Always Me

June sure flew by, didn't it?  Anyway, now that means that I've completed 12 out of 24 books of  Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder Challenge !  The tasks I completed  this month required me to read a  book by an AOC set in or about space  and a n #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America .   For the tasks, I selected   Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor  and  North of Happy  by Adi Alsaid .   Read on to see my mini reviews and what's next for July: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor  is a short YA sci-fi novella, but I can't recommend it enough. Nnedi Okorafor is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. There is so much more I'd like to know about Binti's world, but this little glimpse was just about perfect. Plus, this story got me more interested in looking up information on Binti's people the Himba. I have a feeling you'll like Binti if you like Octavia Butler. Now I'll absolutely need to read the rest of the s

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm spotligh

Welcome to the Mid-Year Book Freak Out of 2019 everyone!  I've been taking part in this since 2015 - if you like you can check out my previous posts from  2015 ,  2016 ,  2017 , and 2018  - and I always enjoy seeing what everyone's been reading, so I'll try visit as many of these posts as I can to see what everybody's been up to.  Of course, I always end up adding a lot of books to my TBR thanks to this as well.  By the way, this tag was originally created by  ReadLikeWildFire  and  Ely Jayne . Without further ado, let's get to it: 1. Best book you've read so far in 2019. I'd say it's a three way tie between Trail of Lighting ( The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse , Jade City  ( The Green Bone Saga #1) by Fonda Lee , and Titanshade by Dan Stout . 2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2019. I can't decide between The Wicked King ( The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black and The Kingdom of Copper ( The Daevabad T

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Books On My Summer 2019 TBR.  Here are ten books that I'll be picking up this July and August.  Here we go: July: Annals of the Time Patrol ( Time Patrol Omnibu s #1-2) by Paul Anderson  - I plan on reading this for my Beat the Backlist Challenge 2019  and as a part of Sci-Fi July for Devour Your TBR.   Just look at that cover! The Best Science Fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle  -  I also plan on reading this for my  Beat the Backlist Challenge 2019  and as a part of Sci-Fi July for Devour Your TBR.  His Holmes stories are some of my favorites, so we'll see what I think of these sci-fi shorts. Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina  - This book will fulfill the task to read an #ownvoices book set in Oceania for Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge.  This sounds like a fantastic Indigenous Australian YA myster

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting a couple of my recent favorite Peter Hollens collaborations - Aladdin's "Friend Like Me" In Every Musical Style EVER with 10 Second Songs & Imagine Dragons in Under 4 Min - BEST MEDLEY EVER! with Chase Holfelder .  Both of these are so much fun and everyone involved is incredi

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone's had a great week and are enjoying their weekend.  I know mine's been crazy, but I'm coming up on a family vacation soon so that's going to be a lot of fun.  Anyway, I've recently added a few books to my collection.  They are from Goodwill, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, the library book sale, and the Penguin Random House Reader Rewards Program (which is really cool by the way - you can learn more about it here ).  Keep reading to check out the books I've added to my shelf: People Like Us by Dana Mele - I've had this YA mystery novel on my radar for awhile and when I saw it pop up at Ollie's I decided to pick it up.  It sounds like it has a lot of potential. Aurora Rising ( The Aurora Cycle  #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - I'm so excited to get to this - Kaufman and Kristoff are one of my favorite writing teams! The Defiant ( The Valiant #2) by Lesley Livingston - I really enjoyed the firs

Happy Saturday everyone!  Today I'm sharing three mini reviews with you:  Radioactive Revolutio n ( Radioactive Evolution #2) by Richard Hummel  (available May 6th, 2019),  The Triangle by Dan Koboldt, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, and Mindy McGinnis  (available April 24th, 2019),   and  Null Set ( Cas Russell #2) by S.L. Huang  (available July 9th, 2019).  Thank you very much to Book Publicity Services for providing me with a copy of Radioactive Revolution , to Serial Box for the free ecopy of The Triangle , and to NetGalley for an ARC of Null Set  in exchange for my honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts on these stories: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to jump into Radioactive Revolution by Richard Hummel so soon after reading the first book in the series, Radioactive Evolution . I'm thrilled that I took a chance on this series because it has been well worth the time. Since I've already gotten the hang of the author's style an

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. This week I'm spotligh