Category: Wrap-Ups

Lauren Lately | August 2019

Posted August 15, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ What I’ve Been Up To Weird Al, lots of swimming, and a birthday party | We had a nice mix of weekends over the last month or so. We had a few events and parties sprinkled in, along with casual days swimming and hanging out at Chris’s parents’ house. We went to see Weird Al in concert, which exceeded all of my expectations and I have zero photos of, and then spent the next two days swimming. The following weekend was a birthday party for my friend Alaina and her husband, which was a lot of fun too! Weekend with Jen – Mystic/Westerly/Glastonbury | Chris was away at the bachelor party for his future brother-in-law so I went out and about with his sister! We first went to a small food truck festival in Connecticut, which was decent, and then headed over to Rhode Island. Ivory Ella was having their annual warehouse sale, so we […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | July 2019

Posted August 1, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 3 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I have to be completely transparent with you guys. I am still straight-up reeling from the loss of Grace last week. I can’t get her off my mind. I can’t focus on much of anything, especially blogging or reading. It’s like… how can I keep doing these things when she can’t? This is ridiculous because I’m SURE she would NEVER want anyone/me to feel that way. She was just the most positive person. The brightest light in our community and in our comment sections. She stayed so strong and fought through the very, very end. I know she did. I want to also be completely honest despite sounding like I’m trying to make this about ME. I was the person who broke the news to everyone in the community because I had just become Facebook friends with her the week prior. I followed her journey there for not nearly long enough before she was taken. My mentions on Twitter were absolutely flooded with grief, messages about her kindness, and a lot of love. Which was simultaneously wonderful, because Grace was […]

Lauren Lately | July 2019

Posted July 17, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ What I’ve Been Up To Lobster rolls and local exploring | Chris and I went to a local lobster roll and ice cream shop when exploring into a new county near us. We had great food and walked through the woods to see their fairy gardens! They also sold nice plants and just had a great vibe in general. We went down to a skatepark nearby Chris was meaning to try too. Jen’s Mystic bachelorette | Chris’s sister chose Mystic for her bach location because she wanted something near the ocean and relaxed. It was perfect! I’ve never been on a bachelorette trip with such a small amount (meaning ZERO) of drama. Everyone was a virtual stranger to everyone else and there were no cliques at all. We got along great and had a fun/relaxing time! Book club, grad party, and the beginning of porch time | I’ve been going to book club at a local […]

2019 Mid-Year Challenge Progress & Future TBRs

Posted July 8, 2019 / Book Challenges, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

I always do a middle-of-the-year recap to see how I’m doing on my goals, challenges, statistics, and TBR plans. Sometimes it’s the kick in the pants I need or the moment when I decide to let myself off the hook for once. Either way, last Wednesday’s post was about all of the books I’ve read and their related statistics, as well as my general goal progress based on the resolutions I created at the beginning of the year. Today, you’ll see my challenge progress and potential TBRs/plans for me to finish things up. I’m a big fan of reading challenges and decided to expand a little bit. Instead of doing ones I’d finish very easily, I wanted to do some more specific ones with categories that would open up my reading a bit more. Monthly Motif Challenge Goal: 2 themed books monthly ||| Current completed: 16 JANUARY – New to you author Pretty in Punx – Crompton This Lie Will Kill You – Pitcher The Last Best Story – Lehrman FEBRUARY – Cover love King of Scars – Bardugo I Owe You One – Kinsella Small Town Hearts – Vale MARCH – Royalty, kingdoms, empires, gov’t Her Royal Highness – Hawkins The Goose Girl – Hale Enchantee – Trelease APRIL – Crack the case Last Girl Lied To – Flynn You Owe Me a Murder – Cook MAY – One sitting reads Saga, Vol. 5 – Vaughn Saga, Vol. 6 – Vaughn JUNE – Diversify your reading What If It’s […]

May-June Bookish Bullet Journal

Posted July 5, 2019 / Features, Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

When I mentioned the idea of sharing layouts from my reading-related bullet journal on the blog, most of you seemed interested to read about it! I can’t justify making one post each month dedicated to the 3-4 bujo pages I make during that month, so I thought doing a little bullet journal update every two months would be fun instead! In these posts you will see all of the new pages I added during the past two months. I feel like my bullet journal usage is increasing quite a bit, which is nice! I feel like I was stuck in my rigid selection of page layouts for each month (new release tracker, reading tracker, and TBR), but I’ve been trying to make readathon or challenge-specific pages to enjoy tracking other things! This round-up of layouts will likely be longer and bigger than the previous time I posted about this 😉 May ARCs and New Releases: I really like the way this page turned out at the top! As usual, I tracked my review copies with asterisks next to the titles, highlighted the release weeks, and included other releases I’m excited about. May TBR: Phew this looks like a bad month for reading from my TBR! I don’t remember why I read so off-base but I think this was one of those months where I included too many options, especially review books I wasn’t overly into. May Reading Tracker: Now that I look at how lopsided my tracker is, I can tell […]

2019 Mid-Year Reading Statistics & Goals

Posted July 3, 2019 / Book Challenges, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

I always do a middle-of-the-year recap to see how I’m doing on my goals, challenges, statistics, and TBR plans. Sometimes it’s the kick in the pants I need or the moment when I decide to let myself off the hook for once. Either way, today’s post is about all of the books I’ve read and their related statistics, as well as my general goal progress based on the resolutions I created at the beginning of the year. Next Monday, you’ll see my challenge progress and potential TBRs/plans for me to finish things up. As you see in my monthly wrap-ups, I keep my stats updated each time. The spreadsheet I use is definitely the reason for my organization. I use this time of year (in addition to the end of the year) to REALLY go all-out with my stats. It also helps me create new goals or update existing ones. I may decide I really should read more fantasy or more books from my own shelves. I’ll highlight all of the books I’ve read so far in general too. All of the Books Read So Far I always make a resolutions post to explain the reading, blogging, and personal (but somewhat bookish) goals for the year. I usually don’t revisit these too much but I hope this midpoint check-in is enough to make them top of mind again. I’ll talk about my “progress” on each of these goals/resolutions and let you know if I consider it a pass, fail, or […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2019

Posted July 1, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I feel like I start every post like “woah what a weird reading month!” but I have to say… June genuinely was a bizarre reading month. I had one book leftover from mid-May that I FINALLY finished in mid-June, plus another book that took me around three weeks to read throughout the month. I finished a bunch of books in a row after not finishing any for like a week. I finished books every day between 6/16 though 6/19 (even finishing two books on the 19th). So yeah, I was either reading nothing, slogging through something forever, or finishing a million books in rapid succession. I ALSO signed up for Summerathon on a whim this past week so it motivated me to polish off a handful of summery books in a row as well. All of the books from this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 2 read this month | 31 read total | 78% complete L-R: Reread of a favorite, book that shares same title Monthly […]

Lauren Lately | June 2019

Posted June 14, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 0 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ What I’ve Been Up To Money in the Bank | We were fortunate that MITB, one of the best WWE shows ever year (just because ladder matches are so fun), was in Hartford this year! A group of five of us went and it was pretty wonderful until the end. I know I don’t need to get heavily into the wrestling stuff but let’s just say I hate Brock Lesnar and he ruined everything, as usual. Memorial Day Weekend – Bridal Shower and Double or Nothing | As everyone knows by now, Chris’s sister is getting married in August and that’s the last wedding that I’m in for the year! (I have one more to attend in September, I believe… my book club friend is making sure she can squeeze us in 😂) I planned her entire bridal shower basically and it went off without a hitch! That night, we had the first AEW PPV, […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | May 2019

Posted June 1, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. Like I said about April, May was also bound to be a shitty reading month. I had my friend’s wedding the second weekend of the month, where I didn’t read the whole 3-4 days of festivities, and a bunch of other weekend plans to account for. Luckily Bout of Books happened the day after the wedding, which put my butt in gear to get back on track with reading and make up for lost time! I ended up reading two graphic novels for one of my challenges, which helped keep me in the normal range of 9ish books read. All of the books from this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 3 read this month | 29 read total | 73% complete L-R: Set in space, read during season the book is set in, by two female authors Monthly Motif Challenge 2 read this month | 13 read total This month: One sitting reads Retellings Reading Challenge 1 read this month | 3 read total | 30% complete L-R: […]

Lauren Lately | May 2019

Posted May 15, 2019 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 3 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ What I’ve Been Up To We are officially in the busy section of 2019 for me! Starting with my friend’s bachelorette trip to Charleston last month, through May and into June, we will be quite busy. We have another wedding we’re in (both Chris and me!) in August but luckily there isn’t a whole lot going into it. We had a little birthday celebration for my friend Cassie during Easter weekend, where we got new cartilage piercings and tacos for lunch. We also went shopping to get the matching Easter outfits that Natasha and I always wear for my family! I snuck in some reading time before Easter while everyone else was sleeping and then we had a nice day at my mom’s house. We don’t have a reason to celebrate Easter but we do it anyways? lol. I’m super busy with birthday things in April, as you all probably know by now (five super important people in my […]