Bookmark Lit Bulletin: November 2014

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin is a bi-monthly feature where I look back on everything I did and everything I plan to do next. Instead of participating in the weekly Stacking the Shelves or Sunday Post memes, I combine it all into two bulletins per month: one at the mid-month mark and one on the final day of the month. You can learn more and see past Bookmark Lit bulletins here!November was a pretty good reading month. It started out with a few solid four star reads in a row, and then there were a few lower ones after that. The best book was probably A Midsummer’s Nightmare, but even then it didn’t completely knock my socks off, for reasons that are too spoilery to include! I think the biggest thing for me in November was switching over to Book Host. It’s been a great experience. I’m so excited to finally have the Ultimate Book Blogger Plug-in, a fully customizable theme, and other great plug-ins. Earlier this month, we visited Chris’s sister up at her college for the day. Otherwise our weekends have been pretty quiet! My life is so lame (and so have my Five on Friday posts… because I don’t do anything!) My weekdays consist of work and then relaxing at home. My weekends consist of relaxing at home and watching football. Oh well! I prefer it that way. The most exciting thing was probably that I saw Mockingjay! I thought it was absolutely great. Katniss did a lot of crying, which annoyed me for some reason, but otherwise I thought it was really well done. I liked that it was a good mix of information and action, because I feel like the first movie when they split a book in two ends up being too information-y. Have you seen it yet?

• [3 Nov] Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by ★★★★
• [5 Nov] Scoring Wilder by R.S. Grey ★★★★
• [7 Nov] I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter ★★★★
• [10 Nov] The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar ★★★★
• [12 Nov] The Fourth Wish by Lindsay Ribar ★★★★
• [14 Nov] Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter ★★★★½
• [17 Nov] YOLO by Lauren Myracle ★★★★
• [19 Nov] White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout ★★★½
• [21 Nov] The Maze Runner by James Dashner ★★★★½
• [24 Nov] One Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington ★★★★½
• [26 Nov] Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★½
• [28 Nov] Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols ★★★½

Two of my more popular posts this month were, of course, the giveaways! I joined up with the Getting to Know You Blog Hop and offered up one of my favorite books for you to snag. The other giveaway, Book Nerds Unite, is a DOOZIE. I joined up with 19 other bloggers to bring some major gift cards to TWO lucky winners. If you’re interested in learning more about the girl behind the blog, this month had a series of posts to help you do that! For the Blog Hop, I wrote two other posts so you could learn more about me. I shared why I started blogging and other hobbies of mine in one post, and I shared my favorite movies and music in another. I also joined up with the 20 Things You Might Not Know About Me meme. Lots of Lauren this month for you! Many people checked out this past week’s Top Ten Tuesday post about our Winter TBR’s! I’m also happy to report that quite a few of you enjoyed my post about my real-life insta-love with BOOK HOST. It’s a fabulous resource if you’re thinking of self-hosting. I seriously can’t stop gushing about it.

Challenges

• Series-a-Month Challenge – Check out my post here. I’ll be reading one series per month to help clear some of them off of my TBR list. You can keep up with my progress on this page. I successfully finished The Maze Runner trilogy this month (except the prequel and novellas, which I’m not counting)!
• Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Readathon – I only read one book for this, but that’s okay! My goal was to do 1-2 books. I felt better finishing one holiday book early so I could schedule a review for December 🙂
• Holiday Bingo – Between now and the end of the year, I’ll be checking off boxes on my Holiday Bingo card. Here’s my progress so far:
  • [Oct] Reread – I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You by Ally Carter
  • [Oct] Romance – Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore
  • [Oct] Witches – Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
  • [Nov] Set during Christmastime – Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  • [Nov] Green cover – Ex-Mas by Kate Brian
  • [Nov] “Ice,” “Snow,” or “Frost” in title – Let It Snow by John Green/Maureen Johnson/Lauren Myracle

Physical Books:

• Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• Percy Jackson books 1, 2, and 4 by Rick Riordan (borrowed from my little sister!)
• Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
• Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
• Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer (from my Uppercase box!)

Kindle Books:

• Ignite by Lily Paradis
• Percy Jackson book 3 by Rick Riordan (for my sister because she somehow didn’t have this one; I let her borrow my old Kindle like a nice sibling would do)
• The Theory of Opposites by Allison Winn Scotch
• My True Love Gave to Me by Stephanie Perkins (WON in the Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Readathon Giveaway!!)
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
• A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris
• The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Audiobooks:

• The Maze Runner trilogy + prequel by James Dashner (from my boyfriend)

Library Books and Audio:

• Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter – audio
• Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter – audio
• Tumble and Fall by Alexandra Coutts – physical
• A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger – physical

For Review:

• Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier (Around the World ARC Tours)
• We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist (publisher via NetGalley)

My gifts are finally coming together for all of the secret santas and swaps I’ve signed up for! My goal is to ship them all within the first week or two of December. As I’ve been talking about, there are many holiday things on tap at Bookmark Lit! Starting tomorrow, you’ll be seeing my Holiday Reads each Monday and Friday of December. I’ll be kicking it off with a review of Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. I’m hoping to do a lot of reading around the holidays. I wish my apartment had a fireplace because I miss being cozy by the fire, reading books. My couch with a comfy blanket will have to do! My next Book Buddies review will be coming up at the end of December, as the final book in the Holiday Reads segment!
By the end of the year, I have some major bookish goals to achieve. I plan to:

• Finish the Private series (hopefully/finally)
• Start and finish two series by the end of the year for the Series-a-Month challenge. So far so good for November!
• Have a strict book buying ban: only library books and books I currently own between now and the end of the year! I have to spend money on friends and family instead of myself
• Finish my Gallagher Girls reread via audio

 

 

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