Category: Features

Inside & Out #11: Andi from Andi’s ABCS

Posted July 27, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 8 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Andi from Andi ABC’s Twitter: @andiabcs| Instagram: @andiabcs| Facebook | Pinterest Tell me a little about yourself: I am always so bad at this! Um, I’m a mid 30 year old YA reading gal and proud of it. I hail from the fabulous city of Boston, MA and I’m a HUGE Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins fan. I’m a shopaholic and proud. And yes I have a strong Boston accent. Oh and I’m a huge pusher of Anna and the French Kiss (Lauren will tell you! It was the first thing I made her do. <–truth) Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): My blog is my baby. It consists of YA books for the most part. I review fantasy, contemporary, Sci-fi, dystopian, romance. I also have a weekly feature called The ABCs where a guest poster selects an accessory, book and clothing item they are lusting after and tells my readers why they want each. Favorite genre: I love a lot of different kind of books but I have to go with contemporary. I love a good love story with real life issues and circumstances in […]

Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up: Make Me Read It

Posted July 26, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features / 8 Comments

Starts at 8:00am on July 20th and ends at 12:00am on July 27th #MakeMeRead tag on Twitter/Instagram Check out the intro pages (Val’s or Ely’s) and the rules below: Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the read-a-thon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Wrap-Up The read-a-thon started on Monday of last week and ends late tonight, so here is my wrap-up! I had a few obligations to read during it, so I didn’t do as well as I hoped in the beginning… but I’m glad I forced myself to read some […]

ARC August Sign-Up

Posted July 25, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features / 11 Comments

One of my favorite ladies, Cristina at Girl in the Pages, signed up for this event and encouraged me to do so when I commented on her post. I took a look at some of my ARCs and found that most of them had the scary September release date. Realistically, this challenge is very timely! Without further ado, here’s my sign-up post for ARC August, which is hosted by Read Sleep Repeat. Here are the rules: It may be a physical ARC or and eARC but it MUST be an ARC Yes it can be an ARC that has released as long as it’s an ARC I’m not going to nitpick much HAVE FUN WITH THIS! Feeling like you are being “forced” to read is the best way turn a fun event into a yucky obligation. Update post! I personally will do a post for each Saturday in August but that’s just me. You can update once a week, every other week or once for the whole darn event. This update can be in the form of a blog or tumblr post, vlog, link to your “ARC August 2015″ shelf or even an instagram pic! I want to make this as easy and low pressure as possible for you. Personal Goals Because I have a really big potential TBR below, I honestly don’t expect to finish all of these. My goal is to finish about half of the books in each category: At least 3 books from my BEA haul At least 2 books […]

A Love Affair with Scribd

Posted July 23, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 17 Comments

If you listen to audiobooks or read ebooks at all, you really need to check out Scribd. I’m kind of obsessed, and I’m here today to tell you ALLLLL about it. Similar to my lengthy love-filled post about Book Host, this will give you the details about Scribd and why it’s the freakin’ best. Also, I was definitely not paid for this – I just want to shre the love. If you’d like to ignore most of this post and get down to the TL;DR, click here! What is it? Scribd is a monthly subscription that offers ebooks and audiobooks. The best part is that it’s UNLIMITED. There are very few, if any, that offer the feature of unlimited. You can download the app on your phone or tablet, or use the internet browser on your computer. The best part is that it’s only $8.99 a month. If you’re thinking about joining, sign up here and I get free days! (You da best.) Why is it better than other options? With a subscription like Audible, you spend $15/month and get ONE audiobook. With Kindle Unlimited, you get unlimited books and some audio for $9.99 a month – but the book selection is pretty bad. The reason I love Scribd is because the selection is actually pretty great. They have a lot of new releases and backlist, both for ebooks and audiobooks. I was surprised to see some pretty great new releases on there, and they’re updated quite a lot. You […]

Read-a-Thon TBR: Make Me Read It

Posted July 19, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 14 Comments

Starts at 8:00am on July 20th and ends at 12:00am on July 27th #MakeMeRead tag on Twitter/Instagram Check out the intro pages (Val’s or Ely’s) and the rules below: Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the read-a-thon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Votes have been tallied – here are the results! The read-a-thon is starting TOMORROW and I cut off voting a few days ago, so I could prepare myself (and this post, lol). Here are the books I’ll be reading in rank order. As the rules suggest, you […]

Read-a-Thon Sign-Up: Make Me Read It

Posted July 15, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features / 20 Comments

Starts at 8:00am on July 20th and ends at 12:00am on July 27th #MakeMeRead tag on Twitter/Instagram Check out the intro pages (Val’s or Ely’s) and the rules below: Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the read-a-thon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Now help me choose the books! I have quite a few books I’ve been saying that I NEED to read – primarily the three library books sitting in my living room – and just never get around to it. I have soooo many of them. During this […]

Inside & Out #10: Dahlia from Daily Dahlia (and YA/NA Author!)

Posted July 13, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 7 Comments

Admiring book covers and bookmarks, shared by you! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature includes two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! I’ve invited guest posters to share their favorite book covers and bookmarks here on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Sign-ups are always open (see bottom of post)! Check out past posts here. Dahlia Adler from The Daily Dahlia and Author of YA & NA Books! Twitter: @MissDahlELama| Instagram: @MissDahlELama| Facebook Tell me a little about yourself: I’m a YA (Behind the Scenes, Under the Lights, Just Visiting) and NA (Last Will and Testament) author, a blogger for the B&N Teen Blog, and a macaron aficionado. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): My personal blog is mostly about publishing–tips on querying, subbing, debut tips, agent red flags, etc. but I kinda feel like I’ve covered all I know by now, so now I mostly use it to post Top Ten Tuesdays (thanks, The Broke and the Bookish!) and host the occasional cover reveal or blog tour stop for a friend. But I also blog for the B&N Teen Blog, and that’s a lot of fun–I mostly do themed posts and the occasional author spotlight or cover reveal, and I’ve gotten to interview a lot of my favorite authors, which is so cool. Favorite genre: Contemporary! Three books you recommend most often and why: Hmm, I rec books a lot, but okay, if I must stick to three… Probably Black Iris by Leah Raeder, […]

Reading Recap #4

Posted July 5, 2015 / Features, Reading Recap / 4 Comments

Because my reviews are usually posted at least a month after I finish the book, I never really talk about what I’m currently reading or just finished reading. This Reading Recap feature will let you know the the books I just finished reading and listening to, as well as the books I’m currently reading and listening to. Past recaps here! It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these! I won’t bore you with the twenty two books I’ve read or listened to since the last recap, but will give you just a few of my recent books. Mirrored by Alex Flinn | I’ve been really excited to read more retellings lately, but this one didn’t work for me. I actually loved the retelling elements of the story and thought the plotline was cool, but the rest was very blah. The pacing was off, the characters were okay, and the writing style was NOT for me. Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger | Ah, yes, another Kody Keplinger to add to the list! I will definitely read her grocery list. This one wasn’t AS big of a hit with me as the others I’ve read by her, but it was overall really enjoyable still. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti | YAY I FINISHED! For a book that I looooved and gave five stars, it sure took me a while to read. I loved getting back into women’s studies a bit and taking my time with this one. Everyone – feminist or […]

Mid-Year Blogging Update & Goals

Posted July 1, 2015 / Book Challenges, Features, Personal / Information / Etc. / 16 Comments

2015 has been the first “fresh” year of blogging for me. I started my blog in the middle of July 2014 – eeek, one year anniversary is coming up! – so 2015 was MY YEAR for making up goals, joining year-long challenges, and trying to see if I could survive. I signed up for way too many challenges, but I’ve been actually doing a decent job so far. Here’s a rundown on my challenge progress (in more detail than I usually put in my monthly wrap-ups and what I hope to accomplish with the rest of the year on my blog! (Also, sorry if Livin on a Prayer is stuck in your head now.) (AND, this may be slightly outdated because I’ve finished a couple of books since writing this.) Reading Stats Books read: 90 books completed by July 1st Pages read: 30,945 (not entirely accurate, because this includes audiobooks) Genre most read: Contemporary, which surprises no one Goal/Resolution Updates Back at the end of December 2014, Top Ten Tuesday asked us for our bookish and blogging resolutions for the following year. My post had five of each, and I thought I’d check in on my progress so far for 2015! Write more original discussion posts: I wrote 7 discussion posts between January and the end of June, so I think that’s pretty good! About one per month. I would definitely like to increase that number, but a part of me kind of likes spacing them out. I feel like I would run out […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – June 2015

Posted June 28, 2015 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 6 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my life happenings, book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here and learn more about the feature here. The Bookmark Lit Bulletin is a bit early this month! Why? Because I have so much shit already planned this week! AND, I have a special wrap-up post coming on July 1st because that’ll be the official halfway-through-the-year point. I have a Mid-Year Blogging Update planned, so the BL Bulletin will be missing some info this time around 😉June was just as crazy as May, folks. We had friends come visit one weekend, went to the drive-in movies, and went swimming at Chris’s parents house. This past weekend was more relaxing because we finally didn’t have ANY plans… BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY this month, we went to Chicago! (We actually went to Schaumberg, to be precise.) We went to Brickworld, which is one of the biggest Lego conventions in the world. We attended some panel discussions, presentations, set drafts, and a charity auction. We also displayed one of Chris’s creations amongst a huuuuge room of exhibitors. We spent a lot of time walking around and viewing all of the pieces, as well as a lot of money on Lego merch! We didn’t actually […]