Summer 2018 Biannual Bibliothon TBR

Hey guys! I’m super excited to announce that not only will I be participating in the Biannual Bibliothon starting tomorrow, I am also going to (try to) do the blogger challenges for the whole week. So, you can expect at least one new post every day for the next week! I might also post some reading updates over here, though most of that will probably be over on my Twitter (@wavesofpages), if you want to go follow me over there. However, I will be posting a full recap of my readathon experience on this blog, most likely on the 21st or 22nd of July.

You’ll probably notice that this TBR holds none of the books that were on my July TBR, and that’s because I only decided I wanted to do this readathon about a week ago. I still want to read all the books on that TBR this month, but this is in addition to that.

My top priority is to successfully complete all 7 reading challenges, so I’ll start by listing those books, and then I have one other book I want to try to get to if I still have time at the end of the week. Because I knew there was no way I would be able to read 7 books in 7 days, most of these books double up on the challenges. But anyway, I’ve spent way too much time explaining. Let’s just get into the books.

Top Priorities

1. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep is the group book for this round of the Biannual Bibliothon, meaning that every person participating is encouraged to read it, and I believe at the end of the week or early next after the readathon is over, there will be a liveshow to discuss the book. For me, it’s an excuse to read a book I’ve been interested in for a while. I first heard about it a while ago over on Regan from PeruseProject’s Booktube channel, and it sounded super interesting. I just never got around to picking it up.

It’s set in a small town where, back during the witch hunting craze of early America, three sisters were drowned for being witches. Now, every summer, their spirits come back, possess the bodies of three girls in the town, and basically go on a killing spree, drowning boys in the harbor as revenge for their deaths. Most of the people in the town have just accepted it, including the main character, Penny. However, this year, just before the sisters are set to return once more, a new boy comes into town, unaware of the danger he has put himself in, and Penny feels like she has to save him.

This book sounds like it’s going to be really creepy, and I’m not usually into that sort of thing, but it does sound interesting, and since it’s the group book, I figured, why not try it?

2. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

So, I’ll admit it: I kind of cheated on this one. The Belles is not my most recent purchase. In fact, I don’t even own it at all; I rented it from the library. However, I have already read both of the two books I have most recently purchased, and The Belles is the most recent book I got from the library, so I think it still counts. It is also an own voices novel, with a black female main character written by a black woman. Not only that, it’s a fantasy novel, a genre that, while I love dearly, isn’t really known for having diverse characters.

This book is set in Orléans, where everyone is born gray, and only with the help of someone known as a Belle can they become beautiful. In a place where Beauty is the most important thing you can have, this is very important, making the Belles some of the highest-ranking members of society. For the main character Camellia, though, just being a Belle isn’t enough. She wants to serve the royal family and become the favorite Belle.

This book was really popular on Booktube when it first came out back in February. Everyone seemed to be hauling it. I don’t think I’ve seen people talking about it much since then, but I’m pretty excited to read it.

3. Scythe by Neal Shusterman OR Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling OR The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Challenges satisfied: read the first chapter of three books and pick one/read a predicted 5 star book

I have not read any of these yet, and two of them, Harry Potter and The Book Thief, have been unread on my shelves for a very long time. I’m waiting until the readathon starts to read the first chapter of each and pick one, but these are the choices I’ll be picking from.

I’m not going to give a description of the books, one, because it would take too long to go through three books, and two, most of you probably already know what The Book Thief and Harry Potter are about.

4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

I don’t know exactly how long this book has been on my TBR, but it’s definitely been more than a year. Technically, both Harry Potter and The Book Thief could also count for this challenge, but according to the rules of the readathon, one book can only be used to count for up to two challenges, and if I end up picking either of them, they’re already counting for two. So, for the last challenge, I picked a book that should be a pretty fast read. From the outside, Brian Selznick’s books look really long, but they have a lot of pictures in them, so they read a lot faster than you think they will. I’ve read The Marvels by him before, and I really liked it. I’m hoping I’ll like this one too.

Optional

5. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

I have actually read this book before, and I think I liked it well enough, but I remember basically nothing that happened, and the third book in this series came out recently. I’ve been wanting to reread it and maybe try to catch up (even though I don’t own the other two, as far as I know.) with the series. If I do end up reading it, I’ll count it for the challenge to read someone else’s TBR, instead of doubling up with The Wicked Deep. Because the new book came out recently, I figured that if I went on YouTube and searched July TBR, someone would have this book on there. As it turns out, I was right. I found it on Murphy Napier’s TBR over on YouTube.

Like I said, though, I won’t be too sad if I don’t get to this book during the week. It would just be nice if I could.

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So that’s all the books I want to get to for the Biannual Bibliothon! Leave a comment letting me know what you guys are reading if you’re participating, because I’d love to know.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll see you tomorrow, for the first challenge post.

-Ariel