One of my goals for 2019 (and every year for that matter) is to read more. I always start off so strong at the beginning of the new year, and then taper off and forget to read as the months go by. This year is probably not going to be any different, but I’m still really pumped to be getting back into reading now.

Starting off the new year means rushing to Barnes & Nobel to buy all of the books which will inspire me to read. I’ve also collected a few from Half Priced Books over the past couple of months, so I will show those here as well.

Would you like to see book reviews? I’ve done them on my blog from time to time, and I’m thinking about bringing them back. Since I’m reading a lot book reviews are fun to do, but they also add extra pressure to my reading journey, so I haven’t made up my mind on whether I want to do them or not. Your opinion matters—do you like reading my book reviews? If so, that would mean a lot to me. Comment down below and let me know.

Fangirl, by: Rainbow Rowell

I have been dying to read Fangirl for awhile now, and every time I would see it on the shelves at different stores I would be so tempted to pick it up. I wasn’t sure the order in which I was supposed to read Fangirl and Carry On since they kind of go together, so I decided to start with Carry On. Fangirl ties into Carry On in the sense that the main character of Fangirl, is a HUGE Simon Snow fan (aka the main character in Carry On). Essentially, Carry On is the book in which Cath obsesses over in the whole book, so it makes since that I should read her obsession book before the actual Fangirl book, right? I’m not sure, but either way, I’m ready to FINALLY read this one. I finished Carry On in 2016, so it’s about time I read Fangirl.

How to be a Good Creature, by: Sy Montgomery and illustrated by: Rebecca Green

This is a memoir in thirteen animals. There are 10 intriguing chapters in which you learn about Sy’s interactions with animals throughout her life and how humans can connect with them. Each chapter is dedicated to an animal, or a few animals that are banded together, and the chapters tell the story of Sy’s experiences with these creatures. Goodreads’ first sentence in their blurb says, “Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative.” and I just love that because I think it perfectly describes the way in which I feel about creatures on this planet.

I’ve actually already read this book, and smashed it in one day. I started it and couldn’t stop and knew that I would need to keep reading until I finished it. I would highly recommend this book to most all people. A full review will be coming very soon!!

The Circle, by: Dave Eggers

The Circle is actually one of my favorite movies (I saw it on Netflix, so I bet it’s still there), and I was really disappointed in myself when I found out this was a book; I would have loved to have read the book first. The main character, Mae Holland (who is played by Emma Watson in the movie, eeek!) is hired by this company called The Circle. It kind of reminds me of Google in a way—it’s a powerful internet company and she is tasked with the role of customer support which I can really relate to.

The Circle is this interconnected company that believes that employees should treat their roles as a way of life, so not really much work-life balance going on here. And things escalate quickly as Mae is invited to parties, meets all the right people, and even becomes friendly with the CEO. Life beyond The Circle campus grows distant, strange encounters with family and friends don’t faze her, and soon Mae’s role within the company becomes increasingly public. I loved the movie because of the mix of modern and current technology that shows us a glimpse at what this world could be heading towards (is it good or bad?), and I am hoping the book is just as thought provoking to me as the movie was.

You, by: Caroline Kepnes

You was introduced to me via the Netflix show; however, when I went to add this book to my Goodreads To-Read shelf I noticed that it’s been there since January of 2016!! How has this book been on my shelf for 3 years without me even realizing how gold it was?! I have watched the entire Netlix series (and if you haven’t yet then I would highly recommend), so I am excited to dive into this book sometime soon. My only concern is the fact that I’ve already seen the show, and I don’t want my reading of the book to be a constant comparison to the show. I will definitely be writing a review of the two on my blog whenever I finish it though.

This book is about an aspiring writer named Guinevere Beck, who runs into a bookstore clerk, Joe. After initially meeting Beck, Joe is overcome with interest in her and googles her name via her credit card in order to get to know her. She has a public Facebook account, Twitter, and Instagram, so looking into Beck’s life is rather simple. Joe becomes more obsessively involved with Beck and attempts to take control of her life quite unbeknownst to her, blurring the lines between stalker and boyfriend

These next books were all bought together as part of Barnes & Nobels’ “buy 2 get 1 free” sale they were having. Essentially I really wanted The Tattooist of Aushwitz but saw that it was part of this sale, so of course I was like “okay, fine, I’ll buy three, gosh why do you have to force me to do these things?! *sarcasm* haha.”

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, by: Bruce D. Perry & Maia Szalavitz

Bruce Perry is a childhood psychiatrist who has helped kids in all walks of life. In this book he shares his notes, the stories of trauma and transformation, and his knowledge about brain science that explains the things that happen to a child’s brain when exposed to these different events.

If you are not aware, I actually started my college career with the intention of becoming a school psychologist. My first year I had actually declared my major as Psychology. During college, I started this blog and fell in love with technology, thus changing my major to Informatics. But psychology and the way in which people think, learn and grow, change, and view the world still fascinates me. I finished college with a minor in psychology, so keeping current on topics like this are still a passion of mine.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by: Heather Morris

Based on the true story of love and survival, this book takes place during World War II in which the Nazi’s had imprisoned at least 1.3 million people. Two of those people were Lale and his love, Gita. When his captors discovered that Lale spoke many languages they put him to work as the Tätowierer (German for Tattooist). He was tasked with permanently tattooing the prison number on each of the Auschwitz victims. This is how he met Gita.

This book takes you through the hard times of living in a concentration camp by showing the barbaric atrocities of the camps, but it also shows the immense bravery and compassion that this band of prisoners could share with one another. I read this book soon after purchasing it, and I will have a review on this blog later!

A Simple Favor, by: Darcey Bell

Here’s another book in which I’ve already seen the movie, but it was part of the deal so I thought, why not? Trevor and I watched this movie together while in Nashville on our honeymoon, and I thought it was intriguing at the time. There were a couple of things in the movie that I just couldn’t help but think about and wanted more detail on, so I am actually really excited and hopeful that the book will hit deeper on these points.

The premise of the story starts with (you guessed it) a simple favor in which one friend, Emily, asks her other friend, Stephanie, to watch her kid. But that favor leaves Stephanie in a spiraling predicament as Emily never comes back. Where has she gone? What is happening? And what can Stephanie, a stay at home mommy blogger, do to help find her?

Bird Box, by: Josh Malerman

I’m sure you’ve heard of this, everyone has. Thanks to Netflix’s new movie (with Sandra Bullock as the star), this book is now pretty well known. I have seen the movie, kind of. During my Christmas break I walked down to the living room one day as my sister was watching the movie. I jumped in during the middle and probably asked her a ton of really annoying questions, but I got the gist of what this was all about. So, when perusing the options in Barnes & Nobel and stumbling upon this book, I figured, why not!

In case you aren’t familiar, here’s the summary of the plot: this dystopian novel takes place during a time in which something terrifying has taken over the planet. No one is sure what it is, but everyone knows it must not be seen because one look at this thing can drive a person to go mad and commit deadly violence. Approximately five years after the horror began there are a handful of survivors, one of which being our main character, Malorie, as well as, her two young children. During the course of this story we follow the actions of Malorie, her children, and the band of survivors who are trying to navigate the world blind, find refuge together, and not die along the way.

City of Glass & City of Fallen Angels, by: Cassandra Clare

These books are #3 and 4 of The Mortal Instruments series. I’ve been slowly picking up each book in this series from Half Priced Books as I read through them. The Mortal Instruments is a series of six total young adult fantasy novels. The main character is Clary Fray, who discovers early in the first book that there is an entire fantasy world beyond the eyes of normal humans (aka mundanes). She is thrust into danger later finding out that she herself is a Shadowhunter, a nephilim bound to protect the Earth from demons and the like.

This book series has become one of the most popular series in my mind when I think about fantasy. I’ve been meaning to read it in it’s entirety for awhile now, but starting a six book series is kind of daunting. I’ve finally made it through the first two after owning them for what feels like years, so now I’m ready to dive in and take the plunge by reading all of the six books.

Four Past Midnight, by: Stephen King

Four Past Midnight is a collection of four novellas. I actually have never read of single word by Stephen King, so I am really excited to be starting with this small collection of his. I was really intrigued by the book mostly because of the first novella, “The Langoliers,” in which the characters take a red-eye flight from LA to Boston. During their journey only eleven passengers survive, but upon landing they discover they’re in an eerily empty world—yesterday. The other novellas within this book include “Secret Window, Secret Garden,” “The Library Policeman,” and “The Sun Dog.”

These last two books I purchased were also part of a Barnes & Nobel deal that I just couldn’t pass up. They were offering a whole slew of hard back collector books of different classics for less than $10 each.

The Wizard of Oz, by: L. Frank Baum

First off, this humongous book includes the first five novels—did you even know there was more than one Wizard of Oz story?! Because I didn’t. I felt compelled to get this book in order commemorate my time in Kansas. I will definitely be reading this collection myself, but also dream about the day when I can read these stories to my kids at night and tell them all about the time that I spent in Kansas and met their daddy. Okay, okay, enough mushy gushy stuff, haha!

Scrolling through Goodreads I discovered that there are actually 14 Oz books!! OMG, fourteen?! Each book contains the same well known characters but also introduces new characters like the Hungry Tiger, whose appetite is never satisfied; Princess Langwidere, who has thirty heads; Billina, a talking chicken; and Tiktok, a mechanical man. As excited as I am to read the next books in the Wizard of Oz series, I’m also really pumped to be reading the first story since I only know what I know from the old-time movie.

Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales

Grimm’s fairy tales are much like the fairy tales that we all have come to love and know thanks to Disney movies; but, they don’t often end in such happy cheerful ways. Stories like Cinderella, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, and hundreds more are all located in this giant hard back book. This is another collection of classic stories that I’ve been wanting to pick up for awhile, so seeing them as a steal at Barnes & Nobel meant I had to snatch it up.

How do I conclude this blog post other than saying, “yeah I bought a ton of books…” which I know I did. I love watching my book collection grow almost more than I love actually reading the stories; there’s something about having the books on my shelf that just bring me such complete joy. But, like I said earlier, if you want to see any full reviews of these books please comment down below and let me know! I’d love to share some of my thoughts with you. Also, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve added a reactions bar at the bottom of each blog post :) Please feel free to let me know how you feel about this post! This sort of feedback really helps me learn what you’re interested in most.

a new year's book haul