RR Martin

read a book you bought because of it’s cover

The HellBound Heart, Clive Barker

read a book that makes you happy just thinking about it

read a futuristic/sci-fi book

read a cry-worthy book
Can I Let You Go?, Cathy Glass
Nobody Cared, Terrie O'Brian

read a book you’ve been anticipating

Paperweight, Meg Haston
Sad Perfect, Stephanie Elliot

read a book you’ve been seeing everywhere
Heartless, Marissa Meyer

Buddy read a book!

read a book that takes place in a different country than your own (Not Canada)
Girl Alone, Cathy Glass (UK)

read a book that’s sure to make you laugh until you cry

read a book that you’re annoyed at yourself because you haven’t read it yet

Coraline, Neil Giaman 

read a book that was expensive

read a book without any hype
Sins of the Family, Felicity Davis

read a book that you’ve had forever, and if you don’t like it or don’t read it, time to tell it “peace out!” (unhaul the book)

read a book that features an animal or has an animal on the cover
Cannibalism, Bill Schutt

read a book that features music

read a book that features religious diversity

Shame, Jasvinder Sanghera
Daughteres of Shame, Jasvinder Sanghera

read a book that’s like candy to you (a guilty pleasure)

Influence, Bentley Little (Creature Features)