Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic end of 2015 and are having a wonderful start to 2016. It’s time to create the first TBR of the new year, and I am excited to get going on a new reading challenge! This year, I have some standalones and series that I am particularly determined to read, so I’m creating some bookish resolutions lists for myself. I have already posted my series/trilogies TBR (click here to check it out!) and I’ll be posting my standalone list sometime in the next day or so.
I am going to try to read at least one or two books from each list every month, so with those lists in mind, I created my (somewhat tentative) TBR. I am attempting to pull myself out of a slight reading slump, so I don’t want to make a TBR that is too overly ambitious. Many of these are roll overs from other months, so I apologize for the repetitiveness! I probably won’t be able to get to all of these, but they all sound fantastic so I think any of these reads will be a great way to start off 2016!
January TBR
1. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
This is one of my most anticipated releases of 2016, and it’s coming out in three days! I am so eager to get my hands on this one, and I am definitely hoping to read it before this month is out. There’s no way I can possibly resist any book about time travel!
2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
This one is rolling over from last month’s TBR. Cinder was one of my favorite reads last year, but I never managed to get around to continuing on with the series before the end of the year. Now that the main books are all out, and with Stars Above coming soon, I really need to finish the rest of these novels. I am completely adoring these stories and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
3. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I meant to read this back in October and never got a chance to. And now, with the movie coming out this year, it’s become a top priority on my reading list. In fact, I am hoping to read the entire trilogy this year, so I definitely want to get going on it.
4. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
This is another one rolling over from last month’s TBR. Once again, I must continue my quest to read every word ever written by Gillian Flynn. I am trying to pace myself, since there are only two novels left to read, but I can’t wait any longer. I have to read this one soon!
5. Alice by Christina Henry
I blame Heather for this one! She’s gotten me so excited to read this book that I had to include it in my TBR for the month. I have not heard too much about this one, but what I have heard has been spectacular. From what I gather, it’s a very dark reimagining of Alice in Wonderland with a morally ambiguous villain. I think this book was written for me! 🙂
I am also hoping to start reading a few stories out of The Return of Sherlock Holmes over the course of the month.
Read in December
I had a rather unexpectedly slow reading month and, embarrassingly enough, only actually fully completed one book. However, that one book was absolutely incredible; it was definitely my favorite read of the year! And the second book that I started this month is shaping up to be another new favorite of mine as well.
1. Vicious by V.E. Schwab – I read this in an incredibly fun buddy read with Heather from The Sassy Book Geek and absolutely fell in love with it. The writing, the plot, the characters, everything about this book was wonderful. As I said, this ended up being my favorite novel of the year, and having someone to read and discuss it with made it even more enjoyable. I’m so excited that I finally got a chance to read this book; I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to it! Click here to read my review!
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I started this toward the end of the month and I’m only just under halfway through it now, so this will technically be one of my first completed books of January. As expected, I am absolutely loving this novel so far, and I am incredibly eager to continue on and finish off the rest of it. This is another novel I’m so glad I’m finally reading, and I can’t believe I didn’t read this sooner!
December Book Haul
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin
- Wool by Hugh Howey
- Alice by Christina Henry
- A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
- The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
- Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (Pre-order)
What books are you guys planning on reading to start off the year? Did you get any books or bookish gifts over the holidays? Let me know in the comments!
-Ariana
This was pitched as “Doctor Who meets Sherlock”, so of course I had to read this immediately—and thankfully, it did not disappoint!
This was my first read of 2015 and an absolutely brilliant way to start off my reading for the year.
This was my first Gillian Flynn book, and by far one of the most intriguing and captivating novels that I read all year.
This is my first time making my way through this series and I am kicking myself for having put these novels off for so long—they are fantastic!
This was my most recent read and my last completed book of the year—and it was definitely my favorite of them all!
passage, n.
Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive – and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.
The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?
England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive, young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.
Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.
She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.
The city of Verity has been overrun with monsters, born from the worst of human evil. In North Verity, the Corsai and the Malchai run free. Under the rule of Callum Harker, the monsters kill any human who has not paid for protection. In the South, Henry Flynn hunts the monsters who cross the border into his territory, aided by the most dangerous and darkest monsters of them all—the Sunai, dark creatures who use music to steal their victim’s souls.
Allie Brosh, the “gut-bustingly funny” (NPR), award-winning, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hyperbole and a Half, shares an all-new collection of autobiographical and illustrated essays.
Long before she was the terror of Wonderland — the infamous Queen of Hearts — she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.
Strange the Dreamer is the story of: 
I have a pretty terrible memory, so this is sort of a difficult question for me! I started reading on my own around the age of three or so, but that was quite a while back so I don’t remember a lot of the first books that I read. However, I do very clearly remember reading a book called 
Books have always played an extremely important role in our family/household, and ever since I was very young, my parents constantly encouraged me to read. I know that they read to me very often for years, back so far that I am unable to specifically remember a fair amount of those books. The first book I can distinctly recall them reading to me, however, was 
For this one, I’m going to have to go with 
I don’t think it will shock anyone to hear me say that 
I had a lot of favorite books during elementary school because, not only was I in elementary school when the 
…Would you guys be mad at me if I said 
This is an incredibly difficult one to choose because a sizable amount of my all-time favorite books are ones I read during high school. I think I will have to go with 
This is another question that I can’t think of an answer for. I don’t really remember checking out any particular book multiple times. I tend to not do rereads very often, and all the ones I have done over the years were of books that I already owned. So for this question, I am going to say the 
Um…To Kill a Mockingb…Okay, you know what? For variety’s (and sanity’s) sake, we are just going to go with 
Again, this would be a toss up between 
A Monster Calls
I am revising this to “one of my favorites” because there is no way I am going to be able to choose just one ultimate favorite. I am also going to choose something that I have not yet mentioned in this tag, so I would say 
The first long series that I read in its entirety as a kid would be 
I started to learn how to read when I was around one or two years old. I began by memorizing the text of stories from hearing my family read to me, and then I would flip through the books myself and go over the words. Eventually something must have clicked and I began really reading on my own around age three. And boy, did I read a lot!
On a day like that, my favorite genre to read would definitely be fantasy; it’s the perfect sort of weather to sit inside and get lost in another world. In terms of specific books, I’d say any of the Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia books. Also, these are not fantasy books, but To Kill a Mockingbird and any of the Sherlock Holmes novels would be perfect as well. I’m sure I have shocked everyone by not being able to choose just one book! I’m usually so decisive… 😀
This is tough to choose just one for; there are so many incredible characters out there! I think I would have to go with either Hermione Granger or Daenerys Targaryen. They are both awesome, strong, and completely badass female characters, and two of my all-time favorites. I also wouldn’t mind trading places with either Holmes or Watson; it would be awesome to work alongside the greatest detective ever, or get to be him!
This is another tough one for me because I’ve not read all that many under hyped books in recent years, or at least ones that I really enjoyed. If I had to pick one, I might say 
The narrator of 
Katniss from 
Cinder
The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone
A Monster Calls
Jane Eyre
Edmund from 
Mare from 
To Kill a Mockingbird
Loki from Marvel Comics
Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London.
The Quirky Book Nerd 