2018 Mid-Year Reading Statistics & Goals

Posted July 2, 2018 / Book Challenges, Features, Wrap-Ups / 4 Comments

I love tracking my TBR and trying to see what else there is to accomplish by halfway through the year. I always hope it shocks me into completing challenges and really focusing in on my bookish goals. I decided to split this year’s check-in into two posts so I could really hone in on some specifics. Today’s post is about the usual stuff: what I’ve read and my goal progress. Wednesday’s post is about my challenges’ status and TBRs for the rest of the year. Check out last year’s post if you’re curious! As you see in my monthly wrap-ups, I keep my stats updated each time. The spreadsheet I use is definitely the reason for my organization. I use this time of year (in addition to the end of the year) to REALLY go all-out with my stats. It also helps me create new goals or update existing ones. I may decide I really should read more fantasy or more books from my own shelves. I’ll highlight all of the books I’ve read so far in general too. All of the Books Read So Far Random Fun Smallest book read: Home to Honeymoon Harbor (66) Largest book read: Obsidio (615) Most read author: RaeAnne Thayne (3) Books read 300 pages or under: 24% Books read over 300 pages: 76% Most pages / books in a month: 4,765 pages in January / 14 books in January Least pages / books in a month: 2,624 pages in April / 7 books in June At the beginning of the year, […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2018

Posted June 29, 2018 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 4 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin wraps up the last month in reading and what was on the blog, as well as what’s coming up next. You can check out my book haul, books read, posts shared, challenge updates, etc. You can read past bulletins here. If you’re looking for more personal updates, you can check out my Lauren Lately feature; it highlights my life events and non-bookish fun from the previous 30 days. I don’t like to post these before the end of the month because I’m always afraid I’ll read/finish more books in between, but I know that won’t be the case here! Since we’re moving TOMORROW (holy crap), I knew I wouldn’t be reading today and tomorrow, most likely. If I do find a few minutes to read, I’m sure I won’t be finishing anything. In any case! June was a buuuuusy month but I still found myself reading in my spare time before bed or in the evening. We traveled to California, which involved me reading half of one book on the first flight and then binge-watching shows instead for the rest. I finished with two books this week though so I got back on track for the GR goal, thanks to reading a lot in May. All of the books read this month: Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge 4 read this month | 22 read total | 71% NG ratio Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 25 read total | 63% complete None this month Modern Mrs. Darcy […]

July TBR

Posted June 28, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 2 Comments

My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. June Progress I kind of gave up on reading my own physical copies during the month of June. I knew I would have to pack them all up and bring them home anyways, so it’s not like there was much holding me to reading them. I also knew I didn’t want to bring any physical books to California last week, so my Kindle was my savior. I didn’t read all of my library books but I was comfortable with at least getting to SAM & ISLA. I also read the two books for blog tours. On Deck for July Blog Tours The Art of Inheriting Secrets by O’Neal | After Nightfall by Banner The Year of Living Awkwardly by Chastain I’ve been signing up for more adult fiction blog tours lately for a few reasons: the books have sounded really interesting, and I’m trying to switch my reading up a bit. I’ve been burnt out lately on certain books (YA contemps, pretty much), so anything that’s different (like these adult books with mystery elements involved) is appealing to me right now. I’m forcing myself to read something new instead. Upcoming […]

California Trip Recap

Posted June 27, 2018 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 5 Comments

Oh man, I can’t believe my vacation in California has already come and gone! I remember booking the plane tickets in April and thinking it was never going to be here. This is especially the case because our return home marks the final week in Maine. (Yes, the timing was screwy, but hey – I didn’t tell my friend when to get married!) As you can tell, the primary goal of the trip was to see one of my best friends from high school get married to her college sweetheart. I also took this opportunity to schedule some face time (and finally meet!!) with two of my favorite blogging friends – Cristina (and her fiancee) and Morgan (and her husband). It was a funnnnn-filled five days, so I’m here to recap! Wednesday – Travel I have to say, I’m very impressed with how well I planned my days for this trip. I knew that I didn’t want to get up super early for flights or anything, so our first flight was scheduled to leave Portland at 1 PM EST. We would be arriving in Santa Ana around 6 PM PST. (Going back in time is the BEST!) Our layover was in Chicago, which meant I was planning on some major popcorn eating. We had a very easy travel day; everything went unbelievably smoothly and we didn’t have to rush OR wait forever during the layover. Once we arrived in Santa Ana, we took a Lyft to our hotel in Long […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #189: Quitting Series

Posted June 26, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 9 Comments

Series I’ve Started and Will Probably Quit 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 tend to be a finisher, even if it takes me FOREVER to do it. There are so many book series that I’ve started and I pretty much plan to finish all of them… someday. I have a tendency of reading new books as they’re released instead of binging, even though I LOVE a good series binge… Whoops. In any case, I do have a few book series I’ve started and am currently on the fence about finishing. What do you guys think? Series I’ll Most Likely Quit DC Icons Series by Various Authors Book read: Wonder Woman Warbringer | Reasons to quit: I did genuinely enjoy this book… but I’m pretty sure that’s just because it was (a) my girl Wonder Woman and (b) written by Leigh Bardugo. The rest of the installments in this series are by other authors that aren’t necessarily on my auto-buy list (aside from SJM’s upcoming CATWOMAN book). I don’t care a lot about DC characters in general, so I don’t see myself ready many more. I might pick and choose, like the one I just mentioned. Stormheart Series by Cora Carmack […]

ARC Reviews: My Plain Jane and To Catch a Killer

Posted June 25, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

After absolutely loving MY LADY JANE (despite not knowing much about the actual history/true story inolved), I was incredibly excited and optimistic about MY PLAIN JANE. Like the first book, I’m actually not well-versed in Jane Eyre, the heroine for this retelling. I’ve never read the book and actually, in hindsight, it would have been nice to read that beforehand (considering it’s on my “classics I might want to read soon” list). I can’t speak to how it compares to the original source. I can’t lie – this book was a bit disappointing compared to MLJ. I know it had big shoes to fill since I loved it so much, but I found myself slogging through it sometimes (mostly in the first half). I had to start and stop this one quite a few times for other reading commitments, but when I did have time to read it, I was never really compelled to pick it up. It wasn’t as funny for engaging as MY LADY JANE was. I started to get into it a little more in the second half of the book but this definitely felt too long. I never read JANE EYRE so I have no idea how it compares but I have to say I’m a little more interested in reading it now. Jane, Charlotte, and Alexander were interesting main characters and I liked being inside each of their heads. Despite all of those complaints, MPJ got more interesting as it went on and I really enjoyed the […]

Blog Tour: Your Destination is on the Left

Posted June 22, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 1 Comment

Review After traveling with her family in a caravan of RVs since seventh grade, Dessa is ready to figure out the next steps in her own life. The caravan makes decisions as a group by voting, instead of allowing individual voices to be heard. This works for a while, for most situations (like when and where to go next), but can be harder when someone wants to break free and carve their own path. Dessa is a great artist that, for some reason, didn’t get into any art schools. She’s surprised by her acceptance into an internship with a great artist in Santa Fe, NM, so the caravan heads there. I loved getting to know her grandmother and the artist, Fiona – they were two of my favorite characters. Many of the side characters, like her family and Cyrus, were hard for me. I understood that they needed and wanted to keep everyone together as a group, but it often felt like people were forced into things. Dessa knew what was right for her and no one wanted to let her do it. I appreciated that she fought for her independence and tried to make everyone understand that SHE deserved to make her own decisions. She’s old enough to decide what to do next. Cyrus was an okay love interest sometimes but I wasn’t really sold on the ship… which is weird, because friends-to-more is my jam usually! The two of them have been traveling together since they started and it seemed […]

State of the ARC | End of Q2

Posted June 21, 2018 / State of the ARC, Weekly Memes / 1 Comment

State of the ARC is hosted by AvalinahsBooks, which is a fun way to share our ARC progress (or lack thereof!). Instead of linking up monthly, I’ll be making a quarterly post to check in on my ARC-related progress, especially as it pertains to my 2018 Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge progress. I will not be including physical ARCs here because most of them are borrowed from friends and/or I don’t have as much trouble reading ones from the publisher. This will only be to help me with NG & EW. Current Netgalley Percentage: 71% Each quarter, I’ll recap the ARCs I read from my Netgalley and Edelweiss accounts… Egalleys Read: 12 …and then I’ll share which ones I have left to read, listed in release date order. 2018 Releases: 14 Backlist: 18

Current YouTube Subscription Roundup

Posted June 20, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

After sharing that I’ve been waaaayyy too into YouTube lately in my last LL post (and Kristin being interested in who I watch), I decided to do a quick round-up of my current favorites. I think most of them are fairly well-known in their niche, so I won’t go crazy talking about them. I am currently subscribed to less than 40 channels (and many of them I don’t watch), so I’ll focus on some of my current favorites. I’m also going to embed a video that’s either a recent favorite of mine, or encapsulates who they are as a channel! Beauty I used to watch a lot of these back in the day, then stopped, and recently started again. It’s important for me to watch videos where people have the same skin type as me (meaning, oily ones!) because obviously they’re the most helpful to me. I love all of these channels A LOT and they’ve gotten me right back into beauty YouTube as a result. Nikkia Joy I have to put my girl Nikkia first because she is my absolute favorite. She’s SO funny and genuine. She is also the absolute master at combating oily skin. She has how-to videos about keeping your skin matte, reducing pores and cakey foundation, etc. that have been viewed millions of times. I love videos like this one because then I learn what she’s loving lately… and go buy the same stuff! Casey Holmes She’s another favorite oily girl. She also has rosacea and […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #188: Poolside / Beach Reads

Posted June 19, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Books to Read by the Pool or Beach 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 posted my summer TBR (bingo and otherwise) last week, so I’m going to use this space to recommend some summertime books for you. I love reading fluffy contemporaries – bonus points if they’re actually set in a beach/lake town – by the pool or while I’m laying on the beach. Here are some of my recent favorites that fall into this “throw into your beach bag” category! There are always a lot of adult contemporary books that I love reading in the summer. There are books with great beach settings, people returning home to their small town for the summer, and even some mysteries to be solved. These three were all pretty addicting reads for me and I’d love to have any of them on the beach to read! THE SUMMER LIST involved two old friends forced back together to complete a scavenger hunt. There were glimpses of the past mixed in throughout, so you got a really good sense of their friendship and how it went wrong. HERONS LANDING is a promising series-starter set near Seattle in a cute small town. It had a nice […]