The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

THE END IS NIGH! Well… the end of the first half of the year has come. What better way to celebrate surviving six months of the eventful year we call 2019 than with a mid-year book freak out tag?

Ever since classes ended and summer has started, I’ve been trying to catch up with some reading. I’ve definitely read a lot more for fun this month than I have in the past. Most of the books I’ve read so far were for English class. We read A TON. Some were amazing. Some… not so much.

I was tagged by Norees from No Reads Too Great. Thank you so much for tagging me! I was having trouble thinking of what I wanted to write so this saved my day!

It should also be noted that I took the route than Norees did and answered only five of the many, many questions in this tag. If you want to do the full tag, I listed all the questions at the bottom of this post.

Best book of 2019 so far

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I’m so glad I finally decided to pick this one up. After sitting on my shelf collecting dust for two years I forced myself to start reading it. Once I started, it opened up the floodgates and then I couldn’t stop reading it. I wanted to read it while I was sewing, so I borrowed the audio-book from my local library so I can “multi-task”. It was mainly me sitting and listening for a couple minutes, realizing I need to continue sewing, sew a couple stitches, and then stop so I could focus on the audio-book more. If you want to know more of my thoughts about the book, click here to read my full review!

Best sequel of 2019 so far

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7) by Sarah J. Maas

I don’t want to get too into why this last installment of the Throne of Glass series is amazing (because SPOILERS!) but all you need to know is that it exceeded expectations. To be honest, I forced myself to go into the story with low expectations because of my disappointment with the last book in the ACOTAR. I feel like the best way to sum it up is that it has the intense-ness of Game of Thrones. You genuinely don’t know who’s going to live or die, and the fight scenes are grimy and epic. For more of my thoughts, click here to check out my review (there are spoilers!).

Most anticipated release of second half of 2019

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia, illustrated by Gabriel Picolo

I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book for forever. It comes out really soon (July 2nd), but ever since Gabriel announced on his Instagram that he’s been working on this project with DC to make a comic about Raven, I just about lost my mind. I wanted the book in my hands. STAT. My thoughts on Kami Garcia are neutral because I’ve only read one of her books before, but Picolo, on the other hand, I’m OBSESSED with… his work, that is. I’ve been following him for several years now and always loved the artwork that he posts. There’s something about his cartoonish style that I find so appealing. If the story sucks (which I highly doubt it will), then at least I’ll have a book filled with some amazing artwork.

[Author’s note: In case you were wondering, his Instagram handle is @_picolo if you want to check him out! I think he’s also on Twitter and Tumblr, but don’t take my word for it.

Also, DC comics just announced that one of my other all-time favorite artists Jacquelin de Leon is going to do the art for one of their upcoming graphic novels, Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend. Basically, DC is going to be getting a good chunk of my paychecks in these next couple months.]

Biggest disappointment of 2019 so far

Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien

Maybe it was because I was spoiled with The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien that I had too high of expectations when going into this book. I was disappointed that it wasn’t in the same format as TTTC and the storyline was slow. Of course, I knew not to expect epic battles and fighting going in, but I wished the story would’ve gone a bit faster.

Books to read by the end of 2019

I don’t really have any books in particular that I’m forcing myself to read but my overall goal is to decrease the number of unread physical books I own. If I set a specific goal, saying that I want to read a certain book by the end of the year, my brain works the opposite direction than I want it to and I never end up picking up the book. That’s why I keep most of my reading goals relatively vague and open-ended.

I know it’s a bit late to tag anyone because June has pretty much already passed, but if you want to take a stab at this, considered yourself tagged by yours truly!

The Questions:

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2019? Best Sequel of 2019 so far? New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want to? Most Anticipated Release of the Second Half of 2019? Biggest Disappointment? Biggest Surprise? Favorite New Author? Newest Fictional Crush? Newest Favorite Character? Book That Made You Cry? Book That Made You Happy? Favorite Book to Movie Adaptation You’ve Seen This Year? Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year? Most Beautiful Book You Bought or Received So Far This Year? What Books Do You Need to Read by the End of the Year?

Until next time….