Bookish Milestones and Favorite Reads of 2016

There are many bad things that happened in 2016, but I have to say it has been a great reading—and fangirling—year for me. I found two new favorite poets, I found some new favorite authors, a bunch of new favorite books, and a series that give me asthma attack, anxiety attack, and makes me cry for months (I'm looking at you, Sarah J. Maas. I'm still crying over Empire of Storms. How dare you?) There are so many great bookish things that happened to me this year, so let's start from my bookish milestones in 2016:

The Mission Song

“A good man knows when to sacrifice himself,

a bad man survives but loses his soul.”

The Mission Song is a spy thriller novel written by John  le Carré. I pick this book to fulfill one of Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt: "A book with a protagonist who has your occupation." Well, if you keep reading this review, you will know what my job is, or rather a part of my job.

A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1)

“Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.”

A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) is a Young Adult romance fantasy book by Sarah J. Maas. This book is the first installment of a trilogy with the same title. ACOTAR is also a retelling of Beauty and the Beast—not the one made by Disney, but the original fairy tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve—mixed with Tam Lin and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Since I am a sucker for mythology, fairy tale, and folklore retelling, I was so excited to read this book.

Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2)

“She crossed over death to call me. I crossed through Hell to find her.”

What’s that? Did I made a pentagram for this book? Nah, it’s just a star, I promise. ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º) Girl of Nightmares is the second and final book of Anna duology by Kendare Blake. The story picks up months after the event in Anna Dressed in Blood. Cas couldn’t move on. He’s seeing Anna everywhere. He see her in his dreams, and sometime he sees him in waking nightmares. But Cas noticed that these aren’t just daydreams. He doesn’t know what happened to Anna, but he knows something is wrong. Now Cas is trying to look for an answer, and he will give everything to returns the favor and make sure that Anna is okay.

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”

It’s October, and that means it’s Halloween month, and that means I have to read at least one horror book. I just feel like I have to, because I like ghost stories. So when I saw that Retri from @darklingreads and a couple of other bookstagram made a bookclub and chose Anna Dressed in Blood as their October read, I decided to read it too.

Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5)

“You will find that one does not deal with Celaena Sardothien. One survives her.”

This is my non-spoiler review for Empire of Storms, if you want to know a more detailed review about this book you can go here. If you want to go one step further and discuss the theory and prediction for the next book in this series with me, you can go here. If you haven’t read other books from Throne of Glass series, you might want to avoid this post and read the series first. If you need a reason to start reading this series, you can read this post on why you should read Throne of Glass series.

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1)

“It was an annoying name to have. People tended to spell in Mangus, rhymes with Angus. I always corrected them: No, it’s Magnus, rhymes with swagness.”

Do you feel the sass already? Because I do. God, I can’t even write this without at least chuckling. So, The Sword of Summer is the first installment in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, Rick Riordan’s fourth mythology-based children fantasy book series. After two book series revolve around Greek mythology, and one book series revolves around Egyptian mythology, Uncle Rick finally write something about my second favorite mythology, Norse.

The Armageddon Rag

"What's the use of messing around in things you don't understand?"

The Armageddon Rag is a mystery/fantasy book written by George R. R. Martin, who I’m sure you know by his well-known and most beloved works, A Song of Ice and Fire. This book revolves around Sandy Blair, a journalist turns novelist who investigates the murder of a rock promoter, James Lynch and its weird circumstances around it. This circumstances set off Blair to not only find out who killed Lynch but also launched a suspicion towards Blair’s favorite rock band, The Nazgul, and their connection to Lynch. During his investigation, Blair unfolds many secrets surrounding, Lynch, The Nazgul, and the occult mystery surrounding rock and roll world at that time.

Critical Eleven

“Expectation is a cruel bastard, isn’t it?”

Critical Eleven is my entry for this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge on the category ‘A Book Recommended by Family Members.’ This book is recommended by my little cousin A, who is actually a 14 years old girl, and that makes me have a mixed feeling. I tell you why later. So, do you ever feel something like, that moment when you met someone new, and then you feel like that person kind of resonates with you on personal level. But then, when you takes your time and get to know them more, it turns out that they’re the kind of person that you despise? It’s like when you receive a birthday gift, and the wrapping is so pretty and the size is huge, but the inside is just full of shredded papers and styrofoam bits and the actual gift is kind of meh? Well, that’s how I feel about this book.

Dangerous Girls

“Wouldn’t we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?”

I’ve got to start this review with cussing, sorry, but HOLY FUCKING HELL!!!! This book, this damn book! I don’t understand why are there so few people talking about this beautiful book? AAARGGHH!!! Okay, I need to calm down and carry on with the review.

The Night Circus

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.  You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

This is gonna sounds so cheesy, but that quote above is exactly how I feel when I finished this book. The Night Circus is a stand alone fantasy book written by Erin Morgenstern. The story revolved between two magicians who set against each other in a magical challenge by their venerable masters with Le Cirque des Rêves as their battle ground. Things get complicated when the two of them start to fall for each other and their thread of fates got tangled with others who live inside the circus.

And Still Peace Did Not Come

“Reopening old wounds will be painful, but in the end, the scar will be smaller.”

When I pick this book, it was meant to fulfill the ‘Political Memoir’ category on this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. But, after I read this book, I realize that this book isn’t only a political memoir  of a country, but also an autobiography of a woman.  This is a woman journey to help rebuild and bring peace to her country. This book tells stories about Liberia journey through their Civil War, or like they called it in this book, their own version of ‘World War I’ and ‘World War II’. War that last from 1989 to 2003, between the government, rebels, and warlords. Wars that make the lives of so many Liberian children turn into nightmares and terror, as they forced them to be child soldiers. It’s also a story of a woman named Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna, who largely escaped the worst effect of the war, but ended up as a journalist trying to bring peace to her country by talking about what really happened in these wars.