Actor, Writer, Jedi, Singer,

Actor, Writer, Jedi, Singer,
You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you

Monday, January 4, 2021

Books of 2020

 






How many books read in 2020:

117! WOOO 
 

How many fiction and non fiction?: 


Mostly fiction, but I read a decent number of non fiction over the course of the year

Male/Female author ratio?: 


About the same, maybe slightly more women? 

Favorite book of 2020?: 

Caliban's War

Starsight

The Tower of Nero

The Way of Kings

Abaddon's Gate

Record of a Spaceborn Few

Star Wars: Outlander

Star Wars: Darkness

Tales of the Bounty Hunters

The Well of Ascension 

The Fifth Season

Howl's Moving Castle 

My Dark Vanessa

The Girl With Seven Names

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone 

Fullmetal Alchemist mangas

Avatar: The Last Airbender comics

The Rage of Dragons

Earth Unaware / Earth Afire

A Closed and Common Orbit 

The Calculating Stars

Saga comics 

Call Down the Hawk

Shadows of the Empire

Least favorite?:

Blackfish City. I HATED IT. 

Newest?: 


The Tower of Nero and My Dark Vanessa 

Longest and shortest book titles?:


Longest - "And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer" 

Shortest - "Sten" 


Longest and shortest books?: 


Longest book was The Way of Kings at 1001 pages

Shortest book was Mulan, which was a poem. 



How many books from the library?: 


A good portion were from the library, but 've also been working a lot on reading books that I own. 

Any translated books?:

Fullmetal Alchemist mangas from Japanese

Attack on Titan mangas from Japanese 

Mulan from Chinese 

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer from Swedish 

Orange from Japanese

Haruiro Astronaut from Japanese 


Most read author?: 

Hiromu Arakawa, since I finished Fullmetal Alchemist this year!

Any re-reads?: 


re-read Sabriel for book club! :) 


Favorite character of the year?

Spensa Nightshade from Starsight (MEEE)

Rocinante Crew, Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala, Anna Volovodov, etc in The Expanse

Apollo in Trials of Apollo. 

Dalinar Kholin in The Way of Kings

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, etc in Star Wars 

Elma York in The Calculating Stars

Pretty much everyone in FMA 

Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle 

Essun in The Fifth Season 

Tau from The Rage of Dragons

Vin and Sazed from The Well of Ascension 

Kaladin Stormblessed and Shallan Davar from The Way of Kings 

Merlin in The Crystal Cave

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?:

France, Wales, Japan, Korea, Britain, and mostly fantasy worlds and other planets.

Which book wouldn't you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? 


Saga comics, Trail of Lightning, I Hope You Get this Message, The Poppy War, All the Stars and Teeth, Crier's War, The Invisible Library, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, Sten, Angelmass, etc.

Which author was new to you in 2020 that you now want to read the entire works of?


N.K. Jemesin, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary Stewart, Mary E. Pearson, Ta Nehisi Coates, etc.

Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?:

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn (I was close to getting there but not quite :( )

Nemesis by Isaac Asimov (I have started it)

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (listening to the audiobook)

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (started it but it had to go back to the library so I rented the e-book on overdrive)

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin (started the audiobook)

Acting in Atlanta by Rafiq Batcha (though I am half-way through it now)

The Odyssey by Homer (I want to start this this year)


Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?


YES (these are books I've been meaning to read for years, not books I had on 2019's TBR, btw).

Morning is a Long Time Coming by Bette Greene (FINALLY READ THIS!)

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson 

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein 

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Persuasion by Jane Austen 

The Hive by Steven Barnes

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor 

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster 

Tales from the Empire by various 

Tales from the New Republic by various

Tales of the Bounty Hunters by various 

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 

The Empire Strikes Back  by Donald Glut 

Star Wars Republic: Darkness by John Ostrander 

Dawn of the Jedi 1-3 by John Ostrander 

Return of the Jedi by James Kahn 

Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry 

Jedi Prince series by Paul and Hollace Davids 

Star Wars Republic: Outlander by Tim Truman

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart 

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 

The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell 

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalizi 

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren 


What books are you planning to read in 2021?

Continue my Star Wars EU read through (The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, X-Wing series, The Courtship of Princess Leia, Corpehlion Interlude, A Forest Apart, Tatooine Ghost, Thrawn trilogy, Dark Empire trilogy, Crimson Empire, Jedi Academy trilogy, I Jedi, Callista trilogy, The Crystal Star, The Black Fleet Crisis, Republic comics, etc). 

Nowhere (Skyward 3)

Cibola Burn

Nemesis Game 

Words of Radiance (and maybe Oathbringer if I can get to it)

The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky 

The Dark Forest (finish) and maybe Death's End

The Hero of Ages (finish)

Nemesis (finish)

Hood (finish)

Acting in --- (finish)

The Demon King (finish)

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within 

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (finish, book club)

Earth Awakens 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Lancelot 

The Winter King

The Nightingale 

Rogue Protocol 

The Descent of Monsters

The Warrior Heir 

The Swarm and The Hive

To Be Taught, if Fortunate 

Redemption in Indigo 

Pachinko 

These Violent Delights

Goddess in the Machine 

The Odyssey 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Don Juan

Dracula

The Library of Legends

Binti

Rebecca 

The IDIC Epidemic 

The Collapsing Universe

Enchantress

Men Like Gods

The Blade Itself 

Charlie Hernandez: The League of Shadows

Battlecry 

The Sword of Kaigen

Finnikin of the Rock

The Fires of Vengeance 

The Dragon Republic and The Burning God

Black Sun

Planet Fall

The Fountains of Silence

The Glittering Hour

The Lovely War

The Fated Sky

A Sorcery of Thorns

The Kingdom of Back

The Sound of Stars 

Winter Counts

The Black Coast

A Court of Mist and Fury

Gideon the Ninth (book club)

The House on the Ceruleon Sea (book club) 

Riot Baby (book club)

Stardust (book club)

More Than This

Freedom

The Summer I Wasn't Me 

Torchkeeper: The Raising 

The Night Watchman

David Copperfield 

Wreath (Sigrid Undset)

The Saga of Icelanders

Lady Hotspur 

Axiom's End

Between the World and Me

Attack on Titan mangas 

Mister Impossible (Dreamer 2)

Beren and Luthien 

Sense and Sensibility 

Best Served Cold

The Farm 

World After (Angelfall book 2)

The Price of Blood

The Hollow Hills

The Skystone

Warrior of the Wild

Gone Gone Gone

Dark Space

Alcestis 

The Oresteia 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Guinevere Deception 

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Gods of Jade and Shadow 

After 

If I Stay

Woven in Moonlight 

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe 

There There

Breadcrumbs

House of Dragons

Jade City

All the Tides of Fate

The Nemesis (the last Diabolic book)

Unpregnant 

She Who Became the Sun

The Blossom and the Firefly 

The Vanishing Half 

The Kitchen God's Wife 

Grass

In Order to Live

She Who Became the Sun

Be Water, my Friend

Afrika

Love and Gelato 

The Heart of Betrayal (Remnant chronicles 2)

Avatar The Last Airbender: Imbalance 

The Death of Vivek Oji 

Powwow Summer

We Are Not From Here

Surviving the City 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Rosewater 

All the Light We cannot See

The Light Brigade 

Fireborne 

Crown of Feathers

Children of Time

The Downstairs Girl

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

The Duchess Deal

P.S. I Still Love You

Sølvhammeren

Bookish Survey by the blogger "The Perpetual Pageturner" - https://www.perpetualpageturner.com/…/8th-annual-end-of-yea…
Number Of Books You Read:
117

Number of Re-Reads:

1, which was Sabriel

Genre You Read The Most From:

Probably SFF, but I read a decent range of most genres, I think.

1. Best Book You Read In 2020?
(If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2020 release vs. backlist)

Caliban's War

Starsight

The Tower of Nero

The Way of Kings

Abaddon's Gate

Record of a Spaceborn Few

Star Wars: Outlander

Star Wars: Darkness

Tales of the Bounty Hunters

The Well of Ascension 

The Fifth Season

Howl's Moving Castle 

My Dark Vanessa

The Girl With Seven Names

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone 

Fullmetal Alchemist mangas

Avatar: The Last Airbender comics

The Rage of Dragons

Earth Unaware / Earth Afire

A Closed and Common Orbit 

The Calculating Stars

Saga comics 

Call Down the Hawk

Shadows of the Empire


2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

I thought I would like Trail of Lightning more than I did, and while I did like Jurassic Park, the book didn't wow me like I thought it would. And I was disappointed by Stranger in a Strange Land. And I was also surprised that I really didn't like Persuasion that much either.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?:

A good way- Caliban's War in that it really got to me emotionally in so many ways, Record of a Spaceborn Few made me really happy since it showed that the issue I had with book one was fixed (it was fixed in the second book as well, which I read later in the year), I Hope You Get This Message was excellently written and a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I also liked The Invisible Library more than I thought I would.
A bad way- Blackfish City. I didn't expect to feel such hatred to it, but I did (and it was my only one star review).

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?:

No one listens to my recs :(

5. Best series you started in 2020? Best Sequel of 2020? Best Series Ender of 2020?:

Best series starter - The Way of Kings and The Fifth Season. Call Down the Hawk and The Rage of Dragons was good too.
Best sequel - Starsight and Caliban's War. Also The Well of Ascension
Best series ender - The Tower of Nero and the last Fullmetal Alchemist volume.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2020?

N.K. Jemesin

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Historical fiction - The Water Dancer is beautifully written and impactful and The Crystal Cave was a well-researched account of what the British Isles would have been like in Merlin's time.

Romance - To All the Boys I've Loved Before was a nice, cute romance-focused book :)

Contemporary - The Hate U Give was an important book that I read at just the right time (and the ending is worth reading the entire book for) and My Dark Vanessa was gut wrenching. I'll Give You the Sun was wonderfully written, but parts freaked me out.

Non-fiction - I actually read a lot of good books in this genre this year! Maybe You Should Talk to Someone made me want to pursue dealing with my mental health, The Girl with Seven Names was a harrowing account of a woman who fled North Korea, The Actor's Life detailed my possible career paths in a way that made so much sense, Funny You Don't Look Autistic was a nice way to reflect on my own autism, White Fragility was a good anti-racist starter, etc.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Caliban's War. Just. AHHHHHHH. I literally had to tell a customer at my job that I wasn't upset, I was just reading a really dramatic scene in the book and was getting excited/freaked out (and she said she was glad I was enjoying my book), which doesn't happen that often!

9. Book You Read In 2020. That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?:

The Actor's Life.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2020?

Favorite cover? Hmm
The Hive, because pretty Obi-Wan? I also like the cover of Record of a Spaceborn Few since I relate to the lone figure looking up at the sky/stars, And, while the books aren't that great, the covers for the Jedi Prince books are SUPER pretty.

11. Most memorable character of 2020?

Spensa Nightshade, Anna Volovodov (a kind Christian preacher in a science fiction novel who does some badass things? SIGN ME UP), Apollo, Mara Jade, Dalinar, Vanessa, etc.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2020?

The Water Dancer

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

This is How You Lose the Time War

I'll Give You the Sun

Call Down the Hawk

The Red Threads of Fortune

Crier's War

The Crystal Cave

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2020?

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

The Hate U Give

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2020 to finally read?:

Morning is a Long Time Coming

Jurassic Park

Oliver Twist

Persuasion

The Star Wars books I read


15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2020?

“Our species doesn’t operate by reality. It operates by stories. Cities are a story. Money is a story. Space was a story, once. A king tells us a story about who we are and why we’re great, and that story is enough to make us go kill people who tell a different story. Or maybe the people kill the king because they don’t like his story and have begun to tell themselves a different one.” - Record of a Spaceborn Few 

“His words were full of hope and threat.

Like the stars.” - Abaddon's Gate 

“He knew what he wanted from them. A posse. A crew. A real crew, like he’d seen in vids and sims. People who looked after each other. People who were messy sometimes, but could pull together when stuff got tough. People who would laugh at his jokes, and give him a nickname, maybe, who would knock on his door late at night because they knew where they could go with their problems. People who always had a spot at the table for him. People to whom he mattered.” - Record of a Spaceborn Few

There was a quote in Record of a spaceborn Few about humans never really leaving the forest an harmogians never leaving the shore, but I can't find it :( 

“So, dear reader, we have come to the end of my trials. You have followed me through five volumes of adventures and six months of pain and suffering. By my reckoning, you have read two hundred and ten of my haiku. Like Meg, you surely deserve a reward. What would you accept? I am fresh out of unicorns. However, anytime you take aim and prepare to fire your best shot, anytime you seek to put your emotions into a song or poem, know that I am smiling on you. We are friends now. Call on me. I will be there for you.”- The Tower of Nero 

“At last, as the sun went down, Meg seemed to understand it was time for me to leave. “You’ll come back?” she asked. “Always,” I promised. “The sun always comes back.” - The Tower of Nero

“I felt a great rage, not simply because I knew they had been taken but because I knew how they had been taken, how they had been parted from eacch other, how I was born and made by this great parting. Better than before, I understood the whole dimensions of this crime, the entirety of the theft, the small moments, the tenderness, the quarrels and corrections, all stolen, so that men such as my father might live as gods.”- The Water Dancer 

“factories enslaved the hands of children, and that child-bearing enslaved the bodies of women, and that rum enslaved the souls of men. In that moment I understood, from that whirlwind of ideas, that this secret war was waged against something more than the Taskmasters of Virginia, that we sought not merely to improve the world, but to remake it." - The Water Dancer 

“Luke stared at the meteor, a momentary flare of brilliance...like all life. Nothing really, in the sweep of time. But everything, in the Force.” - The Truce at Bakura 

“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”- The Hate U Give 

“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.
He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I'll remember how he died.
Fairy tale? No. But I'm not giving up on a better ending.” - The Hate U Give 

“According to legend, Father Earth did not originally hate life. In fact, as the lorists tell it, once upon a time Earth did everything he could to facilitate the strange emergence of life on his surface. He crafted even, predictable seasons; kept changes of wind and wave and temperature slow enough that every living being could adapt, evolve; summoned waters that purified themselves, skies that always cleared after a storm. He did not create life—that was happenstance—but he was pleased and fascinated by it, and proud to nurture such strange wild beauty upon his surface. Then people began to do horrible things to Father Earth. They poisoned waters beyond even his ability to cleanse, and killed much of the other life that lived on his surface. They drilled through the crust of his skin, past the blood of his mantle, to get at the sweet marrow of his bones. And at the height of human hubris and might, it was the orogenes who did something that even Earth could not forgive: They destroyed his only child.” - The Fifth Season 

"This is what I want: I want to grab my brother’s hand and run back through time, losing years like coats falling from our shoulders.” - I'll Give You the Sun

“Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.” - This is How You Lose the Time War 

“I love you. I love you. I love you. I'll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn, and every time love's written in all the strands it will be to you.” - This is How You Lose the Time War 



16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2020?

Shortest was The Ballad of Mulan, which was a poem, closely followed by the short story of Opal.
The longest was The Way of Kings

17. Book That Shocked You The Most
(Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)

Caliban's War and The Way of Kings had twists that made me go :O

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Spensa x Jorgen
Han x Leia
Edward x Winry
Sophie x Howl
Alana x Marko

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Apollo and Meg
Holden, Amos, Naomi, and Alex
Anna and Amos
Bobbie and Avasarala
Cate and Adeem
Kaladin and Bridge 4
Sidra and Tak
ATLA cast


20. Favorite Book You Read in 2020 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Calibans War, Starsight, The Tower of Nero, etc.

21. Best Book You Read In 2020 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

The Water Dancer, The Calculating Stars, Saga comics, The Naked Sun, Angelmass, The Poppy War, etc.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2020?

I already like someone in real life, but if I had to choose, Dalinar and Miller.

23. Best 2020 debut you read?

My Dark Vanessa

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

The Way of Kings, The Fifth Season, Starsight, Record of a Spaceborn Few, Caliban's War/Abaddon's Gate, The Well of Ascension, The Red Threads of Fortune, The Rage of Dragons, etc

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

The Tower of Nero, Fullmetal Alchemist mangas, Starsight, etc.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2020?

My Dark Vanessa, her emotions got so tangled and no one really cared til she went to the therapist, which was upsetting :(

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Star Wars: Outlander (since it's the lowest added book from the year)

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Caliban's War, My Dark Vanessa, The Girl With Seven Names, The Hate U Give,

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2020?

The Fifth Season

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Blackfish City PISSED ME OFF. I hated it so much.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2019 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2021?

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemesin, Nemesis by Isaac Asimov, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, Dracula by Bram Stoker, etc

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2021 (non-debut)?

Nowhere (Skyward 3) and The Galaxy and the Ground Within

3. 2020 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I saw some that looked good but I'm drawing a blank

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2021?

Nowhere (Skyward 3)

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2021?

Get farther into my Star Wars read-through and get caught up on books I own. I also want to read more historical fiction, an read more diversely (I especially want to read more Indigenous and Latino authors).

6. A 2021 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):
I have never gotten an ARC



2 comments:

  1. Congrats on reading 117 books, that’s awesome!! It’s cool that you’ve gotten so far in the EU - I hope the books you read for that this year are good! From the quotes it sounds like the writing of several books was nice as well. Have a great bookish 2021! :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! :) I am too, I was very happy to get past the movies finally! :) Thanks, I hope so too! I think the ones I have lined up will be good and I've already found 2 new faves, so that was good! They were, yes! :) Thank you! :)

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