Month: April 2015

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – April 2015

Posted April 30, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my life happenings, book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here and learn more about the feature here. The NFL draft is tonight! I’m definitely curious to see who the Panthers end up with this year. I think they could use more help on the offense, so I’m looking forward to a running back or another wide receiver. The first week of April brought my friends into town for Easter weekend as usual. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them. The following weekend, I made an impromptu trip to Boston for my friend’s birthday. We roamed around, went shopping, and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was fun to see her and spend the day up there, but I was damn exhausted by the end of the day. I went to Target randomly the following week and bought a Fitbit. I love tracking my steps, sleep, and calorie intake. It motivates me to go for walks and just keep track of what I’m eating a little more. I’m currently not someone who can exercise or run, so this is an easy way to stay active and try to get my steps in. My boyfriend and I […]

ARC Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Posted April 29, 2015 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

This review was written immediately upon finishing the book (February 13th), so pardon any nonsensical flailing (AKA the whole review. Okay bye.) MY THOUGHTS? WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS, STUPID REVIEW GRAPHIC???? I DON’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE WORDS. This was my first Sarah J. Maas novel (don’t yell at me) and I can certainly now see what all the fuss is about. I decided to approach this one before Throne of Glass because honestly the synopsis of ToG didn’t appeal to me NEARLY as much as this one did. I love faeries! Love, love, love. Always have. When the lovely Andi lent me her ARC, I started reading it immediately because I was just so in the mood for it. I finished it in three days, which is a little longer than usual for me… BUT not that long considering it was over 400 pages and I pretty much read it in a few loooong sittings. I could not stop reading, folks. Even when there wasn’t much happening as far as plot-moving action, I couldn’t stop. So damn engrossing. Fantasy books can be very hit or miss with me; for some reason they don’t hold my attention as much as contemporaries do. I find myself getting distracted. Nope. Not with this book. I was drawn in immediately as I learned about Feyre, her family, and their history. I despised her sisters right off the bat and was hoping that there’d be some redeeming qualities eventually. No matter how poorly her family members treated her, […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #38: Characters

Posted April 28, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 16 Comments

Top 10 12 Characters Who… Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Links go to Goodreads or my review. I couldn’t make up my mind on what topic I wanted to do for this very open week of TTT, so I decided to give a sampling of the few that were going through my mind. Explanations and links to reviews/Goodreads at the bottom! The characters that… I couldn’t connect with anyone from The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour – I picked this one up on a whim at the library because I’ve been wanting to read a book by Nina LaCour and the cover is cool. I didn’t realize the MC was a guy at first, which is fine, but I just couldn’t connect to him or his friends. At all. They read like manic pixie dream girls people who were able to float around wherever they wanted. Do these kids have parents? I also REALLY didn’t like Bev and what she did to Colby. I couldn’t forgive her and didn’t like her. I couldn’t connect with Blake from The Pretty App by Katie Sise – She was the kind of popular, pretty girl who spends the whole book complaining about how people only judge her on those qualities. Yes, […]

Inside & Out #5: Jordin from A Bottomless Book Bag

Posted April 27, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 2 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Jordin from A Bottomless Book Bag Twitter: @JBottomless| Instagram: @bottomlessbookbag | Goodreads Tell me a little about yourself: I’m 24, live in Madison, WI and I’m getting married to my fiancé on our 8 year anniversary this June. I love to read, hang out with my cats Aubrey and Everett, and enjoy a nice mocha or caramel macchiato or Riesling or Moscato… pretty much anything that’s sweet :). Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I review mostly YA books on my blog, but lately I’ve been getting into some crossover-y adult books. Favorite genre: Fantasy and then probably contemporary Three books you recommend most often and why: Pretty much everything that Tamora Pierce has ever written, but if you have never read anything by her, I typically recommend starting with her Song of the Lioness series. She’s my all time favorite author because she’s written all of these amazing fantasy books with strong heroines, and I tend to reread a couple of her series once a year 🙂 The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer because it combines 4 retellings in such a unique way and all the […]

Best of the Best: April Madness

Posted April 25, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 7 Comments

Andi posted a fun challenge back in March where she did her own March Madness bracket using her five star reads. I was planning on taking part, but never got around to making a post for some reason. She recently shared a blank bracket and challenged everyone to join in! Here’s what I did to get the first round of 32 books: Pulled the list of 5 star and 4.5 star reads from my review index and from Goodreads (if I read them this year but haven’t posted the review yet) Eliminated the Harry Potter books and any other pre-blogging reads and rereads (like the Private and Pretty Little Liars series reviews I have posted) Took the remaining books and did some preliminary eliminations to get to the top 32, which was extremely difficult to do! Lots of good 4.5 star books had to go Used a random number generator to plan out which books would face off against each other The top 32 books and initial matchups, in case the pictures are too small, are: Gone Girl vs. Just One Day | Split Second vs. A Midsummers’ Nightmare | One Past Midnight vs. All the Bright Places | Meant to Be vs. Shadow and Bone | Aspen vs. Emmy and Oliver | Before I Fall vs. The Husband’s Secret | All Our Yesterdays vs. 99 Days | Anna and the French Kiss vs. The Distance Between Us | Pivot Point vs. Second Chance Summer | Breathe, Annie, Breathe vs. Catching Jordan | Damsel Distressed vs. Ruin and Rising | Twenty Boy Summer […]

Cover Colors : To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Posted April 24, 2015 / Cover Colors, Features / 6 Comments

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with book covers. I love the colors, the typography, the different designs that cover artists can create. I even have a guest post feature where people share their favorite book covers and bookmarks! I decided to start up this random feature where I draw color inspiration from my favorite book covers. I may create an outfit, pick out some nail polish, or design a quote graphic. Today’s cover is… To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han Okay everyone knows this is one of my favorite covers of all time, so it’s pretty obvious why I chose this one – even though the colors are really simple! It’s easy to draw inspiration from this, though, because you can actually see some clothing items here. I love the pop of pink for the author name, so that’s the focal point of my outfit. I think most people don’t wear jean skirts like the one she’s wearing, so I updated mine with a flared out style. I chose a notebook for obvious reasons, some lipstick, and cute shoes. I’d totally wear this. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by bookmarklit featuring a high waisted flared skirt

My Reading Life (and Other Hobbies Influenced by Parents)

Posted April 23, 2015 / Discussions / 14 Comments

This discussion post was inspired by Kristen’s recent post about always being an enthusiastic reader and, the more I thought about it, Jamie’s older post about how reading wasn’t cool when she was younger. It got me thinking about my reading story a little more and how my parents have been pretty huge influences on that… as well as some other hobbies. You can see some of the best books from my childhood here! I’ve been a reader my whole life I feel like I’ve talked about my reading story a million times on here, starting with my About page. If you’re bored of that story then move along to the next section, my friend. I was fortunate enough to have parents and other family members who were big on reading. I spent my childhood days living with my books. I was an only child and spent most of my time reading instead of watching TV or doing other kid things. I’d go to the library with my mom or grandmother and Barnes & Noble with my dad, pick out tons of books, and try to savor every word until I could go again. I was pretty crazy about making sure my books lasted as long as possible because I refused to reread them (more on that later). When I think of my childhood, I really do picture reading everywhere – on my grandmother’s front lawn under a tree, in my living room at my old house, walking around inside the pool […]

Review: Station Eleven

Posted April 22, 2015 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

I’m very glad that I reduced my Goodreads challenge as I was reading this one, because I certainly ended up taking my time with it. It’s one of those books, for me, where it takes me a lot of effort to actually pick it up and start reading. I was never really in the mood for it, but it was completely engrossing and interesting once I did pick it up. I had a similar experience with To Kill A Mockingbird, and I ended up loving that one by the time I finished. It’s just one of things where the book is kind of hard compared to what you usually read so you want to take your time with it. At least that’s how my experience was! I probably won’t be able to say too much on this one because it’s really quite hard to explain what this book is about and how I feel about it. I was convinced I was going to be the black sheep and almost DNF’ed it a few times, but those feelings passed once I really got going. I absolutely love books where the stories are all intertwining and the characters don’t really know it. In this case, the story spans over time (pre- and post-apocalypse) and covers numerous characters. The cast of characters was so interesting to me because the book was narrated from a third person omniscient point of view. You could get into anyone’s head and the chapters and sections of the book alternated around […]

Currently… April 21, 2015

Posted April 21, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 8 Comments

I follow a number of lifestyle and cooking blogs (like here and here) and always love reading their posts about what they’re currently up to: things they’re feeling, stuff they’re working on, and even what music they’re listening to at the moment. (I also love the “what I’m doing now” tag on Instagram!) I’m taking a cue from them and giving you a slice of my life whenever I feel like it. the NFL schedule release, tonight at 8pm! We already know who is playing who, but we finally get to find out when they’re playing the games! My family and I are planning a trip to Dallas to see the Cowboys vs. Panthers game, so knowing the schedule will help better plan our trip out there! what to do during my lunch break. My mom gave me some pepperoni bread last night and I brought some in for work, but I know I’m going to need a little bit more to eat. I have to go get groceries and go to Five Below for some organizational things during lunch but I don’t know how much time I’ll end up having. some resume sourcing for work, although I could be focusing on that a little bit better… I have absolutely NO desire to work anymore. As a recruiter, I spend most of my day searching for candidates, calling them, interviewing them, and then doing the process all over again. I have countless tabs open of people’s LinkedIn profiles at the moment. water, water, […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #37: Authors

Posted April 21, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 14 Comments

Top 10 Favorite Authors Ever Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Links go to Goodreads or my review. To be honest, this wasn’t that hard for me! Compared to some people, I haven’t read that many books. I have probably 15 authors I could call my FAVORITE at this point in time. I was able to narrow it down to these 10 who are legitimate auto-buys for me. If they write a book, I will buy it and read it!