Tuesday, December 31, 2024

2024 Reading Wrap Up - Ratings

                            






★★★★★

A Nearly Normal Family - M.T. Edvardsson
Ain't Burned All the Bright - Jason Reynolds
Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle & Dante, #1) - Benjamin Alire Saenz
Barbie: The Screenplay - Greta Gerwig
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones - Dolly Parton
Beyond the Gender Binary - Alok Vaid-Menon
Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0) - Angie Thomas
Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters - Andrew Morton
Emotional Intelligence: Managing Your Anxiety - Harvard Business Review
Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them (Fantastic Beasts, #1) - J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald (Fantastic Beasts, #2) - J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts The Secrets of Dumbledore (Fantastic Beasts, #3) - J.K. Rowling
From Here to the Great Unknown - Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey
How Ya'll Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived - Leslie Jordan * 
It Ends with Us (It Ends With Us, #1) - Colleen Hoover
Karma - Boy George
Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #3) - Ransom Riggs
Lily and the Octopus - Steven Rowley
Lucille Bell Treasures - Cindy De La Hoz
Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay - Cyndie Spiegel
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit - John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Newtown: An American Tragedy- Matthew Lysiak
Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter
Sociopath - Patric Gagne
Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders - John Glatt
Taylor Swift is Life - Kathleen Perricone
The Blood of Emmett Till - Timothy B. Tyson
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, #1) - John Boyne *
The House of Hidden Meanings - RuPaul
The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1) - Freida McFadden
The Forgotten Chapter (Blaze Collection, #3) - Pam Jenoff
The Guncle Abroad (The Guncle, #2) - Steven Rowley
The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book - Taylor Swift
The Queens' English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary - Chloe O. Davis
The Queens' English: The Young Readers' LGBTQIA+ Dictionary - Chloe O. Davis
The Woman In Me - Britney Spears
The Woman in the Window - A.J. Finn
The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be - Joanna Gaines *
Where Was God? - Jennifer Dawn Turpin
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie


★★★★☆ 

A Brilliant Life: My Mother's Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust - Rachelle Unreich
All the Missing Girls - Megan Miranda
Amelia's Shadow (Blaze Collection, #1) - Marie Benedict
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
August: Osage County - Tracy Letts
Barriers to Entry (Blaze Collection, #7) - Ariel Lawhon 
Candace (The Fairer Sex Collection, #1) - Michelle Miller
Disney: Winnie the Pooh (Tiny Book) - Brooke Vitale
Eat Drink Nap: Bringing the House Home - Soho House
Fallen Grace (Blaze Collection, #6) - Sadeqa Johnson
for colored girls who have considered suicide - Ntozake Shange
Gray Malin: Coastal - Gray Malin
Great LGBTQ+ Speeches - Tea Uglow
GuRu - RuPaul *
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer - O.J. Simpson
In the Lives of Puppets - TJ Kline
It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2) - Colleen Hoover
Kill Joy (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #0.5) - Holly Jackson
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Name Drop - Ross Mathews
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Answer is No - Fredrik Backman
The Art of Drag - Jake Hall
The Beast Within (Villains, #2) - Serena Valentino
The Best Girls (Disorder Collection, #1) - Min Jin Lee
The June Paintings (Blaze Collection, #2) - Maggie Shipstead
The Last Mrs. Parrish (Mrs. Parrish, #1) - Liv Constantine
The One and Only Family (The One and Only Ivan, #4) - Katherine Applegate
the princess saves herself in this one - Amanda Lovelace
The Red Bandanna: A Life. A Choice. A Legacy. - Tom Rinaldi
Two Women Walk Into a Bar - Cheryl Strayed

★★★☆☆ 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Alicia (The Fairer Sex Collection, #3) - Michelle Miller
All in Good Taste - Kate Spade
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1) - Roald Dahl
Clara (The Fairer Sex Collection, #5) - Michelle Miller
Eleanor (The Fairer Sex Collection, #7) - Michelle Miller
Enemy of the People: The Untold Story of the Journalists Who Opposed Hitler - Terrence Petty
Fires to Come (Blaze Collection, #4) - Asha Lemmie
Fairest of All (Villains, #1) - Serena Valentino
Heartstopper: Volume 5 - Alice Oseman
Natural Selection - Elon Hilderbrand
Oz, the Complete Collection, Volume 3 - L. Frank Baum
Poor Unfortunate Soul (Villains, #3) - Serena Valentino
The Deal of a Lifetime - Fredrik Backman
The Life of Christine Jorgensen - Jennifer Hopkins
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Oz, #7) - L. Frank Baum
The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe
The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler - William L. Shirer
The Scarecrow of Oz (Oz, #9) - L. Frank Baum
The Summer We Believed (Denim Days, #1) - Shel Delisle
The Texas Tower Sniper: The Terrifying True Story of Charles Whitman - Ryan Green
The World According to Mister Rogers - Fred Rogers
Tik-Tok of Oz (Oz, #8) - L. Frank Baum
Tune in Tomorrow (Blaze Collection, #5) - Melanie Benjamin
When We Were Friends - Jane Green

★★☆☆☆

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
Heidi (The Fairer Sex Collection, #4) - Michelle Miller
Loam (Disorder Collection, #2) - Scott Heim
Lovers at the Museum - Isabel Allende
Meredith (The Fairer Sex Collection, #2) - Michelle Miller
On Enemy Ground (The Spy Who Vanished, #2) - Alma Katsu
Shaken, Not Stirred (The Spy Who Vanished, #3) - Alma Katsu
The Vanishing Man (The Spy Who Vanished, #1) - Alma Katsu

★☆☆☆☆ 

Anonymous (Disorder Collection, #4) - Uzodinma Iweala 
Cut & Thirst - Margaret Atwood
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Harry Potter Spells - Prince Vincent
Keridee (The Fairer Sex Collection, #8) - Michelle Miller
Lauren (The Fairer Sex Collection, #6) - Michelle Miller
Mermaid - Jodi Picoult
The Absent-Minded Gentleman - Frank Heller
The Beckoning Fair One (Disorder Collection, #5) - Dan Chaon
Ungirls (Disorder Collection, #3) - Lauren Beaks
Will Williams (Disorder Collection, #6) - Namwali Serpell


* Books that have been read 2 times
† Books that have been read 3 times

2024 Reading Wrap Up

Here’s my 2024 Reading Wrap Up. This year I managed to read 117 books and exceeded my goal of 60 books. This is my first year to ever read over a hundred books. 

The House of Hidden Meanings” by RuPaul was the overall winner and the non-fiction winner with “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey coming in second. On the fiction side I had “The Guncle Abroad” by Steven Rowley as the winner with “A Nearly Normal Family” by M.T. Edvardsson coming in second.





2024 Books Read:

Non-Fiction - Memoirs:
Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey
How Ya'll Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived - Leslie Jordan * 
From Here to the Great Unknown - Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Karma - Boy George
Sociopath - Patric Gagne
The House of Hidden Meanings - RuPaul
The Woman In Me - Britney Spears
Where Was God? - Jennifer Dawn Turpin

Non-Fiction - Audiobooks: 
GuRu - RuPaul *

Non-Fiction - Personal Growth:
Emotional Intelligence: Managing Your Anxiety - Harvard Business Review
Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay - Cyndie Spiegel

Non-Fiction - True Crime: 
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer - O.J. Simpson
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit - John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Newtown: An American Tragedy- Matthew Lysiak
Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders - John Glatt

Non-Fiction - History: 
A Brilliant Life: My Mother's Inspiring True Story of Surviving the Holocaust - Rachelle Unreich
Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters - Andrew Morton
Great LGBTQ+ Speeches - Tea Uglow
The Art of Drag - Jake Hall
The Blood of Emmett Till - Timothy B. Tyson
The Red Bandanna: A Life. A Choice. A Legacy. - Tom Rinaldi
The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler - William L. Shirer

Non-Fiction: 
Ain't Burned All the Bright - Jason Reynolds
All in Good Taste - Kate Spade
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones - Dolly Parton
Beyond the Gender Binary - Alok Vaid-Menon
Eat Drink Nap: Bringing the House Home - Soho House
Gray Malin: Coastal - Gray Malin
Lucille Bell Treasures - Cindy De La Hoz
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Name Drop - Ross Mathews
Taylor Swift is Life - Kathleen Perricone
The Life of Christine Jorgensen - Jennifer Hopkins
The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book - Taylor Swift
The Queens' English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary - Chloe O. Davis
The Queens' English: The Young Readers' LGBTQIA+ Dictionary - Chloe O. Davis
The World According to Mister Rogers - Fred Rogers

Fiction: 
A Nearly Normal Family - M.T. Edvardsson
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
All the Missing Girls - Megan Miranda
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
August: Osage County - Tracy Letts
Barbie: The Screenplay - Greta Gerwig
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
for colored girls who have considered suicide - Ntozake Shange
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
In the Lives of Puppets - TJ Kline
Lily and the Octopus - Steven Rowley
Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Woman in the Window - A.J. Finn

Fiction - Series: 
Kill Joy (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #0.5) - Holly Jackson
Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle & Dante, #1) - Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, #1) - John Boyne *
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1) - Roald Dahl
Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them (Fantastic Beasts, #1) - J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald (Fantastic Beasts, #2) - J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts The Secrets of Dumbledore (Fantastic Beasts, #3) - J.K. Rowling
The Guncle Abroad (The Guncle, #2) - Steven Rowley
Heartstopper: Volume 5 - Alice Oseman
The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1) - Freida McFadden
It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1) - Colleen Hoover
It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2) - Colleen Hoover
Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #3) - Ransom Riggs
The Last Mrs. Parrish (Mrs. Parrish, #1) - Liv Constantine
Oz, the Complete Collection, Volume 3 - L. Frank Baum
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Oz, #7) - L. Frank Baum
Tik-Tok of Oz (Oz, #8) - L. Frank Baum
The Scarecrow of Oz (Oz, #9) - L. Frank Baum
Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0) - Angie Thomas
The One and Only Family (The One and Only Ivan, #4) - Katherine Applegate
Fairest of All (Villains, #1) - Serena Valentino
The Beast Within (Villains, #2) - Serena Valentino
Poor Unfortunate Soul (Villains, #3) - Serena Valentino

Poetry: 
the princess saves herself in this one - Amanda Lovelace

Short Stories - Fiction:
Cut & Thirst - Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter Spells - Prince Vincent
Lovers at the Museum - Isabel Allende
Mermaid - Jodi Picoult
Natural Selection - Elon Hilderbrand
The Absent-Minded Gentleman - Frank Heller
The Answer is No - Fredrik Backman
The Deal of a Lifetime - Fredrik Backman
The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe
When We Were Friends - Jane Green

Short Stories - Non Fiction:
Enemy of the People: The Untold Story of the Journalists Who Opposed Hitler - Terrence Petty
The Texas Tower Sniper: The Terrifying True Story of Charles Whitman - Ryan Green
Two Women Walk Into a Bar - Cheryl Strayed
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie

Short Stories - Series: 
Amelia's Shadow (Blaze Collection, #1) - Marie Benedict
The June Paintings (Blaze Collection, #2) - Maggie Shipstead
The Forgotten Chapter (Blaze Collection, #3) - Pam Jenoff
Fires to Come (Blaze Collection, #4) - Asha Lemmie
Tune in Tomorrow (Blaze Collection, #5) - Melanie Benjamin
Fallen Grace (Blaze Collection, #6) - Sadeqa Johnson
Barriers to Entry (Blaze Collection, #7) - Ariel Lawhon 
The Summer We Believed (Denim Days, #1) - Shel Delisle
The Best Girls (Disorder Collection, #1) - Min Jin Lee
Loam (Disorder Collection, #2) - Scott Heim
Ungirls (Disorder Collection, #3) - Lauren Beaks
Anonymous (Disorder Collection, #4) - Uzodinma Iweala 
The Beckoning Fair One (Disorder Collection, #5) - Dan Chaon
Will Williams (Disorder Collection, #6) - Namwali Serpell
Candace (The Fairer Sex Collection, #1) - Michelle Miller
Meredith (The Fairer Sex Collection, #2) - Michelle Miller
Alicia (The Fairer Sex Collection, #3) - Michelle Miller
Heidi (The Fairer Sex Collection, #4) - Michelle Miller
Clara (The Fairer Sex Collection, #5) - Michelle Miller
Lauren (The Fairer Sex Collection, #6) - Michelle Miller
Eleanor (The Fairer Sex Collection, #7) - Michelle Miller
Keridee (The Fairer Sex Collection, #8) - Michelle Miller
The Vanishing Man (The Spy Who Vanished, #1) - Alma Katsu
On Enemy Ground (The Spy Who Vanished, #2) - Alma Katsu
Shaken, Not Stirred (The Spy Who Vanished, #3) - Alma Katsu

Children's Books:
Disney: Winnie the Pooh (Tiny Book) - Brooke Vitale
The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be - Joanna Gaines *

* Books that have been read 2 times
† Books that have been read 3 times

Goodreads Review - "From Here to the Great Unknown"

From Here to the Great UnknownFrom Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was so good and beautifully written. This was definitely a 5-star read for me. I’ve included my three favorite parts of the book. The first two are Lisa-Marie’s words and the last is Riley’s from a letter to her mom that was read at her funeral.

——————————————————————————————

AT SOME POINT I HAD A BRIGHT IDEA. THE FANS OUTSIDE ALWAYS WANTED ME TO TAKE THEIR CAMERA AND TAKE A PICTURE OF MY DAD. "GIVE ME TWENTY BUCKS, AND I'LL TAKE A PICTURE OF HIM," I'D SAY TO THE UBER FANS BY THE FENCE.
SURE ENOUGH, THEY WOULD GIVE ME TWENTY DOLLARS, THEN I WOULD GO INTO THE HOUSE AND TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FLOOR. I'D GIVE THE CAMERA BACK AND SAY, "HERE'S A PICTURE OF THE DOOR AND THE FLOOR." I STARTED DOING THAT REGULARLY.

- Lisa-Marie Presley

——————————————————————————————

I DON'T THINK MY SPARK WILL EVER COME BACK, TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST.
GRIEF SETTLES. IT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU OVERCOME. IT'S SOMETHING THAT YOU LIVE WITH. YOU ADAPT TO IT. NOTHING ABOUT YOU IS WHO YOU WERE. NOTHING ABOUT HOW OR WHAT I USED TO THINK IS IMPORTANT. THE TRUTH IS THAT I DON'T REMEMBER WHO I WAS.

- Lisa-Marie Presley
——————————————————————————————

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME STRENGTH, MY HEART, MY EMPATHY, MY COURAGE, MY SENSE OF HUMOR, MY MANNERS, MY TEMPER, MY WILDNESS, MY TENACITY. I AM A PRODUCT OF YOUR HEART. MY SISTERS ARE A PRODUCT OF YOUR HEART. MY BROTHER IS A PRODUCT OF YOUR HEART. WE ARE YOU, YOU ARE US, MY ETERNAL LOVE. I HOPE YOU FINALLY KNOW HOW LOVED YOU WERE HERE. THANK YOU FOR TRYING SO HARD FOR US. IF I DIDN'T TELL YOU EVERY DAY, THANK YOU.

- Riley Keough (from a letter to her mom that was read at her funeral)

View all my reviews

Date Read: 26 Oct - 5 Nov 2024

Sunday, December 15, 2024

Goodreads Review - "Oz, Complete Collection, Volume 3"

Oz, the Complete Collection, Volume 3: The Patchwork Girl of Oz / Tik-Tok of Oz / The Scarecrow of Oz (Oz, #7-9)Oz, the Complete Collection, Volume 3: The Patchwork Girl of Oz / Tik-Tok of Oz / The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Patchwork Girl of Oz (3 stars)
Another new adventure in the land of Oz. It was good but not too exciting. More characters were introduced. How the patchwork girl was created was very creative. On to the next adventure.

Tik-Tok of Oz (3 stars)
Each adventure is exciting to read with new and creative characters and places in the Land of Oz but this one was a bit boring for me. I'm still not sure why this was labeled after "Tik-Tok" because we barely got to see Tik-Tok and when we did, he didn't really do much but that's just my opinion. This review won't stop me from finishing the series because there are a lot of creative stories, characters, and places that I'm excited to see more of.


The Scarecrow of Oz (3 stars)
I love the fact that two new characters appeared from another one of L. Frank Baum's book outside of the Oz collection. The book is titled after the Scarecrow but he doesn't appear until the last half of the book. This books was okay but not one of my favorites. It's important to note that one of the chapter's title has the "m" word when referring to little people so it may be triggering for some.

View all my reviews

Date Read: 19 Apr - 15 Dec 2024