Mid-Year Freak Out Tag!

I was tagged by the fabulous Maddie from Munch Reviews. I stumbled across her blog just recently but formed an instant connection – she has the heart of a true blue beautiful nerd and I have found more than a few fantastic reads on her blog. If you haven’t been to her site yet – take a moment and check it out. Thanks for the tag Maddie!

This is such a fortuitous tag because I really need to stay organized with my reading, challenges, logging my books, and reviewing for the year. This tag was such a swift kick in the butt to make sure I was staying on top of the organization part of my love of reading.

Below are responses to the mid-year freak out tag but if you are interested in how my 2018 Challenges are going feel free to check out my Challenges page.

Best Book So Far This Year

I have read a LOT of children’s fiction in the first half of the year but these two have been my favorites so far. The Seventh Most Important Thing and Bob are sweet and true like fantastic books need to be.

Best Sequel So Far in 2018

Penny Reid is my go-to recommendation for contemporary romance. Her books are smart, funny, and filled to the brim with women I would gladly pay money to be my friends. I have been waiting for Dan the Security Man’s story since her very first book. Scenes from the Hallway are short stories between Dan and Cat and Marriage of Inconvenience is their whole story finally told. I read Scenes several times and Marriage twice because Ms. Reid’s writing is just that good.

The New Release I Haven’t Read Yet but Want To

Madeline Miller’s first book remains as one of my

Most Anticipated Release for 2018

Are you sensing a theme here? Penny Reid has another book in a different series of hers coming out at the end of July. I cannot wait to read Roscoe’s story! And, Kill the Farm Boy debuts mid-July and I feel like I have been waiting for this book for a year.

Biggest Disappointment of This Year

HeartofIron

Ashley Poston’s Geekerella was one of my favorite books of 2017. I was beyond excited about her new re-telling of Anastasia but I think I out-hyped myself. This is the first in the series and I am really hoping that the second and third book will bolster this first book. It was far from bad but I was disappointed.

Biggest Surprise

Tim Peake’s Ask an Astronaut is so far outside of my comfort zone but it is such a fantastic non-fiction space read that I had a really hard time returning it to the library. I have also been reading a lot of graphic novels and The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang came out of no where (for me) and really affected me. It is such a gorgeous and heartfelt story that I cannot stop talking about it.

Favorite New to You or Debut Author

I first picked up Sandhya Menon’s When Dimple met Rishi to fulfill a challenge choice and just adored her first novel. I have been looking forward to reading her second novel From Twinkle, with Love but the book buying ban (and the wagon I’m back on) has kept me from picking it up. Thankfully, my June OwlCrate just arrived – with Twinkle inside! I’m finished it quickly and the review is coming soon. Both books are quick cute reads (perfect for summer) but I deeply appreciated the cultural references that gave the tried and true romance genre a lovely kick.

Newest Fictional Crush

While I love reading romantic interactions, typically what works for a romance story would make me insane in reality. The drama!!! I just don’t have the energy.

Instead of fictional crushes I experience a third-wheel excitement for the couple itself. So, I can only give you all my favorite couple from this year:

Melanie Summers’ Crown Jewels trilogy is adorable and I really enjoyed watching Arthur and Tessa’s relationship develop. Similarly, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne had a swoon-worthy male and female character relationship but I wouldn’t have been able to handle that much drama and upset in real life. This book though is a must read for all romantic hearts.

New Favorite Character

This category has another tie between Keita Mori from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and Amari from Children of Blood and Bone.

Book That Made Me Cry

All three of these made me happy cry.

Books That Made Me Happy

Every single book I review on SilverButtonBooks is a book that makes me happy because I don’t do negative reviews. But, here are two that surprised me by making me happy.

My Lady’s Choosing is an interactive romance book that took me right back to the choose your own adventure books of my childhood. Brazen is a graphic novel that highlights rebel ladies. Both books struck an unusual chord with me – My Lady’s Choosing for reminding me why I loved those crazy adventure books and Brazen for inspiring me to read more biographies.

Favorite Book to Film Adaptation

I don’t have a new one from this year! I have Simon on my shelf to read and I suspect that it will be high up there and Crazy Rich Asians was such a fun book but I haven’t seen the film yet.

Favorite Post You Have Done This Year

This would be my favorite post of the year. The Watchmaker is such a special book and the review flowed and I felt, for once, that my review actually encapsulated my love for this story.

The Most Beautiful Book You Bought This Year?

These two books I held and wandered around the store promising myself I would put them back. But, in the end, I just couldn’t. And, like any art form, I can’t really explain why these books appeal to me so much but they are my favorite from the first half of 2018.

Books to Read By The End of the Year?

Oh Lord, so many books! And they just keep publishing new wonderful books that I am desperately excited to read. And then I head over to the library to escape this wretched heat and I find more books to read. I direct you again to my challenges page where I see that I really need to start on more historical fiction.

And there is it! My mid-year freak out. Sincere thanks to Maddie for tagging me and getting me to organize my thoughts with this tag. In return, I tag

Ryan,

Cathy (my favorite blog for historical fiction) and

Molly!

Tell me, please!

How is your 2018 reading going? Are you rock steady or freaking out?

I love book blogs. Sometimes, when I don’t write for a while that is because I am knee-deep in reading and enjoying the adventures of literature through the eyes of my fellow book bloggers.

Recently, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Thrice Read, and they had featured a tag called, “New York Times by the Book Tag.” While I was intrigued by the title (and the fab post, check it out here) I couldn’t figure out why it was called The New York Times by the Book Tag. The originator of the tag is Marie Berg and there is a youtube link but the video is lost. So, I started backtracking through the different blogs that tagged each other. I started with Thrice Read who was found the tag on Beth’s blog Reading Every Night. Beth was tagged by Jessica at Pour Over Pages. Jessica was tagged by Lois from Lois Reads Books. Lois was tagged by Reg from She Latitude. Now, Reg had tagged a couple of other people but you can only go so far down the rabbit hole. Reg was tagged by Lauren at Wonderless Reviews. And Lauren was tagged by Louise at Genie Reads. Louise was tagged by Michelle at Book Adventures. Now, I don’t know where Michelle’s New York Times post went so I decided this was the end of my journey. Whew!

Now I have five new book blogs to follow, an avalanche of books to add to my TBR and an overwhelming need to tell everyone to drop what they are doing and read Pierce Brown right now (so many bloggers cited his books as ones they meant to read). If I were you I would check out all these fantastic blogs – many of them also include how they organize their books shelves, some with pictures!

New York Times by the Book Tag

What Book is On Your Nightstand Now?

The Complete Make-Ahead Cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. It gives me delicious dreams.

What was the Last Truly Great Book You Read?

messy

Messy, The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford is the book I just cannot stop recommending. I love this book and I have become very annoying to those around me by quoting it.

If You Could Meet Any Author – Dead or Alive – Who Would it Be? And What Would You Want to Know?

Truthfully, I do not want to meet any authors. What if I met the author of my favorite book series and I despised him / her? What if she was a horrible excuse for a human being? I feel the same way about actors. I just want to enjoy the books and movies.

What Books Might We Be Surprised to Find On Your Shelf?

I have a ton of reference books on my shelves. But, now that I am looking, I have an alarming number of books about code breaking and ciphering. Huh. I don’t even know Morse Code.

How do you Organize Your Personal Library?

In this past year I purchased all of these wonderful bookshelves from Ikea. I try to keep my books in groups (like with like, series books all together) but I do have one whole bookshelf reserved for TBR and one for all my favorite books.

I am actually waiting for a nice cold weekend to pull them all off and reorganize them. After reading everyone else’s style I have some fantastic ideas.

What Books Have you Always Meant to Read But Haven’t Gotten Around to Yet?

All the major works of Shakespeare. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t actually read any of his great plays.

Disappointed, Overrated, Just Not Good: What Book Did you Feel Like you are Supposed to Like but Didn’t?

I’m on the edge of skipping this one because I don’t like to give negative reviews but this one isn’t a negative review so much as a I-didn’t-like-it-as-much-as-everyone-else book.

thehelp

People claimed that this book changed their lives. I think that is the part that really bothered me. Kathryn Stockett was “shining a light” on something that I felt like everyone knew about and she didn’t do it as well as I would have liked. However, if this book did change your world view then that is good news and I want to encourage you to dig deeper. Perhaps reading about minority issues from a minority author would be a good place to start.

What Kind of Stories are You Drawn to? Any you Stay Clear of?

I am definitely drawn to stories where everyone gets what is coming to them. I think that is how I keep ending up in the YA and Children’s section. I also enjoy Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Non-Fiction and Fantasy.

I steer clear of books intending to make you cry. You know the ones.

If You Could Require the President to Read One Book,

What Would It Be?

So many books are on this list. I thought about tomes written about compassion, works of minority authors, immigrant stories, history books, maybe some basic science books. But, I have very little to no faith that someone else is capable of changing his mind. I am going to have to say a nice Children’s Thesaurus.

What Do You Plan to Read Next?

shadow I am wrapping up The Ascendence Trilogy with The Shadow Throne by Jennifer Nielsen.

And there you have it! The New York Times by the Book Tag and a wandering journey through the history of the tag. If anyone knows why it is called this, let me know!

Tag: Tag

Mid-Year Freak Out

NY Times by the Book Tag and a Book Tag Journey