The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my 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. I recently split out my personal posts into the Lauren Lately feature, so this is a bit shorter! Of course I can’t sit here and ignore December’s highlights, just to share alllll of 2016 instead. December is one of my favorite months – and usually most hectic – so I wanted to still complete my standard Bookmark Lit Bulletin post to wrap-up December. My reading life was good. I did a lot of reading in December because (a) I wanted to finish my challenge, (b) I wanted to read holiday books, and (c) many books arrived from the library. I spent a lot of time reading and wanting to read for once, so that’s a good sign for next year I think! Average rating for books read in December: 3.5 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: Year-Long Seasonal Winter Bingo Challenge Not YA Winter Street – Elin Hilderbrand Alternative format Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless – Liz Czukas White cover Winter Stroll – Elin Hilderbrand Nature on cover Snow Like Ashes – Sarah Raasch Set abroad The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern Romance Season of Second Chances – Brighton […]

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my 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. I recently split out my personal posts into the Lauren Lately feature, so this is a bit shorter! I finally got my reading mojo back!! I was able to finish three books plus one novella in three days. I was a reading addict around the middle of the month thanks to two books that were exactly what I needed to break my slump. I also got back into some audiobooks a little bit, managed to finish off the fall bingo card, and still was able to keep up with my TV shows. I’m finally getting the balance I’ve been wanting to find. I hope I can carry this attitude with me into the new year because this is what I had in mind when I set my goals/resolutions for 2016. Average rating for books read in October: 3.64 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: Year-Long Seasonal Fall Bingo Challenge I’m pleased to say that I FINALLY filled an entire bingo card! I was pretty determined this time and knew it was actually in reach, based on the books ahead on my TBR. I made a fake TBR to get […]

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’ve been complaining everywhere about how sloooow this reading month as been for me and even that didn’t change my reading habits. I have to say, this is the least amount I’ve read since I first started blogging. Seriously. The previous month that comes CLOSE to this level of non-reading is in September 2015 when I read 10 books. I know I should relax and let it go but it’s kind of crazy to me. All other months have 11 books or more completed. I’ll get more into why I read so little later on, but let’s just say TV and podcasts took over my life! Average rating for books read in October: 3.5 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: Year-Long Seasonal Fall Bingo Challenge 7 books this month  •  63% complete Books read for October: Reviews Blog Posts   My Secret Sister slayed again with the Halloweeny package! I got it the day I was home sick from work, which was such perfect timing for the Halloween bath bomb. It was such a great way to relax on my day […]

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 had a few shittier books towards the beginning of the month, but things definitely improved by the end! September turned out to be a decent month of reading, quantity-wise too. I planned to read WAY more on my vacation from work but that just didn’t happen. The earlier part of the month didn’t involve much reading because we were super busy, but I hit a stride with some books later on for sure. Average rating for books read in September: 3.59 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 8 books this month  •  58 total read  •  276% complete Books read this month: Debut Author Challenge 2 books this month  •  16 total read  •  133% complete Books read this month: Backlist Books Challenge 3 books this month  •  31 total read  •  155% complete Books read this month: Flights of Fantasy Challenge 2 books this month  •  20 total read  •  100% complete Books read this month: Rock My TBR Challenge 0 books this month  •  14 total read  •  56% complete No books read this month Seasonal Fall Bingo Challenge 9 books […]

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 was definitely reading too many books in the beginning of the month, and it threw me off. I usually like to keep it to two books at a time, maybe three if I feel the need to read a Kindle book before bed… but at the beginning of the month I was juggling four at once. Because of that, I felt like I never made progress on any of them. I did a better job with some of the reading challenges in the middle/end of the month though, so that was nice. Average rating for books read in August: 3.91 stars Highlights & Lowlights All of the books read this month: This Month ARC August Challenge 7 books for the challenge  •  1:1 ratio goal exceeded (7:5) Books read this month: Bout of Books Readathon 2 books for the challenge  •  “Only read ARCs” goal achieved Books read this challenge: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 6 books this month  •  50 total read  •  238% complete Books read this month: Debut Author Challenge 1 book this month  •  14 total read  •  117% complete Books read this month: Backlist […]

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. This reading month got off to a good start, I’d say. I finished a few books really early on and kept being in the reading mood through the rest of the month. I struggled during the readathon a little because I found myself not exactly in the mood for certain books.This feeling kind of continued through the rest of the month – I read some MEH books and that impacted my reading mojo. I’m well on my way to finishing my Goodreads Challenge early! Average rating for books read in July: 3.86 stars All book covers link to their Goodreads pages  Best of the Best  •  Pleasantly Surprised  •  Disappointed    All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in July: 3.77 stars   My final Secret Sister package from Ginger was perfect. I can’t believe this round is already over! Insanity. She filled it with my favorite snacks (Oreos, Sour Patch Watermelons, Junior Mints), two books I’ve been super excited for, bookmarks, and some cute sticky notes/paper. I’ve loved receiving her thoughtful packages because she always seemed to intuitively know when […]

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. There were some really busy reading days and some low-key ones. I was either voraciously reading and in the mood for books… or completely the opposite. I’m super ahead on my Goodreads challenge so I’m not entirely worried if I get “behind” on the usual number of books I read per month. Ah, life and TV shows. Average rating for books read in June: 3.92 stars All book covers link to their Goodreads pages  Best of the Best  •  Pleasantly Surprised  •  Disappointed  All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in June: 4.04 stars   This month’s package was amazing – simple and full of things I love! I’ve been pining over a Friends role call tee shirt and this one is GREAT. It fits super well (I always get nervous about shirts, especially in women’s styles) and I’ve worn it too many times already. Ginger also sent one of my favorite books that I somehow didn’t own yet – Nowhere But Home by Liza Palmer. (Read this ASAP if you haven’t, omg!) Ebooks purchased (mostly) on sale: Anything Could Happen by Will Walton | […]

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 was on a kick where I read way too many books at once and didn’t finish anything until May 5th. Kind of weird for me! I will say that ACOMAF was the main reason for this. I loved it but it took foooorever to read, then it gave me a nice book hangover. It was totally worth it though. Definitely a slow reading month overall. I brought so many books on vacation and ended up reading a total of less than 200 pages. At least it was nice on the beach! Average rating for books read in May: 3.54 stars All book covers link to their Goodreads pages  Best of the Best  •  Pleasantly Surprised  •  Disappointed    All of the books read this month: Average rating for books reviewed in May: 3.88 stars Thank you Ginger (my newly revealed Secret Sister!) for such a wonderful summery package. Adorable sticky notes, delicious candy, a book I’ve been coveting (First There Was Forever by Juliana Romano), a great smelling candle, and summery chapstick! It’s so wonderful knowing your identity now too 🙂 Won in a giveaway // The […]