Category: Features

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 […]

Random Bookish Thoughts: Book Ratings Pt. 2

Posted February 19, 2015 / Discussions, Other Memes, Weekly Memes / 7 Comments
Random Bookish Thoughts: Book Ratings Pt. 2

BOOK RATINGS (PART 2). I’ve talked once before on book ratings, when I talked about how I rate books, what it means to have a “valuable opinion” (according to some butthead on Twitter), and my generally high rating average on Goodreads. Now that I’ve gotten further into reading and reviewing books, I’ve been thinking about more topics on book ratings. There’s SO much that goes into rating a book once you finish. I’ve found myself coming up with these rating-related issues lately. Brittany posted a discussion about changing book ratings that helped me in thinking about this post. Sometimes you have no issue rating a book. You loved it. End of story! It gets between 4 and 5 stars. The harder ones to review are the MEH books. The ones that didn’t bother you too much either way. Do you penalize them because they didn’t wow you? Or do you say that because nothing outright offended you, you can stick to maybe 3 stars? It’s also fairly easy to rate books you hated. Obviously they’re not getting much more than something around 2 stars or less. Lately my ratings have changed SO MUCH. I posted on Twitter a while back that I changed my rating for Red Queen about five times after finishing it. I’ve come to find that there are four main instances where my rating may change between the time I finish the post, as I’m writing the review, and before the review is actually posted. (Part of the issue could be that […]

Read-Bait: “Death” and “Grief”

Posted February 12, 2015 / Book Lists, Features / 4 Comments
Read-Bait: “Death” and “Grief”

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… Clearly this topic sounds a bit morbid, but hear me out. You all know you agree with me. When there’s a book about the various aspects involved with death, moving on, or grieving – I’m all about it. Whether the person in the book actually dies (not a spoiler, it’s in the synopsis!), or they’re getting over the death of someone, or they’re obsessed with the concept of death, or even if they’re in that “in between” place between earth and the afterlife… I am so on board. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is a book I read a LONG time ago, but was my first introduction into books that occur after death. In this case, […]

Inside and Out #1: Lauren from Bookmark Lit

Posted February 9, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 7 Comments
Inside and Out #1: Lauren from Bookmark Lit

A new feature to admire pretty book covers and bookmarks, shared by YOU! Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature will include 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. I’ll be kicking off the feature today with my own favorites! (There is still plenty of time to sign up – see the form at the bottom of the post and join in the fun!) Lauren from Bookmark Lit Twitter: @bookmarklit  |  Instagram: @bookmark_lit Tell me a little about yourself: Well obviously you already know quite a bit about me, since this is my blog and all. But, my name is Lauren and I run Bookmark Lit! I obviously love reading and mostly fill my free time with doing that. When I’m not reading (or sometimes while I’m reading, depending on what teams are playing), I love watching football. The Carolina Panthers are my team and it’s my dream to move to Charlotte, NC. You genuinely don’t want to be around me when they’re playing, win or lose. I honestly don’t have many other hobbies but I do like watching movies, binge-watching Netflix, going out to eat, and becoming obsessed with things for a few months and then losing interest. I’d love to pick up some crafty hobbies but I’m so lazy. Talk about your blog (what you blog about/kinds of books, features, etc.): I […]

NEW Guest Post Feature Announcement: Inside and Out

Posted February 6, 2015 / Features, Inside and Out / 10 Comments
NEW Guest Post Feature Announcement: Inside and Out

A new feature to admire pretty book covers and bookmarks, shared by YOU! I am so excited to announce that I’ve finally found a guest post feature that reflects me and my blog. Welcome to INSIDE AND OUT. This feature will include two of my absolute favorite book-related things: bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out)! What’s it about and why? Bookmarks are such a fun and easy thing to collect. You can get them to represent places you’ve been, books you’ve read, characters you love, quotes about reading and from books, etc. Literally anything. I think most bloggers and bookish people at least have a few tried-and-true bookmarks – and even some that are never used because they’re TOO special. Either way, they’re necessary and everyone has a bookmark preference! Book covers are something I’ve featured on the blog a couple of times. It’s no secret I am a major sucker for pretty covers. I’m more than happy to judge books by their covers all the time. To me, a cover should represent what’s inside the book. It should give you a FEEL about what you’re going to read. A good cover reflects the story in same way that the plot summary does. So now you can see why bookmarks and book covers are so important to me, and helped define this feature! How can I help? I’d love to make this a regular feature on the blog. I’ll decide exactly how often the post will appear based on the amount […]