Month: July 2014

Seven Deadly Sins

Okay so I wasn’t tagged in this, but it looks fun anyways! (Found on Woven Magic Books) Greed – What is your most inexpensive book? The cheapest books I’ve purchased would be The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (haven’t read it yet) and Class of ’98 by A.L. Player (LOVED it). Both were $2.01 on my Kindle. Those are the cheapest over the past year, but I have gotten some for free or for 99 cents on my Kindle in 2013. Wrath – What author do you have a love/hate relationship with? This is a tough one! Normally I either love or hate an author. There haven’t been a lot of instances where I dislike some of their books and like some others. I guess I would have to say Nicholas Sparks because his books feed into the super-romantic stereotype that is very unrealistic. I don’t like what they imply about romance at times, but I also have enjoyed many of his books. I am a sucker for The Notebook but wish I wasn’t! Gluttony – What book have you devoured over and over with no shame? Honestly, none. I don’t typically like to re-read books. I WILL re-read Harry Potter at some point. In the meantime, I can say I have never read a book more than once. In my opinion, there are too many books out there and I don’t want to waste time I could spend on a new book. Sloth -What book have you neglected reading due to laziness? I […]

Friday Finds #1

Posted July 25, 2014 / Friday Finds, Weekly Memes / 7 Comments
Friday Finds #1

I find new books in a variety of ways. I head to Goodreads and do some browsing – sometimes I check out other people’s feeds or Read shelves; sometimes I look at their recommendations for me. I love going to Barnes & Noble and browsing the YA shelves to see new releases or find books by authors I like. I immediately add them to my Goodreads shelf so I don’t forget them (thank god for iPhones)…or I buy them on the spot. Lately, as I’ve gotten deeper in the book blogging world, I check out people’s blogs that I follow and see some of the reviews they’ve done recently. If any of the books sound interesting, I’ll add them to my shelf. Here are the ten latest books I’ve added to my shelf, where I found the book, and why it sounds interesting.     Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page Where I saw it: Review at Chrissi Reads Why I added it:  I’ve seen this book many times at B&N and always thought it looked semi-interesting. Based on the title and cover, I could tell it was Wizard of Oz-related. I typically don’t like spin-offs like this, but there are a few exceptions. I’ve found myself becoming increasingly interested in  books like this, but wasn’t completely sold and never even bothered to read the plot summary. Then, I saw a review by Chrissi Reads and decided to check out her thoughts. She seemed to like it a lot. I’ve […]

Booking Through Thursday #1

Booking Through Thursday #1

I’m going to do the past two Booking Through Thursday topics to get myself started. Do your reading habits change in the summer? Absolutely! I read SO much more during the summer. When I was in college it was essentially the only time I was able to read for pleasure. Lunch breaks, sitting outside at a table or under a tree, were my favorite time to read. There’s nothing that says “summer” more to me than sitting out and reading a book. I used to love making laps walking around my pool while reading too. Different kind of reading … what do you think about letters? Do you ever send them anymore? Receive them? Or do you just do email and texts instead? Do you miss the days when people used to write letters? I typically only write letters to my grandma at this point. There is something special about getting a letter or card in the mail, but it happens so rarely it doesn’t bother me when I don’t get any. I primarily email and text. I was sort of too young to even write letters when they were popular.

10 Books I’m Judging by the Cover

Posted July 23, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments
10 Books I’m Judging by the Cover

I won’t lie – I’m obsessed with books that have gorgeous covers. Contrary to the popular saying, the cover is the first thing you see that draws you into the book. The plot summary on the back is what seals the deal for me, of course, but no one has time to read the summary of every single book in the store and ignore the covers completely. It’s just not feasible. I’ve notice lately that the YA genre has been including these indie-esque covers with beautiful typography. Based on their covers, these are the 10 books I’m most looking forward to reading in the near future. Have you read any of these? Which should I start with? Which ones sucked? Comment below!         To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all. I absolutely love Jenny Han. I’ve […]

WWW Wednesday #1

Posted July 23, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 7 Comments
WWW Wednesday #1

What are you currently reading? I am currently reading September Girls by Bennett Madison. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on this book, so I’m really interested to see what my opinion ends up being. Most Goodreads reviewers hated it, while apparently critics love it. The book is about a boy who goes to a beach town with his family for the summer and discovers that the town is full of beautiful blonde girls. He begins to figure out the mystery of the girls (a mystery that I ruined for myself by reading someone’s bookshelf tag on Goodreads). What did you recently finish reading? I binge-read the entire Shadowlands trilogy by Kate Brian over the past few days. The third book, Endless, was released yesterday and I finished it within a few hours. That series was a total pageturner for me; once I started I seriously could not stop. What do you think you’ll read next? Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn has been on my bookshelf for months. People keep urging me to read it, so I think I’ll finally read that one next. It’s not my type of book normally; it seems a little to scary for me to read before bed. I’ll have to utilize all this spare daylight time in the office while my boss is out of town!

Review: Shadowlands (Series)

Posted July 22, 2014 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments
Review: Shadowlands (Series)

Review: Goddamnit Kate Brian, you never disappoint me. I can’t think of the last time I read one of her books and wasn’t completely shocked, intrigued, and/or baffled by the ending. Let me start out by saying that the only reason I read this book is because it was written by Kate Brian — I would usually never pick up a book that sounds this creepy. The other books I’ve read by her (primarily the Private series) can get a little freaky, but not this much. It took me a little while to get into, but that was mostly because I refused to read it at night and scare myself into thinking I was going to be murdered before bed. I just steamrolled through the second half of the book this afternoon because I could not put it down. I can’t even think of a good reason why this book doesn’t have five stars, but I kind of forced myself to give it 4.5. I like to reserve 5 stars for books that are completely lifechanging and/or would go on my “favorites” list. The book begins with Rory being chased by a serial killer through the woods and her escaping from him. Her family, which includes her father and her sister Darcy, is going into “witness protection” to the island of Jupiter Landing. Let me just say it is extremely unreasonable that the FBI had the family head off in a car by themselves while a killer was on the […]

10 Favorite Books of 2014 (So Far)

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Lists, Features / 4 Comments
10 Favorite Books of 2014 (So Far)

Although I have a separate page for this topic, I figured I would make a post about it as well since I am just getting this blog started. Here are the top 10 books that I enjoyed reading so far in 2014. (Not all of these were released in 2014) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver  Any book that makes me stay up late thinking about is a good book in my mind. I finished this book in two sittings because I needed to know what happened next. A popular teenager is killed in a car accident. She continues to relive the day she died over and over; she alters her decisions every day and slowly learns her purpose. This book made me think about life and death far more than I usually do. I wrote a full review here. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty A woman finds a letter written by her husband that she was not supposed to find until he died. The novel develops how her family, and a couple of others, will cope with her husband’s secret. I’m a sucker for a book where multiple peoples’ lives intertwine. I enjoyed this book because it made me more interested in reading “adult” fiction instead of my usual YA. Liane Moriarty has a few other books out that I want to read and I hope they live up to my expectations. I expect to write a full review on this book sometime soon, since it is one […]

Review: Before I Fall

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 16 Comments
Review: Before I Fall

Review: I haven’t had as many “holy shit that was an amazing book” books in a while. This book had me staying up late reading (which is something I haven’t been compelled to do in a long time either). And even after I decided to go to sleep, I couldn’t stop thinking about the book. It was truly the definition of a pageturner. I wanted to get all of that out of the way first. The plot of this book is that a popular teenager, Samantha, is killed in a car accident while driving with her friends. She wasn’t a nice girl to others in high school, which is pretty standard of “popular” girls nowadays. The book starts with her last day of life and outlines everything that happened leading up to the accident. When she inevitably dies, she wakes up in the next chapter and thinks the whole thing was a bad dream. Of course it wasn’t…she is actually dead and reliving the day over and over again, like Groundhog Day. She goes through the typical stages: disbelief, frustration, sadness, etc. Oliver does not try to make Sam a likeable character (at first). She’s a mean girl. Her friends are mean girls. As the book goes on, she tries to make amends for everything and live each day the best she can. She realizes what she needs to do in order to pass on to the afterlife. I don’t want to give too much away, but this book really had me […]

Review: Girls in White Dresses

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments
Review: Girls in White Dresses

Review: I’m not really sure where to begin with this one. It was one of those books that I wanted to read for MONTHS before actually deciding to read it… and it was such a let down. Frankly, I should probably give it less than three stars. It got three because I think it had some redeeming qualities. I’ll go with those first. In a lot of ways, this book was very relatable. Every girl in her 20s has experienced most of the situations in this book. Between friends getting married and having kids, moving away from home and/or college, losing friends, gaining friends, boyfriend problems, friend problems, etc… It touched on a lot of the basic issues that 20-somethings encounter at one point or another. I liked that. That’s really all I liked. The book ended very abruptly and offered literally a paragraph of “closure.” We find out a sentence about like three of the characters and we’re supposed to just wonder if things come through for them. I don’t remember almost any of the names of the characters, but two of the final two girls that the book discussed seemed to be the main ones. This was another book that switched characters for every chapter; this is something I normally don’t mind. But – this book had a million characters! Some of the bitches would only be in ONE chapter. What happened to them? Why even bother introducing them in the first place if they weren’t going to have […]

Review: The List

Posted July 18, 2014 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Review: The List

Review: At first glance, this book seemed like it may be a little too “young” adult for me. I don’t discriminate though; any book with an interesting enough plotline is worthy of my attention. The basic plot summary is as follows: at some random high school, each year some unknown person makes The List. It includes the ugliest girl and prettiest girl of each grade level. So in total, eight girls’ lives are changed because high school is a place where only appearances matter. Sounds like a great premise. They each struggled with different (pretty serious, at times) issues. Let me tell you a little about each girl and their story, because it was kind of hard to keep up with the changing perspectives. Yes, of course this was one of those books where the author rotates through each girl’s story in different chapters…for eight characters that can be a bit challenging. The story follows these girls over the course of a week. Danielle is named ugliest freshman because apparently her swimmer’s body is a bit too big for some people. She has a boyfriend that she met at camp over the summer, and she wonders how he’ll react. Their story was comparatively boring, but I ended up liking her a lot in the end. Abby is named prettiest freshman and is a little bitch to her older sister about it. She sucks at school and her sister is smart and they’re just SoOoO different. She was pretty annoying but whatever, freshman usually are […]