Changes in my Reading Life 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 noticed quite a few changes in my reading life over the years and have talked about them at various points in time on the blog. I won’t link any of them here because I don’t want to purposefully copy those answers! I want to go right off the top of my head. 1. I’m reading more adult fiction and less YA overall I do still read mostly YA fiction, but I think that each year the amount of adult fiction grows and grows. At the time of writing this post, 58% of my books were still YA and 37% were adult. A decent amount! I add a lot more adult fiction to my TBR these days too. I think I’m getting to be pickier and sometimes I just feel too old for YA. It’s very clearly not the book’s fault; I’m recognizing I’m not the target audience and sometimes I just get overly frustrated when reading YA. 2. I’m finally reducing my number of contemporary reads I’ve made it a goal for the past million years to get my percentage of contemporary fiction reads down below 50%. I’m […]

Favorite Bookmarks 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 obsessed with this topic! I love bookmarks and collect them pretty much on a regular basis. It’s such an easy item to collect without feeling like you have no space to store them. I used to have a feature on my blog called Inside and Out where people shared their favorite bookmarks (inside) and book covers (out). So, I’m pumped to show off some of my personal favorite bookmarks. Top to bottom: Hogwarts-themed bookmark from Etsy, two Lego bookmarks from Lego conventions, bookmark purchased at Acadia National Park, “Nevertheless She Persisted” from a local indie, and a Sailor Moon bookmark that I may have gotten as a gift but I don’t remember now! Top to bottom: Random bears bookmark from two friends for my 12th birthday, High School Musical bookmark I found at my dad’s house somewhere, Anna/Lola/Isla bookmark for my fave books, a Flower Fairies bookmark (my fave), a super old school Harry Potter bookmark from childhood!

Books with Autumn Vibes 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. Oh yes, do I love a falltime book! I’ve said a trillion times that these books, for me, tend to be heavier and non-contemporary. They’re the fantasy books I’ve been putting off, the retellings, the paranormal ones, the mysteries and thrillers…. You name it. I’ve read a lot this season, to be honest, but I think I’ve spent SO much time talking about my TBR over the last few months that I should focus on something ELSE I spend too much time on: book covers! Here are 10 books on my TBR (still managing to get that in, hehe!) that give me autumn vibes from their covers.

Halloween Freebie: Spooky, Mystery, Fantasy Books on my Instagram 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’ve said this a bunch of times: I’m not a horror kind of gal. Spooky books can be fun but I certainly read them seasonally, and they’re never TOO scary. Last year I did a Halloween round-up for the TTT near the 31st, so feel free to check that out. I thought I’d keep it simple today and highlight all of the spooky, horror, mystery, and thriller books from my Instagram over the past year or so. (1) Imaginary Friend I kind of thought I would be able to finish this one by the end of the month but it was inadvertently put on hold. I still have all of my page markers to plan how to break up the reading, but I’m lacking the motivation to read this one. Nonetheless, probably the spookiest book from my Instagram page!   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Lauren • Bookmark Lit (@bookmark_lit) on Oct 7, 2019 at 3:09pm PDT (2) The Darkest Part of the Forest While this isn’t overly spooky, it’s definitely a woodsy fantasy with a lot of the fae world. […]

Books I’d Give Different Titles To 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 second half of this prompt involves writing up new titles for these books. I’m definitely not going to do that because I’m terrible at that kind of thing, but I WILL let ya know why I don’t like these titles based on my experience reading the book! I had to go back super far – multiple years – to find titles I didn’t like. Maybe I’m just not that picky! Notes from a Former Virgin: Junior Year by Emma Chastain | I used to love this series but I think I’m aging out of them. Chloe is too immature for me now and I don’t know if I’m judging too harshly as a 28 year old reading YA books, but I don’t remember being like that when I was a junior in high school. Oh well. This title makes me cringe so much. Truly Madly Royally by Debbie Rigaud | I didn’t love this book and I think the title is a little silly. It gets the point across, sure, but there’s nothing really “truly madly” about it. I don’t know how to describe it but I just don’t think […]

Extraordinary Book Titles 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 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton | I’m reading this one for this month’s local brewery-based book club and it’s had quite a bit of buzz lately! I think the title really makes you curious: why does this bitch keep dying? I know that’s one of the main reasons I added it to my TBR last year. My New Crush Gave to Me by Shani Petroff | I didn’t love this holiday story but the cute title and sweater cover definitely sold me. I like puns or plays on words for book titles, so this was an auto-add-to-the-TBR kind of title. The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth | I literally added this to my Goodreads TBR a week or so ago because this title immediately made me HOPE I knew what the book was about. And I was right! The couple base their summer romance around classic rom-com date montage moments. Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young | Yes, please. This title just screams something about badass girls doing badass things and most likely fighting the patriarchy. I knew I wanted to read this book  because Suzanne Young is […]

Character Traits I Love & Dislike 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 to say, I’m not the best at this! There are plenty of TROPES I love (and many of those have character traits kind of involved?) but I can’t think of things I love in my heroines or heroes. I thought it would be good to include some character traits I also hate because those came to mind much faster lol. ALSO I managed to write over and demolish this post accidentally so I had to rewrite it and forgot things. Oh well. Here’s a half-assed TTT. Traits I Love (1) Feminist This goes without saying and the character doesn’t need to run around yelling that they are a feminist, but it’s important to me that general principles of feminism are on display for YA readers, IMO. I love when the characters are very ~*girl power*~ (but inclusive – you know what I mean) etc. (2) Imperfect I love when I read about imperfect main characters because I made so many mistakes in high school. I did  a lot of dumb shit for whatever good or bad reasons/intentions. I like to put myself in the shoes of people […]

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 […]