It’s April, and that means it’s time to update you all on my Clearing The Hoard – Bookwyrm Challenge! I ended up reading The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, and I have to admit that I wasn’t a fan. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as amazing as everyone has made it out to be. Maybe it’s because I’m 30 or that I’m not a massive fan of the Christmas season, but this one was a dud to me. In the end, I gave it three caffeinated stars. It was just a meh to me. I decided that I was going to give away my copy, and my sister claimed my autographed copy! She will be the proud owner of The Polar Express, and I’ll have a bit of free space to add another autographed book!
How my shelves have changed:
Here are the books I’ve given away since my very first post:
Here are the books I’ve given away in March*:
- Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg – Autographed
- Rhythm, Chord & Malykhin by Mariana Zapata – Autographed (DNFd due to transphobic jokes
- Revelations by Misty D. Billman – Autographed
- Disciples by Misty D. Billman – Autographed
- Royal Elves by Misty D. Billman – Autographed
- The Pit by Misty D. Billman – Autographed
- The Old Mine by Misty D. Billman – Autographed
- *Due to COVID-19, I won’t be leaving the house any time soon, so I am setting these aside and will give them away at a later date
I have also added a few new books onto my shelves:
- Deal With The Devil by Kit Rocha – ARC!! OMG!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!
- Learn My Lesson by Katee Robert – Autographed
- I’m slightly cheating this month because I found three boxes of books in my attic, so I’m going through them to see what books I’m keeping and what books I’m going to give away.
With the additions to my bookshelves, my percentages have changed a bit. I have such a large library that it’s hard to see the difference though.
Total books owned: 725 (6 Less!!!)
Reference Books*: 64
Readable Books Owned: 661
Books Read: 145 (21.94%) percentage changed 0.20
Books Unread: 505 (76.40%) was 511 (76.61%)
Books Read but not remembered: 11 (1.66%)
With it being the first Thursday of April, I have pulled out the handy dandy Book TBR Jar and pulled three colors.
The books I pulled out of the jar are the following:
Blue:
RENT by Jonathan Larson
Pages: 160
Genre: Play/Theater
Publication Year: 1997
Where I got this book: I’ve been obsessed with RENT since High School so it was only natural that I bought this book the second I saw it.
Goodreads Summary:
In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can’t: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds.Rent has single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and taken America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, reflecting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page — through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show’s creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent’s life-affirming message all the more poignant.
Green:
Everything I Need to Know About Love I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow
Pages: 96
Genre: Picture Book / Romance / Non-Fiction? I honestly don’t know what to classify this book as.
Publication Year: 2014
Where I got this book: I bought this book at a Library book sale! They’re so much fun & I was so excited to find this in the pile of books.
Goodreads Summary
Next in the EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW… series comes a book perfect for your valentine, your family, or YOU. Charming and witty as ever, this new treasury of insights reveals that, for all the love-related mystery and confusion we face as adults, those Little Golden Books may have had the answers all along.
Pink:
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Pages: 376
Genre: Romance
Publication Year: 2016
Where I got this book: Way back when I used to subscribe to Colleen Hoover’s Bookworm Box! This was in one of the boxes!
Goodreads Summary:
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up
— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
As always, I’m not sure which one I’m going to pick up. I’m not sure that I am ready for a tear jerker though so I might avoid It Ends With Us. I know that many people LOVE it but I am not sure I’m in the right headspace for it. Though, it crying could be cathartic. I’m leaning towards RENT because I love the play so much but we’ll just have to wait and see!
If you had to choose what book would you choose?
OOh it isn’t even a debate for me – I’d read RENT all over again (or for the first time!) I think I either have this version of the book or another one similar to it but expanded?! Mum and Dad surprised me with it when one of the editions were first published – I was seriously addicted to the music of RENT, the story, the musical, ALL of it. Still am. I was so wicked happy when they made it one of the LIVE musicals on network tv – truly one of the best experiences watching it and of course, dearly emotionally losing it all in the same night – from the highs to the lows, RENT hits all the emotional notes of your soul.
So, I’d grab RENT, then my headphones and spin the original Broadway soundtrack or the network cast disc in me ears!
I was incredibly fortunate to see RENT live at the Neverland theater about 2 years before they left. I also got to see RENT at the Buell (our big theater here in CO with Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp. It was one of the best experiences I have had. It was FRONT ROW! I actually made eye contact with Anthony Rapp!
I’m so glad to have gotten a book from you, especially since you were able to send it out before having to stay inside!
I’m so happy that I was able to send it before the lockdown. I’m sure I could have gone to the post office during the stay at home orders but I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about it.