Category: Features

2020 Midyear Book Stats

Posted August 3, 2020 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

Usually I do a whole big fancy post about my book stats and challenge progress, but I’m not currently in the mood to go down the “wow my reading is terrible so my challenges are abysmal” path right now. Even though I’m kind of about to. My current reading spreadsheet automatically makes graphs for me (!!!) so I thought it would at least be fun to share those and look at some breakdowns…. More on the percentages and less about the numbers themselves 😉 Also, these stats are just from January through June and reflect the actual half of a year. Books Read I always say that my goal is to read 50% or LESS of contemporary fiction, and it looks like I’m doing alright this year! I’m pretty surprised by this, not gonna lie. I like the somewhat equal breakdown between other genres. Mystery/thriller being around a quarter of my reads is really nice to see. I’ve been loving those books lately! Nonfiction is only bumped because ya girl has counted cookbooks in her abysmal reading challenge! This one isn’t super surprising, as I’ve been heading more toward adult fiction lately, but it’s still kind of crazy to see that I’m almost at a 50/50 split! I hope to get as close to that as possible as the year goes on. Book Status is a weird title for the chart but it’s basically asking where the book came from or how I acquired it when I read it. This […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2020

Posted July 31, 2020 / 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 reduce my Goodreads challenge to 100 books instead of 120. Now I’m still behind, but it’s much more reasonable! I just know with all of the life changes (a puppy) and lack of interest in reading during these horrible garbage times… I’m never going to catch up with 15 books behind, but I can handle being behind by a few. I’ll probably catch up later when the dog requires a little less attention and is older. We’re going camping in a few weeks and I’m hoping to get some reading in then too. 5 books read in July 5 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1903 • Average rating: 4 stars Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review, 1 borrowed Formats: [Review] 2 egalleys and 0 physical ARCs 1 hardcover, 0 paperbacks, 1 ebook, 0 audio, 1 combo Genres: 2 contemporary, 1 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction, 1 sci-fi Age Target: 2 young adult and 3 adult Check out my 2020 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 4 read this month […]

August TBR

Posted July 30, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 4 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. ARC August As always, I’m participating in ARC August! It’s been hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat for many years at this point and I’m pretty sure I’ve participated every year? As you may have guessed, it’s a month-long challenge to focus on reading review copies. I thought it would be easier to highlight some books here using my new Netgalley Shelf app. I did already read COBBLE HILL, so ignore that one, but these are some that I hope to read in time lol. I’ve been decent about reading review copies, even though I’m not reading much. Here are some of the top books on my TBR: The Boy Toy by Nicola Marsh Sorry Not Sorry by Sophie Ranald Simmer Down by Sarah Smith You Have a Match by Emma Lord Float Plan by Trish Doller The Black Kids by Christine Reed Recommended for You by Laura Silverman Well Played by Jen DeLuca My goal is to try to read 6 review copies during August. My reading has been so minimal that I’m barely even reading 6 a month, but I would rather have all of my reads be egalleys than have overdue books […]

Reducing My Goodreads Goal

Posted July 23, 2020 / Discussions, Features / 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long time. I’ve debated it a few times on the blog within the last month or so, asked people their opinions on Twitter and Instagram, and just haven’t stopped thinking about it. The world has so many bigger issues right now and this has been taking up unnecessary headspace. I usually am *personally* against the idea of reducing my challenge. Once I’ve committed to it, I want to meet it. I won’t change it or “cheat” to meet the goal by making the goal smaller halfway through the year. Again, people can do anything they want, but I always thought this idea wasn’t for me. Why did that change for 2020? Why I Reduced My Challenge 1. 2020 is garbage for everyone I don’t think a single person expected 2020 to go quite like this. Honestly, most people (Chris and I included) expected this year to be kind of great. We thought we would accomplish a lot, spend more time with friends and family, enjoy our yard and local attractions, casually plan our wedding for next year… basically zero things on our list have been done (or even allowed!). I was really hoping that quarantine would make me read more, but I think my brain was always too focused on the garbage fire of a president, the pandemic, etc. – you know it all. Books can be a great escape, but I found that they weren’t the escape I wanted. I […]

July TBR

Posted July 10, 2020 / 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. Update from June, Moving Forward to July: June was another horrible reading month – the worst in quite a few years… since I started blogging maybe? Five books! I read some good ones though, so I can’t complain about most of the quality… I decided to pull my leftovers from June that I want to read and a few books I hope to get to in July. No categories of any kind, just books. Must Read My only must-read book, technically, is for book club. We selected THE FELL OF DARK. It comes out next week so I’ll probably try to read it right away. I haven’t preordered it yet because I want to see if it ends up on Scribd or through the library, but I’ll buy it if needed! Leftovers from June to Read I didn’t even glance at my TBR page for June when picking out my next read, so the category method didn’t fully work for me. The books I did read came from it, for the most part, so whatever works! Here are some leftovers I didn’t get to that I really hope to read in July: […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #295: Most-Read Authors

Posted July 7, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Most-Read Authors (Recently/Overall) 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’m always interested in revisiting this stat when the prompt comes around! I feel like I used to read so many long-running series like Gossip Girl and The A-List with millions of books, so those super random authors would be in my top list. Goodreads removed the most read authors feature so I decided to look at some of the books I’ve read in recent years and think about my go-to authors. This isn’t a technical list where I sorted and counted, but a general idea! Sara Shepard I have to include Shepard as my most-read author, even just because of the endless Pretty Little Liars series. I’ve continued to read all of her releases (yes I’m two behind right now) too, so there’s about a million books read by Shepard. Cecily von Ziegesar After reading Gossip Girl and the many spin-offs, I was wondering what she’d write in the future! She finally has a release coming out this October and I’m reading an egalley as we speak. I love the cover and it’s awesome to see her stick to the rich-ish NYC themes I loved so much (and hated because good lord), but it’s definitely more adult. […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2020

Posted July 2, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 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. It’s funny because I keep introducing theses posts like “wow, I thought X month was bad, now check out this one!” but genuinely nothing compares to the garbage pail that was June… and I mean that literally. I read FIVE books in June which is truly an all-time low for me since blogging. So low, in fact, that I completely forgot to even write this blog post. What even is there to wrap up? lol. 5 books read in June 5 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1476 • Average rating: 4.1 stars Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review, 1 borrowed Formats: [Review] 1 egalley and 0 physical ARCs 0 hardcover, 1 paperback, 1 ebook, 0 audio, 3 combo Genres: 4 contemporary, 1 paranormal/fantasy Age Target: 4 young adult and 1 adult Check out my 2020 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 22/40 read total Challenges: Involving social media, bird on the cover, by a WOC, pink cover Monthly Key Word Challenge 1 read for […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #294: Anticipated Releases

Posted June 30, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020 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 feel like so many pub dates have shifted that a lot of my books from my post for the first half of 2020 would move into this list! I’ve decided to keep this list away from those books (to highlight more), since I already posted about them. I also am going to avoid review copies AND books from my Summer TBR posts (here and here). Therefore, we’re looking at books being published between late September and December. I absolutely couldn’t put down Dear Martin when I read it so you know Dear Justyce is on my list. I hope it’s equally impactful and quick to read! I’m super excited for A Deadly Education because it sounds similar to Harry Potter with a wizarding school. Gorgeous cover too! Simmer Down focuses on the food truck scene, which is something I’m super into in general, so this will be awesome. Another fun cover too! I love books set over the course of one day, and This Is All Your Fault involves saving an indie bookstore too. Sounds right up my alley. The Truth Project is another one that drew me in because it’s a bit of Lauren-bait. DNA results come back and […]

Summer Bucket List

Posted June 25, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., TBR Lists / 1 Comment

I write similar posts every year, where I share the items on my summertime bucket list and the summery or beach-setting books I hope to read. While my reading has been shit, I usually can count on my nice porch to bring my reading mojo back. I’m finding that working from home, for some reason, makes me read LESS and not more. I hope the warm weather continuing will help me get into reading. Bucket List & To-Do’s Take a couple of local nice-weather day trips We’re blessed to live about an hour away from Mystic, one of my favorite places in Connecticut. Our state overall has been doing much better than many others from a Covid transmission perspective, so things have been reopening. I’m still not ready for indoor dining personally and have yet to eat outside on a patio (even though that’s been open for multiple weeks already), but I feel ready for that part somewhat soon. Anyways, I hope to take a day trip or two in Connecticut on a nice weekend day (and/or during our Fourth of July week of vacation!) to Mystic and probably Niantic or a similar coastal town. Enjoy friends’ backyards and pools We’re still social distancing to a pretty decent extent, but we’ve been able to see friends from a distance by setting up chairs in backyards and hanging out that way. One of our friends has a nice swimming pool so we’re hoping to spend time over there and grill out […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #293: 10th Anniversary

Posted June 23, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10! 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. It’s the 10th anniversary of Top Ten Tuesday this year, so we were tasked with looking at old topics and using them for this week. It could be picking an old one you missed, updating a past topic that you’ve done, or adding ten more books to a previous list. I’ve done various posts like slump-busters or books I couldn’t put down, and given that this year has been garbage for reading, I thought I’d do another one of these. Here are the recent books that grabbed me, I couldn’t put them down, and they helped break my slump a little bit.