2021 Buzzword Reading Challenge

 I’ve been waiting for this for quite some time now. I’m so excited that BooksandLaLa has finally announced the 2021 schedule for the Buzzword Challenge. 

The challenge now runs monthly for the first week of each month (7 days). Each month comes with a different word or theme and you have to find a book or how ever many books you plan on reading for each word or theme (it has to be found in the title of the book). I will be reading 1 book for the week that goes with the word or theme, so that makes 12 books for the year for this challenge for me 😁

~January~ “Dream”

For this month I will be reading Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue. I noticed that this book sits on a shelf next to my desk at work so I went for it. Didn’t do much searching, this book suffices.

~February~ A Color

How to be Black by Baratunde R. Thurston. I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for some time now and I was happy to see that it can be applied to this prompt. We love reading and minimizing our owned TBR over here.

~March~ “Time”

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This is another book that I own and will gladly get around to, finally, for this challenge. I’m not sure why I bought this book. I know it had to be popular around the time I bought it or I was really interested in it at the time. I’m not so much now but we’ll see how it goes.

~April~ Galaxy Terms

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Another owned book that I’ve had for a while. I remember buying this book because the premise sounded interesting. Hopefully I enjoy it.

~May~ “House/Home”

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I’ve had this book for a while. I’ve always had the feeling that I was going to love this one. I’ll finally be getting around to it and I’m excited about that.

~June~ Name/Title

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. I’ve been meaning to get around to reading this for a while now. I watched the movie a couple of years ago and really liked it, hopefully the book is just as good. I always thought the book title would flow and sound better without the first “and” but whatever.

~July~ “Last”

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand. I put this on my TBR because Hailey over at Hailey in Bookland really enjoyed it. My hopes for it aren’t high but I mostly see and hear good things about it.

~August~ Time of Day

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I’m highly anticipating this. The synopsis sounds so good and my favorite Booktuber, GabbyReads, really enjoyed it. I can’t wait for this one.

~September~ “Dark”

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I was going to read this book around last year or maybe the year before but never got around to it. This is now the perfect time. I can imagine it being a perfect fall read too.

~October~ Elements 

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. I enjoyed The Poet X so I want to see more of what this author can do. Her writing is very good.

~November~ “Lost”

Paradise Lost by John Milton. This is pretty ambitious of me. I’ve been wanting to read this book for years and years now. Highly curious to see what it’s about.

~December~ Day/Month/Season

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Had a hard time finding a book for this prompt. I recently added this book to my TBR because Olive over at abookolive mentioned it as being one of her faves. I was mildly interested in it and it was the only thing that I wanted to read that fit this one. 

January cannot come soon enough!

Type soon 🙂

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

Soooooo.... I decided to answer the questions to this tag despite only having read 10 books so far this year 😅😬

➡️ Best Book You’ve Read So Far?

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

➡️ Best Sequel?

I would say none, the only sequels I read were Fumbled by Alexa Martin and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. Between the two I would have to go with Fumbled.

➡️ New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To?

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Real Life by Brandon Taylor

➡️ Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of The Year?

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

➡️ Biggest Disappointment?

There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins. She really tried to add in and balance romance with the horror plot. Would have done greatly without the romance.

➡️ Biggest Surprise?

A Good Night For Ghosts by Mary Pope Osborne

➡️ Favorite New Author?

Jason Reynolds

➡️ Newest Fictional Crush?

No one cause I’m not into making fictional characters crushes like that but if I had to choose then it’d be T.K. from Fumbled.

➡️ Newest Favorite Character?

It’s a definite none for me y’all.

➡️ Book That Made You Cry?

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Rey Terciero

➡️ Book That Made You Happy?

Fumbled. It’s been years since I’ve read a book that kept me up all night just wanting to read and turning the pages. This mood ended after 150 pages into the book.

➡️ Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought So Far This Year?

Not bought cause I don’t really buy books anymore but a beautiful cover book that I’ve read would have to go to Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds.

➡️ What Book Do You Need To Read By The End Of The Year?

A lot. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Milk in My Coffee by Eric Jerome Dickey. We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson. Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella.

➡️ Favorite Video Or Post You’ve Done So Far This Year?

My 5 Star Prediction post.

➡️ Favorite Book Community Members?

Gabby (gabbyreads). Noelle (Noelle Gallagher). Katie (ChapterStackss).

⭐️ Five Star Predictions ⭐️

I find it fun to watch other booktubers make their 5 star book predictions then later come back and tell their subscribers whether or not those books lived up to such expectations. I personally never wanted to bother with doing such a thing because I know me and I know that I rarely if ever give a book 5 stars, I hand out 3 and 4 star ratings like candy, though. But I decided to sit down and really think about it because I realized that there is at least one book that I have felt a 5 star vibe from. So there must be more. I came up with 7 books (I don’t have a lot of books on my want to read shelf at all). And when I feel that a book is going to be a 5 star read I tend to either stop reading it or don’t pick it up at all. Maybe because I already figure and believe these are going to be 5 stars so I can just read them whenever. But I’m going to make an attempt to read and finish these books this year and see what I really feel.

#1 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

This book is all the rave right now but I’ve owned this book since 2015. I’ve always known about it and I have a thing for very sad books and I’ve always known that this book is going to shatter me. This should definitely be a 5 star book from me. I am a little more wary about it now, not going to lie, because I’m not all too confident about my mental state being ready to handle this. If not, I’ll just read it slow 😅

#2 The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

This is one of the newer books to join this discussion and I’m not all too fully sure what this book is about and I’ve seen some of the reviews from friends (not good) but I still get a 5 star vibe from it. It could just be because I know it’s gay *Kanye shrug*

#3 Midnight by Sister Souljah

I started reading this book for the first time back in 2013. I was highlighting all the words, all the paragraphs, on every page for the first 5 or so pages because I just agreed with Sister Souljah’s writing and thoughts so much. I decided to put the book down at the time because, like I said earlier, I felt a 5 star vibe from it and thought I need to pick this up at another time to fully take it in. I consider Midnight to be my favorite character of all time and my fictional crush and I’ve only read about 5 pages of him. He does pop up in The Coldest Winter Ever and I believe that’s when I first started liking him but Midnight is the first book in his own trilogy so reading those books back to back is a must.

#4 More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

I’ve owned this book since 2016 and have always felt that this would be the book that I would give 5 stars to but also be my most favorite from him out of all of his books. I can’t wait to not only read this book but to also finally start reading all of his books.

#5 We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

This is one of my favorite booktuber’s favorite books and I decided to give it a shot. And wow have I been blown away. This comes at a surprise because I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I am. Let me back up, no I haven’t read or finished reading this yet. I started it last year and within days I was halfway through it. It’s such a good read and it flies by but that feeling came on. I just know I’m going to give it 5 stars and I’m halfway through it and haven’t picked it back up since May of 2019......

#6 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Yessssss. Yes. Yes. Damn it. I’m slowly taking this in and loving every minute of it! I love the atmosphere and I just know something is coming so it kind of has me on the edge of my seat. I’m only 114 pages into it but it’s right up my alley so I’ve put it on pause because I just know... I just know, I’m about to love this. I already have a music soundtrack for it (I sometimes do this with the books I read. I used to do this a lot when I was in high school). It’s so funny I feel that this book is going to be 5 stars after swearing I wouldn’t read anything from this author again after giving The Goldfinch 1 star. This is definitely much better and superior.

#7 Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

I read the first book in this series back in 2018 and freaking loved it! It was such a surprise read because I’ve never read this author before and I haven’t read Outlander yet (which I’m iffy about that being 5 stars so it didn’t make the list) but I knew that... Lord John was gay.... so I started this series. And I love it! This is the second book and after reading the first 3 pages or so I had to put it down and away because... why?... I’m getting that feeling again. Lord John, next to Midnight, is one of my favorite characters of all time.

Top 10 Best and Worst Books of 2019

Almost forgot to do one of these for a second 😅
I didn’t read a whole lot in 2019. I only read 50 books, in the end I did not complete my 2019 reading challenge. Which is fine. So it was hard making this list, especially for the worst books I read in 2019 because I didn’t read that many bad books. So spots 10, 9, and 8 or so may be ‘meh’ reads or 3 star rating reads. I’ll actually indicate that.

So here are the books:

Worst 10

10. George by Alex Gino ⭐️⭐️⭐️
       Pay this spot no mind. This book was okay. I don’t have any interest in reading middle grade books which this is. I only read it to try and complete my reading goal.

9. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish ⭐️⭐️⭐️
       I thought this was really funny. I’m not a fan of Tiffany or her acting but this audiobiography I enjoyed. It did get a little boring in the second half and ending. I also thought that there wasn’t really much to this book, not much happens and she doesn’t talk or go into depth on a lot of material.

8. The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Big Day by Gale Galligan ⭐️⭐️⭐️
      This wasn’t a bad story, I thought the message was okay but it was a nose dive from the last graphic book in the series.

7. Bad Moonlight by R. L. Stine (no rating)
      Ooooooo-kay. What just happened? This book started off promising and interesting despite the fact that I have no interest in reading books about werewolves, but the ending of this book was ridiculous. It made a turn for the worst and Mr. Stine sometimes does that to the ending of some of his Fear Street books, where the ending just gets crazy. I lost hope and interest when I saw where the book was going. It got stupid by the end.

6. B-More Careful by Shannon Holmes ⭐️⭐️⭐️
      Where do I start with this one? This was a reread. I first read it when I was about 16 and loved it, considered it a favorite. This is not a book for a 16 year old to be reading. This book is riddled with sex, drugs, violence, there is even a brutal rape scene. The writing is tragic and there are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors. Was this in a rush to get published? It’s still an entertaining story but definitely not a favorite anymore.

5. The Mind Reader by R. L. Stine (no rating)
       Very boring and not memorable. I’m already starting to forget what happened in this story even though I read it last month.

4. Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
       I’m confused by my rating here (I read this book in the beginning of 2019) because I don’t have really good thoughts about this now. Probably because I’m tired of reading narratives about black teens and police brutality.

3. Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark ⭐️⭐️
      This would probably be interesting for readers who follow and listen to these authors and their podcasts. I didn’t know them and I didn’t care for what they had to say. Also didn’t find any of this funny. Waste of my time.

2. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (no rating)
      Honestly, I can’t even tell you what this was about. I was hardly paying attention to the audiobook. It was boring, though but I also don’t care for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I wouldn’t have read this if I wasn’t rushing, trying to complete my yearly reading goal.

1. Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers ⭐️⭐️
      This was all over the place. Hard to read due to the bad graphics and drawings in this graphic     novel. None of the stories seemed to relate to one another. Ugh.





Best 10


10. All-Night Party by R. L. Stine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        I really enjoyed this story. It reminded me of my love for these kinds of stories when I was a teenager reading Fear Street Books. I like it when Mr. Stine does Fear Street books like this one. I would have really loved this if I was 16 and reading this.

9. Saga Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
       I really loved this one. Unfortunately, I don’t remember why...

8. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      I cried some tears. This was good like everybody says. I don’t have any interest for slam poetry but I did and do want to read this author’s works. So this was surprisingly good.

7. It’s Not You by Sara Eckel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
     Whoa. This one came out of nowhere. I picked it up for a challenge prompt because it counted and was on my TBR but I didn’t know this book was going to have ME written all over it. I related to everything this author talked about in this book. And reading this was such a relief because I felt so assured by this. I need to buy and own this.

6. The Baby-Sitters Club: Dawn and the Impossible Three by Gale Galligan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
     I’m blown away at how great of a message was told in this graphic novel. It put a few tears in my eyes, this is the best one in the series. 

5. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
     I read this because I figured it was a good place to start with Backman’s work and it was recommended by Booktuber Merphy Napier... and it didn’t disappoint. I started reading this in a Barnes and Noble cafe and had to stop because I wasn’t about to shed anymore tears in that place. Highly recommend.

4. A Separate Peace by John Knowles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    *Sigh* What a classic. I had to read this book in 10th grade and I recalled really liking it. I don’t know why, there is something about this book that stays near and dear to my heart. I reread it this year to see if I still feel the same... and I do. I think I really like the friendship between the main characters and I love tragedies.

3. The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel by Renée Nault and Margaret Atwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      I’m speechless. I was left stuck after completion. This was soooo good. The artistic work was beautiful. I haven’t read this classic novel yet but this solidifies my interest. 

2. Friends and Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
     My favorite book by this author currently. I loved this story and the romance between Shelby and Tyrel.

1. The World of Normal Boys by K.M. Soehnlein ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
     Nobody ever talks about this book and it makes me saaaad. This was a reread. I read this years ago and loved it at the time but in 2019 I was wondering if I still felt the same. So I picked it up and didn’t know it was possible to love a book even MORE after loving it the first time. It’s official. I would highly recommend this book on my YT channel if I ever had the energy to make videos again. This is top 3 favorites of all time we’re talking here. Like, if I had to take three books on an island this is one of them. There is just so many dynamics and layers to the story here and it’s gay. This is everything. Such a great debut. Don’t read the sequel, though, because that’s trash.