Books: 2018 Edition

Goodreads informs me that I did well on my 50 book reading challenge for 2018. I actually managed to read 56, which -- considering I had school, a new baby, a move, and all during that time -- is pretty good. I would say this year's challenge is higher, but I'm hoping to write more, not exactly read more.

I post basically all of my book reviews on KiriBeth, so if you'd like to keep up with my reviews more, I'd suggest popping on over there to see what I'm reading and what I think of it. However, I did feel that it was a good idea to post some of my favorites here, just to give a shout-out to some great books. So, here we are: 16 goodies that I read last year (and links to full reviews on KiriBeth when they exist), in the chronological order of having been read. And why 16? Because I couldn't whittle it down to 10, that's why.

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Last of the Mohicans // KiriBeth review

A big surprise. This was my first time reading James Fenimore Cooper, and I loved it! Yeah, it's old and wordy, but it's a classic for a reason! I really want to read the rest of his Leatherstocking tales now.

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A Faraway Island // KiriBeth review

The WHOLE reason I picked up this book was because of the author. Annika Thor. 1) Annika is my daughter's name, so I'm pretty drawn to it. 2) SWEDISH. Anyone who knows anything about me, knows I love Swede things. The concept of this book was extremely fascinating; the main character got on my nerves a little, but it was a really interesting read all the same. Also, I'm taking a moment to rant that there are four books in the series, and yet only two of them are translated into English. #firstworldproblems

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A Tale of Two Cities

Ahh, a delightful re-read. Second time through, and it did not disappoint. The more I read of Dickens, the more I fall in love with his work. Oddly, this was my first Dickens since finishing The Pickwick Papers in January of 2017.

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The Rise of Silas Lapham

Ha. THIS BOOK. I'm still shocked at how much I loved this. If you want something oldie and comedic THIS IS IT. I should have posted a full review on KiriBeth, but being in school I didn't (sorry, folks). It was simply the best. And absolutely hilarious!

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DragonSong // KiriBeth review

My very first Anne McCaffrey. You'd think that after loving dragons for so many years, I would have discovered her before now. Really great trilogy here, as far as dragons go. I'm looking forward to reading some more of her books before too long.

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Tyra

Sweet Tyra. This was a short story, but well worth every moment. I love the world of the Ilyon Chronicles, and this was awesome.

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The Great Hunt // KiriBeth review

So far, my favorite of the Wheel of Time series. There are some "ehhh" moments that make me hesitate to recommend this series to people, but overall, it's been a fun (and long!) suck-you-in kind of epic tale. My favorite character by far is Perrin.

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Dancing and Doughnuts // KiriBeth review

I just discovered Rachel Kovaciny's books this last year. WOW. I loved every bit of this book, western fairytale awesomeness that it was, and now I NEED all the others that she's written. If you need something that's not your traditional medieval fairytale shallow retelling, this is it!

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Twisted Dreams // KiriBeth review

A pretty unique Sleeping Beauty retelling. I was pretty intrigued. It's hard to say if there's something I can compare this story to, but it was definitely something that was fun to read. This really isn't your typical Sleeping Beauty story.

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The Worth of a King // KiriBeth review

Still my favorite out of all of Kendra's works. I'm really excited to see where the next book goes, but yes... waiting. I need to learn some patience. I mean, this has all your epic elements of an epic tale? What more could you ask for? (Other than the sequel, I mean.)

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The Beast of Talesend // KiriBeth review

HOW AM I JUST NOW READING KYLE ROBERT SHULTZ?? Not sure how this happened, but I am greatly indebted to a good friend for introducing me to this book. Fairytales upside down in the best way possible. And wait -- you say he's written more? My to-read list just got a whole lot longer.

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Adela's Curse

This was a sweet book I found on my kindle. I don't really remembering buying it, but the synopsis sparked some interest when I wanted something new to read on my downtime (i.e. when baby was napping). VERY fairytale-esque, and super sweet. I found myself sucked into it quite quickly.

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Fated: Cinderella's Story // KiriBeth review

This is the story to read if you're a Lunar Chronicles fan and you need more retellings like that. Here's Cinderella in a story like she's never been in before. I was pretty surprised, and I'd really like to get my hands on the rest of the series.

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Five Poisoned Apples // KiriBeth review

Ahhh, the anticipated end of the Rooglewood fairytale collections. This, astonishingly, is probably my favorite collection to date (since I've still to read the Sleeping Beauty one). The stories were absolutely unique and breath-taking, and I can't believe I'm saying that. Just way too much to love about this collection, even though Snow White has been (to date) one of my lesser-favorited fairytales.

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Spinning Silver

And I closed the year off with a Rumplstiltskin story. I need to write a review of this, because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. The first-person POV messed with me a lot, since it's first person told from like eight different people, so it was a little choppy and frustrating when you weren't sure which main character was speaking to you. BUT it incorporated every little detail from the original Rumplestiltskin story to pure genius. I still feel a little in awe of it, honestly. A bit on the darker side, true, but what else can you expect from Rumplestiltskin?

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And that's all, folks! What are some of your favorite reads from last year? Or what books are you most looking forward to reading in 2019? Please let me know in a comment!

God bless!

That Little Thing Called Time

Still alive, I see. And finally coming back to post something.

2018 brought me a lot of things I had only ever dreamed of. It was amazing to see God act in every area of my life. It's still hard to recognize that 2018 is OVER. It's done. And we're not getting it back again.

Part of me believes that 2018 was my busiest year ever. Let's list a few things from those 365 days, shall we?
~ I completed my undergraduate degree and graduated college.
~ I gave birth to our first child.
~ We moved our family to a new (and bigger!) apartment to accommodate our growing family.
~ I stood as a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's/cousin's wedding.
~ We celebrated our first wedding anniversary.
~ I finished writing Spindle Dreams.
~ I won NaNo (again) by adding 54K words onto The Twelfth Kingdom.
~ I helped my parents move out-of-state over Christmas break.

Looking back, I feel like I accomplished a lot of things. I remember a lot of fun times with family and friends, rough days finishing up my degree while 9 months pregnant, long nights learning how to mommy, and sweet moments with my husband. I was busy. I got a lot done, right? Not enough.

I also remember all the lazy moments and wasted hours from 2018. I think one of the biggest things I learned last year was that being busy isn't the same thing as being productive. I had a lot of goals for myself at the beginning of 2018. I don't think I fulfilled even a quarter of them. Instead, I binged my way through postpartum recovery with episodes of Cake Boss, Counting On, Love It or List It, and House Hunters. I scrolled through hours of Pinterest instead of writing another 500 words on one of my WIPs. I read and reread Facebook posts by the dozen instead of putting a couple dozen words together for a blog post. Confession: Tasty videos are super addictive.

I wasted a lot of time.

Now, I'm not saying any of these things are bad. I don't consider TV shows and social media to be immoral; too many times throughout the day I found them extremely helpful when needing to contact someone or look up a recipe or look up baby information. I just don't have the greatest self-discipline when it comes to monitoring the time I spend on such sites.

Those wasted moments really come back to haunt you. Let me tell you. I'm sitting here in 2019, thinking of everything I'd wanted to get done but didn't in 2018 and wishing I'd used my time a little wiser. Time is something that, once it's gone, you can never recover. And I don't want to get to the end of 2019 and have the same regrets of wasted time that I had in 2019.

One of the things I'm learning currently is that being profitable doesn't have to mean big goals and time-consuming things. I think one of the biggest reasons why most people fail like 93.876% of their New Year's resolutions is because they set impossible tasks for themselves that are bigger than the state of Texas. Profitability can be writing 500 words a day on a WIP. It can be putting together a 250 word blog post. It can be editing one chapter of another WIP a week. It can be any number of small things; the most important thing is that YOU DO THEM.

Yes, I know it's already a week to the end of January, but 2019 is still fresh! And as Anne likes to say, "Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet." This is still a new year with no mistakes in it yet. The only mistake would be to waste it. Let's take it one day at a time, one small goal at a time, one step at a time, and make 2019 much more profitable than last year.

God bless!