According to a good and reliable tracker called Goodreads, I was able to collectively read a good Seven thousand a hundred and five pages across twenty three books this year. Can you believe that? It has been many years since I have completed a goodreads reading challenge. I have learned from the past years that 50 books would just be ambitious for me and I would never ever in my lifetime be able to fulfill that 50 books in a span of a year, that's why for the past year, I lowered my challenge number and yay! I made it! I read 23 out of the 20 books that I was expecting myself to read for the year. This calls for a celebratory post here so I am starting the year by looking back on the books that I have read in the year 2019.
Last year, I got a Kindle and I was broke the whole year because your ghorl is so lakwatsera that's why most of the books I've read don't have a physical copy. As much as I wanted to grow my mini library in my room, they just have to stay small for now until I can be a rich bookworm who has a capacity to buy expensive books anytime and anywhere.
In the year 2019, I had a lot of surprise reads — books that I never thought I would read, ever. Last year has been a great year of representation from all sorts of books ranging from YA to historical fiction to adult, and I can say that what surprises me most is that I've read some of those sorts. Plus, I've read non-fiction! :D
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These first books are notable but not notable enough for me to remember how I felt when I was reading them. I don't have any reviews that's why I can't recall my feelings, so I'll just list them down. These were the books that I remembered I loved at that moment but are buried already somewhere in my mind now.
VILLAINS SERIES
This series had my focus from start to finish. It showed another side of the fairy tale, and it blew me away. The interweaving stories of these famous villains were so interesting that I even mourn the deaths of some of them. They weren't villains for no reason so it was interesting to know the backstory without the boring bits of just retelling it the way we already know them. I mean, these stories are etched in our hearts and minds and just retelling it again and again without bringing something new is just redundant and not needed anymore, but the Villains series surpassed every prejudice I have of it.
VERITY
This is my best read of 2019! This is the book that I would recommend over and over and over again to anyone who asks me for a book to read! Colleen Hoover shifted genre and I devoured it. I know I'm a big fan of CoHo but I never thought I could praise her writing even more! Some authors try a different genre and fail but my CoHo didn't fail in this one.
THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
Evelyn. Evelyn. You surprise me. I went into this book blind. I know nothing except that Evelyn had 7 husbands, as the title had already suggested it, duh! That was it! I never knew that it would turn out to be an LGBT story, which, honestly is not my cup of tea, but I can say that it was surprisingly good. The old hollywood glamour was the reason I was engrossed and captured. Reading some bits about its inspiration, Evelyn Hugo was loosely based on Elizabeth Taylor, who married 8 times, and Ava Gardner, who revealed the secrets of her life to a journalist (I am going to read this book some other time: Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations).
DAISY JONES & THE SIX
Another great read from Taylor Jenkins Reid. I think she's really good at coating her stories with nostalgia, blanketing her readers with a reminiscent feeling even when they've never been a part of that history at all. Both Seven Husbands and Daisy Jones have perfectly captured this feeling. I wasn't born in the 60s but I felt all the high and low emotions that was the entire book. One of my great reads of 2019!
THE SECRETS WE KEPT
There's always this feeling I get when I read historical fiction, but what made The Secrets We Kept so engrossing is the history it represents. Author, Lara Prescott, based her story on true CIA files regarding the smuggling of Doctor Zhivago back to Russia and she fill in the blanks where she could inject fiction and it blended in really well. It feels like its real. It's not just based on what happened in history but the history she used was recorded and files, and the book told a story that was heart shattering-ly beautiful.
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
Where the Crawdads Sing is somewhat a coming of age story infused with a sad portrayal of isolation and what it does to a person. It was a looong read but it was worth it. Delia Owens painted the surroundings in my head and it was so vivid even when I don't know what a bog looks like! I felt like I was painting my own version of the marshlands with the help of her words. I kinda searched it afterwards, though, because I really have no idea but they'e a bit the same, it's just that the picture in my head is only a small one compared to how it actually is.
THE HAPPINESS EQUATION
I've never been a sad person. I get sad, of course (who doesn't?), but I always want happiness wherever I go. This book made me realize that the equation to happiness wasn't a stranger to me. I've been doing secret #1 for so long now and secret #2 is what I'm trying to teach myself but haven't perfected yet. Please please know these secrets. They may be simple and may be a truth universally acknowledged but it's not something that can be embraced fully without wanting it to. We hear these secrets most of the time but we are too caught up with the world and chasing happiness with things and success and all that when we should've been listening.
okay, I'll give you the secret:
#1. Be Happy First. I wasn't expecting the meaning of Be Happy First but damn, when he put it that way, it made actual sense!
#2. Do it for you. Who else are we gonna do it for? Easy to say, but if we are frank with each other, we do it for others most of the time, right?
#3. Remember the Lottery. It's much easier to understand if you read the book.
#4. Just Do It. It's hard and it gets harder and harder to think of it, to think of what others might say, so my mantra for the year is just do it.
#5. Be Yourself. It's not easy for everyone. Maybe sometimes I want to be like someone else, but it's tiring trying to create something out of yourself when there's already something there that doesn't need an energy to be created! The natural one, yourself!
I'D RATHER BE READING
Her essays spoke to me and I think it's how all bookworms felt while reading the book. It felt like I could've written it because everything is so on point, so it just means that the writer is a reader at heart and understands what it means to be a reader.
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Finally!!! I thought I would never finish this post! That's all about My Year in Books! ❤️
H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N S
WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH
A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE
THRONE OF GLASS
THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET IN HEAVEN
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
THE HATE U GIVE
S E R I E S
VILLAINS SERIES
This series had my focus from start to finish. It showed another side of the fairy tale, and it blew me away. The interweaving stories of these famous villains were so interesting that I even mourn the deaths of some of them. They weren't villains for no reason so it was interesting to know the backstory without the boring bits of just retelling it the way we already know them. I mean, these stories are etched in our hearts and minds and just retelling it again and again without bringing something new is just redundant and not needed anymore, but the Villains series surpassed every prejudice I have of it.
F I C T I O N
VERITY
THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
DAISY JONES & THE SIX
THE SECRETS WE KEPT
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
N O N - F I C T I O N
THE HAPPINESS EQUATION
I've never been a sad person. I get sad, of course (who doesn't?), but I always want happiness wherever I go. This book made me realize that the equation to happiness wasn't a stranger to me. I've been doing secret #1 for so long now and secret #2 is what I'm trying to teach myself but haven't perfected yet. Please please know these secrets. They may be simple and may be a truth universally acknowledged but it's not something that can be embraced fully without wanting it to. We hear these secrets most of the time but we are too caught up with the world and chasing happiness with things and success and all that when we should've been listening.
okay, I'll give you the secret:
#1. Be Happy First. I wasn't expecting the meaning of Be Happy First but damn, when he put it that way, it made actual sense!
#2. Do it for you. Who else are we gonna do it for? Easy to say, but if we are frank with each other, we do it for others most of the time, right?
#3. Remember the Lottery. It's much easier to understand if you read the book.
#4. Just Do It. It's hard and it gets harder and harder to think of it, to think of what others might say, so my mantra for the year is just do it.
#5. Be Yourself. It's not easy for everyone. Maybe sometimes I want to be like someone else, but it's tiring trying to create something out of yourself when there's already something there that doesn't need an energy to be created! The natural one, yourself!
I'D RATHER BE READING
Her essays spoke to me and I think it's how all bookworms felt while reading the book. It felt like I could've written it because everything is so on point, so it just means that the writer is a reader at heart and understands what it means to be a reader.
- - -
Finally!!! I thought I would never finish this post! That's all about My Year in Books! ❤️
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