Top Ten Tuesdays #318: Winter TBR

Posted December 15, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Winter TBR (Jan-Mar) 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 still have some holiday/Christmas reads to finish off the year (winter technically begins December 21st) but I’m focusing on some of the books I plan to read ASAP in 2021. Here’s my winter TBR for the first three months of next year! Review Copies There’s still a tiny chance I try to read A PHO LOVE STORY and SANDCASTLE BEACH in 2020 because as of writing this post, I need to read 10 more books for my reading challenge and only have 5 holiday books on deck. Those two are priority because I’m too excited for them! ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED and THE MEET-CUTE PROJECT both sound wonderful as well – they publish in the first quarter of next year too. New Jan-Mar Releases I read my first book by Solomon this year (of the YA variety) and loved it – I really need to dive into her others. THE EX TALK comes out in January and is right up my alley. I also have adored books by Sandhya Menon, so her first full length novel as Lily Menon (of the adult variety), MAKE UP BREAK UP, will be on my list […]

Favorite and Recently Purchased Cookbooks

Posted December 14, 2020 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I’ve been talking a lot this year about cookbooks – it all started when I finally got the Cravings cookbook by Chrissy Teigen… and ordered her second one while I was still reading the first one. I’ve been following cooking blogs for a while for recipes and Skinnytaste has always been on my radar, so I also ordered the One & Done cookbook. From there… it’s been a slippery slope! I’ll talk more about each cookbook and how I came to acquire them below but basically I’ve turned to them more so than Pinterest. It’s been fun to get into something new and meal plan from them instead! I came up with the idea that in general, I’ll pick one cookbook each week to pick 6-7 recipes from and use as the basis for our meals (I’ve done similar things in the past with Cravings and Skinnytaste). I’ll rotate through all of them to make sure everyone gets used and enjoyed! I posted some polls on Twitter and Instagram for which to start with and ended up picking Half Baked Harvest Super Simple from the results. I’ll probably share more about this experience later, but for now – I thought it would be fun to give you guys a rundown of the recent cookbooks I’ve acquired and my thoughts so far as if these are book reviews. First, what do I personally want in a cookbook? (1) I want recipes that are unique and interesting enough where there aren’t a […]

If We Were Having Coffee…

Posted December 11, 2020 / If We Were Having Coffee, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I LOVE reading personal posts from other bloggers and seeing Jamie’s “If We Were Having Coffee” feature take off is so fun. Laura and Lindsey also have some great spin-offs of this feature too. I was very tempted to also make mine margarita-related (like Lindsey) but coffee is so ingrained in my daily life that it just makes sense to keep it. If you’re not familiar, it basically involves a fake little conversation about what’s been happening in our lives lately. Read on to see what’s been happening lately and feel free to chat back in the comments! If we were having coffee… I’d ask you how you’re doing. How is anyone doing really? I’ve had a pretty good year from a personal perspective, all things considered, but feel guilty saying that when the world is in shambles. It’s hard to believe how fast and slow this year has been. How is it already the end of 2020? Like everyone, I welcome it, but changing to 2021 doesn’t mean the pandemic or racial injustice or anything else terrible from this year will just be fixed. If we were having coffee… I’d talk about my wedding. When we got engaged in late 2019, we knew we didn’t want to rush planning and go for a 2020 wedding. We picked 10/9/21 and I think, with vaccinations on the horizon, we have a pretty good chance of having a normal-ish event? I’d definitely ask your opinion on that! Honestly though… I have no interest […]

Holiday Reviews: One Way or Another and A Princess for Christmas

Posted December 9, 2020 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

Story I’m a sucker for a parallel life/universe kind of story. Should she go to NYC or her crush’s cabin for the Christmas holiday? I love seeing both timelines and how they end – will she end up in the same place? The main character, Paige, struggles with anxiety and decision-making; when she hits her head on the grocery store floor, the story and her life split into two universes so we can see how it plays out. I enjoyed the best-friends-to-more situation that was possibly brewing too – Paige had had a crush on her best guy friend for years and is trying to figure out how to move on and get over it. I liked reading both stories/settings. I think the wintery cabin with Fitz and his family was more interesting because they were actually spending time together. The NYC timeline was cool for her to travel and spend time with her mom’s friend’s son, Harrison, but she spent a ton of time still thinking about Fitz. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels NYC during the holidays is always a dream setting. I’ve been near Christmas and it was a chaotic time that I don’t want to relive ever again. I’m not a city girl. I can definitely see the magic in it and love reading Christmas books set there! It’s the closest I’ll get haha. The Christmas feels were medium because those elements weren’t the point of the story. It was just the time of year where the […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #317: Holiday

Posted December 8, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Holiday Freebie: Favorite Holiday 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’m not going to lie – I’m behind on my holiday reading this year. I usually have completed a lot more. Then again, I’ve usually completed a lot more books in general at this point in the year! Covid 2020 has kicked my reading ass. Can I blame it on Covid or is it mostly because of my attention-seeking puppy? In any case, I thought it would be beneficial to use this holiday freebie to just share my favorite holiday books in general. These ones are the best of the best for me from years past. For further recs or my general TBR, check this Goodreads shelf I have. I tried to keep it to one book per series (for example, Annie Rains, Miranda Liasson, and RaeAnne Thayne have multiple books in these series with holiday themes that I loved). Jenny Hale is one of my favorite Christmas authors so I kept my two favorites by her on the list. Others are fun YA reads or cozy adult contemporary holiday books. Enjoy!

Did My 2020 Five Star Predictions Come True?

Posted December 7, 2020 / Book Lists, Features / 3 Comments

For the past few years, I’ve written some prediction posts at the end of the year to predict which books I may rate five stars in the following year. They’re all upcoming releases and usually from authors I already know, love, and have rated many books five-stars from. I did alright with 2019 predictions, with MOST of the books coming between 4-5 stars. I obviously had a horrible 2020 in terms of reading so the fact that I even READ any of these will be miraculous. Did my five-star predictions come true? Correctly Five Stars! I’m not surprised that out of ALL of these, GIRLS WITH RAZOR HEARTS and THE KING OF CROWS were five-star reads for me. I loved both of these for different reasons, but basically – both of these authors can do no wrong for me. 4.5 Stars I’m really glad I enjoyed IN FIVE YEARS as much as I hoped. Honestly the story was a lot different than I expected: more friendship, less romance. Totally not an issue because clearly I loved the journey this book took me on. 4 Stars 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT PINKY was really good – almost as good as the others in this companion series 😉 I was happy that THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST was even better than its predecessor for me. I really loved it. It took me a long time to read MY CALAMITY JANE but honestly these books are just soooo long. 3.5 Stars I’m […]

ARC Review: Love & Olives

Posted December 3, 2020 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Honestly, my experiences with this series so far have been hit or miss. Meaning, book one was a miss for me and book two was a major hit. This 50/50 record was enough to still keep me super excited for book three – a book set in Greece featuring the lost city of Atlantis? YES! And honestly, I loved LOVE & LUCK enough to know the first one was a fluke. My thoughts on LOVE & GELATO were as follows: Pausing this for now. I don’t mind the audio narrator but I think I would be better off reading this one instead. I’ll wait for my library hold to come in. I have a feeling things may pick up, based on the synopsis, but I’m not going to carve out listening time for this one as it is right now. ——– 2nd time putting this one aside. Not sure why I can’t get into it. I tried my physical copy and had no desire to pick the book up again. I feel like I would like it but it’s not the time for me to read it. Idk. Gonna give it to my sister and see how I feel much later. Anyways, I thought third time could definitely be the charm. I have no issue with skipping, DNFing, or avoiding the first book in a companion series in favor of book two if it still sounds up my alley. LOVE & OLIVES hit the mark for me in the synopsis, […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November 2020

Posted December 2, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

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 knew I had to read 15 books in November and 15 in December to stay on target for reading 100 books, but I came up a littttle short. Luckily December has some days off, slowdown at work, and holiday reads to keep me going! I’m still a little behind of the goal but I’m feeling good. Many shoutouts to the novellas and graphic novels below 😉 12 books read in November 12 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 2858 • Average rating: 4.0 stars Sources: 4 review, 2 borrowed Formats: 4 hardcovers, 4 ebooks, 2 egalley, 1 mixed, 1 audio Genres: 7 contemporary, 4 graphic novels, 1 mystery/thriller Age Target: 7 young adult, 3 adult, 2 middle grade Check out my 2020 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 35/40 read total Prompts: On a subject you know nothing about, main character in their 20s Monthly Key Word Challenge None this month Calendar of Crime Challenge Month letter in the title Romanceopoly 0 read this month […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #316: To Reread

Posted December 1, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 0 Comments

Books I Want to Read Again 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 talked a lot on my blog about rereading books – I don’t do it very often. I have a Goodreads shelf called “reread someday” where I store books I think I may reread at some point down the line. This list really doesn’t see a lot of action… I haven’t reread a single book in 2020, if memory serves. Insane. In any case, here are the most recent books I added to my “reread someday” shelf! This list below stretches back as far as 2018 because I’ve only added two books from 2020 onto this list.

Meal Planning and Recipes Lately

Posted November 30, 2020 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I talk a lot on my blog about recipes, Weight Watchers/calorie counting, and meal planning/prepping. It’s something that makes me really happy – I have an addiction to grocery shopping and planning my meals according to new recipes or cookbooks. I will tell you that in 2020 excessive grocery buying is both a privilege and unfortunately necessary at times. People have been stockpiling toilet paper since March. I’m not that bad, but I find myself buying a new can of something every time I use it even if I have four more in the pantry. Anyways, I wanted to put all that on the table and give you a glimpse into some of my tips, planning, and recipes lately. Meal Planning Cookbooks I love buying cookbooks and flipping through them multiple times, planning meals and jotting down ideas. When I first got the Cravings cookbooks, I made A TON of meals in a row from them. I tried to do something similar when I got the Skinnytaste One and Done book (and I just got Skinnytaste Fast and Slow). In my opinion, you can never have too many of them. There’s a ton of variety out there. If I’m in the mood for a Crockpot recipe during busy weeks, I can pull multiple books and check what recipes are easy for dump and go. It’s nice to not rely on Pinterest all the time too. Meal Planner Book and Fridge Pad I’ve been using the Skinnytaste Meal Planner notebook for […]