#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks 2017 Sign-Ups: Yelling From My TBR!

It's time again for #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks, a TBR reading effort. Why not a challenge? Because how many challenges bog us down? Not this one!

• You make the rules
• Be as hardcore (or not) as you want
• We're a community to support you, not chastize you

Define your own damn goals or don't. Vow not to buy books, or whatever. This event is really that loosey goosey. You know your stacks and your challenge agility better than we do.

There will be a link-up here so you can share your progress posted on the final day of every month!

Personally, I'll be reading as many of my own TBR stacks as I can in 2017, mood permitting. I'm a moody reader, and I know that about myself, so I'll ultimately do whatever I can to KEEP reading. 

I don't buy many books because I'm a cheapskate, so I'm not setting any particular goals in that department. 

Ready to sign up? Here ya go!

Now, there are some specific titles yelling at me from my shelves, so I'll give you a quick run-down of my own damn books that I hope to read in the first quarter of the year or so. I'll probably read more than this, but these are the ones that stick out right this second.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee

Princess Jellyfish #1 by Akiko Higashimura and Yuko K.

#AMonthofFaves2016: Top 10 Other Sh$t That Rocked in 2016 … Or 5 Reasons I’m Glad 2016 is Over

You guessed it! We're capping off the year with Shit that Rocked or Reasons You're Glad 2016 is over. Against all odds, I'm going with shit that rocked!

1. My kid. My kid freaking rocks. Not only is he, like, the cutest thing ever, his reading is in full swing. He's constantly asking me the definitions of words and spelling things for me, and his vocabulary is a thing to behold. He also recently lost his first tooth, and, and. So much good Greyson-related stuff.

2. Cawffee! My mom, husband, and I have a Saturday and Sunday-morning coffee (cawffee!) date. We sit around and chat, and eat. and giggle, and it's the best time.

3. I'm finally feeling the blogging/content creation mojo. It was dormant for a while, but as we exit 2016, it's back in full effect.

4. My sticker shop! I have enjoyed designing and making stickers SO MUCH, and I have lots of bookish sticker plans for 2017.

5. All of you. Thank you, friends, for being amazing.

And a big THANK YOU to Tanya Patrice, Kim, and Tamara from GirlXOXO.com and TravelingwithT.com for having me as cohost again this year! I hope they don't kick me to the curb for being a slacker this season. This event has really been the thing to rekindle my blogging mojo!

#AMonthofFaves2016: Badass Books I Loved in 2016

Today's #AMonthofFaves prompt:

#AMonthofFaves {The Reading Year} - reading stats etc. / Top 10 Books that Blew My Mind in 2016

When I think back on the year, it doesn't stand out as a great reading year. However, like so many things tainted with negativity, that negativity can seep in and take over, blotting out the good stuff. Such was the case as I looked back over my books read in 2016. There was never any way of narrowing it down to 10 overall favorites, so here we have my badass 2016 reading by category.

Voila! Thank you, 2016, for not sucking completely.

Visit GirlXOXO.com and TravelingWithT.com for my cohosts' faves! <3 nbsp="" p="">

Badass Fiction

Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt for beautiful atmosphere and endearing characters.
The Unfinished World: Stories by Amber Sparks for gorgeous weirdness.
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud for its rage.
The Regional Office is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales for women kicking ass.
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad for nuance and a sense of the familiar.
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron for brutal honesty and truly memorable characters.
The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez for inciting empathy. I want to give this to EVERYONE.
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett for practical magic and a heroine I want to be.

Badass Comics and Graphic Novels 

Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie for charm and wit and a look at Africa that avoids stereotypes.
Something New by Lucy Knisley for taking the topic of marriage, weddings, and DIY and expanding it to something so quirky, and charming, and meaningful. For tackling the big topics along with the obvious ones.
Captain Marvel Volume 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez for a badass superhero with a sense of humor.

Badass Non-Fiction

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin for surprising me and pissing me off.
Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley for helping me believe I could run.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling for making me laugh, making me love and admire Kaling even more.
When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams for a close look at silence and an examination of voice that I really needed to read.

The Badass Classic

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham for making me cry despite its problems.

Badass YA

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson for being a book I wanted to hug.
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero for an outspoken, fierce heroine....even though she doubted herself.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo for grabbing me immediately. And the Darkling.

And the inevitable problem of making these lists before the end of the year: I'm still reading. In fact, I'm in the middle of Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson and Terry Pratchett's final book, The Shepherd's Crown. There's a high probability that both of those books belong on this list.

What were your faves?

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks Wrap-Up and Link-Up!

I'm going off-script from #AMonthofFaves2016 today in order to wrap up this year-long push to #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks! I'm glad that so many of you joined me, even though I found myself tapping out mid-year. That is, I never officially stopped, I've read a lot of my own damn books this year, but bouts of slumpiness were doing me no favors and I stopped pushing so hard.

Moody reading funks aside, I still managed to read 28 of my own books this year out of the 53 I've read so far. Not a bad percentage, eh?

I've been asked if I'll continue #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks into 2017, and I think I will. Yes, yes I do. I'll be more diligent about posting monthly link-ups, and I'll continue to whittle away at my own TBR.

How'd you do?

Link up your end-of-year tally below! I'll post 2017 sign-ups on January 1!