Year In Review

Another year is coming to an end and it never ceases to amaze me now fast it goes by. Did any of you have some pleasant surprises in your reading? I did, belonging to a book club has afforded me some unexpected ones as well as some I found on my own.

There were some I was just not looking forward to and wound up so engrossed in, like Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton and One Thousand White Woman by Jim Fergus . There is nothing better than losing yourself in a great book. There were some let downs, Fifty Shades Darker by EL James was a bit of a disappointment for me after the first, About Grace by Anthony Doerr was just horrific, Little Bee by Chris Cleave just didn't do it for me either. Very depressing both. Loved the Fever conclusion with Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning, gosh that Jerricho!

I was sad to see Charlaine Harris' series with Harper Connelly end with only four books in it.  I found them really good, Harper and Tolliver were great characters.   Two books I found through review buzz that I thought were great - Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire and Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard.  Beautiful Disaster shocked the crumbs outta me because it is YA, and I vowed never to read YA again after the Twilight Saga, but this one was fantastic I have an enormous weakness for major alphas and don't really care how abrasive or rough they can be, you can read my quasi review and thoughts  *HERE*.  Same with Gabriel's Inferno.  Just loved the characters, Gabriel was very sexy.  My review is *HERE*

 I didn't meet any horrid baddies this year, read the latest in Chelsea Cain's series with Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell, she really is my all time favorite psycho, I recommend this series highly, the last(so far) being The Night Season.  Did you hear that January Jones has been cast as Gretchen?

What book moved me the most and was my absolute fave of the year?  The Help by Kathryn Stockett!!  Read, read, READ this book!  It was just wonderful.  My book club read this in January and then in August we went as a group to see the movie and it was just fantastic!  My review is *HERE* every character was just so awesome.  This book was incredible.

What book made me uncomfortable, yet I couldn't put down, intrigued me yet angered me, made me feel things that I don't like to feel?  Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James.  I love Christian, I don't like Ana.  This is a very rough subject, but like a bad accident I couldn't look away, he and it just pulled me in.  So dark yet consuming...my thoughts *HERE*

I made some changes this year, I no longer will review every single book I read, just those I find so emotionally charged for me either with joy, anger, or disgust that I find I just need to share with you all, and that I don't need to post four or five times a week.  My life is full with so many other things that I love, I can't let blogging consume me to the point of not having time for them as well.  One thing you will always find here is my absolute honest opinion on the books I've read and what they made me feel.  I don't always go with the "crowd", if a book rots I say it!  You can always click on the book title to go to amazon and read the summary or the reviews.  I am not linked to their affiliate program, I just put it there so a fellow blogger can see what it's all about on their own whether I loved the book or not. I have another blog, you can get to it right on the side bar there, Mia Sogni Dolci, which is about me and mine, my crafting, cooking and family.  You'll find a bit more on that one so feel free to pop in to see what I might have baked or crafted or sounded off on.  I've posted what I baked and some family pics on it so check it out.

I have several I want to read in the new year, Discovery of Witches, The Night Circus to name just two that are at the top of my list and are sitting on my bookshelf.  Another that has been there for a couple of years now is Kushiel's Dart, I don't know if I can get into it yet, but I should just bite the bullet and give it a go.  I joined a great Serial Killers Challenge hosted my Marce over at Tea Time With Marce, just click her blog title to check it out.


Of course my TBR pile is just as giant as always, I don't think I can get that sucker down if I tried, there are just so many books and so little time....; )