Month: November 2015

The Nostalgia Project | Gallagher Girls

Posted November 18, 2015 / Book Reviews, The Nostalgia Project / 10 Comments

The Nostalgia Project is my way of revisiting and rereading old favorites from my young adulthood to see if they still resonate with me. Learn more here and read old posts or reviews here! My first successful series revisit within The Nostalgia Project has come to an end! Let’s be honest, I totally cheated with this one. I had determined last year that I was planning on rereading the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter because there were three remaining books I never managed to read. I started listening to the audiobooks back in October 2014 and steadily trucked through the series until December. I then bought books five and six to finish off my collection… and didn’t get around to reading them. I finally picked up book five to finish them off before the end of 2015. Because I individually reviewed the previous four books, I’m going to continue that here first. Then, you’ll see my thoughts on the entire series and what I learned at the bottom. This has to be one of my favorite books in the series. It’s hard to say that now, considering that all of the previous books blend together when you haven’t read them in a year, but I just feel it. I haven’t physically read a book in this series since the first few books came out and I forgot how addicting they are! It’s a totally different experience with the audiobooks. I thought that some parts of the book were frustrating because of the […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #64: Quotes

Posted November 17, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Ten Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year 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. I love bookish quotes but I haven’t been as good at writing them down lately! I have a specific notebook for it, but get so lazy 🙁 I actually posted about my all-time favorite book quotes back in April of this year AND shared a few favorite friendship quotes for the Love-a-Thon, so I’m definitely going to try to make this list without repeats. Here are some great ones from the past few months! We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach | I love this one because I think it’s just SO true for us as readers! It also seems pretty perfect for this post. I love reading books that open me up to new ideas, but it’s even better when I find one that puts to words all of the things I’ve always felt. It’s like the perfect quote that hits you right at the perfect time. So good. Cress by Marissa Meyer | I think this series is so completely wonderful, but it wasn’t really quotable. (Well, except all of Thorne’s excellent humor.) This one definitely stood out for me, because it’s pretty true about all of the characters and their romances. […]

#TheShelfieHop + Giveaway

Posted November 16, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 38 Comments

Bookiemoji and My Friends are Fiction I couldn’t resist signing up for this one when I saw it! I love creeping on other people’s shelves. I have to admit, mine aren’t as great as they could be. I plan on making a library the second I get a house instead of an apartment. As of right now, my books are kind of all over the place… with a bit of organization. Regardless, I hope you enjoy them! Be sure to check out everyone else on the hop at the bottom too. We have shelf cubes in our entertainment center, with the TV in the center. We have 15 cubes and split them up between Chris and I. My books are in some and his Lego things are in the others! This entertainment center is mostly for holding my pretty books or the ones I want to display! (1) Favorites | I keep some of my all-time favorites (that I own physical copies of) right here. I know this shelf will continue to expand and I’ll be moving them again, but this works for now. (2) Series | These are all series that I’ve read and enjoyed. Paperbacks only. (3) Nonfiction | My collection of humor or nonfiction books goes here. I don’t have too many of them in general, but I keep them next to my little football glass I made at a pottery place. It also stores bookmarks. (4) Paperbacks | Some of my newer paperbacks are on this shelf. I’ve only read one of these so […]

THE ROOM in NYC | Review: The Disaster Artist

Posted November 15, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

Alright friends – I’m going to go in a different direction today to introduce this book review, because it requires a backstory. I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with the cult classic movie called The Room, but if you are – please be my best friend immediately. I use the above line on my About page on the blog, because it’s too perfect. All images/GIFs in this post courtesy of Buzzfeed. What the hell is The Room? Good question. When I first started dating Chris, him and our friend, Chelsea, would always go back and forth quoting these terrible lines from a movie. They finally showed it to me and explained how bizarre the creator (and director, and producer, and actor, and writer) of the movie was. Tommy Wiseau is an enigma that refuses to talk about where he’s from (because of his interesting accent), how he got his money (he funded the multimillion dollar trainwreck of a movie by himself), and really anything about his history. He’s a creepy man of mystery. He wears more than one belt a time. He says things like “move on next question” WAY more than a person should, especially when the point of the thing is to be a Q&A. If you’re curious to read more evidence to show just how weird this dude is, read his Reddit AMA. Anyways, this movie is considered “the Citizen Kane of bad movies.” The acting, writing, cinematography — everything — is […]

ARC Review: Six of Crows

Posted November 13, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

I personally didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. I can absolutely, unequivocally say that (objectively) this is an amazing story written by a talented author that I generally love… but the heist aspect was just not for me. It is genuinely the most stereotypical case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I started reading my ARC from BEA in September and seriously struggled for the first 30 pages. It was interesting but confusing. I liked the writing (DUH) but wasn’t sure the heist aspect would keep me engaged. I decided to put the book aside after continuing to struggle through 100 pages, because at this point the book was being released. I decided to use an Audible credit to see if that helped. It kind of did, but not really. Here’s my progress through this book: Like honestly it took way too much effort and time to read this book. I barely feel like I even know what happened. I just could not focus for the life of me. However, all of that negative aside – I can truly appreciate this story and am really interested to see where Bardugo takes us next! Great things I can appreciate: Super character-driven, even when they’re essentially a ragtag crew of criminals MULTIPLE SHIPS SETTING SAIL, oh god Leigh Bardugo’s amazing, gorgeous writing style The end (last 20-40% or so) of the book moved faster and was more enjoyable in general Things that didn’t work for me: The pacing […]

Review: Magnolia

Posted November 12, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

I honestly had no idea what to expect with this book. I wasn’t interested in it last year when it came out for some reason, and then I started getting more and more interested. I love hate-to-love romances and really needed something fluffy, after reading a couple of darker books. This book was just what I needed: fluffy, cute, and a bit cheesy. It took some getting used to because I honestly don’t know the last book I read in first-person. It was a bit jarring at first because Jemma was essentially talking to the reader, instead of just narrating what she was doing. It was kind of cute though! This book certainly made me smile and keep reading. Things I loved Shipping them the hardest | Okay, their first kiss killed me for some reason. I loved the build-up to the romance in this book! It’s easily one of the best hate-to-love romances I’ve ever read. Add in the storm (more on that later) and I’m hooked. I was rooting for them right off the bat and thought they had the best chemistry in the beginning. Hearing about the eighth grade dance broke my heart, but it was such a sweet moment to move on from. Southern setting, complete with tornadoes | I never thought I would like books set in the south for some reason. Maybe because life is different down there and I only saw stereotypes? Either way, I keep falling for every romance set in the south! It […]

Celebrating WINTER with Lunar Chronicles Games

Posted November 11, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I can’t resist all of the fun games Brittany put together for The Lunar Chronicles Readalong! (Above photo courtesy of her blog.) Now that Winter is here, the readalong will be coming to an official close at the end of the month. I’m so so glad I decided to read this series and participate in some of the challenges/games. I also started reading the book at midnight when it was delivered to my Kindle. It made me want to stay up way too late but I somehow managed to pull myself away and get some sleep. The Lunar Chronicles Games & Challenges Kiss Marry Kill MASH In case you don’t remember how to play one of the BEST games ever, you just pick a number (or do the circle/counting lines thing) and cross off each as you go. For example, I started in the MARRY category and worked my way down, then moved to the right. Every 9th item got crossed off until there was only one item left per category. Here are my results! I’m going to marry Wolf (wahhh he’s my least favorite!), be best friends with Cress (excellent! She IS my favorite), work as a cage fighter (well I guess at least my husband and I have the same risky career), live in New Beijing (sounds cool), have some sweet hacker skills (word), and drive a pod ship (I guess fly would be a better word?). Scattegories Another fun one! Usually you roll to see what letter you get, but that can be […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #63: Book-to-Movie

Posted November 10, 2015 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Ten Book-to-Movie (or TV) Adaptations I’m Looking Forward To 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. This week’s topic is the top ten book-to-movie adaptations I’m looking forward to, or the adaptations I still need to watch. As usual, I’ll be combining both topic ideas because I can never resist it. I’m not the best at keeping up with adaptations but I will usually seek out movies if I’ve read the book. This topic actually required quite a bit of research! Thank you, Google. Despite the fact that these are two of my favorite books, I still haven’t seen the movies. I decided I wanted to reread Paper Towns by John Green right before seeing the movie, and of course I haven’t gotten around to that yet. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger, from what I’ve heard, is absolutely nothing like the book. I’m a bit disappointed but I’ve heard that you can move past that issue and enjoy the movie nonetheless. (I even own this one now! I really need to get going.)Mockingjay (Part Two) by Suzanne Young | I can’t waaaaait for this movie! It’s so close, too. I usually go see them with one of my friends so her and I have to start planning. It comes out later this month (November 20th) and I can’t […]

Inside & Out #18: Molli from Books and Whimsy

Posted November 9, 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. Molli from Books and Whimsy Twitter: @MissMolliWrites| Instagram: @MissMolliWrites Tell me a little about yourself: Hi, Bookmark Lit readers! Thanks to Lauren for having me today. I’m a blogger, reader, and indie author. I love talking about books (as if that isn’t glaringly obvious), but I also enjoy working out, swimming, movie nights with friends, and spending as much time as I can with my girlfriend. (We’re in a long-distance relationship, so the time we get together is awesome.) Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I blog at Books and Whimsy and also at The Authorteers (theauthorteers.blogspot.com) about writing and what I’m reading. I include personal posts from time to time at Books and Whimsy! I try to focus on reviewing as many books with marginalized characters from marginalized/diverse authors as I can, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ literature. I love YA, NA, and adult contemporary romance. Favorite genre: Romance! Give me a romance of any kind and I’m super happy. A very close second is fantasy. It’s the first genre I really fell in love with outside of YA contemporary books, so it […]

The Nostalgia Project

Posted November 8, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features / 13 Comments

I recently read Hollywood is Like High School with Money by Zoey Dean because I couldn’t resist a $4 paperback from Amazon. She used to be one of my favorites back in the day because of her super long series (The A-List). I don’t know why, but I had some weird nostalgic feeling about those books and all of the others I would indulge in during high school. When I read the book in question (which wasn’t a reread), those feelings only intensified. I started thinking about how weird it is that our book tastes change over time, and how much that is increased for bloggers compared to regular readers (in my opinion). I’m curious to see how much blogging has changed my reading opinions and tastes, and why. Introducing…It’s pretty common for us as bloggers (and avid readers) to go back and reread books to see if they still “hold up.” Are your old favorites from high school still good now that you’re no longer in high school? How much have your reading tastes changed since then? Do you have a lower tolerance for some plots or character traits now than you did back then? Within the past few months, I’ve been itching to revisit some of my old favorite series, books, and authors to see how much I still enjoy (or maybe not enjoy) them and their style. I thought I would share my little project with everyone and see what their thoughts are. Maybe it’ll be interesting for you too! […]