Category: Features

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 26

Posted August 26, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 26

A Book that Changed your Opinion on Something Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich This book certainly changed my opinion. The description says so itself: “Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way the nation perceives its working poor.”  Like other people who grew up not worrying about money as much as others, I didn’t really think of the “working poor too much.” Often, the opinions I had were negative. I kept thinking: why didn’t they just go to college? Why can’t they find anything better? Of course the answers aren’t that simple. This book opened my eyes to the struggle so many people face on a daily basis. She spends her days working various minimum wage jobs, exploring how difficult they can be, and trying to make ends meet. Goodreads seems to have some critical reviews of this book, but it really opened my mind up.

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 25

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 6 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 25

A Character who you can Relate to the Most Lara Jean || To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han  I’ve been with my boyfriend for two years now, but before him – I was all about the crushes. I always had my eye on multiple people at once. I always felt super attached to ex-boyfriends and almost-boyfriends. I never really had a good way of getting over people; I’d let them mess with my head a little too much in the meantime. Lara Jean writes letters to the boys she used to love and keeps them as a way to move on. I wish I did this when I was younger! Maybe then it would have been easier to let go of my past. I can relate to her confusion about different boys and her feelings towards them. She was funny and a little awkward, which I can be at times too.

Goodbye Summer Readathon: Join Me!

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 2 Comments
Goodbye Summer Readathon: Join Me!

I’ve decided to create readathon – primarily for myself to get my summer butt in gear! Each summer, I like to mostly read books about the season. I love to read about girls who head off to summer vacations or go on road trips. There are quite a few summery books on my TBR list that I somehow avoided this summer. Now that the season is coming to a close, I’ve decided to make a list of these books and finish them by the end of “summer”! If you would like to join me, feel free to link up in the comments! You can use my image and just connect it with my blog so others can join in. Here’s the official information page where I’ll be filling in my updates, TBR list, and other information. What I’m Doing Making a list of the books I wanted to complete this summer but didn’t get to. They’ll all be books about the summer season and/or feature summery things, like road trips and vacations. Setting a goal to read all of the books I add to my TBR list. Joining with anyone else who decides to take part by checking out their posts and keeping up with their goals/TBR list. Sitting back and enjoying the books! Bout of Books stressed me out more than it should have (I know that’s not the point of it!), so I want to just relax with my summery books and see if I can read them all before […]

Bout of Books 11 Wrap-Up

Posted August 25, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 8 Comments
Bout of Books 11 Wrap-Up

Well, I didn’t meet my goal of 7 books – BUT I am definitely impressed that I made it to 6 books! I kind of forgot I had plans on Saturday night that would take up a lot of potential reading time. My boyfriend and I also had to use Sunday to start packing up some of our stuff so we can move into our new apartment in a couple of weeks! Overall, not the best reading weekend, but such a great reading week otherwise! All of my reviews should be up within the next few weeks. I have some catching up to do, but most of the reviews are already completed and scheduled. Here are my completed stats: Number of books: 6 Total pages read: 1,848 Did you stick to your TBR list? Yes! I can’t believe it. I was tempted to switch it up but I did a good job of reading only the books I allotted for myself. The one thing that I changed was that I needed to add a second audiobook to the list, because I finished the first one a lot earlier than expected. I didn’t even end up finishing it (The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender) by the end of the challenge anyways, so I guess it doesn’t make much difference. Which book was your favorite? Definitely To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before! I’ve been wanting to read it for SO long and finally used Bout of Books as my excuse […]

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 24

Posted August 24, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 24

A book that you wish more people would’ve read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls This is a really moving memoir that I normally wouldn’t have been drawn to. I typically stay away from nonfiction, especially with such a sad plot, but I read this for extra credit in high school. A lot of people faked their way through the assignment to get their extra credit but didn’t actually read it. I grew up in a pretty wealthy and privileged Connecticut town where people tend to live in a bubble. This book shares a family’s plight with poverty, which would have really opened up some eyes. I wish more people gave it a chance instead of using the typical high school attitude against reading assignments. In general, I hope some other people in the blogging world also switch things up and read this one if they haven’t already!

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 23

Posted August 23, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features, Uncategorized / 1 Comment
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 23

A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke I knew I wanted to read this book the moment I saw it. Granted, that was only about a month ago, but still. Parallel universes are my JAM. Anyone remember the episode of So Weird where this was the plot line? Every decision she made created an alternate universe – in the morning she chose OJ instead of grapefruit juice, and that led to this whole other world where she became a badass that skipped school. Eventually, somehow, the universes merged into one and she had to get rid of her alternate self. Sorry for the blow by blow but I always thought that concept was SO cool. This book is pretty much the same thing and I can’t wait to read it.

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 22

Posted August 22, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 22

Favorite Villain from a Book Private by Kate Brian Noelle Lange is the ultimate villain because it’s never clear if she’s really a villain or not. She’s Reed’s best friend throughout the book, but schemes so much that Reed really never knows what shes up to. I’m not sure that she qualifies as villainous, but her character is so fun to watch and wonder. Noelle has such a crazy and unpredictable personality that she was the first person to come to mind for this one.

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 21

Posted August 21, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 2 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 21

Favorite Book from your Childhood The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein Ugh how sad and perfect is this book? It’s funny reading the Goodreads reviews for this one because people complain about martyrdom and selfishness vs. selflessness…. Dude, it’s a children’s book. It makes kids sad and thus teaches them to respect their effing parents who give them everything while they whine and need more.

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 20

Posted August 20, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features, Uncategorized / 5 Comments
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 20

Favorite Romance Book Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella I normally don’t read romance books, at least not in the traditional sense. I like YA contemporary romance or sometimes romantic chick lit. This is the closest I’ll come to “romance” books. This is the story of a girl who spills all of her secrets on an airplane, when she thinks they’re all going to die, only to discover that the man in question is her new boss. She’s struggling in her extremely comfortable relationship with her boyfriend and comes to realize what her life could and should be. It was a cute chick lit book, like Sophie Kinsella’s generally are, and I would definitely recommend it.

Bout of Books 11: Book Spine Poetry

Posted August 19, 2014 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments
Bout of Books 11: Book Spine Poetry

Today’s Bout of Book challenge is to create Book Spine Poetry. I used six of the books on my shelf (some read, some TBR). Because I used six books, I was allowed six “bonus” words for the poem. My book titles are in bold. six months later, everything is illuminated. i go back to where it began – the last summer of you and me. can you keep a secret? i wasn’t me before you