Stacking the Shelves: The Yearly Edition 2015

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Alexandra Bracken, Alienated, All Fall Down, All the Rage, Ally Carter, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Amie Kaufman, Amy Ewing, An Ember in the Ashes, Barry Jonsberg, Because You'll Never Meet Me, Bright Before Sunrise, Brigid Kemmerer, Champion, Cloudwish, Courtney Summers, Cynthia Hand, Dawn Kurtagich, Dead of Winter, Demon Road, Derek Landy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Ellie Marney, Every Move, Every Word, Far From You, Fiona Wood, Fleur Ferris, Frostbite, Half Wild, Happily Ever After, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Illustrated Edition, Hold Me Like a Breath, Holly Black, Illuminae, Illusions of Fate, In the Afterlight, In The Skin of a Monster, J.K. Rowling, James Smythe, Jane Austen, Jay Kristoff, John Flanagan, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Julie Kagawa, Justine Larbalestier, Kady Cross, Kathryn Barker, Kerstin Gier, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Kresley Cole, Laini Taylor, Lair of Dreams, Lauren James, Lauren Oliver, Leah Thomas, Legend, Leslye Walton, Libba Bray, Lisa M. Stasse, Maggie Stiefvater, Magnus Chase, Magonia, Margo Lanagan, Maria Dahvana Headley, Marie Lu, Meagan Spooner, Megan Miranda, Melinda Salisbury, Melissa Grey, Melissa Landers, Miss Mayhem, Pandora Jones, Panic, Percy Jackson, Pittacus Lore, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Prodigy, Queen of Shadows, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Ranger's Apprentice, Razorhurst, Rebel Belle, Red Queen, Renee Ahdieh, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Risk, Rogue, Ruby Red, Sabaa Tahir, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, Sea Hearts, Shadow Kiss, Shiver, Sisters of Blood and Spirit, Skulduggery Pleasant, Soman Chainani, Sophie Jordan, Soulprint, Spark, Star Wars, Stephanie Oakes, Stray, Susanna Clarke, Tess Sharpe, The Darkest Part of the Forest, The Dead House, The Diviners, The Dream Thieves, The Fate of Ten, The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, The Forsaken, The Girl at Midnight, The Heir, The Iron Warrior, The Jewel, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together, The Raven Boys, The Ruby Circle, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The School of Good and Evil, The Scorpio Races, The Sin Eater's Daughter, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, The Wrath and the Dawn, These Broken Stars, Thicker Than Water, Tiffany Schmidt, Trish Doller, Uninvited, Vampire Academy, Vanishing Girls, Victoria Aveyard, Way Down Dark, Where the Stars Still Shine

Stacking the Shelves is a thing where we talk about the books we’ve collected in the past week. These can be bought, delivered, ARCs, ebooks, etc.. Pretty self-explanatory.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tygna’s Reviews

When I did this last year, it was so much fun I just had to do it again.

So, here are ALL the books I obtained throughout the year 2015.

Books Bought:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton
Illusions of Fate, by Kiersten White
Hold Me Like a Breath, by Tiffany Schmidt
An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir
Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Magonia, by Maria Dahvana Headley
Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
The Ruby Circle, by Richelle Mead
The Diviners, by Libba Bray
Lair of Dreams, by Libba Bray
Way Down Dark, by James Smythe
The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black
Pandora Jones: Admission, by Barry Jonsberg
The Last Time We Say Goodbye, by Cynthia Hand
Razorhurst, by Justine Larbalestier
Alienated, by Melissa Landers
Sea Hearts, by Margo Lanagan
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh
The Dead House, by Dawn Kurtagich
Vanishing Girls, by Lauren Oliver
Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes, by Rick Riordan
All Fall Down, by Ally Carter
Ruby Red, by  Kerstin Gier
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
Rebel Belle, by Rachel Hawkins
Miss Mayhem, by Rachel Hawkins
The Fate of Ten, by Pittacus Lore
In the Afterlight, by Alexandra Bracken
Every Word, by Ellie Marney
Every Move, by Ellie Marney
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling (new edition)
Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, by Ian Doesher
Vampire Academy: Graphic Novel
Frostbite: Graphic Novel
Shadow Kiss: Graphic Novel
Legend: Graphic Novel
Sisters of Blood and Spirit, by Kady Cross
Far From You, by Tess Sharpe
The Sin Eater’s Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury
Uninvited, by Sophie Jordan
Soulprint, by Megan Miranda
In The Skin of a Monster, by Kathryn Barker
The Girl At Midnight, by Melissa Grey
The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater
Risk, by Fleur Ferris
Ranger’s Apprentice #1, by John Flanagan
Because You’ll Never Meet Me, by Leah Thomas
Skulduggery Pleasant books, by Derek Landy
The School of Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor
Rogue, by Julie Kagawa
Happily Ever After, by Kiera Cass
The Heir, by Kiera Cass
Half Wild, by Sally Green
Prodigy, by Marie Lu
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J. Maas
Box Set of Puffin Classics, various authors
Harry Potter Illustrated edition

The Shiver Trilogy, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Scorpio races, by Maggie Stiefvater
Champion, by Marie Lu

Books Won:

The Jewel*, by Amy Ewing
Spark*, by Rachel Craw
The Iron Warrior, by Julie Kagawa
Demon Road (signed ARC), by Derek Landy
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Cloudwish, by Fiona Wood
In the Afterlight (signed), by Alexandra Bracken

I also somehow ended up getting a bowling ball.

*Won in 2014, received in 2015

Miscellaneous:

ARCs and Review Copies (requested and surprise):

Bright Before Sunrise, by Tiffany Schmidt
Where the Stars Still Shine, by Trish Doller
Stray, by Rachael Craw
The Next Together, by Lauren James
Thicker Than Water, by Brigid Kemmerer
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan

Books I got through BooksForTradeAU:

Pandora Jones: Deception, by Barry Johansberg
Pandora Jones: Reckoning, by Barry Johansberg
The Forsaken, by Lisa M. Stasse
Cinder (ARC), by Marissa Meyer (Not pictured)

Presents (Birthdays, Christmas, etc.):

Panic, by Lauren Oliver
Dead of Winter, by Kresley Cole
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen)

Books I got for free (through various means):

White Time, by Margo Lanagan
All The Rage, by Courtney Summers
The Lost and the Found, by Cat Clarke
This Raging Light, by Estelle Laure
Pompidou Posse, by Sarah Lotz
Dumplin’, by Julie Murphy
Running Like China, by Sophie Hardcastle
We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach
Hidden, by Marianne Curley
The Astrologer’s Daughter, by Rebecca Lim
Lifespan of Starlight, by Thalia Kalkipsakis
State of Grace, by Hilary Badger
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, by Rebecca James

---

So…that was all the books I got my hands on 2015.

How was every one else’s year?

TTT: Auto-buy Authors

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Alexandra Bracken, Cynthia Hand, Hex Hall, Julie Kagawa, Keira Cass, Lament, Maggie Stiefvater, Michelle Hodkin, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Rebel Belle, Sarah J. Maas, Shiver, Spark, Stephanie Oakes, Talon, The Darkest Minds, The Immortal Rules, The Iron Fey, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Mara Dyer Trilogy, The Raven Boys, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Selection, Throne of Glass, Unearthly

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Auto-buy Authors

Regardless of whether I have money or not, you can be pretty sure I’ll buy the newest book from these authors:

1. Sarah J. Maas
Having read all the Throne of Glass series, and ACOTAR, I can truthfully say I will probably love anything this woman writes.

 2. Rachael Craw
Everyone should know by now that my love of Spark knows no bounds. And I am sure this love will continue with any other book Rachael Craw decides to write. (She’s amazing, people!!)

3. Julie Kagawa
I searched for ages to find The Iron King, wanting desperately to read it. And I was in no way disappointed. Since then, I have been able to get my hands on all of Julie Kagawa’s books, and I have loved them all.

4. Maggie Stiefvater
Ok, I really don’t think I need to explain this one. I need The Raven King like I need air.

5. Alexandra Bracken
I cannot believe it took me so long to get around to reading The Darkest Minds! I loved it so very much, and am VERY excited for Passenger.

6. Kiera Cass
It’s funny, that the only reason I read The Selection was because my sister wanted to read it…I may have barely given it a second glance otherwise, and wouldn’t that be disappointing.

7. Cynthia Hand
With the exception of the very beginning of Unearthly, I absolutely ADORED the Unearthly trilogy, and The Last Time We Say Goodbye was pretty amazing too. I can’t wait to see what Cynthia Hand writes next.

8. Rachael Hawkins
It took me WAY too long to find Hex Hall, but it was worth the effort. And the Rebel Belle trilogy has been just as good so far.

9. Michelle Hodkin
The Mara Dyer trilogy was so fantastically creepy! I’ve actually been wanting to reread the series for a while.

10. Stephanie Oakes
Ok, so she’s only got one book out so far…but it’s a darn good one. I am very excited to see what’s out next.

TeenCon2015: All the Awesome

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Thousand Pieces of You, Amie Kaufman, Becky Albertalli, Brigid Kemmerer, Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Claudia Gray, Cooper Bartholemew is Dead, David Levithan, Divergent, Dumplin, Eleanor and Park, Fallen, Fleur Ferris, Gayle Forman, Hidden, Hilary Badger, Hunger Games, If I Stay, Illuminae, Isla and the Happily Ever After, Jay Kristoff, John Green, Julie Murphy, Lauren Kate, Lifespan of Starlight, Maggie Stiefvater, Marianne Curley, Marie Rutkoski, Meagan Spooner, Patrick Ness, Paula Weston, Rachael Craw, Rainbow Rowell, Rebecca James, Rebecca Lim, Red Queen, Richelle Mead, Risk, Sarah J. Maas, Shadows, Shiver, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Spark, State of Grace, Stephanie Meyer, Stephanie Oakes, Stephanie Perkins, Storm, Stray, Suzanne Collins, TeenCon2015, Thalia Kalkipsakis, The Astrologer's Daughter, The Fault in our Stars, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Winner's Curse, These Broken Stars, Throne of Glass, Tommy Wallach, Twilight, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth, Victoria Aveyard, We All Looked Up, Will Grayson Will Grayson

As some of you may have noticed, I was at TeenCon2015 yesterday, which is a part of Sydney Writers Festival.

Painting my Support Team Jamie poster

I started preparing on Saturday, with a big blue piece of cardboard and some yellow paint.

As it turns out, yellow paint on cardboard appears green.

About 10 coats of paint later, the sign was looking adequately yellow.

And then came Sunday, and the journey toward TeenCon began.

Our trip started well, missing the train by a mere minute (I blame trackwork, which required us to go to a less familiar station). After missing the train, instead of having a full half-hour to find the venue, we had 10 minutes.

It took us half an hour.

Nevertheless, we eventually arrived, Team Jamie sign in tow, and ended up with seats…though not ones with an amazing view…

There was a pole in my way

We had arrived during the bloggers panel, in which four popular booktubers were discussing various bookish things.

 

You don’t fall in love like you fall into a ditch

 

 

After the bloggers, the publisher people got up to tell us books that we need to read now, and books we need to pre-order now. Some of the books mentioned were:

(out now)
Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
Shadows, by Paula Weston
A Thousand Pieces of You, by Claudia Grey
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
Spark, by Rachael Craw
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

(coming soon)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness
Risk, by Fleur Ferris
The Sacred lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Stray, by Rachael Craw (Spark book 2)

And then it was time for the Book Boyfriend Battle, in which each publisher had 30 seconds to talk about their two nominees.

Boyfriends nominated were:

Allen and Unwin
Tarver, These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Chris Merrick, Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

Bloomsbury
Chaol, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Arin, The Winner’s Curse series by Marie Rutkoski

Hachette
Park, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Edward Cullen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

HarperCollins Australia
Four, Divergent by Veronica Roth
Josh, Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Penguin Teen Australia
Augustus Waters, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Dimitri Belikov, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Random House Australia
Cam, Fallen by Lauren Kate
Adam Wilde, If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Scholastic Australia
Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sam Roth, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Text Publishing
Rafa, Shadows by Paula Weston
Tiny Cooper, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Walker Books Australia
Jamie, Spark by Rachael Craw
Jace, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

 

’twas time for the Jamie sign to shine

Most unfortunately, Jamie did not win. Instead, the winner was

With Chaol and Four coming close second and third.

After the Battle, it was time for TeenCon to end, which meant BOOKS!

Books obtained:
Risk, by Fleur Ferris (extract)
Hidden, by Marianne Curley
Dumplin’, by Julie Murphy
The Astrologer’s Daughter, by Rebecca Lim
We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach
Lifespan of Starlight, by Thalia Kalkipsakis
State of Grace, by Hilary Badger
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, by Rebecca James

And PRETTY BAGS that the books were in.

After TeenCon, some of us stayed behind to chat. I got a picture with the wonderful Claire:

And got to (finally) meet some people who I had only met via twitter.

Which was a lot of fun. We talked about books and…books.

My kind of party.

It was around 9pm when we began the trip home. I reunited with my travelling companions, and we got on a train towards the station.

However, I was to learn that my night was not yet over. As we passed through Central, I had an epiphany:

I had Chemistry homework due Monday morning.

 

A New Year, Things are happening!

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Champion, Cynthia Hand, Dangerous Deception, Dead of Winter, Forever, Half Wild, Illusions of Fate, Julie Kagawa, Kami Garcia, Kresley Cole, Let the Sky Fall, Linger, Maggie Stiefvater, Margaret Stohl, Marie Lu, Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, Prodigy, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Rogue, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, Shannon Messenger, Shiver, Sword of Summer, The Dream Thieves, The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, The Forgotten Crown, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Raven Boys, The Raven Cycle, The Ruby Circle, Throne of Glass

New Bloggish Stuff

It’s January, which means it’s a new year! (In case you missed it, New Year’s Eve was on Wednesday). This means that I can finally implement the changes I’ve been planning since October!

First, if you look towards the left of the screen, you will notice that a rating system is being added. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.
Also, if you look up, you’ll notice that I’ve created a review archive. That was fun to make.

And speaking of reviews, I have finally figured out a general format for them, which makes me happy.

In other news, Top Ten Tuesdays and Stacking the Shelves will continue on as usual. Sometimes there’ll be pictures or links, other times just a list because I’m lazy/busy.

I haven’t done one in a while, but my weekly wrap-ups, known as This Week in Books, will now be called This Week’s Adventures, and will hopefully start to become more elaborate.

Book Buying Limitations

As you can see here, last year’s book buying got a little out of hand.

To combat this, I’m giving myself a list of books I am allowed to buy. If it’s not on the list, I am not allowed to buy it.

Note: this list is still in progress, so it may change slightly in the near future.

Coming 2015:
The Ruby Circle, by Richelle Mead
The Last Time We Say Goodbye, by Cynthia Hand
Throne of Glass #4, by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
Rogue, by Julie Kagawa
The Forgotten Crown, by Julie Kagawa
Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes, by Rick Riordan
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
Dangerous Deception, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Half Wild, by Sally Green
Dead of Winter, by Kresley Cole
Let the Sky Fall #3, by Shannon Messenger
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Raven Cycle #4, by Maggie Stiefvater

Already out:
Prodigy and Champion, by Marie Lu
The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Shiver Trilogy, by Maggie Stiefvater
Illusions of Fate, by Kiersten White

So, last year, by final count, I was buying an average of 9 books per month.
To keep this up, I have to buy an average of 2 books per month.

Bookish Bingo Challenge

So, Maddie over at The Girly Geek has created this marvellous challenge which basically consists of this bingo card:

 

Overall, there are 45 challenges, to which I say: