Category: Features

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2024

Posted January 8, 2025 / 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 wanted to finish the year strong and managed to include five novellas to help me reach my reading goal with about a week to spare. I finished the year with 103 books, which is not a pretty number, but it’s fine. I feel like the past couple of months have had a LOT of mid books so I’m hoping to start the year in a better spot with the books on my TBR. 11 books in December 11 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 2,288 • Average rating: 3.36 stars Genres: 8 contemporary, 2 mystery/thriller, 1 nonfiction Formats: 5 ebook, 3 mixed format, 2 hardcover, 1 egalley Sources: 5 Kindle Unlimited, 3 library, 2 review, 1 preordered Age Target: 11 adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Least Favorite Short Story Collection // // // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 44% 52 Book Club: 71% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 4 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review […]

January TBR

Posted January 3, 2025 / 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. January TBR I skipped my December TBR due to the uncertainty of holiday reads…I also did a terrible job of predicting my EOY reads as well. Lots of novellas, but oh well. I love the beginning of a year where I can wipe the slate clean and I’m super excited for the books on deck! Review Copies I already decided my first book of the year will be SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, even though it comes out in April. I know I’ll love it and need that kind of energy for the start of the year. The other January review copy I want to get to is YIN YANG LOVE SONG because Lauren Kung Jessen is an auto-read now. Upcoming Releases January has a few key new releases on my radar that I’m 95% sure I’ll get to in the month. The newest Wayward Children book comes out in the beginning of the month and I always listen to the audiobook right away once its released. They’re short and easy to get off on the right foot for my reading challenge. BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL is a hiiiiighlyyy anticipated read for […]

2024 End of Year Wrap-Up and Stats

Posted January 2, 2025 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

103 Books Read I don’t like finishing the year with a number ending in three (I prefer a 0 or 5) but whatever, let’s get over that and move on. As always, I’d like to share some final statistics for the year! Books Read Yet again I’ve had some success in keeping my combined romance/mystery/thriller section under 75% – this year I finished around 67% between those genres. I think I’d like to read a lot more fantasy next year – I’m just kind of feeling it. I’d also like to increase my literary fiction category. As always, “mixed” format was my biggest category. This will continue to increase as time goes on because I’ve found myself mixing in the Spotify Audiobooks more and more. It’s just so easy! I was thinking I’d find a better way to track that next year but I’m too lazy. Maybe that’s for 2026… I still need to prioritize reading books on my shelves and the ones I keep buying… but I really loved Libby and my Kindle this year, clearly! This was a weird year for me, especially at the end – I read a ton of mid books in November/December. I feel like 4 stars is usually my most popular rating but I am a little alarmed that 3.5 is so close this year. Hopefully I can focus on reading some really good stuff for next year. So yes generally speaking I can read 8 books a month with a few exceptions […]

2025 Challenges

Posted December 30, 2024 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

I don’t think I announced my 2024 challenges like I have in year’s past, but I’m doing something a little different this year. I’ve abandoned the Popsugar Reading Challenge because it’s similar to the 52 Book Club and I think one challenge of that type is good enough. I preferred the prompts for 52BC this year. Anyways, here are my plans for 2025 reading challenges! Buzzword Challenges Booksandlala, my favorite booktube channel, always hosts these challenges and this is my first time joining in! She’s doing two this year – one book titles and one for book covers. You need to read a book with a certain word in its title or a certain item/theme on the cover. Kayla breaks this into monthly challenges but some people just try to read the 12 books throughout the year without intentionally reading them during that month. I haven’t decided yet how I want to work on this challenge. I had a few ideas. I never completed my 24 in 24 but thought this could be a fun way to use the same idea for 2025 and try to figure out which books I “have” to read this year and make a set TBR to read one per month that applies to the prompts. I’m REALLY bad at challenges with set TBRs though… any time I’ve done a “must read” thing, it’s failed. In a perfect world that’s semi-realistic, I would like to read each book during the set month. In a more […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November 2024

Posted December 10, 2024 / 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. This was a rough reading month. It was really hard to even decide what my favorites were! My overall rating is a full star less than last month’s rating. I know I’ll be finishing the year strong because I have plenty of other books to read that I’m looking forward to. 9 books in November 8 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 1,873 • Average rating: 3.06 stars Genres: 5 mystery/thriller, 2 fantasy, 1 contemporary, 1 nonfiction Formats: 4 ebook, 3 mixed format, 2 hardcover Sources: 4 Kindle Unlimited, 2 library, 1 purchased, 1 preordered, 1 BOTM Age Target: 8 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 40% 52 Book Club: 71% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 5 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 5 egalley | 0 ebooks | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest review. Physical Books Preordered: Games Untold by Barnes, HBH Quick and Cozy by Gerard Purchased: What To Cook When You […]

Predicting My EOY Reading

Posted November 14, 2024 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

At the time of writing this post, I’ve read 87 books and am currently reading 3 books. That leaves just 10 books(!!!) between the second half of November and all of December to finish off my Goodreads challenge. If I’m being honest, there’s a good chance I’ll finish more books than this because I have five holiday novellas (plus two other super short/kind of novellas) to read in addition to other full-size books. I thought it would be fun to predict the final ten books of the year if I had to guess, but also share the additional books I think I may realistically read beyond my reading challenge. I knew 100 books would be a challenge since I’ve kept my goal at 80 books the past couple of years. I’ve read some shorter books and novellas to get me over the hump so it would be nice if I can hit 105 or 110 books on the year. Current Reads I’m finishing up reading a cookbook (yes, I read them cover to cover) called WHAT TO COOK WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE COOKING. I have a Christmassy romance going on my Kindle from Libby called I’LL BE GONE FOR CHRISTMAS, which is super cute as of now. And finally, my physical read mixed with audiobook listening is ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY for my in-person book club. I forgot the meeting was already coming this Monday so I had to get going. Holiday Novellas Amazon released another novella series this year, so […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | October 2024

Posted November 6, 2024 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

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. Another weird month for October but generally read a decent amount quantity-wise… just not length-wise! I read a few novellas to flesh out the month since I just never got in a good rhythm with full-length books. I’ll see how the rest of the year goes, I guess. I don’t doubt I’ll reach my Goodreads goal but I do think there will be a lot more novellas unfortunately. I have so many novels I’m excited to read but just can’t make the time! 8 books in October 8 read • 0 reread • 0 DNF Pages read: 1,952 • Average rating: 4.06 stars Genres: 5 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary, 1 historical fiction Formats: 4 ebook, 3 mixed format, 1 hardcover Sources: 4 Kindle Unlimited, 1 BOTM, 1 library, 1 preordered, 1 purchased Age Target: 7 adult, 1 young adult Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! Popsugar Reading Challenge: 40% 52 Book Club: 69% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 33% Breakdown: 3 hardcovers | 1 paperback | 1 egalley | 2 ebooks | […]

November TBR

Posted October 31, 2024 / 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 TBR October was weird – I read some novellas from Amazon and got through a few books on my TBR but also forgot what else I even had on here haha. We’ll see how the rest of the year goes! Kindle/KU Books I got an offer for three free months of Kindle Unlimited so I’m trying to read some books off of that TBR over the next couple of months, and potentially holiday books in December! I read the first Chesnut Springs book this past month and enjoyed it so I’m curious to move on to the next one soon. I’m currently reading PHANTASMA for a spooky season book but it’s long as hell, so it’ll definitely take me through November. I have REMEMBER ME TOMORROW as an egalley that I’m really looking forward to but just haven’t read yet. Library Books I have these three out from the library right now. I’m really intrigued by all of them but A CURIOUS BEGINNING has been on my TBR for ages. Really hope to get into it before the end of the year, or else I’m pushing an entire series binge to […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | September 2024

Posted October 9, 2024 / 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 weird reading month in September, which is kind of par for the course – I always expect to do less reading when I’m bopping around for my birthday and beginning-of-fall plans. I read nearly an entire graphic novel series and just a few full-length novels so my numbers look good at least. 10 books in September 9 read • 0 reread • 1 DNF Pages read: 3,143 • Average rating: 3.9 stars Genres: 5 graphic novel, 3 mystery/thriller, 2 contemporary Formats: 5 paperback, 2 ebook, 2 mixed, 1 egalley Sources: 5 purchased, 2 preordered, 2 library, 1 review Age Target: 5 young adult, 4 adult, 1 middle grade Here are all the books I read this month with ratings and one-line thoughts! ADORED This Series binge // // // Popsugar Reading Challenge: 36% 52 Book Club: 65% Book Cover Bingo: 84% 24 in 24: 29% Breakdown: 7 hardcovers | 10 paperbacks | 1 egalley | 1 ebook | 0 audiobooks All review copies were provided for free in exchange for an honest […]

October TBR

Posted September 27, 2024 / 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. October TBR September was a good month for getting ahead on my reading challenge but I definitely read a ton of graphic novels to get me there! I had a DNF as well that I counted since I read more than 50% of it, which is my standard practice. I’m going to finish the month strong to prepare for some longer releases in the rest of the year! Newer (Owned) Releases I’ve acquired all of these over the past few months, either from preordering or BOTM. I really hope to get to all of them because they are super promising reads. I preordered WORST CASE SCENARIO and picked up HEMLOCK HOUSE from the store recently because I straight up couldn’t find it anywhere. The other four books are from BOTM. I will definitely be reading THE GOD OF THE WOODS beginning the end of September into October because it’s my mystery book club’s pick for October. Library Books I have a lot of overdue library books right now and am making a concerted effort to read a few ASAP! October is the beginning of the fantasy months for me […]