This tag has come along at the perfect time as I had been planning to do a mid-year post about all the fantastic books that I’ve been reading this year anyway. As I love tags I can compile it all within this one post! Thanks to ReadLikeWildfire and Earl Grey Books for creating the tag! (Addition: this was much harder than I thought it was going to be! Too many good books in one year)
Where are we at?
Well, talk about PROGRESS. In 2017 I read 27 books. As of the 26th June 2018, I have already read 48 books, 2 away from my original Goodreads target. As I was closing into my goal of 50 books so quickly I decided to up it to 75 books. Last year that would have felt impossible to me but this year it seems more than achievable.
The Book Tag
1. The best book you’ve read so far in 2018
It was seriously hard to even narrow it down to two choices for this because I’ve read some amazing books this year that I absolutely fell in love with. I had to choose The Hate U Give as one the best books I’ve read this year for so, so many reasons. It’s one of the most important books of our time and Angie Thomas is an amazingly caring, compassionate, and lovely human being. And obviously, I have to also choose Failure to Communicate as it’s one of the books that I literally cannot stop talking about!
2. The best sequel you’ve read so far in 2018
Tbh, I am a complete trash bag who never actually follows through with series so these are the only sequels I’ve read, but they are also fantastic. Discovering the Illuminae Files was one of the best discoveries of the year and I adored both of these.
3. A new release you haven’t read yet but really want to
This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and I am very disappointed with myself that I haven’t read it yet after all of my excitement before its release! I even got granted it on Netgalley but held off reading it for a dumb reason, so now I need to find time to actually read it soon!
4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
I literally cannot wait for either of these to be released. If you’ve been following my blog or regularly read my posts, I’m sure you have seen all my rambles about my excitement for Record of a Spaceborn Few because it is part of my favourite series EVER. As for Summer Bird Blue, I finally got hold of a copy of Starfish earlier in the year and completely fell in love with it (and Akemi). It sounds like it’s going to be an amazing book.
5. Your biggest disappointment
I’ve been super lucky this year and haven’t really encountered many books that I’ve been disappointed in. The only major one that sticks in my mind is Feel Free. I’ve heard such great things about Zadie Smith but I really did not enjoy this or her non-fiction writing at all.
6. Your biggest surprise
Another one where I couldn’t narrow it down to only one choice. Obviously, I had heard so many great things about Starfish and I adored the cover, but I really wasn’t sure how I would feel about it after so much hype. Needless to say, I loved it and was surprised by how much I did love it! Planetfall was a completely random request on Netgalley that I did one day based on the cover and a super brief skim over the info. I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how much fantastic rep there is in it. Lastly, I had to choose Skullsworn because that one literally a surprise! It was in my library ‘blind date with a book’ event and my partner chose it for me based on the tiny description given. It’s not a book I would ever have picked up otherwise but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read the other books!
7. Favorite new to you author
I spoke recently about how much I love Kaia Sønderby and why her Xandri Corelel series means so much to me, and obviously, I have to include Akemi as well. She is not only a talented writer but is seriously one of the most precious people I have ever come across.
8. New fictional crush
This one was super hard because tbh I haven’t had any fictional crushes for ageeeeessssssss (in books). My most recent fictional crushes in video games though are Tali and Jack from the Mass Effect games.
9. New favorite character
This one is waaaaaay too hard to choose someone for! Off the top of my head some of my new favorite characters include Star from THUG, Xandri from Failure to Communicate, Nik and Ella from Gemina, and Vasya from The Bear and the Nightingale!
10. Book that made you cry
Ok, so this is one is more about crying in a good way because I don’t really cry when reading books very much at the moment. Reading Mia’s memoir brought tears to my eyes though, especially during the sections where she talks about the validation she felt when attending Nine Worlds – a convention that we both attend every year – and it made me literally burst into tears with happiness.
11. A book that made you happy
Yes, I know I’m using Failure to Communicate for literally everything at the moment but let me live my life goddamnit. Check out this post to find out more about why this book makes me so happy.
12. Favorite book to movie adaption that you’ve seen this year
I’ve been terrible at watching films this year so it was hard to pick something for this one, but I did really love Annihilation. I haven’t read the book yet but the film was great, I loved the fact that the entire group was made up of women, and it left me with lots of thoughts (and a major crush on the character of Gina Rodriguez)
13. Favorite post you’ve written this year
I have written a lot of posts this year, but some of my favourite are definitely all of my AAPI Heritage Month posts (1, 2, 3, 4)!
14. The most beautiful book you’ve bought this year
I didn’t buy this, it was a birthday gift, but it is literally one of the most beautiful books that I own. It’s so shiny!
15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year
How long do you have? :’) Honestly, I have so many books I need to read this year including a bunch of series, all of my current Netgalley books, lots of my owned TBR, and new books that I’ve recently discovered that I can’t wait to read!
What have your favourite books of 2018 been so far?
Are there any that were big disappointments to you or great new discoveries?
Circe has the prettiest cover. I got Failure to Communicate on Amazon and if I didn’t have to read it through the kindle app I would have read it already. Between you and Maraia (lettuceread on instagram) raving about it I am so sure I will love this.
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I hope you do! When you do get round to it let me know what you think 🙂
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Glad you’ve been having such a good year so far!! 🙂 I’ve read less favorites than I’d have liked, but I’m focusing more on backlisted books in the second half of 2018, so hopefully that makes it easier. I also really wanna read River of Teeth before the year is over!
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I definitely need to start tackling my backlist books soon! I had planned for this year to be the year but so far I have been swept up by ARCs and new releases!
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Amazing post, love! My heart is so warm over so many of your answers! The best book I’ve read all year is still Circe! But we will see if anything can beat it come the last half of 2018! Sending you love and light, always. And I hope you’re having a happy summer solace! 💛xx
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Circe really is the best cover of the year. Ahh I have yet to read Failure to Communicate. Great choices!
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It’s so beautiful and shiny, and the map is great as well.
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I’ve also had difficulty reserving energy for book character crushes ever since I discovered Bioware games xD
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All my feelings were eaten up by Dorian and I have failed to crush on a literary character since xD
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I personally fell prey to Garrus in Mass Effect, Cullen and Josephine in Inquisition, and Jaal in Andromeda. That’s already too many fictional crushes to sustain without throwing books into the mix as well xD
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Haha my partner made me romance Garrus in ME2 because my romance options were obviously a no go and I was surprised at how nice the romance with him was! He also romanced Josephine :’)
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Yeah, Femme!Shep’s romance options aren’t great (although personally I love Garrus’ characterisation). I’d love the opportunity to romance Tali or Jack but I find Male!Shep’s voice actor really offputting *sigh*
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The film Annihilation is SO much better than the book. Alex Garland took what was (content wise) a short story and fleshed it out beautifully.
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Sky in the Deep was a very pleasant surprise for me and I ended up loving it! I hope you’ll like it too.
Tali and Jack are both amazing and I love them. I also don’t really get crushes in books tbh, mostly in videogames or otome games?
Failure to Communicate was so good 😀
“What books do you need to read?” “How long do you have?” mood tbh
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Such awesome books!
I just want to grab them all! There are maybe 2-3 that don’t really interest me but the rest looks awesome!
I love Mass Effect as well ❤ Still upset about ME 3, and it happened years ago… 😀
Circe has an amazing cover!
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Haha I’m reallllly good at keeping myself away from spoilers so I literally don’t know anything about ME3, and I’m going to have to wait until it’s on sale in the origin store to play it D:
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Ugh I am still CRUSHED that I can’t romance Jack as a FemShep. ;_;
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I know 😦 my FemShep is one of my fave characters I’ve ever made but the lack of f/f romance options, especially in Mass Effect 2, kills me. Tali is so perfect for her but its never going to happen and that is very upsetting for me
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YASS The Hate U Give is one of my absolute favorite books, I love it so much. And wow, Circe is stunning! O_O
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
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I can’t wait for Summer Bird Blue to come out too! Ahh there are so many amazing books coming out this year!
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Can you believe we’re still talking about how much we want Record of a Spacebor Few to come out??? I want to read it now! Ahh, Vasya my love 💕 Thanks for reminding me I need to watch Annihilation!
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haha I KNOW. I have spoken about it AT LEAST twice a month since it was announced. I ordered the special edition of the book as well and I’m going to be meeting the author at the end of July :OOOOOO
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Lovely answers for this tag! 😀
The Hate U Give was such an incredible book, so glad it’s one of your favorites so far ❤ I can't wait to read everything Angie Thomas writes next ❤ I can't wait to read Starfish and Summer Bird Blue – I feel like these would be "me" books for sure and ahhhh I am so very impatient to get to them. So happy you enjoyed Starfish so much 😀
Happy reading! 😀
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so many brilliant books mentioned here 🙂
i loved the Annihilation adaptationtoo, it was so visually nice! I also got to see it in cinema bc i was in America at the time!!!
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I saw that it was in the cinema a few months before I saw it, but then I also heard it was coming out on netflix so I thought I’d be cheap and wait for it so I could watch it for free xD
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Yeah it never made cinema in the UK bc they didn’t think it would be make enough money back with the amount they’d have to put into advertising:(
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Ahh, you’re the first person I’ve heard of who enjoyed the Annihilation movie but hasn’t read the book! I loved the book, then saw the movie and wondered if people who hadn’t read the book would like the movie, haha. I think you might like the books – the movie is fascinating but it definitely simplifies the trilogy and leaves a lot of stuff out.
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I wasn’t sure if I shouldn’t watch it before I’d read the book but as it was on netflix I thought I’d give it a try and really enjoyed it. I think it had just enough information to make my really interested in what was going whilst leaving me with enough questions to be like…. wtf is going on?! I need to read the books to find out more!
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i…… haven’t read any of the books u mentioned and they all seem amazing, i feel like such a failure. i mean tbh half of them has been on my tbr for ages….. when will i get my shit together, avery,,,
anyway, now im REALLY excited to try sth by kaia sonderby 😮
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Haha when will any of us get our shit together :’) the amount of books that have been on my TBR since 2012 and yet I keep adding more and more, but never read the old ones xD
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i would need like a year off my life + the ability to speed read to read everything on my tbr probably……………………………………….
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Or you know… our entire life xD
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yeah but we’ll just keep adding books!!! will one life be enough!!!!
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