Category: Features

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – March 2015

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – March 2015

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. I guess the biggest recent development for me is the fact that I, as usual, became football-obsessed during free agency. I had to keep track of what all the teams were doing (and what my team was NOT doing, as usual). I had a pretty busy month overall. Chris and I took a day trip down to the southern part of the state to visit a different Lego store and an indie book store. I had a boring day at Jury Duty that led to me reading two books, which was pretty awesome. I went out to dinner for my dad’s birthday and my stepmom’s birthday; they’re unoriginal and both pick the same restaurant. We also went to a Lego event that took place up at Yankee Candle Village. I bought a lot of things I didn’t need and we participated in some Lego stuff that was meant for little kids. I went to my friend’s birthday party that consisted of galactic bowling, so that was fun! I love seeing her and spending time with my other friend that I don’t see […]

Reading Recap #1

Posted March 29, 2015 / Features, Reading Recap / 5 Comments
Reading Recap #1

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! Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway | I absolutely LOVED this book. I kind of liked Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, but not enough to be super excited about reading the rest of her books. I loved the synopsis for this one when I saw it but I was hesitant. I had no reason to be, because it was so damn good. I truly have no complaints about it. Definitely add this to your TBRs for when it comes out, folks! Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo | Such a solid end to the trilogy! It was easily my favorite book of the three and everything wrapped up so nicely. I was happy to see Mal being less annoying and pathetic in this one and was felt good about the ship that sailed. I already reviewed this one here for Book Buddies. Harmonic by Erica O’Rourke | Usually I might not bother with including a novella here, but this did not read like one! My one usual gripe with novellas, especially if they’re too short, is that everything feels condensed and rushed. This one had a great amount of action and […]

Organization Part One: My Book Bag

Posted March 27, 2015 / Discussions, Features / 16 Comments
Organization Part One: My Book Bag

Inspired by my recent organizational acquisitions (and posts by Hannah), I wanted to share some information about how I keep myself organized – primarily for blogging and reading, but also a little about my personal organization, too. Part One: What’s Inside My Book Bag I carry around a tote bag full of bookish things. No, not everywhere I go… but pretty much. I bring it with me to work every day. I never know when I’ll have a free second to read or will need to write something down. It’d be awful to get struck with inspiration and not have my blog notebook on hand, right? Right. So, my organization series on the blog will kick off with me showing the basics of what’s inside my book bag and why I carry these items everywhere with me. The bag itself: I got my bag from The Strand bookstore in NYC. Chris and I went there back in October for his birthday and I knew that a tote bag was my #1 purchase there. I wish it wasn’t so crowded in the store that day, though, because I’ve come to realize I missed out on SO many other cute accessories. I love the pattern on this one with all of the books (and Chris likes the cats). I added a couple of bookish pins to it. One came from a previous swap partner and the other came from pre-ordering The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord! I do indeed […]

Inside & Out #3: Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide

Posted March 23, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 8 Comments
Inside & Out #3: Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide

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. Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide Twitter: @bookaddictguide | Instagram: @bookaddictsguide | Facebook | Pinterest Tell me a little about yourself: Hi! I’m Brittany and I’ve been blogging for ALMOST three years now at The Book Addict’s Guide (3 years in April!). I read a little bit of everything — from YA to adult, contemporary to fantasy to sci-fi — and you’ll find it all on my blog (and more). I just got married in November and it really was an awesome day! I love the color blue, books (of course), Harry Potter, The Princess Bride, camping, homebrewing & craft beer, and pretending I will catch up on all of the TV shows I started and never finished. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I actually started blogging when I was reading mostly adult cozy mysteries and YA dystopian. I started reading YA when I could ONLY find dystopian books in the YA section (The Hunger Games got me HOOKED) and then I discovered how amazing YA was and it stuck! I still read some adult here and there but more fantasy lately than anything. I’ll read a little […]

Random Bookish Thoughts: DNF

Posted March 19, 2015 / Discussions, Other Memes, Weekly Memes / 17 Comments
Random Bookish Thoughts: DNF

THE DNF. (For the newbies out there, a DNF is when you mark a book as “did not finish.” You stop reading the book, set it aside, and may or may not ever return to it.) I think I’ve mentioned in the past how difficult it is for me to DNF books, even when I’m not really enjoying them. I know there are LOTS of bloggers who are able to stop reading books whenever they can. I don’t know why; I just can’t bring myself to do it most of the time. I was talking with Lisa on Twitter recently and she brought up some great points. I decided to poll some fellow bloggers on the number one reason they decide to DNF a book and use them as inspiration for this post.   Why do I rarely DNF? When I talked with Lisa about this, the main reason I came up with was the fact that I first have plenty of time to read. Honestly, my boyfriend and I are not busy people by any means. We prefer to hang out at home. He’ll build Legos or play video games while I read. On top of that, I have some time in the morning to read before work. When Chris gets up and leaves for work at six, I usually can’t fall back asleep. This gives me almost two hours of reading time before I have to start getting ready for work. I also always have an audiobook going, so I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #32: Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesdays #32: Spring TBR

Top 10 Books on my Spring TBR Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we make lists of our top ten books based on that week’s prompt… and then we stalk other people’s answers to add a million books to our TBR. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. This week’s topic is simple: what books we plan on reading this spring! I’ve broken mine down into a few categories. I’m hoping to get to all of the library books and the ARCs within the next month or so. I really want to read some of the others on my TBR because they’ve been on it forever. {Links take you to Goodreads!}   The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour | I love the neon colors in this cover and randomly decided to grab it from the library the last time I went. It seems cute! The Falconer by Elizabeth May | Morgan recommended this one to me when I mentioned how much I love fae books. I had no idea that this was one until she told me! I’m so excited to read this; I basically ran to the library that day and checked it out after her rec. I’m hoping to get to this one next, actually! Reunion by Hannah Pittard | I haven’t heard the best reviews for this one, but I’m still really drawn to the synopsis. I think after reading the reunion and homecoming story Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer, this one is […]

Inside & Out #2: V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews

Posted March 9, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 9 Comments
Inside & Out #2: V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews

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)! V.Walker from V.Walker Views & Reviews Twitter: @VWalkerViews | Instagram: @VWalkerViews | Facebook Tell me a little about yourself: I just started blogging a few months ago and am still learning all the ins and outs of it.  I’m also writing my very own novel, which is a contemporary romance (and have ideas for a fantasy series also).  I’m usually found reading, writing, or marathoning something on Netflix (usually while sitting next to my husband). Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): My blog is a mix between book reviews (YA, fantasy, paranormal, and romance genres), some of my own writing (little bits and pieces), and my writing journey.  I started a new feature called Adventures of a Writing Blogger, which is a monthly post about adventures that I have outside of book reviews & writing. Favorite genre: I absolutely adore the fantasy genre.  I’m a huge fan of witches, and an even bigger fan of alternate worlds (see: Middle Earth).  I’m also a pretty big fan of contemporary romances & paranormal/urban fantasy romances (like the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon). Three books you recommend most often and why: I just read Some Boys by Patty Blount […]

Read-Bait: “Fairy”

Posted March 5, 2015 / Book Lists, Features / 8 Comments
Read-Bait: “Fairy”

Here’s another post in a new series here at the blog: Read-Bait! Over the coming weeks, I’ll be featuring different words or phrases that catch my eye in book descriptions, the books I’ve read under those categories, and the books I plan on reading. I hope it shares some insight about my reading preferences and interests. As always, feel free to recommend any books you’d think I like! You know how it goes: you’re browsing Goodreads, clicking on books that look interesting, and checking out their summaries. All of a sudden you see a certain word or phrase in the synopsis that triggers an automatic reaction to click that “Want to Read” button. I call this “read-bait” – any word(s) that make you instantly think that you MUST read this book. One example for me is… I think in general fairy books can be VERY hit or miss for some people. I’ve always been fascinated by the possible existence of faeries. (Yes I’m probably going to switch between different spellings throughout this. Sorry. Not sure why this happens to me.) My cousins and I used to run around looking for them and literally talk about them nonstop. Some of the first fae stories I read were Tithe by Holly Black and Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan. I read them SO long ago that I genuinely don’t remember much about them. In fact, I recently mixed the two series up and ended up buying quite a few books in one series when I […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin – February 2015

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

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin is a monthly feature where I look back on everything I did and everything I plan to do next. I’ll also be updating my challenge progress here each month and linking up wherever I need to. This month’s bulletin is taking place of what would usually be a Five on Friday post. My life isn’t the most eventful, so it’d be overkill to have those posts two days in a row 😉  SNOW DAYS. So many snow days. I actually didn’t have a full week of work in February until this past week, between all of the snow days and the holiday. It was glorious. Working from home for me is a VERY loose term, which is nice… I spent a lot of time jerking around, watching TV, and reading. We did a good job of hanging out with some friends this month, which happens kind of rarely for us. We had my friend’s birthday trip to Foxwoods at the beginning of the month, a SuperBowl party with Chris’s friends, and a surprise party for another friend a week ago. It’s nice to get out of the apartment sometimes and see people other than each other. Valentine’s Day weekend was so much fun. Chris and I went to Providence that day, right as the snow was starting, to join up with another couple I went to college with. The four of us love hanging out and have a lot of fun together, so we figured we’d […]

Read-Bait: “Parallel Universe”

Posted February 26, 2015 / Book Lists, Features / 9 Comments
Read-Bait: “Parallel Universe”

Here’s another post in a new series here at the blog: Read-Bait! Over the coming weeks, I’ll be featuring different words or phrases that catch my eye in book descriptions, the books I’ve read under those categories, and the books I plan on reading. I hope it shares some insight about my reading preferences and interests. As always, feel free to recommend any books you’d think I like! You know how it goes: you’re browsing Goodreads, clicking on books that look interesting, and checking out their summaries. All of a sudden you see a certain word or phrase in the synopsis that triggers an automatic reaction to click that “Want to Read” button. I call this “read-bait” – any word(s) that make you instantly think that you MUST read this book. One example for me is… I joined in with Andi and some others on a feature called Parallel Time Loop, where we featured our favorite books about time travel and parallel universes. I have been fascinated with this topic for as long as I can remember and chose Just Like Fate for my book. My post over there about my background and experience with parallel universes and how every decision shapes our lives in some way. ANYWAYS, that book was really my first foray into the genre and I loved it. It was a parallel life book, where one decision that Caroline makes alters the path of her life forever. It asks the question: do we end up in the same […]