Category: Features

Pondathon Sign-Up and Tracking/Etc.

Posted January 23, 2020 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

What is the Pondathon? The Pondathon is a co-operative and story-driven readathon hosted and run by CW from The Quiet Pond. The aim of the Pondathon is to read books and collect points to protect the friends over at The Quiet Pond from the encroaching malevolent forces that threaten our friends in the forest. Have fun participating in the Pondathon readathon by joining one of five teams, each with a unique way to collect points and signing up! You can also follow the story of the Pondathon as it unfolds, and participants can also complete ‘side quests’ during the readathon to collect extra points. The readathon takes place from January 24th 2020 to March 7th 2020. More information about the readathon can be found here. Information about Joining the Pondathon To join the Pondathon, simply sign up anytime between January 18th 2020 to March 5th 2020. Choose a team, create your own animal character for the Pondathon and create a character card! Create a blog post, bookstagram post, booktube video, Twitter thread, or whatever medium you wish, with ‘#Pondathon’ in the title or your tweet. Share the character you have created and your character card! Link back to this post so that others can find this readathon and join in. Share your updates on your blog/bookstagram/booktube and social media. You are more than welcome to tag @thequietpond or @artfromafriend on Twitter or Instagram in all your updates! We’d love to see all of the beautiful and awesome characters that you […]

Blog Tour Spotlight and Cover Colors: Lie to Me

Posted January 17, 2020 / Cover Colors, Features / 0 Comments

Welcome to my stop on the LIE TO ME blog tour! I’m here to do a quick spotlight on the book and a little bit of Cover Colors, since it’s been a while! In case you haven’t seen it before, I typically pull the colors from the book cover and create a palette. I usually make some kind of outfit and accessory post to correspond but it’s hard to do that when the book is a mystery and involves some kind of murder or death… 😉 Cover Colors I was drawn to this cover right away because it’s pretty simple but haunting! The pops of pink color lighten it up a little bit too. I was definitely curious to read the story after having seen this cover initially. About the Author Kaitlin Ward grew up on a dairy farm in a tiny New Hampshire town, the same town where she lives now with her husband and son. She studied animal science at Cornell University and cofounded the well-known blog YA Highway. She is also the author of Where She Fell, Girl in a Bad Place, and Bleeding Earth. Find her on Twitter at @Kaitlin_Ward.

Anatomy of a TBR Post (2020 Update/Plans)

Posted January 16, 2020 / Discussions, Features / 2 Comments

Here I am yet again with another post about TBRs (you’ve seen the original version of this last year and I’ve also discussed ARC habits and how I pick the books for my TBR)! As I started plotting out my reading challenges for 2020 at the end of last year (and my reading resolutions, including a focus on adding variety to my TBRs), I realized I should update this and PLAN for more variety. I always think about the books I missed out on reading, and how it can be really challenging to fit in everything I want to read in a given month. If I read 120 books a year, 10 books a month doesn’t feel like a lot in terms of balancing backlist, new releases, favorite authors, blog tours, book clubs, owned books, and review copies. How can I squeeze ALL of those in each month??? It seemed like a good time to remind myself what’s important and how I can curate monthly TBRs with a solid amount of variety that keep me interested and on track. So, a lot of this will be similar to last year’s Anatomy of a TBR Post that I made but will specifically include other challenges and balancing in the backlist / catching up on old review copies. As I said last time: I remember back in 2015 I followed Andi on an experiment of using TBR-related categories when picking books for the month. It worked so well for me because my mood […]

Popsugar Reading Challenge Ideas

Posted January 15, 2020 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

Just like last year, I decided I should make a big ol post about TBR ideas for the Popsugar Reading Challenge! Sometimes it just helps me to circle back and remember what my ideas were at the beginning of the years if I start to get lost later on. I was REALLY excited to see this list because all of the prompts seem attainable this year. Seriously, I’d probably read *most* of these without a lot of prompting. Other resources: Popsugar Reading Challenge post and Popsugar Goodreads Group TBR Ideas A book published in 2020 This is one I’ll be sure to cross off right away, as I tend to read new releases pretty frequently! I decided to list some January titles I’m excited about since I’m sure that’s when I’ll check this box off. It could be ONE OF US IS NEXT, A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN, or A CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS. A book by a trans or nonbinary author I struggle with heavier contemporaries like I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST but I’ve heard so many great things about this book. I think the likely option for me based on my existing TBR will be OVER THE TOP by JVN because they identify as nonbinary. A book about a book club I’ve been seriously meaning to read THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY for while and I don’t really know why, but that will work here. I also have an egalley of UNDERCOVER BROMANCE, which involves […]

Romanceopoly

Posted January 13, 2020 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments

Just when you (probably) thought ya girl was done with challenges, yet another popped up for me to overanalyze and create TBRs for! 😉 You can learn all about Romanceopoly HERE but I’ll be discussing the general idea and plan of attack below. This is just such a fun and unique challenge that will help me read a bit more widely under the romance genre and beyond. The Basics The hosts have created a Monopoly-like game board with different prompts for each space. You can play a few different ways, including just going around the board in order or actually rolling dice to move around the board. You can pick between the SUN and MOON prompt packs as well, so you can technically complete the board twice if you wanted to. My Plan I decided to add this challenge to my life this year because it just seems like something fun I can do whenever I’m in the mood for romance or for something random off my TBR. Not all of the prompts are romance though! I decided to roll a few dice in a row so I have an idea of my next couple of books, and then decide when to read them. I know most people strive to complete the game board but I’m not 100% sure if I will or not. Unlike other challenges, I won’t be tracking it as closely in terms of completion percentage or goals. I’ve picked the moon pack for this because I […]

Lauren Lately | December 2019 – January 2020

Posted January 10, 2020 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 8 Comments

You can read my monthly Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups to learn about the bookish and blog-related things I’ve accomplished. Lauren Lately was created to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals. Ummm you know it’s been a while when you need to include TWO months in your recap post title! I usually try to do this post or a Five on Friday every week but clearly the holiday season derailed that quite a bit. Here’s a big ol recap of my life. What I’ve Been Up To I usually go weekend by weekend but simultaneously a lot has happened and not a lot, so I’ll do some categorizing instead through the holiday season! Jonas Brothers concert • I went to see the Jonas Brothers concert with Chris’s sister and mom way back before Thanksgiving. We had some annoying people around us (that’s my life, every time I go anywhere) but the show itself was WONDERFUL. The next day, Jen and I grabbed lunch at our favorite spot. Thanksgiving • We always do a fun, comfy Thanksgiving at Chris’s parents house, so this year was no exception. We did onesies! I had a nice day at my nana’s house in the morning before heading to their house after. We made apple cider mimosas. My favorite part of Thanksgiving though? The post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches with everything on it. Breweries and brunch • Chris and I have been […]

Five Star Predictions

Posted January 6, 2020 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

Post found on Pretty Deadly Reviews | Inspired by Mercy’s Bookish Musings For the past few years, I’ve written some prediction posts at the end of the year to predict which books I may rate five stars in the following year. They’re all upcoming releases and usually from authors I already know, love, and have rated many books five-stars from. I did alright with 2019 predictions, with MOST of the books coming between 4-5 stars. Here I go again, this time for 2020 releases… I decided to order them from the most likely to be five stars, down to the ones that maybe are wishful thinking but still have a good chance. The King of Crows by Libba Bray | This series has been such a wonderful experience. I loved Bray’s writing before, but holy crap – she is so damn SMART. I loved the first book, seriously enjoyed the second, loved the third… I’m hoping she REALLY gets me with the final book. I’m simultaneously not ready at all and also cannot wait. Girls with Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young | As you saw in last year’s post and the recent update, I was spot-on in assuming that the first book in this series would be a five-star read. I was blown away. I’m continuing to hope and assume Young will knock my socks off yet again in book two! Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally | I adored the Hundred Oaks series even though there were a […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2019

Posted January 2, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 6 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. December involved just enough reading to satisfy my Goodreads Challenge, as well as my Christmas-loving heart. I managed to finish 8 Christmas books (I started 2 more but DNFed them, unfortunately)! It was so nice to just get lost in the holiday feels over the month and not worry about the challenges I decided not to finish for the year. All of the books from this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 38 read total | 95% complete Monthly Motif Challenge 2 read this month | 28 read total This month: Last chance Retellings Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 7 read total | 70% complete Picky Pledge My goal is to work on Alexa and Hannah’s Picky Pledge, reading one book from my shelves per month that fits a category on this TBR idea list. (I may read more each month but I’ll just highlight one book and category.) This month: None [/one_half_last] Breakdown: 1 bought | 0 borrowed | 0 free/gifted | 4 […]

2019 Reflection / Wrap-Up

Posted January 1, 2020 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

I usually do a few end-of-year bookish surveys to mark the end of another reading year, but I decided to swap one of those out, keep Jamie’s EOY survey, and do something different. I’ll share stats and highs/lows from both my reading year. I participated in the Statistics Survey in years past (2014, 2015, and 2016), created and hosted by Brittany and Andi, two of my all-time favorite bloggers and friends. They didn’t move forward with hosting it for this year and I decided to make some adjustments to their questions for my own purposes. I always share stats and EOY information at this time anyways, but there are bits and pieces sprinkled in from their survey as well! Monthly Reads and Stats, Book Buying Habits Average book rating for 2019: 3.8 stars Average number of pages per month: 3,757 pages Average books acquired per month: 11.3 books Most books/pages read in a month: March, July – 14 books (5,568 pages, 4,422 pages) Least books/pages read in a month: September – 7 books (2,562 pages) I usually read the most in January because I tend to get reinvigorated by a new reading year. I like being able to get ahead of my challenge early. However, this year’s biggest reading months were March and July! Looking back at my monthly recap, it seems like I was just excited to read in March for some reason. I got into a groove, listened to a lot of audiobooks, and enjoyed my reading. July was another solid reading month where I met […]

January TBR

Posted December 26, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

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. Last month’s progress: I definitely blew it with my challenges for the end of the year because honestly I just stopped caring about forcing myself to complete them. I did a reallllly good job with my holiday books and review copies though! I was able to squeeze in so many Christmassy books. Review Copies I have quite a few books publishing in January for review (those seriously creep on me every year!) so that’s mostly what you’ll see here instead of the usual breakdown of review copy variety. MERMAID INN, YOU WERE THERE TOO, and TWEET CUTE are all publishing in January. BLITZED is from December (didn’t have time with my holiday romances, whoops!). I usually keep this section for egalleys only but I’m including GIRLS WITH RAZOR HEARTS in this section because it’s going to be my first book of 2020 and it’s an ARC publishing in March. Required Reading Book Clubs My YA book club is going to continue the Cursebreakers series when A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN releases in early January. My adult/mystery/women’s fiction book club hasn’t made a final decision on our book yet, so I’ll probably […]