End of 2013 + Reading goals!

Source: ♥

Well I don't know about all of you, but 2013 has been a crazy ride for me. Which is partially the reason why my blogging has been few and far between, especially in the second half of the year (I think).

Things of note: I'm finished with uni! I got my green Ps in Feb (only 1 year and 2 months until I can get my full driver's licence!)! I tried new things, took a few more chances. I promise to lead a life with no regrets, so I won't say I regret anything I did in 2013 - rather, there were a few missed opportunities but that's far too personal to get into now.

I aim to read... 80 books in 2014. I hope to catch up with my book reviews (I still have many books I haven't posted reviews for) and post more!

Reading challenges 2014

These are my reading challenges for 2014. Any titles listed are just suggestions for me...

Victiorian Reading Challenge

Goal: To read 2 books written in, or about, the Victorian era

1. Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
2. Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
3. Elizabeth Gaskell - Cranford OR Wives and Daughters
4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet
5. Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Chunkster Challenge


Goal: To read 10 books that are 450+ pages.

1. Maggie Stiefvater - The Scorpio Races (482 pp)
2. Robin LaFevers - Grave Mercy (484 pp)
3. Cinda Williams Chima - The Demon King (506 pp)
4. Rachel Hartman - Seraphina (512 pp)
5. Laini Taylor - Days of Blood and Starlight (#2) (517 pp)
6. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (963 pp)
7. Michael Grant - Gone (558 pp)
8. Shannon Messenger - The Keeper of the Lost Cities (512 pp)
9. Colin Meloy - Wildwood (541 pp)
10. Michelle Cooper - The Fitzosbornes at War (512 pp)
11. Alexandra Bracken - The Darkest Minds (528 pp)
12. Marissa Meyer - Cress (#3) (560 pp)
13. Patrick Ness - More Than This (478 pp)
14. Maria V. Snyder - Taste of Darkness (464 pp) 
15. Jennifer Donnelly - Revolution (496)

TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Goal: To read 11+ (a friendly hug) books that have been sitting on my shelf for some time.

1. Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
2. Melina Marchetta - On the Jellicoe Road
3. Nina LaCour - Hold Still 
4. Jennifer Donnelly - Revolution
5. More to be added... 

Netgalley Reading Challenge

Goal: To read 6-10 (medium) books off of Netgalley!

[Reading the Classics] Animal Farm by George Orwell

[Rearranged from cover © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2003]

 Add to Goodreads 

Author: George Orwell

Publication Year: 1945

Pages: 84 (my edition)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

My thoughts

"Four legs good, two legs bad"

I have decided that I love stories that utilise anthropomorphism to convey its ideas and themes. George Orwell builds an allegorical story based on the Russian Revolution: The Farm's ownership is overrun by its livestock (Battle of the Cowshed), and the pigs are the thinkers, the leaders, while all other animals do the labour and are quite content to do so under the new ruling.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

[Review] My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 14/06/2012

Publisher: Speak (Penguin)
Pages: 394

Source: Purchased
Genre: YA (14+) - Contemporary

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ (to come) ♪

My Rating: 

Engrossing!

My thoughts

I read rave reviews, saw the ratings, loved the soft tones of the cover. This book was completely hyped up for me, and so my expectations were through the roof. It is a pleasure most divine when these expectations are met.

So this book is mainly marketed as a romance book. And it is. But it is so, so much more than that.

[Review] Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 07/09/2012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 250

Source: Purchased
Genre: YA (14+) - Contemporary

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Sarah Jaffe - Clementine ♪

My Rating: 

Evocative & achingly beautiful

My thoughts

Fingerprints of You is Madonia’s debut novel, but for all the nail-hitting strong points this story has to offer you would hardly be able to tell. I just feel all kinds of love for this book and the characters inside of it right now and for eternity. Madonia beautifully encapsulates what it really means to be home, and what family can truly be.

Lemon has always had Stella, her mum, for better or worse. Every move into a new town/city meant a fresh start, a new boy toy for Stella to sink her nails into. Lemon has always wondered what her father was like, and why he and Stella didn't try and make it work. When Lemon falls pregnant after an encounter with the local tattoo artist Johnny Drinko, she and her best friend Emmy plan a trip... all the way across the continent. From a small town in West Virginia all the way to San Francisco, California. But Lemon has an ulterior motive for the trip. That’s where her father lives. Before the baby is born, she just has to know if she’s going to be okay, raising the kid on her own without a father. She has to lay the blame somewhere: Stella, or her dad.

[Guest Post + Giveway] S.M. Bjarnson, author of Tangled Tears

Hey fellow bookworms!

It's been a long while since my last post. I have a whole lot of review-writing to catch up on! Times are busy with uni (final year -> headache!), work and personal issues... But enough about that. A lovely new author, S.M. Bjarnson, contacted me about her new YA book. The premise sounds promising; even though I have not read it yet I am excited to have an electronic copy to read in the future.

Here's what she had to say about growing up and overcoming challenges in life...