Month: August 2014

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter R

Posted August 17, 2014 / Other Memes, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I was given the letter R by The Broke and The Bookish! For your letter, you share your favorite book, author, song, film, and thing that start with that letter. Interested in participating in this book tag? Comment on this post and I’ll give you a letter! BOOK Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella Apparently 8 out of the 10 “R” books I’ve read are located in the middle of a book series. So, here’s my favorite standalone book! This is a chick-lit book, which I don’t read too often, but I love Sophie Kinsella. This was a cute story about a girl waking up and suffering from amnesia. She doesn’t remember the last three years, which includes her multimillionaire husband and the new life she is leading. I honestly don’t remember too much plot-wise about this book, but I just know it put a smile on my face (as her books normally do!) AUTHOR J.K. Rowling DUH! Do I really even need to explain this one? I actually did try to find an alternative author, just because I’ve really only read the Harry Potter books by her, but she’s pretty much the only option. Can’t say I’m surprised. I like Rainbow Rowell too, but I’ve only read one of hers so far. SONG Okay I have a hard time with narrowing down music because my tastes are so eclectic. Here are my top five. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin, because no artist will EVER compare to them. “Ransom” by Drake, […]

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 16

Posted August 16, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

Your Favorite Genre Genre (noun): a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. This is a topic that is pretty heavily discussed in the bookish community. Is Young Adult a genre? I did a little bit of googling and found this interesting article. Young adult is an age group – a SUGGESTED age group. Within that suggested age group, there are plenty of different genres…just like “adult” books. I’ll also say that young adult books typically have teenagers for their main characters. That doesn’t necessarily mean that only teenagers can read them! I like reading books, no matter the age or topic, because it’s interesting. It is sometimes easiest to say “young adult” when people ask what your favorite genre is, because it encompasses so many different types of books you enjoy(ed) reading. But, I bet people would find it odd if you said “adult” as an answer. That’s not a genre! they would say. Sorry for rambling but I just wanted to make the point that young adult technically is not a genre, but it is my favorite age group to read or read about. For a better answer to this question, here are my Goodreads shelves (see picture).. They encompass pretty well what genres I prefer based on the amount of books in each of them.

Review: All Our Yesterdays

Posted August 16, 2014 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Back story: Let me first tell you about the funny coincidence surrounding my exposure to this book. I was browsing my Bloglovin feed and came across this post by The Library Canary. Even though I hadn’t read the book yet, I read her post about the author trying to make a sequel but deciding she would be forcing something that wasn’t meant to be. I was like damn, that’s cool of her to go against publishers/contracts and do what is right for her and the book. I was intrigued by the book but was a little skeptical. Time travel is cool, but this sounded a little more sci-fi than I prefer. Anyways, I went over to Audible a few minutes later to see what their Daily Deal was, and THIS was the deal! I couldn’t believe the coincidence and downloaded it ASAP. It was a sign. Audiobook feelings: At first, I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. As the book went on, I realized I liked her more than past narrators because she sounded more mature. Instead of the YA contemporary audiobooks I was used to, this narrator sounded professional and a shit-ton less whiny. BUT hearing her try to make British and Spanish accents made me cringe and want to jump out of my moving car. (Yeah I mostly listened to this on my commutes to work). Jesus. It was rough. Review: This book and storyline was SO COOL. I loved the way it was written. The book switched […]

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 15

Posted August 15, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Your Favorite Character Of All Time Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky This is not an easy question. I don’t know if “favorite” is really the right word to use, but Charlie from Perks is one of the most interesting, screwed-up, innocent, blunt, different and intelligent characters out there. It was so fun to watch him throughout this book. Not to mention the millions of quotes that have made it onto my favorites list… including my all-time favorite book quote: “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” (Sorry to repeat this book, but it’s different because it’s about a character…right?)

Friday Finds #4

Posted August 15, 2014 / Friday Finds, Weekly Memes / 14 Comments

Here are the books I’ve added to my to-read shelf or recently purchased/downloaded to read! I bought SO many books this past week. Yikes! People on Twitter are killing me with their tweets “hey did you know ____ is on sale today??” … bye money.

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 14

Posted August 14, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 2 Comments

Your Favourite Author(s) From Your Childhood Roald Dahl was definitely one of my childhood favorites. The BFG was my favorite book for a very, very long time. This was such a cute book that you should read now, no matter what age, just because it’s a classic. Is it true they’re making it into a movie?? Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

Review: The Distance Between Us

Posted August 14, 2014 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Review: This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time, but unfortunately was released before I really started getting back into reading like a crazy person. I can’t believe I waited this long because it was so, so cute. Character-wise, this book definitely had some winners. Caymen was hilarious with her sarcasm and dry sense of humor. I laughed out loud quite a few times thanks to her. She was definitely the kind of girl I wanted to be friends with. Caymen and her mom live above the doll shop that they own and work at, struggling to make ends meet. Her father isn’t in her life because he took off the moment her mom announced she was pregnant at a young age. Simultaneously, her mom’s parents disowned her. She used the “keep quiet” money from Caymen’s father to start up the doll shop and since then was not having the best time keeping up with her bills. Since her wealthy ex left her, Caymen’s mom has a lot of hatred towards rich people. We learn that there is a lot more to her story than that, which makes a lot more sense as to why she feels so strongly about it. Enter Xander Spence (excuse me as I barf at his name – really Kasie West? XANDER?), who is coming to the doll shop to buy a present for his grandmother. Caymen instinctively keeps her distance, but is inevitably drawn to him anyways. He has the […]

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 13

Posted August 13, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

Your Favorite Author What defines a favorite author? I guess I’d go by these three questions: Which author have I read the most books by? Cecily von Ziegesar (27 books between Gossip Girl and It Girl) Which author can I honestly say I enjoyed all the books I read by them? Kate Brian (Private series, Privilege series, Sweet 16, Shadowlands trilogy) Which author do I religiously and anxiously await new releases from? Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series, reading The Heiresses this month, and going to start The Lying Game series soon) I would have to give a mix of the three. Even though Cecily von Ziegesar wrote the most books, I would probably narrow it further down to Kate Brian. She’s versatile, she writes about every topic/genre I could want, and she is continuing to put out new books. I plan to move on to her Keiran Scott novels soon, too.

Review: Where She Went

Posted August 13, 2014 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

Contains spoilers if you haven’t read If I Stay! Review: If you haven’t read If I Stay [review here], you should probably read that before reading this review! Overall, I liked this one better than If I Stay. I think. To me, they were just so different. The first book is from Mia’s perspective, where you learn about her family, friends, and boyfriend as she decides if she should live or die. Once you get to know her parents and brother, you understand why this is a difficult decision for her, now that they have passed away. She can take the easy route and join them wherever they ended up, or she can struggle through the rest of her life without her family but with her boyfriend and bright musical future ahead of her. She ends up deciding to stay. At the end of the book, I was itching to know a little bit more about what happens next. I didn’t feel like there was closure. I think that If I Stay could have been a standalone, but I’m glad it wasn’t. I loved Adam from the first book and when I learned that Where She Went was from his perspective, I was very excited…. until I read the plot summary. She left him?? How could she do that!? I was initially pissed but then realized how hard it must have been for both of them. I was glad the two would have a chance to meet up again and hopefully start their […]

WWW Wednesdays #4

Posted August 13, 2014 / Weekly Memes, WWW Wednesdays / 3 Comments

What are you currently reading? I just started The Distance Between Us by Kasie West last night. I’ve had my eye on this one for a long time and people seem to really enjoy her books. I read a third of it already last night in one sitting. It was addicting – short chapters, interesting characters, fast-moving plot. I love Caymen’s dry sense of humor and am very interested to see where this one goes. So far, so good! I’m also about 90% done with my audiobook of All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. Things are coming together and I’m really curious about how everything is going to turn out… This has been an awesome book where the author slowly divulges information about what’s happening. It’s been great to listen to – my first really good audiobook experience! What did you recently finish reading? I’ve finished a few since last week. I read both If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. I definitely enjoyed both of them a lot, but there was a little too much hype. I was prepared for an absolutely amazing tearjerker and really just found a well-written and interesting book. I think I enjoyed Where She Went a little bit more because it was different than the first one. I liked hearing Adam’s side of things and seeing how they both grew up. In between those two, I finished Lola and the Boy Next Door for the Isla Is Coming readalong! Such a cute book, just like Anna and the French […]