Musing Mondays (18)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about something book related each week. **There are a new list of prompts for Musing Mondays**

My Musings for the week...

Today I'm going to be answering the random weekly question: Give a list of 4 books you read last year that you’d recommend to others — and why.


Double Vision: Alias Men by F.T. Bradley. Really, the entire middle grade trilogy was fantastic and I would recommend it to just about anyone!

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Oh gosh, there’s a lot of things I really liked about this book, the writing style, the world building, and the characters combined with the interesting magic system. I think a lot of people would like this one, which is why I recommend it.

Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis. Ok, I know this one isn’t a full length novel, but I recommend it as well as the books that go along with it—it was another really good middle grade series that I enjoyed.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab. I really liked this book. It has an interesting premise, plenty of mystery surrounding the Archive, and plenty of interesting characters.

There are a lot of other books that I recommend, but listing them all would make this post too long. Happy reading!

2014: End of the Year Wrap Up & Favorite Reads

     2014 is nearly over.  Seriously, Christmas is practically around the corner so I figured it was time to do a wrap up for the year. This is probably one of the last posts on Our Thoughts Precisely before the new year.

     I have to say that 2014 was a much better year that 2013.  I didn't read as much, but most of the books I read were pretty good.  I think where the blog activity sort of dropped off for a while was during the move.  And with all the books in boxes and lack of internet connection for a while, I got no reading or blogging done. But after the move was over and everything was unpacked, things picked up again. The blog also got a new look this year, and I have to say that I'm relatively happy with it. I might add a few things here and there, but mostly it'll probably stay the same.

     What I learned this year...

     Balancing life with blogging/reading is more important than the number of books I read, and its perfectly fine that way.  Although--despite the lack of quantity--I read a bunch of good books, which makes me happy. Last year I, as a reader, still tried to finish every book.  But this past year I did something a little different.  I gave books the first 100 or so pages to grab my interest.  And if I really wasn't feeling it then I DNF'd it. That method saved a lot of time, and I got to read the books that I truly enjoyed.

     Some things from 2014...

     Through October and November I did a series of post called Falling into Fall.  It was just a fun way to share some of the things I wanted to do during fall. All links can be found on the Features Page.  I also got involved in a couple of weekly memes: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice & Musing Mondays hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

     Favorite reads of 2014...

     So, since its almost the end of the year I figured that I would share some of my favorite books that I read in 2014!  Some of the books on the list were released some time ago so the year they came out doesn't matter much to me.  It's in no particular order, and placement has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed the book.

• Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
• The Warrior by Victoria Scott 
• The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy
• Living Violet by Jamie Reed
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab
• Courting Magic by Stephanie Burgis
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• Foundations in Comic Book Art by John Paul Lowe
• Dork Diaries 7: Tales from a Not-So-Glam TV Star by Rachel Renee Russell
• Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep
• Crystal Fire by Jordan Dane
• Double Vision: The Alias Men by F.T. Bradley 
• Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
• Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Monstrously Funny Cartoons by Christopher Hart

*I will be taking a break from blogging to enjoy my holiday. Any posts that show up after this one were already scheduled (There's only 2 of them). Happy Holidays!