So…I turned nineteen today! That feels strange to say because I still feel like I’m fourteen sometimes (especially when people think I’m still in high school…) but for whatever it’s worth, I’m a year older 🙂 To mark the occasion, I thought I’d do the Birthday Book Tag, inspired by Shanah over at Bionic Book Worm. Here it goes:
~The Birthday Book Tag~
1. BIRTHDAY CAKE: A book with a plot that seems cliché but you adore it anyway.
I’ll admit, the plot of The Lunar Chronicles sounded a bit cliché to me at first (let’s be real- there are many, MANY fairy tale retellings out there), but I had to read it because it was sci-fi edition, and I am SO glad I did. The only thing cliché about the plot is the fact that it’s a retelling; other than that the series is new, exciting, and pretty amazing.
2. PARTY GUESTS: Your most anticipated book release this year.
Rebel by Marie Lu!!!! I am SO excited for this book – The Legend series is my favorite YA sci-fi series, and I was so hyped when I read the news that Marie Lu was writing a fourth book nearly seven years after the series “ended” (I am equal parts excited and terrified…I’ve had so long to deal with the ending of Champion that I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared for anything else, but I was sent a preview by the publisher and it’s SO GOOD).
3. BIRTHDAY PRESENTS: A book that surprised you with how much you loved it.
Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz. I was expecting this to be just another cute YA rom-com type book, but it completely opened my eyes about the issue of undocumented immigration in the United States and is probably one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read.
4. THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG: A book that certainly deserved all the hype it got.
Legend by Marie Lu. I’ve talked about this book a lot on this book, but it’s so unbelievably wonderful. It got a lot of hype in the 2012 dystopian craze, and it totally deserved it. I personally love Marie Lu’s writing style, and this book quickly became one of my favorite YAs ever written.
5. HAPPY MUSIC: A book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes.
So SO many of Will Herondale’s lines (and Tessa’s) in The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. I have a notebook where I’ve copied down my favorite quotes of his and there was a time when I had quite a few memorized (I can still recite a few). A lot of them capture how I feel about reading and how I see the world, and that’s something pretty rare to encounter.
“There’s plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.”
“Sometimes, when I have to do something I don’t want to do, I pretend I’m a character from a book. It’s easier to know what they would do.”
Clockwork Angel, Cassandra Clare
“It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them.”
“He wanted to make her laugh. He wanted to sit and listen to her talk about books until his ears fell off. But all these were things he could not want, because they were things he could not have, and wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness.”
Clockwork Prince, Cassandra Clare
“Life is a book and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read.”
Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare
6. GETTING OLDER: A book that you read a long time ago, but you think that you would appreciate it more if you read it as a more mature reader.
Absolutely, Almost by Lisa Graff. This is a realistic fiction middle-grade I read in middle school and absolutely loved, but it dealt with a lot of themes regarding self-love and figuring out your place in the world that I think I could appreciate and relate to in a different light at this stage in my life than I did when I was thirteen.
7. SWEET BIRTHDAY MEMORIES: A book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life.
I picked this book already, but I definitely have to go with The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. I re-read this trilogy dozens of times throughout my junior and senior years of high school when I was extremely stressed about the workload I had taken on, college applications, and friend troubles. I would listen to the audiobooks (especially Clockwork Princess) as I was falling asleep, and reading about Will Herondale and his struggles would make mine feel more bearable and make me feel like there was someone who understood me.
And that’s it! Let me know your answer to your favorite one of these questions down below!! Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you soon 😀
<3, g
Book Noted 