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2nd Quarter Independent Reading Relfection

Yay! I made it through another quarter!! But now is not the time to talk about how excited I am for winter break (which would be veeerrryyy much!!!), but instead is the time to talk about books, and talking about books makes me just, if not more, as happy as talking about winter break. So let's do this. You might find some really good books on this list.
This quarter, I finished 27 books. Last quarter I read 22, so this is five books more. The list of books I have read is as followed:
Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Six Months Later - Natalie D. Richards
My Secret To Tell - Natalie D. Richards
Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon
Hello, Goodbye and Everything In Between - Jennifer E. Smith
Happily Ever After - Kiera Cass
Let's Get Lost - Adi Alsaid
Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid
Mosquitoland - David Arnold
My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga
American Sniper - Chris Kyle
It's A Wonderful Death - Sarah J. Schmitt
All American Boys - Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
The Selection - Kiera Cass
The Elite - Kiera Cass
The One - Kiera Cass
The Heir - Kiera Cass
The Color of Water - James McBride
My Secret to Tell - Natalie D. Richards (I know, it's above! I just loved it so much I wanted to read it again!)
The Boy Next Door - Katie Van Ark
Why We Broke Up - Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman
Until Friday Night - Abbi Glines
My True Love Gave to Me - Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Stephanie Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor &Kierstan White
A Thousand Pieces of You - Claudia Gray
Ten Thousand Skies Above You - Claudia Gray
Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Prince - Cassandra Clare (if you recall, I talked about a quote from this book in my first blog post)
*Please note that the links connected to the titles of the books will bring you to Goodreads, which offer the book's summary and links connected to authors' names will bring you to their websites
All of my books were in the same challenge range, maybe a little bit higher for a few, but most were in the same range. The books that were not included Rainbow Rowell's Carry On and Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel, mostly because both stories took place in London (Clare's taking place during the late 1800s), so there were a lot of words that I didn't recognize. A big part of the reason I kept with the same difficulty range was because I enjoy a lot of YA Fiction books and they tend to fall on the same part of the difficulty spectrum; it had nothing to do with the fact that I wanted to read easy books. I love challenging reads, but I didn't have super hard books this quarter. My favorite book?! Agh, I can't do this!! I loved them all so super much!! Okay, okay, I can do this. One of my all time favorite books and authors is Cassandra Clare and her series, The Infernal Devices. I love her so much because I love her characters so much. And, let's be honest, all the guys are extremely swoon-worthy. Despite all the boys being absolutely perfect (but, sadly, fictional), they all have some sort of trait or life-experience that defines who they are. When the readers learn about that trait or that life experience, they feel deeply connected to the character in a strange and nerdy way. I think that's why I love her books so much; I feel connected to all her characters deeply and it makes the book awesome and the reading experience so enjoyable. Even when the books end, you can't help but look for alternate endings or answers to unanswered questions on her website(s) (linked above) because you're attached to her characters and the world she put them in. Looking back on this list, I can say that my preference is totally YA Fiction (mostly books that have some romance in them), but I can also say that I'm coming to like books that have a little bit of fantasy in them, or a part-way dystopian society, such as Claudia Gray's Firebird series and select stories from My True Love Gave to Me.

My goal for this quarter was to "genre-jump". Some books I wanted to read were Rainbow Rowell's Carry On and Andy Weir's The Martian. I read Carry On and loved it, but did not read The Martian, due to the fact that I forgot to get it at Barnes and Noble when I went to go get books (sorry!!). I do have it lined up as a book to read, and I definitely will read it at some point, that's for sure. I put my feet in different water but only a bit, and not too deep. I stayed within YA Fiction, but I added some fantasy and/or dystopian elements to the books I read. Having read new books with those elements in them, I was surprised to find that I liked them so much. Books such as A Thousand Pieces of You, My True Love Gave to Me and Clockwork Angel follow that. There was also a book, All American Boys, that didn't have any romance elements at all and, though I love romance and hardly like books that don't have that in it, I genuinely enjoyed that book. I can't say what it was about the book that made me like it so much, but I thought it was a great eye-opening read. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, because I think someone with even the strictest of preferences would enjoy this book. I also read two multi-cultural memoirs, which I guess could be considered different genres than YA Fiction, but considering I read them for English class, I'm not sure if they would count. Either way, I enjoyed them both very much! Now for some more goals. By next quarter, I want to read at least 35 books. I think I can accomplish this because of the break and also because I want to re-read a lot of the books that I already have. The reason I want to set this goal for myself is because I know that high school students lose their time to read as high school goes on, but I don't want to lose my passion for books. Another goal is to read four books that have come out recently. There are a lot of books coming out in the next couple of months and I want to start reading newer arrivals. I tend to read books that are a year or two old, but I think it would be great to read books that are coming out right now. These books would definitely help keep my writing style contemporary. Some of those books include Lauren James's The Next Together and Emily Henry's The Love That Split the World.

Well, everyone, that's all I have for now. I encourage you to look at the hyperlinks I put for the authors and their books. Who knows? Maybe you'll find your next book that would help you reach your goal!!
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