Books That Made Me Cry

Let’s talk about some books that made me cry, y’all. I love a good cry, in fact, they are my favorite books to read. I’m really not a happy ending kind of gyal, I need to feel the heartbreak. I just be feeling like happy endings aren’t always realistic, sometimes things don’t always go our way or as planned and those are the stories I want to read.

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

Starting off with a bang. If you haven’t read this yet then make this the next book you read. This should be required reading in all honesty. My first ever job was working at a public library which was so fitting, it was meant to be. And one day we got a box donation from someone or somewhere. A coworker and I were going through the box when she pulled out a book, showed it to me and asked if I ever read it before. It was this book. I said no and without saying another word she just handed it to me and went back to sorting the books in the box. I still have that same copy and this was back in the days when I would get recommendations and read them right away 😂 so I read this book not too long afterwards. The thing I remember the most is when I was at a certain moment in the book while reading it on the bus and that was when I started tearing up. I was like, yeahhhhh… I’m not about to start sobbing on this bus, so I immediately stopped reading it. This book is so good and well written. It should be on everyone’s to read list.

2. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

I love my history when it comes to this book because it’s so fascinating. I first read this book in 2013 during a time when I was very depressed, it was really clouding my mind. So I decided to pick this up and read during a time when I was also away at University. I read it and didn’t think much of it. At the time it was very meh to me, I’m honestly not even sure if I was really paying much attention to the story. I gave it 3 stars. I then decided to reread it in 2018 which was one of the happiest times of my life. My mood was great during this period… I could really go for another 2018 right now, lol. And while rereading this book I had the complete opposite reaction: I was in love! This story broke my heart when I would just think about it after the reread. I teared up at the end. I remember where I was when I was reading the last bit of this. It was so good that I brought it down to the basement with me while I was doing laundry just to finish it because I couldn’t put it down. Those last 50 pages or so were just so good. If I were to reread this book again I’m positive that I would still have the latter reaction. 

3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

If you got a sister and you’re close to her then you’re gonna feel this one. Though I had a hard time following what was going on with this story in regards to the war this book portrayed (the Biafran War) I was still engrossed in the story and characters. Adichie is a great writer and you can’t go wrong with her novels. This one is my favorite so far that she has written, I still have a few others of hers to read. I remember fighting hard not to cry by the end of this story.

4. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This one took me by surprise. I think the only reason I got around to this was because I was doing some reading challenge and I already owned this book. I was pleasantly surprised with how humorous this was. I listened to the audiobook which intensified the feels by the end. I was a sobbing mess.

5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

At this point I feel like I’m talking about the same 10 books on this blog page 😅 It is what it is though. This one is also a devastating one. I don’t want to give any spoilers but this was a hard story to swallow. Whether I’m reading this or even watching the movie it just gets me every time. Another sobbing mess of a story.

6. Invisible by Pete Hautman

This was the first book to ever make me cry. It’s great because it’s one of those stories where after you finish it you have to reread it because of the type of story it is and what it’s telling which I don’t think I’ve ever read another book like this since, or rather it’s a rare sight. I’m more likely to see this type of device in movies that I watch so that’s awesome for this book. But, yeah, that ending was so sad and rough.

7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I read this book so long ago that I honestly can’t remember if it actually made me cry but I want to badly say yes because this was a sad story. I also had a similar incident while reading this on the bus, same with The Kite Runner. It’s one of my favorite reads so I believe it’s a really good book. 

8. The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman 

This is hands down one of my top favorite books of all time. Wouldn’t even have known about it if it wasn’t for my mama’s box of books I found when I was 14. I just love this little book and its sad story and heartbreaking ending.

9. Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

This is a more recent read and it’s one of my most recent favorites. I loved everything about this book and it was so fun and entertaining. I started to really get in my sad feels near the end of the book where it talked about the main character’s mother and what was happening with her. There’s actually a song I discovered from this book that I now love which is called Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. It’s a great song but I read this book during a time when my dad was in the hospital sick and he ended up passing away months later. I love this song but I can’t really listen to it without starting to cry because it makes me think of him.

Type soon 🥹🫶🏾

Goodreads Book Personality

I juuuuuust seen this post on Goodreads IG page and was like, Hey! Ho! That would make for a nice little post for today’s blog. It’ll even give you a little bit of info on me and my reading tastes and habits. I also noticed while going through the comments that my combination makes my book personality a rare one 😏

E/N (Early bird / Nighttime reader)

*side note: I don’t know why it’s not “nighttime owl” to go alongside “early bird”… but whatever 😅

For this one… I’m an early bird. E. My favorite time of the day is that 5am-9am window. I love that early morning feel, like having the whole day ahead of you. I like the sunrise, sunsets are a little too depressing for me lol. So, yeah, I’m more of a read in the morning, even during the day. I can’t read at night no mo’. I don’t know how other adults do it. When I was a teenager? Yeah, pretty often I would. But now, in my 30s?? Girl, I’m falling asleep. I am falling asleep, I can’t do it. I can’t even make it three pages in and don’t let it be an audiobook… it’s over.

P/D/B (Physical book / Digital, e.g. Kindle or Audible / Both)

For this one… I’m both. B. I want them all!! I’ll read on all or any format. Libby is my homegirl, till death do us part. Just to break things down a little more for you though: I am more in favor of a physical book. When it comes to audiobooks I do prefer to have the physical to read along with. Digital or ebooks are probably my least fave due to not being able to physically see how far along I am in the book but at the same time audiobooks by themselves can also be one of my least faves because I cannot multitask while listening to an audiobook. I can’t drive and listen to an audiobook. I can’t wash dishes, do laundry, chores while listening to an audiobook. They leave me pretty restricted. When I’m driving that’s time for me to listen to my music. I love to read and all but I’m not about to listen to a book while driving, more power to y’all for that. So it’s like a tie between audiobooks and ebooks for least fave but still I’m reading them all.

S/C (Story-driven / Character -driven)

For this one… I’m character-driven. C. A story can have all of the action and plot twists it wants… but I ain’t dealing with a boring, dull or annoying character. I like my characters to have personality. I want my characters to talk to me and deal with other characters who also have interesting personalities. Reading from an antagonist’s viewpoint sounds interesting af! One of the most unique characters I’ve read from comes from the book A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It’s one of my favorite books of all time and one of the hardest books ever to recommend. The main character in that is just a very audacious person with a superior complex about him but yet he also is a humorously grotesque individual. The story is also pretty out there too. And if you didn’t already know I’m also a writer, you can check me out on my Wattpad page (michaliza). I specialize in writing m/m urban romances, been writing them since 9th grade/15 years old. So if that’s your thing then check it out. Maybe one day I’ll be an author for this type of material because I feel like you don’t see it a lot, especially in book stores. I’m digressing a tad bit but when I write my own stories I constantly have my characters talking to the audience/reader and a lot of my stories follow characters and their relationships with others so this is what I appreciate in books that I read. I like a good character study, another good one would be The Stranger by Albert Camus.

O/M (One book at a time / Multiple books)

For this one… I’m multiple books. M. I’ve always been this way. I can juggle many books and never get confused, not to toot my own horn but, yeah, lol. At the moment I’m between 5 books, I just started a new one yesterday. But look, I do very much aspire to be a one book at a time girly some day. I aspire to have one book on my Goodreads currently reading shelf one day. I’ve been saying this for years now at this point though 😂 I’ve also been growing into being a mood reader which I’m not caring for. So for now it’s multiple books for the win.

So… I’m an EBCM 😁

This was fun and cool lol.

Type soon 😗🤞🏾

My Ten Most Recent “Did Not Finish” Books

Greetings! Got an exciting post for you today! I’m gonna share my ten most recent “did not finish” books as part of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday. TTT was originally created by The Broke and The Bookish in June of 2010 but is now being hosted by Jana over at https://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/ . This is my first TTT so I’m really excited to finally be participating and I’m happy to have found a book blogging community. So… let’s go!

But before we begin, I do have an honorable mention. Only because I haven’t officially DNF (did not finish) it but I’m also really not in the mood to pick it up.

Honorable mention:

The Fantasies of Future Things by Doug Jones

I’m gonna hold off on giving any type of review for this right now because this is an ARC (advance reader copy) that I’m currently reading, given to me by NetGalley. So I thank them for the ARC. I’ve been having a love and hate relationship with ARCs for a while now. I like the idea of them and I like getting copies and being one of the first few to read a novel. But then I be feeling bad when the novel just doesn’t interest me anymore and I just want to quit reading it (which I find to be the case with all ARCs I’ve received, which isn’t a lot). I’m only 7% of the way through it and I still got time to read it before it’s published… so this ain’t over… I’m still willing to give this a chance.

Also, before we dive into the list I do want to mention that I don’t DNF too often. I’m not opposed to DNFing but sometimes I want to read the bad and the ugly. I like a little rant here and there. Truthfully, I don’t be trusting readers/Goodreads users who be having all and only 5 star ratings. That’s just me 🤷🏾‍♀️ So some of these books I mention maybe have been DNF’d last year or previous. Also, if you head over to my Goodreads account (the link is to the left side of this page where the icon is) my DNF list is on my profile under the shelf called “yeah-no”. A little frequent saying of mine 😆 

1. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

First of all… I thought a woman wrote this because of the name. So that’s cool; I like unisex names and never knew Evelyn to be one. But this was a book I DNF’d, like, last week. I honestly blame this book for the reading slump I’m in right now 😞 I had borrowed a copy of this book from my job. In the 4 years I’ve worked there I’ve never seen copies of this book in the store and we only received one copy. I actually felt bad holding onto this book because the next day I got a customer in who had asked me if we had it in store. Which was bizarre seeing as how a customer has never asked me about this book before and here I was holding the one copy hostage at home and not enjoying it. I only got through the prologue and I just couldn’t do any more from there. I originally became interested in the book when I read that the movie Saltburn had some of the vibes from this book and I actually enjoyed Saltburn. The 75th anniversary edition of this book actually gives me Saltburn vibes. I hate that I couldn’t stick it out with this and see it to the end.

2. Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

I barely made it into this. I probably DNF’d this at 2%, I know I didn’t get near page 3. Maybe my mistake was listening to the audiobook. I’m also not a huge romance reader and I don’t have interest in stories that take place during weddings and I hate event planning… so why did I try to read this you ask? Because my favorite booktuber (gabbyreads) highly recommended this and the Goodreads rating for this is going crazy! But this really isn’t up my alley.

3. The Fallen (Bluford, #11) by Paul Langan

How many of y'all remember, read and loved the Bluford series?? 🙋🏾‍♀️ Iykyk. I’ve been wanting to reread the books I’ve read in this series thus far but I haven’t read all of them so I thought I’d try to pick the series back up where I kind of left off so this one was up next. It was going fine enough but I eventually realized that I was no longer in the mood to read it and it wasn’t something I really wanted to spend time reading even though these books are only a little over one hundred pages long. The interest came and went but this is still a beloved series and I do still plan on reading more from it.

Side note: Goodreads is bugging. So from here on I have to go through my memory and recall which book came next on my DNF list because Goodreads is not really allowing me to go off of exact moments when I DNF something but rather the date that I added said book to my DNF list. And I can’t get it to organize itself out the way it should no matter how I change the “sorted by”. Good thing for the past two years I’ve kept a reading journal so I guess I’ll just resort to that. Hey, I’m letting you know in real time how I’m going about making and finding this list 😅

4. Life of a College Bandsman by Jaxon Grant

This one actually should probably be 3rd on this list but it’s whatever, I didn’t really consider this a DNF anyways because I was enjoying this for the most part and definitely plan on getting back into it and reading more books by this author. But my relationship with Kindle Unlimited be on and off ever since they raised their price. One minute I be having it and next minute I be getting rid of it because… $12?!? Yeah, I can’t be doing that every month. But this book was right up my alley, definitely trying to read more books like this.

5. Silent Night by R. L. Stine

R. L. Stine don’t ever miss so I don’t know what this one was about. I was confused by the protagonist in this because she would just keep rambling on about being scared of something… plus the chapters seemed quite long for a Stine book. I wasn’t even invested in this so it had to get DNF’d.

6. Thrown Off the Ice by Taylor Fitzpatrick

Eh! I had wrote down: “Ain’t nobody got time for this!” So I guess that was what it was. I had glimpsed over some reviews on it to see just how interesting this would or would not get for me and I decided that I didn’t need to continue on. I didn’t care about the story or characters. Kind of feel like I’m struggling trying to find a good m/m romance.

7. This Hoe Got Roaches In Her Crib by Quan Millz 

LMAO to this making the list! Yes, you’re reading the title correctly and surprisingly… the story and writing wasn’t too bad. It was actually going pretty good buuuuuttt… it’s a Kindle book and me and Kindle are on the off right now. I’ve heard a lot about this author and his questionable book titles so I finally decided to give him a go and I wasn’t having a bad time with this… though some of the characters in this are horrible people, like the main one being the hoe that got the roaches in her crib 😅 I definitely look forward to getting back into this and more of this author’s work.

8. Didn’t Nobody Give A Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham

Huh, I forgot about this one. This book had its funny moments but I chose to DNF it around page 33 or so. I just didn’t think I needed to read it. I wasn’t all too interested, if I remember correctly I think I had a little trouble trying to understand the writing in this one so I did appreciate the audiobook for that.

9. The Ultimate Sacrifice by Anthony Fields

I wish this was gay… 😂 I would have probably continued reading this if it were gay. Also at one point I had wrote down: “Why I got to be the editor of this book??” Lmao! Yeah… I can’t stand books that missed out on the editing process because ain’t no way somebody proofread this. But I got quite a bit of way into this, DNF’d around page 84. But I don’t know why I thought I saw potential in finishing this. Plus there’s at least 5 other books in this series… I’m good on that, love.

10. Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

I thought I found renewed interest in this while reading it after determining that I wasn’t in the mood for it but, damn, I had changed my mind 😆 I can’t remember a single thing from this, maybe I didn’t care for the character, who knows, that could have been the reason. At this point we’re on DNFs from 2023… so there you go.

Type soon 😆✌🏾

Favorite Books of ALL Time

Since it’s the month of love, let’s talk about my favorite books of all time. The books that I lurve ♥️ I haven’t yet mentioned this on my YouTube channel or anywhere else that isn’t Goodreads. But let’s talk about them now, there’s 37 of them and growing… I’m sure… I ain’t eva gonna stop reading! The books aren’t in any particular order but I gotta little favoritism for the first one.

1. The World of Normal Boys by K. M. Soehnlein

Nobody ever talks about this book. I never see it mentioned anywhere. This was the author’s debut and I was blown away by this book… twice! On the second read I loved it even more than the first. It’s a coming of age story with a lot of dynamics and story depth. I found it to be a little sad but that’s perfect to me. 

2. Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez

Like… when are they going to adapt this into a series?? This needs to be a show. It’s a trilogy too but I favor the first book overall. I’ve read this twice as well and on the second read I forgot how hilariously funny this was. It’s also cute. This book also has my favorite trope in it which I was today years old when I finally realized that I love this trope and it’s the “makeover” trope; where a character goes through a physical makeover and they become hot shit from it. Love that.

3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I believe watching the movie is what got me into reading this book. The movie is good, was well adapted. I don’t remember too much from the book since it’s been over 10 years since I’ve read it but I do remember crying to my ex boyfriend over the phone about it, it’s a pretty sad story.

4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Listen… I read this book for the first time when I was 19 or 20 and loved the shit out of it! One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from this book. It’s a long winded paragraph sentence but the first line reads: “I recall certain moments, let us call them icebergs in paradise…”. I have yet to read this book for the second time. Owning this book is hard because I hate practically every cover version of it. They keep putting a damn little girl on the cover knowing dead well Nabokov told they asses not to. So I’m on the hunt to find a cover that I actually like. I gave up my old copy that I had because I hated the cover. But when I read this I remember being really impressed with how well written the story was for a man whose first language wasn’t English. I also found the writing to be humorous because ever so often Nabokov would change the POV to third person which was random as shit… and that’s one of my kinds of humor. The book ain’t for everyone but it’s a gorgeous read.

5. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen was one of my favorite authors back in high school… I don’t recall if I was reading her in middle school yet. Her older work reads so authentically which is one of the reasons why I love this book. I’m actually planning on rereading this book in March. March is a month where I take the time to reread books and I love this for me; I’m so excited to get around to rereading this. I consider this to be a Sarah Dessen classic… I don’t read her much anymore because I’ve outgrown her but the last couple of books I’ve read from her don’t have the same umph! as this one.

6. Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

This was a book I considered a fave back when I was younger. I’m sure I’ll still enjoy it but not sure if I’ll still consider it a fave after I reread it someday. But I did really enjoy this and still recall the story for the most part. It’s pretty dark and I realize that a lot of the teen fiction books I read back in the day (when they were called teen fiction and not YA) were pretty damn dark.

7. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

This… this right here! Another Dessen classic. This story was unlike any of her other stories and I think that’s still the case to this day. This story dealt with domestic abuse in a relationship. It’s a sad story and I’ve read it twice. On my second time reading I noticed a couple of things that were like foreshadowing the story and I had that “ah-ha” moment when I noticed it. There’s some layers and depth here. This definitely stands out amongst all her other books.

8. I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

I noticed that they’re coming out with new editions for Tom Wolfe’s books and I can’t wait to see if they make one for this because I’ll buy it… for a second time! Just like I’ve read this book two times… and this is a big book. I remember the second time I was reading it I was out on the town with my mom carrying this big book around. We happened to go to a pizza shop and I think the lady working there (who was also one of my high school cafeteria lunch ladies) made a comment about my book to which I informed her that it was my second time reading. She looked so confused and asked why would I be reading it again if I’ve already read it? To this day I still think about that moment. Like, think… why would I be rereading it? Maybe because I thought it was a good fucking story. Maybe because I really, really enjoyed it. Why would you consume something more than once? Maybe because you liked it. I guess a person who doesn’t read wouldn’t understand.

9. Goodbye, Janette by Harold Robbins 

Okay, this is a wild one… hold on lol. Growing up I discovered my mom’s box of books in the basement. I was 14 at the time. My mom had some Harlequin romance books in there which I also read a few of those. I would always sneak down there, look at the books and decide which one I was going to take back upstairs with me. I realize that the books that I liked I kept in my room and the ones I didn’t care about I brought them back downstairs. This had to be the case because to this day as a grown woman I still own some of those books that were down there but not all of them. This was one of them and I read it when I was 14. If you know you know. This ain’t a book for 14 year olds but guess what? I loved it at the age of 14! I tried to reread it when I was 16 but I only got maybe a quarter into before I put it down. I finally got around to reading it last year, 16 years later, and baybee… I still enjoyed the fuck out of this! I did knock it down a star but it’s still a favorite of all time for me. I was still obsessed but even more so with one of the characters in this. It’s a fast pace book, I couldn’t put it down and now I see why I loved it so much at 14.

10. The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman

This right here is another one from my mama’s stash. It was waiting for me in the box down in the basement. I first read it at 14 and loved it. Reread it back in 2018 during a great week in a great year. It’s also one of my highly favorited books of all time. The story is so simple but packs a hard punch. That ending gets me every time. This book is very dear to be.

11. Invisible by Pete Hautman

This is the first book to ever make me cry, y’all. It’s one of those stories where you have to reread it because of the reveal at the end. Can’t wait to reread it some day… maybe even next month…

12. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein 

Had to include this in my faves. Go way back with this one. Simply, it’s just a sad story with a message and I love me a sad story.

13. Forever… by Judy Blume

This is a book that I may change my position on. I can’t remember if I’ve read it twice or not but if I read it again I’m not sure if I’d still consider it a fave but of course when I first read it I loved it. The ending is kind of sad so… yeah… it got me.

14. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

I actually enjoyed reading books for school. I actually looked forward to what we were going to read next. I like people telling me what to read and giving me recommendations, I might not read it right away but that’s what Goodreads’ “Want to Read” is for lol. But this was a book I had to read in 10th grade and for some reason it always stuck with me. I think I liked it and I wasn’t sure why. I got around to rereading it back in 2019 and still… I was obsessed with it, I loved it. So I finally came to the conclusion like last year or the year before that this is a favorite. It still took me a while to figure out why but then it kind of hit me. This book made me realize what kind of formula I like in my stories. I like books that study relationships between men, whether that be a friendship, something platonic or romantic. Add in some sort of tragedy and a somber or sad ending and I’m sold! These are the types of books I like and the ones I write (check out my WattPad: michaliza).

15. Dread Locks by Neal Shusterman

When everyone was raving about the book Scythe (which I haven’t read yet) I wasn’t surprised because I knew who had wrote this and I was like, that book probably is good because Shusterman can write a story. I read this book back in high school and loved it so much. It’s a Medusa retelling, sort of, and I’m surprised not more people know about it. Spoiler alert though, it does have a sad and dark and jaw dropping ending.

16. On the Head of a Pin by Mary Beth Miller

To be honest I don’t even know what this was. I enjoyed it at the time. It needs a reread though. This book is heavy and dark as fuck! 

17. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Ah yes… if you know you know. I’ve read this book twice and it was excellent each time. The show is my favorite of all time. Just a great time overall.

18. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

My first job ever was after high school working for my public library. Nowhere else would hire me, not the two McDonalds in the small city I grew up in or the grocery store. So I figured I was meant to work in a book environment which was a great revelation to me. One day when I was working there we got a box of book donations. A coworker and I were going through the box in the back. Eventually she takes out a book and holds it up to me and asks me if I’ve ever read it. The book was The Kite Runner. I told her no. She simply just handed it to me and said nothing more. Okay… say less… and she did lol. I read the book not too long after and… man. I remember having to stop reading while on the bus because I was about to cry. I think everyone should read this. This should be required reading. I still have the copy she gave me and I think about her all the time. I get the feeling that she might have passed away years ago but, man, she really gave me something memorable.

19. The Charioteer by Mary Renault

I need more people to read this. This is the best love triangle story I’ve ever read and it’s a classic from an author who was one of the first is not the first woman to ever write m/m romance! But tell me why I only gave this book 4 stars and consider it a favorite? I think because the ending was a little too vague for me… but I love this book so much. Funny little story. I had been looking for this book every time when I go to Barnes and Noble. Even up until some time last year. I obviously really wanted to own a copy. But then some months back I was about to head out one day, so as I’m leaving my room I happen to look over at my book shelf and noticed that the book. Was. Right. There. I literally gasped and stared at it because I had no idea where it came from, up until that point I didn’t even know I owned it, I don’t even really recall buying it but I was happy as fuck to see it lol.

20. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

This one is random as fuck, I know. This book isn’t easy to recommend so I’m kind of not going to lol. I don’t want to be the reason of confusion and disappointment but for me personally, the book was funny as fuck lol. It’s a humor not everyone is going to vibe with, some might even be a little grossed out by it which is understandable because the main protagonist is disgusting though very unforgettable. This book is outrageous and ridiculous.

21. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin 

Another very interesting story I’m about to recall. I read this book during the worst point of my life. It was 2013 and the summer had taken a turn for the worst. I was really really really sick this year but won’t go into detail. It just also happened to be the year I started university in the fall as a transfer student. It was rough to make that transition from what I had endured that summer. While away at school I decided to pick this up. On first read I thought it was just okay and gave it 3 stars but I thought about it years later and wondered if I really felt that way about the book. Fast forward to 2018 which was the best year of my life, I decided to reread this book for the rereadathon which took place for a week in March and it was because of that year’s rereadathon which was a huge success that I decided to dedicate the whole month to mainly rereading books. So I reread this that week which was the best week in my life because all my rereads were hitting! And I was shocked because on second read I was in love with this. I bumped it up to 5 stars and made it a fave. It’s crazy how your mindset can really play a part in how you could receive a book or story. Because I wasn’t in a good headspace this book didn’t do much for me in 2013 but since I was much happier and healthier in 2018 it was one of the best things I’ve ever read. If I were to read this for a third time to break the tie… I bet big money I would still consider it 5 stars.

22. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Great author to begin with. This book made me tear up. I recall having a little embarrassing moment while reading this where a bus driver was curious as to what I was reading and I gave her a very vague synopsis, mentioning a war that takes place during the story. She wanted to know more about the war and which war but I didn’t really know how to answer her because it’s like, I knew what was going on in the story but it was hard to explain the story. I also at the time didn’t realize that this wasn’t a fictional war mentioned in the story… it actually happened. So I need to reread this to become better informed on the story.

23. Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Junji Ito became my favorite manga artist because of this right here. I remember I was reading this during Thanksgiving 2016 I believe. Right after eating I had to jump back into this story, it was too good. I was surrounded by family eating and chatting on Thanksgiving day while just sitting in the corner reading this lol.

24. Vicious by Victoria E. Schwab

Remember that formula I was talking about earlier of the kinds of stories I like to read? This is one of them. You take the relationship between two guys who become roommates/sort of friends to enemies and the story is dark as well, I was here for all of it. The timeline jumps are pretty wild but besides that this was so entertaining.

25. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

My feels, oh, my feels. This is a sob worthy story. It’s so good, I love me a sad story.

26. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

I think this was the first book I read by Hendrix and it was amazing. This book gives me such creative vibes, from the story to the look of the book. I was confused when I first read this because I was like, why is this funny? I thought this was a horror book. But it gets there… the lead up to it is awesome. I remember being creeped out by the change in furniture with each passing chapter and the one scene with the cam recorder filming the different rooms in the store. What a great first impression. I also could relate to how the main character was feeling about her job by the end of this story.

27. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

This read had me literally on the edge of my seat. I just kept flipping the pages, couldn’t stop reading. I think I was even holding my breath when it got to the ending. It’s very likely I was just because of how good and attention grabbing this story was. This book was very dark, it actually reminded me of the movie Tales From the Hood which scared the fuck out of me as a kid and even now to this day as an adult.

28. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Well if this isn’t a depressing little story we got here. It’s so good, though. The time line jumps in this is also pretty wild. Did not see the plot twist coming, I don’t know who could have seen that coming but it’s just so devastating.

29. Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon

I’m obsessed with Lord John Grey. He is now one of my favorite characters of all time. I haven’t read Outlander yet but I read this once I’d learned that Lord John is a gay character originally from the Outlander series. And I’m all about my gay boys and BL. I was shipping him and Trevelyan so hard. I also became in love with the name Trevelyan and had vowed to name my first born that lol. But one thing about me, I love my historical m/m romance books.

30. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Ya’ll… listen… listen. I first started this book in 2019. I didn’t finish it until 2024. I’ve lost you but it’s okay. If I was loving the book why did it take me so long to read it? That’s the thing… I was loving this book so much that once I got to page 114 I set the book down, gave it 5 stars and didn’t really think to pick it back up because I already knew I was going to give it 5 stars so why not start something else? Thankfully my brain doesn’t work this way anymore. But I finally got around to picking this book back up last year and it was one of the highlights from that year for me. This book left me thinking about it for daysss once I finished it. That ending was everything! Perfection.

31. Friends and Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey

Dickey is the first author for my Authors Galore challenge (see last post). I had never read anything by him so I decided to start from the beginning. This isn’t his first book, it’s his second I believe and it’s my favorite of his to date so far. The relationships between these characters felt so authentic and the romance was just right and realistic. Something does happen unexpectedly later in the story which threw the story off for me but the rest of the book over shadows that. This was still great to me.

32. I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

I don’t know where to begin with this one. This ain’t for everybody though, but it was for me. I highly recommend the audiobook to get the full experience… it’s creepy as fuck and also had me on the edge of my seat. I always thought this made for good ambience sound on a Halloween night.

33. Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

This was so much fun! I don’t care if there were plot holes this was a great reading experience. I didn’t want to put the book down and I lowkey had a little crush on Crosby in this. I also discovered a new favorite song from this. Ugh! This was so good!

34. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This was good, sad and pretty humorous. I remember balling my eyes out listening to Alexie talk about his friend at the end of the audiobook.

35. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This was very impressive and should be required reading. I can’t talk highly enough about this book, it was so creative and well done.

36. Megumi and Tsugumi, Vol. 1 by Mitsuru Si 

The way I instantly knew this story had playback value. I was in loooooove with this! It was so good. The smut was chef’s kiss and here I am finding Megumi, an anime character, fine as fuckkk! I went ahead and bought all the other books in the series after finishing this. Still waiting on Vol. 5… I don’t own that one yet.

37. Megumi and Tsugumi, Vol. 2 by Mitsuru Si

AhhhhhhgsjdmrusmdosnERMAHGERDandhdijjksinsjsmklsjhiakaldbh!! I loved this just as much as the first one. This can get read again and again for my enjoyment.

And those are all my faves to date. Can’t wait to come across more.

Type soon ✌🏾 

New Year, New Reading Plans

Hey, y’all! I just want to start by saying that I cannot believe I only made one post last year on this blog page 😱 Something’s gotta change. My yearly goal this year is to be more active on this page. If you didn’t know I used to do Booktube some years back but planning my content and uploads ended up burning me out. So I’m thinking that returning to filming book content is just not for me (it actually makes the most sense for me to do since I do love books and I was a film student in school). But I also very much enjoy writing. I actually used to have a blog page where I would post my short stories but I’ve discontinued that… not writing or uploading, no, never that. I now upload my short stories on WattPad… I’ve gotten wayyy more views and recognition since doing so. But since I love to write, also, I figure the next best thing is to start blogging more on what I’m reading and see how well it goes from here on out. So I want to put more focus on this blog page. So let’s get into the first post of the year 🤩

So when it came to last year’s reading goal… I completed it and read the 58 books that I wanted to read that year. This year I want to read 65 books. The reason being is because my dad had passed away last year at the age of 58 and he was born in 1965. These have been the inspiration, I guess is the word, for my reading goal number. So far I’ve read one book this year.

My favorite book I read in 2024 would have to be between The Secret History by Donna Tartt and the manga series Megumi and Tsugumi by Mitsubishi Si. I’m obsessed with that manga! I’ve only read volumes 1 and 2 but I bought all the volumes we had at my job (I work in a bookstore 😊) after having only read volume 1. It had very much made its way up to one of my top favorite mangas I’ve read… ever! So that’s been exciting. Least favorite book would probably have to be between this manga called Doubt by Yoshiki Tonogai, Boys in the Club by M.T. Pope and Black Girl Lost by Donald Goines. One star all across the board. Black Girl Lost did absolutely nothing for me. I have a whole rant review of Boys in the Club on my Goodreads, the link to that is on the left side. And Doubt just had me confused, at no point was I into it.

And now for 2025… things are starting off a bit ambitious per usual. I seem to have a thing of joining a bunch of reading challenges at the start of the year just to end up quitting them by mid point. Hopefully I can stick through with what I’m about to say for my reading plans this year. Side note: I’ve already read one book towards one of the reading challenges 😁 

So for my reading plans this year I want to:

1. Read more books from my physical TBR.

I’m collecting and obtaining books now more than ever and I need to start actually reading them. For one of the challenges I mention below I did pick mostly books I own for the prompts so with that I should really get the most out of this challenge. My shelves are definitely about to get read this year!

2. My Authors Galore Challenge

This was a challenge I came up with back in 2019 or so. It’s kind of almost similar to the author taste test challenge. But with this one pretty much what I do is I take an author who is new to me, or maybe one where I’ve only read one book or so, and I take their catalog and read it in chronological order. A pretty big challenge. Authors who have a lot of published books are ideal. I want to take this challenge and fully bring it here to my blog page so expect in the future for me to take on authors (whom I’ve never read!) such as Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, Stephen King (read one, paused on one), S.A Cosby, etc. I could go on, there’s quite a few authors and popular authors I’ve never read from! Almost makes me question who and what am I reading. The first author that I had started this challenge with was Eric Jerome Dickey. I had never read a book by him when I started this challenge but since I had I’ve discovered that he’s one of my favorite authors and not just that but also he’s the only author I’ve come across who has a similar writing style or voice as I do when it comes to my own stories. He passed away back in 2021 so his catalog is pretty much complete at this point. I’ve read a couple of his books now and I’m just now hitting his 2000 year publication. I’m also adding George R. R. Martin to my current author that I’m reading from but only because I need to finish the Song of Ice and Fire series (I’ve been reading book 2 for 10 years now 🫣).

3. Buzzword Readathon

Once again I’m attempting to do this challenge, created by Kayla over at BooksandLala on YouTube. But I figure that this year I should definitely complete this challenge because I’ve chosen books that I own for the prompts. I’m very proud of myself. There were only, like, two prompts that I didn’t have on my shelf but other than that I have the books already at home!

4. Barnes and Noble 52 Week Reading Challenge

This one came out of nowhere because I was this year years old when I found out that this is a thing that I guess they do every year. Not sure where I’ve been, but, okay. So I checked it out and was like, Bet! And so far I’ve already completed the first week’s challenge and I’m definitely going to finish second week’s challenge this week as well, so I’m about to be ahead of the game when it comes to this challenge which is crazy to me because I rarely read a book in a week. My goal for the most part is to start each new prompt for the week on Sunday.

I’m pretty damn hopeful and confident with the challenges I’m taking on this year. I don’t know what it is but I’m feeling pretty good about this year and these goals. Please stick around to catch all my reviews and rants especially when it comes to the Author Galore Challenge 👀 That’s gonna be so much fun to talk about and I’ll even take up author suggestions from readers or people following me on other social media platforms because… who do y’all want to see me read?

Type soon 🤞🏾

Best and Worst Reads So Far In 2024

We back!! I don’t know for how long but we back!! 😆 Let me just start by saying this past year has been A LOT! I got into a car accident the month after my last post I made on this blog. That was ongoing for a whole fucking year, finally over and done with that. Also, my dad passed away back in January, a couple days before my birthday actually. This is not something I care to go much into detail but like I said this year has been a lot. My dad’s birthday is also on the 15th so it’s been a hard time and it’s just a lot to put in words right now. It’s all thanks to my dad that I have interests in reading and writing and movies and film and editing. I get all my hobbies and interests from him, he actually had all of the same interests so it’s crazy how that worked out and was passed on down to me. My dad used to read to my mother’s stomach when she was pregnant with me and I was the only child he did that for… and I’m the only one of my siblings that is a reader. So I’ve been reading since I was a fetus 😂 I miss my dad a lot and wish he were still here ❤️ 

But, for today’s post I guess I’ll tell you about the good and bad of what I’ve read so far this year. In general my reading has been very meh! I’ve watched more movies this year than read books. It’s definitely been a year of prioritizing my watchlist than TBR list. A bitch is 14 books behind schedule, y’all 😬 I thought mangas could save me but if I’m still out here reading at a snail’s pace then… I ain’t gonna catch up to shit. So next I’m moving back to audiobooks and seeing if that’ll help with picking things up.

1. We know you at least read something good? What was it?

~The best book I’ve read so far this year was a manga called Soichi by Junji Ito. I remember Soichi from Ito’s previous work Shiver and I enjoyed him from that. I remembered him as a character so when I seen that he was about to have his own book I was excited to get my hands on it. Of course the cover is lovely, Junji Ito’s work has some of my favorite book styles. This book was hilarious, Soichi is such a menace and I thought it was funny. It was great! And the ending was perfecttt!

2. Aiight, now it’s your time to shine, girl. What’s the worst book this year?

~Like I said, reading has been very meh this year. Worst book so far is gonna have to go to No One Rides For Free by Judith Sonnet. I tapped into my dark horror bag a little bit with this. I want to read more of this genre and author but I gave this a ⭐️⭐️  This book was definitely gross as promised but I find myself not knowing what to say or how to think about this one. It definitely wasn’t something I enjoyed, though.

3. It’s a question from the tag even though we know you don’t fuck with series but… what’s the best sequel you’ve read?

~ Yeah, I don’t even know why you bothered asking me that one but I’ll go with Mieruko-chan Vol. 7 by Tomoki Izumi. I recently read this and gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really liked this one. The first half was kind of confusing and I didn’t really know what was going on but in the second half the story changed gears for the better and it got interesting again realllll quick. This one was also funny and I’m currently reading Vol. 8 because I just had to read it after what went down in this volume.

4. Sorry to do this to you again, girl, cause we know you don’t keep up with what’s new and hot but… what’s a book you want to read that just came out?

~Yeah, I really don’t be keeping track of shit like this… and I work in a bookstore 😑 Let me dig around real quick and see if I can find a book that’s new and on my watchlist. *Elevator music*

*More elevator music*

*Sexyy Red starts playing*

Aiight, I got it! It’s gonna be We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer. This book is pretty hot right now. I was initially drawn to the cover of the book. I was gonna read it just for that but the synopsis also sounds really good. I may just read this for Gabby’s (gabbyreads) Book Troop Pick. Now that I think about that… I got to put that last copy we got at my job on hold 🏃🏾‍♀️💨 

5. Aiight, what about the second half of the year?

~Bitch, I don’t know ☹️ I see Junji Ito is coming out with a book called Uncanny: The Origins of Fear in October soooooo I’ll go with that.

6. What book let you down?

~I guess I’ll say The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun. I did like some things about this here and there but I fucking hated the main character. He was hella repulsive and just nasty, I don’t know why the author thought he made for an attractive love interest. The book was cool otherwise.

7. What shocked ya?

~You know what? I’m glad you asked cause I see that I have at least 3 books I could mention but I really want to mention one. I think I’m gonna go with Goodbye, Janette by Harold Robbins. This was a book I first read when I was 14 😳😬 Spoiler alert: This isn’t a book that a 14 year old should be reading. But growing up my mom had a box full of romance books and I would always sneak down to the basement and grab one or two before retreating back to my room, so I was reading those Harlequin Romance books at 14 😂 This was one of those books and at the time I loved it! Gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and it was a fave. I tried to reread it when I was 16 but only got less than a 3rd into it. I’ve been wanting to reread it all this time and this year I made it the year, 18 years later! And I was surprised that I still enjoyed this. It’s an easy read for one and it was still interesting and I was able to still remember some parts and storylines from when I was 14. I also remembered liking a character from here and I love that character twice as hard now. I was shook. It’s still a fave too but I did bring it down to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ But, girl, I don’t even remember why. It might as well have stayed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

8. Any new author you now fucking with?

~Nah, not really.

9. What fictional character are you now in love with?

~I’m gonna go with Jacques from Goodbye, Janette 🤩  He was the character I was talking about earlier that I liked even more after reading this book for the second time. So I’ve been into this man since I was 14, it just grew extra hard and became solidified this year 😂

10. Kind of redundant buuuuttt newest favorite character?

~The ones I’ve written. Next question.

11. What made you cry?

~Big Booty by Cairo… because the shit finally ended.

12. What made you happy?

~Ehhh 🤷🏾‍♀️ I need to read more books.

13. We know you don’t be buying books like that but we saw you at Barnes and Noble the other day 🌾👀🌾 What book was the prettiest that you bought?

~Damn, bitch, nosy much? 😒 And you wrong. I actually haven’t bought it yet. Hmph! I have it on hold at my job and it’s Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I wasn’t all that interested in owning a copy but I seen the cover for this new edition and had to have it, it could use a reread too.

14. And lastly, what books do you got to read by the end of the year?

~The ones on my TBR. Follow and friend me on Goodreads, y’all 😁

Type sooooon 😜

1st Quarter Wrap Up

Hey hey hey, what’s happnin’? So, the first quarter of the year is up and I’m here to talk about what I’ve read and how it’s been reading wise. At the moment I’m doing a few reading challenges. I remember back in the day when I was so opposed to doing reading challenges because I guess I didn’t want something to dictate what I read but they’re actually hella fun 🤩 So I’m doing a few: A-Z Challenge, Monthly Key Word Challenge and I did participate in a book club pick for the month of January (more on that later). It actually feels like I’m doing more than two reading challenges probably because I was going to participate in two book club picks for the month of March but backed out because it was getting to be too much.

I also have a list of 46 books that I want to read and finish by the end of the year but the thing is that I wrote up this list back in January and I’m not going to revisit it again until around the end of December. I want to see which books I actually got around to reading without checking the list the whole year. I’ve done this before and it was a fail but I also think it’s a lot of fun. As long as I try to prioritize my Goodreads TBR more my chances of doing better with reading the books on that list will go up.

So in January I participated in Reading Wryly’s Midnight Society Book Club. I even took off work to participate in the live show and I was one of the rare few who hated the book pick 😬 I was actually hella surprised at how many people liked it, especially Wryly and Gabby over at gabbyreads. The book for January was “Motherthing” by Ainslie Hogarth. Now I’ve been looking forward to this book and had it on hold at my job way before it was a pick for this book club so I figured it was perfect to participate since I was already going to read it. And the book wasn’t anything like I thought it was going to be, like… why did the author keep talking about feces in the book? I feel like there has to be some sort of importance for this to continue to be a thing throughout the book but I haven’t found the answer… don’t really care since it’s a ⭐️ (1 star) for me.

“Hold You Down” by Tracy Brown is another book I read in January. I’ve never read a book by this author despite owning her book “Snapped” for yearsss. I picked up this book because a reading group I’m in on Facebook had referred this and I was told it was a really sad book. We had it at my job and so I read it and, yeah, it’s a pretty damn sad book. No real happy parts exist… for long. The writing is good, it made me want to finally pick up “Snapped” but I haven’t yet. But, there will definitely be tears when it comes to reading this so beware because it’s some deep shit. Also, the author liked one of my Goodreads tweets on Twitter for one of my statuses on the book 😊 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I also finally got to reading a book from my owned TBR 😱 Shocker because I never do that 😅 But the Monthly Key Word Challenge, hosted by Kim and Tanya at girlxoxo.com and on IG @chapter_adventure, for January that I chose out of the words was “guide”. I picked up “The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue” by Mackenzi Lee and it was soooo good 🥰 I loved it!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Listen, I separate the artist from the art so I really don’t give a damn about peoples’ feelings on an author and the shit I read in some of the reviews regarding peoples’ take on Mackenzi?? Yeah, I’m not with it or care. Her book entertained the fuck out of me! I thought it was funny and the audiobook was great! The cherry on top was that letter at the end that Monty wrote to his father! *snap snap*

In February I started this book called “Big Booty” by Cairo and listen… I guess more on that book another time cause I’m still reading it. That shit too long for what reason I don’t know. Moving on. I also started but finished in March Perfect Places by Daniel Black which is another book I picked up based on recommendations from a reading group on Facebook and I got to slow down with picking up those recommendations. I’m not saying this book wasn’t good but it was just ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. It was fine, it was a historical fiction about a mother making everyone believe her last born child was a girl when the baby was actually born a boy because she wanted a girl so bad. It had some sad moments especially, I feel, regarding the mother’s situation and past.

In February I also started Come Closer by Sara Gran for the Monthly Key Word Challenge which was “come”. This book involves possession and I’m still reading it, I should finish it soon but it’s taking me a while because for a while there I wasn’t trying to read this book at night (I work during the day) because it’s… pretty darn creepy 😬 It’s going good though so more on it later, I suppose.

In March I read “Lot” by Bryan Washington. This book was pretty good ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I definitely want to read more by this author. It was funny and I liked the writing. Moving onto “Killing Stalking: Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 & 2” by Koogi. I was scared going into this because of all the reviews I read and heard regarding it. I just didn’t know how to prepare myself. But, yeah it’s dark but nothing that I couldn’t handle. But I really enjoyed the first volume. The art style is gorgeous. I was debating on giving ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ But because I didn’t care for Yoon Bum’s character too much I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Same with the 2nd Volume, although I did prefer the first to the second. I needed the second one after I finished the first one but though I understood the direction the second one was going in I still only really liked the last chapter or two.

Lastly, I’m currently reading Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay for letter “R” in the A-Z Reading Challenge. This book was first published in 1930 something and it’s easy to read and the humor is there. I guess more on this next quarter since I started it in late March.

And that’s how things are looking guys. Good chat. See you next quarter.

Type soon 🥰