Month: September 2016

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September into October 2016

Posted September 30, 2016 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 8 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. I had a few shittier books towards the beginning of the month, but things definitely improved by the end! September turned out to be a decent month of reading, quantity-wise too. I planned to read WAY more on my vacation from work but that just didn’t happen. The earlier part of the month didn’t involve much reading because we were super busy, but I hit a stride with some books later on for sure. Average rating for books read in September: 3.59 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 8 books this month • 58 total read • 276% complete Books read this month: Debut Author Challenge 2 books this month • 16 total read • 133% complete Books read this month: Backlist Books Challenge 3 books this month • 31 total read • 155% complete Books read this month: Flights of Fantasy Challenge 2 books this month • 20 total read • 100% complete Books read this month: Rock My TBR Challenge 0 books this month • 14 total read • 56% complete No books read this month Seasonal Fall Bingo Challenge 9 books […]

Books I Recently Added to my TBR

Posted September 29, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 7 Comments

Sort of inspired by Jamie’s “new to the queue” posts and the previous TTT also inspired by those posts, I wanted to share some of the more recent additions to my TBR. All of these books have already been released and there seems to be a good mix of adult and YA fiction here! The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan • Of course any book involving books is going to make it onto my TBR. An ex-librarian moves to a small town and creates a bookmobile to match the people in the town with their soon-to-be-favorite books. Sounds so charming! The Book that Matters Most by Ann Hood • Yet another book about books. I couldn’t resist the synopsis when I saw it. The book alternates between a woman who joins a book club and her daughter that is in Paris, living in a bad relationship. I’m not sure what will happen plot-wise but it sounds really interesting! Life After Coffee by Virginia Franken • I love coffee almost as much as I love books, so this was another no-brainer. It seems like an interesting story about a woman who is fired from her job in the coffee business and has to “learn” how to be a mother again. Her ex comes back into the picture with a job offer and I’m sure a love triangle ensues. The Ballroom by Anna Hope • I wanted to add this book to my TBR to push out of my comfort zone again. […]

Mini Adult Contemporary Reviews: Nine Women, One Dress and The Hating Game

Posted September 28, 2016 / Book Reviews / 12 Comments

I recently checked out a few adult contemporary fiction books from the library – both very recently released. I have been reaching for this genre (target age group?) so much lately for some reason. I think I needed somewhat of a break from YA. Both of these books were fantastic and I highly recommend them. I didn’t have super high expectations going into this book but I was really excited for it. I let the library fines pile up a little bit and decided to just go for it. I have to say, NWOD really impressed me. Most of the reviews implied a rom-com-style book that wouldn’t really blow your mind. I completely agree that this book would make a PERFECT romantic comedy movie. Seriously, I hope that happens. The plot summary reminded me a little of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but the story wasn’t really set up that way. THE little black dress of the season, size small, gets passed around between multiple ladies who don’t know each other throughout the course of the book. Each chapter features the POV of one character – some are those women who wear the dress, the salespeople, the men they’re dating or want to date, the maker of the dress, etc. I was pretty nervous I wouldn’t be able to keep track of everyone or let the story impact me, but that wasn’t the case at all. I honestly can’t remember every single character anymore but am left with a great overall impression. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #108: Fall TBR

Posted September 27, 2016 / TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 20 Comments

Ten Books on my Fall TBR 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 TTT is: Books On My Fall TBR List. These are always my favorite TTT topics because I love making TBR lists. Do I love following them once I make them though? No, of course not. You know I’m terrible at TBRs. I seriously love being organized and making lists of all kinds, so it’s no surprise that I still enjoy making these lists. Without further ado, here are the books I sincerely hope I can read this fall! Library Books Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Laura Stampler /// I was intrigued by this little rom-com book when I first caught it on Goodreads, so I immediately requested it from the library. I was going to read it after The Hating Game but didn’t want to do two workplace comedies in a row. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee /// This is another one that’s been on my radar for a super long time. I was going to preorder it but decided to just to the library thing first. I’ve seen mixed reviews but I really think I’ll personally enjoy it. Can’t wait to finally dive in! Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas /// […]

ARC Review: This Adventure Ends

Posted September 26, 2016 / Book Reviews / 11 Comments

Initial Excitement After loving FIRST & THEN to absolute pieces back when I read it, I was so eager to read THIS ADVENTURE ENDS. I loved Emma Mills’ style of storytelling and super charming, yet flawed, main character(s). I was so excited to end up with an advanced copy of this one and I’m surprised I waited until the end of August to finally read it. Summary in a Second Sloane and her family move to her childhood vacation town in Florida after living in NY. Her father is a famous author and he needs to get his writing mojo back, so the family opts for a change of scenery. Sloane quickly falls in with a pair of twins, Vera and Gabe, and their friends Aubrey, Remy, and Frank. When Vera/Gabe lose sight of a painting their deceased mother left them, Remy and Sloane make it their goal to track it down. This is a story about friendship, love, family, and fandom! Storytelling & Setting The whole premise behind this story was so intriguing. It had elements of my favorite tropes, like road trips, slow burn romance, friends-to-more romance, fandom/writing/reading, and strong, sassy main characters. I loved following Sloane on her journey with Remy to track down the painting while watching her friendships strengthen with the various people in the group. She was also a fantastic singer, so there were some elements of “will I be singing for the rest of my life and/or college career?” that were fun to […]

My Problems with TV (and Fall/Winter Plan!)

Posted September 24, 2016 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 13 Comments

I loooove watching shows. I really used to binge-watch like nobody’s business during college because of my schedule. The earliest I had class was 9:15 sometimes and it was two days a week; otherwise I would never have it earlier than 11. This meant that from basically 9 or 10 PM until 2 AM, I would be in bed watching Netflix. I binged some of my all-time favorite shows this way, including… My binging habits changed once I moved in with Chris because (a) I obviously wasn’t staying up until 2 AM anymore, (b) I started watching shows with him in the evenings and we didn’t really binge, and (c) my laptop was really no longer used as a Netflix-watching-device and just hung around without a purpose. I recently asked for some advice about which shows I should prioritize but I have kind of failed at that too. Let’s talk about my inability to start and/or finish TV shows and how I hope to change it. TV Problems Not enough hours in the day I know everyone feels this way but there is literally not enough time every day to read, watch TV, keep a house clean, cook, go to the gym, talk to friends or spend time with them, watch movies, build Lego, etc. Work make things impossible and I hate it. I try to carve out time in the morning before work and at night before bed, but it gets divided between reading and watching. Chris goes to bed earlier […]

What Makes a Favorite Author?

Posted September 23, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 13 Comments

I love finding new authors and reading books that I may not usually pick up… but there’s something comforting about reading a book by one of your all-time favorites. You know how exciting it is when you find out they’re releasing a new book! But I was thinking that I have so many authors I consider to be FAVORITES even though I may not have LOVED every single one of their books. Does this happen to anyone else?? I’ve read most of the books by my favorites but there are a few authors I’m quick to say “YES MY FAVE” but I actually didn’t love every one of their books. It makes me wonder what qualifications I have for determining who is a favorite. Didn’t Love Em All Miranda Kenneally Loved or really enjoyed these: Catching Jordan and Breathe, Annie, Breathe are my absolute favorites by MK. I could see myself rereading and revisiting them for sure. Jesse’s Girl and Defending Taylor come somewhat close behind. These stories are the ones that keep me reading the series without question. Didn’t like or felt meh about these: I have issues reading about religion in books, so Stealing Parker and Things I Can’t Forget were not favorites of mine. I didn’t mind Racing Savannah but it just didn’t have enough OOMPH for me to really love it, or want to move it to the other category. It was hard to read the first two here but I powered through because I love the series as a […]

ARC Review: Cherry

Posted September 22, 2016 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Initial Excitement I was sooooo excited for this book when I saw the premise. American Pie for girls? RIGHT up my alley. Of course the lovely Andi let me borrow her copy and I embarked on it pretty quickly. I love stories with sex-positive themes, and this book was literally nothing but sex-positivity throughout. The entire theme of the book! Summary in a Second Four best friends – Layla, Emma, Zoe, and Alex – form a sex pact to lose their virginities by the time they graduate high school. They’ve got less than 200 days to do it and the book counts down with each chapter. The girls have different relationship statuses at the time and their stories unfold in very different ways. I loved seeing the various types of relationships, situations, and feelings regarding losing your virginity. Storytelling & Setting The story was told from each girl’s perspective but in 3rd person. It was hard to really get close to them even though we were kind of in their head a little bit? In any case, I liked getting all of their perspectives because they each had different approaches to losing their virginity. Each had a completely different experience as they all started losing it too. The story was pretty much 80% about sex and the other 20% was them talking about their friendship and moving on after graduation. I would definitely say romance/relationships weren’t even at the forefront necessarily. I loved that because each girl had a different experience, there […]

Paint By Sticker Masterpieces

Posted September 21, 2016 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

This may seem out of character for my blog, but I’ve always been an art and museum fan. I even did a semester-long directed study where I wrote a research paper on women artists. When I was asked to join Workman Publishing for this blog tour, I was so excited to join in! I actually had no idea how addicting I’d find it either… Workman sent me a copy of the Paint by Sticker: Masterpieces book for me to complete my own sticker-filled masterpiece. It’s just like a coloring book or a paint-by-number book, but instead you use little sticker shapes. You place them based on the color codes (number and letter values assigned to each sticker and piece of art). During my vacation a few weeks ago, I got myself cozy on my bed with some Netflix and went to town. I was asked to work on Creation of Adam, which focuses on the image of the two hands touching instead of the whole piece. As you may be able to tell from the photo above, there are little sticker shapes that correspond to the blank spots in the piece of art. You just match it up (for example, put the A4 sticker in the empty A4 spot – just like paint-by-number) and stick it on! Don’t worry about getting it perfectly placed because you can’t tell if there’s a little space in between some of the sticker. This piece was actually the perfect one to get started on because […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #107: Audiobooks

Posted September 20, 2016 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 12 Comments

Ten Audiobooks on my Upcoming Audio TBR 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 TTT is: All About Audio freebie — aka top ten audiobooks you should listen to, 10 books I want to listen to on audio, 10 bands you should check out, 10 podcasts you should be listening to, 10 of my all time favorite albums, 10 songs I love, really whatever you can come up with. I’m definitely an avid audiobook listener but I don’t think I listen as much as other people! I always have one going for the most part, unless I need a break. I usually have a pretty good idea what’s on deck for me to listen to immediately when I finish another one, but sometimes I’m scratching my head about what to get next. I primarily use audiobooks if I whispersync from Amazon, the old audiobooks on my Audible account I bought before cancelling, and – most importantly – Hoopla from the library. They have a fantastic selection for YA books and lots of popular adult ones too. When Scribd switched to non-unlimited, I put that account on pause. Regardless, here are ten audiobooks on my radar that I plan on listening to sometime very soon! On Hoopla through the Library […]