#Orentober is almost here!! #TeamOrenda @Orendabooks

First of all a big round of applause for Kelly @ From Belgium With Book Love and Danielle @ The Reading Closet for creating Orentober month and giving us a whole month to share our love for both a fantastic publisher and a fantastic collection of books! Make sure to visit the posts of both lovely ladies to get a proper idea what #Orentober is all about, and don’t be afraid to join the fun and celebrate all things Orenda Books related during October! #TeamOrenda

I know I’m still kind of new when it comes to Orenda Books, but better late than never right? And what I can also say is that each and every one of the twelve titles (yes, I have counted them) I have had the pleasure to read so far was absolutely brilliant. Two elusive 5 star ratings (I only hand out a couple a year for absolute favorites, think of them as an A++), nine 4,5 star ratings (which is basically a 5 star rating for anyone else) and one solid 4 star rating… Talk about a 100% success rate! ❤ If you are curious about which titles I already read and what I thought of them, you can find a full list and links to my reviews below in the order I read them.

Deep Blue Trouble – by Steph Broadribb // Exquisite – by Sarah Stovell // The Courier – by Kjell Ola Dahl // Breakers – by Dough Johnstone // Call Me Star Girl – by Louise Beech // Six Stories – by Matt Wesolowski // Wolves At The Door – by Gunnar Staalesen // The Closer I Get – by Paul Burston // Block 46 – by Johana Gustawsson // Keeper – by Johana Gustawsson // Blood Song – by Johana Gustawsson // Snare – by Lilja Sigurdardottir

So many fantastic titles! And I’m convinced Orentober will give me even more new favorites. ❤ Soooo… The big question is: what do I have planned for Orentober month? First of all, I’m part of the blog tour for both Cage (my stop October 4th) and Little Siberia (my stop October 12th). I will also publish my review for Trap the day before my blog tour stop, as I’m binge reading this series at the moment. (The review for the first book Snare will be up in a few days and I might have already finished reading Trap by the time this post goes live as well…) I will also most likely join a #WesolowskiWednesday edition with Hydra and maybe even Changeling if I have the time. And of course I’m picking up my next Louise Beech read as well: The Lion Tamer Who Lost. And what about a dose of bounty hunter with the Lori Anderson series? I read the second book last year, and I’ve been wanting to (re)read the whole series from the start ever since. Likewise, a couple of other Orenda titles are waiting impatiently to be read as well… Below a picture of my personal Orenda TBR collection!

Are you joining #Orentober next month? What are your favorite Orenda titles? Which Orenda title on my TBR do you think I should read first? (Impossible question, I know. xD)

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It’s All About Books is going light for the season

With the start of a new season, I thought it was a good time to make a personal announcement. I’ve been struggling with this for a while now… And it has come to the point that I have to do something about it. The thing is… I’ve been dealing with a blogging and social media slump for months now. With my blog stats plummeting, my attempt to grow my Instagram account a total failure and a general lack of motivation working against me, I’ve been seriously considering an unlimited hiatus. Blogging has been feeling like a chore instead of a hobby, the sheer pressure of deadlines and posting every day driving me away instead of making me love blogging again… I feel like I’m standing at a bifurcation in the road, and the future of It’s All About Books depends on what decision I will make.

I don’t want to do anything drastic yet and I know I would miss the book blogging community too much so I’m not going on a full hiatus… Instead I’m meeting myself in the middle and I’ve decided to go ‘light’ for the duration of this new season. What do I mean with that? Well, I’ve been working hard to get through my ARCs in the last few months, and I managed to mostly clear my schedule. I still have a few left (and a couple will appear soon; I’m looking at you Bookouture!), and also two blog tours in the next months, but mostly the rest of June, July, August and part of September will be all about reading my own books again. I’m hoping that the absense of pressure of deadlines and writing longer reviews will help me relax and get my blogging mojo back.

I’m also looking forward to participating in the Magical Readathon N.E.W.T.s edition again in August, and I hope a month of all fun and almost no blogging obligations will help do the trick. Likewise, I’m going to make myself stop trying to post every day and only post when I feel like it. The same goes for social media… I’ve been doing this basically already, but for the next couple of months I’m only going to post on Instagram whenever I feel inspired to take photos and I’ll probably not be as active on Twitter either. I need some time to focus on myself and make myself love blogging again… And I hope I’ll be ready to make a fresh start by the time the next season is around the corner.

So that’s why you will probably see less of me and It’s All About Books this season, but I will still be here and I will still be reading. Thanks for taking the time to read my rambles and I hope you will all have a wonderful Summer (or Winter like me)!! ❤ ❤ ❤

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Pride Month Recommendations

June is PRIDE MONTH and I wanted to join the celebration and put together a little post to spread the love. I’ve decided to share both my favorite LGBTQ+ recommendations I read since I started It’s All About Books and a few titles that are on the top of my LGBTQ+ TBR.

PRIDE MONTH RECOMMENDATIONS

I have read a lot of stories with a LGBTQ+ rep over the years, and I’m sharing my favorite stories with you today. It was hard narrowing it down, but below you can find a total of 20 wonderful titles that each received a 4 or 5 star rating! Click the links to read my full reviews on each of them.

• The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid REVIEW
• Exquisite by Sarah Stovell REVIEW
• The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller REVIEW
• The Vanishing Season by Dot Hutchison REVIEW
• And I Darken by Kiersten White REVIEW

• Queens Of Geek by Jen Wilde REVIEW
• Beneath The Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire REVIEW
• Binge by Tyler Oakley REVIEW
• None Of The Above by I.W.Gregorio REVIEW
• The Fever King by Victoria Lee REVIEW

• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell REVIEW
• Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli REVIEW
• What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera REVIEW
• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown REVIEW
• Aristotle & Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz REVIEW

• They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera REVIEW
• The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson REVIEW
• George by Alex Gino REVIEW
• I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman REVIEW
• History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera REVIEW

TBR

There are quite a few titles perfect for Pride Month still on my TBR, but I’ve made a selection of ten books I hope to get to soon. I might have even finished one of these by the time this post goes live!

• Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
• We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
• Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
• The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
• Darius The Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
• We Set The Dark On Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
• Girls Of Paper And Fire by Natasha Ngan
• I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

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Do we share any favorites? Is there a title on my TBR I should give priority to? Feel free to comment with your own Pride favorites!

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Bookstagram And Me

Let’s do something different today… It’s something I’ve been working on recently after playing the procrastinating game for months. What do I want to ramble about today then? Bookstagram. While I’ve been lurking the bookish Instagram community for a long time, it has been only two years since I started posting on my own account. Mostly kindle shots featuring my garden, and nothing fancy at all… Things progressed over time, but I’ve always felt like a complete failure compared to all those gorgeous photos out there. I admit I wasn’t all that bothered by it as I thought I would be, mostly because I was having fun taking those ‘lousy’ shots anyway… But recently I’ve been thinking I should pull my act together and try something different.

So what does that something different mean? Well, one thing I’ve been seeing in all those gorgeous and successful accounts is that (other than having those stunning photos) they all seem to have a theme; something that makes the photos connect and makes their feed look great as a whole. Confession: my feed was a total and complete mess, me just taking those photos in whatever way I felt like at that moment and not thinking about if they would look good with the previous ones. I thought it was a safe bet that if I wanted to improve my bookstagram account and stats, I should probably do something about that.

But how to decide on just one theme? I struggled more with this than I thought, but in the end I decided to go with what I love myself. Which is basically a black & white background and if I want one or more color splashes popping up to contrast that; always making sure to maintain a minimalist feel. I love my black & white decoration and clothes, so finding suiting backgrounds wouldn’t be too difficult… And with the (rainbow) paper roses I made as a DIY project recently, I had lots of props ready to use. (I LOVE the rainbow roses by the way; they are so pretty! ❤ )

So below my recent feed after I decided to finally stick to a theme!

Now my question to you is: what do you think of my decision to change my feed and stick to a genre? Should I continue with it? Do something different? Honest opinions are more than welcome as I have no clue as to whether I’m doing things right here. xD

Also, if you have a bookstagram account feel free to leave me your username so I can follow you! My details are below. 🙂

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It’s My Birthday!! Recent BD #bookhaul

It’s March 19th today, which means I’m now officially one year older and have reached the ripe age of thirty plus one… Not sure when that happened. xD I confess I have nothing special planned today but there definitely will be fudgy brownies and books involved. 😉

So I completely forgot to share my recent Book Depository hauls on my blog and I thought, why not celebrate by showing what is new on my shelves? I actually have a birthday order on its way right now, but it won’t get here for another week or two so I’ll leave those for next time. 😉

So what did I get?

Goodreads Choice Awards: Alternative Winners

I always look forward to the yearly Goodreads Choice Awards in November, as it always gives me lots of new titles to read as well as a chance to celebrate those books I loved reading during the year. Sadly, I’ve also seen the tendency that popular authors tend to get the vote no matter how good the work of lesser known or popular authors was… So I’ve decided to put together my own little post and give the award to those books and authors I think should have won instead in certain categories.

Of course I haven’t read all books in each category, so my opinion might vary in the future and I don’t claim the other books are bad. I just feel other titles deserve to be in the spotlight as well. Ready? Here we go!

# BEST MYSTERY & THRILLER #

WINNER: The Outsider by Stephen King. I haven’t read this particular King title yet so I can’t judge properly, but I also feel he got a lot of votes based on his popularity and I think there were other titles more worthy to be getting the award. There is one book that stood out for me far far above the rest… And I’m still surprised it hasn’t gotten more votes. Who should have won the award for Best Mystery & Thriller? Drumroll…

The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is my absolute top read this year so far, so I’m a bit disappointed it hasn’t gotten more votes… This book will always be the true winner to me. Find out more about why you should read this book if you haven’t already in my review.

An honorable mention goes to The Date by Louise Jensen, which was absolutely brilliant and deserves all the love. Need more reasons? Find out in my review.

# BEST ROMANCE #

WINNER: This Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. I admit I haven’t read this particular title yet, but I do feel there is another title that should have been nominated and won instead… I’m surprised it hasn’t received more love. Which one?

The Smallest Part by Amy Harmon! I love her books in general, and this title is no different. She makes me forget completely I’m normally not a fan of the genre, and I loved every single minute of it. Need more convincing? Here’s my review.

An honorable mention goes to All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover, a title I really enjoyed as well despite a few flaws. Find out more in my review.

# BEST HORROR #

WINNER: Elevation by Stephen King. I did read this title and only gave it a two star rating, so you can understand I was really disappointed it actually won the Best Horror category. Another case of getting the popular vote? In my review why I didn’t enjoy the title. So who should have won instead? My vote goes to one of my favorite horror/serial killer thriller series…

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison! I absolutely loved this third book of the series and I honestly can’t understand why it hasn’t been receiving more love… I can really recommend all three books. Read more about my opinion here.

An honorable mention goes to Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage for having one of the most creepy main characters I’ve encountered this year, especially since Hanna is only a child. Not a perfect read, as I write in my review, but it definitely gave me the chills.

# BEST MEMOIR & AUTOBIOGRAPY #

WINNER: Educated by Tara Westover. I did read this memoir since there has been a lot of hype around it, but sadly it turned out to be an underwhelming experience for me. Want to know more about the why? Feel free to read my rant here. Who would I have loved to see win then? There was one memoir that especially made an impact on me:

The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton. A truly inspiring memoir about a, innocent man having to spend thirty years on death row. A true eye-opener and very powerful. Read more about why you should read this one here.

# BEST DEBUT AUTHOR #

WINNER: Children Of Blood And Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. I did enjoy this story mostly, as you can read here, but I think there were other titles more worthy of the award. These include the following titles and authors:

The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor, Sky In The Deep by Adrienne Young and The Tattooist Of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. There are a lot of titles I still need to read though, so hopefully I’ll be adding more titles to this list in the future.

# BEST YOUNG ADULT FICTION #

WINNER: Leah On The Offbeat by Becky Albertalli. I did enjoy reading this title, as you can see in my review, but there was another title I enjoyed even more. Which one?

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas. Without doubt one of my favorite YA reads this year and without doubt worth reading. Find out more about the why here.

# MIDDLE GRADE & CHILDREN’S #

WINNER: The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan. I admit I have never read his books, but I guess he does get the popularity vote here… There was a book I absolutely loved this year and would have loved to get the award instead; especially since she is one of my absolute favorite authors. Can you guess already? It’s…

City Of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab! I’m in love with this new MG series and I was over the mood when I saw the sequel being announced a few days ago… Even if you don’t tend to read a lot of MG, if you like YA you should still give it a try. It’s absolutely wonderful. More about the why here.

 

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What did you think of the Goodreads Choice Awards winners? Any favorite among my alternative winners? Any other titles you would recommend?

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I’m Baaaaack!!

Hello everyone! This is just a short message to tell you all It’s All About Books and me are now officially back from the Europe trip hiatus and back in action! Those who follow me on Twitter or Goodreads might have already seen it, but we actually came back from Europe a few days ago and the trip was absolutely fantastic. I promise I’ll give more details soon in a couple of Europe-related posts I’m planning to write. And yes, those include a physical copies book haul post and a lot of photos in general. 😉

In the mean time, please bear with me while I’m trying to get back on track, get everything organized, posts scheduled, reviews written etc etc. It might be a little longer before I can answer comments/emails, but I promise I’ll try to do so soon!

For now, it feels great to be back again. I’ve missed you all!! ❤ ❤ ❤

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