Why I’m Breaking Up With A Monthly TBR

This entry is pretty much what it says on the tin – I am not longer committing myself to a monthly TBR.

And honestly? I feel so much better for it.

In the book community world, I see so many TBR piles – monthly ones, challenge specific, etc, etc. And I am so in awe of anyone and everyone who sticks to their TBR pile and reads the entire thing.

Last month that was almost possible for me. I didn’t get one book (Storm and Fury) read from my TBR pile and I felt so guilty. Especially because I ended up reading 12 books in July. And I feel like if I could read 12 books then surely I should have been able to read that one book from my monthly TBR pile?

But I am very much a mood reader.

I think maybe assigning myself one specific book to read a month is the most doable that I can do. But even then I look at the book and go “do I have to?”

Which also brings me to – I am breaking up with review books and advanced reader copy (ARC) books, too.

Unless I find something that one thousand percent intrigues me, or is an author I love, or a sequel to a book I love love love then I just am going to step back and let someone more deserving have my slot.

This year, I started signing up for book tours – which was super nerve wracking and daunting. And I honestly only signed up for the first one, We Are Okay, because I had previously read and loved the book.

So I signed up for a few more. These have been really hit and miss for me. One book I hated so vehemently that I just get baffled when other people like it (again, my issue there). And then there’s been ones were I’ve been =/ at the book contents, but still persisted.

I also requested a few ARCs from NetGalley, too. And. Well. There was one specific ARC that I really should have given myself permission to DNF, but stupidly never. But! One good thing – I will let myself DNF any of the remaining ARCs from NetGalley that I have been granted access to if they don’t engage me, or have content I find questionable or offensive. So, small plus there?

 

I just don’t like feeling pressure to read something. Sure, most of the time I put books on my TBR pile that I want to read, and will actively try to read at some point, but like I said above – I really am a mood reader, and I’m restricting myself when I choose a TBR pile for a mood I’m in when I won’t be in that same mood for an entire month.

 

What about you – do you like the structure of a TBR pile? Or are you like me – a mood reader through and through?

Let me know in the comments!

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I Am Change – Book Tour Stop Review

Synopsis

They told her that her body belonged to men and her mind didn’t matter. They were wrong.

“What if I don’t want to marry?” Lillian held her breath. She had never said the words out loud. “Not want to marry?” Her aunt frowned. “What else would you do?”

Set in a Ugandan village, Lilian has learned to shrink herself to fit other people’s ideas of what a girl is. In her village a girl is not meant to be smarter than her brother. A girl is not meant to go to school or enjoy her body or decide who to marry. Especially if she is poor.

About The Book

Inspired by the stories told to the author by young Ugandan women. Timely and salient – the rights of girls and women in African countries are only now being exercised. A moving story of one girls struggle.

200,000 million girls in developing countries don’t have the opportunity to go to school. Their education is disrupted by poverty, child marriage, gender based violence and cultures which favour boys’ education. I Am Change highlights the issues that these young women face.

Through Lilian, Suzy Zail gives readers a connection and a meaning to the young women’s stories.

!!Book content warnings & review (spoilery) behind the cut!!

Interview with Suzy Zail

I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Suzy Zail, author of I Am Change for the upcoming I Am Change book tour hosted by Aus YA Bloggers team.

To follow along with the tour, check out their tour masterpost here.

The interview is below the cut, I hope you enjoy it!

Buckley’s Unexpected Adventure – Tour Stop and Review

 

Synopsis

Buckley, a young, enthusiastic detector dog, was about to clock off from his regular shift at the Brisbane International Airport when he uncovered a shipment of smuggled exotic animals. Discovering that all but one, a chameleon named Ciara, and two turtle eggs, had perished on the long journey, Buckley makes it his mission to track down who is behind the smuggling ring and ensure no more helpless and endangered animals are killed. A fire is ignited within Buckley and he is determined to return Ciara to her home and reunite her with her family. Breaking all of his obedience training whilst battling his usual insecurities and self-doubt, Buckley, Ciara and a charismatic Californian mouse named Bo, set out on an international adventure that propels them from a world of structure and safety into dangerous, risky situations. With fast-pace, witty humour and suspense, Dion Summergreene takes young readers on a crime-fighting adventure like no other to discover an exotic world through the eyes of man’s best friend.

 

August TBR

 

Here is my highly ambitious August TBR.

I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver

Love from A To Z by S.K. Ali

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

All of Us With Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi

Birthday by Meredith Russo

Risk by Fleur Ferris (reread)

 
I’m also doing the #Bookstaswiftieslover August challenge over on Instagram – check me out if you like.

July Wrap Up

 

Can I just start this off by saying holy crap I read 12 books this month?? Because holy crap I read 12 books this month!!

 

Other Words For Home – Review

Synopsis

I am learning how to be
sad
and happy
at the same time.

Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.

At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.

 

Toffee – Review

Synopsis

I am not who I say I am,
and Marla isn’t who she thinks she is.

I am a girl trying to forget.
She is a woman trying to remember.

Allison has run away from home and with nowhere to live finds herself hiding out in the shed of what she thinks is an abandoned house. But the house isn’t empty. An elderly woman named Marla, with dementia, lives there – and she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past called Toffee.

Allison is used to hiding who she really is, and trying to be what other people want her to be. And so, Toffee is who she becomes. After all, it means she has a place to stay. There are worse places she could be.

But as their bond grows, and Allison discovers how much Marla needs a real friend, she begins to ask herself – where is home? What is a family? And most importantly, who am I, really?

 

!!A spoiler-y review under the cut!!

 

How It Feels To Float – Review

Synopsis

Biz knows how to float. She has her posse, her mum and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, and who shouldn’t be here – because he died when she was seven – but is. So she doesn’t tell anyone her dark thoughts. She knows how to float, right there on the surface – normal okay regular fine.

But when the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone – when her dad disappears along with all comfort – might it be easier, better, sweeter to float away?

This is a mesmerising, radiant debut. It’s a story about love, grief, family and friendship, about intergenerational mental illness, and about how living with it is both a bridge and a chasm to the ones we’ve lost. Helena Fox explores the hard, bewildering and beautiful places loss can take us, and honours those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea.

 

A spoiler-y review is below the cut.

Mooncakes – Review

Synopsis

A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

 

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. This has no way impacted my view

That was SO good and so awesome. The artwork in this is absolutely phenomenal.
I love the magic, the werewolves, the friendships, and the fact that this is so fantastical.
I loved the story line, too, it was captivating, compelling, and had me hooked from the first page.
I can’t wait to get a physical copy of this to see what the finished artwork is like.
This is easily one of my favourite graphic novels of all time.

5/5 stars