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. I’ll also be updating my 2015 challenge progress here. You can learn more and see past Bookmark Lit bulletins here!
It’s been a good month so far! We spent a low-key New Years at my friend’s house, where we just watched the balldrop and some of the performances afterwards. It was amazing having so much time off from work the weeks of Christmas and New Years… which made for a rude awakening on January 5th when I had a full week of work. Last weekend was full of football, as it should be. I hate when the season starts coming to an end because then I may as well not even pay for cable. On Friday, I took my dad, stepmom, and 
boyfriend to a blues concert (Ronnie Earl) at a new theater in Hartford. It was so much fun and he can REALLY kill it on guitar. My dad was so happy and excited the whole time; it was awesome. I went to my friends’ apartment for breakfast on Sunday because I hadn’t seen them in a while. Her son is SO BIG – I spent the whole morning showing him pictures of me and him when he was first born. We also made an amazing pulled pork pizza. It was so easy, too… I used one of those crock pot sauces from the grocery store that was a bourbon pulled pork flavor and left it in the crockpot with a pork shoulder on Friday. We made pulled pork sandwiches Friday night for dinner. We spread cheese on a Boboli pizza crust and then topped it with pulled pork Saturday night for dinner. On Monday we decided to turn our living room into a giant fort. Yep. We’re definitely 23 year old adults. So far we’ve watched some movies, read books, and built Legos in it. We pretty much plan to keep it up as long as possible.
- [1 Jan] Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter ★★★★½
- [4 Jan] Gone Too Far by Natalie D. Richards ★★★★
- [7 Jan] Pivot Point by Kasie West ★★★★★
- [8 Jan] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling ★★★★★
- [11 Jan] Perfect Couple by ★★★½
- [12 Jan] All Lined Up by Cora Carmack ★★★½
- [14 Jan] The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer ★★½
- [19 Jan] All Fall Down by Ally Carter ★★★★½
- [21 Jan] Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling ★★★★½
- [22 Jan] Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay ★★★★½
- [26 Jan] Yes Please by Amy Poehler ★★★★½
- [28 Jan] Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★
- [29 Jan] The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black ★★★★
The beginning of the year is here! My feeds have been filled with goals, reading challenges, and resolutions – and I love it! I admitted this month that I am a creeper (among other bookish confessions) and I love stalking your surveys and goals. I signed up for the Books and Bloggers Swap this month, too! I’m excited to join in on another fun swap this month. I posted two Five on Fridays (which yes, I don’t post as often as I promised. One of them talked about a bit about my bookish Instagram and resolutions. The other discussed the Kickstarter controversy and I got some great comments! My Top Ten Tuesday posts included the books I didn’t read in 2014 (despite my major excitement for them) and the 2015 debut books I’m looking forward to. Otherwise (as you see above) I posted 7 reviews. That kind of feels like a lot, doesn’t it? Oh well. I’m proud of that number!
2015 Challenges
- Fairytale Retelling Challenge: 1 / 10 books
- I am currently working on Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay for this challenge! I know this is a challenge I’ll be getting to a bit later on in the year.
- Reread Challenge: 2 / 17 books
- I’ve gotten both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets done for my reread challenge! I’m doing my reread by audio and am really enjoying the narrator.
- 105 Challenge: 4 / 105 books
- I keep changing my categories for this challenge but I’m hoping I can stick with my current set. I read All Lined Up by Cora Carmack for the New Adult section, Perfect Couple by Jennifer Echols for the ARC section, Yes Please by Amy Poehler for the Memoir/Humor section (still currently working on this one!), and Pivot Point by Kasie West for my “time-bending” section. I just created that one because I love books that manipulate time and space, like time travel and parallel universe books!
- TBR Challenge: 0 / 12 books
- Library Challenge: 2 / 20 books
- I finished Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo and The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sara Strohmeyer from the library.
- Flights of Fantasy Challenge: 4/ 20 books
- I’ve been REALLY in the mood for fantasy lately, so it’s no surprise I’m doing well with this challenge so far. I’ve got Princess of Thorns, both Harry Potter books, and Siege and Storm that also fall into this challenge.
- Audiobook Challenge: 2 / 35 books
- Again, Harry Potter books!
- Book Blogger Organization Challenge: January’s tasks include planning out reading challenges and resolutions for the year.
- Series-a-Month Challenge: None yet for January, but I’m thinking it’ll be the Percy Jackson series!
Other Challenges, Readalongs, Readathons
- Bout of Books: My goal was 7 books and that was a bit ambitious given my life that week. I ended up reading 4.5 books. I’m giving myself a half because I read a short story, too. It just wasn’t a good week for me to do it! Although I kind of beasted it out over the weekend.
To track all of my progress and for more challenge details, check out the links below:
Physical Books:
- She’s So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott
- He’s So Not Worth It by Kieran Scott
- Shadow Falls: The Beginning by C.C. Hunter
- Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham
- Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier
- Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
- Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
- These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
- Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
- United We Spy by Ally Carter
Kindle Books:
- Compulsion by Martina Boone
- Unhinged by A.G. Howard
- Side Effects My Vary by July Murphy
- Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
- On the Fence by Kasie West
- Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
Giveaway or Gift Books:
- There Will be Lies by Nick Lake (thanks, Ellice!)
Giveaway or Gift Books:
- All Fall Down by Ally Carter (thanks, Scholastic!)
Audiobooks:
- Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
Library Books:
- My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal
- Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer Armentrout
- #scandal by Sarah Ockler
Well aside from spending a lot of time in our new living room fort, I do have kind of a busy month ahead. There are quite a few birthday parties on weekends: one for Chris’s dad, which includes a day of skiing I won’t partake in; one is going to a delicious Chinese restaurant for his cousin’s birthday; another party is for his twin cousins, that I think is just a gathering at their house; and the other is a trip to Foxwoods Casino for bowling and sleeping for one of my friends from college. From a reading perspective, I’m excited to get going on All Fall Down soon.
- Read my library books before acquiring fees
- Read All Fall Down and post my review before the release date at the end of the month
- Start the Percy Jackson series and finish before the end of the month
I really enjoy reading your blog. You have reviewed quite a bit. I want to read Jellicoe Road. You are doing great with your reading challenges.
Thank you so much for the sweet comment! I actually visit your blog all the time too but I have difficulty with using the Google comment form, so I can’t always respond to your posts 🙁
I made it a point to choose reading challenges that somewhat challenged me, but also made sure they’d actually include books I’ve wanted to read. So it’s not too much of a stretch 😛
Dangerous Girls! All Fall Down! Girl, you got good books! Hope you enjoy the rest of Gallagher Girls, those final two novels, oh my god, hopefully you love them. You’re so planned and organised and set up, good luck with everything hunny! 🙂
Haha thank you!!
OMG PIZZA. ME WANTS! *grabby hands* I hope you love Dangerous Girls, Lauren! It’s one of my favourite novels of 2013 and probably goes down as the best mystery thriller, like, EVER.
Fantastic post! <33
I’m so excited!! I loved Dangerous Boys!
It makes sense. 🙂 I have to recommend All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven to you now, you can add it to your top priority reading list. 🙂 Seriously. It’s a must-read, it’s a must-read as soon as possible. It’s a book you should’ve read on January 6th when it came out. I may just be a bit of a huge fan of it, but yes. I highly recommend it.
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Okay, that fort is so awesome! I want to make one. Seven reviews in one week is great, it does seem like a lot, but I’m really really impressed. Mostly because it takes me forever to get a review up. *sigh*
I have These Broken Stars and Dangerous Girls too. I need to buy/read Jellicoe Road and There Will Be Lies. Jellicoe Road sounds a lot better to me now that I actually know what it’s about. Haha. Ah! I need to get Cruel Beauty and Princess of Thorns too…
I hope you have fun at all these birthday parties going on, that is a lot. 🙂 And ha, reading library books before acquiring fees, something I’ve yet to master. 🙂
[…] in a fort for two weeks – As you may know from a previous post on here, Chris and I built a blanket fort in our living room. We figured we’d keep it up for […]