Category: Features

2023 Reading Challenges

Posted December 5, 2022 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

It’s time for the annual challenge sign-up! I decided to switch things up a little bit this year and try a few new challenges, in addition to a tried-and-true favorite. The 52 Club focuses on reading 52 books in a year, aka one book a week. I feel like (at this point in my life) that could be a more realistic goal for me but I refuse to dip lower than 75 books for my goal. I still thought this would be a fun Popsugar-esque reading challenge for the year! I really like most of the prompts. I hope to read all of the books, as always, but I think a more realistic number is 40. I try to read 40 of the 50 Popsugar prompts per year so let’s assume the same for these. Here are all of the prompts for this year’s challenge: Mystery/Thriller Storygraph Challenge I usually do the Calendar of Crime Challenge but am feeling a little bored of that particular format. Still highly recommend for other mystery/thriller readers if they haven’t tried it before! I recently started using Storygraph in addition to Goodreads and decided to partake in a couple of challenges that are listed there. It seems really easy and fun to join them, so why not?! The first is the Mystery/Thriller Challenge. I definitely think I can get to all of these books. Much like Calendar of Crime, I read at least one (or many) mystery/thriller types of books each month. I can […]

EOY TBR – 20 Books Left!

Posted November 19, 2022 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

EOY TBR to Finish My Challenge As of right this second, I need to finish 20 more books to finish off my Goodreads challenge. Usually that wouldn’t be an issue but I really have not been reading as much as usual lately. Days or weeks pass and I realize I haven’t finished a book! I wrote a post a bit ago predicting the books I would read to finish my challenge and decided to make this end-of-year TBR without checking out that post. I have more than 20 options, including 1-2 books I’m reading right now as I write this. I figured I’d do a quick November/December TBR since it’s almost December and I really have to get going on reading. Contemporary I have a nice mix of new releases, egalleys, and hardcovers here, from various locations and sources! These are all books I was looking forward to getting to this year and hope to have time for. ANON PLS is a new release that is bound to be addicting and exactly what I need. I usually blaze through Helen Hoang and Lauren Layne books too, so here’s hoping there’s some quick reads here! Holiday Romance Naturally this is the biggest section on my list! I always have lofty goals to read a ton of holiday books. I’m currently reading A SEASON FOR SECOND CHANCES and it’s been a nice lead-in to the holiday season: it begins around September and works through Halloween and other holidays before getting to Christmas… […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | October 2022

Posted November 16, 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’m so behind on all the things! This is being posted halfway through November (should’ve just waited and done a combo with November…) and I’m back to being behind on my challenge. Woof. I did manage to read a bit on my honeymoon but really didn’t finish anything in the second half of the month. 4 books read in October 4 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1391 • Average rating: 4.5 stars Sources: 2 review, 2 owned Formats: 2 egalley, 1 ebook, 1 paperback Genres: 3 mystery/thriller, 1 graphic novel Age Target: 3 adult, 1 young adult Check out my 2022 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 28/40 read total Featuring a band Calendar of Crime Challenge Month-related item on cover (falling leaves), word beginning with month’s letter (“O”) Breakdown: 1 purchased | 0 library books | 1 free/gifted | 0 for review All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. For Review From Macmillan: Off the Map by […]

Holidays 2022 | To Read & Watch

Posted November 11, 2022 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

I’m actually more behind than usual on holiday things. I try to start watching movies and listening to music right after Halloween but it’s been a weird year that’s going by way too quickly! I hope to start making some headway this weekend (with movies and music at least) and maybe start my first holiday book next week! Here are my reading and watching plans for this season. 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. This year I only have four holiday review copies – I tried to keep the amount lower than usual because my reading life has been shitty. Really excited for all of these though! These are the top holiday books that are intriguing to me this year. I know for sure I’ll get to the new Maggie Knox and Jenny Holiday, but the others – we’ll see! Way more backlist than usual – I even deleted some of the older ones because I just know it ain’t happening. Some of these remain from the past few years just as a reminder. I think I’ll definitely read the 2021 Jenny Bayliss and probably the Codi Hall since I have the second companion book for review this year. I join holiday-themed readathons or challenges each year usually, but I haven’t yet identified any for this year. Not sure if they just haven’t been announced yet or […]

October & November TBR

Posted October 14, 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. October and November TBR I thought I would have a fun TBR method in September and I just really did not read enough. I did manage to read or start four books from that TBR though! I’m a little late at posting this so I figured I’d include books for my October and November reading plans. I’ll probably focus mostly on non-holiday books since I usually post a holiday book TBR separately. I read those most often in December but I certainly sprinkle them in throughout the last three months. Review Copies I have a decent mix of books here – there are some seasonal reads like WITCHFUL THINKING and SPELLS FOR LOST THINGS, a couple of magical realism books like THREE KISSES ONE MIDNIGHT and THE REWIND, a mystery like NINE LIARS, and a contemporary like RIVALS. Owned Books I’ve been really meaning to read THE AGATHAS for a while now and I don’t know why I’ve been delayed! I hope to read YOU’RE INVITED for the Literally Dead Book Club in October (finally participating!). And finally, SAGA volume 10 was just delivered and I’m pumped to get back into these […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2022

Posted October 12, 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 did a great job getting on track in August and let everything go off the rails in September. I read four books – it was a busy month between my birthday and various celebrations and taking off for our delayed honeymoon. I actually finished two books and started a third during our trip, but the latter two happened in October instead. I wanted to finish THE HOOKUP PLAN before we left but I just didn’t get to it. I have a few months to get my shit together and hopefully I’ll have a few strong months with holiday books! 4 books read in September 4 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1520 • Average rating: 4.38 stars Sources: 2 review, 2 owned Formats: 2 egalley, 1 mixed, 1 hardcover Genres: 3 contemporary, 1 mystery/thriller Age Target: 2 adult, 2 young adult Check out my 2022 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 27/40 read total Found family Calendar of Crime Challenge Birthday wild card Breakdown: 1 purchased […]

#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 […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2022

Posted August 17, 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 felt like I was doing okay during July but there was a big stretch where I didn’t finish anything. I read another cookbook to help keep me on track and squeezed in one more book on the final day of the month. Unfortunately I had another DNF this month, which meant that I wasted a few days during my vacation reading something and not completing it. Oh well, August is shaping up to be way better! 6 books read in July 6 new books • 0 rereads • 1 DNF Pages read: 2176 • Average rating: 3.58 stars Sources: 4 review, 1 purchased Formats: 4 egalley, 1 hardcover, 1 mixed Genres: 4 contemporary, 1 nonfiction (cookbook) Age Target: 5 adult, 1 young adult Check out my 2022 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 2 read this month | 25/40 read total About the afterlife, by a BIPOC author Calendar of Crime Challenge Primary action in July, holiday in July Breakdown: 1 purchased | 0 borrowed | 0 free/gifted | 4 for review All review copies were provided […]