It's Monday! What Are You Reading #343, January 1st

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #342
Teaser Tuesday #350
WWW Wednesday #350
WOW #347
Will the Time Come #341
Third Sentence Thursday #332
Random Reads #318
First Lines Friday #346
The Reward Challenge Update #328
Follow Friday #320
LLFL Reading Challenge Update 69
How Well I Stuck to It #180
Wrote that Review Update #177

Week 52 Reviews:
Undead
Unfed
Wild Card
Endless
Everless
Here We Are Now
The Hate U Give

Girl Mans Up
The Queen's Rising
Sweet Temptation

Random:
What I Wanted to Read in 2017
2017 Reviews
Happy New Years!!! 2018 Version
Best Books Read in 2017
Last Letter, First Letter Reading Challenge 2018

OK, so I got 27 posts in 7 days, which is a pretty decent week! Plus the end of a year! Pretty good year. What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read Before She Ignites, Deacon Locke Goes to Prom, Extraordinary Means, Like a River Glorious, Meet Me Here, A Perfect Obsession, Radio Silence, Talon, and This Darkness Mine.

Week 52 Review: Here We Are Now

From Goodreads:
A book about love, loss, and the power of music, perfect for fans of Nick Hornby and Fangirl. 

Taliah Sahar Abdallat lives and breathes music. Songs have always helped Tal ease the pain of never having known her father. Her mother, born in Jordan and very secretive about her past, won't say a word about who her dad really was. But when Tal finds a shoebox full of old letters from Julian Oliver—yes, the indie rock star Julian Oliver—she begins to piece the story together.

She writes to Julian, but after three years of radio silence, she's given up hope. Then one day, completely out of the blue, Julian shows up at her doorstep, and Tal doesn' know whether to be furious or to throw herself into his arms. Before she can decide, he asks her to go on a trip with him to meet her long-estranged family and to say good-bye to his father, her grandfather, who is dying.

Getting to know your father after sixteen years of estrangement doesn't happen in one car ride. But as Tal spends more time with Julian and his family, she begins to untangle her parents' secret past, and discovers a part of herself she never recognized before.

By the acclaimed author of My Heart and Other Black Holes, this is an intergenerational story of family and legacy and the way love informs both of those things. It's about secrets and the debt of silence. It's about the power of songs. And most of all, it's about learning how to say hello. And good-bye.

My Review:
This book was so fantastic! I loved reading Tal's story, inter-spaced with the story of her parents when they were just a little bit older than her. It was such a captivating story, and I loved that back and forth!

I think a lot of girls dream of having a famous dad. The reality, I'm sure, is harder then dreams, but the dream is pretty powerful. And while Tal has the reality, well, her dad has never acknowledged her before. Until he shows out of the blue because his dad is dying. Awkward!

I loved watching Tal and her dad and his family interact, of finding those connections, because they are family. And that they knew her mom, that was just interesting, but we got to see it play out, which was just so great!

There were hard moments, because yeah, her grandfather that she just met is dying. And her mom didn't want her to know who he was, but Tal found out anyways. But that ending was pretty great, o family and togetherness and was just so sweet to read! 

Yeah, this book was just incredible and I loved reading it!

Author: Jasmine Warga
Read: December 27th, 2017
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Enjoyed her other book and this one sounded good, and it's a SAC 2017 Book and a Sophomore Challenge Book!
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: November 7th 2017

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

WWW Wednesday #350, December 27th

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Thanks to MizB of Should Be Writing now A Daily Rhythm for starting this meme!

I'm currently reading Everless, and wow, is it so fantastic! I need to read more! 

I read Endless, which was a perfect ending to the series, I enjoyed it so much, it was so enjoyable and wrapped things up so well! 

I'm going to read Here Were Are Now, and I can't wait, it sounds really good!

What about you guys? Happy reading!

Jasmine Warga Author Page

The Story: I got My Heart and Other Black Holes from Edelweiss, and it looked really great, and yeah, it was fantastic I can't wait to read more by her!

Website

Stand Alone's: My Heart and Other Black Holes and her site, my review,

Week 13 Review: My Heart & Other Black Holes

From Goodreads:
A stunning novel about the transformative power of love, perfect for fans of Jay Asher and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There's only one problem: she's not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel's convinced she's found her solution—Roman, a teenage boy who's haunted by a family tragedy, is looking for a partner. Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other's broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together.

My Review:
Reading this book was both meaningful and poignant. I've dealt with depression, and thoughts of suicide. And I can understand the want to have a partner, to not be alone. It's understandable, if something not to ever be wanted-suicide is never the answer.

Aysel grew up with her dad-her dad who snapped on day and murdered the town's hopeful, potential Olympic athlete. And now his brother is heading down a similar path. I kinda wish that the brother would have been a part of this book, but that wasn't this story. This was Aysel and Roman's story.

What happened with Roman's sister, it was a terrible accident. He didn't make a good decision, but it's not his fault that it happened. It was a mix of genetics, bad decisions, bad timing, and bad luck, resulting in nobody at fault, nobody to blame, no matter how emotions might rise.

Really enjoyed them working out that they shouldn't do this, well, Asyel did. Roman took a bit more convincing! Life is precious, and just because something bad happened, doesn't mean that there isn't going to be good later or, or that you don't deserve that good!

I enjoyed reading this book so much, it was short and cute and such a great read!

Author: Jasmine Warga
Read: March 24th, 2016
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really fantastic, and it's a DAC Book, SAC 2016 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: February 10th 2015

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Third Sentence Thursday #241, March 24th

Third Sentence Thursday is a weekly meme which likes to watch fireworks especially while eating a cookie!

1) Take the book you are currently reading and open it to a random page. Share the third full sentence on that page. (If there isn't a third one – like at the end of a chapter or a blank page – you can share the third sentence of the book or just choose another random page.) Feel free to share more than one sentence, if you feel the need to do so.

2) Review this sentence anyway you want (funny and silly reviews encouraged)

3) Post a link to your sentence at Words I Write Crazy (This Blog)

4) Visit one or two of the other blogs to check out their third sentences!

"What can I say?" -My Life and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, page 22.

Who knows! No context!

What are your guy's 3rd lines? Link up below!