75 Books Read Reading what I wrote here for last year’s EOY wrap-up and just shaking my head. I complained about my 100 books read in 2020 and then 2021 was like “hold my beer.” I’m happy that I was able to even pull this off after reducing my challenge. Without further ado, here’s my little breakdown as usual! Books Read I think this is one of the first years I actually read a solid less than 50% of contemporary! Crazy! I know it’s because I did a lot of mystery/thrillers and even more nonfiction than usual (aka cookbooks…) but I’m just really impressed with myself. Even when my reading is shitty, I try to keep up with my review copies as best I can. I also prioritize them because I have to really want to read a book to request it from the publisher. Therefore, most of my anticipated reads are egalleys before I eventually buy and add a physical copy to my shelves. The rest of the breakdown isn’t surprising but it’s wild I didn’t read a single physical ARC this year. I just didn’t request any! I did most of my reading at night on my Kindle so this isn’t surprising… coupled with the fact that I read mostly egalleys this year. Most of the physical reads are cookbooks too lol. Well clearly I’m consistent! Most books I read are in the 300 page range. Those under 300 pages are novellas, cookbooks, and some contemporary fiction probably. […]

I always thought it was silly that people had to justify and explain hiatuses from their blogs. I never thought there was a point – just take some time off and come back like normal. However, I feel like I wanna chat for a few minutes and explain what’s up. I’ve been struggling with reading for a long time, as evidenced by my complaints in most blog posts this year. 2020 was garbage and 2021 was moderately better, but I still haven’t felt like reading much. People told me I wouldn’t read a lot while wedding planning because it’s like a full time job. The wedding wasn’t why my reading sucked because we wanted our day to be easy and fun and full of dancing. No stress. And I haven’t been stressed really until this past week with final pickups and drop offs and appointments. Not to mention fitting in work before I’m off for 2 weeks. We were going to go to Hawaii but when the governor cautioned against it last month, we made the decision to postpone the big honeymoon. We’re heading to the Catskills instead for a longer “mini moon” with the pup. I can’t wait to read on the porch with coffee and look at the mountains and changing leaves. I am in desperate need of a break. From work, from reading stress, from realizing at the last minute I forgot to do a TTT and scrambling just to ensure I have some content coming… the […]

I know the cardinal rule of being a good supporter of favorite authors is to preorder their books. I’ll admit that I’m pretty bad at this, because I (a) straight up do not have enough space for all the books I’d like to buy, (b) am annoying about which formats I own, (c) don’t like having only one or two books in a series – I need all of them, and (d) don’t want to buy a Kindle book when I know I’ll be buying a physical copy later when I have a real library room. I only preorder books when I know the author (and love them), have other books in the series or plan to acquire them at some point very soon, and/or know I need to read the book ASAP. There are a few interesting exceptions for my 2021 list of preorders, which is why I thought it would be fun to discuss! Fiction A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas /// February 2021 Yes, I know, this is a problematic fave of a series and author. I don’t love her writing anymore – it’s seriously declined. I don’t know why I feel compelled to own this book but honestly I think it has to do with the fact that I own the others in the series and want to read it soon after it comes out. Let’s move along… RULE OF WOVLES by Leigh Bardugo /// March 2021 I was preordering this from Target […]

100 Books Read This year sucked. Period. It’s the “worst” reading year I’ve had in a while. I reduced my goal from 120 to 100 books – no regrets – and still had to include cookbooks and other shorter books to meet it. I can’t figure out why my reading spreadsheet is telling me I read 102 books when I definitely didn’t, so enjoy these mostly-accurate charts and reading summaries from this garbage year. Books Read As usual, I read mostly contemporary this year. Just over 50% – not bad! I try to aim for under 50% but why not read what I love? I also include this as a very broad category, including romance. I’m also not surprised to see that mystery/thriller is next. I’ve been really trying to read more of those. Nonfiction is up a lot because I counted a ton of cookbooks 😉 I have to admit that I read a lot of egalleys. I request a bunch of books and frankly do a decent job of actually reading them. I’m not surprised that the mixed format category is a close second. Even if I read only a few chapters via audio, I still count it as a mix. This one isn’t labeled – whoops – but 73% of my books were digital. I just prefer to read on my Kindle than bring around a physical copy, especially because I do a lot of reading in bed when the lights are out. Most contemporary books fall […]

I saw this post over on Nick’s blog the other day and thought it would be a fun and quick post! Would you rather only read physical books for the rest of your life or only audiobooks? Definitely physical books! I adore a good audiobook but I don’t have as much listening time these days with working from home, not putting on a full face of makeup to get ready, no commute, etc. If I lived alone and/or didn’t have the pup I would listen more throughout the day in the background but I just don’t have the option. It’s easier for me to find pockets of time to sit down and read these days. Plus, I can be picky about audiobooks, and it would suck to have a favorite author’s books be narrated by someone terrible and never have the option of reading instead! Would you rather know all the spoilers before you start a book or never read the last chapter? Ooooh interesting. I guess I would have to say knowing all the spoilers? Ugh. It would be hard to get to the end of a really good book and not be able to get the necessary closure. Maybe books with short chapters wouldn’t make AS big of a difference but ones with longer chapters with a lot of final action? GAH. Being spoiled means at least I know what will happen by the time I’m done! Would you rather be stuck on a very long train/plane ride […]

My new Spotlight feature highlights anything within the bookish world that I feel deserves a spotlight for a few minutes – publishers (or more specifically, imprints!), new or old favorite authors, bookish people/bloggers, covers or cover trends, topics/genres within books, and anything else that should be on your radar. Suzanne Young It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of all of Suzanne Young’s books. Seriously, I’ve enjoyed every single one of them without exception. I thought that, in honor of her new cover reveal that happened last week, I would share a spotlight on her books and amazing series! Suzanne Young has so much range in her writing. She has dystopian and near future sci-fi series, as well as creepy or heartwarming or generally fantastic standalones. Her writing talent seriously knows no bounds. Just Like Fate I’ve always been a sucker for books that involve some kind of parallel timeline or riff on multiverses. Every decision we make can totally change everything (the butterfly effect!). You never know what your life would be like if you made ANY decision in the opposite way. JUST LIKE FATE is the first book I read involving Suzanne Young (co-written with Cat Patrick). This story centers around Caroline and one seemingly-small decision. Her grandmother is sick and she’s been by her side the entire time. She’s finally deciding that maybe she needs a night away from it all. Should she stay with her grandma one more Friday night, or should she go to […]

So it’s no secret that my reading has been super off this year, especially in over the last month and a half. I talked about how my usual crazy reading schedule and plans don’t necessarily work for me when I’m not in the mood to read – it only works when I WANT to read or have a lot of things I’m excited about. I wanted to simplify my life and stop stressing about meeting challenges. Nonetheless, I have been wanting to join the Magical Readathon (OWLS and NEWTS) for months and months. I knew this would be the perfect thing to get me back in the reading mood since I’d been so excited for it. Without further ado, here is my sign-up and general plans for this April! Information The Magical Readathon consists of choosing a career path and taking Hogwarts courses to pass your OWLS and NEWTS exams. OWLS are in April and NEWTS are in August. There are twelve reading prompts for each magical subject in the OWLS: Ancient Runes // Heart rune: heart on the cover or in the title Arithmancy // Magical qualities of number two: balance/opposites – read something outside your favorite genre Astronomy // Night classes: read majority of this book when its dark outside Care of Magical Creatures // Hippogriffs: creature with a beak on the cover Charms // Lumos maxima: white cover Defense Against the Dark Arts // Grindylows: book set at the sea/coast Divination // Third eye: assign numbers to […]

My new Spotlight feature highlights anything within the bookish world that I feel deserves a spotlight for a few minutes – publishers (or more specifically, imprints!), new or old favorite authors, bookish people/bloggers, covers or cover trends, topics/genres within books, and anything else that should be on your radar. Berkley Publishing / Romance I’ve covered a lot of different things for these Spotlight posts, but this is only the second publisher/imprint I’ve featured. It was one of the first ideas I had for this series though! I’ve loved expanding further into romance and contemporary novels featuring adults instead of young adults and Berkley (along with Forever) have been some of my favorites to read. Now’s the time to feature some of my favorite books, covers, and any other things you should keep an eye on! Favorite Berkley Romance Books So Far I’ve read a number of their books so far and really enjoyed the VAST majority of them! Here are some of my favorites that I’ve read and rated somewhere above 3.5 stars: A companion series I’ve been loving by them is the Playbook series by Alexa Martin. Each book features a girl dating a different member of the Denver Mustangs (lol!) football team. They all had really unique stories and romance situations that I enjoyed. My favorite trope – second chance romance – happens in the first two books. Illustrated Cover OGs Whenever I think of illustrated book covers, Berkley comes to mind as some of the originators of […]

I loved filling out Jamie’s survey in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. This is the 10th time she’s hosted this survey and it’s so fun to see what everyone chooses for the categories. Last year, I didn’t allow myself any duplicates. I’m going to try to keep them to a minimum for this survey, but it feels impossible. I’ll need to have a few. To learn more about it and see a blank set of questions, check here! It was so fun to reread my answers for last year, since I copied that survey here to clean out and fill out. Number of Books You Read: 123 Number of Re-Reads: 4 | Number of DNFs: 7 Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary 1. Best Book You Read In 2018? Totally cheating and adding multiple categories! (Not including rereads.) See a full list of my “best reads” of the year (5 stars and 4.5 stars) here if you’re curious. Best of the best: Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston Best contemporary: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang Best non-contemporary: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo Best adult fiction: Meet Cute by Helena Hunting Best sequel or companion: The Map From Here to There by Emery Lord Best diverse read: There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon 2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? I feel like I had quite a few books that disappointed me this year or didn’t live up to what I was expecting them to be. The biggest disappointment overall was probably […]

I was in the mood to do some Christmassy tags on the blog for this season, so I decided to start with The Christmas Tag. It looks like this particular set of questions was developed back in 2012 HERE. I decided to skip a couple and add a few more on my own at the end. What is your favorite Christmas film? This is always such an easy question for me. Since I was a kid it’s always been The Santa Clause. There’s something about this movie from the very first sounds of the opening song that just get me every time. I don’t watch the sequels every year but I do every few years (they’re not great lol the second one isn’t TERRIBLE). I’d have to say my second favorite Christmas movie is definitely National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – just SO funny. Have you ever had a white Christmas? Oh yes, that’s one major benefit of living here! I will say that the amount of white Christmases has decreased in recent years (sup global warming) but it IS the best way to have a Christmas in my opinion. My ideal situation is that it snows December 23rd and stays on the ground but doesn’t snow MORE on the actual holiday. I got places to go, ya’ll. Where do you usually spend your holiday? Phew so we do a lot of running around – too many parents to see. On Christmas Eve, both my dad’s family and Chris’s family get together, so […]