Month: July 2014

Booking Through Thursdays #2

Booking Through Thursdays #2

If I could give a brand new, really good book by your favorite author (living or dead) RIGHT NOW, what would you be willing to do for it? Oh goodness, favorite author?? How am I supposed to pick that! It goes without saying that Harry Potter is my favorite book series, but I don’t think that necessarily makes JK Rowling my favorite author. Although, I will say that I would like another Harry Potter book more than almost anything/any other book series. As for the actual question: I’m honestly not sure. I hope JK Rowling wouldn’t be selfish and only give ME the book… because what fun would it be to have the book and not be able to fangirl over it with everyone else? Sorry this didn’t really answer the question…I’m sneaky like that.

Top 10 Paranormal Books

Posted July 30, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 8 Comments
Top 10 Paranormal Books

Lately my TBR pile has been getting filled with paranormal, afterlife, time travel, reimagining, and dystopia books. When I read and get in the mood for a certain genre, that’s normally what I binge-read and binge-add to my Goodreads shelves. I just finished September Girls, which basically killed my paranormal mood. Before I move along to other genres, I wanted to share a list of some of my favorite books that fall into this category. Some of them are series; some are standalones. I’m also including three books I haven’t read yet but am DYING to get my hands on. Which of these have you read? Which of these are you adding to your TBR pile?   Read and Loved Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin The land of Elsewhere is a mix between earth and heaven, where a fourteen year old girl ends up going after she dies. She will age backwards until she is a baby again, and then return to earth. This was a great book with a really cool concept; I think I’ll be rereading this one soon! The Looking Glass Wars (series) by Frank Beddor This is a reimagining of the Alice in Wonderland books…except this time, young Alyss of Wonderland is stuck in the human world, fighting to get back and claim her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts. I normally am not a huge fan of reimaginings, but this concept was really cool. A Great and Terrible Beauty (series) by Libba Bray Even if you […]

Exciting News!

Exciting News!

I’m very excited to say that I got my first book from NetGalley! I’m sure all of you well-known bloggers know what that feeling was like. I feel like I won the lottery! I’m so glad someone decided to take a chance on a new blogger and give me an advanced copy of a book to review. Without further ado, I’ll be reading and reviewing: Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner (to be released August 26th from Point [Scholastic]). I’m especially excited because this is a book I’ve been eyeing for a while. Click on the cover to check out the Goodreads page. Here’s the synopsis: Torrey Grey is famous. At least, on the internet. Thousands of people watch her popular videos on fashion and beauty. But when Torrey’s sister is killed in an accident — maybe because of Torrey and her videos — Torrey’s perfect world implodes. Now, strangers online are bashing Torrey. And at her new school, she doesn’t know who to trust. Is queen bee Blair only being sweet because of Torrey’s internet infamy? What about Raylene, who is decidedly unpopular, but seems accepts Torrey for who she is? And then there’s Luis, with his brooding dark eyes, whose family runs the local funeral home. Torrey finds herself drawn to Luis, and his fascinating stories about El dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. As the Day of the Dead draws near, Torrey will have to really look at her own feelings about death, and life, and […]

WWW Wednesdays #2

Posted July 30, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 27 Comments
WWW Wednesdays #2

What are you currently reading? I am currently reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Took me long enough, right? I got this book from my dad for Christmas but it’s been sitting on my shelf since then. It’s not the type of book I’d usually read, but two separate people with similar reading tastes to mine told me I need to read it NOW. So, I finally decided to take their advice. I’m only a few pages in but it seems interesting so far. I’m also currently listening to Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson. I’m not a big fan of audiobooks, but I got two free Audible credits that I want to use. Free books, right?! I love being able to listen before bed, in the tub, or while I’m driving, but I don’t like listening to narrators. Their voices somehow ruin my perception of the book in a way I can’t explain. Regardless, the narrator for this one isn’t too bad and I’m enjoying the book so far. What did you recently finish reading? I just finished September Girls by Bennett Madison – FINALLY. This book took way too long for me to read. I just couldn’t get into it. Click the title for my full review if you’d like; it definitely wasn’t a favorable one! What do you think you’ll read next? This is a tough one! There are so many books in my physical bookshelves as well as on my Goodreads TBR shelf. I’m trying to […]

Blogging Reflections: On Covers

Posted July 29, 2014 / Other Memes / 10 Comments

Blogging Reflections: Thoughts on Book Covers  [Bimonthly feature from Bookshelf Reflections] I’ve been looking for an excuse to expand on this topic! You may remember I posted a top 10 list of Books I’m Judging by the Cover. I mentioned a little bit of my thoughts in that post, but now I can tell you a little bit more. Covers are really important to me; I’m not going to lie. It’s very, very hard to not judge a book by it’s cover. There are so many books out there for our consumption; there have to be explicit signals to make people decide to pick up the book and read the back cover. If a book doesn’t have an appealing cover, people are rarely going to flip it over and see the plot summary. Browsing for books on Goodreads, at Barnes & Noble, or on review sites, covers that catch my eye are the ones I’ll most likely purchase. I really enjoy graphic covers with beautiful typography, or some of the new contemporary YA covers with typography placed over pictures. I think covers should match the book’s plot – that goes without saying. Some covers (especially fantasy ones) can be a little cheesy and cheap… If it looks like the author, with no graphic design skills, threw it together in Paint on their computer, I probably won’t read it. It sucks, but at least I admit I’m being superficial, right? Overall, there are certainly more to books than the covers. There […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #1: Most Owned Authors

Posted July 29, 2014 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments
Top Ten Tuesdays #1: Most Owned Authors

Some of my numbers may be a bit off, since 3/4 of my books are still at my parents’ house, the rest are at my apartment, and none are currently with me at work. Regardless, here are the 10 authors I own the most books from!     The Gossip Girl series, including the Carlyles mini-series/spinoff, and Cum Laude (which I haven’t read yet due to fairly bad reviews)       The Private series, the spinoff Privilege series, Shadowlands trilogy, Sweet 16, and Megan Meade’s Guide to the McGowan Boys (haven’t read yet)       The Clique series and the summer character-based books         The Pretty Little Liars series (I am dying to get my hands on her two newest books ASAP, and still waiting for the final PLL book to be released at the end of the year!)       I went through my Goodreads and counted the books I own by her (I hope I counted correctly)… I’ve probably only read half of the books I own       Is this even a picture of her? This is the only one I saw online. Regardless, I have the A-List series and the A-List Hollywood Royalty spinoff series       Series of Unfortunate Events!         This is another one I’m not 100% which books I own by her. I’ve read almost all of her books but don’t own all of them. This is an educated guess based on […]

Review: September Girls

Posted July 29, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments
Review: September Girls

Review: Oh man. I have so many things to say about a book where barely anything happened plot-wise. Jesus. I saw this cover at the bookstore and the synopsis seemed like something right up my alley. I could see that it was a paranormal-esque book based on the description, but didn’t know what was up with these ~*girls*~ (wasn’t that supposed to be the point of the book? Figuring out the secret of the beach and the girls?). INSTEAD it was completely ruined for me by someones Goodreads shelf. Sad face. I also noticed people referencing it in their reviews, so maybe it was common knowledge and I’m just a little slow? Regardless, I went into this book already knowing what it was leading up to. There were a lot of mixed reviews…There was a pretty serious sexism-related debate between reviewers though, and oddly I agreed with both sides. Check here for a review that the book was sexist and here for one that didn’t think it was. Frankly, both perspectives are worth exploring–especially if for some reason you still want to read the book after this review.  I absolutely never wanted to sit down and read this book because I dreaded it. I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book though. If it had been on my shelf for years, I may have stopped, but I JUST bought this one a few months ago and was determined to finish it. At any rate, this book was so effing slow. I’ve […]

Review: The Husband’s Secret

Posted July 28, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments
Review: The Husband’s Secret

Review: I was surprised at how suspenseful a non-mystery/suspense book could be. I got wrapped up in this book so quickly that I spent most of my work day sneakily reading it on my computer’s Kindle app. I could absolutely not stop. The beginning was the most suspenseful part of the book. It kept building and building until I said JESUS what did this dude write in the letter?!?! Once you finally find out, the novel slowly starts falling together. I’ll say it for the hundredth time: I LOVE books with multiple perspectives/characters whose lives are somehow intertwined. I knew that the different characters in the book would end up coming together somehow but it took some time to get going. I think that helped though; you were able to learn about each character/family without getting caught up in the holy-shit part. The story follows multiple characters and switches between them for each chapter. It takes a good author to pull this off without being confusing (I’m looking at you, Jennifer Close. Ugh). Cecilia is the woman whose husband wrote the lifechanging letter. Tess is a woman who comes home to her mother’s house after her husband has betrayed her in the worst possible way. Rachel is an older woman whose daughter died at a young age. I’ll admit that I had sort of figured out what the letter was going to say before reading it, but that totally didn’t impact the novel for me. I was so happy to follow […]

Musing Mondays #1

Posted July 28, 2014 / Musing Mondays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments
Musing Mondays #1

Musing Mondays offer six different topics to choose from to focus on each week. You choose which of the six is most appealing to you that week and run with it! Or, you can muse about anything book-related. Here’s what I chose to respond to this week for my first Musing Monday. Describe one of your reading habits. I’ve talked about this one before quite a bit, but I’ll reiterate. One of my reading habits is that I alternate between e-books and hard copy books. I can’t part with “real” books that easily. I love the convenience of my Kindle and being able to read in the dark, but there’s no better feeling than opening up a paperback and reading. I am trying to read through my extensive collection of books before buying more – but obviously that’s easier said than done. My mom bought me a Kindle for my birthday right before college, but I wasn’t able to use it much during the school year. I found it difficult to balance college studies/reading with personal reading. During the summers and lunch breaks at my internship, I would read as much as possible! I loved my first Kindle very much and it still has some books on it I have yet to read. This past Christmas, my boyfriend got me the new Paperwhite version because I desperately wanted to have a backlight. I love my new Kindle but definitely miss the keyboard and real keys (instead of the touch screen) […]

July Book Haul

July Book Haul

Here is my first ever Book Haul! I’m excited to share the books I’ve bought through the month of July. Because of my Kindle, and the fact that my financial situation isn’t looking so good, I don’t often buy copies of books like this. I hope I’ll be able to share a Book Haul each month, even if it just ends up being e-books. Well, without further ado, here are the books I’ve purchased in the month of July, where I bought them, and why. Let me know in the comments if you’ve read any of these! Niantic Book Barn in Niantic, CT This is the most amazing used book store. There’s a big barn (where the YA books are located), and a bunch of smaller shacks full of books. Everything has a great price and you could spend hours there. Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan I remember reading this book a long time time ago. I can’t remember anything about it, but I vividly remember that cover. I have been wanting to get back into some of the faerie-related fantasy books I used to like. This book was only $1 Never Have I Ever (My Life So Far Without a Date) by Katie Heaney Katie Heaney writes a memoir about her life, and how she hasn’t had a second date in her 24 years. Most of the reviews seem pretty positive and the plot summary promises that its laugh-out-loud funny at times. The Purple Emperor by Herbie Brennan Book 2 […]