Month: September 2022

Top Ten Tuesdays #388: Fall TBR

Posted September 20, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Fall TBR – New/Upcoming Releases 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. As usual, I like to make my seasonal TBRs for TTT about the new and upcoming releases within that season that I hope to read. I traditionally don’t include review copies I already have or already published books. I’m going to focus on upcoming fall releases that I am likely to read during the fall (so the Christmas books publishing in October won’t be on here, for example). This TBR will focus on books that are coming out primarily in October and November. October November

Top Ten Tuesdays #387: Geographical Titles

Posted September 13, 2022 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books with Geographical Terms in the Title 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. I love TTTs where I can do some Goodreads keyword searching and call it a day! I know I’ve read a lot of books (especially by RaeAnne Thayne, weirdly) that include things like “cliff” or “mountain” or whatever. Lots of options to share here! I tried to pick unique words for all 10.

Review Round Up | One Italian Summer, All Good People Here, and The Final Gambit

Posted September 8, 2022 / 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! I picked this one up from my shelves on a whim when I was trying to read 7 books in 7 days. It was short and had an audiobook available on Scribd, so I was able to read it in a day and feel good about my progress! I was pleasantly surprised for the most part, after really enjoying Serle’s other adult fiction books (and not loving her YA lol). She writes such unique and creative concepts! The book starts with a lot of raw grief as Katy is mourning the loss of her mom, Carol. Her mom was legitimately her best friend and it sounds like she really relied on her for pretty much everything. I don’t usually gravitate toward books where someone is actively grieving like this – I don’t mind books with someone trying to move on but usually not right after, if that makes sense… I try to stay away from sad reads! I also couldn’t relate to her relationship with her mom. I really love my mom and get along well with her, but she isn’t my go-to person for every problem or question. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the way Katy spoke about her, but it was clear they […]

#7booksin7days Recap and Learnings

Posted September 7, 2022 / Book Challenges, Discussions, Features / 1 Comment

I decided in mid-August to try to read 7 books in 7 days. Here’s a quick recap of my approach and reasoning: I’ve been inspired lately to try to get back into reading and on track with my book life since I’ve been watching a lot more booktube. (I’m sure most people expected me to say booktok since that’s all the rage but honestly it makes me mad seeing every 3rd video on there recommending Colleen Hoover.) I watched a couple of people do “7 thriller books in 7 days” challenges and thought it would be exactly what I need to get me reading again. I’m currently a whopping 9 books behind on my challenge, so this would certainly help me eliminate a lot of that. I struggle with reading too many books of the same genre in a row though so this is a more broad and basic 7 books in 7 days. Honestly I have a feeling they’ll be mostly thrillers anyways since those tend to be the most addicting for me. I had read 37 books out of the 75 I need to read for my Goodreads challenge, which had me 9 books behind at the time. My potential TBR included some thrillers, shorter contemporaries or ones I’d been looking forward to, and some audio rereads to keep it moving. I ended up reading 7 books as planned – 5 were on my TBR (including the books I was currently reading when I started the challenge) and […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | August 2022

Posted September 5, 2022 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I decided to challenge myself and read 7 books in 7 days (recap/lessons learned coming at some point…) and it was honestly great. I was always motivated to read because I was determined to finish, and really limited my phone scroll time! It’s no surprise that I managed to read 9 books in August as a result of this challenge, which got me back on track (kind of) for my reading challenge. 9 books read in August 7 new books • 2 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 2641 • Average rating: 3.67 stars Sources: 2 library books, 2 borrowed, 2 owned, 2 review, 1 purchased Formats: 3 mixed, 3 egalley, 1 hardcover, 1 paperback, 1 ebook Genres: 5 contemporary, 3 mystery/thriller, 1 graphic novel Age Target: 5 young adult, 4 adult Check out my 2022 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 26/40 read total Set in the 1980s Calendar of Crime Challenge Pub month, primary action/summer trip, pub month Breakdown: 2 purchased | 2 library books | 0 free/gifted | 4 for […]

September TBR

Posted September 2, 2022 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 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. September TBR I’m doing something a little different for my TBR this month. After having a lot of success with my 7 books in 7 days challenge, I knew I wanted to challenge myself in a different way to get going on my goal. I definitely didn’t want to read 7 books in a week again because it was a lot of pressure, but I came up with something fun to do for the month of September. My goal is to read at least two books a week but I would prefer three, especially in the weeks before we go to Hawaii. I recently broke my “EOY TBR Predictions” post into a few categories of books: comic, cookbook, magical, mystery, contemp, and holiday. For the month of September, I’m going to aim to read or start three books each week from the three biggest categories: magical, mystery, and contemporary. The Categories Magical: books that involve some kind of magic. This could be magical realism, time travel-ish things / parallel universe kinds of books, or fantasy/paranormal books. Mystery: a catch-all for mysteries, thrillers, and any crime-related fiction I may read. This includes the vaguely mysterious […]