Numbers in the Title 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. There were a surprisingly large amount of books available to pick for this topic. I love how unique it is too! I decided, as a result of the plethora of options, to challenge myself. I would show off books I’ve read as well as books on my TBR. The titles of books I’ve read will contain the numbers one, two, three, four, and five, while I had to pick books from my TBR containing six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. 1-5 – Read One of Us is Lying  by Karen M. McManus | I’m highlighting this one because the second book is coming out soonish and I’m super eager to see how she makes a sequel to this! I loved this book (more than her sophomore novel, for the record). Two Summers by Aimee Friedman | Parallel life books are very clearly my jam and that should be an obvious statement at this point. This was a cute one! The chapters alternated between the summer where she answers her father’s phone call and one where she doesn’t – what happens in France vs. her hometown for the summer. Three Day Summer by […]

Fall TBR – Review Copies 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 a blog tour posting tomorrow, so I’m moving this week’s TTT to a Monday to keep it up! I don’t think I’ve missed a single TTT post since 2014 so why stop now? I posted my FALL BINGO TBR, which would look quite similar to this one, so I decided to make this one all about the REVIEW COPIES. I have a lot of books I’m hoping to read to get going on my challenges and to read more of certain genres, but my most important reading goal is to get my review copy ratio to 80% by the end of the year. I am reaaaally hoping for it, so let’s see how this shakes out! Not all of these will be egalleys though, some are luckily ~spooky~ fall picks that I was sent. Physical Review Copies        Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky | I was so excited when I saw this available through the Forever/Hachette request form! I loved PERKS like many others and have been dying for more. This seems creepy and I’ve heard the pacing is a bit slow, but it’ll be a great […]

Favorite Things to Eat / Drink While Reading 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 will very frequently use some food and drinks as props in bookstagram posts, since I traditionally post more “in the moment” photos than pre-planned and posed ones. I’m too lazy but appreciate those who take the time to make things pretty! In any case, I thought I’d highlight some bookstagram posts that feature food and drinks that I’ve enjoyed consuming while reading! (1) Of course, coffee! Scrolling through my feed, this is very clearly the most frequent drink. I mostly drink with hot coffee in the morning before work or on the weekends, curled up in bed.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Lauren • Bookmark Lit (@bookmark_lit) on Aug 1, 2019 at 4:11am PDT (2) Lobster roll and pineapple soda This is a random one but I loved grabbing lunch with Chris a month or so ago, while trying to complete my lobster roll bucket list for the summer. I was waiting for him to come out for his break so I took a picture with my current read.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by […]

Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why 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 love this topic! I probably could fill this with like a million books??? I am the worst about reading books I’m excited for or just books on my TBR in general. There are a lot of them on here that could just be answered with “I never read my owned physical copies because I’m the worst and prefer reading digitally” but I’ll try to pick more unique books/reasons than that one 😉 I decided to sort my Goodreads shelf by oldest to highlight five books from the far past I have been avoiding, and then I looked to add five books I’ve recently added to my physical TBR that I haven’t read yet. Golden by Jessi Kirby | Owned paperback | I bought this based on its praise in the book blogging community, and then read a different Kirby book soonafter. I didn’t love it, so this has just been sitting on my shelf ever since. The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes | Owned paperback | I really don’t have a good excuse at this point because so many people love this book and I’ve enjoyed […]

Books I Enjoyed that are Out of my Comfort Zone 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 read too many contemporary books each year, if I’m being honest, but they’re my favorite and easiest to read! Anything that falls into a different category (maybe besides mysteries because I read many of those) tends to be out of my comfort zone. I’m going to include some books that are WAY out for various reasons. Jackaby by Ritter | I don’t read a lot of paranormal books but one set in the wayyyy past with a female character written by a male? Nah. I read this series randomly with my book club and I really enjoyed it though! Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Bardugo | Yes, I love Bardugo, but I don’t like DC Comics all that much. I like Wonder Woman (the recent movie specifically) but I would usually not think about reading a book about her? I haven’t gotten into the rest of this series and I probably won’t, but this was good. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare | I don’t read a lot of classics so this was definitely a random one. I needed to read a play or something for one of my reading […]

Books I’ve Read That I’d Like In My Personal Library 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 apparently deleted my Goodreads shelf specifically about this so THAT’S FUN, past-Lauren! Regardless, I do read a whooooole lot of books from the library (physical, ebooks, and audiobooks) or from Scribd. That’s how I often get away with not buying a lot of books. I like supporting those platforms and organizations, plus I get to save some money and space. Here are some books that I borrowed from somewhere and would love a physical copy of someday. (I’ve done another post similar to this but I’m not going to cheat and look at those rn.) Book: Red, White, and Royal Blue by McQuiston | Source: Library, Scribd I LOVED THIS BOOK just like everyone else on the planet. I got the library book out but also listened to the audio on Scribd. I definitely need a couple for my personal library because I have a feeling I’ll be wanting to reread it someday! Book: There’s Something About Sweetie by Menon | Source: Egalley I realized that I am the WORST and don’t own this book! I have Menon’s other YA books that I’ve loved, like DIMPLE and […]

Favorite Tropes in Books 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 often talk about my read-bait topics, which surround book plot points or tropes that immediately make me want to read a book. It also includes settings and other bookish elements that aren’t exactly tropes though, so here’s a more fine-tuned list of legit tropes (not just romance!) that I love to read in books. Snowed In / Stuck Somewhere This is probably one of my favorite tropes out of all of these. I will always add these to my TBR! I love when characters (obviously possible romantic partners, primarily) get stuck somewhere together or snowed in. I remember MAGNOLIA had a whole bunch of my favorite tropes, where the characters’ two families kept pushing them together but they hated each other, then got stuck together in a tornado. UGH what a book. Fake Dating This is another classic romance trope that most people tend to like! I think TATBILB is one of my favorite series/books that uses this trope. The couple creates a fake relationship for whatever reason (make an ex jealous, get parents’ off their backs, etc.) and ends up falling for each other for real. BFFs to More […]

Characters I’d be Besties With Characters I Wanted to Punch in the Head 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. We had a character freebie recently where I discussed some of my new favorite characters or friend groups, which kind of answers this question – yes, I’d totally be friends with all of them! Because of that, I decided to change this topic up. I’m doing the opposite. There are many books that end up on my “punchable character” shelf for various reasons and I don’t think I’ve highlighted them before? Away we go! Josh and Kristen from The Friend Zone by Jimenez | While I kind of liked this book overall, it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I wanted to punch Josh because he kept talking about how much Kristen was ~not like other girls~ which is one of my least favorite things for a male character to say. He, overall, was too macho for me in many ways, even though he apparently had many sisters that softened him up in some instances. Kristen’s repetitive internal dialogue about him was super frustrating too. Chloe from Notes from a Former Virgin by Chastain | I usually enjoy these Chloe Snow books, especially […]

Cover Redesigns I Love 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 had such a busy week that I forgot I didn’t pre-write this post! I usually do TTTs a bunch at a time, for the month or whatever, and I got halfway through the day and realized my post had two words on it. OH WELL. Here’s a quick roundup of some of my favorite cover redesigns! Summer trilogy by Jenny Han The Start of Me and You redesign and matching The Map From Here to There by Emery Lord   Allllll the Katie Cotugno books! Little Blue Envelopes duo by Maureen Johnson Prince Charming (formerly Royals) and matching Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins