Mer || Joelle Sellner

Title: Mer

Author: Joelle Sellner

Length: 128 pages

Publication date: April 19, 2017

Genre: YA urban fantasy graphic novel

Confession: I am a sucker for anything that promises to have mermaids or has to do with Atlantis. So when I saw the cover of this graphic novel on Netgalley, I didn't need any more information before I hit that request button.

Mer tells the story of Aryn, who has moved to a new city with her dad and sister a few months after her mother passed away. She isn't pleased about it, but meets some kids at school that befriend her pretty quickly. What she doesn't know is that they have some dangerous secrets...

What I liked about it:

1. I liked the mer-people aspect, obviously. 
2. It was a fast read.
3. It was about mer-people. That came from Atlantis.

What I didn't like about it:

1. The characters were really under-developed.
2. The story was really typical, it didn't do much that was unexpected.
3. The dialogue was quite awkward, it just didn't feel like how people actually talk.

I wouldn't recommend buying it, but if you see it at the library and you want to stay occupied for a half hour, I'd pick it up. 

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

T5W: Authors You Want to Read More From.

It's Top 5 Wednesday, and I love today's topic so I'm joining in! Today's topic is authors you want to read more from. I'm taking this to mean authors that I've read one or two books from, and they have more published works that I can get to. I have quite a few authors, so I think there might be some honourable mentions at the end.

1. Emily St. John Mandel.
    I read Station Eleven for the first time in 2015 and it instantly became one of my favourite books. I absolutely loved the writing in it, and ever since then I've been wanting to read more of her works. I have 2 more of her books waiting patiently on my shelves.

2. Stuart McLean
   Stuart McLean recently passed away, and it's not very often that I get genuinely sad about a celebrity/public figure passing, but his death affected me a bit. He was a fantastic storyteller and has an extensive series called the Vinyl Cafe series. I've read the first two books and can't wait to get to more.

3. LM Montgomery
   Anne of Green Gables is my life, in case you were not aware. I've read most of the Anne series, but LM Montgomery wrote SO many books outside of that series as well. I would love to read them all.

4. CS Lewis
    Guys, I haven't really read CS Lewis outside of the Chronicles of Narnia. What even. I just really need to read more of his books because he was so wise.

5. Anthony Doer
   I read All the Light We Cannot See in 2015 (that was an excellent reading year for me, apparently) and it wrecked me, so obviously I have to read more of his books. I have a couple of them waiting on my shelves as well.

Okay, I just have one more, so it's top 6 Wednesday now hehe.

6. Ruta Sepetys
   Guess what, another author I read for the first time in 2015 that I loved that I have a couple more books from just waiting for me. Yeah...


I could add more, but these really are the top ones. What are some of the authors you need to read more from?

My Reading Goals: 2017 edition

It's 2017 and I want to share my reading goals with you!

My biggest goal of the year is to read my own books and reduce my TBR. Today I counted how many books I have unread on my shelves. There are 219 books on my TBR bookshelf. Yes. It's ridiculous. To help out, I'm only allowing myself to buy a max of 2 books a month. If I don't buy any books that month, it won't roll over. 2 a month and that's it. I'm also on a library ban. I can only go to the library if it's to get the next book in a series that I'm reading. For example, I started reading Fruits Basket last year, and I'm getting those books from the library. I'm also including book club books that I don't own.

My next goal is to finish reading series. I have quite a few unread series (I'm not sure of the exact number, but probably over 10). Some of them only have the last book for me to read, and because I have a serious procrastination problem, I just don't get to it! So I especially want to finish up series where I only have to read the last book.

Some series to complete:

• Harry Potter (my first read through ever!)
• The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson (I just have to read the last one but I'm so scared I just want everyone to be okay)
• The Young Elites by Marie Lu (just have the last one)
• The Lone City by Amy Ewing (just the last one as well)
• Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya (I'm up to volume 9 of 20? However many it is...)
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (I've just read book 1 but I own the whole trilogy)
• The Silo series by Hugh Howey (last one)
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (I've only read the first one)
• The Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima (I've read 2 out of 5)
• The Lord of the Rings (yup. I've only read the first one)

I also have some series where I've read everything except the novella bind-ups that came after the other books were published. Specifically the ones for The Selection series by Kiera Cass and The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. So technically I'm done the series but there are more things to read! 

My Goodreads goal for the year is 50 books. That actually isn't that important to me to accomplish. I know I will, because I read more than 1 book a week, but it's not the most important one to me this year.

And that's basically it, guys! What are some of your reading goals for the year?

Hello 2017: On setting goals.

Hi.

My dear friend Callie has started doing "old-fashioned" blog posts, where she hearkens back to the good ol' days of blogging (ie before the days where you had to have a Pinterest-worthy image and when no one even knew what SEO was) (I still am a little hazy on that, to be honest). I know that 100% that's why I haven't been blogging over the last few years. I just don't care to have the buzziest, most beautiful blog with inspiring pictures and content that will change your life. I mean, that would be really cool, I guess, but that's not my aim. I just want this to be a space where I share thoughts about life. So, here we go. Back to old-fashioned blogging.

One of my goals for 2017 was to blog every week at least once, and we're on week 3 now with the first post. Oh well! I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

I like to set goals for myself at the beginning of every year. There's just something about that fresh start that I love. So I set myself goals, but at the same time, I'm not super hung up on them. I just think about things that I would like the year to hold, and then see what I can do to get there. 

Some of my goals for the year are:

- To buy a maximum of 24 books all year. Unless you are familiar with my YouTube channel, this is going to seem kind of silly. Like, really, how many books do you buy, Felicia? Well since I discovered the Booktube community over 2 years ago, my book buying has become ridiculous. I have over 200 unread books on my shelves. Now, here's a disclaimer - the majority of these books are not bought at full price. I buy mostly from thrift stores and Book Outlet. So it's about a quarter of what it would be if I was buying everything at full price. That being said, it's not actually that fun to have that many books that you haven't read on your shelves. The problem is that I still want to read all of these books, but the rate of books bought has long surpassed the rate of books read. I want to level the playing field again so that I actually have a chance of reading books within a couple months of buying them. I'm not telling myself no books all year, because that's just cruel and why would I do that to myself?? But buying only 2 books a month when I read at least 5 will at least have the total number of unread books still going down. Pray for me, guys.

- To organize my house using the KonMari method. Yes, I've read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Yes, I thought it was really helpful. No, I'm not saying "thank you" to my old socks for their service to my feet. But our house is small and things need to be organized better for the storage space we have. What I love is how simple her method is - organize by category, not by room. That makes so much sense to me. We have similar things in different places in our house, and I would like to get things in order. (If you're curious about the book, you can find plenty of articles and blog posts that contain all of the information you would need from the book without having to read it)

- To get caught up on my backlog of letters. For 3 years I have not really been into writing letters, so I have quite the pile of letters (probably 30+) that need to be responded to. But honestly, I'm not going to respond to every one of those letters. I'm going to respond to people that I had a good correspondence with, obviously, but I know there are a few letters from people that were first letters, or people that I didn't really enjoy writing to. I'm probably not going to respond to them, because why would I after all this time? I'm sure at this point they're not expecting me to reply. I know I had too many correspondences going on at the time, and I'd like to keep it at more of a manageable number. Quality over quantity.

As you can see, these goals are pretty flexible, and ongoing. The overall goal with them is to shift my mindset and my priorities behind them. I want buying books to be a treat again, not a routine. I want to be mindful of my possessions and what is actually in my house. I want to cultivate relationships and conversations, not collect pen pals like they're Pokémon.

So there it is. Some of my goals for the year. And my first blog post in months! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this one and you'll be seeing more from me this year. 

8/365

September makes me feel alive all over again.

Some thoughts on rest and the Sabbath from a tired mind.

Do you ever have those weeks when it's just so busy that you don't know how it's Sunday night already? This was one of those weeks for me. I was gone every evening during the week, and then yesterday I spent all day cleaning the house (because I was so busy that it hadn't happened for a while). And then we spent most of the day today either with church or family. This is all good stuff, but I'm tired.

Doesn't it just seem like everyone in our society is just running around, busy all the time? Has life always been like this, or is it just my generation? How do we get out of this, and actually slow down?

God knew what he was talking about when He commanded us to have a Sabbath day and keep it holy. I am not good at that. I think He must have said that with introverts in mind. I think I need to start actually making an effort to have a Sabbath day. Maybe then I wouldn't be so wiped out by Sunday night.

I want to explore this more but I'm tired, so I'm going to go get in bed with my book (Pride & Prejudice, the best before-bed read).

Room || Emma Donoghue

I love audiobooks. I've dabbled in them over the years, but it's just been this last year or so that I've been listening to them consistently. Ever since I started working as a receptionist and doing data entry, they can make my day go by so much faster, and I've read upwards of 20 books in the last year by listening to them at work! I know people who don't think that audiobooks count as reading, but to them I say, baloney. It might not be your cup of tea, but don't discount it altogether. I'm still ingesting a story, and sometimes audio is just as powerful as print.

Yesterday, I finished listening to Room by Emma Donoghue. I read this book back in 2010 or 2011, and I thought it was really good. I'd been wanting to reread it ever since I found out about the movie that came out a year ago, and when a friend of mine on YouTube said that the audiobook of it was really good, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad that I did.

This a story told from the point of view of 5 year-old Jack who lives with his Ma in Room. Jack was born in Room and has never known anything else. He and Ma sleep, eat, exercise, play, and learn in their 11x11 space. Every night Ma puts Jack to bed in Wardrobe, and after Jack goes to bed, that's when Old Nick comes. Jack is perfectly happy with their life, but for 7 years Ma has been captive in Room, and she's desperate to be free.

Room is not a book for the faint of heart. This book ripped my heart into shreds. I finished it yesterday and I cannot stop thinking about it. There are so many interesting things that Donoghue did with the storytelling and themes. It's certainly interesting that she chose to tell the story through the eyes of a child, and I feel that it tells a very different story than if she had chosen to tell it through the eyes of Ma. Seeing things through Jack's eyes puts the situation into such an innocent light, while we as the reader know that Ma was kidnapped and has been held as a prisoner all these years. We know that Jack is a result of rape. We know that Ma is living in every woman's nightmare. But hearing these things in the voice of a child somehow makes it even more horrifying, because a child is in the middle of all of this.

The audiobook of room is narrated really well. It's done in a child's voice, with other voice actors doing the adult characters dialogue. I've heard that the child voice is hard for some people to get into, so it might not be for everyone.

I measured my bedroom yesterday, mostly because I have been wondering for a while what the square footage of our house was (I forgot almost promptly after we bought it). And maybe subconsciously I did it yesterday because I just finished reading this book. My bedroom is 12x13. I cannot imagine being trapped in that room for 7 years, raising a child on top of it. And in that moment, I prayed for every woman and child that is in the same situation as Ma and Jack, everyone held captive by evil men. I think if a book can move you to prayer, than it's done a very good job at telling a story.

I would highly recommend Room to those that want to read a gripping story, or want to read something powerful. There is hope at the end of all of this, so if it feels like it might be too heavy at times, just keep going. I have so many thoughts on this book, I'm planning on filming a spoilery book talk for my YouTube channel this weekend, hopefully I will have that up soon. I also plan to watch the movie soon while the book is fresh in my mind, I'd like to do a book to movie comparison as well. Just today I heard of a new book called Baby Doll which sounds very similar to Room, so I'm kind of curious to see how it compares to this one.

Have you read Room? What did you think? Do you have a hard time reading stories about subject matter like this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!