Johanna's 2017 ROOTS

I'm going to try for 25 this year - A little more than double what I did last year. MAybe a little ambitious, but I'm having surgery on Monday and won't be working for a few weeks while I recover. I'm hoping to get a good start on my ROOTS then!

2017 ROOTS
1. Master of Crows - Grace Draven
2. The Ugly Duchess - Eloisa James
3. Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas
4. Duchess in Love - Eloisa James
5. Succubus on Top - Richelle Mead
6. Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi
7. The Name of the Star - Maureen Johnson
8. Fever 1793 - Laurie Halse Anderson
9. Days of Blood and Starlight - Laini Taylor
10. A Study in Charlotte - Brittany Cavallaro
11. A Madness So Discreet - Mindy McGinnis
12. A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
13. Passenger - Alexandra Bracken
14. Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
15. Magic Study - Maria V. Snyder
16. Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George
17. Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas
18. The Diviners - Libba Bray
19. This Savage Song - Victoria Schwab
20. Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost
21. A Gathering of Shadows - V.E. Schwab
22. The Raven King - Maggie Stiefvater
23. Nice Dragons Finish Last - Rachel Aaron
24.
25.

Current ROOT:
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - Bryn Greenwood
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

2017 Non-ROOTS

January
1. The Soldier's Scoundrel - Cat Sebastian
2. Lover Eternal - J.R. Ward
3. Lover Awakened - J.R. Ward
4. Lover Revealed - J.R. Ward
5. Lover Unbound - J.R. Ward
6. Lover Enshrined - J.R. Ward
7. Killer Instinct - Jennifer Lynn Barned
8. If I Was Your Girl - Meredith Russo

February
9. Lover Avenged - J.R. Ward
10. New Leaf - Catherine Anderson
11. City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare
12. City of Glass - Cassandra Clare
13. City of Fallen Angels - Cassandra Clare
14. Lily and Dunkin - Donna Gephart
15. One Fell Sweep - Ilona Andrews
16. Fish in a Tree - Lynda Mullay Hunt
17. Storming the Castle - Eloisa James
18. Keep Holding On - Susane Colasanti
19. Winning the Wallflower - Eloisa James
20. Rain Reign - Ann M. Martin
21. Three Weeks With Lady X - Eloisa James
22. Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century - Carole Boston Weatherford
23. The Sun is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon

March
24. Our Own Private Universe - Robin Talley
25. Manners & Mutiny - Gail Carriger
26. Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
27. Secrets of a Summer Night - Lisa Kleypas
28. It Happened One Autumn - Lisa Kleypas
29. Tempt Me at Twilight - Lisa Kleypas
30. Married By Morning - Lisa Kleypas
31. A Rogue By Any Other Name - Sarah MacLean
32. Love in the Afternoon - Lisa Kleypas
33. Devil in Winter - Lisa Kleypas
34. Wintersong - S. Jae-Jones
35. Scandal in Spring - Lisa Kleypas

April
36. Cold-Hearted Rake - Lisa Kleypas
37. A Duke of Her Own - Eloisa James
38. The Assassin's Blade - Sarah J. Maas
39. Jackaby - William Ritter
40. Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir - Margarita Engle
41. The Star-Touched Queen - Roshani Chokshi
42. Lady Susan - Jane Austen
43. Lover Mine - J. R. Ward

May
44. Marrying Winterborne - Lisa Kleypas
45. Devil in Spring - Lisa Kleypas
46. A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
47. A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas
48. Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
49. Lover Unleashed - J.R. Ward
50. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
51. The Female of the Species - Mindy McGinnis
52. Orbiting Jupiter - Gary D. Schmidt
53. Blood, Bullets and Bones: the Story of Forensic Science from Sherlock Holmes to DNA - Bridget Heos
54. The Upside of Unrequited - Becky Albertalli
55. Wires and Nerve - Marissa Meyer
56. Gotham Academy Vol 1 - Becky Cloonan
57. Lumberjanes Vol 5: Band Together - Shannon Watters

June
58. City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare
59. The Valiant - Lesley Livingston
60. The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness
61. The King - J. R. Ward
62. Etched in Bone - Anne Bishop
63. Isla and the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins
64. Saga: Volume Five - Brian K. Vaughn
65. Romancing the Duke - Tessa Dare
66. The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman
67. On the Fence - Kasie West
68. By Your Side - Kasie West

July
69. Deadpool: the Complete Collection - Daniel Way
70. Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare
71. Clockwork Prince
72. Clockwork Princess
73. White Hot - Ilona Andrews
74. P.S. I Like You - Kasie West
75. Say Yes to the Marquess - Tessa Dare
76. Wayfarer - Alexandra Bracken
77. City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare
78. No Good Duke Goes Unpunished - Sarah Maclean
79. Confessions of a High School Disaster - Emma Chastain

August
80. Forbidden - Beverly Jenkins
81. Wildfire - Ilona Andrews
82. The Shadows - J.R. Ward
83. We Are Okay - Nina LaCour
84. Spill Zone - Scott Westerfeld

September
85. Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart - Sarah MacLean
86. Princess of Glass - Jessica Day George
87. Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire

October

November

December

Possible ROOTS

(I don't know why I even bother with these lists, since I never follow them... I guess they're just fun to make!)

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
*****Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo****DONE
*****Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas****DONE
Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier
*****This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
This Same Earth by Elizabeth Hunter
*****Master of Crows by Grace Draven****DONE
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Station Eleven by Emily St. John
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemison
Allegient by Veronica Roth

Now that we have gotten *mostly* settled in at our new house, I have a beautiful library to read in! Complete with cat ;)

Welcome back, Johanna! Nice list you made there. And what a comfy corner you have made for reading.

Welcome back, Johanna! That looks like a very comfy armchair! I hope you'll be able to enjoy it when you get back from surgery. Good luck with that!

Welcome back and good luck with your goal! Hope the surgery goes well and that you will have good reading mojo during your recovery :)

Hi, Johanna! Glad you are settled in your new home and have a beautiful place in which to read.

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!
Good luck w/ your goal - I doubled mine from year 1 to year 2, also, and met it just fine :)

>4 johanna414: lol I completely agree. Fun to make the lists, regardless of whether we stick to them ;)

>5 johanna414: lovely!

I hope surgery went well, Johanna!

Hoping for your swift and uneventful recovery mad more pleasant by hours spent in your cozy reading corner with either a book or the cat in your lap.

Thanks everyone! I am recovering well from surgery, even thought it ended up being a bit more extensive than we had realized. What my doctors originally thought was just a very, very large ovarian cyst ended up being a tumor (about the size of a soccer ball - I looked pregnant!). Turns out I also had ovarian cancer, but it was contained in just the one ovary and they got it all. No more cancer!

So, what was supposed to be an outpatient procedure and 2 weeks off work turned into 4 days in the hospital and 6 weeks off work... I've been doing plenty of reading, but so far I've only managed to finish one ROOT. I've got a few on my TBR list for this month though, so hopefully I can stop getting distracted by the new and shiny for awhile.

On a lighter note, here's an updated picture of my little guy Lane! Now 14 months old and busy, busy, busy!

>13 johanna414: oh my goodness what a fright you must have got - I am so pleased they managed to get everything this time!

>14 johanna414: he's adorable (and he looks like he knows it!)!

>13 johanna414: I don't have the words for what you've been through...

>14 johanna414: but, my, what a sweet little boy you have! :)

Yikes, ovarian cancer! Glad to hear they got it all out and that you had a nice long recovery period.

Great photo of Lane! He looks like a lovable little rascal :)

I'm glad to hear things turned out well in the end, but it must have been quite the scare. Take good care of yourself!

I'm glad your surgery went well and the cancer was contained. Enjoy your time off, as much as you can post-surgery. Your son is adorable!

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! The good thing was that I didn't even know I had cancer until it had already been removed, so it really wasn't too scary. Now I just have to be really careful about monitoring my health in case it comes back in the other ovary. We've been instructed to give Lane any siblings we want soon, just in case. He probably won't be too pleased about that - being the only child and the only grandchild is pretty nice!

In book news - I finished Queen of Shadows last night, and it was a ROOT! My ticker is being strange and doesn't seem to reflect that I updated it, so I'm going to have to play around with that...

Today is a snow day, so I spent the morning finishing up a ROOT! Duchess in Love was fun, but not as good as some of the other Eloisa James books I've read...

It feels strange to read of snow days in your neck of the woods when we have crocus blooming. Enjoy the reading time!

We actually had two! The second day wasn't because of the snow so much as the wind - many of our students walk to school and visibility was pretty poor for driving. We probably got 8 or 9 inches of snow - some of the neighboring districts got over a foot!

Yesterday I read Tempt Me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas, but it wasn't a ROOT. I've really been enjoying the historical romances lately.

>13 johanna414: what an ordeal! Glad you are in recovery!

>14 johanna414: oh so cute! I love that smile!
And busy -- I look forward to those days w/ my son! Though I'm happy for his sleepy days now ;)

>13 johanna414: Reading this now! Wow, that was really lucky they discovered the tumor and removed it before you were even aware of it. Here's to it never coming back!

>14 johanna414: Love Lane!

Wow, I'm doing a horrible job at reading my own books this year.... I'm almost done with Shatter Me, and that will count. But I need to make an effort to focus on my books this summer. That's the problem with working in a library... books just sort of fall into my bag and come home with me!

>26 johanna414: Oh that would be so difficult to resist!

I understand completely that you give in to temptation!

Yesterday I did a little TBR Readathon - finished 2 ROOTS and started a 3rd! I'm feeling pretty proud of myself ;)

Now, I just need to do that once a month or so and I should have no problem finishing this challenge!

The books I finished were Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, which I enjoyed but didn't love, and The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, which was a gift that I liked a lot more than I had expected. I got a good start on Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson - I think I've probably had this book on my shelves for 8 years?

Excellent idea to have a TBR readathon! Great job on finishing two ROOTS!

Great progress!

well done! I had my high point last month and am just too distracted this month - I think a readathon would help.

>29 johanna414: Great job on your roots readathon! I read Fever 1793 about 10 years ago and remember liking it. You're mentioning it has put it back on my radar since I just read Year of Wonders (about the plague). I'm going to put Fever 1793 on my reread list.

Our internet is down at work today, so I took some time to sit down and finish Fever 1793. I really enjoyed it and it was such a quick read - I can't believe it took me so long to get to it!

Now to decide on my next book...

Great progress, Johanna. I had a readathon this weekend too. Thursday and Friday were vacation days and of course the weekend off. With the hot weather (30 C) there is not much else to do but read.

Haven't been doing such a great job with ROOTs these last couple weeks - thinking I probably ought to start one tonight! Maybe either Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas or Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine.

I finished Days of Blood and Starlight and A Study in Charlotte the other day, while I was stuck proctoring New York State Regents exams at work. Good books make really boring, endless testing bearable!

I always wanted a job where I could read for hours on end while keeping a 'watchful eye' on something or other....but yes, I probably underestimated the boredom factor, even with a good book! :))

Wow, you're getting a lot of reading done!

I finished A Madness So Discreet last night. I've had it laying around forever and finally got around to it after loving Mindy McGinnis' newest book The Female of the Species. I really did like A Madness So Discreet, but it's obviously one of the author's earlier books and I didn't think it was quite as good.

I flew through A Darker Shade of Magic yesterday and it was soooooo good! Now I really want to read the 2nd book in the trilogy but I'm supposed to be on a library book ban... I'll probably cave though

It's great to be able to continue with a good story immediately, so go for it!

>36 johanna414: Me neither. I'm just into Jennifer Fallon right now and reading only digital books. (In English ;-) )

Limping along with my ROOTS... I just finished Princess of the Midnight Ball which was a really cute YA/MG retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. But that's my only ROOT from the past month and a half.

Ugh... I am so behind! I really need to focus on my own books for the next couple months!

On the plus side, I just finished The Diviners by Libba Bray and I can't believe it's taken me so long to get to it! It was such a great story - a perfectly creepy ghost story to finish on Halloween!

>44 johanna414: sounds good - on to the wishlist it goes!

I just finished This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab, which was sooooo good! I'm also about halfway through Halfway to the Grave which I'm not enjoying quite so well. Both will count as ROOTS. I am still very behind - 19 out of my goal of 25 books. I usually manage to get a lot of reading done while I'm off work the week after Christmas though, so maybe I can squeak out a few more ROOTS then. Assuming I don't get any books for Christmas that demand to be read immediately...

Hello Johanna, it's great to see you. Good luck with the Christmas books!

Hi Johanna! Hope you and baby are doing great, they do have a way of slowing one's reading down!

Thank you! Baby and I are both doing really well - although you're right about him slowing down the reading! His 2nd birthday was Monday and we had a really nice party with the family. I can't believe how quickly those 2 years went by! I'm actually almost 7 months pregnant with his baby sister, so life is about to get even more crazy!

Here's my not so little Lane on his 2nd birthday! He's been having a blast playing with all his new toys!

He has grown big indeed, Johanna. Such a gorgeous little chap! And congratulations on the new baby. Is Lane looking forward to meeting his sister?

>49 johanna414: Oh wow, congratulations are in order!

Thank you! He knows that "baby sister" is in mommy's belly but I don't think he truly understands what that means. It will be a bit of a rude awakening at first, since he's used to being the center of attention as the only child and only grandchild on both sides. He'll adjust though.

As for ROOT news, I finished my 20th during a lunch break today. Halfway to the Grave was just alright. I was in the mood for an urban fantasy and it satisfied that, but wasn't nearly as good as Patricia Briggs' or Ilona Andrews' books.

Congratulations! Lane looks very happy - hope he likes his new sister. Our son's new sister brought him a new toy, so he was ok with the whole thing. For a while anyway. ;)

Congratulations on the impending addition to the family! I wish you all every happiness!

Oh my goodness he's a wee man! Love him! And congratulations on the impending addition!

Love Lane! So cute. And happy news about the new baby girl!

Thanks everyone! We are so excited about this little girl!

In other news, I have two last minute additions to my ROOTS - the first is A Gathering of Shadows which my husband “strongly encouraged” me to read before Christmas. Turns out he had bought the third book for me for one of my gifts! I strongly recommend this trilogy- they’re sooooo good!

I also just finished The Raven King today. I’ve been meaning to get to it for awhile now, and ended up borrowing the audiobook from the library. So I went back and forth between my paper copy and the audio while working on a jigsaw puzzle.

So I haven’t quite reached my goal of 25, but I hope to do better next year. I read almost 200 books this year- but in 2018 my goal is to focus less on the number of book that I’m getting through and more on some of the bigger tomes and series that I’ve been putting off.

Just finished my final ROOT of the year - Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron. It was a really fun urban fantasy I’ve had laying around for a couple years.