Month: November 2017

Top Ten Tuesdays #157: Family Recs

Posted November 14, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Ten Books for my Sister 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’m not sure about the whole kids thing, so I decided to take this week’s topic (Top Ten Books I Want My Future Children to Read (Or nieces and nephews, Godchildren, etc.)) and spin it around again. I previously made a list of books I’d buy my little sister for Christmas and we’ve done a good job of sharing books with each other since then. Out of the books I put in that list, she has since read four of them! Here’s my spin on this week’s topic for books I’d recommend that my little sister (now 16 years old) read. Fluffy & Shippy Contemporaries Meet Cute edited by Jennifer L. Armentrout | This book seriously has her name written all over it. I told her the premise of it the other day and she started freaking up. So many meet cutes for her little shipping heart to enjoy. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon | This shiiiiiiip, she’s gonna freak out. I have a feeling she’ll love the nerdiness plus the sort-of-hate into love romance happening here. At First Blush by Beth Ellyn Summer | I didn’t looove this one but I think she’d really enjoy it. […]

Whose Books Am I Reading?

Posted November 13, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 12 Comments

My girl Cristina and I were chatting the other day and I mentioned that I don’t often buy books anymore. She then wondered: where do I even get my books from? Aaaand of course, that made ME wonder the same thing. I know I do a lot of ebook and library reading, but I’ve read around 130 books this year. Surely I didn’t get them ALL from the library. I know this is something I usually briefly talk about in my end of year wrap-up, but I wanted to dive in deeper here. My book buying is at an all-time low. I struggle to even give people Christmas lists because there are SO few books I actually want to own these days. I’m happy that I’m getting pickier overall, but it does make me wonder what books I’m actually reading. Luckily, I keep track of this very carefully in my bookish spreadsheet. What books am I actually reading? Where do they come from? How much money am I even spending on books in general? [All data compiled on October 26th so it includes the first 10 months of the year, give or take a few I finish by the end of this month.] Books I’ve Acquired So first, how many books have I bought this year? How much have I spent? This handy little screenshot below can show you just that. Each column represents one of the months in the year. The total I’ve spent this year is $320.31 on 59 books. The […]

My Favorite Documentaries

Posted November 10, 2017 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 1 Comment

Chris and I try to watch a lot of documentaries whenever the mood strikes, because it’s definitely a genre I have to be REALLY in the mood for. I’ve seen quite a few over the years so I’m sure that some slipped my mind, but these are the top six that I’ve enjoyed – a few more recently and some from my college days. My Scientology Movie Anything involving Scientology will make it onto my watch list. I’m fascinated by this religion because it seems too crazy to be true. There are so many issues ingrained in this “cult,” from physical abuse from higher-ups to not allowing people to see family members. I can’t imagine getting sucked into something like this and I love hearing stories of people escaping. This movie was definitely an interesting look into the religion. The creator pretty much stopped at nothing to get interviews and try to figure out what the deal is with Scientology. Related recommendation: Leah Remini’s show about Scientology. Fascinating stuff! Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine I’ve always been a fan of Jackass, Viva La Bam, and everyone associated with both shows. They’re crazy and stupid but always entertaining for me. I was obsessed with Bam Margera when I was younger and loved watching him skateboard. Enter my boyfriend, a skateboarder, and I’ve started paying even more attention to these people and skateboarding. It’s a fascinating hobby and culture. This documentary dives into Big Brother magazine, which was one […]

On My List (3)

Posted November 8, 2017 / Features, On My List / 8 Comments

I love Jamie’s New to the Queue feature because it highlights new things she’s added to her different “to do/ read/ watch/ etc.” lists. This new random feature – called simply On My List – will show off the most recent books, movies, shows, podcasts, recipes, crafts, and other things to make it on my to-do list. Unreleased Dating Disasters of Emma Nash by Chloe Seager | I haven’t been single in quite some time (and really never had any “dating disasters” when I was, to be honest), so I think this could be a fun one for me to experience! The Dead Enders by Erin Saldin | This blurb had me at “for fans of One of Us is Lying” so I had to add it to my TBR. I like the idea of this group of people being connected from an accident and trying to move out of a “dead end” kind of town. All that I Can Fix by Crystal Chan | This one sounds very bizarre, but I’m intrigued. A zoo of exotic animals taking over a town seems like a weird premise but I think it may just be unique and fun! Published Dashing through the Snow by Debbie Macomber | Tis the season… for me to add a bunch of holiday books to my TBR! I haven’t read a book by Macomber but I know many people love her. This one seemed like a good Christmas story to add to the TBR. Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Charlotte Butterfield […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #157: Leaders

Posted November 7, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 10 Comments

Ten Characters Who’d Make Great Teachers 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 really wasn’t sure where to go with this one because I don’t think I’ve thought about it that much. There were a few directions to go with this one, but I decided to think more in the context of teachers instead of leaders. So, here are some YA characters who would make great teachers/professors someday (and of course the class they would specialize in). Literary & Cultural Studies Professor Kennedy | Introduction to Journalism & Newspaper Editing Professor Paige | Classic Literature Computer Science Professor Dimple | Introduction to App Development Professor Watt | Advanced Artificial Intelligence Professor Cammie | Hacking & Tech for Spies History Professor Samantha | History of the Salem Witch Trials Professor Rowan | Forgotten U.S. History Electives Professor Lara Jean | Baking 101 Professor Victoria | Introduction to Sewing & Fashion Design Professor Jordan | Physical Education

ARC Reviews: A Dangerous Year, The Key to Everything, and The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

Posted November 6, 2017 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I immediately saw comparisons to Ally Carter’s books, plus a little bit of Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott, when I first saw this book on Goodreads and Netgalley. I was definitely intrigued, as I love the whole teen-spy genre. Add in the fact that this takes place at a Connecticut boarding school and I was HERE FOR IT. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. There were some potentially problematic sentences that really rubbed me the wrong way, and I initially felt that this book would definitely be under the three-star mark as a result. The author said things like “hooker red lipstick,” which is rude, and didn’t understand how something like Man Crush Monday or Woman Crush Wednesday worked. I know that one is small potatoes but it still definitely bugged me as I was reading. If you’re going to write for teens and about teens, you should run those passages by a couple of them. The cab driver said his name was Steve and the MC thought, because of his accent, it should be more like “Tariq or Malik.” And one other thing that bugged me, more in terms of the MC as a friend or human: Aside from those things, the book was sub-par until the very end. The last 10% was an absolute whirlwind. I thought I had everything figured out pretty early on, but there were a LOT of twists. The ending was definitely a cliffhanger too, so I’m really curious to […]

Mood Reading + My Issues with Predetermined TBRs

Posted November 3, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 2 Comments

I’ve previously talked about my mood reading and how that impacts my reading and TBR creating. Well, I’m back here again sort of discussing the same thing… with a few updates. I’ve recently started making monthly TBR posts on the blog to help guide my reading for each month and still continue to join reading challenges or readathons (because I love them) even though I don’t often have success with actually READING according to plan. The question I keep asking myself is: Why bother making TBRs if you never follow them? To put it simply, I love making TBR lists. I don’t care about whether I follow them because I genuinely enjoy the process of putting a TBR together. I like making books fit into certain categories and planning which ones I could switch out if the mood strikes. I love bingo boards and figuring out which books on my existing “read soon” list will end up fitting with a particular challenge/prompt. I like to join these challenges or participate in bingo cards because I often don’t have to go out of my way to find which books fit with which squares. I think I read pretty diversely across genres and age targets, for the most part, so there’s almost always something on my to-read list that could work in any given bingo square. If I participate in a challenge where I can make my existing “up-next books” fit with it, the challenge should be easy to complete. Also, I do generally use my TBR posts […]

Review Round Up | There’s Someone Inside Your House and The Fifth Letter

Posted November 2, 2017 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 5 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! Unlike many other readers before me, I was really happy to find out that this book was more of a contemporary mixed with horror. I don’t do horror – even in October – but knew I needed to read this book because of its author. Anyways, I agree with everyone else that said basically not to go into this expecting an actual horror novel. There’s a lot of romance with a bit of killing thrown in throughout. The premise is that a serial killer starts attacking high school students in a small Nebraskan town. I can’t really say too much more on that end, except that the typical hysteria starts spreading throughout. Not a lot really stuck out about the characters or even the romance. Makari and Ollie were cute enough and liked them together. They definitely found plenty of time to fool around even though their classmates were dropping like flies, but I guess there’s not much else to do when a killer is on the loose and no one has school to keep them busy? Her whole backstory wasn’t that interesting… even though it was built up throughout to be this big surprising reveal. Her friends, Alex and Darby, seemed to be okay friends? I […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | October 2017

Posted November 1, 2017 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my 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. I recently split out my personal posts into the Lauren Lately feature, so this is a bit shorter! Weeee finally! I had an odd reading month but it definitely worked out in the end. I would do a lot of binge reading (seriously, there are at least 3-5 books that I sat down and read from cover to cover in one day), and then not pick anything up for a couple of days. I had 2 books from last month hanging around that I finished quickly at the beginning of this month. It was nice to get ahead on my challenge again. I’m 2 books ahead on Goodreads, I believe. It’s hard to read when I’m home in CT because I get so booked up, but I’m finding the time right now to get through one library book before I leave. Average rating for books read in Octber: 3.92 stars Highlights & Lowlights This month’s books: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 3 this month | 55 read total | 550% complete Flights of Fantasy Challenge 4 this month | 26 read total | 87% complete Rock My TBR Challenge 0 this month | 15 […]