Top 5 Wednesday l January

January 3rd: 2018 Reading Resolutions

1. Finish at least 5 series that I started
2. Read a book every week (52 books this year)
3. Read at 5 classics I haven't read before and 5 classics I have. 
4. Read at least 10 non-fiction novels
5. Read the unread books on my shelf (10 books)

January 10th: Books You Didn't Get to In 2017 

1. Kelan Patrick Burke Books
2. UnRead Stephen Kings
3. Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard
4. Fathomless, Grieg Beck 
5. Jaws, Peter Blanchey

January 17th: Forgettable Books (That you liked) 

1. Kelley Armstrong Books - I almost always love her books, but they don't really leave any impression
2. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher - considering how sensational this was and that I read it twice, I have the general gist obviously, but any and all detail is gone. 
3. Bad Girls Don't Die, Katie Alender
4. Jane Austen Books
5. The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken 

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January 24th: Books You Disliked but Love to Discuss 
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January 31st: Hidden Gems in Your Favorite Genre 

Horror

1. HP Lovecraft - he totally has a cult following but considering how popular horror is you don't hear too much about him
2. Kin, Kelan Patrick Burke - He took this most obvious idea ever (mash together horror cliches and tell a horror book in horror movie style), wrote an incredible story and you never hear about it or any of his other books really
3. Off Season, Jack Ketchum 

I know have a much bigger TBR thanks to this question and a little bit of googling but I still only have 3 answers... 

Wrap Up l January + TBR l February

Welcome to the New Year

Happy 2018

I focused on some of my favourite reads from last year, to reread for the beginning of this year. 

Hp Lovecraft has been my go to guy for the past 6 months or so. Looking into getting a nice copy of the Necronomicon (or another one of his complete works) as my older secondhand copy is falling to pieces (I have taken to listing the stories I read because I often don't read them all) 

Favourite Book Of The Month : 

1. HP Lovecraft Novellas and Short Stories *Papercopies & Audiobooks *50% are rereads
1. The Tomb
2. Dagon
3. The Outsiders
4. The Fisherman of Falcon Point
5. The Nameless City
6. The Doom That Came to Sarnath
7. The Music of Erich Zann
8. From Beyond
9. The Evil Clergyman
10. The Other Gods
11. The Cats of Ulthar
12. The Dunwhich Horror, HP Lovecraft *reread *audiobook
13. The Call of Cthulhu, HP Lovecraft *Audiobook
14. Witches Hollow
15. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
2. The Tale of the Body Thief, Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles book #4) * Audiobook
3. Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles book #5) *Audiobook
4. The Trophy Taker, Lee Weeks
5. The Hatching, Ezekiel Boone *Reread
6. The Skittering Ezekiel Boone *reread
7. The Cellar, Minette Walters *reread
8. Innocent Victims : Novella Bindup, Minette Walters
1. Chickenfeed
2. Tinderbox
9. The Vampire Armand, Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles Book #6)
10. Hope : A Memoire of Surviving in Cleveland, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry *non-fiction
11. Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold *Reread
12. Dark Graphic Tales by Edgar Allen Poe, Denise Despeyroux
13. Inuyasha #20 

Started

• Deadline, Mira Grant (Newsflesh Book #2)
• Merrick, Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles #7) *audiobook
• A Mothers Reckoning, Living in the Aftermath of tragedy, Sue Klebold *non-fiction

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 - January

Back in camp this month, getting back into the work routine. Going to try and get an hour of reading in each day.

1. World War Z, Max Brooks
2. The City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
3. The City of Ashes. Cassandra Clare
4. The Gunslinger, The Dark Tower I, Stephen King
5. The Drawing of Three, The Dark Tower II, Stephen King
6. The Wastelands, The Dark Tower III, Stephen King

Started Wizard and Glass 

Top 5 Wednesday - January

January 4th: 2017 Goals 

1. My goodreads challenge is only 52 books so 1 book a week which I know is feasible, but my personal goal is 3 books a week for a total of 163
2. Finish getting my back tattooed
3. Keep up with my blog and get a youtube channel started again
4. Go to the gym 3/4 days a week minimum (I was really good last year until December, I am getting back into it now and hope I continue through the year again)
5. Get my dairy allergy in check, which will help everything, acne, health, gym performance.

January 11th: 2017 Debuts You Are Excited For 

I only have two for this one, I kind of just pick things up as I go. I don't plan super far in advance and the books I am really waiting for in 2017 are the final novels in a few series.

1. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
2. The Best is an Animal, Peternelle van Arsdale

January 18th: Favorite Polarizing Books 

1. Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien. Obviously very very popular and with the newish movies I know lots of people who picked these up for the first time and hated them because of how much they drag on. The writing is not for everyone and I struggled as well until I got the audiobook which are amazing. It still did take me almost two years too read the full series and the hobbit. 
2. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer. If you don't know about this where have you been?
3. Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare. I hated the moral instruments which are boring and drag on and on, but I loved this and i'm not the only one, but people who really loved the contemporariness of TMI were really against these companion novels 
4. Stephen King's works & The Dark Tower which are two categories within themselves. 
5. 
   

January 25th: Favorite Underrated Books 

I struggled with this topic way more than I thought I would, turns out most of the things I've read lately have been really popular or books that would have been on this list 12 or even 6 months ago have recently been put in the spotlight. 

1. The Pellinor Series, Allison Croggon
2. Tamora Pierce *She must have a huge fanbase because of how many books she's published in multiple languages but her novels aren't really talked about. 

Book Review - The City of Ashes

The City of Ashes 

(Mortal Instruments #2)

Cassandra Clare

6 Stars
453 Pages
Ya / Fantasy / Paranormal / Supernatural


This was a typical second installment of a longish series. We got quite a few little answers to questions from the first novel and the information we already had was expanded on. There was action, but a lot of things were left unresolved, my biggest issue was the character dynamics, which were either at a stand still or ran in circles. However I got the impression it is building up to a few major climax's between several sets of characters and that there is going to be almost a first and second "half" of the series marked by the end of the third book.

The Summary is below this page break
There are Spoilers so BEWARE! I did try to leave out as many as possible so it is a bit of a point blank style

Book Review - World War Z

World War Z

Max Brooks

My First Read of 2017!!!!

7 Stars
13 hour audbiobook
Zombies/ Apocalypse / Horror / Fiction

The world has ended, the human race all but overrun by zombies. These are the tales of people from all around the world as they discovered what happens when the dead stop being dead and start craving human flesh. From where the disease is thought to have originated to the conclusion of the 'Zombie War'.

Been on and off my TBR list, I was into anything zombie for a short while and then I didn't want to read anything zombie for quite some time. Then I saw the movie (and it was awesome) so I put the book back on my TBR list, but then I heard the book was nothing like the movie and off it went again. And now I have finally read it because of The Girl With All the Gifts, M R Carey.
I thought this was one of the better zombie books that I have read. It has a very cool format being a "oral history of the zombie war" and it more of a compilation of individual stories than an ongoing novel. Although the stories are told in a chronological order so the reader can understand more or less the big picture as well. Very well written and I listened to it on audiobook but I am pretty sure it would be a quick and easy read as well.  Overall this is one of my middle of the road novels. Did I enjoy it? yes Would I recommend it? yes, a 100% must read for zombie fans. Is it my new favorite book? no. Is it a book for everyone? no. Will I read other novels by Max Brooks? I would say maybe (if the topic is right) leaning towards a yes!

Wrap Up - January to April 2016

Sorry that my 2016 has been sadly lacking thus far. Despite not having a chance to update my blog I have done quite a bit of reading in the past four months. I got through 45 novels which includes; rereading 3 old favorites, completing the Lunar Chronicles, reading The Strain Trilogy start to finish, reading an 8 book box set, reading 18 books out of the 50+ novels in the Dark-Hunterverse and starting the Odd Thomas Series.

My top 4 are:

The complete list of books I read is down below.
*I have done complete reviews for many of the books but will not be doing reviews for all of them

Top 5 Wednesday - January 2016

Will be Publishing T5W on the final Wednesday of every month, I just can't seem to find the time to keep up with it all each week.

January 6 - Favorite Fandoms (books, tv, movies, etc)

1. Hannibal, Thomas Harris
2. Harry Potter, JK Rowling
3. A Game of Thrones, George R Martin
4. Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum
5. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer

All of my choices are books, movies and Tv shows, I organized the list from my most favourite to my least favourite. 

While I have not seen the Tv series that goes with A Game Of Thrones, I have read all the books and seen all the films that go with the other 4. 

*Twilight is the exception to my choices,  I am part of the fan base for the other 4 choices. I am NOT a Twilight fan (although I will admit I enjoyed the first book). The Twilight Fans made the list because they are so hardcore. I find the bickering that goes on within the group - Pro Jacob, Pro Edward, Book 1, 2, 3, 4, ect. - and the fighting that goes on between "twihards" and "anti-twilighters" to be hilarious. I don't think I have ever seen another group of people who are 100% a "diveded united front". Reminds me of a disfunctional family.

January 13 -Favorite Self-Published Books

I thought that this topic was going to be a piece of cake. I mean tons of novels are self-published right? erm no...

1. 50 Shades of Grey, EL James

Sadly this is seems to be my only self-published novel, and of all the book it had to be 50 Shades (of which I am moderately ashamed to have even read)

January 20 - Favorite Buzz Words (words used to describe a book that is a guarantee buy for you)

1. Gory
2. Repulsive
3. Twisted
4. Shocking
5. Taboo

These words hold even more weight if they are "spoken by"  Stephen King or Fearnet. 

The third indicator is a Bram Stoker award, books that have all three are deadly.

January 27 - Disappointing Eye Candy (books that looked beautiful, but the inside did not match up to the outside)

Before I start to seem two faced, I want to clarify that these are not my most hated books. I honestly liked the novels. But the T5W title is "Disappointing  Eye Candy" . Therefore judging them based on the covers they would have all been 5/5 stars but in reality they fell a little short. 

1. Emerald Green, Kerstin Geir 
2. The Twilight Series, Stephenie Meyer
3. Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause
4. The Nightmare Affair, Arkwell Academy, Mindee Arnet
5. Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson

2015 January to May Wrap up + Mini Reviews

This is me playing catch up for the year

Wrap Up

1. Dirty Rocker Boys, Bobbie Brown
2. Skinny, Donna Cooner
3. The Fault in our Stars, John Green 
4. Prince of the Icemark, Stuart Hill
5. Gerald's Game, Stephen King
6. The TommyKnockers, Stephen King
7. It, Stephen King
8. The Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum
9. The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum
10. Clash of Kings, George R Martin
11. A Game of Thrones, George R Martin
12. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louise Stevenson
13. The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan
14. The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan

Mini Reviews

Loved - It

Hated - The Tommyknockers, I hated this book, the only thing that got me through was my promise to read all the Stephen Kings and the references to other books, this is the first Stephen King I have despised.

Classic - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Series's

1. A Song of Ice and Fire
2. Lost Heroes of Olympus
3. Bourne

Disappointed - A Game of Thrones and Fault in our Stars, both for the same reason. I was told I absolutely HAD to read them, they where amazing, that I had never read anything quite like them, on and on and on. After much harassment I did read them, they are good but they are not great or overly original. I would classify The Fault in our Stars as average writing a YA version of My Sisters Keeper with a less than original plot that left me thinking a wanna be JD Salinger.

Non Fiction - Dirty Rocker Boys