I originally planned to post about my 2019 goals today but I feel like the 1st day of the year should be spent relaxing and reflecting and just enjoying it so tomorrow I will share my 2019 and January goals!
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I’ve had years where doing a review is a hard painful process and leaving it behind is something I can’t wait to do. I’ve had years where I don’t want the year to end. 2018 was a good year for me. Not amazing, not bad but a good year.
My goal for the past 4 years has been to do what makes me happy and I feel like I have done that so it was a successful year in my book.
It is easy to highlight the great right? No one has a perfect year, I had struggles with medical issues that plagued me for half the year culminating in a surgery in July that I did not properly allow myself to recover from because I had family visiting and needed to fly to Austin for a job interview. Or how hard it is to get settled into a new place and move in with a boyfriend you haven’t lived with yet at the same time. Or how much I miss my family.
I don’t like the word “Resolution” for some reason when I use it I fail hard and I feel crap about it. So I have a goal and I make smaller more attainable goals throughout the year and this helps me to feel accomplished by the end of the year. I plan to post more about my goals over the next couple days too!
All that being said I looked back at some photos from the year because I take A TON of photos and I wanted to share a few of my favorites!
These are my happy moments of 2018. Of course…this doesn’t include these 1000+ photos of food I took this year…food makes me happy too.
How was your 2018??
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Something that often surprises people who have met me or get to know me is that I read. A lot. Maybe not as much as some of the bloggers I follow but I exceeded my goal this year after blowing last year’s goal out of the water.
This year I used Goodreads and set a goal of 120 books and as of today I am at 141 and I will definitely finish the book I am currently reading before Tuesday.
One of my reading goals for 2019 is to actually write down the books I’ve read and at least a sentence about them. As I was looking back through my books read in 2018 on Goodreads I realized I felt like some of them were so long ago and I couldn’t remember if I liked them or not. Also, I am aiming for 140 for 2019!
Now on to my Top Ten of 2018!
While this is my Top Ten I have listed a few series as 1 but some are actually 3-5 books. From Left to Right…
Throne of Glass Series (1-5) by Sarah J. Maas -There are actually 7 books in the series but I haven’t gotten to the other two yet (damn library makes me wait ages) also because the 5th felt like it should have ended the series for me. I enjoyed this series so much that I read them all back to back fairly quickly. I even had a couple books fall back the wayside and have to be re-checked out because I didn’t want to read anything else at the time.
Tampa by Alissa Nutting – The thing about Tampa was that the topic of pedophilia, which is what she was is disgusting. There is no doubt about that but the book was well written in that as much I was disgusted I also couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen. For this alone I feel like this makes my top ten. It is not often that I read something that bothers me but I don’t want to stop reading.
Crazy Rich Asians Series by Kevin Kwan – When I got the first book I actually started to read it and was like meh…and let it expire. A couple weeks later at a meetup I met a girl who was knee deep in the books and talking about them and she insisted I try again now that she explained that the whole talking about how rich they were and their designer labels was part of the fun. So I picked it up and tried it again, ended up loving it and zipping through all three books.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – So I know people swear by this author but I DNF Truly Madly Guilty so I wasn’t sure if I would like this one. BUT guys it is definitely #2 on this list! I loved the twists and the characters and seriously couldn’t put it down.
A List of Cages by Robin Roe – I found this one through Show Us Your Books link up and I am so glad that I did. This book got me in the feels hard. Super emotional and well written. I hate to give away anything about a book this good other than to say that deals with abuse, friendship, love, life and experiences.
An Ember in the Ashes (#1-3) by Sabaa Tahir – These books…I was waiting for almost two months for the third book dammit. The fact that I enjoyed the second and third books just as much as the first is a big deal to me. The characters are strong, emotional, vicious and so damn interesting.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – It took me a bit to get into the book and it definitely had moments that I sped right through but for the most part I didn’t want to put it down once it got going. I realized looking back at it that the story may have been written in a way that easily makes you feel something for some characters over others and that its also even hard to dislike a character even when you find out the shitty things they have done. I put it on this list specifically because it wasn’t one of those books that I absolutely loved but I am glad that I read it.
We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union – I have always loved Gabrielle Union, there is just something about her that I always sat well with me and this book did nothing but encourage my love for her. You really get to see a side of her that you may not know about. She gets real in this book, and it needs a trigger warning for people who don’t know (like me) going in the kind of life she has had. The best part was that it really felt like you could hear her voice in the whole thing.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah – This book was such a surprise for me. I kept seeing it on everyone’s monthly link up posts and I just wasn’t sure. I finally got it from the library and it ended up being one of the few 5 star books. The description makes it sound so freaking boring and it really isn’t. I would say that this book dragged me in and didn’t let me go, I read it very quickly considering it is a 400+ page book such was that I couldn’t put it down.
Three Dark Crowns (#1-2) by Kendare Blake – I wasn’t expecting to like this series as much as I did (and if the library ever gives me the 3rd I’ll get to finish it!) This family dynamics are crazy. I will say that it didn’t pick up until the 2nd half of the book and then I was dying for the 2nd book.
So those are my Top Ten books of 2018. What books are in your top ten? Do you have any books you absolutely think people should read?
You can check out what I am reading on Goodreads!