The Birthday Book Tag

“One summer night I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke.”

First line in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Hi, guys. Sooo… it’s my birthday today. I’m officially 27. I’m not someone who cares very much about my birthday. That’s why The Birthday Book Tag is perfect. Instead of talking about myself, I get to talk about books. Way more fun. This tag was originally created by Antonia. Let’s jump into the questions!

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Birthday Cake – A book with a plot that seems cliché but you adore it anyway

The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima. I mean, it has all the clichés and all the tropes you would expect from a YA fantasy series. But it works for some reason. There’s action and political intrigue and I just really loved reading it.

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Party Guests – Your most anticipated book release this year

I’m going to assume they just forgot to add an ‘s’ on release because you can’t expect me to only mention one. I have a standalone and continuations of two of my favorite series coming in the Fall. The standalone is, of course, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab.

Then we have The Archive of the Forgotten by A. J. Hackwith, sequel to The Library of the Unwritten.

Last one is Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, the last and long awaited sixth book in The Queen’s Thief series.

It might be a conspiracy but all of these books have the exact same publication date (as I’m writing this): October 6th.

Somebody must hate me.

Birthday Presents – A book that surprised you with how much you loved it

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. This one was very popular when it came out but it seemed to get mixed reviews so I’d actually decided I wasn’t going to read it. Experience had told me that those kinds of books rarely hit home for me. Then it fit an O.W.L.s prompt and here we are. The characters, the banter, the romance, the friendships, the library setting. I mean, this book just turned out to have all the right ingredients for me to love it.

The Happy Birthday Song – A book that certainly deserved all the hype it got

A lot of books deserve all their hype but since it’s June and Pride Month, I’m going with an old favorite: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Univers by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Such a beautiful story about identity and the importance of family.

Happy Music – A book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. There were so many options for this question but just to proove that this one is a great choice, here are some quotes:

“I remember a friend of mine once telling me that we hate what we fear in ourselves,”

“It’s as if she understood completely the condition of loneliness and how it undermines us all, forcing us to make choices that we know are wrong for us.”

“Maybe there were no villains in my mother’s story at all. Just men and women, trying to do their best by each other. And failing.”

But also this:

“You look like a Greek God sent down by the immortal Zeus from Mount Olympus to taunt the rest of us inferior beings with your astonishing beauty, I said, which somehow in translation came out as “you look fine, why?”

Getting Older – A book that you read a long time ago, but you think that you would appreciate it more if you read as a more mature reader

It was much easier to find the opposite of this – books I probably won’t like as much anymore – but my answer is probably A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin which I read when I was about 16 or 17. The thing is that I really liked it back then but I’m sure I would appreciate it a lot more now and pick up on a lot more. Back then, I wasn’t reading adult fantasy and also didn’t know much about the differences between YA and adult. Now that I’m a more experienced adult fantasy reader and I also know the ending of the series, it would be fun to read the first book again.

Sweet Birthday Memories – A book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life

I was really trying to be original but there’s only one answer for this: Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling. I’ve been lonely for a large part of my life, especially in my early teens, but these books gave me an escape so I didn’t have to be sad all the time. Being a part of the fandom also helped me make friends (online of course), and one of them is still my best friend.

These books are also still helping me. During my latest reread of the second book, I was reminded that the bravest thing you can do is ask for help when you need it. It was just the thing I needed to hear to realize that I needed to seek help with my anxiety.

Yeah, it’s not like I’m going to tag anyone lol. It’s a fun tag so I’ll probably do it again next year. Happy reading!