Well summer ended for me on Friday so here‘s one last summery book thought: I saw a teen reading Heir of Fire in an elevator on our vacation two weeks ago. I told her that the next book was my favorite and she looked at me like I was a crazy person. By the end of the week, I ran into her again and she was halfway through Queen of Shadows. She may still believe I‘m just an elevator weirdo, but I applaud her summer reading nonetheless.

I‘ve been told since I started teaching that a huge number of teachers leave the profession in their first 5 years. I‘m about to start year 6. I avoided being a part of that statistic, but I‘ve understood burnout since year 1.

Well I‘m halfway through the introduction and I feel like I love this book already.

So Hannah was 1000% right when she told me I needed to read Furyborn and Kingsbane. I didn‘t love the idea of angels and gave up on it when I‘d started Furyborn before, but once I got deeper into the story I was hooked! When is the third one coming out???

Well this book was unsettling. On one hand, it was a surprisingly hopeful message from the author as she works to rebuild her life. Her story of faith plays a central role in the story.

On the other hand, reading about BTK and his crimes as she writes about coming to terms with the truth gave me nightmares. I have family in Wichita and watched the news as a middle school student when he was caught. Scary stuff.

Well I haven‘t posted for 5 months (#teachersoflitsy) but I‘ve read two books this weekend and am back in the swing of reading thanks to summer break(🙌). This was the last book I posted and I‘ve finally finished it tonight!

This was probably my favorite in the Grishaverse so far as I‘m more familiar with the world and terms. Not sure I loved the final surprise but I‘ll save final judgment for when I read the sequel.

What a lovely surprise in my amazon box today!!

Still in the preface and already had to stop for a quote!

Finished 2018 with 2 from my Litsy stack.

Final count for the year is 108! @BookFreakOut did we tie? :)

Not sure what count to go for in 2019 yet 😬

Happy new year to all! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Doubled my goal for the year! Woohoo!

Cute book of introvert themed comics

You know you married well when you get this in a text from your husband over his lunch 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Tagged by @BookFreakOut and saw it in time for it to still be Friday!

1. You guys. All the time.
2. Two
3. Litsy, Goodreads, library app Axis360
4. I spent the day helping my parents move into a new house so the only thing I can do is lay and hope to be able to move tomorrow! 😬😬😬
5. @JacintaMCarter have you already been tagged? Maybe I should've checked.

This one took me a lot longer than I had originally thought it would but once I got past the first third I flew through to the end. Now to wait for the finale!

Loved the podcast format interspersed with Sadie's story throughout the book. Reminded me of Serial and S-town and drew me in immediately. Well-written and well-paced story with realistic characters that reminded me of people I grew up around in my small hometown. Received this arc from #NetGalley

#NetGalley ARC, out in October: Loved the end to this trilogy. Lots of loose ends from the second book were tied up. Watching the Hadley family grow and change as they continue to face the difficulties in their society is rewarding throughout the story, and the Jardine family members' development is also fascinating.

Won this prize pack on an Instagram giveaway! Hadn‘t heard of this author before and am looking forward to reading!

#BookMail !!! Excited to read both of these ASAP!

So we got to see the Belles and Brujas tour yesterday! The blonde head in the front row is mine, on my right is @BookFreakOut and on her right is @Jediash1 - so glad they came to hang out beforehand too! I sadly had to leave early but loved all that I heard from the authors before I had to go.

Woohoo! My goal for the year was a book per week and I hit it! My new goal in my head is 100 by the end of the year but we‘ll see how that goes once school starts back up in August.

Not sure how I hadn‘t read this one yet! Enjoyable story of a 16 year old princess unraveling the mysteries surrounding her and growing as a result.

Checked this out from our elibrary after seeing a publisher post about it. The stories are gripping but also super dark and frightening. I got about a third of the way through today before I decided finishing it was probably not the best thing for my brain and anxiety. Praying none of the stories find their way into my dreams tonight! 😳😫

I had no idea this was a sequel until after reading the book. I felt like there was a lot of backstory just hinted at instead of fully explained but I thought maybe the author just didn‘t want to get in depth there. Nope! There‘s a whole other book. Now to read it. Props to this one for being understandable and engaging for someone coming in without knowledge of the first.

Loved the premise for this book. Their first meetings had me laughing out loud. I did feel like some of the subplots were a little tedious and didn‘t seem necessary, but overall this was a cute story and the cultural references I was unfamiliar with were fun to look into.

This one made me ugly cry right before going to the dentist. Story of a girl who seems to be the only one worried that her friend isn‘t contacting her or showing up to school. Similarly powerful to The Hate U Give in shining a light on the painful reality that missing girls of color are not prioritized.

This is my first adult mystery/thriller since Gone Girl and I enjoyed it! Not as intense as others I‘ve read but the plot was tight and moved quickly enough for me to plow through the whole book this afternoon. Thanks @Rachel.Rencher for sending this my a few months ago! :)

Enjoyed this more than the first. Especially loved Broken English.

Finally checked this out from the elibrary after seeing it at Target 100 times and hearing my sister-in-law talk about it. Enjoyed it mostly, some poems really connected with me and some did not.

Good and entertaining story, but I think I was expecting my mind to be more blown after the reviews I‘d seen. I did love the social justice aim and connection the author discusses after the epilogue.

Sorry for the terrible photo crop! This was a quicker read than I expected. Story of how 3 struggling teens happen to fall into each other‘s stories for one day and how they impact each other. Really engaging - I cared about how all three would end up by the end of the story.

I‘ve been on Litsy hiatus due to school wrapping up but will try to post a few now :) I loved most of this story but was sad there wasn‘t more to it (my head knew it was a novella but my heart wanted it to be an enormous novel), so am giving it a so-so but feeling guilty about it since it is partly due to my unrealistic expectations... looking forward to the next full length books in this world!

Color me officially impressed that Litsy had this title in its database.

Cleaning out my classroom cabinets as I prepare to move classrooms and I found a stash of books with unnecessarily disturbing covers from the 80s. This was the grand prize winner. #teachersoflitsy #bewareofthecabinets

The good news is Amazon changed my delivery date from May 7 to May 2. The bad news is I know my book is at the Amazon warehouse in my city and my hopes are officially up that Amazon will surprise me and deliver it tomorrow.

Pick times 10000. The Thunderhead was a fascinating character. The ending was so well done but now I‘m unhappy I found out about this series before it is finished!

Free book PSA for US Littens: Amazon is giving away 9 translated Kindle books from around the world for free now till April 23!

The writing in this story fit so well with the high school setting, and I enjoyed the story more than I had originally anticipated. The characters as a whole were very believable and fitting for Simon‘s journey.

I enjoyed the perspective this book shared of a Mexican-American teen dealing with the unexpected loss of her sister and the effects of that loss on her family, but the narrative seemed to hop all over the place in the last third or so of the book. #LitsyAtoZ #LetterI

Loved this free verse novel about a teenage girl/poet trying to find her voice. Reminded me a lot of one of my students who has had some struggles this year and loves to write poetry to help herself process. #LitsyAtoZ #LetterP

When your favorite local dog park is a setting in a book 🐕 🐶 🐕 🐶

#LetterN of #LitsyAtoZ! This was on a list I keep on my phone of books other people say I should read and I‘m glad I finally did read this one! I don‘t do a lot of science fiction but the plot was well paced and kept me interested and I thought the interview format was a fun change from the norm too!

Apparently Garbage isn‘t getting enough attention. He just snuggled onto my forearm and elbow, effectively interrupting me as I start part four of this book about scientists unearthing a giant alien artifact, told in interview form. Fascinating read, just a little hard to turn even digital pages with a 15 pound cat on my arm... 😁😻 #catsofLitsy

The first book I read by this author (We Were Liars) totally blew my mind. With this one, partly because I have a sense of the author‘s style and partly because the word fraud is in the title, nothing was as shocking. The narrative is told mostly in reverse, similar to All the Missing Girls. Even without the element of surprise, I started this last night and finished today so it was a gripping and fast read!

So putting my library app on my phone has made reading so much more doable for my life. This book surprised me in so many places! Darker and a tad more violent than what I usually go for but this author creates worlds that are just fascinating.

Mad props to @BookFreakOut for keeping things rolling and making things real for the #KCLitsyMeetup! If you live in the Midwest or will be in the area on April 21, check out the info and sweet graphic I'm sure she created just for us on her page! If you don't live in the Midwest but want to help spread the word to any of your Litsy friends, please do! #Hannahismyhero #JoCoLibrary

Finally found this one at my favorite Half-Price Books (every Half-Price books is my favorite) and after I bought it I found this signature card inside. What a fun bonus!

When your mom is retiring after 33 years of teaching and offers you first dibs on her classroom library, you fill up your entire trunk with books (and book themed stuffed animals) and then try to figure out how to not freak out your husband with said trunk-full of books when it‘s time to pack up and drive home. My home library grew by a couple hundred and I also took a couple of boxes to my own classroom. Yay books!

Super belated thank you to @Rachel.Rencher for her generous and fun moving giveaway! I am so excited to get into these reads that are outside of my normal! Not pictured are the adorable tiny whales and the card they arrived in, a box of chocolates (already eaten), and a journal (which I do not plan to eat). Also, you can‘t see it in the picture but we are getting an Easter snow in the Midwest today! April fools from spring I guess!

I so enjoy this author. This reminded me somewhat of Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier, but set in Samurai era Japan and slightly less dark. Maybe. Enjoyed the main character‘s banter with others and inner thoughts throughout the story. Looking forward to the sequel this summer!

Did not love this one. There were elements of positivity near the end, but early on I was questioning finishing it due to the abuse involved. This is not a lighthearted YA fantasy. I finished it because of my curiosity of if it would be redeemed somehow in the end, but did not end up a fan. Beautiful cover and interesting world though!