All Our Wrong Todays By Elan Mastai Published on February 7, 2017 384 pages Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel
You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn't necessary. Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland. But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.
At the beginning of the year, I had a few reading goals. This year, I did not just want to read more, but also broaden my bookshelf. Most importantly, I wanted to read more diverse books, especially debuts. Unfortunately, my reading life was derailed due to the difficulty of the last few months (you can read all of the juicy details here). I fell behind on a lot of things during the time I was away from blogging, but my Goodreads challenge has taken the most notable bit. Out of my goal of 80 books this year, I have only read 13. Thanks to the friendly reminder on Goodreads homepage, I know that I am about 28 books behind schedule. While I may not be a math person, I know that those numbers aren't what I was hoping for. Fortunately, of the 13 books I have read this year, most have been out of the realm of what I normally read. I have delved into adult science fiction, classics that I have always wanted to read but never mustered the motivation, and quite a few amazingly diverse reads. Even though I may not reach my numerical goal of 80 books, I have been pretty well on my diversifying. But, I still have some work to do. 2017 is a big year for releases, and I want to try to get ahead before falling even more behind. (What is the literary equivalent of a marathon? I need to know so I can start training.) So, I compiled a list of ten of the books that I REALLY need to catch up on.
The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas Diverse, A Court of Wings and Ruin By Sarah J. Maas When Dimple Met Rishi By Sandhya Menon Once and For All By Sarah Dessen Saints and Misfits By S. K. Ali
Strange the Dreamer By Laini Taylor The Names They Gave Us By Emery Lord Bad Romance By Heather Demetrios
The Crown's Fate By Evelyn Skye Flame in the Mist By Renee Ahdieh
Have you ever fallen behind on your reading goals? Are there any books that you need to catch up on this summer? What other books do you think I need to read soon?
Is a three-month absence too long to blame on technical issues? Unfortunately, it was not a broken computer, slow Internet, or a three-month long blackout that prevented me from blogging.
The Details
For the last three months or so, I have attended two funerals, spent many long weekends consoling family, and tried to complete my last semester of high school without flunking everything. In between the crying, studying, and traveling, I have not had any time to read, let alone blog. While blogging has been an important part of my life (admittedly on and off) for the past five years, my family, and ultimately my sanity, were more important to me in the last couple of months. To be completely honest, there were times when I did not think I could ever return to blogging. The thought of writing a new blog post filled me with anxiety. There was a voice in the back of my head whispering that I was gone too long, no one would remember me, and that I was not even a good blogger in the first place. On that note, I would like to give the biggest shout-out to Roberta @ Offbeat YA and anyone else who had faith that I did not abandon this little blog of mine. It turns out you were right, even when I had doubts. I know my blog isn't the biggest, the prettiest, the funniest, or the most consistent, but it warms my bookish heart to know people care about my ramblings. You guys make everything worth it. Anyway, I have learned quite a bit in the past weeks. Most lessons are painful and private that you don't want to hear about anyway. But, there is one that we all know, but we don't always appreciate. It is in the darkest times when books can be the most beneficial. In the past two weeks, I started reading again. Did reading fix all of my family's problems? No. But the real magic is that books don't have to fix everything. Picking up a book again made me feel like myself. In a world where our lives are chaotic, destructive, and sometimes downright depressing, books are a constant. The words on a page never change and characters never abandon their books. Even when life seems like a Hallmark movie that someone decided didn't deserve a happy ending, you can take comfort in your passions. Earlier in the year, I promised myself that I would never apologize for my blogging habits, no matter how sporadic they become. If you want to read the whole post about not giving into regret about blogging, click here. If you were too lazy to click the link, here is the quick and dirty: I am tired of being anxious, guilty, and sad about the state of my blog. Books have provided a safe place for me throughout my entire life, and I don't want blogging to erode that passion. So, I don't want blogging to become a chore to me, or else reading will as well. For better or worse, this means that I need to take breaks from blogging as needed. Over the last couple of months, I have definitely needed a break. I hope you can forgive me for my absence, but I have comfort in the fact that I have already forgiven myself.
Takeaways
1. I am not dead. 2. I am not quitting. New posts will be up by the end of the week, and hopefully, pretty consistently after that. 3. Reading is not a cure-all, but books can go a long way in the healing process. 4. I appreciate each and every one of you who continue to follow my blog despite the sudden disappearances, silence, and craziness. 5. I have some catching up to do, with reading, blogging, commenting, and getting back into the groove of things. (And let's not even talk about the state of my Goodreads challenge right now).
So, what did I miss? What books have you been reading lately? What are the latest releases I need to catch up with? How has your life been in the past three months? Tell me everything!
By Laura Silverman Published on May 2, 2017 350 pages Young Adult, Diverse, Contemporary
This book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I swear on my bookshelf that this has not affected my opinion of the book.
Anise Sawyer plans to spend every minute of summer with her friends: surfing, chowing down on fish tacos drizzled with wasabi balsamic vinegar, and throwing bonfires that blaze until dawn. But when a serious car wreck leaves her aunt, a single mother of three, with two broken legs, it forces Anise to say goodbye for the first time to Santa Cruz, the waves, her friends, and even a kindling romance, and fly with her dad to Nebraska for the entire summer. Living in Nebraska isn’t easy. Anise spends her days caring for her three younger cousins in the childhood home of her runaway mom, a wild figure who’s been flickering in and out of her life since birth, appearing for weeks at a time and then disappearing again for months, or even years, without a word. Complicating matters is Lincoln, a one-armed, charismatic skater who pushes Anise to trade her surfboard for a skateboard. As Anise draws closer to Lincoln and takes on the full burden and joy of her cousins, she loses touch with her friends back home – leading her to one terrifying question: will she turn out just like her mom and spend her life leaving behind the ones she loves.
Girl of Myth and Legend By Giselle Simlett The Chosen Saga #1 Published on December 29, 2015 363 Pages Young Adult, Fantasy, Debut
This book was provided to me from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I swear on my bookshelf that this has not affected my opinion of the book.
A girl with a past she tries to forget, and a future she can’t even imagine.
Leonie
Woodville wants to live an unremarkable life. She wants routine, she
wants repetition, she wants predictability. So when she explodes in a
blaze of light one morning on the way to her college, it’s enough to put
a real crimp in her day.
And things only get weirder…
Leonie
learns from her father that she is last of the Pulsar, a phenomenally
powerful member of a magical species called the Chosen. It will be her
sole duty to protect the Imperium, a governing hierarchy, from all
enemies, and to exceed the reputation of the Pulsar before her. So – no
pressure there, then.
Leonie is swept away from her rigorous
normality and taken to a world of magic. There, she is forced into a
ceremony to join her soul to a guardian, Korren, who is both incredibly
handsome and intensely troubled, a relationship for which ‘it’s
complicated’ just really doesn’t cut it.
But Leonie is soon to
learn that this ancient world is no paradise. With violent dissidents
intent to overthrow the Imperium, and dark entities with their own
agenda, she and Korren find themselves caught in a war where they will
have to overcome their differences if they are to survive.
All Our Wrong Todays
