Every year I participate in Perpetual Page Turner’s Annual End of Year Book Survey. You can find my 2016 recap here: End of Year Book Survey 2016. I like being able to recap what I read while also looking ahead to 2018. This year, I found myself reading more comics than books. I do love my comics, but in 2018 I want to read more books. I started the year strong, but graduating from college, moving to the cities, and starting my new job kept me from reading. Since I now have stability, I’m hoping to make reading a priority next year. I recommend any bookworm to fill out this survey because it’s incredibly detailed. I also ended up cutting out questions I didn’t have an answer for to keep this post from getting too long. Here are my answers:

Number Of Books You Read: 46
Number of Re-Reads: 2 < This is really great for me because I usually never do re-reads. 
Genre You Read The Most From: Comics & Graphic Novels

1. Best Book You Read In 2017?

I nominated this book because it was thrilling and one of those books I ended up finishing in 5-6 hours. Five boys went hunting and only four returned. The murder of Grant seems to be an accidental shooting, or is it? Kate Marino is determined to uncover the truth of the shooting that day in the woods. This is one of the best mystery books I have read.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

I thought I would enjoy this a lot more, but I thought it was okay. Granted I’m not a huge Black Widow fan so I think that’s why I didn’t really enjoy it. If you are a fan of the character, I think you will enjoy this series. Personally, wasn’t my favorite.

3. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

I usually don’t read nonfiction, but this book caught my eye at Barnes & Noble. Andrea & Sophie were two teenage girls enrolled in a coding class in NY. They created a game titled Tampon Run to help alleviate the stigma behind periods. This book detailed their process of learning how to code the game. I have always been intrigued with code and I liked how they used their final project to bring awareness to a huge issue.

 4. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

I nominated Geekerella by Ashley Poston. Any woman who identifies as a geek should read this book. It’s a geek girl re-telling of Cinderella and in many ways, I identify with Elle and her obsession with her favorite TV show. This book is so endearing.

5. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017?

I’m nominating Geekerella again for this award. What’s cooler than a princess leaning up against a food truck? Absolutely nothing.

6. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

David Charleston & Megan from the Steelheart series by Brandon Sanderson. Every time I talk about books, I bring up this series. Seriously, this is my favorite book series I have read in a while. I’m currently reading Calamity the third book in the trilogy and I’ll genuinely be sad once I finish it.

7. Best Comic Book Series in 2017 < I added this question it doesn’t appear in the original book survey

I cannot narrow it down so I nominate these series as any comic book fan should read them.

1. Paper Girls (Image Comics)
2. Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur (Marvel Comics)
3. Cassian & KTSO One Shot (Marvel Comics)
4. DC’s Rebirth (DC Comics)
5. Moonstruck (Image Comics)

8. Worst Book Read in 2017 < I added this question because it doesn’t appear in the original book survey. 

Killing Kate by Julie Kramer. This book was so boring, as I mentioned I do love a good mystery book, but I struggled so heavily getting through this book. It was somewhat depressing. Plus this book took place in Minnesota which made me more intrigued to read it.

9. Worst Comic Book of 2017 < I added this question because it doesn’t appear in the original book survey. 

I’m tied between Moonshine shown above and an Iron Fist comic book I borrowed from the library. Moonshine wasn’t something that kept my interest. Maybe I’m biased, but I’m not a fan of Iron Fist as a character. I think this comes from the fact that I’m not a fan of the Iron Fist TV show, but I was hoping to be impressed with the comic book instead and I wasn’t.

10. Favorite review that you wrote in 2017?

My Dietland Review is my favorite review of 2017. I liked that I reviewed the book and talked about an important topic which is not assuming someone’s health status based on their weight. I was watching a series of videos from a vlogger and she was so toxic with saying that “fat acceptance” is promoting obesity. That’s not the case at all. It’s just saying you’re allowed to feel proud of your body even if it’s not where you want it to be. The diet industry can be toxic and Dietland is a book that discusses this in detail.

11. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I didn’t participate in anything book related, but I did attend three comic conventions where creators were selling comics. I brought around $80 of spending money so I could buy as many comics from creators as I could.

12. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

My biggest challenge with reading is fitting it in. I usually would read before bed, but I ended up being too tired and falling asleep before reading my book. Now I make a point to set a time to go to my bedroom and read before I get so tired that all I can think about is sleep.

13.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Absolutely! I always set my good reads goal at 10 books and increase it every time I finish a book. Instead of feeling disappointed at the end of the year, I’m elated because I increased my goal each time I hit it.

14. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2018?

I don’t have a specific book, but my bookshelf is overflowing with books I bought and haven’t read yet. I have even banned buying any more books until I read what I already have. That’s what I’m looking forward to in 2017.

15. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2018?

Making reading a priority again. This year wasn’t my strongest reading year because of so many big life changes occurring in a short amount of time. I have been bringing a book to work to read on my break and that helps me fit in reading.

 

Yay, I’m finally writing a book review! I used to write book reviews quite frequently on this blog, but somehow I have gotten away from that. I think it’s because I’m finishing books at a slower rate due to my chaotic work week. Normally, I never do re-reads of books, but I made an exception with the Steelheart series by Brandon Sanderson. This series is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi trilogies! Six months ago, I bought the last book in the Steelheart series titled Calamity. It was collecting dust on my bookshelf which led me to just re-read the series once again to be more in the mood to finish Calamity. If you haven’t touched this book series yet, you are missing out on one epic sci-fi adventure.

Imagine a world where X-Men exist, but they are evil. In Steelheart, the mutants are called Epics born out of the rise of a bright orange star called Calamity. Once this star rose into the night sky, humans were given powers. David Charleston as a young boy witnesses his father murdered by a high epic known as Steelheart. Every epic has a weakness that can be used to destroy them. Steelheart’s weakness is unknown which makes him more powerful. David ultimately joins the Reckoners, a group of humans whose ultimate goal is to end the Epics and encourage the human race to fight back. This book details David’s taste of revenge to burn Steelheart along with his work alongside the Reckoners.

David as a character is just a cute, nerdy kid. He’s incredibly smart at detecting the weakness of epics. He’s also fearless; he puts his life on the line multiple times to get more information or to save a team member. Steelheart is absolutely brutal in his rule over the city of New Cago aka. Chicago. He’s the ultimate foe and it’s so satisfying to read about David and Steelheart’s showdown in the last couple of chapters of the book.

Besides David, the Reckoner’s team are great side characters. Megan is the one who puts herself at risk. Tia is the genius who constantly is chugging Coca-Cola. Prof is stoic, cold yet caring. Abraham is the weapons expert while Cody brings the humor with a mix of a Scottish / Southern accent.

There are multiple twists in this book I didn’t see coming. Re-reading the book was more enjoyable this time because I could pick up certain clues to lead to the twist at the end. I’m not going to spoil anything because it’s worth reading about for the first time.

Steelheart blew me away with its story, setting, and character development. This series is great for any comic book fan because I felt a lot of correlation between the X-Men comic book characters. Now, onto re-reading Firefight. 

When I was young, me and a neighbor would hang out and play Scooby-Doo Mystery of the Fun Park Phantom during sleepovers. I would usually play Velma because she was quirky and weird like me. Scooby Doo will always make me think back on my childhood and playing PC games. DC Comics owns the Hanna-Barbera license and decided to release titles with the Scooby Doo characters, Flintstones, and the Wacky Races. After a trip to the comic book store, I picked up the first volume of Scooby Doo Apocalypse. It’s a flawed comic book, but it’s fun.

Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby, and Fred all get a makeover in this updated comic. Something awful has hit the world the gang is a part of, people are being transformed into cannibalistic creatures and food becomes scarce. Can these pesky kids uncover the reason for this atrocity!?

One flawed part of this comic is the writing. It often felt repetitive at times, especially in the way Daphne and Velma interacted. In every issue was there an argument between Daphne and Velma about the cause of the epidemic. I don’t need to read about the same fight between two characters in multiple issues. Another flaw I found is in Daphne’s revamped personality. She was constantly abusive to Velma and Fred which seems so unlike her cartoon counterpart. Daphne can still be a badass female protagonist without punching or throwing things at other people. I hope in the future trades of this series that Daphne is improved upon and develops more as a character.

I do happen to like each character’s revamped look. Daphne may be obnoxious, but I like her purple camo look. Shaggy even looks a bit more hip along with Scooby who’s a technologically advanced super dog. Velma is the only character that didn’t really receive that treatment, but I feel her character is fine on her own.

I wasn’t expecting much from this comic, but it did surprise me how enjoyable of a read it was. There were elements I certainly wasn’t a fan of, but it didn’t completely turn me away from this series. DC Comics made a valiant effort in creating an interesting twist on my favorite childhood cartoon.