Category: Personal / Information / Etc.

A New Bookmark Lit?

A New Bookmark Lit?

My blog has gone through a lot of changes, appearance-wise, since I started back in 2014. My graphics were very… juvenile?… for a long time. I still have an addiction to using too many fonts in them, but I think I’ve cleaned things up a little bit 🙂 I’ve always focused this blog on books. I’ve done a few more personal posts within the last year or so, but the majority has been book-related: reviews, discussions, memes, wrap-ups… all about the books. I still plan on being bookish, obviously, so don’t worry. I talked about this a little bit in my “coming up for Bookmark Lit in 2017” post but hope to expand on it even more right now. I planned to… ✔️ Consolidate backlist reviews into round-up posts ✔️ Give ARC reviews solo treatment, for the most part ✖️ Post 4 times per week (sometimes more or less is okay) ✔️ Revamp memes and other features (add, delete, or continue) ✔️ More personal posts and ~lifestyle things~ I’ve done a decent job of these things but still feel burnt out when it comes to talking about book-related things all the time. I love reading and it’ll always be a huge priority for me – and the main focus of this blog – but I don’t have as many discussions as I’d like anymore. Instead of spending 90% of my posts on bookish things, you can expect to see more like 75%-80% starting soon. As you can tell, the vast majority of things will still be bookish. I toyed […]

September Things and Autumn Bucket List (Round 2!) + IT’S MY BIRTHDAY

Posted September 9, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments
September Things and Autumn Bucket List (Round 2!) + IT’S MY BIRTHDAY

Hi friends! Today is my birthday!! ? I’m currently in Salem, MA with Chris, my mom, and my stepdad. I’ve never been and am so excited to explore and celebrate. I was originally going to make two posts over the course of these week, but decided to lump them together. For some reason I have so many posts this month already. First up, I’ll talk about my September plans and fall bucket list. Second, I’ll share some lists about me in my 26th year of life. Hope you enjoy and feel free to send some cake to me ? I wrote a post last year that documented some of my September fun and planned the rest of my autumn bucket list. I always try to think of the many ~fall things~ I love to do, and try to record them here. I think it’d be fun to do the same thing this year! Here’s my intro from last time because all of it is SO TRUE ALWAYS: It’s no secret that September is my favorite month of the year. I love summertime because the weather in New England isn’t terrible and filled with snow, but the heat and humidity are not friends of mine. September means cooler weather, fall activities, and lots of life events I love – my birthday, my anniversary, football starting up again, the Big E (a New England must), other fairs and festivals, pumpkin and/or apple picking, and so many other things. Plans for September, October, and November I looked […]

My Life in Books Tag

Posted August 17, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments
My Life in Books Tag

I saw the “My Life in Books” tag over on Sydney’s blog and it looked like a lot of fun. I need more tags like this because my inspiration / creativity for other posts has been minimal lately. I tried to answer these questions based on books I’ve already read and enjoyed, minus the ones involving a TBR.    Find a book for each of your initials. L: Leave Me by Gayle Forman C: Caraval by Stephanie Garber R: Replica by Lauren Oliver I wanted to be sure to use books I really enjoyed, because it is my name after all 😉 I was also hoping to squeak this out using the minimal books I have near me right now. I could only find one book that started with R, so I went to trusty Goodreads instead.     Count your age along your bookshelf. What book is it? Shadowlands by Kate Brian | Okay this one was difficult. I don’t have 25 books at my disposal, so I literally zoomed in on a picture of my bookshelf at my dad’s house. I went with the approximate 25th book because it was too hard to actually count each one perfectly. Pick a book set in your city/state. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver | This is the first book I think of when I look for Connecticut books. I know I don’t exactly live there now, but I do part time and also will settle there for years probably. I looooved this book and it was even […]

Goodreads Book Tag

Posted July 27, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments
Goodreads Book Tag

I went on a wild goose chase to find out (a) where I saw this tag in the first place and (b) who originally created it… but came up blank. SHOW YOURSELVES SO I CAN GIVE CREDIT. (It may have been here but that was a year ago, so I have no idea.) That’s what I get for literally just pasting this into a draft and leaving it for six months. Either way, here’s a fun and quick tag! These answers are as of yesterday – July 26, 2017.    1. What is the last book you marked as “read?” I finished The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney this morning! It was really interesting to go back and read a childhood favorite. All I have to say is… YA books have come a long way! This book was under 200 pages and super quick, but definitely not full of nuance and personality. 2. What are you currently reading? I’m juggling two books at the moment, but I am more actively reading Just Dreaming by Kerstin Gier. I set it aside for maybe a week or so because I was looking for quicker contemporaries to make some progress on, but I’ve since picked it back up. I’m also reading an ebook of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, but very slowly. 3. What was the last book you marked as “to read?” I technically added two books in the Janie Johnson series (like the first […]

Books on the Move

Posted June 29, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments
Books on the Move

My upcoming move to Maine might have you wondering… where are all of my books going to hang out for 1-2 years? I never planned to bring all of them with me because I just don’t NEED them during that time period. I don’t take a lot of bookstagram photos where I’d want to have my favorites around me, so I’m not to worried about leaving them behind. I have them spread between three different locations, all with pretty easy access to swap them out and read things as I need them. Dad’s House: Read Books & Later TBR The vast majority of my books are at my dad’s house in my old bedroom. It’s pretty sparse in there since I put some things into storage, so I was able to set up my bookshelves for easy access. I can’t lie though, my sister totally set up all of these books. She even put them in alphabetical order because she’s good like that.? The best thing about this setup is that my sister can read my entire library while I’m gone, and I can swap books out from it when I come home. Again, all of my completed books are here, but this is my biggest collection with unread books too. She’s so excited to read all of my books and already broke into a favorite (The One Thing!) Since I’m only keeping a few books at Chris’s parents’ house and in Portland, I’ll be able to come here and switch in […]

The Aesthetically Pleasing Book Tag

The Aesthetically Pleasing Book Tag

Man, I have never seen such a perfect book tag for me! I’m so glad Morgan pointed it out to me when I asked for recs on Twitter. She originally saw it on A Kernel of Nonsense and then did it herself too. It’s about boooook coversssss. MY FAVE. Best color combo on a book cover Piper Perish | All We Have Is Now | The Summer After You + Me  I’m a big fan of bold colors or watercolors on book covers. These three use color very nicely! I have waaaay too many others on my shelves I could feature here but I was struck by these when I went through my list. I like colors blending together or fading like an ombre. Best typography/font on the cover TATBILB | The One That Got Away | The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend Okay this is something I could have A MILLION for. I’m a huge sucker for fonts and fancy, handwritten typography on book covers. All of the TATBILB covers in the trilogy have the same perfect typography, so I’m including just book one as a placeholder. Clearly I’m a fan of cute cursive! Best simple cover Who Runs the World? | An Unkindness of Magicians | We All Looked Up I know you could argue that the center cover is not simple, by any means, but I love the simple colors mixed with the intricate background. Otherwise, the simple covers shown here get the job done by intriguing the reader (for me […]

Once and For All – Sarah Dessen Event

Once and For All – Sarah Dessen Event

When I saw that Sarah Dessen was coming to Connecticut, I really couldn’t believe it. I had just forced Along for the Ride onto my sixteen year old sister, so I was determined to make her into a Dessen reader (that was easy) and then get her to take a mini road trip with me. Connecticut is a VERY small state, as you probably know. I live at the top (a few minutes from the Massachussets border) and it would take me only an hour from my work (around the middle of the state) to get to the bottom of the state (Fairfield). I made arrangements to leave work early, pick my sister up a few minutes away, and head straight down for the 7:00 PM event. I wanted to have plenty of time to get a good seat and hopefully have some dinner down there. Here’s my recap for the event, plus some fun pictures of Dessen, my sister Jordyn, and me. Pre-Event Happenings I grabbed my sister after leaving work early and luckily we didn’t hit much traffic on the way down! We got there, parked, and made it inside by 5:45 PM. There was a Starbucks inside the bookstore so we were able to have a quick dinner after picking up the books. The cover (and interior!) of this book was even cuter than expected. I wish I got a better picture or Boomerang with my Pink Drink, since the inside of the book has pink endpapers! […]

Who Am I? | Blog Tag

Who Am I? | Blog Tag

I saw this blog tag on Rebel Mommy Book Blog by Grace and thought it looked fun! I bookmarked it for a rainy day and decided now is finally the time. I’ve been fresh out of ideas and blogging mojo lately, aside from my usual posts, so I wanted to add in a little variety! This isn’t a book-related tag but instead gets at the blogger underneath. 1. What is the meaning of your name? This is weirdly hard to track down because the website Grace used listed it as a boy’s name, so I wanted to find it elsewhere. Here are a few summaries from different sites: Lauren may be a given name or surname. The name’s meaning may be “laurel tree,” “sweet of honor,” or “losing against wisdom.” {Source} Variant or feminine form of LAURENCE (1). Originally a masculine name, it was first popularized as a feminine name by actress Betty Jean Perske (1924-), who used Lauren Bacall as her stage name. {Source} 2. What is your Myers-Briggs personality type? This is actually not surprising to me at all. I feel like I’m almost 50/50 between being an introvert and an extrovert. I enjoy being around people but really value alone time too. I tend to follow my gut, heart, and feelings more than almost anything else. I’m not sure what to make of the last two, though! {Source and more here} “Advocates tend to see helping others as their purpose in life, but while people with this personality type […]

Podcast Recommendations: True Crime & Comedy

Posted April 6, 2017 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments
Podcast Recommendations: True Crime & Comedy

I’m going to go ahead and warn you that the VAST majority of these are true crime podcasts. I don’t often listen to anything else; for some reason I just love this media for true crime. The funny thing is that I don’t read true crime books or watch shows; I barely even watch anything remotely scary/creepy. These podcasts though? They keep me incredibly intrigued and I get addicted. Today I’ll take you through my favorite podcasts. I’ve never started a podcast that I didn’t like; I’ve finished or caught up on all of these. They’re listed in order of favorite to “least” favorite, but you can tell I like or love all of them! Otherwise they wouldn’t be “recommendations” now would they? Okay here ya goooo. Up and Vanished What it’s about: Tara Grinstead, a former high school teacher and beauty queen, disappeared from her Georgia home back in 2005. No real progress had been made in the past 10+ years toward finding her, her body, and/or a possible killer. The podcast creator and narrator, filmmaker Payne Lindsey, set out to investigate the case and hopefully reach a resolution. Why I love it: Oooooh man. The biggest thing to mention is that the production on this one is so perfect and professional. Payne has a friend do some creepy voiceovers sometimes and the music is on point. I think it’s easily one of the best podcasts, production-wise. Of course you see it listed here as my #1 podcast so clearly I like it for […]

Major Reorganization Goals

Major Reorganization Goals

I know that we’re well-beyond the “new year, new me” goal-setting attitude, but I still have a lot I hope to accomplish soon. There are quite a few things I want to accomplish over the course of the next few months. I will be moving out of my apartment around June, so many of these things (especially the “home” section) need to get done before the middle part of the year. Books Unhaul books I don’t want and bring them to used book stores and donation bins Organize my shelves in a way that actually makes sense and store some books in the closet Move books out of my apartment and into my parents’ houses for later use, hopefully Goodreads Audit shelves completely by making sure things are in the right spot (very general upkeep) Add books to shelves where they aren’t labeled correctly, by genre, etc. Remove unhauled books from my own-physical shelf on Goodreads Rotate through my consideration and want-to-read shelves to eliminate books each year Books get removed from “consideration” and off GR completely at the beginning of the year Books get added to the “consideration” shelf from the “want-to-read” shelf in July/August Create a system for series tracking using a group’s tracker or my own shelves Home Organize and get rid of paperwork (old bills, pay stubs, etc.) that I don’t need anymore File relevant paperwork into a new filing system that is more portable and smaller Declutter the apartment by getting rid of things I don’t need, using storage, etc. Clean out the garage by […]