Ranking Episodes of Black Mirror

Posted April 20, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

Chris and I started watching Black Mirror a few months ago and MAN does this show fuck me up. We were kind of addicted at the beginning and tried to binge a few episodes in one sitting… but honestly this show is just too heavy for that. I don’t know how people do it when the new season comes out! I get too depressed too quickly. There are four seasons, as of right now, and we spread them out over the course of a couple of months. I’ve seen a lot of people rank them from best to worst, so I’m going to share my favorites and least favorites here in order – the best ones are at the top, of course. You can see some other interesting opinions here and here. USS Callister (S4/E1) I loved this Star Trek-esque episode! The concept was really cool and the cast was fantastic. I was basically on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially toward the end. I hope they turn this into its own show, like the rumors are saying. I could totally see it. Nosedive (S3/E1) This one really got Chris and me thinking! I can’t imagine a world where everyone rates each other based on every single interaction they have. Clearly, it could make you go crazy. The concept here was phenomenal and the lead actress did a great job. I was rooting for her. San Junipero (S3/E4) SO GOOOOD. This one would be up a little […]

Incorporating Your Life into Your Book Blog

Posted April 19, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

Adding a more personal flair to book blogging has been the latest trend that most of us seem to be aiming for. I know I’ve made some changes over the past couple of years to do this! I write a lot more life-oriented posts on Bookmark Lit and many of them don’t even involve books at all. Because we’ve all noticed a decline in people reading or reacting to book reviews, we’re expanding a little bit by making mini review wrap-ups to get the point across, or doing whatever we can to boost other posts that people may enjoy more. I know I’m making a lot of generalizations here, but I’ve noticed these trends or comments on SO many blogs lately. Today I wanted to talk about how to incorporate your personal life more into your blog, either as a way of mixing up content OR slowly seguing into a blog that features more personal than bookish. I’d say my blog is probably 60-70% bookish and 40-30% personal at this point, depending on the week. I sloooowly moved into adding more personal posts over the past few years to get here. Here are some tips for how to do it and what to talk about: Develop a Weekly or Monthly “Schedule” Pick a certain day of the week to post your personal stuff. Alternatively, think about how many times per month in general you hope to discuss something other than books. Make a tentative schedule for each month based on […]

Review Round Up | Infamous, The Chaos of Standing Still, and Sweet Southern Hearts

Posted April 18, 2018 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! Let me do a little plug here about Scribd again (link gives us each a free month if you sign up!) – I was hoping this book would be added because some of the others were on there, but I kept checking and didn’t see anything yet. I went on Scribd late in the day on April 3rd (its release day!) and found it, when I was super in the mood to read it. I love that they have new releases THAT day! So overall, this was a pretty good series finale. I didn’t find it quite as captivating as other books in the trilogy (and honestly I’m probably rounding up my rating a bit because of how much I enjoyed the series overall). There have been a couple of book series that I liked but didn’t love, where I thought about it a lot in between books and highly anticipated each release, but they never blew me away. This is definitely one of those series. I never connected with any of the characters and wish this book had more recap in the beginning. I forgot SO much of what happened in the previous book and there aren’t any recaps anywhere, so I just tried to re-learn […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #179: Freebie!

Posted April 17, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Freebie: Seasonal Covers & Book Looks 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. Freebies are always so fun… until I realize I have zero good ideas! I naturally gravitate toward book cover posts because they’re my very favorite. I decided for this freebie to do a seasonal book cover topic that shows off a few books that remind me of each season, and a book look based on one of them. It’s completely based on the cover, not the inside (sometimes), so I can’t speak to the book itself. Most covers are for books publishing in 2018. Winter Covers Spring Covers Summer Covers Autumn Covers

Lauren Lately | April 2018

Posted April 16, 2018 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 7 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ Crazy weekend home – bridal shower, secret santa, birthdays, and all the lies | Before we headed home, we spent one night at our favorite dine-in theater and saw Game Night. So funny! Then, our mid-March journey home was fillllled with plans. My friend wanted a surprise bridal shower, so we had our very late Secret Santa the night before as an excuse for all of us to be in Connecticut. We had this immense web of lies I won’t get into, but it paid off! She was definitely surprised and it was a fun day… well, as fun as a bridal shower could be, I guess! (So not my thing.) The next day, we had dinner out for my dad’s belated birthday and then my sister and I went to see Love, Simon and its PERFECTION. We both read the book and loved the movie just as much. I got my hair done […]

A-Z Book Survey, Round Two

Posted April 13, 2018 / Book Tags / 0 Comments

I did this book tag/survey from Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner WAY BACK in 2014 when I first started my blog. My answers were obviously quite different and I don’t even really want to link to it because good lord, the graphics from then make me cringe. In my quest for finding a fun book tag to do for today, I wanted to redo this one with updated answers! Author you’ve read the most books from: Thank you Goodreads, for making this very easy. I’ve read the most books from Sara Shepard, which is truly the least surprising news ever. I’ve read THIRTY-TWO books by her because I’ve read each of her super-long series and a lot of the standalones as well. This number continues to increase. Best Sequel Ever: I think the best sequel is probably a toss-up between PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han (5 stars, same as TATBILB) The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (5 stars, which is actually more than book #1), or Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (5 stars, also up from the first book in the series). I also totally did this by only looking at the second book in a series as the sequel because otherwise it’d take me forever to investigate my archives. Currently Reading: I’m writing this on April 6th, so I’m currently reading The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody (also mixing in the audiobook sometimes) and Infamous by Alyson Noel. The latter is the final book in the trilogy and I’m so pumped Scribd had […]

Books Coming This Summer That I NEED

Posted April 12, 2018 / Book Lists, Features / 10 Comments

I try to be good about requesting books on NG (and now EW a bit more) that I’m genuinely excited about, instead of being click-happy and selecting stories in the moment. I started to realize when I went on a requesting binge last week that I have sooo many summer releases I’m looking forward to! I’m going to follow the technical definition of summer and feature some unreleased books publishing between late June and approximately mid-September. June Your Destination is on the Left by Lauren Spieller | I like the idea of a ~nomad~ family driving their RV around the country. The main character has to decide if she wants to keep her feet on solid ground and take the internship she’s offered. Dahlia Adler recommended this for fans of her book, Just Visiting, and that was enough of a recommendation for me. The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan | This is pretty much enough to sell me: “A tender yet tantalizing novel about two friends, the summer night they fell apart, and the scavenger hunt that reunites them decades later—until the clues expose a breathtaking secret that just might shatter them once and for all.” The rest of the synopsis gets even better too! Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak | I haven’t read her first book yet, much to my sister’s chagrin, but I WILL. Her second novel takes place in Maine so obviously that got bumped right up my list. It seems to have some intriguing magical realism […]

ARC Reviews: Frat Girl and The Elizas

Posted April 11, 2018 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

This is the kind of book I’d recommend to feminists and non-feminists alike. A lot of it was heavy-handed in the messages and would have maybe made more sense in the journal entries instead of internal dialogue, but the content itself was good. (More on that later.) I definitely figured that her study wasn’t going to be all black and white, and the really positive moments were so heartwarming. I loved the relationships that were developed between her and the guys, and one particular night where a few boys really stepped up to help. I didn’t do the Greek thing in college but this was a fairly accurate portrayal of a lot of the college experience in general; it felt real, which was refreshing. Bambi, Duncan, and Jordan were so great. The characters made me laugh and smile so much more than expected for “just dumb frat boys” (what the MC seems to think heading into the book). I think I would have liked more depth to Cassie’s character (and even a few other side characters, including her family). She came across as very preachy at times and it was hard to connect with her. I liked how she started to learn from her mistakes, and tried to grow from her existing biases as well. Some people calling her out made her realize she was working from a very “white feminist” angle instead of thinking of the bigger picture (her mentor talks about this early in the book and I […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #178: Never Reread

Posted April 10, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Books I Loved that I’ll Never Reread 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 probably more up my alley than books I’d reread forever! I’m not the biggest rereader in general and there are some books that, even though I loved them, I don’t think I could bring myself to reread. Most of these below have to do with how freaking sad I was when reading them or finishing (because of the topics themselves) and have nothing to do with the quality of the book. These all hit me pretty hard while reading and I’m not sure I could put myself through it again! The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins | This isn’t for the same reason as many of these on here, but I just… don’t LOVE this series as much as everyone else? I loved them at the time and highly enjoyed the movies, but my excitement about this series is over. All of the fun and hype went away and I find myself feeling more “meh” on it than ever wanting to reread. Come Away with Me by Karma Brown | This was such a powerful, heartbreaking, and even twisty book. I think rereading it wouldn’t leave me […]

A Year(ish) in the Life of a Newbie Wrestling Fan

Posted April 9, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 1 Comment

If you told me a few years ago that I would spend roughly 6-7 or more hours per week watching wrestling (sometimes closer to 10-12 if there’s a pay-per-view), I would have laughed at you. Seriously. I was never super interested in WWE or wrestling in general, and was one of those buttholes who completely wrote it off as “fake.” I remember watching on and off with my cousins throughout my childhood (late 90s/early 00s) and had a few classic wrestlers I loved at the time. My interest waned over time and I didn’t really get it. When we learned that some friends of ours liked wrestling, Chris decided to pick up watching RAW on Monday and Smackdown on Tuesday, just VERY occasionally. He played the WWE 2k15 games with the guys and enjoyed it. I barely glanced at the TV (usually just to scoff like a jerk sometimes) and would read a book while he watched and built Lego. I sloooowly started to turn my attention toward the TV a little bit more. I saw Morgan’s post (which is truly one of my favorite posts ever and I’ve read it a million times; check out her new blog here!) and became more intrigued by it all. I’m going to quote her post here because she makes the best points about this: “Wrestling is fake.” I’ll be the first person to tell you, wrestling fans know that WWE is scripted. And we don’t care. That’s different from fake by the […]