Bookish Items / Merchandise 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 don’t acquire a lot of bookish merch, if I’m being honest! I’ve tried to buy less and less THINGS over the past few years (I’ve moved so much since high school that I’m so tired of lugging items everywhere I go!). The two bookish things I like to collect the most are candles and bookmarks, so here are some of those (and more). Some items below are specifically on my wishlist while others are just favorites in general – I’ll mark them so you know. All photos are credited to the original websites/shops or were taken by me if noted. Favorite Novelly Yours Candles Full disclosure: I am incredibly picky about candles. Most are too sweet for me and give me a headache, but I knooow I can count on a few specific scents to work perfectly. Usually they involve apple, but not always. Brittany’s candles are some of the BEST out there and I have a couple of go-to scents. I thinkkkk Winter is still my favorite here because it’s the most apple-y of them all, but the close second is probably Brave. I love the pumpkin pie scent mixed in! Cabeswater is […]

Lots o’ Backlist Books I Own & Need to Read 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 am the actual worst when it comes to reading owned physical copies. I wish I had the money back that I spent on SO many books, especially the ones that I got rid of before I moved last year. I’m a sucker for sales and will inevitably buy something I’m not 100% sure I’ll ever read… but then spend weeks hemming and hawing about buying physical copies of from my favorite authors. I DIGRESS, but the point is: I’m terrible about reading my books. There are so many backlist books on my TBR/shelves that I need and want to read still, so I thought I’d highlight them with pics of my actual shelves too! Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo I liked SOC quite a bit but keep putting off CK for some reason. I think it’s because I’m not prepared for the feels, but it also probably involves me not really being in the mood yet to re-listen to SOC via audio first. I determined I really want to but haven’t found the motivation yet. The Diviners series by Libba Bray The Gemma Doyle books are […]

Halloween Over the Years & Some Favorites 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 can’t lie, I’m not really a Halloween person. There are a lot of movies I like to watch each year and think dressing up can be fun, but I’m not really a Halloween-ish reader or fan of super scary movies. I thought I would do a little round-up of Halloween-related posts I’ve done and highlight some spooky-ish favorites from over the years. Guest Posts for Fortnight of Fright I’ve participated in Fortnight of Fright multiple times since I started blogging and had the pleasure of posting on the blogs of all three hostesses 😉 I’ve talked about less spooky Halloween media that I love, as well as my birthday trip to Salem from last year. 2014: Halloween Movies & Shows on Tripping Over Books 2015: Less Creepy Halloween at Books Take You Places 2017: Birthday Trip to Salem, MA at Book Addict’s Guide    Top Ten Tuesdays You can always count on a TTT post to highlight Halloween near the end of October! Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve done some fun Halloween-related posts over the years. Here are some highlights… Books/Movies to Read/Watch for […]

Fascinating & Complex Villains 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 originally wasn’t even going to do this topic because honestly I’m not REALLY one to love villains, care about them, read books from their POVs, etc… I decided to instead take the plunge and talk about some of the most fascinating villains overall: the ones I love to hate, the ones I hate that I love, the most intriguing ones – you name it. The last time we had this topic, I did “villain superlatives” and also listed ~punchable~ characters (not villains, just annoying people!). Here are some of the most intriguing villains I’ve read about… The Darkling from the Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo Catherine from Heartless by Marissa Meyer Dinah from the Queen of Hearts Saga by Colleen Oakes AIDAN from the Illuminae trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Levana from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer Ignifex from Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge Basically everyone from The Cruel Prince by Holly Black Lirael from The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett   The Descendants (Mal, Jay, Evie, Carlos) from The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz Legend from the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber

Favorite Bookstores I’ve Visited 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 technical topic for this week is “bookstores and libraries I’ve always wanted to visit” but honestly I don’t have many on that particular list. I do a lot of adventuring to used/indie bookstores whenever I can, so I’ve seen some great ones up in the northeast. Here are some highlights from those visits! New York The Strand I feel like I have to start my list with one of the most famous bookstores available, especially in the northeast! The Strand does live up to the hype for me. I’ve been there multiple times and they always have a vast selection. I apologize for these garbage pictures – I haven’t been in a few years and for some reason haven’t taken many photos there. Massachusetts Montague Book Mill This is such a scenic spot in Mass! I love the country roads and the fact that this mill is basically hidden in the middle of nowhere. It was the kind of used bookstore you may not really find what you want, but it’s so worth checking out. You can read about our bookish adventures in the country from way back in 2014 […]

Longest Books I’ve Ever Read 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 the perfect topic for ya girl, who is feeling quite lazy with blogging lately. I have afternoons of inspiration where I write five posts… and days where I can barely be bothered to put a TTT together. Today’s post literally just required me sorting my “read’ shelf on Goodreads by number of pages and going from there! Spoiler alert: it’s a LOT of Harry Potter, y’all. On top of that, there are actually only FIVE different authors represented here. Most of my longest books were parts of major series with looong books.

5 Authors I’ve Met and 5 Authors I’d Love to Meet 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 feel like I’ve done this topic a bunch of times, so I thought I would also toss in the few authors I’ve met before as well. I have a lot of favorites that I haven’t been able to meet, so hopefully someday I can make that happen! Authors I’ve Met Leigh Bardugo | She was the first author I met, back during my trip to Book Expo America. I have a signed and personalized copy of Six of Crows, which is excellent! She was super nice. For some reason I don’t think I have photos of this even though that feels very weird… I could have sworn one of the girls took a candid-ish one while I was getting the book signed. Sarah J. Maas | I say SJM because I was in the same small-ish room (okay it was a Barnes & Noble) as her while she spoke about her latest release at the time. I also got to see Sarah, my friend and former Secret Sister! I went all the way to Rhode Island and back (a total of 3 hours) on a […]

Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read 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 truthfully a bit easy for me – I have a tendency of hoarding my favorite authors’ books. I don’t like to fully run out most of the time because I’m afraid I won’t have one when I NEED it. There were two authors immediately that came to mind, but it wasn’t hard to find the rest. Liane Moriarty       

Top 10 Books on my Fall TBR 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. Check out some of my other related posts like my September TBR list and fall bingo ideas for more books! I’m going to try not to repeat a lot from the lists linked above and really focus on the top books on my TBR. I know fall technically extends into the majority of December, but my holiday TBRs get a little crazy… I don’t want to get sidetracked. This post will feature my planned books for my book club over the next few months, general fall-oriented reads (like heavier stories or spooky ones), and general books I need to get to. EOY Book Club Picks     Yes, my book club has already picked our books for the next few months! We read quite a few series-starters last year, so we decided it only makes sense to plan our months based on when the sequels come out. We noticed a gap between now and when LADY’S GUIDE’s releases in October, so we added in a fun and quick romance choose-your-own-adventure (MY LADY’S CHOOSING) for late September. We have the next NOAH SHAW book for November and ARCHENEMIES for December. […]

Hidden Gems – Books & Authors 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. In honor of my 200th Top Ten Tuesday post, I decided to do a giveaway! This week’s topic is PERFECT for it because all of these books and authors need more recognition and love. The giveaway at the bottom of the post will allow one person (international if The Book Depository ships to you) to win a copy of one of the books featured in this post. I decided to focus this post on specific books as well as authors in general, so there could be more than 10 books to pick from here. Away we go! Marci Lyn Curtis      Not only is Marci incredibly sweet, her books are straight up wonderful and some of my all-time favorites. I love how she manages to mix humor in with sadness or more serious topics, without her books ever feeling preachy or too “issue-y” … hopefully that makes sense LOL. I loved both of these and I don’t know if I could pick a real favorite between the two, which is why she gets a double shoutout here. Both feature humorous and/or snarky MCs and cute boys and so much […]