Gripping Books I Couldn’t Put Down Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I have this annoying habit of needing to do TTTs no matter what even if the topic doesn’t work for me and I’m not in the mood to post one. BUT I found a way to make this one work. The topic is about opening lines, but my memory is absolutely terrible. I thought instead of talking about gripping opening lines, it would make sense to share some gripping books that I found to be unputdownable. These are all recent reads that really grabbed me or made me want to keep reading. It’s been challenging to read this year so some of these books have been incredibly helpful in getting my reading mojo back for some pockets of time.

Reasons I Love YA *and* Adult Fiction Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I thought I would take this one in two directions, since I’m terrible at coming up with 10 of anything like this for a list. Since I read both YA and adult fiction, I’ll share the top 5 reasons I love both age ranges for reading. Reasons I Love YA 1. They remind me of being a teen This is the biggest one probably. I made a lot of dumb mistakes as a teenager and these books make me feel less bad about it, to be honest. I love reading about flawed teens learning from their mistakes because that definitely was me back in the day. It can be fun to reminisce on a different time of life. 2. They often allow me to escape normal life I have to get out of my 28-year-old brain while reading YA most of the time, but that’s kind of the point for me. I love being able to think of the times I spent in high school or early college, when life seemed super hard but was often a lot easier. Bills, man – I’m sick of them. 3. They’re […]

Books I Recently Abandoned (Removed from my TBR or DNFed) Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I sometimes include DNF reviews on my blog but it’s usually if they’re a review copy and I want to share something about it. I don’t do it all the time though, because it’s not overly fair to review things if I didn’t finish the book. Anyways, here I’ll be highlighting books I recently DNFed as well as books I removed from my TBR for other reasons (bad reviews, reviews that implied plot points I don’t like, etc.). Removed from my TBR Plans I’m most sad about 99 PERCENT MINE because I seriously loved her debut. I just saw so many mixed or negative reviews for it that I decided to remove it from my TBR. WE HUNT THE FLAME had a lot of hype, which is why I put it on my TBR, but I knew I probably wouldn’t get to it? I saw reviews that it was super slow-going and that can be hard for me with fantasy books. THE DEAD QUEENS CLUB is another with not-great reviews that I was quick to remove from my TBR. I’m bummed about FIX HER UP because it’s one a LOT […]

Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I would love to have a book-themed party! I’m trying to find a good way to very subtly introduce them for our wedding but I’m not sure yet. Here are a few decorations and food I’d feature at my book-themed party! Decorations: I would have some cute invitations featuring a book stack, give bookmarks as a gift to take home/party favor, include children book cupcake toppers in the decor, and have a cute bookish banner hanging up. Food: I definitely would make pumpkin pasties from Harry Potter, cute button cookies based on Corduroy, and November cakes from The Scorpio Races. Yes, I haven’t read that book yet but I know those cakes look damn good.

Books I WISH I Read as a Teen Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. When I saw the prompt for this week was “books I wish I read as a child,” I knew I had to make a quick swap to the books I wish I read when I was a teen/middle schooler. I have a LOT of books I get some FOMO about when people read new installments of these days. There are so many missed stories that I know won’t hold up now! Here we go. I honestly feel like most of these are self-explanatory! I never read some of the now-considered-YA-classics back in the day and I’m not 100% sure some of them will hold up. I know quite a few will and I could read them at some point (mostly looking at POISON STUDY), but there are so many new books coming out all the time that I just will end up prioritizing those. I’m sad I never hopped on DIVERGENT or MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series when they were coming out because of the movies/shows and the fact that all of Cassie Clare’s books seem to link back into the originals.

Book Titles that Would Make Good Band Names Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. This is a really fun and honestly kind of easy TTT! I’m excited. Here are some picks of random books from my TBR (none that I’ve read before) that could make fun band names. I always feel like bands have super weird names: some have commas to make the name long and complicated, some have seasonal references or anything about love, some have random people’s names in them… the list goes on. I feel like most of these would be indie rock bands though 😉

Books I Enjoyed But Don’t Talk About Enough Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I did a post similar to this a while back where I discussed some of my favorite four-star reads that I don’t yell about as much. I usually will talk about my FAVORITE books and the five-star reads, so it’s nice to shout out the books you just ENJOYED quite a bit and don’t discuss as much. I decided to focus mostly on books from the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019 since it’s easier to get into 1-2 book spreadsheets and sort for four-star books 😉 Excellent Four-Star Books Needing Love Click on the cover to read my review    

Last Books I Purchased Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. The topic for this week is about the books I purchased because… and for me, I don’t really buy a lot of books. I have a strict budget for books and try to support authors/books in other ways. I thought it would be easier to share some of the most recent books I’ve purchased in general and why! Kindle Books All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace // I didn’t love this one but I had no way of reading it for book club, so I bought it. I was listening to the audiobook on Scribd and knew I wouldn’t be able to finish in time with just that format, since my audio listening time has decreased. Anyways, I’m happy to support a debut financially in this time. House of Earth and Blood by SJM // I did decide to buy this one despite being on the fence about actually reading it. I keep putting it on TBRs and applying it to reading challenges but GOOD LORD 800+ pages is so much. I do hope to get to it this month, maybe, but I’m bummed I can’t buy the audio on Libro.fm […]

Signs I’m a Book Lover Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. The topic for this week is signs you’re a book lover. I wanted to personalize it a bit to share some of the ways people know that I’m a book lover, including people in my normal non-bookish/online life! Book Blog & Related Social Media This one feels obvious, especially to all of you! But, a friend of a friend said once, “oh yeah, you read a lot. You even have an Instagram account about books, right?” I didn’t realize she had been suggested my bookstagram before so apparently people in my real life know about it! My best friends follow me there but I never thought about acquaintances also following or knowing I had all this stuff. I don’t post about it on my Facebook or other ~regular Lauren~ social media pages. Wall Art ft. Reading I have a few prints in my house about reading and books, which most of my real life friends certainly don’t have! i know friends with movie posters and other kinds of fandom things on the wall, but books are just mine 😉 Bookcases! I always get comments on having full ass bookshelves when people […]