Month: April 2018

May TBR

Posted April 30, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 3 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. April Progress April was a shitty reading month overall but I managed to get some books off my TBR. I was struggling to find the desire to read for most of the month, and got super wrapped up in all things wrestling or beauty YouTube. Oh well. It’s nice to find time for other hobbies but as usual, I need BALANCE dude. On Deck for May Books with Due Dates May 10th | Blog Tour | Love & Luck by Welch May 31st | Book Club | Ghostly Echoes by Ritter I recently joined the blog tour for LOVE & LUCK. I enjoyed Welch’s writing style when I tried to read LOVE & GELATO but didn’t like the main character, so I’m excited to give another one of her books a try! I also have book club’s May pick (which we are squeaking in literally in the last day of May) to continue our read of the JACKABY series. May Egalleys A Date with Darcy by Schmidt | August and Everything After by Doktorski Valley Girls by Lemon | From Twinkle, With Love by Menon | Furyborn by Legrand I […]

Current Beauty Faves Part 2: Makeup (My New Routine & Next On My List)

Posted April 27, 2018 / Current Favorites, Health & Beauty, Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

Welcome to the first of two posts about my updated makeup and skincare routines, thoughts, etc.! Today’s post will feature my current makeup routine and other items I hope to try soon. Yesterday’s was about my favorite beauty YouTubers of the moment, recent skincare or makeup items I returned or stopped using, and my updated skincare routine. Check that one out if you missed it! The same little background information is below: So I posted recently about the new skincare routine I was trying out, but it wasn’t hitting the mark for me after about two months of religious use. I go through phases (about 1-2 times per year) where I get REALLY into beauty, makeup, skincare, etc. – I watch YouTube constantly, research products, buy and try new things, and inevitably end up returning way too much lol. I’m very much in one of these periods right now. I recently bought a bunch of new things and have been trying them out over the last month. I included some of them in my Lauren Lately post with mini reviews but I’ve since returned, exchanged, and bought more things. Reminder about my skin type: I have oily skin (my nose and cheeks are the first to get oily, followed by a little on my forehead and chin sometimes). My pores are quite large and makeup doesn’t “settle” into my face nicely. When I’m doing my makeup, my sponge or brush will often pick the makeup back off my skin and essentially remove […]

Current Beauty Faves Part 1: YouTubers, Recently Returned, and Updated Skincare

Posted April 26, 2018 / Current Favorites, Health & Beauty, Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments

Welcome to the first of two posts about my updated makeup and skincare routines, thoughts, etc.! Today’s post will feature my favorite beauty YouTubers of the moment, recent skincare or makeup items I returned or stopped using, and my updated skincare routine. Tomorrow’s post will include my current makeup routine and other items I hope to try soon. Be sure to check back for that! So I posted recently about the new skincare routine I was trying out, but it wasn’t hitting the mark for me after about two months of religious use. I go through phases (about 1-2 times per year) where I get REALLY into beauty, makeup, skincare, etc. – I watch YouTube constantly, research products, buy and try new things, and inevitably end up returning way too much lol. I’m very much in one of these periods right now. I recently bought a bunch of new things and have been trying them out over the last month. I included some of them in my Lauren Lately post with mini reviews but I’ve since returned, exchanged, and bought more things. Reminder about my skin type: I have oily skin (my nose and cheeks are the first to get oily, followed by a little on my forehead and chin sometimes). My pores are quite large and makeup doesn’t “settle” into my face nicely. When I’m doing my makeup, my sponge or brush will often pick the makeup back off my skin and essentially remove it, leaving nothing in its place but […]

Love, Simon Book Tag

Posted April 25, 2018 / Book Tags, Features / 5 Comments

I was tagged by Madalyn after basically bothering her twice to tag me in it. Whoops? I’m SO EXCITED because this book and movie are woooonderful. Need to read/watch again for sure. My sister and I saw it as soon as we could (when I was back in town) and swooned nonstop! “I like your boots” | Talk about a cringey book romance If I Fix You by Abigail Johnson This one was tough because there are a few ways to take this. The lighter one is just that the romance was sooo cheesy that it made me cringe. The second, heavier way would be to focus on a problematic romance that made cringe. I decided to go with a book that, to me, featured a little bit of both. There were two romantic prospects that were problematic in various ways, plus the level of cheesiness in the romance plots made me cringe constantly. No thank you to 90% of this book. Liberal University | Shout out your favorite diverse book The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord So the reason I’m specifically calling this book out is because it somewhat changed my opinion on religion in some ways? I am very much not a religious person, was raised with the complete opposite belief system from both of my parents, and have tended to be slightly judgmental on that front in the past. I don’t like books involving religion for a litany of reasons, but this was wonderful. […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #180: Frequent Keywords

Posted April 24, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 10 Comments

Frequently Used Words in my Recent Reads Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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 topic reminds of me of the Book Title Buzzwords that Brittany posts on her blog! These posts are really fun because I’ve definitely noticed trends in book titles, depending on what’s hot in a specific genre. I didn’t want to duplicate hers too much, but there are quite a few popular words out there to choose from! I decided to look through the books I’ve read in recent years and pull from there. Most are in the 2017-8 timeframe but I tossed in good ones from previous years too. Truth and Lies Truth | True | Truly | Lies | Lying | Secret I love reading books about some kind of secret, whether that means a secret society, some kind of criminal activity, hiding things from others… the list goes on. These books have some words in the titles about telling the truth or telling lies. All Things Love Heart(s) | Getting Lucky | Love | Kiss | Kissing | Together No surprise that this category has so many books to share! I’m looking at all things love here – the word itself, plus plenty that goes […]

Review and Cover Colors: Stay Sweet

Posted April 23, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 3 Comments

Book Review I’ve always been interested Siobhan Vivian’s stories because of her close friendship with Jenny Han (and them writing a series together that I STILL haven’t read! Sigh). I thought THE LIST was pretty good for a younger crowd, somewhere between middle grade and young adult, but didn’t resonate with me that much. However, seeing this title got me excited for a litany of reasons. I LOVE summer job stories, especially this one being at a creamery in a lake town. “A summer read about first love, feminism, and ice cream” was all I needed to see. When I got the most adorable package from Simon & Schuster to celebrate the novel early, I was even MORE excited. It came with an ice cream bowl and spoon set, plus a bunch of cute sprinkles! This book was very Jenny Han-esque for me! I felt like the writing style was incredibly similar – from the descriptions to the “drama,” I could totally tell these two are best friends in real life. The descriptions of the ice cream and the lake down vibes really had me itching for summertime. Overall though, I really enjoyed this story. It was so cute and SWEET (haha I’m so funny). Amelia’s passion for the creamery was awesome and I loved the sisterhood vibes that came along with it. Having a supportive, fun place to work with a bunch of girls must have been life-changing for every creamery alum. From a best-friendship perspective, it’s a little […]

Ranking Episodes of Black Mirror

Posted April 20, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

Chris and I started watching Black Mirror a few months ago and MAN does this show fuck me up. We were kind of addicted at the beginning and tried to binge a few episodes in one sitting… but honestly this show is just too heavy for that. I don’t know how people do it when the new season comes out! I get too depressed too quickly. There are four seasons, as of right now, and we spread them out over the course of a couple of months. I’ve seen a lot of people rank them from best to worst, so I’m going to share my favorites and least favorites here in order – the best ones are at the top, of course. You can see some other interesting opinions here and here. USS Callister (S4/E1) I loved this Star Trek-esque episode! The concept was really cool and the cast was fantastic. I was basically on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially toward the end. I hope they turn this into its own show, like the rumors are saying. I could totally see it. Nosedive (S3/E1) This one really got Chris and me thinking! I can’t imagine a world where everyone rates each other based on every single interaction they have. Clearly, it could make you go crazy. The concept here was phenomenal and the lead actress did a great job. I was rooting for her. San Junipero (S3/E4) SO GOOOOD. This one would be up a little […]

Incorporating Your Life into Your Book Blog

Posted April 19, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

Adding a more personal flair to book blogging has been the latest trend that most of us seem to be aiming for. I know I’ve made some changes over the past couple of years to do this! I write a lot more life-oriented posts on Bookmark Lit and many of them don’t even involve books at all. Because we’ve all noticed a decline in people reading or reacting to book reviews, we’re expanding a little bit by making mini review wrap-ups to get the point across, or doing whatever we can to boost other posts that people may enjoy more. I know I’m making a lot of generalizations here, but I’ve noticed these trends or comments on SO many blogs lately. Today I wanted to talk about how to incorporate your personal life more into your blog, either as a way of mixing up content OR slowly seguing into a blog that features more personal than bookish. I’d say my blog is probably 60-70% bookish and 40-30% personal at this point, depending on the week. I sloooowly moved into adding more personal posts over the past few years to get here. Here are some tips for how to do it and what to talk about: Develop a Weekly or Monthly “Schedule” Pick a certain day of the week to post your personal stuff. Alternatively, think about how many times per month in general you hope to discuss something other than books. Make a tentative schedule for each month based on […]

Review Round Up | Infamous, The Chaos of Standing Still, and Sweet Southern Hearts

Posted April 18, 2018 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 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! Let me do a little plug here about Scribd again (link gives us each a free month if you sign up!) – I was hoping this book would be added because some of the others were on there, but I kept checking and didn’t see anything yet. I went on Scribd late in the day on April 3rd (its release day!) and found it, when I was super in the mood to read it. I love that they have new releases THAT day! So overall, this was a pretty good series finale. I didn’t find it quite as captivating as other books in the trilogy (and honestly I’m probably rounding up my rating a bit because of how much I enjoyed the series overall). There have been a couple of book series that I liked but didn’t love, where I thought about it a lot in between books and highly anticipated each release, but they never blew me away. This is definitely one of those series. I never connected with any of the characters and wish this book had more recap in the beginning. I forgot SO much of what happened in the previous book and there aren’t any recaps anywhere, so I just tried to re-learn […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #179: Freebie!

Posted April 17, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Freebie: Seasonal Covers & Book Looks Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, 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. Freebies are always so fun… until I realize I have zero good ideas! I naturally gravitate toward book cover posts because they’re my very favorite. I decided for this freebie to do a seasonal book cover topic that shows off a few books that remind me of each season, and a book look based on one of them. It’s completely based on the cover, not the inside (sometimes), so I can’t speak to the book itself. Most covers are for books publishing in 2018. Winter Covers Spring Covers Summer Covers Autumn Covers