Tome Topple Round 17 Announcement!

December 8, 2022 ~ Mr Geek ~ Leave a comment

Hello Readers!

It’s your favorite geek, back from the dead! It has been an absolutely wild last couple of months but I am back and promise to be better than ever (I’ll be posting an update / Where the heck have I been post this weekend). I’m also breaking out of my hiatus to announce the next round of Tome Topple! Round 17 begins this Friday, December 9th (aka TOMORROW) at midnight in your timezone and goes until midnight on December 22nd!

As a quick reminder for those of you who are new to Tome Topple, or might just need a refresher from our last round in April, Tome Topple is a 2 week read-a-thon where the main objective is to read BIG BOOKS (over 500 pages)… that’s it! We’ll be hosting reading sprints on Twitter and potentially Discord this time around plus there will be Instagram and TikTok challenges too! Now, you’re probably thinking “How can I participate!?” Well, it’s easy – just grab your “thicc” books and start reading! Make sure to tag me, and the other co-hosts, so we can chat about your books and use #TomeTopple so we can find you!

Speaking of cohosts, I’m going to quickly introduce all of the great people that make this read-a-thon a reality! Most are familiar faces but we did add a new member to our crew this time around!

Tome Topple Co-Hosts & Where to find them:
- Sam (she/her) from Thoughts on Tomes
- Adri (they/them) from Perpetual Pages
- Sam 2 (she/her) from Will Read For Booze
- Gaia (she/her) from @lalettricesegreta on Instagram
- Tori (she/her) from Tori Morrow
- Arez @aresreads on TikTok
- Sierra @sisi.be.reading on Tiktok
- And of course, yours truly, Mr Geek!

Now for the fun part, my TBR! I’m not going to lie, this has been not a great reading year for me. I got extremely behind in my GoodReads goal and have spent the better part of the last 2.5 months trying to catch up (which I’ve almost done and was part of the reason I have been MIA)! Anyway, I’ve decided to finally start The Last Hours trilogy and my first book will be Chain of Golf by Cassandra Clare. If I manage to finish Chain of Gold, and meet my GoodReads goal, I think I am going to start IT by Stephen King (which I know I’ll have no chance of finishing this year). IT has been on my TBR for years and years but weighing in at nearly 1,200 pages, I just keep putting it off. I think now is finally the time to give it a shot!

So what will you be reading for this round? Have you read either of my books? Have thoughts to share? Let me know in the comments! Be sure to follow me, @ItsMrGeekToYou, and Tome Topple, @Tome_Topple, to join in all the fun!

Until We Meet Again,
Mr Geek

August ’22 TBR!

August 3, 2022 ~ Mr Geek ~ 5 Comments

Hello Readers!

As much as I hate to say this, and can’t believe it’s true, the summer is starting to wind down and I’m starting to have dreams of everything Pumpkin Spice! While I do enjoy the warmer months (I’m an avid golfer), the Fall is definitely one of my favorite seasons – I’m already starting think about some horror book I can read in October for Halloween! For the month of August, I received an ARC of one of my most anticipated releases of the year (more on that soon) but I decided to let that guide the rest of my TBR selections for the month. I’m going to be reading nothing but fantasy reads in August, so let’s dive into the books!

To start off, I’ll be kicking off the month with an ARC of The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber. This is the sequel to Once Upon a Broken Heart which came out last year and I also participated in a blog tour to support. I loved the Caraval series (well, Legendary was fine… too many descriptions of dresses). This new series takes place in the same world as Caraval, with some minor spoilers (so be sure to read those books first), and we get to revisit some favorite characters! I don’t want to go into too much detail here because this picks up immediately after the first book and I don’t want to spoil anything!

Next up, I’ll be finishing the last book from my “Judge A Book By Its Cover” TBR last month and reading Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. This is the first book in The Lost Hours trilogy. I’ve been absolutely loving Clare’s more recent Shadowhunter Chronicles releases. The Dark Artifices was absolutely fantastic and I’ve heard great things about this series too. Chain of Gold is a follow up to The Internal Devices trilogy. In these new books we follow the children of many of the characters we met in The Internal Devices. Again, don’t want to spoil anything so I’m going to go ahead and leave it at that!

After Chain of Gold, I’m planning to pick up The Spinner of Dreams by K. A. Reynolds. I’ve had this one on my TBR for years and I’m excited to finally get to it. This is the story of Annalise who was cursed as a child and embarks on an adventure to enter the Labyrinth of Fate & Dreams, defeat the Fate Spinner and finally rid herself of the curse. The plot was intriguing and it seems like something I’d enjoy, only time will tell!

Last up, I’m not sure what I want to finish off the month with. I have a couple options, so if you’ve read any of them, send me your recommendations. I’m considering The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare, All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody or Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. I’m sure that no matter what I pick, I’ll be thoroughly entertained – all of these books have received pretty solid reviews on GoodReads.

What’s on your TBR for the month? Have any recommendations for me? Leave me a comment and, as always, don’t forget to subscribe!

Until We Meet Again,
Mr Geek

July ’22 “Judge A Book By Its Cover” TBR

July 12, 2022 ~ Mr Geek ~ Leave a comment

Hello Reader!

I can’t believe this year is officially half over – seriously, where has the time gone!? I’ve had a pretty awesome 2022 – lots of twists and unexpected turns but I’m enjoying the ride! I just got back from vacation (spent a week at the beach with my family) – it was the perfect mental reset that I’ve been so desperately needing! I also was able to get some prime reading time in which was awesome because I’m a little behind on my GoodReads goal. Thankfully, the books I picked out for this month have been solid and they’re getting me back into a nice groove and out of my slump. So without further ado, let’s talk about my July TBR and how it was selected!

I had this great idea earlier in the year to have someone else pick my monthly TBR. I thought it would be fun to have a couple of my bookish friends (Hi Mollie & Christi) pick out what books I would read for the month. They know me well and we have similar tastes, so I had no doubt they would knock it out of the park. This got me thinking. What if I had my Mum, who isn’t a huge reader, pick out my books based strictly on the cover images?! This seemed like too great of an idea not to pursue, so here we are! I took roughly 25 books that I’ve been thinking about reading, snagged all of their cover images and lined them up side-by-side. I showed this combined image to my Mum and told her to pick out 4 books for me to read this month based strictly on the cover images. She happily obliged and, spoiler, she picked out some good ones so far!

Her first selection was Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. I’ve read a few of Sager’s books and have always really enjoyed them. I love a good thriller and his writing style is very engaging. This was my first book I read while I was on vacation. It’s the story of Jules Larson, a down on her luck girl who happens to stumble into one amazing apartment sitting opportunity. She gets to live for free in a luxury apartment and get paid extremely well as long as she follows the eccentric rules and… hopefully doesn’t disappear like the other apartment sitters. This was a wild ride and while I thought the ending was a little out there, I enjoyed it overall!

My next book is The Night Swim. I loved Goldin’s debut novel, The Escape Room – it was fast paced, intrigued and compulsively readable! The Night Swim, so far, is following in its footsteps! This is the story about a Podcaster, Rachel, who shows up in a small town to cover a rape trial that’s about to begin. While she’s there, a local woman reaches out to her about investigating her sister death (which she thinks was murder). This book is told from multiple perspectives plus there are “Podcast” chapters sprinkled throughout. At the time of writing this post, I’m about 30% in and absolutely loving it. It’s addicting and I just want to keep reading to find out what’s going to happen!

The last of my “short” books is The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. I actually just got this book for my birthday recently and am really looking forward to diving into this one! An author is snowed into a farmhouse, that she’s using as a retreat location, to finish her new novel. Secrets start to unravel, a small child shows up in the snow and she starts to realize that she’s not as alone as she once thought! This sounds like the perfect high tension thriller to round out this trifecta!

My final book on my TBR is Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. The Shadowhunter Chronicles have quickly become one of my favorite series (The Dark Artifices trilogy is chef’s kiss). Chain of Gold is a follow up series to Clare’s Infernal Devices series. I don’t want to go into too much detail here because a lot of the characters from the original series make cameos in this series as well (in addition to their children). I’ve heard great things about this new series and am excited to dive in. I already own the first two books in this trilogy with the final book coming out early next year!

So there you have it! A solid TBR lineup for the month of July that I am really looking forward to making my way through. I’ll be doing a mid-year check in to talk through some of my favorite books, least favorite books and goal progress, so keep your eyes peeled for that! How has your reading year been so far? Let me know in the comments and, as always, don’t forget to subscribe!

Until We Meet Again,
Mr Geek