Calendar Girls: August 2019

Hey all, Dani here.

I’m going to make today’s post pretty quick. Because honestly after all the walking and panels and geekery of the past five days, I’m actually super tired, and right now I am finding it difficult to focus on writing up these posts. So I’m going to get this one finished and then I’m going to probably make something to eat and try not to fall asleep too early. Damian and I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I don’t think either of us is ready for that.

Anyway, it is the first Monday of the Month and that means it is once again time for a Calendar Girls post.

Calendar Girls is a monthly blog event that was started by Flavia and Melanie, but is now being hosted by Katie and Adrienne. They are all wonderful ladies, and you should check out their lovely blogs. Oh, and if you go to either Katie or Adrienne‘s Calendar Girls post each month, they will have links to all the other wonderful book bloggers participating in this event.

First, more about the Calendar Girls. It is designed to ignite bookish discussions among readers, and was inspired by the 1961 Neil Sedaka song, Calendar Girl.

Just like the song, each month has a different theme. Each blogger picks their favorite book from the theme, and on the first Monday of the month reveals their pick in a Calendar Girls post. Make sure to post back to the hostess’s post, and both Katie and Adrienne will make a master list for the month. The master lists allow everyone to see the other Calendar Girls’ picks and to pop on over to their blogs. Thus, we all get to chat about books and even make some new friends!

Oh, and you don’t have to identify as female to join the Calendar Girls. We welcome readers of all types. So if this sounds like fun for you, join us in all of the fun bookish conversations.

Finally, the August theme is…

Book Lovers Day

Best Book You’ve Read This Year

Once again, a theme I didn’t vote for won. There is a very big reason why I did not vote for this theme, and that is because I’ve already talked about my top reads of the year so far. Actually this year was more difficult than most because I’ve read so many great books this year.

So I’ll link to my Top Ten Reads of 2019 (Jan-June) post if you want more details on some of my favorite reads. I guess I’ll make those books my honorable mentions because I’ve already talked about them quite a bit this year.

I don’t like categorizing something as the “best.” It’s also why my top ten posts list the books in chronological order based on when I read them. I’m not going to choose which book is #1 and which one is #10. I don’t like playing favorites that way.

For this month, I’m just going to pick a book that blew me away, and that is not likely to get knocked off my top ten list for the second half of the year. This is a book I’ve only barely begun to gush about, and I think it is amazing, and I definitely want more people to read it.

Okay, are you ready for my “Best Book I’ve Read This Year”? Obviously aside from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because I re-read that book this year, and we all know that Harry Potter is a great book series to read over and over again. I don’t like to include re-reads in my best books read lists. It just doesn’t work for me. Plus, you know, I do enjoy a good re-read. But I really like to focus on new to me books. Anyway, that’s enough rambling on. Here we go…

My “best book I’ve read this year”, for right now anyway, is going to have to be…

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The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen.

This book was utterly phenomenal. You can go to my review for more of my feelings and such, but I loved the characters, the tension, the slow burn romance, the class/caste system, the magic system…it was all just super fascinating.

I definitely need to buy myself a copy of this book very very soon, because I flew through this book so quickly. And come on, look at that cover. It is beautiful.

Sorry this is such a short post everyone. I’m in that post convention/vacation crash. All I want to do is lay around and nap. But I promise, my final Gen Con wrap up is coming, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.