Category: Book Lists

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.

TTT: Summer TBR Part Two (Aug/Sept)

Posted June 17, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 0 Comments

I usually don’t mind including more than ten books in a TTT but there are just SO many good summertime releases to highlight on my TBR (like… more than 20)! I thought it would be more fun to spread the love between two posts this week to share the books from June/July yesterday and August/September today. I’m going through the technical end of summer (September 22nd). August They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman | Umm, Gossip Girl meets One of Us is Lying? Sold. Super duper sold on this one. It’s a murder mystery set at a prep school on Long Island. I am SO excited for this – cannot wait. More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood | I’m intrigued by this one – I don’t usually read books from a male POV but this one sounds good. The main character tries to become a “renaissance man” to prove to his longtime crush (and her family) that he’s worth her attention, but he ends up falling for his “tutor.” The Love Scam by Maryjanice Davidson | I have to admit that I love the cover more than the synopsis, but it does seem interesting! I think the gist is that a guy starts getting scammed by someone and then people fall in love… lol. Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim | Okay I’m nervous about this one. I was obsessed with the cover and premise for her debut but I ended up not really loving it […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #292: Summer TBR Part One (June/July)

Posted June 16, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books on my Summer TBR 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 love making TBR posts even when my reading is hot garbage. I ended up with over twenty books to highlight between late June and late-ish September, so I decided to split this summer TBR into two posts! You’ll see the books from late June and July today, and books from August and September (through the 22nd) tomorrow. Late June You Say it First by Katie Cotugno | I’m a huge fan of her work and this cover is adorable. I can’t tell if it’s really the “people from opposite ends of the political spectrum come together and work it out” kind of book – it seems like it’s on the verge but mostly centers around them having conversations about a variety of topics. Summer at Lake Haven by RaeAnne Thayne | Another season, another time I’m surprised by a new Haven Point book! She keeps releasing them and I’m always excited 🙂 I’m jazzed to read about Samantha too! Girl, Unframed by Deb Caletti | I didn’t read her last release, which many people loved, but this one seems more up my alley – it’s a thriller where a girl returns to […]

June TBR

Posted June 3, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 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. Last month’s progress and approach for June: Lol I read TWO books from my TBR for May. I spent most of my time reading two cookbooks, one graphic novel, and one coffee table book. The others were random picks that I was in the mood for at the time. I’ve decided to follow along with my reading in May and just read whatever comes to mind, but following specific categories (like I used to do). There is one book that I have to read for book club, below, and then I’ll discuss each of the bookish categories I hope to follow and read ten books in June. Must Read THE DECK OF OMENS has been on my TBR since it was released but I just haven’t gotten to it. We chose it for our virtual book club this month since we read the first book together recently. I will definitely be going back-and-forth with the physical copy I ordered and the audiobook. TBR Category Method for June Sometimes it works best for me to choose a bunch of categories and make it a goal to read a book that fits within that […]

May TBR

Posted April 30, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 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. Last month’s progress: SIGH. WHAT IS READING?! I go through phases where I read a REALLY good book and it inspires me to read 1-2 more in a row, and then I stop reading for like a week. It’s frustrating as hell. I actually didn’t fully stick to my TBR last month either because I kept switching things around for the Magical Readathon, which I did complete! Woohoo! I also managed to read all of the egalleys I listed in my review copy section, except for one. Another score! Non-Review April Leftovers I had this listed last month for the Magical Readathon (and other reasons) but I never got to them. I’m keeping THE DECK OF OMENS, HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD, and THE ART OF LAINEY on my May TBR, but I’m not sure that I’ll read them… as usual. I’m hoping to get to DECK as soon as possible since I have the audio and physical copy to mix in throughout the month. Review Copies Super impressed that I read all of my egalleys last month except one! This month has a lot of new releases but there were quite a few […]

April TBR

Posted March 30, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 3 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. Last month’s progress: Woof y’all. Yes, I did a good job of sticking directly to my TBR for the most part (especially where it counts, like the review copies and blog tours)… but my reading is still kind of shitty. There are some moments or days where I’m in the mood to read, but the whole COVID-19 thing has not motivated me. I wrote a post on this actually. Anywaysss I’m behind on my reading challenge and just hoping this is a season of poor reading instead of a permanent change in my reading life. We’ll see! Magical Readathon I signed up for the Magical Readathon (OWLS) the other day and listed a whole TBR over there to meet the prompts to become a Professor of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts ??‍♀️?? These books all fall under various potential prompts for the readathon, which you can read about on that post instead. THE DECK OF OMENS comes out this month and I’m super excited for it. HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD is from last month – more on that later. THE ART OF LAINEY is a super backlist book I have to read […]

March TBR

Posted February 28, 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. Last month’s progress: I got so bogged down trying to read KING OF CROWS (which is fine because it was wonderful) that I got super behind on my reading. I wish I was able to finish a book before KoC was published, because then I would have gotten on track. I spent the rest of the month constantly two books behind schedule and trying to catch up. I snuck in a short non-TBR book, which helped during my car rides, but overall it was a weird reading month. I was unmotivated to read for the majority of the month, so some TBR picks will carry over into this month. Review Copies I’ll be reading THE JUNE BOYS for the pub month and then ALL YOUR TWISTED SECRETS and SUPER ADJACENT for blog tours. My backlist choice is MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE and my freebie is UNDERCOVER BROMANCE since it comes out this month too. I also was just added to another blog tour for the end of the month for THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE (not pictured but below). Required Reading Book Clubs We picked GHOSTED for my adult book club because one of the […]

Far, Far Away Books I Literally Cannot Stop Thinking About II

Posted February 24, 2020 / Book Lists, Features / 7 Comments

There have been plenty of posts where I talk about unreleased, upcoming books I’m excited about. (If my TBR keeps growing, yours needs to as well!) I usually only do books with covers because reading an entire post about books without a *single* cover image is not my favorite thing, personally. HOWEVER there are so many books that are too far away to have covers that I can genuinely not stop thinking about. I’m going to include some kind of related and/or excited GIF (gotta make up for the lack of covers somehow, no?) for each book and what we know about it so far. // I posted the first round of this in 2019 and am here for another! Mary series by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows (2021-3) My Contrary Mary (2021): About Mary, Queen of Scots. My Atomic Mary (2022): About Marie Curie. My Typhoid Mary (2023): About Mary Mallon. I’ve been a huge fan of the My Lady Janies and their companion series so far: retellings of famous Janes from history. I was super pumped a while back to see that they would be continuing with these fun stories with a new round set in the same world, but this time about famous Marys (or Marie, in one case). The original series about Janes has taken a few years in between each book so I’m delighted to see that this next round will have one each year instead! Doomed by Laura Pohl (2021) The story of […]

Ranking Books by Favorite Authors | Sandhya Menon

Posted February 17, 2020 / Book Lists, Features / 2 Comments

Taking some inspiration from the late great Grace at Rebel Mommy Book Blog, I’ve decided to participate in a fun post she used to share from time to time! I’ve been meaning to for AGES and she’s been on my mind lately so I thought I would give it a go. My gut told me to go with Sandhya Menon because she has so many wonderful books and it’d be a real challenge 😉 Ranking Published Books When Dimple Met Rishi is my favorite book still, I think – and it was her first! I just adored these characters SO much and vividly remember rushing to finish reading it at work before my boss got into the office 😉 I love the adorable cover and how it makes me crave an iced coffee every damn time. Just the cutest! There’s Something About Sweetie is clearly a close second. I honestly think depending on my mood these two could switch! I will say that it was a bit hard to read at times with how challenging and frustrating her mother was. Even though I gave this book 5 stars still, that was the one thing I didn’t enjoy about it. Ashish is my FAVE. The Grand Ishq Adventure inside the Hungry Hearts anthology is my third-favorite. There was a lot going on in this little story and I remember that it was a welcome happy tale after a few darker/heavier ones. It involved the classic “advice columnist can’t take their own advice” trope and I adored […]