Book Scavenger Hunt – first Bout of Books Challenge A Book that begins with “B” (for Bout of Books!): Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire A book that has been made into a movie/tv show: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard A series you love: The A-List by Zoey Dean An anthology of poems or short stories: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein A book on your TBR shelf, or your full TBR shelves: Golden by Jessi Kirby Challenge can be found here.
Hello! I have a new feature here at Bookmark Lit that gives you a mid-month update. Each month, I’ll put out the bulletin with a summary of the books I’ve read, reviews I’ve written, and whatever else has been going on around Bookmark Lit! I’ll post one each month around the 15th, but I could easily increase the frequency depending on how much news there is to share. Without further ado, here’s the first bulletin for the first half of August! You’ll see that it was a VERY good reading month for me – all books were awesome! I can’t help but wonder if I’m too generous with my reviews, but I keep evaluating the books in my head and can’t imagine rating them any lower. All of the books/reviews below earned between 4 and 5 stars. The last bad book I read was September Girls by Bennett Madison [review] and I just so happened to finish that one on July 31st! My favorite books of August definitely have to be the three Stephanie Perkins books – you just can’t beat those. Also, it’s my one month blogiversary! Well, technically yesterday was…but still! I’m proud of myself and impressed. Thank you all for the support xo Tomorrow morning I’ll be headed to one of my favorite places for relaxation – Maine! My grandma lives in Kennebunk and my dad, stepmom, and little sister are already up there. I’m taking work off tomorrow and Tuesday to join them. Luckily it’s only a 2.5 hour ride from […]
Favorite Quote From A Book This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen “No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, compromise, to give up something in order to gain something greater. The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that’s the key. It’s like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love makes up for a lot.” I kind of ruined this one for myself by not looking ahead. I already mentioned my favorite quote for a different challenge day here. This one is a close second though. I remember having this as my AIM away message a lot… those were the good ol days.
Your Favorite Genre Genre (noun): a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. This is a topic that is pretty heavily discussed in the bookish community. Is Young Adult a genre? I did a little bit of googling and found this interesting article. Young adult is an age group – a SUGGESTED age group. Within that suggested age group, there are plenty of different genres…just like “adult” books. I’ll also say that young adult books typically have teenagers for their main characters. That doesn’t necessarily mean that only teenagers can read them! I like reading books, no matter the age or topic, because it’s interesting. It is sometimes easiest to say “young adult” when people ask what your favorite genre is, because it encompasses so many different types of books you enjoy(ed) reading. But, I bet people would find it odd if you said “adult” as an answer. That’s not a genre! they would say. Sorry for rambling but I just wanted to make the point that young adult technically is not a genre, but it is my favorite age group to read or read about. For a better answer to this question, here are my Goodreads shelves (see picture).. They encompass pretty well what genres I prefer based on the amount of books in each of them.
Your Favorite Character Of All Time Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky This is not an easy question. I don’t know if “favorite” is really the right word to use, but Charlie from Perks is one of the most interesting, screwed-up, innocent, blunt, different and intelligent characters out there. It was so fun to watch him throughout this book. Not to mention the millions of quotes that have made it onto my favorites list… including my all-time favorite book quote: “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” (Sorry to repeat this book, but it’s different because it’s about a character…right?)
Your Favourite Author(s) From Your Childhood Roald Dahl was definitely one of my childhood favorites. The BFG was my favorite book for a very, very long time. This was such a cute book that you should read now, no matter what age, just because it’s a classic. Is it true they’re making it into a movie?? Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!
Your Favorite Author What defines a favorite author? I guess I’d go by these three questions: Which author have I read the most books by? Cecily von Ziegesar (27 books between Gossip Girl and It Girl) Which author can I honestly say I enjoyed all the books I read by them? Kate Brian (Private series, Privilege series, Sweet 16, Shadowlands trilogy) Which author do I religiously and anxiously await new releases from? Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series, reading The Heiresses this month, and going to start The Lying Game series soon) I would have to give a mix of the three. Even though Cecily von Ziegesar wrote the most books, I would probably narrow it further down to Kate Brian. She’s versatile, she writes about every topic/genre I could want, and she is continuing to put out new books. I plan to move on to her Keiran Scott novels soon, too.
A Book You Used To Love But Don’t Anymore Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer Isn’t this true of every 20-something book reader? Or even people who didn’t like to read? This series quickly became popular and as big of a must-read as Harry Potter or Hunger Games. I remember my friend (who didn’t often read books) forcing me to read these. I loved them at the time, but who didn’t? All of the super-fans kind of made things awkward though. If you admitted to liking Twilight after a while, people made fun of you. The entire fanbase kind of shriveled up. I saw the movies in theaters and happily finished the series, but then washed my hands of it. I never considered myself obsessed like others, but I did enjoy these books as I was reading them.
A Book You Hated The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold I tried so hard with this one. One of my friends said it was her favorite book and the plotline sounded so promising. I’m always intrigued by these semi-paranormal books about the afterlife. Throw in a serial killer and it sounds even more interesting.. It just fell flat for me and was totally boring. I even lost interest watching the movie. This is the ONLY book I’ve ever stopped reading. I am a person who must finish a book, no matter how awful or boring, and this one I just couldn’t. See this review on Goodreads to further summarize how I felt.
The Isla Is Coming readalong kicked off on the last day of July and I decided to take part! Unlike most people participating, I’m reading the series for the first time. (Click on the picture on the right to read the informational post). I finished Anna and the French Kiss WAY too early and waited to start Lola and the Boy Next Door with the rest of the readers. I finished Lola within 24 hours as well! Of course, the point of the readalong is to gear up for the third book’s release – Isla and the Happily Ever After on the 14th. So now here’s my review for the second book in the Isla Is Coming readalong! Review: As predicted, I loved this book. It was hard not to compare it to Anna and the French Kiss, though… I found myself doing that a lot. I think there were enough similarities and differences to make this book really a great follow-up. Perkins does a wonderful job of bringing variety to a typical YA book/topic. There was somewhat of a love triangle, which I normally don’t care for, but the reader obviously knows how the book is going to end and who she is going to end up with. It always takes the main character a lot longer than the reader to figure out! Lola was very different from Anna, which I liked. She had two dads and a messed-up biological mom, who all worked together to make a pretty interesting family dynamic. It was […]