Social Media Book Tag (July Book Wrap-Up)

This month has been a roller-coaster. Here we go.

Writing
I originally planned on participating in Camp NaNo July this year, but then I got sick at the beginning of the month and never found the motivation to do any work on "Follow the Raven." I think this is a story I need to approach at a slower pace anyway. There is a lot of editing and revision to be done.

However, I was able to write a couple more chapters for "Worlds Collide" over on Wattpad, and I'm excited to say that for the first time ever, I was able to create a rough outline of the entire rest of the story. I'm super psyched to share it with my readers. They will either love me or hate me for the ending, but either way, I can't wait! It's happening! My current stats for said story are 3,045 reads; 227 votes; and 110 comments.

Reading
I did a decent amount of reading this month. Not as much as I'd like, but not bad. I also participated in BookTube-A-Thon for the first time (the NaNoWriMo of reading, essentially) and had a total blast. I read 694 pages in seven days. It was awesome! Here's what I read in July:

• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
• Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
• A Frozen Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick
• Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Princess Academy is a book that I first read in elementary school. Earlier this year I picked up the sequel (which I never knew existed until I found it), so I decided I should probably re-read the first book before diving into the second since it had been so long. I'm really glad I did, too. It's amazing how much you pick up on as an adult reading a book that you first read in grade school. I understood so much more of what was going on and I feel like I had a better appreciation for the story that way. It is definitely a unique and intriguing read, even all these years later. Its sequel, Palace of Stone, was interesting, too, but it definitely paled in comparison to the original novel. (Goodreads says there's a third book. Maybe one day I'll read that one as well.)

A Frozen Heart. I did it, guys! I finally read it! I'm not sure why I waited so long. It was such a good read, and it goes way beyond a YA novelization of the movie. This book takes a much deeper look into the world of Frozen and explores the emotional histories of both Hans and Anna, making their love story much more logical than it appeared in the movie. It also adds a more political layer to the tale we all know so well. I will never watch the movie the same way again, and I appreciate and applaud the author for making the story new once more.

Finally, Winterspell. As I'm writing this blog post I still have about fifty pages left in the book, so I can't say anything about the ending yet. But I can say that from the very first page I was hooked. It was so dark and so dense so quickly. At first I had to read the book in short spurts because there was so much going on at once that it was hard to keep up with it all, but now that I'm further along and understand the world of Cane a little better I can read more of it in one sitting. Going into it, all I knew was that it was "definitely not your grandmother's Nutcracker tale" (Marissa Meyer), but MAN is that an understatement. As it stands right now I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good, dark fantasy or even just a retelling of a classic story. You will not be disappointed.

The Social Media Book Tag

1) Twitter: My favorite shortest book.

• When I was on vacation to the other side of the mountain a few years ago, I randomly decided that I wanted to bring The Cricket in Times Square with me in case I had time to read anything. As it turned out, I got so wrapped up in it once I started that I read the whole thing in just a couple of days (considering I was on vacation and didn't have much time to read). It was something different from the genre of books I'd been reading at the time, plus it was a classic. I wouldn't mind re-reading it for fun in the future.

2) Facebook: A book everyone pressured me into reading.

• Cinder. Freaking Cinder. I had heard a lot of good things about this book when it first came out. I believe Kristina Horner has made her way through the entire Lunar Chronicles, and she liked them okay. That was the first I heard of it. Then suddenly it was Lunar Chronicles everywhere, and my friend Kailey read it, and she demanded that I did to (as she does with every book she ever reads). Then, this past spring, it happened to be one of the two "blind date with a book" reads that I got, so I finally buckled down and read the thing. The only redeeming quality about it was that it was the most unique version of Cinderella I've ever read. Other than that, it was not worth it.

3) Tumblr: A book I read before it was cool.

• I'm not that cool.

4) MySpace: A book that I cannot remember if I liked it or not.

• Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters. All I remember about this book is that it is green with a weird little black dog on the front. Other than that, I have no recollection about the story whatsoever, so I have no idea if I liked it or not.

5) Instagram: A book that was so beautiful I had to Instagram it.

• First, I'd like to state for the record that I don't have Instagram, so I'm approaching this one with the mindset of "if I had Instagram." That being said, my original answer for this was going to be Lucid, because I couldn't think of any books that had overwhelmingly beautiful covers that I'd want to share with the world. Lucid has a beautiful story, which is why I chose it. But then I recently picked up A Thousand Pieces of You, and it has a gorgeous cover that I would absolutely Instagram. Therefore, I officially have two answers for this form of social media. (Seriously, though, look at this cover. It's beautiful! The picture really doesn't do it justice.)

6) YouTube: A book I wish would become a movie.

• In high school, I always thought it would be so great to see Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series become a set of movies. I love the story and the characters and the uniqueness of it all. Now, though, after seriously contemplating how a movie version would turn out, I think perhaps it's just as well that they remain in book format. The movies would screw up royally.

7) Goodreads: A book I recommend to everyone.

• Skulduggery Pleasant. YEAH BUDDY. I don't care who you are or what genre you normally read. Everyone should read Skulduggery Pleasant. EVERYONE.

And that's all for July! (My little brother turned sixteen a couple of days ago, which blows my mind. What happened??) See you next month!