#battyaboutbooksreviews

[just0nemorepage]

Shout-Out Saturday is a weekly feature on my blog to promote one randomly picked lesser-known book blog in order to help it receive a little more attention. Please consider checking them out, following them, or maybe even sending a message! Every URL featured here will be added for good in the top half of my fellow bookish blogs page. If you are interested in being featured, please fill out this form.

This week’s bookish blog: @battyaboutbooksreviews

Name: Jazelle.

Age: 31.

Lives in: USA.

Favorite books: The Lunar Chronicles ; The Skin and It's Girl ; We Free the Stars ; This Is How You Lose the Time War ; The Night Circus ; Girls of Paper and Fire ; An Ember in the Ashes.

Unique blog features: Original Posts ; Book Reviews ; Book Lists ; Queer Books.

Also found on: Instagram ; Goodreads ; Literal ; Threads.

“A nocturnal, book-eating bat. Fueled by coffee & powerful prose. 🌒🦇🌘”

[qbdatabase]

1, 4, 5!

How many books did you read this year?

uhh not very many lol I've been super busy, but I'd guess somewhere between 20-30?

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I really like Andrew Joseph White, but I do have to be in the right headspace to read his books. They are very, very good, with excellent autistic + transgender rep, but also go deep into the pain and violence inflicted on us

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Either fantasy or romance, but I have been trying to branch out the last few years to read more Horror and Mystery!

[jhezenkoss]

4,8,15

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Perhaps a bit early to say an author I love, but I really liked most of C.J. Cherryh's books that I read, so I'm looking forward to reading more!

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

My one yearly goal is read 100 books, and I'm currently at 93, so I'd say I'm well on my way to accomplishing that. This year I set a secondary goal of reading every pre-1980 Hugo/Nebula nominated book by a woman (and also added World Fantasy Award later) and I'm 6 away from that one.

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

Of the awards I checked, nominees/winners from this year that I've read:

4.5/5 T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone (Hugo, Nebula, Locus Fantasy)

4/5 Katherine Addison, The Grief of Stones (Locus Fantasy)

4/5 Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (Hugo, Locus scifi)

3.5/5 Rebecca Roanhorse, Fevered Star (Locus Fantasy)

3/5 Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth (Hugo, Nebula, Locus Fantasy)

2.5/5 R.F. Kuang, Babel (Nebula, Locus Fantasy, World Fantasy Award)

2/5 Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves (Locus Fantasy)

2/5 Neon Yang, The Genesis of Misery (Locus First Novel)

2/5 Nghi Vo, Siren Queen (Locus Fantasy, World Fantasy Award)

2/5 Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes (Hugo, Nebula, Locus First Novel)

My favorite, by far, is Nettle & Bone, with runner up The Grief of Stones. As you can perhaps see, I did Not like most of them lmao

[keanureevesisbae]

 Do you have a favorite quote from any of the books you read?

Oh my goodness, I totally forgot this was in my inbox, but i will answer the question nonetheless! Thank you so much for your question!

It's very hard to pick just one, because I am a sucker for good quotes and annotate the shit out of my books, but for this ask I will go for a quote from the long game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes:

"I might actually kill you," Emilia told him. She turned to Henry. "I might actually kill him."

"I would prefer you did not," Henry told her. "Though I certainly understand the impulse."

[the-haiku-bot]

“I read that book you

haven’t stopped talking about”

is a love language.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

"I read that book you haven't stopped talking about" is a love language.

[niamhs-reading-adventures]

17 and 20!

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord surprised me a little. Went into it expecting YA contemporary tropes galore, and while I did get that, it was executed well enough that I didn't get annoyed by them.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Considering I rarely read books the same year they're released, I was only ever anticipating 3, with the top of that list being Kaldoras by Lynette Noni. It met and exceeded my expectations as an epilogue to one of my favourite series, especially given that it was only announced 2 months before publication so there wasn't a lot of time to work up the hype 😅

Thanks for asking!

Questions from the End-of-Year Book Ask

[bee-barnes-author]

28 and 53!

28: How many books would you say you own?

I have heading into 200 physical editions, and then maybe 15 digital editions.

53: Is there a snack or drink you indulge in while reading?

I try not to snack in general because I have poor impulse control, so I stick with water while I read.

[theselkiesea]

Can you name a book that kept you up at night? 

Thank you for asking, sweetie! I'm going to interpret these three ways for extra book recommendations 😁

● Kept me up reading all night.

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black. When this was released, I immediately reserved it at my library, and when I got the notification that it had arrived for me, I raced around to get it as the library was shutting in 30 minutes.

I sat on the sofa and read it way into the early hours of the morning. My dad went to bed, said goodnight to me, then woke up and saw that I hadn't moved from my spot.

● Kept me up because I couldn't stop thinking about it.

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo. This book was weird. The best I can describe it is like a tornado of madness, and I loved it. There was a particular character who I was so confused about, and I thought about them constantly until everything was revealed.

● Kept me up at night cause it spooked me.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. It's been a long time since I've read this book, and from my memory, I think it's rather forgettable. However, having said that, there was one moment that got me shook up, and it took longer to fall asleep haha

[duckprintspress]

Yoinked from @profiterole-reads

Make a poll with five of your favorite books (...series...) and let bookblr pick its favorite out of those, and tag five more.

Tagging, hm. @battyaboutbooksreviews @spacefruitpress @qbdatabase @lgbtqreads and @thedisabilitybookarchive

[sixofravens-reads]

25 in 2025

Tagged by @bigcats-birds-and-books (thanks!!!)

(kinda stealing Bigcats' colour-coding idea lol. Divided into 5 fiction TBR books, 5 nonfiction TBR books, 5 library holds, 5 manga/comics, and 5 rereads. Also, some of these are series, whoops!)

The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed

Lapvona - Ottessa Moshfegh

A Day of Fallen Night - Samantha Shannon

The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo

Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan

A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages - Anthony Bale

I'll Be Gone in the Dark - Michelle McNamara

Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Serviceberry - Robin Wall Kimmerer

Strange, Spooky, and Supernatural - Mike Browne

Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado

Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors

The City in Glass - Nghi Vo

Graveyard Shift - M. L. Rio

Hour of the Star - Clarice Lispector

At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender - Shou Arai

Clover - CLAMP

Know Your Station - Sarah Gailey & Liana Kangas

Monstress - Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda

Saga - Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples

The Immortals - Tamora Pierce

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

Borne - Jeff Vandermeer

Get in Trouble - Kelly Link

Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab

I tag @battyaboutbooksreviews @dandelion-network @bibliophilecats and anyone else who wants to do this!

[just0nemorepage]

Shout-Out Saturday is a weekly feature on my blog to promote one randomly picked lesser-known book blog in order to help it receive a little more attention. Please consider checking them out, following them, or maybe even sending a message! Every URL featured here will be added for good in the top half of my fellow bookish blogs page. If you are interested in being featured, please fill out this form.

This week’s bookish blog: @battyaboutbooksreviews

Name: Jazelle.

Age: 29.

Lives in: USA.

Favorite books: Arabian Nights ; The Wrath & the Dawn ; Alice in Wonderland ; Peter Pan ; The Lunar Chronicles.

Unique blog features: Book Reviews ; Original Posts.

Also found on: Instagram ; Goodreads ; Twitter.

“A nocturnal, book-eating bat. Fueled by coffee & powerful prose. 🌒🦇🌘”

[profiterole-reads]

Hi!

I was wondering if you had any wlw Christmas book rec.

Thank you

Hi!

Check out the comments in this post by @thereadingchallengechallenge.

Also, @battyaboutbooksreviews is preparing a rec list of queer books for the holidays.

[authorlaurawinter]

Tagged by @battyaboutbooksreviews

Make a poll with five of your favorite books (...series...) and let booklr pick its favorite out of those, and tag five more.

Is this me just begging more people to read my favorites so I can gush about them? Yes.

Tagging @ashen-crest @inks-books @abalonetea @xenascribbles and anyone else who wants to play!!

[aretherebooksahead]

It feels great to get back home to find I got included in another tag game! Thank you @tinynavajoreads Here are my answers to the Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag for 2024

** Number of books you’ve read so far this year: 19! In recent years I have averaged just under 1 per week about 50 a year so I’m a little behind but that’s okay. Who knows what the rest of year has in store!

** Best book you’ve read so far this year: 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I didn’t want to like it but dammit he got me

** Best sequel you've read so far this year: I don’t think I’ve read any sequels this year yet

** New release you haven't read yet, but want to?: I’m doing a buddy read of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston in August. I have heard a lot about it so I can’t wait

** Most anticipated release for the second half of the year?: I tend to only find out about books after they are published

** Newest Favorite Character?: The yellow card man in 11/22/63. Favorite isn’t the word I would use but I have not been able to get him out of my head and the attempt on the Orange Man at his rally has only made my obsession with him (the YCM) and the book worse.

** Book that made you cry?: 11/22/63 but you probably already guessed that. I swear I’ve read other books this year lol

** Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)?: If Christmas counts toward this year I got The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night. I haven’t read them yet but when I opened the box I stared at them for a while!

** What books do you need to read by the end of the year?: I am making the commitment now to read at least 5 from my tbr pile. I will randomly pick one for each remaining month

No pressure tagging to @battyaboutbooksreviews @coffee-is-my-lifeblood @therefugeofbooks and anyone else is welcome to join too!

[just0nemorepage]

awh I don't see why not! here's the link to my tag for anyone who wants a promo 🥰

to my booklr community:

hi there! I was wondering if you had any suggestions or requests regarding my posts. what can I do better to provide the content you want? thanks for your help!

[niamhs-reading-adventures]

all questions ending in 2 ;)

2. What is the worst book you have ever read? Hmm... I'm not one to push through a book if it's not enjoyable to read in some way. Some books that I've given low ratings to this year include I'll be the One by Lyla Lee and Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly.

12. Which book will you read next? Still trying to decide between Isle of the Gods by Amie Kaufman or The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

22. Would you want your favorite book to be a movie? Only if it's faithful to the book. There's a lot of amazing moments that I would love to see on screen, but previous movie adaptations of other books make me wary.

32. What is the first book you remember reading? Shirley Barber's Fairytale Puzzle Book. It was a broadbook where the left side side of the double-page spread was a story about fairies and the right side was a 48-piece jigsaw puzzle that somehow related to the story. The illustrations were gorgeous, the stories were simple but easy to read, the jigsaw was entertaining, and I loved that book so much as a 5-year-old.

42. Do you buy new or secondhand books? I tend to buy new, from my local indie bookstore.

Thanks for the questions :)