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 some of the popular weekly 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!
This month has been fun so far. I only have one family member left to buy Christmas gifts for and he’s going to be easy to shop for. Otherwise I’m completely done! I told my stepmom that I was going to buy my little sister a Kindle for Christmas when they were $49 for Black Friday, but I ended up waiting too long. The price went back up to $79 and I was completely bummed. Luckily, I decided to hold off a little longer, and I went back on Amazon today… Kindles back on sale for $59! I quickly didn’t wait around any longer and bought it. I love that there’s a payment plan option now, so I’m able to finance it out for free over the next few months. It made things a lot easier. This past weekend, I went to Providence for an ugly sweater party with my friends, and then came back for (another) Mary Kay party. It was my second one in the past three weeks. I like the products though, so I can’t complain too much! I’ll tell you more about all of these events on this week’s Five on Fridays post 😉
- Holiday Review: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares ★★★★
- 200 Word Review: The Scorch Trials ★★★½
- Holiday Review: Ex-Mas ★★★★
- Holiday Review: Let It Snow ★★★★½
- Review: Vicious ★★★★
- Holiday Review: A Christmas to Remember ★★★★½
- Holiday Review: Mistletoe ★★★
Of course my most popular post this month so far was the Getting to Know You Blog Hop and Giveaway. People also enjoyed the top reactions or thoughts I have while reading. That was a fun post to write, so I’m glad others checked it out! My Top Ten Tuesday post about books I’m looking forward to reading in 2015 was also well-received. I love that meme because it brings so many people together! I also signed up for two challenges and posted about them – the Reread Challenge and the Fairy Tale Retelling Challenge. For a full list of my 2015 year-long challenges, check here. My TTT about my Winter TBR was also viewed quite a bit. Another giveaway, Book Nerds Unite, involved 20 bloggers getting together and giving away some great prizes. Congrats to those who won!
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 in November but don’t think I’m going to get around to anything for December, unfortunately. I’ve been focusing so much on holiday reads instead.
- 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
- Nothing for December yet! Yikes.
- 2015 Challenges – Check out what challenges I’ve signed up for so far! This is my list of ongoing 2015 challenges.
Purchased Physical Books:
- Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot
- Splintered by A.G. Howard
- Love on the Lifts by Rachel Hawthorne
- Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (I have the e-book of this one but couldn’t resist buying the physical copy when there was a sale. It’s too adorable!)
Purchased Kindle Books:
- The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
- (Pre-order) Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
- A Christmas to Remember by Jenny Hale
Gifted Physical Books:
- Broke and Bookish Secret Santa – thank you Morgan!!
- Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
- Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally
- Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
- Becoming Books Book Exchange – thank you Katie!!
- The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard
Gifted Kindle books:
- 12 Days of Christmas Swap – thank you Jenna!!
- I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre
Audiobooks:
- Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
- Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
Library Books and Audio:
- Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (book)
- The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer
For Review:
- Gone too Far by Natalie Richards via Netgalley AND Edelweiss
- Promposal by Rhonda Helms via Edelweiss
- Most Likely to Succeed by Jennifer Echols via Edelweiss
For the next part of the month, I am hoping to do a little more reading and get myself out of this mini-slump. I find that when I’m reading books that I have deadlines for, I don’t want to read. Even though the books I’m reading are just holiday-themed books and I shouldn’t feel pressure to get them done, I still do. The new organizational methods I’ve been using to read are also freaking me out. I have planned out what I’m reading a little too much, so I need to figure out a better way of doing it. Hopefully over the next month I can develop that system a bit better. 
My goals for rest of December and 2014!
- Finish my Gallagher Girls reread via audio
- Plan what I’m going to read for Bout of Books
- Make sure my final book of 2014 is one I’ve been REALLY looking forward to
Nice job on getting the Kindle! I wish my sister was easy enough to buy for. 🙁 I had ordered the Kindle a few days ago, but it hadn’t shipped yet, so then yesterday I noticed the prices had gone down, so I cancelled my order and re-ordered it. 🙂
Ooh, I should do the fairytale retelling challenge. Especially now that I have received Cress from a giveaway. I’m also participating in the Series-A-Month challenge, but I didn’t read anything last month. I’m going to try to read a duo though this week since after the new year, it’s going to be mostly E-ARCS for me.
I almost bought The Coldest Girl In Coldtown too but held off. I have Even In Paradise and Belzhar both checked out from the library which I need to read extremely soon. I’ve read Roomies and liked it well enough.
Nice job on getting Gone Too Far! I want to read that.
I hope you figure out a new reading plan, one that doesn’t leave you so pressured. That’s how I feel when I try to do themed reads. What is this Bout of Books you speak of?
Very smart! I had the same thought about the Kindle too, that I would cancel and re-order if the price went down. I don’t think it will get much better than $59 so I should be good!
There are so many retellings out there now and I don’t think I’ve read ANY. Hence the challenge 😉 I need to get going on the series-a-month challenge too because I’ve only done one for November and have a lot more on my TBR.
I haven’t read Holly black since Tithe so I really want to get moving on some of her other books. I put Even in Paradise on my wishlist (for all of the swaps I did), but didn’t end up getting it – so I couldn’t resist when Amazon had a sale! I’m pretty stingy with audiobook credits so I thought I would grab Belzhar and Roomies since I can’t imagine actually reading them anytime soon.
I actually joined in the blog tour for Gone Too Far, so I had to weasel my way into the ARC 😛
I really need to figure my life out for reading. I try to plan out when I’m going to read books and review them, which is good when I have actual ARCs to plan out… but otherwise it just stresses me out! I don’t want to have a schedule. Bout of Books (which I’m posting my sign-up post for tomorrow, so you can see then!) is a week-long reading “challenge” that happens I think twice a year? Maybe three times? You basically just set a goal of how many books you want to read in the week and then try to read them all. It’s fun!
Haha, we’re such smart buyers. 🙂 Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to get much better prices than we already have. 🙂
I have never read a retelling ever either, so I want to definitely get going with this. One of the ones I’ve been heavily anticipating (Damsel Distressed) has finally come in at the library so I can’t wait to pick it up. I think I’m going to have have to stick with mostly duos as far as the series challenged is going, at least until April. Darn E-ARCS.
I’ve never read anything by Holly Black. The $2.99 ebook was incredibly tempting though. Aw, at least you got Even In Paradise when you could get it on sale. I need to start doing audiobooks, I always think about it, but I don’t think I would remember everything that happens while just listening to them.
Oh ok, nice going then! 🙂
Yeah, reading schedules are stressful. I’m going to have to figure one out for the new year, I think I’ll average at atleast two books a week until May when almost all my EARCS review are due.
Ah, Bout of Books sounds great then! I’ll definitely have to sign up this week. Sounds like great motivation and a good way to get ahead with my reading. It sounds fun.
I LOVED Damsel Distressed! It’s technically a retelling but it doesn’t have the same feel as one, I would imagine.. It’s definitely heavier than I expected but really powerful and engaging. Love love love.