library

The Year of the Audiobook (And Library)

This was the year I discovered it was hard to be a mother, work, eat, sleep, and read.

This was the year I discovered audiobooks from the library.

Up until this year the only audiobooks I listened to were Harry Potter narrated by Jim Dale (essentially on repeat, don’t judge. Also Jim Dale is infinitely better than Stephen Fry, I’ll fight you).

This year I read 27 audiobooks. 27! That blows my mind! Using the Overdrive app, I listened to books I would have never gotten around to reading otherwise – non-fiction, so many contemporaries, and a ton of diverse reads.

Here are my top five audiobooks of 2017 in no particular order:

Hunger by Roxane Gay, narrated by the author.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, narrated by Kirsten Potter

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, narrated by the author

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Dear Martin by Nic Stone, narrated by Dion Graham

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Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, narrated by Steve West

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Runner up:

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, narrated by Jorjeana Marie

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Each of these novels entranced me. The narrators took me out of reality straight into the story. I laughed, more often than not I cried, I was breathless. While I will always read print books, consider me an audiobook convert.

Georgia Peach to Tarheel

Hello Hello, it’s been a minute. The short version: I had a baby (a happy, sweet boy Oliver), I left my job in Atlanta and moved back to Raleigh, NC with a new job and we just bought a new house. The past year and a half have been a whirlwind to say the least.

Having a new baby will switch up your reading habits that’s for sure. I used to be one of those annoying people who had to have ‘real [physical] books’ to read but it’s a hell of a lot easier to breastfeed or rock a baby with an e-reader. Once I went back to work, audiobooks from the library became my main way to devour stories (they still are). My physical books these days include mostly board books.

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Here are a few of my favorites books from the past year:

Uprooted by Naomi Novak
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire

I’m trying to find my way back to myself after becoming a mom so I hope to be posting here more often, the topics may vary a little more – books, toddlers, pets, home, NC but it’ll all be me. I’d love to hear what your favorite book of the last few months has been!

Bookish Christmas

Have yourself a very bookish Christmas

Let your library be full

Next year all your books will be off your TBR

Judy Garland may be rolling over in her grave at that butchering of syllables but what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her!

This Christmas I received 2 books and 3 bookish gifts <3. I also treated myself to a number of comic books and graphic novels which will appear in a future post! When it comes to asking for books as gifts, I tend to ask for books off my TBR list which are out in paperback. New hardcover books, especially adult books (versus YA) can be very expensive. Underneath the Christmas tree were The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd and Unsouled by Neal Shusterman. Both books were courtesy of MIL and SIL.

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I have been wanting to read The Madman’s Daughter for quite some time now which is a retelling of the Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. Unsouled is the third book in the Unwind Dystology from Neal Shusterman, there are a total of 4 books in the series (Undivided is the last one). The TBR has been growing for some time especially in light of my recent comic book binge however I am very excited to read both of these books.

I also received 3 bookish gifts 🙂 🙂 – library card socks!! and Fangirl themed earrings! and this notepad from the Library of Congress with a quote from Thomas Jefferson – I cannot live without books ❤

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Currently I’m reading The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley, the sixth book in the Flavia de Luce mystery series. If you have never read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I highly recommend it. Flavia de Luce is a spunky girl in the 1950’s English countryside solving crimes, she’s one helluva chemist! See my next post for my current comic book reads!