Category: Features

“Consideration” and “Maybe” Shelves

Posted March 20, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 4 Comments

As I look through my Goodreads shelves and wonder how the hell I’ve acquired so many books on my digital TBR list, I started to wonder how other people use their shelving system. Do you use shelves like “consideration” or “maybe” or “to check out” on Goodreads to track books? These are the books where you think you MIGHT want to read them but probably not? Maybe? … So you put them on your in-between to consider later. Do you ever purge this shelf? Do you leave it as a gray area or book purgatory forever? I have a few answers to all this. My “consideration” shelf on Goodreads is primarily books I’m *considering* reading. I guess it IS that simple, to start with. I don’t think “I definitely want to read this” when I see the book, which is why it doesn’t end up on my main TBR. If I say “maybe I’d read this,” I kind of go from there. I get annoyed at myself when I look at the number of books on there (currently 557) and think: I’m never going to read ANY of these. I have 2,016 (!!!!!!!) books on my actual to-read list PLUS the 348 on my TBR for unreleased books. Do I really NEED a consideration shelf? Honestly, the main reason I keep it around is to keep track of books I’ve seen and keep getting distracted by. Let me explain. I have this whole book cover addiction, as you are aware of by […]

Lauren Lately | March 2019

Posted March 15, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 4 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here 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 for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ What I’ve Been Up To Lazy days | We had a few weird weather days in the last month, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time relaxing. We’re hitting the GIVE ME SPRING feels hard right now, guys, but trying to enjoy skiing/snowboarding and snow while we can I guess. Above you can see me learning hand lettering, Chris playing Pokemon, and me reading. That’s about it! Local bookstore exploring | I went to two indie bookstores and one of my favorite chains at the end of February. I went to Book Club near my office for the first time (all of the pics above are from there lol). I’m going to an actual book club event at a brewery hosted by them later this month. We also went to Bank Square books in Mystic when we were there for the chowder fest, then headed to Books-a-Million (the closest is in the southern part […]

Blog Tour | Book Review & Cover Colors: Small Town Hearts

Posted March 13, 2019 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 4 Comments

Book Review The title “Small Town Hearts” and the synopsis promising a sleepy coastal Maine town were enough for me to add this to my TBR! The cute cover, bisexual main character, and coffeeshop workplace were other excellent selling points. I had high hopes for this one as a result! The story surrounds one summer, the one after graduation, where Babe encounters some ~issues~ with her friends and falls for a summer boy, while somewhat pining over an ex-girlfriend. I loved reading about her experiences with friendship and how friendships can change over the years… sometimes without you even realizing it. Her growing relationship with Lucy, her coworker, was nice to read as she learned the people who would support her and be there. (It also didn’t hurt that Lucy hated ketchup as much as I do!) Beginnings could be scary, and there was always a chance that the ending wouldn’t be pretty, but the middle was what made it all worth it… People weren’t meant to be preserved in amber. Maybe there were no happily ever afters. But there could be happiness, if I was brave enough to go for it. (ARC pg 194) Some elements of the story felt a little unlikely or uncommon, like both Babe and her friend Penny living by themselves in lighthouses and houseboats (just because they’re on coastal Maine doesn’t mean that would happen, on top of the fact that they JUST graduated high school lol)… but it honestly made the book a bit more whimsical and […]

Another Post About Scribd (and TIPS!)

Posted March 8, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 4 Comments

I’ve talked about my love for Scribd on the blog multiple times. It’s set up like a cross between Audible and most library ebook/audiobook apps (Hoopla, Overdrive, etc.). It allows you to pay $8.99 a month to have access to their library of books and other kinds of media or documents. I have used them on and off for multiple years. Their unlimited system was amazing… until they removed it… but then they brought back a lighter version… and now it’s unlimited again! I was so excited to see the changes to a better “credit system” so naturally I was even more pleased with the service now that they’re back to unlimited books/etc. I’m not partnered with them or anything, but they do offer two months of free reading and listening by signing up through my referral link. I also get free months if you sign up! If you like this post and want to try it out, help ya girl out! Okay, back to business – Scribd has gone back to their “unlimited listening and reading” plan. There are a few caveats I’ve learned about, but I thought I’d talk about my favorite service again and how you can make it work for you. What is Scribd again? They’re a website and app service where you pay $8.99 a month to have access to books, audiobooks, magazines, documents, and sheet music. You can save titles to your account so you don’t lose them for later, as well as add them to […]

Spring Bingo TBR Ideas

Posted March 6, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

Hosted by Pretty Deadly Reviews Another season, another round of bingo! As usual, I’m here to share some of my best ideas for filling this card out. I’ll be honest: most of the boxes on my cards get filled out somewhat organically, where I read a book and THEN see that it fits. I still really enjoy making these seasonal lists, thinking about my long-term TBR plans, inspiring myself whenever needed, AND hopefully helping others find books for them too! Completed so far / current reads Author shares last initial: Springtime at Hope Cottage by Annie Rains (both R last names) School setting: Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young (boarding school – creeeeepy one) Set outside the US: Enchantée by Gita Trelease (Historical fiction / fantasy set in Paris) Ideas for the rest Warm climate: The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley (luxury resort in the Mayan Riviera) Weapon on the cover: Windwitch by Susan Dennard (sword) Three word title: Again, But Better by Christine Riccio (obvious lolol) Novella: A Wedding on Lavender Hill by Annie Rains (novella in the Sweetwater Springs series) Yellow cover: The Dating Game by Kiley Roache (bright yellow, eh?) Standalone: Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (self-explanatory) Spring release: Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno (have a borrowed ARC – comes out in May too) Water on the cover: One Night at the Lake by Bethany Chase (look at that lake y’all) Book you own: Everything Must Go by Jenny Fran Davis (on my Picky Pledge TBR!) Large cast […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | February 2019

Posted March 1, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 5 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. February was a bit of a whirlwind in my personal life and my reading life was somewhat weirdly affected. I did still manage to get a lot of reading done despite that (and also despite reading one book for the entire month basically). I have to count this as a success! I also read mostly books I had laid out on my TBR for the month, which always pleases me too. All of the books read this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 8 read this month | 8 read total | 23% complete Prompts (L-R): Makes you nostalgic, debut novel, about a family, author with the same letter for first and last names, two-word title, favorite prompt from past challenge (twin characters from 2018), revolving around a puzzle or game Monthly Motif Challenge 3 read this month | 6 read total | This month: Cover love Retellings Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 0 read total | 0% complete UGH I SUCK AGAIN !!!!!!! Picky Pledge My […]

March TBR

Posted February 27, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 14 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. February Progress One of the bigger issues with moving from December to January is how quickly those review copies for January creep up on you! I had way too many ARCs due between January and February and definitely didn’t get ahead (December is holiday month, obvs). I was able to do some catching up AND getting ahead in February though, so I can’t complain too much! I OWE YOU ONE and THE AU PAIR were overdue egalleys that I didn’t enjoy as much as I hoped, but still had pretty positive ratings. THE BRIDE TEST is something I couldn’t resist – I NEEDED IT. I finished CROOKED KINGDOM in anticipation of KING OF SCARS, which took me most of the month to read. Whoops? Up Next in March Review Copies (Egalleys) Enchantee by Trelease | The Truth About Leaving by Blitt | The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Applehans | One Night at the Lake by Chase | You Owe Me a Murder by Cook I talked recently about my desire to develop an egalley reading schedule that allows me to catch up, stay on track, and get […]

Picky Pledge

Posted February 25, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

I noted in a couple of wrap-up posts that I wanted to join Hannah and Alexa in their Picky Pledge, which is where they read books from their shelves and limit book buying. I’ll admit that I definitely don’t have a book buying problem because of how picky I already am, but I DO have a problem with not reading backlist books on my shelves. I *used to* have a book buying issue, which has led to a lot of books on my shelves that I either (a) will never read or (b) still definitely want to read but haven’t yet. I’ve already embarked on this for January and February, as you saw in the linked Bulletins, but I thought I’d run through some ideas for a Picky Pledge TBR. For more details on the project, be sure to read Alexa and Hannah’s posts I linked earlier! Both of the books below could be interchanged because they fit both categories – I bought both books because they’re book two in a series or duo, and I love both of the authors. I just put them this way arbitrarily. Because there are 12 prompts for the Picky Pledge, I decided to read one book from my shelves each month to finish up the challenge. Below are some ideas that I pulled from combining and cross-referencing my “to read” and “own physical” shelves on Goodreads. A book you bought for the cover The Last Little Blue Envelope by Johnson | The […]

Anatomy of a TBR Post

Posted February 18, 2019 / Discussions, Features / 5 Comments

I know I’ve spoken about this at length in various posts, whether it’s about my ARC habits or how I pick the books for my TBR, but I thought it would be fun to talk about my overall methods for curating a TBR post for each month, which includes picking the specific books and determining the categories I should read each month. 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 reading for a specific book mixed well with the reading obligations I still wanted to follow. The lists would include things like format, genre, publishing year, debut author, etc. – any kind of book you could think of, in order to diversify your reading choices. My current TBR posts follow a similar structure but I am typically able to pick certain books now instead. Here is my current TBR post setup: Required Reading As I’ve discussed before, there are plenty of “required reading” books each month. These are basically books with due dates of some kind. I keep physical ARCs around here because I tend to view them differently than egalleys. I will usually have 1-2 books from the library and 1-2 blog tours on deck in the coming month, so those make up some slots on the TBR. I also have a monthly book club pick. All of these things have specific guidelines of when to finish […]

Lauren Lately | February 2019

Posted February 16, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 4 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here 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 for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ Skiing and winter activities | The weekend after our Vermont trip, we enjoyed some more snow and cold weather activities at home! We went skiing for Chris’s dad’s birthday with his sister and her fiancee. The snow at our place kept us indoors, which we definitely needed! We’ve been hanging around and enjoying books and Chris’s new Switch. Planetarium, Wolfpack game, and bingo nights | We had a busy stretch of a few days in mid-January. There was a planetarium event where they discussed the upcoming lunar eclipse and taught us a LOT about their history. I’m a huge fan of planetariums so hopefully we come back. The next night, we went to a Hartford Wolfpack hockey game with some friends. I’ve been going to Wednesday night music video bingo every other week with my friend and it’s SO much fun. Harry Potter high tea and Olde Mystick Village | My friends and I decided a […]