A New Chapter

I HAVE RETURNED 

It's no big secret I've been MIA for almost six months. I have a grocery list of reasons for my absence, the number one being I've been working very hard on my thesis. I honestly just found time to start my reading habit again. And also, if I can continue to be candid, I did enjoy the time away I had from this blog. Over the three years I've had this blog, I may not have posted a lot, but I've written a ton in those posts. It takes energy and positive vibes to create content I'm happy with and want to share. I never want this blog to be work and I never want to publish subpar posts. Everyone needs a break now and then, so forgive me in advance if I take another loooooong break.

In other most excellent news, I FINALLY got my hands on Blake Crouch's Wayward Pines series! Feels like I've been wanting to read this series for a year. At the end of 2014, I couldn't even request the book from my local library and I thought all hope was lost. But I was blessed the day I got an email about Pines being ready for me to pick up and nearly a week later, I finished it and had the second novel in the series, Wayward, in my eager hands. To say I thoroughly enjoyed Pines is an understatement, but I did! I've only read three books so far this year, one of which I did not enjoy at all and one I liked a lot. But Pines was the change in the game! I'm thinking about reviewing the series; maybe a quick post including all three of them. If I decide to do that, I'm not sure when it will come out because the final book is taking forever to come to my library. I fear I may not finish the whole series before May 14th, when the "Ten episode event" on Fox premieres. I am VERY curious to see what the writers and producers decided to do for the series. Will they burn through the first novel, Pines, like HBO did with The Leftovers? Or will all ten episodes include elements from all three books? That's why I want to finish the series before May 14th. Sidenote: I love adaptations because it's a combination of both my favorite storytelling mediums, novels and films/TV shows.

Anyway, I don't want this Return of the Jedi post to turn into me fangirling over Wayward Pines. I will save that for my review post, whenever it gets published.  The last I will mention about Wayward Pines is that I'm currently rapidly reading Wayward, the second novel in the three novel series. Although I'm sure I already mentioned that in the previous paragraph. I just wanted to say it again. Wayward Pines!

I don't have a plan this year, no reading goal. I just want to read as much as I can and enjoy the books. Considering I started off the year in a two month hole (of not reading anything) and then read a book I didn't completely enjoy, all I can ask from myself is to read and be delighted by the books. I have a some novels I want to read this year and depending on where my life takes me, I may finally be able to finish the Sophie Katz mystery series by Kyra Davis.

Expect semi regular posting starting today. I'm still in the throngs of my final year of school, preparing for life after and graduation. I may still be slow on the uptake, but the posts are coming! As always, email me any and all suggestions for posts or books you want me to read at pulledfromthebookshelf@gmail.com.

I hope you caught up and read all the books I've written about here while I was away! What are you reading now?

Feels good to be back!

The Five Best of 2014

I did not have the best year in 2014 as stated by my previous post. I looked back at 2013's Ten Best and realized this post will be half as many and a major step down from the energy in that post. I do hope that the lack of glamour in this post doesn't defer you from checking out my favorite books of 2014. Brace yourself, because in no particular order, here are the Five Best Books of 2014:

Books I've read in 2014

I definitely don't need to sit back and reflect on 2014, nor do I want to. This year was a bad reading year for me. I didn't even get to read thirty books, which is beyond disappointing. Negative into a positive, the books I read this year, I absolutely loved. Check them out!

JANUARY 

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot*

FEBRUARY 

Hollywood Said No!: Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show by David Cross and Bob Odenkirk with Brian Posehn

MARCH 

Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16 by Moshe Kasher*

APRIL 

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot
Big Boned by Meg Cabot

MAY 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green*

Paper Towns by John Green

JUNE 

Teen Angst? Naaah by Ned Vizzini

JULY
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp*

AUGUST
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta*
Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot
The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot

SEPTEMBER
How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper*

OCTOBER 

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot* 

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot
Every Boy's Got One by Meg Cabot
Hemlock Grove: or, The Wise Wolf by Brian McGreevy
Plan B by Jonathan Tropper*
The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper*

NOVEMBER
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

DECEMBER

Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper*

I'm really looking forward to 2015, setting a new reading goal and most of all, discovering new books! I hope you all read some delicious books this year as well! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

*Very highly recommend 

Reading List!: December 2014

Welcome to the final Reading List of 2014!

I actually thought I had a plan of what I wanted to read this month, but honestly, I don't. I'm currently in possession of Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan, but we're eight days into December and I haven't even read the introduction. I did want to reread the Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot this month, but I don't know anymore. I think I'm not sure what I want to read anymore because I'm kind of bummed I finished all of Jonathan Tropper's novels. I enjoyed reading those novels the most this year. I've also been waiting about two months for Pines by Blake Crouch to be available at my library. I feel like it never will and I was really looking forward to reading it and finishing the series before the show starts. I really don't feel like reading anything else. I also know at this point, I won't make my reading goal, so that's another reason why I can't decide what I want to read. Maybe I'll take this month off and start fresh in the new year. By December 17th, the fall semester will be over and I'll have a lot more free time and I'm hoping by then, I'll suddenly be inspired to read something. 

Here's a list of what I'll read this month, if I feel like:

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot 

Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot 

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot 

How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper (reread)

What are you reading? 

Happy Holidays!!! 

Reading List!: November 2014

As November is more than halfway over, I thought it only appropriate to post the books I plan to read in the month.

I had some trouble this month deciding what I wanted to read. It's painfully obvious that I won't be able to read fifty books this year, (another failed reading goal; just like last year) so I'm trying to make it to (at least) thirty books. Which means the minimum amount of books I need to read for the next two months is four. Who knew trying to find four books would be so difficult. But obviously it would be hard if I don't have a clue what I want to read.

Here's what I decided to read:

Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

Pines by Blake Crouch

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

In the request queue at my local library, I'm third to receive Pines and ninth to get Food: A Love Story. Who knows how long that's going to take. Not sure how many weeks that will take and Pines is the first novel of a series I want to read. I don't really have two back ups if I don't get these books in time to read them in November. I was thinking about rereading The Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot which I own. But I haven't decided. Hopefully I get Pines in time to read it. I was really looking forward to finishing the series before January when the TV show adaptation premieres on FOX.

To make up for the lack of photos, here's a mini review of the first book I finished this month. It took me forever to read Word Freak. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be, but I still gave it a chance. It wasn't worth it. Word Freak is about the competitive world of Scrabble. I thought it was going to be a fictional novel, but I was wrong. It turned out to be more like Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Capella Glory by Mickey Rapkin, only much more BORING. Word Freak is written by Stefan Fatsis, a sports journalist, but I got no sense of his writing style while reading his book. Mostly Word Freak was a history lesson about how Scrabble was created and how it came to be owned by Hasbro. Fatsis talks about the tournaments and his experiences in them, but it was written like he was recounting a murder to the police. I got no feel for his emotional connection towards the game and no part was funny. If you decide to read Word Freak, good luck.

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis

Anyway, see you in December! Lots of posts coming in December. 

The Boy Series

It's very fitting and exciting that for my 100th post I get to talk about the most intriguing, unique book series I've ever read, The Boy series by Meg Cabot! This series is not unique and compelling so much for the ploys, but for the method the stories are told. I have never read anything novel quite like these.

Reading List!: October 2014

There's no denying that October is very much halfway over and this post is more than a couple weeks late, but if you were curious about what I'm reading this month, I posted this for you. After reading all of ONE book relatively quickly in September, struggling to finish another, and waiting a month for all the books I really wanted to read, the time finally came. The universe was on my side for once this month. 

This post is really late because I didn't really have much free time. But I'm happy to say since I checked out all these books at the beginning of October, I've read five of them. That's the most books I've read in one month this year. (More on that in December when I post my round up of all the books I've read in 2014.) 

I picked a good bunch of books to read this month. I thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing feeling of reading something new. And now without anymore babble, here's my reading list for October 2014:

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot 

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot 

Every Boy's Got One by Meg Cabot

Hemlock Grove: or, The Wise Wolf  by Brian McGreevy 

Plan B by Jonathan Tropper 

The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay

The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper (not pictured)

Happy reading, friends!