Superlatives for the Books I Read this Year (2019 Edition)

It’s the end of another year, and it feels like every year disappears quicker than the last. So long 2010s. (And thank goodness.) I was hoping to finally hit my goal of reading 22 books in a year, but I ended up with exactly the same amount as last year: 20. Ah well. I’ll take that over reading fewer books.

Anyway, my annual “Book Superlatives” post is a fun way for me to recall the novels I read during the past twelve months. There were only two books I did not like at all, four I thought were okay, and the rest of them I enjoyed. Of course there were a few stand-outs in terms of greatness, which is why a superlative list like this exists! Here were a few of them:



Best Conclusion to a Series

BRIGHT WE BURN by Kiersten White

 
Believe it or not, but I read five novels this year that ended a trilogy or duology; I thought White’s story wrapped everything up the best. The beginning of this alternative history was a bit on the slow side, but it really picked up momentum as the novel progressed. I didn’t see the twist at the end of the “second act”, and I was surprised how all of the main characters got a relatively happy ending. I totally thought we’d witness the female protagonist’s demise instead of reading it during the epilogue. Overall I liked what White did with the series, and I can only imagine how much research she must have done to believably write this story in the time period that she did.





Best New Author to Me

WILDER GIRLS by Rory Power 

I know I raved about this book in a blog post not too long ago, but it definitely left its mark on me this year. Power wrote this post-apocalypse/thriller story with a literary slant, which I felt like it reflected the somber mood of the situation for the small cast of characters that were trapped together on this New England island. Everything turned to chaos at the end, and even though our three main characters made it out safely, the story still left me with more questions. I thoroughly enjoyed this debut from Power.




Best Stand-Alone Book

SATELLITE by Nick Lake 

I only read three books this year that would fall into this category (but one released a companion book earlier in the year). I half-contemplated nominating Power’s book again, but I didn’t feel like it was fair, so I chose my second favorite. 

With SATELLITE, I had to suspend my belief on certain circumstances. (i.e. I thought it was a little too convenient.) I was, however, surprised how much I appreciated Lake’s choice in writing style. I haven’t read anything else of Lake’s – so I don’t know if he typically writes like this – but the sci-fi book was written with zero capitalization. Also, every “and” was replaced with an “&.” My guess is that Lake was writing the story in a way that could seem different yet plausible for how humanity could one day construct sentences. Or maybe he was just trying to be more poetic. Either way, I will admit that it took me a little while to adjust. The rule-follower in me wanted to fix the syntax into the “proper” way, but I got over it the more I read.

But besides the writing, this novel explored the consequences of what could happen to a trio of children who were born and raised in space, and how their bodies adjust to Earth as they land for the first time. I never really gave it much thought about these what if concerns, and it made me appreciate the little ways on how humanity was built for life on our planet.


Most Impressive World-building

THE FATES DIVIDE by Veronica Roth 

This series of Roth’s is a bit anti-climactic compared to her previous works, but I can’t deny that she really stepped up her game when it came to her writing and world-building. There are multiple planets within this space opera, and I was amazed by all the intricacies Roth put into each world that the characters visited. They were all super creative, and I felt like she really took her time with understanding each setting. 

Runner-up: TWO DARK REIGNS by Kendare Blake 

Two of the four main characters found themselves in a new country when this novel opens up, and it juxtapositioned nicely against their previous home across the sea. Meanwhile, another character back on the island showed us readers a different side of their society. For a fantasy book that is the third in a series of four, I was surprised by how much of their world we had yet been able to explore.









Longest Book I Read

THUNDERHEAD by Neal Shusterman 

Clocking in at 504 pages, Shusterman’s dystopian was the lengthiest I read in 2019. I didn’t mind. It actually went by quickly. The next book in this trilogy, however, looks a little intimidating as it currently sits in my TBR pile. (It has a hundred more pages than THUNDERHEAD.) I’m still thinking about that cliffhanger…










Also, in case anyone was curious, I read a total of 7,771 pages this year. That’s 388.6 pages/book. Despite reading the same number of novels as last year, that’s only 56 pages more than 2018. So I guess I subconsciously remained consistent in 2019.

I’m hoping to finally get a chance to reach my goal of 22 books in 2020, but it’s always so difficult to set aside time to read during the last three months of the year. Right now, I have 25 books on my dresser that are eagerly waiting to be read. They like to mock me.

Here’s hoping that I’ll have a more successful year in 2020. (And decade.)

NaNoWriMo ’19 (aka: I’m Too Competitive Against Myself)

Has it really been over two weeks since I finished NaNoWriMo? I guess the days have flown by in a blur, trying to get ready for Christmas, since Thanksgiving occurred so late this year. On the bright side, having the holiday later than usual allowed me to focus more on writing.

And what an interesting NaNoWriMo it was this year. First off, the website underwent some heavy changes a couple months prior, but I hadn’t really logged in until October 30. I had to get myself acquainted with everything, and some features weren’t working the way it should have been. Unlike some users, I luckily didn’t have a problem with uploading my daily word count. I did, however, have some issues with the “recording of time.” I thought it was a cool feature – since I already time myself on how long it takes for me to write – but I felt like it was not showcasing the proper time periods on my stats. Good thing I still input this data into my own document. They also did away with the validation this year due to the program not working in their favor. It meant I didn’t have to spend time on November 30 copying and pasting my entire NaNo, but it also meant people could lie and say that they hit the 50k mark and earned their prizes without actually “winning.”

I wrote every day during the month of November. I had set out with the goal of writing at least 1700 words/day, but sometime around a third of the way in, I decided it was too easy. So I kicked it up to at least 1800 words/day. Not sure why I do this to myself, but it really shouldn’t surprise me anymore. (It’s definitely not the first time I’ve bumped my word count on writing projects, but I don’t think I’ve ever had the threshold be so high for a daily count.) I probably spent 5-6 days writing just after midnight so I didn’t have to write so much later in the day.

In the end, is it really surprising that I won for the sixth year in a row?

I won with a total of 55,443 words. Which meant I had beaten last year’s record by 2,382 words. I finished NaNo on Thanksgiving, so that was cool, but I still wrote during the last two days of November. My average daily word count was 1848.1 words. The average time was 1 hour, 40.2 mins. What’s interesting is that I also beat last year’s speed by 6 mins.

^Can you tell when I made the switch to 1800 words? 

I wrote 13 stories during the course of NaNoWriMo. My genres were all over the place. Maybe it was because the music I was listening to was all over the place as well? I wrote completely in third-person past-tense, so at least I was consistent in that?

The longest story that I worked on lasted me for 11 days. I had started it on a Saturday, and I needed to be somewhere that evening. I figured I wasn’t going to have much time to write once I eventually returned home, so I had to quickly come up with an idea to write a few hundred words. I leaned into my preferred genre and began writing something. Had no idea where it was going to go, but at least there was some sort of easy conflict set up in the beginning. And as I began to spend time with the characters and setting, I started to learn a bit about them and the story. Two short “chapters” in the beginning were basically exposition, but it helped with my world building. After all, I could always delete these paragraphs later if I ever wanted to polish it up. Halfway through the story, as I was rereading my work, I discovered that I was writing it in the direct and no-nonsense voice of the protagonist. I hadn’t planned on doing that – I was writing it in third-person, after all – but her personality had crept into the words. All I know is that I went very far with this idea I had spontaneously created simply because I had to complete my daily word count.

I only spent one day working on a story idea that I had previously thought of back in September. All the other stories were either derived from writing prompts or something I had made up on the spot. Not going to lie, there were a few days in November where I would stare at the clock as it ticked away toward midnight and I willed myself to think of some sort of plot idea because I had nothing. Those were always frustrating.

In the end, I’m quite proud of my new record. Of course, this also means I’ve only set the bar even higher for next year. But I’ll worry about that in October/November 2020.

As usual, here’s my annual grainy photo from my webcam with me and my lovely Winner’s Certificate.

P.S. I also managed to write a poem toward the end of November! Second one this year, so that’s probably it for me in 2019. I played around with the form, which I haven’t done with a poem in a while. It spontaneously came to me at 2 a.m., and I quickly wrote it down. The paper looks like complete chicken scratch, lol. Phrases were crossed out and replaced with better words, and I rearranged three stanzas. It definitely looks better typed out.

Unprepared for a Month of Writing

NaNoWriMo is coming! NaNoWriMo is coming! Tomorrow is the day!

And as you can tell by the title of this blog post, I’m not really prepared for it. Maybe one of these years I’ll create some kind of outline/plan. I don’t think I’ve had a particular story going into NaNoWriMo since probably 2013? I’ve won the last five years anyway, so I guess I find ways to make it work without much thought into the story process.

In the beginning of October, I really did start thinking how I wanted my November to look like. I knew I was going to pretty much stop reading books. (I actually started Book #20 early last week, but there’s no way I’m finishing it tonight. I deliberately chose a book where I wouldn’t have a problem remembering the story if I don’t happen to pick it up again until December.) I was also happily willing to sacrifice my exercise regimen that I was so strict with for the past four months. Then the chaos of October struck, and by the second week of this month, I stopped working out. Oops. I was just practicing sitting in front of my laptop for November, right?

But in between all the birthdays, all the weekend social activities, getting a new car, dogsitting, and my sister getting engaged, I pushed all things NaNoWriMo out the door. (I did, however, write my first poem of the year last week.) Except now it’s officially starting in less than twenty-four hours. I’ve been getting myself acquainted today with their new website.

My plan so far:

-Write a bunch of stories until one finally sticks. I have one idea that I was kicking around last month, so I’d like to give it a go at some point. I actually haven’t written any fiction since June, so I know I’ll need to write “warm-up” stories for the first couple of days. One of the stories I started back in June has potential, so I’d love to revisit those characters too.

-Be an overachiever this year again and write at least 1700 words/day instead of the recommended 1667 words/day. Hopefully I don’t lose my sanity in the process.

-Apply the tactic of write-after-midnight more than usual. If I write 45-60 mins right after midnight, it still counts for the new day. Therefore, I don’t have to write so much at once in the evening. It usually takes me almost two hours to get my word count in per day.

-I have 4-5 albums lined up for me to listen to while writing next month. Music helps me tune out the world so I can disappear inside my writing better. Listening to an album straight through prevents me from constantly leaving my Word document to change the song to something else that I prefer.

-Win.



It’s not a whole lot different of a plan compared to years past, but there’s no point in changing something when it’s not broken. My eyes are on a sixth Winner’s Certificate.

Needless to say, in case you need this reminder, I will be absent from this blog for the entire month of November. I have marathon writing to focus on, you know.

On that note, see you in December! And hopefully I’ve recovered from any sleep deprivation by that time.





P.S. Happy Halloween! I was hoping to show off my latest pumpkin carving, but my sister’s schedule was too hectic this month for us to do any carving, so it didn’t happen this year. Instead, here’s a picture of an adorable black cat because it’s Halloween-related and I’ve always had a spot soft for them.

P.P.S. Fun fact, but this is my 100th post on this blog!

Snakes, Snakes Everywhere

Snakes. These slithering reptiles have long been a common literary device, mainly used to symbolize a negative idea. This year, however, they have been cropping up on all sorts of book covers.

Months ago, I thought it was a cool coincidence that black snakes graced the covers of Pierce Browns’ DARK AGE and Leigh Bardugo’s NINTH HOUSE. They looked dark and menacing, a thing not to be trifled it. But between the months those two books were released, Shelby Mahurin’s SERPENT & DOVE was chosen to become Barnes & Noble’s monthly book club pick. Last month also added Kendare Blake’s FIVE DARK FATES, which has small red-and-purple snakes coiled around a shield. And just recently, the book cover was announced for Suzanne Collins’ hotly anticipated Hunger Games companion prequel. The name of the book? THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, which sports a golden snake draped across a circular tree branch.

Curious about this phenomenon, I hopped onto Google to see if anyone else had noticed this trend. I was surprised by the lack of articles, but at least there were a couple out there. Even if I thought the content was lacking the substance I was hoping to find. Both articles were published way back in April.

Over on Stacked Books, the author listed eleven books she stumbled upon with snakes on recent YA and adult book covers. Some snakes were more in your face, others were more subtle. On Epic Reads, they noticed the same particular snake appearing in different forms – the snake gracing the cover of Bardugo’s book. (And then Epic Reads had fun with this idea and photoshopped the snake onto other popular book covers. Some of them are quite hilarious. Others actually could have fooled me, thinking they belonged on the actual book.)

I also learned that skulls have been a common occurrence on book covers lately too, usually accompanied with a snake. How interesting that the current literary fad is dark fantasy, filled with morally ambiguous characters, sly snakes, and creepy skulls.

But what is it about snakes that book designers believe will entice readers to pick up the novel?

A serpent made its very first appearance in one of the oldest stories out there: the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis. The serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, twisting God’s words to sow doubt into Eve’s heart. As a consequence, enmity was formed between man and the snake.

This biblical story and its snake meaning still echoes in the current age. If you get called a “snake” nowadays, you are considered to have a slippery character. Someone who is sneaky, someone who is hiding something, someone who is crafty. A liar.

But snakes aren’t always considered a negative symbol. It could also mean “rebirth,” because of how a snake will shed its layer of skin to make way for a new one. It could signify “healing,” for it appears on the modern medical staff (based on Roman mythology roots). When a snake is shown eating its own tail, it represents “unity” or “completeness.” A never-ending loop. 

Are any of the recent book covers trying to portray the reptile in a more positive light? Eh, probably not. I have not read any of the books I listed above (yet), but based on the tone of the cover designs, I’m going to make this assumption. Dark colors, flickering forked tongues, and broken crowns don’t scream, “soothing” or “restorative.”

Like any other fad, I’m not certain how long we’ll be in the “dark fantasy, snakes, and skulls” phase. Maybe once the world seems a little bit brighter, when we’re all tired of reading and consuming stories about people overthrowing corrupt organizations, we’ll move on to another genre and symbol. For all I know, perhaps butterflies and doves are next. 

But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy my ominous snake-covered novels.

This is the Kind of Content I Come Up with When I Experience Writer’s Block

It’s hard to believe today is the last day of September already. How did that happen? (Don’t say, “One day at a time.”) I was filling in my October calendar yesterday, and I was amazed by how busy I’ll be in the approaching month. There are so many birthdays coming up (mine included), and I have some sort of social event happening in each of the weekends. As for this weekend, I’ll be on the other side of the state, attending a wedding for a family friend. Yay for getting out of my hometown bubble for two days? (At least I won’t be the one driving.)

And once October is over, I’ll have NaNoWriMo consuming my life in November. Then it’s all the holiday preparation and celebration in December. So basically the rest of 2019 should fly past me in a blur.

I started reading TWO DARK REIGNS by Kendare Blake a little over a week ago. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten as far into it as I’d like to be. (I’ve only read 121 pages.) I was hoping to finish that book and start/finish another book before November hits. I’m either going to have to pick up the pace or I’ll be cutting it close with whichever novel I choose to read next. Because we all know I won’t have time to read with all the writing I’ll be squeezing into every space of free time I’ll have in November.

Also, in case you didn’t know, my taste in music is quite eclectic. It definitely showed in the past two weeks as I’ve been obsessing with two musicians/bands. The first one is (Sandy) Alex G’s latest album House of Sugar. My top five songs would be: Hope, Southern Sky, Gretel, Taking, and Sugar. I also discovered For King & Country, so I’ve been slowly going through their songs. So far, my favorites have been: God Only Knows (especially the Echosmith version), pioneers, amen, and Shoulders.

In slightly other news, if you can recall, the beginning part of September didn’t treat me very kindly. I’m doing better now, even if I feel like my mindset has been in a strange place lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about age and life milestones, which I guess it’s weird. And it’s not just because I’ll be a year older soon. My new bible study of the year just launched, and I was surprised by how many young girls joined my group. Like, there are now three 20-year-olds and a 21-year-old. You should have seen their eyes widen when one of the leaders admitted that she was 28. Granted, she looks a lot younger (in fact, she got mistaken for her 18-year-old sister last month), but I sat there thinking, “Um, I’m only a year behind her. How’d I get to be one of the older ones now?” That 28-year-old also just got engaged two weeks ago, and even though I’m most definitely single, I’m nowhere near the idea of wanting to tie the knot. I’m still trying to get some sort career of the ground, people!

I realize that everyone grows and matures at different rates, but I don’t think it’s ever more noticeable than in your twenties. And right now, I’m in an odd place where I’m not sure which crowd I truly belong in.

A Small Life Update + A Book Rave

For the past two weeks, I’ve been feeling down on myself for reasons I’d rather not say, so when this occurs, I like to remind myself of things that have made me joyful lately. You know, to help put everything in perspective.

1.) Small Road Trip

Last Tuesday, I went on a small road trip with my mom and sister. Every year (usually in September), we visit a particular town almost two hours away. We left the house later than we were planning on – and it slightly rained on the car ride there – but it was nice to get out of my hometown for a few hours, visit some stores, buy a few items. It was a little humid, but the weather resembled summer as we walked the downtown streets.

2.) Basement Renovations

We finally got carpet installed in our basement last Thursday and Friday. And it only took three months! (insert sarcasm here) I guess there was a backlog with all the carpet orders, and once it arrived at the store, we had to wait three weeks for the carpet company to fit us into their schedule. But now all the basement renovations are officially completed, so we can begin the process of moving all the junk laying in piles on our main floor back to where it belongs in the basement. Well, everything we plan on keeping anyway. We’re hoping to throw out or donate a lot of it.

3.) Poetry

I recently subscribed to a poetry youtube channel, Ours Poetica. They just launched last Friday, so there are currently only two videos, but they plan on uploading three times a week. Not sure how many will be uploaded in total, or how long the “season” will last, but I plan to enjoy it in the meantime. I like to listen to the speaker read the poem aloud first, and then I’ll watch it again to actually read the lines at my own pace.

4.) A Book Rave

I read and finished WILDER GIRLS by Rory Power, and it was. So. Good. Power’s debut was published in July, and even though I try to read one of my older books in my TBR pile first, this one called to me and I caved in. The genre is definitely up my alley, even though I feel like I hardly ever read any isolated sci-fi/thriller novels.

It mainly centers around the protagonist, Hetty, but probably a quarter of the chapters were also written in Byatt’s viewpoint. (Hetty’s friend who she views as a sister.) I noticed some juxtaposition between their chapters at a few points, and I appreciate the subtle comparisons.

From what I’ve gathered, it’s supposed to be a standalone novel, which I find refreshing. I feel like many genre books out there prefer to draw it out into a series of sorts. Even if the ending of WILDER GIRLS most certainly didn’t answer all of my questions. (Which I heard was the biggest complaint about it. That, and some people thought the pacing was too slow. The book was written with a literary slant, so of course the story was allowed to take its time and breathe compared to the more fast-paced genre fiction.)

When I finished the book, my brain went: What? Does Byatt ever get better? How come we never learned why Hetty’s body decided going blind in one eye was considered an adaptive measure? And what was the deal with the…thing…Hetty threw up in the last scene? Do her parents actually believe she’s dead? And I still don’t know why the cooler was just sitting there in the forest back in the beginning of the book. Ah!

I guess it’s one of those instances where the rest of the story belongs to the reader. All of my unanswered questions may make me frustrated, but at least it made me think more about the story after I finished it.

But if Power ever decides to one day revisit the story for a sequel… Sign me up.



Side note: This book was also part of Barnes & Noble’s YA book club back in the summer. I may be a little late to the game, but I can see why it was chosen.

Thinking of Autumn

It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of August. Where did the summer go? There’s a whole list of summer-related activities I wanted to do this year but alas. Unlike last summer when I had to practically raise a puppy, I really don’t have much of an excuse on why I couldn’t knock some things off that list. Maybe I took the phrase “lazy summer days” too much to heart?

Despite my lack of activities these past 3-4 months, I’m actually looking forward to autumn. And, yeah, I know that fall technically doesn’t occur for another three weeks, but in my mind, it starts once Labor Day weekend is over. Although, I’ve already seen Halloween decorations in certain retail stores and Starbucks is selling their Pumpkin Spice drinks, so I guess corporate America believes that summer ended last month?

Anyway. Spring is actually my favorite season, but there’s something about autumn that usually brings about all sorts of exciting changes. I’m not in school anymore – so I don’t have to stress out about the upcoming school year – but I’ll be meeting my new bible study group in three weeks. To be fair, most of the individuals from my last group will be sticking around, but now we’ll be receiving a round of new people too. And there’s been a slight change in leadership (because two of them got “promoted”).

College football has also started! I was heartened to see MSU win yesterday, but I don’t really want to discuss the quality of their gameplay. NFL is still in preseason, but my brother has always been passionate about football, so the TV constantly has some sort of football game on during the weekends.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get tired of BBQs. Bring on the cider and donuts! Or apple crisp anything. I don’t like the taste of pumpkin, though, so you can keep all your pumpkin products to yourself.

I also think fall fashion is the best. I can start wearing boots instead of flip-flops. And even though I’m not much of a sweater person, fall clothing is all about being cozy minus the bulkiness of the winter cold.

Know what else occurs in fall? More books!

Spring is the season to promote debut authors, summer is for the beach read, and autumn is for the heavy-hitter/popular authors and books more on the literary side. (And winter is basically used to promote holiday shopping. It’s purely a business thing. The publishing houses hope that the novels they sell in autumn will carry them over financially until the spring.)

During the month of September and October, there are nine books being published that I plan on picking up. My birthday is in the middle of October, so these books always serve as easy gifts from my family. Because I’m told I’m difficult to shop for.

However, this isn’t good news for my pile of unread books sitting on my dresser. It’s currently at 17. I was able to catch up a little during the summer - since I wasn’t buy that many books - but still.

Last week, I finished reading SEAFIRE by Natalie C. Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by its non-stop action. Definitely had a summer vibe going for it. I mean, the best way I can describe it is that it’s about an all-girls crew of steampunk pirates. (The term “pirates” is usually reserved for thieves, which they weren’t, but they spent more time sailing the sea rather than setting foot on land.) Haven’t fully decided which book to read next, but I wasn’t planning on taking a week off. Not if I would like to read at least 22 books by the end of the year. (SEAFIRE was Book #17. And I tend not to read any novels in November.)

The one thing I’m not looking forward to in autumn is raking leaves. Our trees dump so many leaves, and they like to spread out the whole process for three entire months. But at least all the bright foliage throughout Michigan looks pretty in the meantime.