For Review

Arrows by Melissa Gorzelancyzk
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard (ARC)
The Fallen Prince by Amalie Howard (ARC)

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

I feel like even after a week from finishing it, it's still too early to talk about WOLF IN WHITE VAN. That I might not be able to discuss the full breadth of how and what it means to me because I don't even know all the ways it has affected me or made me realize things yet. But I'll still try. (I tried not getting into any spoilers but I just have to discuss some symbolism and shit so there might be spoilers? Not plotwise though. Ack, just tread carefully?)

Title: Wolf in White Van

Author: John Darnielle

Publisher: Picador

Date of Publication: August 1, 2015 (paperback)

Source: gifted by Jean!

Welcome to Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival! You may now make your first move. Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of 17, Sean Phillips crafts imaginary worlds for strangers to play in. From his small apartment in Southern California, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the creator of Trace Italian - a text-based, roleplaying game played through the mail - Sean guides players from around the world through his intricately imagined terrain, which they navigate and explore, turn by turn, seeking sanctuary in a ravaged, savage future America. Lance and Carrie are high school students from Florida, explorers of the Trace. But when they take their play into the real world, disaster strikes, and Sean is called to account for it. In the process, he is pulled back through time, tunneling toward the moment of his own self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live.

Brilliantly constructed, Wolf in White Van unfolds in reverse until we arrive at both the beginning and the climax: the event that has shaped so much of Sean’s life. Beautifully written and unexpectedly moving, John Darnielle’s audacious and gripping debut novel is a marvel of storytelling brio and genuine literary delicacy.

Purchase from Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository

Up to this Pointe by Jennifer Longo

I'm so grateful this is my first read of the year. I finished it last January 1 too and I couldn't have had a more perfect first book for the year. And now it's out!!!!!!!!111 *hyperflail* Be sure to get it now!

Title: Up to this Pointe

Author: Jennifer Longo

Publisher: Random House BFYR

Date of Publication: January 19, 2016
Source: egalley from publisher

A refreshingly original contemporary YA, unlike anything readers have seen before. Perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, John Corey Whaley, and Libba Bray.

She had a plan. It went south.

Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything—or anyone—get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to.

Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing to the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station . . . in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting—apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart.

Purchase from Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository

Right of First Refusal by Dahlia Adler

Title: Right of First Refusal (Radleigh University #2)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Date of Publication: March 15, 2016

On the lacrosse field, Cait Johanssen gets what she wants. Off the field is another story. Because what she wants is the school's hot new basketball student-coach, Lawrence Mason, who also happens to be the guy who broke her heart in sports camp two years earlier.

But it's Cait's new roommate who's got him.

Cait and Mase agree it's best to keep their past a secret, but she doesn't expect him to completely ignore their history...or how much it'll hurt when he does. So when a friend on the basketball team asks her to pose as his girlfriend for a night, Cait can't turn down the opportunity for distraction. (Okay, and a little spite.) But what starts as an evening of fun turns into a fake relationship with more lies than the usually drama-free Cait can handle, and it's only keeping her from the one truth that's nagged at her for years: Why did Mase cut her out of his life to begin with?

And is it really too late to get him back?

Pre-order from Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

#AlexLondoninPH this January 15!

ALEX LONDON IS COMING BACK TO THE PHILIPPINES YAAAAAAAYYYYY

Sadly, I can't go. Because it's on a weekday! And at 6PM. And too far from my office. T_T I'm sad but not too sad because I already met him back in 2014 and he has the softest hands! I know because I told him that his hands looked pretty and soft and asked him if I could touch it to prove/disprove it. HAHAHA I am a total creeper.

Anyway, I've read Proxy and loved it and I'm sure a lot of you bookish Filipinos did too. Haven't read PROXY? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Now's the perfect time as both Proxy and Guardian, the sequel, are in paperback formats now. Proxy is one of the first dystopian books I've read with an LGBT character so YAY FOR DIVERSITY! Seriously, just read this series, you guys.

Even though I can't go (*throws myself a pity party*), I'm still here to share all the deets on this wonderful event so read more below!

Ten Books that Left the Biggest Impact on Me last 2015

I wasn't planning on doing this one because I felt like 2015 was the worst in terms of my reading. But then I looked at what I read and I surprisingly read such amazing books! Most of the books I read were four-star and five-star books but the thing is, I've read most of them during the first half of the year. The past few months have been BLEGH and downright harsh to my reading so I felt like I haven't had a great reading year (looking at you October, November, December and a bit of September). But I did! It took me long to narrow down this list to ten books and I couldn't leave out some books so I have a special mention section. Haha! Anyway, I hope you do get to read these books in 2016 if you haven't yet because I WILL ACCEPT PITCHFORKS THROWN MY WAY IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE AND BELIEVE IN THEM.

P.S. My reviews are linked when available. As usual, I find it hard to review books I love so heh, most of these don't have reviews.

TEN BOOKS THAT LEFT THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON ME THIS YEAR

*in no particular order because ranking would kill me*

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

If you haven't read WE ALL LOOKED UP, please tell me why. Because YOU MUST READ THIS NOVEL. Existential and self-aware YA, YES PLEASE.

We All Looked Up is thought-provoking and is the novel I wish I read back in high school (or even in college). It's fucking brilliant. If the world ended today, I'm glad it ended with me having read this gem.

And I will forever love it because it has one of my favorite passage EVER:

"The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world. You're part of this cosmic community of people who've thought about this thing, whatever it happens to be." 

Happy New Year! | Fuck Plans

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

*finally*

So last year, I made A TON of plans. And nothing happened. Deadlines passed, posting dates happened with nothing posted. CONGRATULATIONS! I SUCKED SO MUCH AT THE SECOND HALF OF 2015.

And I was so hard on myself. I hated how I was always on reading slumps, how I couldn't review to save my life, how I couldn't recap the events I went to, how I was so ineffective and inefficient and OH LOOK AT ALL THOSE OTHER BLOGS AND ALL THESE NEWBIES SO MUCH ENTHUSIASM DAMMIT

And burnout happened. And self-loathing. AND FUCK ALL THOSE, I DON'T WANNA EVER GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN.

So this year, how about we try not planning at all? Or at least, nothing that I'll announce here on the blog and then not go through. (I still have super laidback plans on what to read for the month, which I can change anytime I don't feel like reading a book at the time.) I mean, I can't disappoint myself if I don't expect anything from myself, right? 

I've been in an awful place at the end of 2015 and as you may know, I've dropped a lot of commitments. Blog tours I had to participate in, blog tours I was organizing, tons of shit I dropped and escaped from. Because that's what I do, run away. And I'm sorry to everyone.

With that, I'm closing down Oops! I Read Again Tours for good. I'm also resigning from Pinoy Book Tours. I once enjoyed organizing tours but they're too much for me now. They take too much time, too much effort, too much everything. And with me being as sucky and lazy as I am nowadays, I don't want to disappoint any more people.

AND NOW I'M FREE!

I also planned not requesting more books last year but of course I couldn't resist. I did, however, not approach and dedicate so much time scouring the Internet for contacts and publicist emails and whatnot. I only accept books pitched to me and request titles I REALLY want. I still can't stop with NetGalley and Edelweiss and ha, I don't even care anymore. I LIKE BOOKS, OKAY.

Yesterday, I was wearing my NOBODY CAN DRAG ME DOWN shirt (yes, I wear my fandom) and I realized it was a great motto for the year so *self high-five*! Let this be the year where I just don't give a fuck, please please please.

P.S. Top books of 2015 post this Monday!

P.P.S. There will be some changes in the blog soon (post titles, post format, etc) and I'm kinda excited hihi