Month: June 2015

Top Ten Tuesdays #46: Best of 2015 So Far

Posted June 30, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 22 Comments

Top Ten Twenty Books I’ve Read So Far in 2015 Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. So we’re halfway through the year, and I’ve read 88 books. To put that in perspective, I read 91 books total in 2014. It’s hard to keep track of what I had for breakfast, let alone all the books I read this year. Most of these books I totally thought I read last year, so there are a bit more than expected… I tried to keep this list as SMALL as possible but its not easy. Here are the top 20 books I’ve read so far in 2015! (Yikes.) Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway | I think this may be my favorite book so far of the year. It’s hard to say (and I’ll probably say this again a few more times on this list…), but I just got so many feels from this book. It’s so well-rounded, with romance, friendship, and family. I can’t sing its praises enough. The One Thing by Marci Lyn Curtis | This book definitely caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to love it so much, but it was pretty amazing. It doesn’t come out until September but I would mark your calendars. I have a feeling this […]

Review: Stealing Parker

Posted June 29, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I adored the first two books I read by Miranda Kenneally: Catching Jordan and Breathe, Annie, Breathe. I read BAB first because I didn’t think it was included in the series. (At that time, it didn’t have the Hundred Oaks name next to the title on Goodreads!) I absolutely, unexpectedly LOVED it. I decided to go back and read her other books in the series, especially because CJ was about FOOTBALL which, as you know, is my entire life. Also loved it. So why the major hesitation to embark on the rest of the series? Religion. Gah. I don’t want to be divisive on here, but I will say that I was raised an atheist and continue to strongly hold those beliefs. As a result of that, it’s extremely hard for me to enjoy books that feature religion, praying, church, etc. in any way, shape, or form. This book wasn’t completely about church, but it was pretty strongly included. Definitely enough to make me roll my eyes a lot. I feel kind of bad saying this, because people are certainly free to believe whatever they believe, but it just doesn’t work for me. Did it dampen my enjoyment of this book? Yeah, definitely. Did I still really enjoy the book overall? Yes. I thought that Parker was kind of annoying at first and I was very excited for the impending character development that MK is famous for. Although I will say, I don’t understand what she meant by the fact […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – June 2015

Posted June 28, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 6 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 Bookmark Lit Bulletin is a bit early this month! Why? Because I have so much shit already planned this week! AND, I have a special wrap-up post coming on July 1st because that’ll be the official halfway-through-the-year point. I have a Mid-Year Blogging Update planned, so the BL Bulletin will be missing some info this time around 😉June was just as crazy as May, folks. We had friends come visit one weekend, went to the drive-in movies, and went swimming at Chris’s parents house. This past weekend was more relaxing because we finally didn’t have ANY plans… BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY this month, we went to Chicago! (We actually went to Schaumberg, to be precise.) We went to Brickworld, which is one of the biggest Lego conventions in the world. We attended some panel discussions, presentations, set drafts, and a charity auction. We also displayed one of Chris’s creations amongst a huuuuge room of exhibitors. We spent a lot of time walking around and viewing all of the pieces, as well as a lot of money on Lego merch! We didn’t actually […]

Review: All Played Out

Posted June 26, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I really love this series. All three books so far have been incredibly fast, low-drama new adult reads. This was my BEA train read and I managed to get over halfway done during the two 1.5 hour trips to and from the city. Definitely the perfect read for that occasion! At first glance, the premise for this one seemed a little to similar to All Broke Down: the smart, good girl meets the bad boy player. This was true for most of the book, but they did diverge a bit after some time. Nell is Dylan’s incredibly smart and driven roommate, who has never experienced really anything college had to offer. Torres is the team’s overly confident wide receiver, who is known for getting what he wants from a lot of girls. When he discovers Nell’s end-of-college bucket list, he decides to help her check off the items. I really liked the two of them! No one compares to Dylan and Silas in my mind, but these two are a close second favorite. Torres managed to get Nell to open up and try new things, while she tried to…keep him interested in only one girl, I guess! Again, a lot of it was similar to book #2, where opposites are attracting and the main question is: can these two stick together even though they’re so different? As I said, it diverged away from that towards the halfway point. One trope that has been bugging me lately is the whole “I […]

Review: Stardust

Posted June 25, 2015 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

I finally read a Neil Gaiman book! And the bonus is that it was an audiobook narrated in his lovely accent. I picked this one on a whim when Alyssa recommended some to me (and showed me her blog post with specific recommendations). To be totally honest, I don’t have much to say. I really enjoyed listening to this but think I would probably need to listen again and/or watch the movie to figure out a lot of what happened. It seems kind of weird to give this one four stars, when I was fairly distracted throughout, but it was so good! His writing (or, in this case, narrating) style was excellent. I loved it. The fairytale elements were so cool and following Tristran on his journey reminded me of all of those classic stories. After finishing Ella Enchanted right before this (which is obviously not the same exact thing, but kind of similar!), I couldn’t help but love the feeling of following someone on a magical journey. Tristran ventures out of his small village called Wall and into the land of Faerie. He meets a lot of interesting characters along the way, in search of the star that he saw fall. He wants to bring the star back for the girl he loves, in order to prove his affection. I loved all of the side characters and how their stories intertwined with Tristran’s. I definitely didn’t see that ending coming and frankly I feel like I should have. It was all […]

The FRIENDS Book Tag

Posted June 24, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 13 Comments

Tagged by Brittany at The Book Addict’s Guide Created by Nick from Nick’s Book Blog and Nereyda from Mostly YA Book Obsessed OH GOD MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. I don’t know how I didn’t think of creating this myself. Many thanks to Brittany for tagging me for this and bringing it to my attention! Like her, I am a huge Friends fan. That’s even an understatement. I’ve mentioned it before on here, that it’s something I genuinely love/hate talking to people about. I’m very protective of my favorite show and only have conversations with ~true fans~ of it. I literally used to sneak out of my bedroom every night that my mom was watching Friends, starting around when I was 8 years old, and pretend that I couldn’t sleep. She’d let me lay on the couch with her and “fall asleep,” when really I was just listening to the show… which was WAY too inappropriate for me at the time. Friends can be quoted ALWAYS, during any situation. Ever. I even added a recent feature to my reviews that has “Feelings from Friends,” which includes a gif from the show. (Check one out here or here!) Without further ado/explanation of my obsession, here is… The FRIENDS Book Tag THE ONE WHERE EDDIE WON’T GO | a character we wish would go away Sydney’s mom and Ames from Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen When I think of characters that annoyed the absolute shit out of me, the mother in Saint Anything is the first that comes to […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #45: Best of TTT

Posted June 23, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Ten Favorite TTT Topics Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. (Top Ten Favorite TTT Topics I’ve Done Since Starting Bookmark Lit) The topic for this week reads, “In honor of 5 years of Top Ten Tuesday ( our first Top Ten Tuesday debuted June 21, 2010) — My Ten Favorite Top Ten Topics We’ve Ever Done In The Past 5 Years.” Because this is my 45th TTT since starting my blog, I’m going to give you my favorite TTTs that I’ve done since starting with this meme. I tried to choose some of the more unique topics, or the ones I thought I did really well. I generally love the TBR topics that pop up throughout the year, but they happen so often that I don’t feel like I can list them as favorites. I also avoided the “freebie” weeks because isn’t it kind of cheating if I invented the topic myself? 😉 Regardless, here are my favorite TTTs that I’ve participated in and why! Top 10 Inspirational Book Quotes Things That Books Have Inspired Me to Do [#36] I had just posted my own list of favorite book quotes, so I changed up the topic a little for this one. I really enjoyed this TTT because it featured […]

Book Buddies Review: Even In Paradise

Posted June 22, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. Do you see this as a Great Gatsby “retelling” or just a book that makes a few parallels to it? Cristina: For the first 80% of the book I thought it merely had some parallels to Gatsby (such as Charlotte paralleling Nick, the outsider looking in), but at the end of the book, especially with the twists, it seemed to become much more of an adaptation. I sort of thought the first big “twist” was a good nod to Gatsby, but the additional one at the end felt a little too excessive, like it was trying too hard to emulate the novel. Lauren: I agree. I think the book was trying a little too hard. I could tell that some kind of tragedy was brewing for the end, but I didn’t think it would so closely resemble Gatsby. I did like the parallels of Charlie to Nick, because I think […]

Inside & Out #9: Lindsey from Bring My Books

Posted June 22, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 4 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. Lindsey from Bring My Books Twitter: @bringmybooks| Instagram: @bringmybooks| Snapchat: bringmybooks | Pinterest | Tumblr Tell me a little about yourself: My name is Lindsey! What can I say? I’m just your average late 20s book nerd. 😉 Butttttt here are some other things I nerd out about: my cats, Neville & Luna; stegosauri (only the best dinosaur EVER); bouncy balls (I have over 400); old globes and thermoses (my favorite is my old classroom map of “Europe during the time of Napoleon – 1812”); the smell of honeysuckle and chili (but not together, eww); and any and all things summer and beachy! I grew up on the East Coast not 10 miles away from a beach, and now can’t imagine my life without water within easy driving distance. My mother started working at a bookstore when I was a teenager, and then I kinda “fell” into working at one myself in my early 20s. I’ve now been at that bookstore for almost 8 years this July, and I’m a manager! It’s been a crazy hectic few years, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything with my life that doesn’t involve books. (I […]

Blog Tour Review: The Revenge Playbook

Posted June 19, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I had a good feeling I was going to love this book, especially when I started seeing some great reviews roll in, littered with my favorite word: FEMINISM. I also was excited about the football plot, although it doesn’t make football players look good. (The football guys in this school were absolute pigs and it was awful.) Add in the concept of “different girls brought together under a common revenge goal” and I was SOLD. I felt a lot of things while reading this book! I didn’t ever want to stop reading because I was JUST as determined as these girls to get back at the football players. These guys were absolutley horrible! (Nearly all of them, at least…) They had awful lists about girls and forced guys to break up with their girlfriends if they weren’t up to their standards. They got away with doing anything they wanted and had major preferential treatment from everyone in the school. I kept thinking of the Amy Schumer “Football Town Nights” video, which I won’t link up here for potential trigger warnings. (Google it, if you’re interested!) Everyone in the town perpetuates rape culture without even realizing it. As this book said, “Rape culture isn’t something feminists made up to be angry about.” I liked the romance in this one, although it wasn’t as important. The main point of the book is revenge against dickhead boys, and that took center stage. The most heavily romance-related ones were Melanie Jane’s and Liv’s points of […]