Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Read in 2014

Hey everyone! I'm here again for Top Ten Tuesday, which as always is brought to us by Broke and Bookish. Today's list is the top ten books I've read in 2014.

1. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

2. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

3. Split Second by Kasie West

4. Let's Get Lost Adi Alsaid

5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

6. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

7. Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith

8. One of Ours by Willa Cather

9. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson 

10. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Overall, it was a rough reading year for me. I'm going to be lucky to finish the year out with 25 books read. Next year, I'm hoping to make more time for reading. Have you read any of these books? What were some of your favorites from 2014? Let me know in the comments.

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors of 2014

Hey everyone. Top Ten Tuesday is brought to us, as always, by the Broke and the Bookish. Today's the list is "New-to-Me Authors of 2014." Of course, I hardly read outside my coursework in 2014, but I do have some new favorite both from my courses and from reading for fun.

1. Dorothy Allison
I think in a lot of the posts I've written since last spring have mentioned her debut novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, but I thought I'd mention it again anyway. I cannot explain how much I enjoyed this book. It's just one of those books that stays with you. I bought her other novel Cavedweller, and I am so excited to read it soon.

2. Richard Yates
This is my other life-changing read from last spring, though I would say less to the extent than Dorothy Allison. Revolutionary Road made me think a lot and was an incredible reading experience. Sadly, I do not own more of his work, but I'm interested in reading more.

3. Morgan Matson
Early in summer, there was a lot of buzz around her new book Since You've Been Gone. I put it on hold at my local library and decided while I was still hyped, I would read Second Chance Summer since it's one of her earlier books. And it wrecked me. It just wrecked me. Definitely a fun summer read, especially if you enjoy crying.

4. Gayle Forman
Once upon a time, I bought a copy of If I Stay at my favorite used book shop because I heard it was good and I got on clearance so it was around $1.00. Flash forward to RT Convention in Kansas City where I awkwardly got my book signed even though I had never read it. Flash forward to last summer when the movie was coming out, and I thought to myself, "I should probably read If I Stay." I read it on my flight from Atlanta. And I cried.

What are some of your favorite authors you've read in 2014? let me know if the comments.

We Were Liars by E Lockhart Book Review

From Goodreads

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Published: May 13, 2014 by Delacorte Press

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE

With all of the hype surrounding this book, I was trying to not build this book up to much so I wouldn't be disappointed. I can't say I wasn't, but I can't say the hype is undeserved either.

I know everyone says to go into this book with as little information as possible, but that is what really makes the book so intriguing. You try to figure out the book along the way, giving it a mysterious element. I love the way the story is told, jumping around to different times throughout Cadence's life. The writing is really well done and the style fits well within the story. 

The ending was a little disappointing for me. I understood why the. Characters did what they did, but by not being fifteen, I was able to see the flaws in their plan as they concocted it and was just sitting there saying, No and why? While I didn't particularly like the way the book ended, I thought it was well done and was disappointed in myself for not seeing it sooner. 

There was only one thing I was confused about. I understand the thematic implications of why the book is called We Were Liars, but I can't figure out why they were called the liars?  Based on the information given to use, it didn't seem to me that they did an excessive amount of lying. 

January Goals

Hey, everyone! I decided January would ultimately be the month to focus on perhaps the most popular New Years Resolution of all time- Exercise and General Health (not related to food). I started exercising at the very end of last month and was really starting to enjoy it. I found if I exercised early in the day, I would feel better for the rest of the day and sleep better at night.

1. Exercise at least three times a week
I find it silly to commit to exercising every day; some days are busy and some days just aren't made for exercising. However, I think three times a week is a reasonable commitment to make with my schedule. I plan to be doing workouts from this calendar (this tumblr is probably the only fitness tumblr I follow because it's the best). I'm not sure which calendar I will be following yet/probably either the student one or the beginner one. Either way, I'm sure it will be fun.

2. Attend one of my university's rec center's classes
My university has a relatively nice rec center that offers all kinds of fitness classes. Every semester, I say I'm going to go to one of these fitness classes and look at the schedule to try to figure out which one works best for me. Then I never go because I have this irrational thing about going out in workout clothes/exercising in front of people. I'm not sure what this stems from, but I want to definitely beat this fear (?) and go to a class!

3. Go to sleep earlier/sleep better
This is the goal that makes this general health. I want to start getting up earlier; therefore I need to go to bed earlier. I want to be fully rested and refreshed for my early mornings. This goal is probably the simplest to understand, but it is also probably going to be the one that is most difficult to achieve.

In addition to these goals, I am hoping to read 50 books in 2014! You can follow my progress either here or on my Goodreads.

What are your goals for January?

2014

I'm not usually one to be overly enthusiastic about a new year. Usually, I'm with the masses going, "It's just another year / you can start change within yourself at any point." I never understood the big deal with New Years Resolutions so I never made any or felt compelled to stick with them.

I'm feeling a little different this year. When looking back on 2013, I've had some good times. But I've also had some things happen that I think I could have handled better/prevented. Reflecting on this, I just feel compelled to focus on self-improvement. Unfortunately, I have no clear direction on how I want to go about that, but I am working on it.

This year I wanted to make goals for each month that would focus on me just becoming better. A better friend, girlfriend, overall human being, whatever. "Better" is really subjective, but it is also relatively easy to obtain. After all, if I'm doing slightly better than yesterday, then I am automatically doing better.

I don't know what exactly I'm going to focus on improving each month; I think for January I'm just going to focus on exercise since I started on that before the end of 2013. We will see though, as I haven't one hundred percent committed to that yet. I will hopefully have a post on my goals for January up soon. My bookish/blog-focused goals will go up next Tuesday with Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday. Once I have goals for each month lined up, I will try to post them and at the end of the month, let you all know how I did.

Do you have any goals for 2014 or even just the month of January? What are they? Leave them in the comments.