From My Corner of the Universe

This was beautiful to see.  I think I’m going to celebrate and rest this brain for a couple of days.  I’m kidding myself about that.  There’s no rest.  I’ve got 8 books waiting to be read yet.  I am glad to be done with this challenge though.  Now I can continue to read for pure enjoyment.  At the beginning of the challenge, I tried to tell myself that I was reading for enjoyment but as the year got closer to the end and I was behind (by about 16 books!), I felt the stress.  Took a break in July and August and that did it.  I quickly caught up though.

Not every book was chosen by me.  Some were recommendations and a couple were books the authors asked me to review.  Most books were researched by me via Goodreads.com, Amazon, and my local libraries.  Most the books were read on a Kindle my husband got me about three years ago.  Reading so many books makes it hard to remember what really happened in each book, especially that most the books are of the genre, Fantasy and Science Fiction, but there were a few that I truly fell in love with:

1. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.  This is a post apocalyptic paranormal sci-fi that has what might be a romance blooming.  I loved it so much I actually started to re-read it a couple of months back.  I wanted to finish it again before getting the next book in the trilogy (or series).  I thought the next book was going to be released a couple of months back but it’s actually going to be released in January so I’ve stopped reading (I’m halfway) and will pick up again once it gets closer to the new release.

2. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.  This is one great sci-fi.  It’s set mostly in outer space.  I’m pretty sure all sci-fi fans have either read it or watched the movie.  They are both fabulous.

3. The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley.  The writing is beautiful and poetic.  It’s a paranormal historical romance that touched my heart.

Here’s the full list in photos.  If you want to read the author’s synopsis and see my reviews of the books, go here: Pretty Peony’s 100 Books Read in 2014.