Month: May 2016

Revisiting A Series of Unfortunate Events (Part 2)

Posted May 18, 2016 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

As you saw in Part One on Monday, I planned to reread the Series of Unfortunate Events at some point in my life. When I saw all of the books on Hoopla, I decided to start right away. The first audiobook blew me away and the rest were pretty great too. Here I’ll continue reviewing the second half of the series and give you my overall feels about the whole reread. The Ersatz Elevator • Book 6 Liked it: Jerome totally meant well, but he was kind of an idiot. I don’t blame him for being tricked, but god – he had no backbone. He hated arguing (which was really his defining trait) and refused to help the kids just for that reason. Overall though: one of the better guardians the kids have had so far. I also like seeing the different ways Olaf is going to disguise his two defining traits, as well as how the kids end up revealing him at the end. Not a fan of: It’s funny that the kids are able to tell who Olaf is right away, but never his henchmen. It’s always obvious (to me) when random side characters have covered their hands or faces that they’re involved somehow. Otherwise, I really don’t have much to complain about for this one. Major feels: The fact that VFD is slowly becoming a major plot point makes me giddy. I’ll admit, I don’t even remember what it ends up standing for (or how the series ends at all, for that […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #90: On a Whim

Posted May 17, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 14 Comments

Ten Books on a Whim: TBR Adds & Super Early Reads 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 weeks topic is: Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim (however you decide to interpret that (bought or read or something else) — I know most people read based on recommendation but we want to know those books you picked up without really hearing about or knowing much about!) – I do generally pick up books because they’ve been rec’d by other people or widely enjoyed. There are some books I add to my TBR without hearing anything about them first, just because they appear on a Goodreads sidebar or in a store. There are lots of books that I borrow from an ARC tour and read super early before the pub date and there are no other reviews yet. These are interesting because there is ZERO outside noise before shaping my opinion. I am able to read the book and digest it as if I weren’t a book blogger for once 😉 Because I like both interpretations here, I’m going to split off my TTT because we all love to do that. Because of the timing of ARC tours, I tend to get a lot of books way before their pub date. I read […]

Revisiting A Series of Unfortunate Events (Part 1)

Posted May 16, 2016 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

I always knew that I would, at some point, reread the entire Series of Unfortunate Events. It was a huge deal for me back when I was a kid and I think I read each one as they were released, starting with the very first book back in 1999. When I saw them on Hoopla at the end of March, I knew I should get started on the audiobooks. Chris had listened to a few of them while working but never finished the series. I remember him saying how crazy the audiobooks were because they had different voice actors. I didn’t realize they also had actual sound effects. It’s literally like listening to a movie for the first few books. Most of the books are pretty short, and the audiobooks range from 2.5 hours long to 6.5 hours. All of them in general are much shorter than any other audiobooks I’ve experienced. It was super easy to breeze through them, one after another. The entire process took me about a month and I loved every second of it. I don’t want to bore people with individual review posts for all 13 books (especially because most people probably read them as kids), so here I’ll chat a little about each book: my rating, overall feels, what I remembered, etc. As I mentioned, I started these probably right around 1999 when they came out. I had no idea it was going to be a huge 13-book series at the time, but I remember […]

Bout of Books 16 Wrap-Up | Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Midpoint Check-In

Posted May 15, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

Bout of Books 16 Wrap-Up Bout of Books is coming to an end late tonight, so here’s my big wrap-up post. Check out my original sign-up and TBR options or look at the daily progress I made if you want specifics. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal: Read ARCs and required reading books (3-6) I did well! I was hoping to read between three and six books during this challenge. I was reading a lot of books at the same time, so it was nice to finally start finishing a few of them off. My total numbers for Bout of Books are below, as well as the books I ended up reading for this challenge. Final Numbers Number of books finished: 5 Number of books still reading: 2 2 ARCs and 3 regular books Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Midpoint Check-In Check out my original sign-up post here! May 1st through 31st 24 Hour Readathon on May 21st Use #CleanSweepARC Hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Kristin @ Addicted to Happily Ever After […]

Blog Tour | Cover Colors: Ask Me How I Got Here

Posted May 13, 2016 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 6 Comments

MORE LINKS: Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository Cover Colors I ended up doing two different book-based looks here. I couldn’t resist doing my usual one based on the cover of the book. She’s on the beach and it has that great red color. I chose a beachy look using those colors first. Outfit based on the cover Ask Me How I Got Here Beach by bookmarklit featuring John Robshaw Outfit based on the character Then, the main character runs cross-country in the story and decides to stop running after her experience. I’m not a runner by any means, but I knew I needed to make a cute running/workout outfit for her when I saw those SHOES. Loooove. (She references purple Sauconys in the book but I loved these too much!) Ask Me How I Got Here Run by bookmarklit featuring flower pattern shoes Mini Review I was so excited about Poisoned Apples last year and it truly didn’t disappoint. Clearly I can count on Christine Heppermann to write stories and poetry that appeal to my feminist soul. This story, written in verse, definitely did. Abbie is a cross country runner who gets a new boyfriend, gets pregnant, and decides to have an abortion. Pretty heavy stuff! Abortion is not a topic discussed often in general, let alone in a YA novel. I would love to see this told in a standard novel format instead of verse, but I think she did such a great job with it regardless. I never […]

Book Buddies Review: We Should All Be Feminists

Posted May 12, 2016 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 0 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. I think Adichie did a wonderful job of “summarizing” exactly what she set out to – why we should all be feminists. Do you think she did a good job of highlighting enough key points so non-feminists or even anti-feminists could understand how harmful that viewpoint can be? Cristina: I agree, I think Adichie did a great job at using accessible language and examples in order to get her point across. For me, it was a good refresher of the basic principles I learned in my women’s studies classes in college, and I found myself filling in the blanks with more of the in depth readings and research I did. I think for someone who has not encountered feminism before, or who has not thought too critically about it, her piece not only outlines the concept but illustrates it in a way that feels truly like a conversation, and resonates on a human level- such as […]

Why Are You So Far Away?

Posted May 11, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 14 Comments

Like most bloggers, I get pretty darn excited when I see what books have been acquired and promptly added to Goodreads. Sometimes I read synopsis and think OH MY GOD I NEED IT NOW. Why is 2017 (or even 2018) so freaking far away? I want them in my hands. Immediately. I’m sharing some of the books I’m reallllly excited about that aren’t publishing for what feels like millions of years. (Is this title here an exaggeration? BARELY. MILLIONS OF YEARS I TELL YA!) So, in other words, here are some of the books coming out in 2017 and 2018 that I’m a bit too jazzed up about. Some of them don’t even have a real synopsis yet and exactly zero of them have a pretty cover to share here. So please enjoy my makeshift covers and JOIN ME in impatiently waiting for these booooooks. Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks • “the story of two teenagers who find out that their families are the authors on opposite sides of a legal battle over the creation of a comic that’s about to be turned into a big-budget Hollywood movie” BYE. A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo • It’s a “murder mystery about the shifting boundary between young and adult and the half-seen spaces where friendship slides into love, where love twists into jealousy, and where life crosses over to death.” EEK. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black • This has been on my TBR forever because DUH Holly Black. I’m […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #89: Non-Bookish Sites

Posted May 10, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 8 Comments

Ten Websites/Blogs I Love That Aren’t About Books 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 recently started following a lot of non-bookish blogs on Bloglovin. I wanted to diversify my feed a little bit and learn about more things. I’ve started getting into cooking, so I’ve noticed a few more of those blogs pop up in my reader too. Today I’ll be sharing the top ten non-bookish websites or blogs that I read regularly. Helene in Between • Helene focuses on blogging tips and webinars lately, which aren’t exactly up my alley, but I love everything she shares. She has funny stories and observations about life. I’ve also loved reading about her move from her hometown (Dallas) to a new city (Nashville). It’s something I hope to follow in my own life soon! Not Entirely Perfect • I love Stephanie’s posts! She focuses on finance, saving money, living a more minimalistic life, and her adorable dog. She has a variety of topics she covers and it’s always refreshing. She’s been sharing Three on Thursday posts lately where she talks about new things she’s into (kind of like my Five on Friday posts!). Making Sense of Cents • This blog focuses specifically on finance, but I love reading about her life on the road with […]

ARC Review: Unrivaled

Posted May 9, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

This was a super super super addicting read! I don’t know how else to explain it, except I’ve never said “okay just one more chapter” more times in my ENTIRE life. I planned to read up to the 200 page mark before bed and ended up staying up for 2 more hours to just finish. I kid you not, every. single. chapter. I kept saying I would quit and I couldn’t. I needed to see what was going to happen! So aside from the addictiveness, there wasn’t a heck of a lot of substance. My gut reaction is to give this book like 5 stars because I was so enthralled while reading, but I can’t ignore some major issues. First of all, I didn’t like the characters at all. None of them had any qualities or personality traits that resonated with me and they absolutely felt like cardboard cut-outs. I don’t need to LIKE a character to like a book, but I at least need to understand them and feel like they’re more than a stereotype. These people were walking stereotypes of a wannabe journalist (Layla), wannabe actress (Aster), and wannabe musician (Tommy). I liked the chapters with Madison the best because she had a secretive, mysterious past that I was determined to figure out. Overall, they weren’t great people. They were all attracted to fame and fortune, plus winning the competition… so yeah. Not perfect. AGAIN this is fine for me usually, but they were too blah for me to care […]

Bout of Books TBR and Tracking

Posted May 8, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 10 Comments

Bout of Books 16 is Coming Tomorrow! I signed up for Bout of Books again! What else is new? I love participating even if my reading doesn’t increase as much as I always think it will. At least it motivates me to finish some things! More details on Bout of Books: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal and TBR Original goal: Read only ARCs during Bout of Books! Newish goal: Read ARCs and required reading books (whoops?) So I wanted to get a good start for the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge this month by reading only ARCs during Bout of Books… but it looks like that will get derailed. Based on books I just got and books I NEED to read, my TBR will be a little stricter and a little less ARC-oriented. I plan to read between 3 and 6 books this week! This TBR is subject to change because I may read/finish these earlier than I thought. Let’s see what I’ll be potentially picking from: Because they’re ARCs I […]