Category: Features

2022 Resolutions and Goals

Posted January 14, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I used to always do these posts (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) but obviously fell off the wagon for 2021, the first full calendar year of the pandemic. I didn’t even think about making this post honestly! My reading went to shit in 2020 and was even worse in 2021, but I have a renewed sense of energy right now. Generally “resolutions” or the “clean slate of a new year” isn’t my shtick, but sometimes the marking of a new year just helps when setting new goals. It’s an easy marker of time and that’s about it. Try to balance reading and other hobbies better | The resolution to “not be pressured to read; spend time enjoying other hobbies” has been on this list for years now. I used to read during the vast majority of my free time and it got to be draining. I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon a bit in 20-21 though so I’m rephrasing my goal. I want to better balance all of the things I like to do. At this point in my life, that really just means “sometimes listen to an audiobook instead of a podcast” or “stop scrolling on your phone during a wrestling TV show and read instead.” Read 75% contemporary and mystery/thrillers | I used to try to get my contemporary fiction numbers down to under 50% because I wanted to read more widely across genres. I finally achieved this goal! I read 46% contemporary in 2021. I also read 18% […]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2021 – How Did I Do?

Posted January 12, 2022 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

I developed an annual post of “Five Star Predictions” to discuss which books I thought I would rate five stars within that year, and then follow up with a “did my five star predictions come true?” post at the end of the year. It was always fun to not only see if I was correct but also if I actually managed to even READ all of the books. It’s wild how much you anticipate reading something and then just… not even read it. 2020 and 2021 were totally shitty reading years for me and I didn’t even make a predictions post for 2021. When I saw Cristina post about her most anticipated 2021 reads to see how she did with them, I thought that would be a fun alternative for my usual five-star post. I always have two “anticipated reads” posts for the year – one TTT in Dec/Jan for the first half of the year and one in June for the second half. I always include a TON of books instead of just 10 for each section of the year. Here are the details of the 30 books I was excited to read throughout 2021 and how I fared! Overall Stats 30 books on my most anticipated list for 2021 Read 17 books (57%) | Didn’t read 13 books (43%) Ratings of books read: 5 stars = 2 books = 12% 4.5 stars = 6 books = 35% 4 stars = 7 books = 41% 3 stars = 1 […]

2022 Reading Challenges

Posted January 6, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I decided to keep signing up for challenges because I do enjoy them still. I didn’t actively work on them in 2020 or 2021 but always loved to see how much I could fill out just by reading books and seeing how things went! Here are the challenges I’m signing up for in 2022. I’m excited to sign up for an easy TBR-based challenge, hopefully focusing on books I own already in some format. You can read more HERE. There are prompts for each month and different levels you can aspire to read (example: 12 books is a Safety – maybe I couldn’t help signing up because it’s football-themed). My general plan is to read one per month from my TBR – ideally physical books but I’m okay with “owned” books on my Kindle, review copies or otherwise. The prompts and half of my potential TBR are below. JANUARY – Published in 2021 (most of these)FEBRUARY – Romantic read (The Heart Principle)MARCH – TV or movie adaptation APRIL – New-to-you author (The Ex Hex, Arsenic and Adobo, Everything We Didn’t Say)MAY – Favorite genre (Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love, The Heart Principle)JUNE – Diverse read (The Heart Principle, Arsenic and Adobo)JULY – Summery readAUGUST – Back to schoolSEPTEMBER – On your TBR the longest (Mister Impossible)OCTOBER – Spooky or suspenseful read (The Ex Hex)NOVEMBER – Unfinished series (Mister Impossible)DECEMBER – Holiday read I’ve done this one for at least three years now (HERE). I just like the variety of prompts and challenges! I usually don’t go wild […]

January TBR

Posted January 5, 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. January TBR I had just a couple of TBRs toward the end of the year because I didn’t do a lot of planning with my reading in October/November. My last actual monthly TBR was for September because I did a “holiday reads” kind of TBR and an EOY TBR around November. In any case, I completely forgot to even make a TBR for January for a bit because I’m out of practice! I do love planning the first books I’m going to read for a fresh year and brand new Goodreads challenge though. Library Books I’ve had all three of these since late 2021 and am hoping to get to them early this year! I’ve determined that YOU’LL BE THE DEATH OF ME will be my first read of the year – I’m writing this on the first so there’s a good chance I finished already by the time this post. OF PRINCES AND PROMISES and YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED are two books I was looking forward to last year and will try to read ASAP. Review Copies The first three books here are publishing this week, so I’m aiming to […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November & December 2021

Posted December 31, 2021 / 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 had a horrible month in November and decided yet again to combine two months for a wrap-up to finish off the year. I read a ton in December thanks to holiday books and my push to complete my reading challenge at least! 14 books read in November and December 14 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 4145 • Average rating: 3.93 stars Sources: 6 review, 4 purchased, 1 gifted, 1 preordered, 1 library, 1 borrowed Formats: 5 egalley, 4 hardcover, 3 mixed, 1 audio, 1 ebook Genres: 8 contemporary, 3 nonfiction/cookbooks, 1 graphic novel, 1 fantasy, 1 mystery Age Target: 11 adult, 2 YA, 1 kids Check out my 2021 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 25/40 read total Place you’d like to visit in 2021, oxymoron in title, shortest book, from last year’s TBR A-Z Reading Challenge None read this month Calendar of Crime Challenge None read this month Breakdown: 5 purchased | 0 borrowed | 1 free/gifted | 10 for review All review copies were […]

2022 Illustrated Covers

Posted December 29, 2021 / Book Lists, Features / 1 Comment

I asked people for help building out my 2022 release queue because I didn’t spend my usual amount of time on Goodreads this year. Andi and Morgan came through with links to their shelves and I added a ton of books! I was looking at all of the cute covers and thought I’d do a little roundup of some of my favorites coming next year.

Holidays 2021 | To Read & Watch

Posted November 12, 2021 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

Usually I’m getting jazzed up for Christmas in September and forcing myself to wait until at least Halloween, but this year I’ve been feeling weird! I’m not super duper into the holiday spirit like I expected, post-Halloween. I’ve been listening to my holiday music since 11/1 and hopefully reading some holiday books at the end of the month PLUS decorating this week will be helpful. Here we go – onto the usual holiday fun and plans! Here’s a roundup of ALL of the holiday books I may read, including review copies (both backlist and current year), new releases, and backlist titles that have intrigued me. I have one or two review copies from last year and then the rest were this year’s holiday releases. As usual, most come out in October or November and I’m always late to read them. I definitely will be getting to all of the 2021 holiday ARCs I have though because I’m super excited for them! I usually know that I’ll only get to a couple new releases that aren’t review copies, just based on timing of reading! However, I decided to keep a bunch of them here to browse and remind myself. There are a TON of amazing holiday books – I think I’ll go ahead and request some of these from the library! I didn’t read any of the backlist copies I had on here last year, and so many keep carrying over! The two books in the right column are 2020 releases […]

Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read Yet

Posted November 11, 2021 / Book Lists, Features / 1 Comment

Yes, I have been a horrible reader this year. It’s not ACTUALLY that surprising that I haven’t read any of these because I’ve primarily read cookbooks and review copies I’ve been trying to keep on top of (not successfully). But there are a number of books I’ve been super excited for – whether it’s a new book from a favorite author, or a new series/standalone that sounds perfect for me, there are so many books I should really have made a priority to read. The Tea Dragon Tapestry // I always read these ASAP because they’re so quick and cute. The illustrations are completely adorable. Twist // I read and enjoyed LOOP (love me a time travel book) a while ago and definitely should have read book two immediately after. I haven’t been super in the mood for it unfortunately but I do hope to get to it next year! The Unexpected Everything // I do try to leave one book unread by some of my favorite authors for some weird reason, so I haven’t read this one by Matson. It’s also a HUGE book, which is a little annoying for a contemporary romance. A Week of Mondays // I love Groundhog Day-style books and this one has been on and off my “you have to read this soon” list for a long time. I even own it. It’s also kind of long, which doesn’t help. The Fallen Kingdom // This is the third and final book in a series I really loved. I’m kind […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September & October 2021

Posted November 4, 2021 / 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 took a little blog break through October so I didn’t bother recapping the shitty reading month of September. I thought I would include both months here to make it seem like my reading life is normal (it’s not, but maybe it’s getting there?). I managed to finish two books on my honeymoon so that was nice! I also DNFed a book over 50% and therefore included it in my reading numbers. Thank goodness for the new Cravings cookbook too! Either way, maybe I’m getting on track for my 75 reads this year. Christmas/holiday books will save me! 7 books read in September and October 5 new books • 0 rereads • 2 DNF Pages read: 2100 • Average rating: 3 stars Sources: 4 review, 1 purchased, 1 gifted, 1 preordered Formats: 4 egalley, 2 hardcover, 1 paperback Genres: 3 nonfiction, 3 contemporary, 1 mystery/thriller Age Target: 7 adult Check out my 2021 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 25/40 read total By online creator A-Z Reading Challenge None read this month […]

November and December (EOY) TBR

Posted November 3, 2021 / 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. November and December TBR I didn’t post a TBR for October since I didn’t do much reading in both September and October. I kept thinking the wedding wouldn’t derail me but I just didn’t have a lot of brain power to read, and spent most of my time watching TV with Chris or scrolling on my phone (annoyingly). I’m back in the swing of things for November now that my blog break is over. I usually like to develop a combined November and December TBR to target book to read by the end of the year, instead of by month. I don’t typically include my Christmas reading in these but I have a lot of review copies that are holiday reads. As of the time of writing this on 11/1, I need to finish 14 books to meet my new reduced goal of 75 books read. Here are the most likely 14+ books I’ll read or finish to complete the Goodreads challenge! Currently Reading / Recently Finished in Nov. I really should have put RULE OF WOLVES on hold. I decided that I am determined to finish this year. With around […]