Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag – 2020 edition

I’ve been away for a while and kind of neglected most of my obligations during June – exams and covid will do that to you – but I’m back with the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag! 

I’ve wanted to do this post for some time and actually had it scheduled for the middle of last month, but since I couldn’t find the time to write it then, let’s do this now!

The prompts

Here are the questions I used, if you like me, haven’t written this post yet even though you meant to and want to reuse them!

• What is the best book you’ve read so far in 2020?
• What is the best sequel you’ve read so far in 2020?
• What’s a new release you haven’t read yet, but really want to?
• What’s your most anticipated release for the second half of this year?
• What was your biggest reading disappointment of the year so far? 
• What was your biggest reading surprise of the year so far?
• What’s our favorite new author of these first 6 months of 2020? (Debut author or new to you)
• What’s your newest fictional crush?
• What’s your newest favorite character?
• Name a book that made you cry in the past 6 months.
• Name a book that made you happy in the past 6 months.
• What’s the most beautiful book you’ve bought (or received) so far this year?
• What books do you absolutely want to read by the end of 2020?

The answers

Goodreads tells me that so far, in 2020, I’ve read 35 books out of my 52 books goal. I’ve probably forgotten to log in a few, since I tend to go on goodreads sporadically and log in only the books I remember reading (so… I might have missed a few bad ones that I just completely forgot about), but still : I’m going to use this list as a basis for this post.

(I know, I should try to be more meticulous in logging which books I read, and when, but whenever I try it I just end up abandoning my new system a few days later.)

Best book

The way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.

I’ve only read 3 books in the whole of June, and they were the first 3 novels in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson – and they were all 5 stars books for me. I absolutely loved them, and can’t wait to get the next one in this series as soon as it comes out (hopefully, at the end of 2020!).

Best sequel

Aurora Burning, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

I had a preorder of this that was supposed to be delivered to my local bookstore in June… but it got terribly delayed by the lockdown in Montreal, and I got it way after it came out everywhere else. Both my boyfriend and I read it as soon as it arrived, and we both thought it was a very good sequel with a surprising amount of character development in not a lot of pages! 

New release I haven’t read yet

This is how you lose the time war, by Amal El-Mohtar.

I bought this book as a gift for my birthday, but haven’t found the time to read it yet (what with reading The way of kings, then Words of radiance, and following on with Oathbringer… I didn’t have much time for anything else, really!). 

Most anticipated release

Unravel the dusk, by Elizabeth Lim.

I preordered this book back in November and was one of the lucky few to have access to the international forms for preorder incentives at that time, so the goodies have arrived! They got here right on my birthday, which was a nice coincidence, and if the contents of the books are as good as the contents of the goodies envelope, I’m expecting great things!

Biggest disappointment

The latte factor, by David Bach.

I even wrote a whole post about how disappointing this book was, and why you’d be better off reading literally any other personal finance book out there. Seriously.

Biggest surprise

The starless sea, by Erin Morgenstern.

This was back in the beginning of the year, as I got this book as a Christmas gift in December 2019, but since we’ve already established that I’m extremely slow at picking up new books to read from my TBR, it won’t surprise you to know that it sat untouched on my shelves for a long time before I finally picked it up and realized how good it was.

Favorite new author

Brandon Sanderson, hands down.

I’ve read 5 books of his so far, and 4 of those were read this year – and I’m impressed! He’s slowly but surely making me gain back my love of Adult Sci-fi and Fantasy, and my interest in 1000-ish pages long books. The character development alone… 

Newest fictional crush

Adolin Kholin. From, guess what… the Stormlight archive, by Brandon Sanderson!

I don’t want to spoil anything for the people who haven’t read these books yet (but if you are one of these people, and you have an interest in magic swords, brooding heroes and/or fantasy worlds with super developed magic systems? I have books for you!) – but he’s the very best and I shall hear nothing negative about him, ever.

Newest favorite character

Kaladin Stormblessed, from… the Stormlight archive. Again, no spoilers here, but : he has loads of character development, a good backstory, strong motivations, and a whole lot of feelings. Everything I love all wrapped up in a well-written persona.

Book that made me cry

Maybe you should talk to someone, by Lori Gottlieb.

I picked it up mostly because I love everything more or less related to psychology, so a book written by a therapist about her life, and life in general, sounded pretty interesting. I was pleasantly surprised, and found the experiences she wanted to relate very touching. I might have cried a bit.

Book that made me happy

Happily ever after and everything in between, by Debbie Tung.

I got this as an e-ARC on a whim, just because it looked fun and was in the “available now” section on NetGalley – and I found myself relating to every single page of this comic. It’s funny, witty, and extremely realistic (so realistic that, at some points, I had to stop and tell my partner, “Hey, that’s us!”). 10/10 would recommend. 

Most beautiful book

The rise and fall of the dinosaurs, by Steve Brusatte. The cover looks so cool, and the illustrations on the inside of the book are stunning.

5 books I need to read by the end of the year

The ever cruel kingdom, by Rin Chupeco – I read the previous book, The never tilting world, somewhere during the past 6 months (is time even real?) and I’m pretty interested to see how this story goes!

To be taught, if fortunate, by Becky Chambers – this is on my TBR with no other comment than just “TO READ, VERY COOL”, which probably means that I saw someone recommend it in a booktube video, scribbled the title down somewhere, and completely forgot what it was about.

Invisible women : Data bias in a world designed by men, by Caroline Criado Perez – this one is part of my list of feminism-related books to read in 2020. Most of the books on that list are in French, since I live in Montreal and there are a lot of French-speaking bookstores around, but I haven’t found this one there yet, so I might borrow it from one of the libraries in town instead.

Gideon the ninth, by Tamsyn Muir – I tried reading this book in… April 2019, I think, maybe? And DNFed it soon after. I don’t like giving up on popular books, though, so I’m willing to give it a second chance just to be sure.

Edgedancer, by Brandon Sanderson – So this one is apparently supposed to be read before the third book in the Stormlight archives, Oathbringer, but I didn’t know that when I got my library hold, so I apparently read them out of order. Better late than never, though, so I’m hoping I can get to reading this before the fourth book in the series comes out!

That’s it for me! Have you read any of the books I mentioned? If you’ve got opinions on the Stormlight archive, feel free to comment or send me a message – I’d love to talk about it with other readers!