Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag

I saw this tag on quirkyandpeculiar‘s blog, and I thought, “what a great way to check in on my progress this year and get excited about the rest of 2017!” So here we are. It’s the middle of the year, and I’m (still) freaking out about books.

1. The best book I’ve read so far in 2017: Ugh it’s so hard! I’ve already read 53 books this year, and there have been some real gems, but I think the one that has impressed me most so far is Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. I was skeptical about the “science fiction thriller” description, but I could not put this one down, and every time I thought I had a handle on my emotions, there was another crazy plot twist. I loved every page.
2. My favorite sequel of the year: This one’s easy. The Magician King by Lev Grossman is the second book in the Magicians trilogy, and by far the best of the three. It has a constant sense of adventure, unforeseeable plot twists, fantastically flawed characters, magical danger, and so so much more. I’ve had a long-standing opinion of second books in a series being the worst, but sequels have definitely improved lately. I can’t wait for the episodes corresponding with this part of the trilogy to appear on Netflix.
3. A new release I haven’t read but really want to: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. So many great books came out this May (and other months, but especially May) that I haven’t gotten around to because I’m still trying to read everything else I’ve missed in earlier years and before I was born and really one lifetime is not enough for all the reading I want to fill it with. So frustrating. Being able to catch up on my reading for the rest of eternity is the only reason I would consider vamprisim.
4. My most anticipated release for the second half of the year: Again, so hard because there are so many, but I’m going with Ruth Ware’s July release, The Lying Game. I’ve been waiting for this one since finishing The Woman in Cabin 10 last summer and the release date is finally almost here, so this one’s high on my radar of new releases at the moment.
5. My biggest disappointment of 2017:  Stephanie Garber’s Caraval. There was so much hype for this book, but I didn’t really like much more than the atmosphere of it. I had issues with a lot of the relationships (especially the one between the sisters), and the characters I was most interested in seemed overlooked. I have higher hopes for the sequel, and I didn’t entirely hate Caraval, but I was expecting greatness and I was disappointed.
6. My biggest surprise of the year: This one’s definitely Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. I can’t believe I managed to avoid being spoiled on the big surprise in this book because it’s pretty controversial. It wasn’t a great surprise or a terrible surprise for me, it was just a giant shock. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and have been living with pretty solid opinions of it, but Go Set a Watchman threw everything I thought I knew into question. It was a major shock to be so uprooted about something as steadfast as a literary classic.
7. Favorite new-to-you or debut author: I believe she was a debut author in 2016, but I read Clare Mackintosh’s I Let You Go earlier this year and loved it. At first I thought it had a slow start, but then I realized that there were clues woven into that first part so expertly that they’re almost completely invisible until things speed up. And then they never slow down again. I’ve been loving thrillers lately, and this one has been one of my favorites. I’m planning to read her newer release soon.
8. My new fictional crush: I’m not sure what to say here because I don’t approach book boyfriends like lots of other girls. When I appreciate a fictional man in a book, I generally appreciate him with whoever he’s with in the book, or for whoever he should be with in his respective fictional world. Even in my fictional fantasies, I’m still me, and I need a person suited to me, not suited to the fictional girl he’s adoring. That said, I think Nikolai Lantsov from the Grisha trilogy is pretty fantastic.
9. My new favorite character: Lucien from Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Book three, the recently released ACOWAR, lays the groundwork for a lot of the secondary characters to become major focuses in the three upcoming related books, and while several of them are quite intriguing, I think I’m most interested in getting a closer look at who Lucien is as a character and what will happen with him next.
10. A book that made me cry: Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places has some pros and cons, but it did remind me of what it’s like to feel completely alone even when there are people who care. I was so sure that this was going to be a romance that I didn’t look closely enough at the upcoming disaster and was so much more sad than I expected when it struck.
11. A book that made me happy: This may sound odd, but I’m going with Mindy McGinnis’s The Female of the Species. For a hard-hitting YA book with messages about rape, trauma, and grief, this one left me feeling fiercely proud of my gender and of the progress that females have made in recent years toward becoming a strong presence in the world. Even though this is a serious story, it’s also full of hope for the future.
12. My favorite book-to-movie adaptation that I’ve seen this year: I’m ashamed to say I haven’t watched many adaptations lately. But I did watch the entire second season of Outlander this spring, which I liked far better than its corresponding book (Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber), and the Outlander TV show has earned its current place as my all-time favorite book-to-TV adaptation so far.
13. The most beautiful book I’ve bought/received this year: Emma Mills’s This Adventure Ends is gorgeous, and I’m partially looking forward to reading it just for an extra excuse to take some pictures of it. I’m not very good at photography, as you’ve probably noticed if you follow my blog, so I generally don’t even try until I’m actually reading the book, but here’s a picture of the cover from the internet to show you what I mean about the cover in the meantime.
14. Some books I need to read by the end of the year: SO MANY. My TBR is back up over 300 on Goodreads again, which is higher than where it started at the beginning of the year, though I’m only 20 books away from reaching my goal for the year. But some of my top priorities for 2017 are: The Hobbit, by Tolkien, because I still haven’t read any Tolkien books and I swear this is the year. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare because if I reach this point it will mean I’ve succeeded with my Shadownhunters marathon of 2017. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen because why haven’t I read this? Also I want to read it before Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, which is also on my TBR. And some upcoming releases are on my 2017 MUST-READ list, like Maggie Stiefvater’s All the Crooked Saints, Andy Weir’s Artemis, Ryan Graudin’s Invictus, Kristin Cashore’s Jane, Unlimited, and probably a lot more that I’m going to sacrifice sleep to find time for.

And a bonus question of my own:

15. A book I’ve been meaning to read in 2017 but haven’t yet: V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic has been on one of my TBRs already, and it’s been on my mind all year even when I haven’t felt up to starting what’s probably going to end up being a three-book marathon. It’s definitely going to happen soon, though. Now that all three books are out, there’s no more reason for hesitation.

That’s the end of the tag, and since I haven’t been tagged I won’t tag anyone, but please let me know if you’re participating in this tag because I’d love to see more answers! I’d especially appreciate seeing anyone incorporating my bonus question into the tag, because I think it’s interesting to see how people’s reading tastes and priorities change, even month to month, and sometimes the things we put off tell as much about our experiences as the things we achieve.

How’s your reading progress going this year?

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant