2018 Life-ish Goals

2018 is mere days away, so that means it's time to buckle down and reflect on the past year and come up with new goals for the coming year. I've already written about my bookish goals for 2018, so this post is for goals related to my personal life.


1. Get a full-time job and move out. This is basically my number one goal this year and is more important than anything else I will put on this list. I've been living at home since graduating college because I've been working on my master's degree for library science online, but now that the program is over and I've graduated, it's time to find a job and move out. My goal is to move either near my boyfriend or my friends from college, so I'm hoping some promising job prospects pop up in one of those locations.

2. Lose 20 pounds. My long-term goal is to lose 60-65 pounds, but that seems like a huge, unmanageable number at the moment, so I've decided to keep my goal realistic and small. I've been struggling with weight for the past few years as the result of some trauma that happened in college, and it's been really hard to maintain a healthy weight and to lose weight because of the emotional issues I have that stem from that.

3. Eat more healthfully. Connected to the above goal is obviously eating more healthfully. I know I am not a very healthy eater in general, and I really want to try to change that. I'm considering going on the Atkins diet because I need a high protein diet that beats out the fat since I have a fatty liver and want to get rid of that problem, but I'm really bad at diets where I have to track every single thing I eat because it makes me anxious and stressed and overwhelmed. So we'll see how that goes.

4. Decrease my anxiety. 2017 was a horrible year for me emotionally, and my anxiety and depression were at the highest level they've been since high school. A lot of it is situational and a result of living at home and other not so great things that happened, so I'm hoping that moving out will fix some of the problem. I just want to be able to function and function at a high level at a job and not feel so anxious that I feel physically sick every time I go to work.

5. Experiment more with my personal fashion style and gender expression. 2017 was the year of me getting interested in makeup, and in 2018, I hope to experiment more with what I want my personal style to be. I feel like I've always struggled to find a "style" I really like and feel is "me," so I end up just going with jeans and t-shirts or plain sweaters because it's what's easiest. However, this year, while looking at online clothing stores, I've found that what I REALLY like tends to be either on the super feminine or super masculine side of things. I've always been interested in dressing more masculine, but I also like pastel pretty things and dresses with cute prints. I've had a lot of trouble showing this though because these things are hella expensive, and I am poor at the moment. However, hopefully when I get a job, I'll be able to start saving to revamp my wardrobe and have it express my super femme/masculine sides of the fashion spectrum.

Books I've Acquired Lately That I'm Excited to Read

I've acquired a lot of books lately, and today, I'd like to share some of the ones I'm most excited about. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm excited about everything! I'll be sharing a mix of trades, publisher acquisitions, and eARCs I've gotten recently that I'm excited to read.

The Belles - Dhonielle Clayton

I was super psyched to get this one via a #booksfortrade (oh, the joys of Twitter!) I had an eARC of it, but really wanted a physical copy because it is so pretty and I have a feeling I'm going to end up wanting to own it. I don't automatically reach for fantasy, but I always enjoy it when I do, and this particular fantasy sounds very unique and interesting. It's about a girl who wants to be the best Belle in Orleans, a city where people are born gray and need the Belles to add color to them (at least I think. Fantasy plots are always so complicated to explain). Plus, the heroine is a black girl, which is pretty unusual for YA fantasy, and I'm all about pushing diverse books!!

The Brightsiders - Jen Wilde

Little Do We Know - Tamara Ireland Stone

Actually, I don't know much about either of these books, but clearly something made me request them on NetGalley. The Brightsiders is another queer release with fantasy hair color aesthetics from Jen Wilde, author of Queens of Geek, which I still need to read, and this one is about rockstars! I love books about music and bands, so this one is sure to be a contemporary win for me. As for Little Do We Know, I've been meaning to give Tamara Ireland Stone a try for a while now, and this one sounded quite good, though of course as I'm writing this post I can't remember a darn thing it's about, but I'm pretty sure a broken friendship is involved.

Depression and Other Magic Tricks - Sabrina Benaim

This poetry collection was a Hannukah gift from my boyfriend, since poetry is the only genre we can agree upon. I may be done with this by the time this post is published, but as I'm writing it, I've only read a few of the poems, but thus far, I'm in love with it. I'm not usually one for longer poems, but Benaim's poetry is very accessible and readable. I also relate to it super hard because of my own experiences with depression, and think she captures all the nuances of the illness so perfectly and heartbreakingly.

9 Days & 9 Nights - Katie Cotugno

99 Days was one of my favorite books the year it came out, and I literally shrieked with excitement when I discovered that not only was there going to be a sequel to it, but that I discovered it because I'm autoapproved for HarperCollins books on Edelweiss. I am so worried for Molly Barlow in this book, but I also can't wait to see what happens. Plus, I love the symmetry of the titles: 99 Days and 9 Days and 9 Nights is just too perfect a duology. 

The Hazel Wood  - Melissa Albert

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say - Leila Sales

In Search Of - Ava Dellaria

A Girl Like That - Tanaz Bhathena

I got a bunch of amazing books from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux and one from Flatiron that I am so, so, so excited for!! The Hazel Wood is one I've already read, but it was probably my favorite read of 2017, and I definitely plan to read it again in 2018 because it was that good, even though I'm not a big rereader. If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say sounded like a really interesting contemporary: it's about a girl who says something offensive on social media and has to deal with the consequences. I'm interested to see how this is dealt with. 

In Search of Us is about a mother-daughter pair and tells their stories when both are seventeen. This sounds like a very interesting storytelling method, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. As for A Girl Like That, I knew I had to read this one a) because of the awesome cover, and b) because it's set in Saudi Arabia. I've never read a YA novel set in Saudi Arabia, and only read a couple others set in the Middle East, so I'm very intrigued by this novel as well.

The Way You Make Me Feel - Maurene Goo

I didn't love Goo's debut, Since You Asked, but she totally stole my heart with I Believe in a Thing Called Love, which was one of the most adorable books of 2017. This book is by far one of my most anticipated 2018 reads, right up there with Katie Cotugno's new book. The fact that the main character has to work on her father's food truck for the summer makes it all the more exciting for me, because I love foodie books and I hope this one delivers all the foodie (and romantic, of course) goodness! I am ridiculously thrilled to have an eARC of this and can't wait to start reading it.   

2017 Year In Book Review Tag

It's no secret that I love bookish tags, so I decided to borrow this one from Marie at Hurricane and Drizzle, but its original creator is booktuber ABookTubeBook. It's based on events that happened in 2017. Usually I do The Perpetual Page Turner's End of the Year Survey, but I started doing it and found I just hadn't read enough to make each answer different enough, and there were so many questions that it started feeling tedious, so I decided to change things up a little this year. 

First Ever Female Doctor Who: Favorite Female Protagonist

This one is tough because I think almost all of the books but two that I read this year had female protagonists. I think I'd have to pick either Lara Jean from the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy or Harper from Why I Loathe Sterling Lane, even though she's on another part of this tag. I didn't love Lara Jean in the first book, but I grew to really like and understand her as the series went on. As for Harper, I totally loved her from page one and really got her as a character, largely because I feel like I was her in high school. 

Gcc Cuts Ties with Qatar: An Author You Cut Ties With

No one immediately came to mind, but I guess if I had to pick I'd go with Lauren Oliver, unfortunately. I loved the Delirium trilogy, but didn't like Panic very much, and never got around to Vanishing Girls. I was super psyched for Replica but didn't read it until this year, but was extremely disappointed in it because the writing was so boring and simple and the story was very predictable. I will not be reading Ringer, needless to say, and to be honest, I might be a little more skeptical about picking up a book by her now because I've only liked a couple books by her.

La-La-Land Oscar Mix-up: A Book That Surprised You

I'm definitely going to have to go with This Is How It Happened for this one. I was not expecting to like it at all, or even honestly to read it in the first place, because I assumed it would be a cliche car crash YA book, which is so 2000s. However, this book really surprised me because it wasn't a cliche and the writing was super excellent. There were a lot of aspects of this book that I did not expect, which made me really like it.

Hurricanes and Earthquakes: A Book that Rocked Your World

OMG This Darkness Mine was by far the most shocking, exhilarating, bizarre book I read this year. My review of it was basically incoherent because I was suffering from one of the worst book hangovers I've ever had, and, truth be told, I am STILL not over the weirdness that was this book.

Louvre Abu Dabi: Favorite Cover Art

This book is probably going to feature on this list a lot, but I'm going to have to go with When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. The book cover photo is just so delightful and happy and captures the spirit of the story so perfectly. 

Muslim Ban: Favorite Diverse Read

I was originally going to pick Dimple for this one, too, but I'm already using it in two spots, so I'm going to be brave and choose another diverse book. For this one, I'd have to say either I Believe in a Thing Called Love or Kids Like Us. I Believe in a Thing Called Love was so fun and awkward and entertaining, and Kids Like Us was really beautifully written and was such an intricately told story.

Italy Doesn't Qualify for World Cup: Most Disappointing Book

I had a hard time coming up with this one, fortunately, but this was partially because most of the books I didn't like, I expected not to like. The worst book was by far STAGS, which I just reviewed and dubbed one of my most hated books of all time, but as for a book that I expected to like and was disappointed by, I'd have to say Nayyirah Waheed's poetry collection, Nejma. I adored Salt to bits and pieces, but unfortunately, I did not have the same experience with Nejma, and didn't understand a lot of the poetry and found it sub-par.

Prince Harry Engaged: Favorite Ship

Definitely Dimple & Rishi from When Dimple Met Rishi. I just loved this book so, so much that I can't help but write about it multiple times on this list. However, if I had to pick a book I haven't written about, I'd go with Harper and Sterling from Why I Loathe Sterling Lane. Those two are so sassy and perfect for each other.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Most Anticipated Book

Probably either Caraval or Whichwood, which I embarrassingly still have yet to read. I wasn't excited for Caraval at first, to be honest, but I eventually got swept up in the hype from the book community, and let me tell you, this book lived up to it and even exceeded the hype. It was such a gorgeously written and imagined story and I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel, Legendary. 

2018 Bookish Goals

It's...almost 2018?? I wish I could say it felt like 2017 went by really fast, but boy oh boy, it did not. 2017 was honestly probably the worst year of my life, minus reconnecting with my boyfriend and graduating with my master's degree in library science. This year was just such a mess, and I was a mess, and the whole damn world was a mess, mess, mess. And not even a hot mess: an ugly, horrifying, dreadful mess that I really wish I could mostly erase from my memory.

Aaaaaaanyway...bright side, it's almost over! I never used to be the kind of person who reflected a lot at the end of the year or made goals for the next year, but I did it last year and it was kind of fun and motivational, at least for the first few months of the year. Plus, I've been seeing all my favorite cool people on Book Twitter post about their writing and book-related goals for the past couple weeks and I feel left out and want to post my own! So here are some of the writing and reading goals I have for 2018:

1. Read 55 books. In 2017, my original goal was to read 75 books, but halfway through the year, I realized that was not going to happen, so I changed my goal. This is okay; it's important to take stock of what you can really do and adjust as you go along, which is something I've been working on getting better at this year. I ended up reading mostly good books, and I think I read a lot more for quality versus quantity like I usually do because of this goal, and it improved the quality of the books I read for the most part. So, for next year, I want to keep my goal small but also add a little to my goal from this year, so 55 books it is!

2. Read 1 poetry collection per month. I got really into poetry this year because it's the only genre my boyfriend and I can agree on (he likes literary fiction and I am staunchly into YA), but I realized I really enjoy reading poetry for fun! For 2018, I want to expose myself more to the genre and continue reading some great poetry.

3. Finish the MS I started for NaNoWriMo. I got about 27,000 words into a very dark and depressing contemporary LGBTQ+ novel for NaNo this year before realizing it wanted to be a fluffy romance. With that in mind, I want to redraft my sweet, bookish, queer, anxious novel in 2018.

4. Participate in #PitMad. I have always wanted to participate in #PitMad, but have yet to finish a draft, much less edit and revise in time for one of the events, so that is my goal for this year. Even if I do the one in December, I will consider that a win.

5. Write more poetry. I started writing poetry again this past year, which is something I haven't done since high school but love to do just as much as I did then. I even started a poetry instagram account, but eventually I stopped writing poetry as much so I didn't post and it kind of died. I would like to revive it, since the need to post more frequently would encourage me to write poetry more. Hopefully the combo of wanting to reinstate my poetrygram and reading at least one poetry collection per month will keep me motivated to experiment more with poetry writing!

6. Read more MG. This is an important goal for me professionally because I hope to be a teen/YA librarian soon. The ages of teen/YA can vary depending on library, from grades 6-12 or 7-12, so I feel like I need to read more books on the younger side of things to keep up. Plus, most library jobs for youth are just "youth services," which includes ages 0-18, so I should keep up with all the lit for those ages if I want to have a career in that sector of library services.

French Lit, French Food, French Kisses // Kids Like Us

Title: Kids Like Us

Author: Hilary Reyl

Pages: 288

Date published: November 14, 2017

Martin is an American teen on the autism spectrum living in France with his mom and sister for the summer. He falls for a French girl who he thinks is a real-life incarnation of a character in his favorite book. Over time Martin comes to realize she is a real person and not a character in a novel while at the same time learning that love is not out of his reach just because he is autistic.

If I had to describe Hilary Reyl's YA debut in three words, they would be: intense, unique, and delightful. I read this book based solely on a post from Paper Fury, and I'm so glad that Cait wrote about it, because otherwise I might have missed this utterly wonderful, special, #quietYA of 2017. There are so many things I liked about this book, so let me share a few of them with you:

• The French-ness. At first I was just going to say the French setting, since I do love that it's set near a French castle in a little French town, but so many things about this book are influenced by French culture that I decided to change this bullet point a little bit. I've read books about Americans traveling abroad, but none of them compare to this one in terms of going as in depth in the culture. This is a lot because of the premise of the book and because Martin's father is French, so he comes to the country already knowing a lot about French culture, including the language, literature, and food. I learned so much from Martin's narration, and he really immerses the reader in the culture of the French with his discussion of language and food. There were so many small details that I haven't found in other books about Americans abroad that really made this story come alive, and they all made the setting that much more vivid for me as a reader and I absolutely loved it. And someone get me a madeleine, please!!
• The discussion of literature. Obviously, French literature, particularly Martin's favorite book, Search, as he calls it, by Proust, is a major factor and plot point in this story. I loved seeing how literature, and this book in particular, were how Martin connected to the world. At first, the book Search is just a mirror to him as he falls for who he thinks is the book's heroine, but then it becomes a window that allows him to have deeper interactions with Gilberte/Alice as well as the other people around him.
• The relationships. Every relationship in this book was so nuanced and well-developed, even the one that took place off the page, that between Martin and his father, who is off-page for reasons that are not revealed until later. The way Martin processes interactions with each character is so unique and particular to each person that it makes each relationship a mini-story in itself, like a whole new world with each new character who is introduced. Of course, Martin's relationship with Alice is at the forefront in some ways, because he believes her to be an incarnation of the love interest in the Proust book, but it is also clear that him realizing that she is a real, original person influences his other relationships as well.
• Martin's voice. Martin's voice is probably the most unique writing I've read all year. His voice was very well-written. It was fascinating to be inside his head, and I found the way the story was written to be extremely addicting. I also liked how it certain aspects of his voice were explained throughout the story, making it that much more rich of a read.

All in all, Kids Like Us turned out to be one of my favorite reads of the year. I can't speak to how accurate the autism representation is because I don't have personal experience with it, but I did learn a lot about autism from reading this book. There was also a brief discussion of the neurodiversity movement, which I found very illuminating and interesting. In short though, this book is just amazing. Martin's voice is truly unique, the story is intricate on all levels, and it is not a book I will soon forget and is one I will be recommending to everyone I know. 

Top 4 Worst Books Addition // S. T. A. G. S.

Title: S. T. A. G. S. 

Author: M. A. Bennett

Pages: 304

Date published: January 30, 2018

Seventeen-year-old Greer, a scholarship girl at a prestigious private school, St Aidan the Great School (known as STAGS), soon realizes that the school is full of snobs and spoilt rich brats, many of whom come from aristocratic families who have attended the institute throughout the centuries. She's immediately ignored by her classmates. All the teachers are referred to as Friars (even the female ones), but the real driving force behind the school is a group of prefects known as the Medievals, whose leader, Henry de Warlencourt, Greer finds both strangely intriguing as well as attractive. The Medievals are all good-looking, clever and everyone wants to be among their circle of friends. Greer is therefore surprised when she receives an invitation from Henry to spend a long weekend with him and his friends at his family house in the Lake District, especially when she learns that two other "outsiders" have also been invited: Shafeen and Chanel. As the weekend unfolds, Greer comes to the chilling realization that she and two other "losers" were invited only because they were chosen to become prey in a mad game of manhunt.

When I first started reading S. T. A. G. S., all I knew about it was that it was supposed to be creepy and it was set at a boarding school, which are both easy sells for me. However, I started having my doubts about this book early on, even from the very first paragraph. You know right away that someone dies, because Greer says on page one that she is a murderer. The way the story is told is kind of as though it is a confession, because the telling is clearly being done after the events of the book take place, but there is literally no reason for this and it switches to just being a regularly-told, first-person past-tense novel sometime during either the Huntin' or Fishin' sections; I can't recall which one. The structure is only the first messy thing about this book, unfortunately.

Though I hadn't read the summary, which gives away another major plot point of the book, I quickly figured out that the "loser" of the school, nicknamed STAGS, were not being invited to the Medievals' weekend outing for fun and games. I also had a hard time believing that they would all go to the house of people who had been so mean to them. The reader is told that nobody talks to Greer, the bland main character who has no personality outside of having a bob haircut and an interest in films, for her first semester, but since that part is told and not shown, it is hard to believe she would go to the house, especially when she is warned by another student not to go. The style in which the story is told (and I do mean told; it's like a weird, creepy storytime instead of watching a story unfold naturally) just made a lot of it hard to believe, including that Greer would go to the weekend outing in the first place, as well as the weird romantic subplots.

Goodness, don't even get me STARTED on the romances. I was shocked that Greer was so gullible that she would believe Henry was interested in her when he hadn't spoken to her until the invitation, and it made me dislike her even more, since now, in addition to being excruciatingly boring, she was naive and silly, too. The second romance was slightly more believable, since Greer had had the basest of interactions with this person prior to the weekend of Shootin', Huntin', and Fishin', but it wasn't at all resolved and there was little chemistry because only the love interest had a personality. 

After reading some of this book, I went back on Goodreads to see what kind of reviews it was getting, and, lo and behold, its comp title was one of my top three worst books of all time, WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart. The books do have a similar vibe in storytelling, but honestly, this book was even worse than WE WERE LIARS, and that takes a lot for me to say because I really, truly DESPISED that book. As I read, I grew more and more shocked that this book was even being published. If I had seen this during my time as an editorial intern, I would have immediately said no and probably not even bothered finishing the manuscript because the writing was so poor and the story so obvious and predictable, plus it had a terrible message about being an outsider.

Basically, I really, REALLY did not like this book. The writing was juvenile and amateur, and needed a lot more editing work. The protagonist had no personality aside from being extremely gullible, and I didn't care much about any of the other characters either. The twist of the plot made me sick to my stomach and not in a good way. This book was just all around awful and I'm honestly super surprised it is being published at all because the writing is so poor. I have also added it to my list of top worst books of all time, because it was truly that dreadful.

2017 Books I'm Embarrassed I Haven't Read Yet

This post is going to feature--you guessed it--books published this year that I'm very, very embarrassed I haven't read yet. 

My embarrassment for not having read John Green's latest book is admittedly only mid-level embarrassment. To be fair, I have had a hate-hate relationship with John Green's books for a few years running, and it was only when I read Paper Towns over the summer and accidentally ended up liking it that I decided maybe he wasn't such a terrible human. Then, when I found out this book was about anxiety and OCD, obviously I had to have it, and then I super couldn't hate him as a human because we actually have that in common. I still think he's way overrated, but I am rather excited to read this book. I bought it pretty near to its release date, but somehow I haven't been in the mood to read it quite yet. I do have to read it soon though, since I need to let my boyfriend borrow it when I'm done, so let's hope the mood strikes me soon!

I also haven't had that great of a Maggie Stiefvater experience as of yet. I read Shiver twice trying to like it, but it just didn't happen and I still really, really hate that book. I decided after Shiver that I wasn't going to ever read another Stiefvater, but I've let the Raven Cycle hype get to me, and a few months ago I started The Raven Boys and, even though I dropped it for reasons unknown, I did really like what I read. I was also excited about this one because it's a standalone, so it's not as major of a commitment. I mainly haven't read this because I don't have a copy of it in my possession. I've debated buying it numerous times but haven't, and new books take forever to come in at my library because of our stupid state budget cuts, and I'm a mood reader, so even if I get the copy of it, it might come at a time when I'm just not in the mood for it.

This is the book I'm most ashamed not to have read. I adored ACOTAR and ACOMAF, and was wicked excited for book 3, and it's been sitting on my shelf since May. I mostly haven't read this one yet because I'm very, very intimidated by the length. It's actually not a super fat book because they used thin pages, but I know it's approaching 800 pages, and that makes me nervous because who has time for that? Hopefully me, and hopefully soon, because I need more Feyre being a badass and Rhysand!!!

I am pleased to say that I have actually started this book. I started reading it a couple weeks ago and really like it, but I realized I wasn't really in the mood for a book about a girl who washes dead bodies for a living and really wanted to read some fluffy stuff both for fun and as research for my novel writing. However, this book is definitely getting read before the end of the year because it is so good, since Tahereh Mafi can apparently do no wrong (and is a way better writer than her husband, Ransom Riggs, but that's a topic for another post). 

I am very, very embarrassed not to have read these very popular books yet. Thankfully, there's still time in 2017 to get them read and done with. So good luck to me!