Birthday Book Tag

Today is my birthday! I will be celebrating my taking a day off from editing and getting take out from one of my favourite Mexican restaurants. The stay at home order is still in effect her in Ontario, so my options are limited, but that is absolutely okay with me. I recognize just how blessed I am!

I do this tag every year on my birthday, and it is fun to look back and see how my answers change. Here are my answers from 2018, and here they are from 2019.

BIRTHDAY CAKE – a book with a plot that seems cliche but you adore it anyway

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

This book is full of cliches, especially when it comes to Nina Hill herself. She is exactly how you would imagine a bookish person to be, and that is why I loved it so much. There was so much about it that I related to!

PARTY GUESTS – your most anticipated book release this year

Blue Ticket by Sophie Macintosh

The majority of my most anticipated 2020 books have already been released, but the one that I am currently most anxiously waiting for is Blue Ticket. Her debut novel, The Water Cure, received mixed reviews, but it was one of my favourite books last year. From what I can tell, Blue Ticket touches on many of the same themes. June 30th cannot come soon enough!

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS – a book that surprised you with how much you loved it

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

I read Serles’ debut novel, The Dinner List, and I had mixed feelings about it. So when the publisher sent me an ARC of In Five Years I did not know what to expected. It is now one of my favourite books about friendship and it made me so emotional. I have since leant it to one of my best friends, and she felt the same way about it.

THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG – a book that certainly deserved all the hype it got

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

It seemed like The Family Upstairs was one of THE thrillers/mysteries of 2019. You could not go anywhere without seeing this book, and it deserved all of the hype that it received. It is one of my favourite mysteries of all time and I want to make my way through Lisa Jewell’s backlist.

HAPPY MUSIC – a book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House was my first Ann Patchett novel and I was captivated by her writing. There was a lot that I loved about this novel, but it is the writing style that stands out in my mind.

“But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we’re not seeing it as the people we were, we’re seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered.”

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

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

I read The Chrysalids when I was in high school, and while I absolutely loved it back then, I think a lot of it either went over my head or I didn’t appreciate the themes at the time. I think that I would take a lot more away from it if I were to reread it now. It is something that I have been meaning to do for ages!

SWEET BIRTHDAY MEMORIES – a book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life

Still Life by Louise Penny

I think we have all been going though it lately and many of us having either turned to books or turned away from them during this time period. My reading has been so up and down the last few months, but the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series has provided me so much comforting. There is something about the world and characters that Louise Penny has created that feels like home. I finally got my hands on the next four books in the series, so I cannot wait to dive in.