Month: January 2017

Top Ten Tuesdays #126: Comics

Posted January 31, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 6 Comments

Ten Graphic Novels/Comics – Faves & Up Next 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 all about the visuals. I don’t read picture books, so I wanted to talk COMICS. I almost never read them anymore, which is sad, but I hope to get more done in 2017. I’d love to catch up completely on the Saga collected volumes (I don’t read the individual issues) at least. I have so many to read (that I already own, gah!) and some I’ve already enjoyed. Read more comic reviews here. Saga | This One Summer | Fables I’ve read the first four volumes of SAGA so far and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I own all of the published volumes, I believe, so I just need to sit down and enjoy them soon. THIS ONE SUMMER was something I kept eyeing at the bookstore, then randomly got out from the library. Loved the story of growing up and fun illustrations. FABLES has been really great so far too. I’ve read maybe three? I keep checking them out on Hoopla when I’m in the mood and it’s a loooong series. Saved by the Bell […]

February TBR

Posted January 30, 2017 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 20 Comments

I used to be terrible at sticking to TBR lists because of mood reading, but I’ve been getting much better at it lately! I want to make TBR lists for each month as a separate post, and hopefully you guys can help me narrow down some choices with a little poll at the bottom too. Here are some options for this month! On Deck for February… Contemporaries for Valentine’s Day Feels Kiss Cam / 26 Kisses / Seven Days of You These books have been on my TBR forever and two of them are even old ARCs that I should probbbbably read. I love the kissy covers and the romance plots for these! I think it’ll be nice to do a little contemporary binge in the middle of the month for Valentine’s Day. I’ll probably find another to toss in there too but who knows. I think that KISS CAM at the very least is a priority for me. My sister recently read 26 KISSES and wasn’t a huge fan. I’ve had a copy of SEVEN DAYS OF YOU for a very long time and would like to read it in time for a release week review. It seems so cute! I love reading about a different international setting than Europe. Fantasies for Winter Hibernation Crooked Kingdom / Empire of Storms / Frost Like Night I want to get some of these fantasy series cracking (and finished, in two cases here). I recently acquired all of these books through […]

January Netflix and Books Challenge Check-In

Posted January 28, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments

Erica and I introduced our Netflix and Books Challenge for 2017 as a way of making progress on books we want to read and TV shows we want to watch. The TBR lists were chosen by matching books up to various TV shows based on characters, plots, etc. You can learn all about the challenge and join in anytime here! Don’t forget, you can also still participate in our Netflix and Books Tag that we debuted in 2016; it’ll give you some points in this challenge too! Reading Progress I’m pretty impressed I already managed to read a book on my TBR! Honestly a lot of books haven’t been published yet and I have to wait for that to happen, but this one was readily available for me. Woo! Completed books: Book main character has the same name as a TV show MC: Book: Take the Key & Lock Her Up TV Show: Will & Grace Connection: MC named Grace Still to read: TV Watching Progress Woof, terrible so far. I’ve only seen a few episodes of Bob’s Burgers so far. I plan to watch this one casually throughout the year, but I also have a feeling I’ll get addicted? I really hope to finish off the shows with only one season to watch because those are easier to get to. From the TBW list: Other shows watched: Yeah I’ve been good about watching OTHER shows. Go figure. I was able to finish two of them off and get completed up-to-date […]

How I Get Ahead on My Goodreads Goal Each Year

Posted January 27, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 21 Comments

I talked last Friday about why I reduce my Goodreads challenge each year, but now I want to talk about how I always make sure I reach my Goodreads goal. I’ve never really struggled to make it happen each year and I thought people might appreciate learning how I do it. Some of these tips are similar to those in my post about breaking reading slumps during slow-reading months, so feel free to check that post out too! Go H-A-M in January I love to start my year with a bunch of reading, to be honest. Getting as ahead as possible as early as possible makes me feel SO GOOD. You can follow the rest of these tips (or the ones in the aforementioned post) to try to get ahead, but that’s my biggest thing. I read a lot of shorter, quick books in January so I start off on the right foot. You know you’re going to be scrambling in December to read a bunch of novellas and graphic novels to finish, so why wait? Eliminate the pressure by reading all those tiny books in January. I always find my reading re-invigorated at the beginning of the year once I sign up for challenges, so it helps to use that extra motivation when you have it. Do you know how good it feels to see “X books ahead” in the second week of January?! SO GOOD, okay? I’m currently 4 books ahead on my challenge and I love it. Audiobooks forever I […]

Pottermore Presents Short Stories from Hogwarts

Posted January 26, 2017 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

Like many people, I was starting to feel the Harry Potter burnout. It’s hard when the world is EVERYWHERE, with new movies and books and plays still coming out. Half of me feels so excited to experience that world again, but the other half of me wonders when enough will be enough. Regardless of those mixed feelings, I embarked on the three novellas JK Rowling originally published on Pottermore. I decided to binge them during Bout of Books to kick my reading year off and get ahead on my Goodreads challenge. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies This little collection of stories and bits of information was really fun! McGonagall and Lupin are two of my very favorite Harry Potter characters, so I absolutely welcomed more information about them! I felt like neither were explored as deeply as I would have liked during the books. It was cool to read about their pasts with their parents, childhoods, heartbreaks, and careers. I loved it so much. The extra information about being a werewolf or an animagus was really cool. The other two stories – a little bit on Trelawney and Kettleburn – didn’t seem as necessary. Trelawney was definitely an enigma during the books, but these stories didn’t do anything to clear that up really. Rowling didn’t give her as much of a history as I would have liked. Same goes for Kettleburn, but at least I knew who Trelawney was before reading this novella! These parts […]

The Impact of Physical

Posted January 25, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 10 Comments

This post is one of three in the Impact of Book Format series I’m starting on the blog. You’ll see how I feel about ebooks, physical books, and audiobooks over the course of three Wednesdays. I’m a huge fan of physical books. I know VERY few avid readers who don’t love smelling a book and opening those pages up. There’s no better feeling. I totally love my Kindle and my audiobooks, but I feel like nothing compares to the real thing. Regardless of how technology and the publishing industry evolve, I sincerely hope and believe that physical books will be around for a looong time. Cultivating a library of favorites The biggest bookworm dream of mine (and countless other people) is to have a full library room. I’ve discussed my dream library in the past. I want it to have a full bed, so many colors, Christmas lights all over the place, shelves on every wall, and book-related art and knicknacks. It’ll be a haven and I need it in my life… someday. Chris and I still aren’t planning on settling down any time soon, so for now my library dreams are far in the future. I want to have a house someday with a full room just for books and bookish things. I want it FULL of books that I love (or at least like enough to own and take pictures of). A library with all of those things will be an amazing place to relax and read. I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #125: Classics (Freebie)

Posted January 24, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 33 Comments

Classics on My 2017 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. I recently came across the app Serial Reader, which allows you to “subscribe” to certain classic books and have bite-sized pieces pushed to your phone each day. You read the book for 10-20 minutes per day to keep it manageable. I don’t really like classics too much because I find them hard to read and too dense at times. The idea of reading them in small bursts every day really appeals to me, and I’ve already started one of them. Here are the top classic books I plan on reading through Serial Reader! Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll This is the first book I started on Serial Reader. I wanted to do something a little bit shorter so that I could blaze through it and see what the process was like. I’ve always wanted to read the original story instead of basing all my retelling feels on the movie. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte This book has always been on my TBR but I really never thought I’d get around to it. It’s a little longer and will take 72 issues/days to read. I’m excited to hopefully read it at some […]

Last Book of 2016 & First Book of 2017 | Reviews: The Night Circus and The Secret of a Heart Note

Posted January 23, 2017 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

I thought it would be appropriate to put my reviews for my last read of 2016 and the first read of 2017 together. I ended up cutting it very close with my Goodreads goal because I decided to be lazy with my final book. I ended up finishing it 20 minutes before I had to leave for New Jersey for my NYE plans… whoops. That’s what happens when you tell yourself to meet your Goodreads goal exactly – no more, no less. I started my first book of 2017 on New Years’ Day while Chris and I were hanging out at home before bed. I was hoping to spend a good portion of the day reading but I ended up watching lots of football (duh). In any case, here are the books that ended one year and started another! I had pretty high expectations for this book. It ends up on a LOT of people’s all-time-favorites lists. I bought this on Scribd forever ago with one of my credits, solely because it was narrated by Jim Dale. The story itself intrigued me because I find circus settings to be fascinating, but I really only went through with the purchase because of Jim Dale. He is perfection. His narration did end up being a major highlight for me. It was jarring at times because he used similar voices to the Harry Potter characters (like one character in this book sounded a lot like Dumbledore) and the book had some similar words I […]

Why I’ve Reduced My Goodreads Goal Each Year

Posted January 20, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 19 Comments

I’ve spoken a lot about my ~resolutions~ to read less books, so I can give myself more time for other hobbies. This was something I resolved to do for 2016 and again in 2017. Book blogging has done a wonderful job of introducing me to countless friends, new authors, and books I never would have thought to pick up. It’s also wildly increased my reading numbers. This is really great and makes me feel super accomplished! I love reading. But lately, I’ve hated the pressure to read. I was often 13 books ahead on my reading challenge this year. This was mostly because I binge-listened to a series with thirteen short books. But still! I was ahead! Then, I hit my slow reading month in October and ended up catching up to be just “on track” by the end of December. I found myself on December 15th needing to finish 6 more books in order to complete my challenge. What happened?! Instead of saying “oh well” and just reading as much as I genuinely wanted to read, I pushed myself to finish it off. It ended up working out well because I squeezed in more holiday reads than expected. Because of the unnecessary pressure to read, I’ve actually ended up reducing my Goodreads challenge each year. I see most of my friends reading more and setting a higher goal each year since I started blogging, but mine has gone down. You can see from the picture that I blew my 2014 challenge […]

Review: Sometimes We Tell The Truth

Posted January 19, 2017 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

Initial Excitement I’ve been yelling about this book for a while. The Canterbury Tales is one of my all-time favorite classics. I love the book’s setup, how each character told a story that was some kind of lesson about what was currently happening at the time. I was hoping that this book would be a close retelling and use many of the same elements in each individual story. Andi let me borrow her copy because she’s the best, and I didn’t waste much time before starting! Quick Summary As I mentioned, this is a YA retelling and modernization of The Canterbury Tales. The teacher on the bus decides to make the kids tell fictional stories and whoever tells the best one gets an A in his class. Each student was pretty quick-thinking, which impressed me. I would have stood there like a moron with no story at all. I was curious to see how closely the book would relate. Would the setup be the same, but not the individual stories? Or would the author modernize each individual story from the Tales and spread them around to the kids? Well, from what I could tell, it was the latter… and I loved that! The first few stories were obvious, direct correlations to the originals. Even the in-between segues, prologues, and interruptions were the same. After finishing the book and reading the Afterword, the author explained all of the tales and how each kid correlated to them. I wish I flipped to the back to see the […]