Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

Many thanks to Annie at The Misstery for tagging me in to the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag, which is (as far as I can tell) an excuse to go over the highs (and lows) of 2016s reading.  So, without further ado:

Best book you’ve read in 2016:

It’s always hard to choose, but I think that my favourite book of 2016 (so far!) is Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker.  I found this to be a highly original novel, and one that I didn’t expect to enjoy anywhere near as much as I did.

Best Sequel you’ve read so far in 2016:

This was an easy choice, and goes to Morning Star by Pierce Brown – the stunning conclusion to the Red Rising trilogy.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

Again, there are lots to choose from here, but looking at my recent purchases, the one that stood out is Snakewood by Adrian Selby.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

A LIFETIME OF ENEMIES HAS ITS OWN PRICE

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

Dark Made Dawn by J. P. Smythe – I loved the first instalment of the Australia trilogy – Way Down Dark – and I have the second novel (Long Dark Dusk) ready to go on my TBR pile.  I’m not posting a synopsis, as I think it would spoil the first novel somewhat.

Biggest disappointment:

The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery – I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog, so I had really high expectations of this, but it just didn’t do it for me.

Biggest surprise:

Probably Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, which I read as part of Dewey’s Readathon in April.  I’d chosen a theme of books with names in the title (I can never decide if these should be referred to as eponymous novels or not), and I picked this largely because it fit the criteria, and because I’d read and enjoyed Life of Pi previously.  But this blew me away, and I enjoyed it so much more than I expected to (and it’s better than Life of Pi!)

Favourite new author:

This is a tricky one, but I’m going to say Sylvain Neuvel, because I enjoyed Sleeping Giants so much!

Newest fictional crush:

Right, not wanting to be a killjoy, but I don’t really get the whole fictional crush thing.  There are characters that I like and plenty that I don’t, but I’m not sure I have a crush on any of them.

Book the made you cry:

There aren’t many, but I may have shed a tear or two over The Empathy Problem by Gavin Extence.

Book that made you happy:

This is a difficult one!  I have a penchant for books that are bleak in nature, and happy doesn’t really go hand in hand with bleak!  I’d probably have to say Falling by Julie Cohen (which was under a working title of The Day of Second Chances when I received an ARC) though.

Favourite book to film adaptation:

It’s probably quite predictable, but of films I’ve seen recently, I’d probably have to say The Martian.  I loved the novel, and I thought that the adaptation was really well done.  I was a little surprised at some of the elements that were left out, although I appreciate that it’s hard to get everything from the page into a film.

Favourite post you have done this year:

I’m honestly not sure.  There are definitely posts that I think have been better than others, but I’m not sure I could pick a favourite.  I quite like doing posts that aren’t book reviews once in a while, so blogging about Hay Festival – 2016 and Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon are probably up there.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year:

Oh so many!  MY TBR currently stands at 37 books, and no matter what I do, it never seems to go down all that much.  If I have to pick one, it’s probably Flowers for Algernon, as I was given this as part of last year’s work Secret Santa, so I should probably try to get to it before Christmas comes around again!  It is also my only unread book from before 2016, so it would also bring my TBR a little more up to date!

I’m not going to tag in anyone specifically to do this tag, but I’d encourage all to get involved! 🙂