Month: August 2014

WWW Wednesdays #6

Posted August 27, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 14 Comments

I am still struggling through the audiobook of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. I only have an hour and a half left! I’ve never been so close to stopping a book in the middle. For my regular book, I’m finally reading Audrey, Wait! I’ve had this one probably since the year it came out and it’s been stuck in my pre-college book haul box. I like it so far but there’s something about it that makes me not want to read it all the time. I’ve been blessed with a lot of good books lately that have left me completely addicted, but this one isn’t striking that chord with me yet. Sigh. I love you so much Jenny Han. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was a great book that I can’t believe took me so long to finally get to. I’m so glad the anticipation didn’t ruin it for me. I cannot wait for the second one! Otherwise, I finished Bout of Books pretty strong by finishing 6 books out of my goal of 7. Included in that were There’s Cake in my Future and The Heiresses. I enjoyed them both a lot. My reviews for all three of these will be up within the week. Well, I mentioned The Beginning of Everything during last week’s WWW Wednesday because I was hoping to be done with my current audiobook. Since that’s not the case, I’ll be starting this one by the end of the week. For real books, I’m starting […]

Goodbye Summer TBR List

Posted August 27, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 4 Comments

Today I’ll be starting my Goodbye Summer Readathon, where I motivate myself to finish the summery books I like to read during the season. Here’s my information post and the general page where I’ll be updating progress and goals. I don’t expect anyone to join in – but you’re more than welcome to! This is just my way of getting through some summer books before fall officially starts. Without further ado, here’s my TBR list that I’ll be completing between now and September 15th. I’ll be kicking it off with Since Last Summer!

Review: The Heiresses

Posted August 27, 2014 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Review: I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase “guilty pleasure.” That’s exactly what this book (and literally any and all other books by Sara Shepard are). I just wanted to get that out of the way first before you holler at me and say how shitty this book is. I’ve read the entire PLL series and I’m FULLY aware of Shepard’s writing style and plot devices and anything else you could think of. The thing is – I don’t care. I would read her grocery list because I think somehow she would manage to surprise me. Maybe you thought this book was predictable if you’ve read it. The thing is, I don’t try to predict anything when it come to suspense books. I prefer to be surprised. I may make a guess or two about things but never want to be right. I’m sure if I really sat hard and brought my thinking up just one more level, I would have been able to figure more out. I just don’t want to. I could make the jokes that everyone and their mother made in their Goodreads reviews, but I’ll resist the urge. (They are pretty funny though, you should look) Sara Shepard has been vague about if this is a series (although Goodreads suggests that it is).. I’ve gotta say that after that ending- there better be a second book. It kept me interested and intrigued throughout the entire thing, which is really what a good book boils down to. […]

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 26

Posted August 26, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

A Book that Changed your Opinion on Something Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich This book certainly changed my opinion. The description says so itself: “Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way the nation perceives its working poor.” Like other people who grew up not worrying about money as much as others, I didn’t really think of the “working poor too much.” Often, the opinions I had were negative. I kept thinking: why didn’t they just go to college? Why can’t they find anything better? Of course the answers aren’t that simple. This book opened my eyes to the struggle so many people face on a daily basis. She spends her days working various minimum wage jobs, exploring how difficult they can be, and trying to make ends meet. Goodreads seems to have some critical reviews of this book, but it really opened my mind up.

Top Ten Tuesdays #5: Books to Buy

Posted August 26, 2014 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Top Ten Books You Want to Read but Don’t Own Yet

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 25

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 6 Comments

A Character who you can Relate to the Most Lara Jean || To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han I’ve been with my boyfriend for two years now, but before him – I was all about the crushes. I always had my eye on multiple people at once. I always felt super attached to ex-boyfriends and almost-boyfriends. I never really had a good way of getting over people; I’d let them mess with my head a little too much in the meantime. Lara Jean writes letters to the boys she used to love and keeps them as a way to move on. I wish I did this when I was younger! Maybe then it would have been easier to let go of my past. I can relate to her confusion about different boys and her feelings towards them. She was funny and a little awkward, which I can be at times too.

Goodbye Summer Readathon: Join Me!

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 2 Comments

I’ve decided to create readathon – primarily for myself to get my summer butt in gear! Each summer, I like to mostly read books about the season. I love to read about girls who head off to summer vacations or go on road trips. There are quite a few summery books on my TBR list that I somehow avoided this summer. Now that the season is coming to a close, I’ve decided to make a list of these books and finish them by the end of “summer”! If you would like to join me, feel free to link up in the comments! You can use my image and just connect it with my blog so others can join in. Here’s the official information page where I’ll be filling in my updates, TBR list, and other information. What I’m Doing Making a list of the books I wanted to complete this summer but didn’t get to. They’ll all be books about the summer season and/or feature summery things, like road trips and vacations. Setting a goal to read all of the books I add to my TBR list. Joining with anyone else who decides to take part by checking out their posts and keeping up with their goals/TBR list. Sitting back and enjoying the books! Bout of Books stressed me out more than it should have (I know that’s not the point of it!), so I want to just relax with my summery books and see if I can read them all before […]

Bout of Books 11 Wrap-Up

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 8 Comments

Well, I didn’t meet my goal of 7 books – BUT I am definitely impressed that I made it to 6 books! I kind of forgot I had plans on Saturday night that would take up a lot of potential reading time. My boyfriend and I also had to use Sunday to start packing up some of our stuff so we can move into our new apartment in a couple of weeks! Overall, not the best reading weekend, but such a great reading week otherwise! All of my reviews should be up within the next few weeks. I have some catching up to do, but most of the reviews are already completed and scheduled. Here are my completed stats: Number of books: 6 Total pages read: 1,848 Did you stick to your TBR list? Yes! I can’t believe it. I was tempted to switch it up but I did a good job of reading only the books I allotted for myself. The one thing that I changed was that I needed to add a second audiobook to the list, because I finished the first one a lot earlier than expected. I didn’t even end up finishing it (The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender) by the end of the challenge anyways, so I guess it doesn’t make much difference. Which book was your favorite? Definitely To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before! I’ve been wanting to read it for SO long and finally used Bout of Books as my excuse […]

Musing Mondays #5

Posted August 25, 2014 / Musing Mondays, Weekly Memes / 10 Comments

Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it. I’ve been struggling through the audiobook for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. I’m a little over halfway done with it and I don’t know if I have the energy to continue. I chose it because it seemed like a really interesting concept and had seen some pretty good reviews. Here are all of the things I can’t stand about this book: The audiobook narrator’s voice!!!!! The fact that the entire first half of the book is the random history of Ava’s family, starting back with her great-grandparents in France. We spend nearly 50% of the book listening to the depressing as shit story of how the family got started. This book is obviously somewhat paranormal/unrealistic (I mean, it’s about a girl with wings), but other parts are so bizarre. The grandmother’s sister became a bird or something? The mom disappeared and became a blue dust? There are ghosts following her around? I genuinely don’t get this book. WHEN IS SOMETHING GOING TO HAPPEN??? Ava, the main character, was FINALLY just introduced into the book, and still NOTHING is happening and the book is still continuing to talk about a bunch of random family shit. I am really curious if there even is a plot to this book, or if it will continue to be a sad family history instead. Ugh. […]

Review: Love Letters to the Dead

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Review: Before I say anything and you think three stars means this is going to be mostly bad review – it really isn’t. I liked this book. I just didn’t love it and I found a lot of things that I didn’t connect with. I was so excited about this book; I loved the cover and it had been on my wish list for a very long time. When I saw the low audiobook price, I knew I needed it. I planned to listen for Bout of Books while driving up to spend a few days in Maine. I was able to finish it within 2-3 days thanks to the heavy amount of driving. I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it didn’t really end up meeting them. The thing I really liked about Love Letters to the Dead was the fact that it was written strictly in letters. I absolutely loved this format; it worked perfectly for the storyline. I loved seeing who Laurel was going to write the letter to (she stuck to the same few people) and how she was going to relate her experiences to the dead person’s. The person she wrote to always connected, in some way, to the letter and to her life. That was a really cool touch, especially because they were people I knew and loved too. The book had some amazing quotes that made me wish I was able to highlight on my Kindle. I can see why people described this […]