Top Ten Tuesdays #296: Smile

Posted July 14, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Books that Made Me Smile 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 are a lot of reviews on my blog where I claim I was “smiling like an idiot” throughout the whole book. I decided to keep it simple for this one (anyone notice how lazy my TTTs have been lately??) and keyword search for “smile” to figure out which books I reviewed and shared how much I smiled while reading. Date Me, Bryson Keller This book was pure shippy goodness and I remember blazing through it in one sitting, even during the horrible quarantine reading mood I’m in. “I thought their chemistry built up REALLY nicely throughout the week and felt so real to me. It just made me smile and keep reading all night… I highly recommend this one if you need something similar to SIMON VS. but honestly? This had even more swoons and chemistry and smiley moments for me.” 10 Blind Dates I didn’t actually write this in my review but it was the book I used in the 2019 EOY book survey as the one that put a smile on my face or was the most fun to read. Totally loved it. From the 2019 EOY […]

ARC Reviews: The Mall and Paradise Cove

Posted July 13, 2020 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

This was so good and exactly what I needed, yet again. My reading mojo was really off for a few months in the beginning of the year, so I decided to read what was calling to me: THE MALL. I enjoyed the Jessica Darling series enough and was so curious to read more by Megan McCafferty. This book was exactly what I wanted it to be; it felt like all the best parts of the JD books. I was born in 1991 when this book takes place so others who were teens around this time may relate to the mall culture even more, but it still made me super nostalgic. It’s weird to classify this as “historical fiction” but hey, it’s not contemporary technically! I used to enjoy the mall when I was in middle school through some of high school, so I can definitely relate to all those feels overall. It made for a really fun read. I don’t want to say too much about the plot because the synopsis of the book is extremely limited to basically what happens in the first two chapters… This book is super focused on friendship with light romance and a whole lot of ~finding yourself~ without feeling cheesy. Cassie thought she had her summer and life all planned out, but everything goes to hell on her first day working at the mall after a six-week quarantine from having mono (a little too close to home when I was reading this in early […]

July TBR

Posted July 10, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 1 Comment

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. Update from June, Moving Forward to July: June was another horrible reading month – the worst in quite a few years… since I started blogging maybe? Five books! I read some good ones though, so I can’t complain about most of the quality… I decided to pull my leftovers from June that I want to read and a few books I hope to get to in July. No categories of any kind, just books. Must Read My only must-read book, technically, is for book club. We selected THE FELL OF DARK. It comes out next week so I’ll probably try to read it right away. I haven’t preordered it yet because I want to see if it ends up on Scribd or through the library, but I’ll buy it if needed! Leftovers from June to Read I didn’t even glance at my TBR page for June when picking out my next read, so the category method didn’t fully work for me. The books I did read came from it, for the most part, so whatever works! Here are some leftovers I didn’t get to that I really hope to read in July: […]

What I’ve Been Watching

Posted July 8, 2020 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I did a post like this back in 2017 but haven’t done many since – I usually am watching wrestling and a few TV episodes in between everything, plus I have my monthly wrap-ups for things like this. Since life has been mostly the same and I’ve been doing more weekly “positive things” posts instead of monthlies, I thought it would be a good time to bring this back around. Here are some of the shows and movies we’ve been watching since I last updated you, or in general during quarantine! Watching Solo I’ll Be Gone in the Dark I loved McNamara’s book about the Golden State Killer and the adaptation on HBO has been pretty great so far too. It mixes in older interviews with her (she unexpectedly passed away a few years ago), snippets from the book, and interviews with people close to her. It focuses a good balance between the killer, his many victims, and McNamara’s true crime writing. The Baby-Sitter’s Club I cannot emphasize enough how much joy this show brought me while on vacation this week. I quickly blazed through the episodes and it’s SO happy-making. Seriously, if you have read any BSC books in your life, I would be shocked if you don’t love this heartwarming show. Really good diverse characters with the same personalities and hobbies, direct adaptations from early books in the series, and solid episodes from start to finish. PLEASE watch this because I want a million more seasons. Sweet Magnolias […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #295: Most-Read Authors

Posted July 7, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Most-Read Authors (Recently/Overall) 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 always interested in revisiting this stat when the prompt comes around! I feel like I used to read so many long-running series like Gossip Girl and The A-List with millions of books, so those super random authors would be in my top list. Goodreads removed the most read authors feature so I decided to look at some of the books I’ve read in recent years and think about my go-to authors. This isn’t a technical list where I sorted and counted, but a general idea! Sara Shepard I have to include Shepard as my most-read author, even just because of the endless Pretty Little Liars series. I’ve continued to read all of her releases (yes I’m two behind right now) too, so there’s about a million books read by Shepard. Cecily von Ziegesar After reading Gossip Girl and the many spin-offs, I was wondering what she’d write in the future! She finally has a release coming out this October and I’m reading an egalley as we speak. I love the cover and it’s awesome to see her stick to the rich-ish NYC themes I loved so much (and hated because good lord), but it’s definitely more adult. […]

The Bright Side (7/3)

Posted July 3, 2020 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

As we’re all going through the same global pandemic with various levels of “stay the F home,” I thought it would be fun to highlight the good things in each week, instead of dwelling on the negatives, the unknowns, and the uncertain future. I tend to do some kind of wrap-up or rundown of my week/month/etc. on Fridays each week (often linking up with Friday Favorites/Currently) so this isn’t too much of a diversion from that. ✨ Miller! The biggest bright spot in the month, at the very end of the month!, is our new puppy Miller. It’s a long story for how we ended up getting him, but we are so happy. We had applied for another older (3 years old) dog with this rescue and added the “12 pack puppies” to our application as well once they were posted. We ended up getting selected, picked out Miller from the three remaining pups, and liked the name enough to keep it! He’s so sweet but definitely in the puppy stage. We’re working on calming down and cutting out the nipping and hyperactivity 😉 The most fun part? Without even knowing it, one of my friends and her husband adopted a girl pup from the same litter! He’s a Dachshund mix but we’re not sure if the other part is Pomeranian (according to the rescue and first vet he saw in Mississippi) or Chihuahua (according to the vet tech when I brought him this week). We’re excited to see how […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | June 2020

Posted July 2, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 5 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. It’s funny because I keep introducing theses posts like “wow, I thought X month was bad, now check out this one!” but genuinely nothing compares to the garbage pail that was June… and I mean that literally. I read FIVE books in June which is truly an all-time low for me since blogging. So low, in fact, that I completely forgot to even write this blog post. What even is there to wrap up? lol. 5 books read in June 5 new books • 0 rereads • 0 DNF Pages read: 1476 • Average rating: 4.1 stars Sources: 2 purchased, 2 review, 1 borrowed Formats: [Review] 1 egalley and 0 physical ARCs 0 hardcover, 1 paperback, 1 ebook, 0 audio, 3 combo Genres: 4 contemporary, 1 paranormal/fantasy Age Target: 4 young adult and 1 adult Check out my 2020 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 22/40 read total Challenges: Involving social media, bird on the cover, by a WOC, pink cover Monthly Key Word Challenge 1 read for […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #294: Anticipated Releases

Posted June 30, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists, Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020 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 so many pub dates have shifted that a lot of my books from my post for the first half of 2020 would move into this list! I’ve decided to keep this list away from those books (to highlight more), since I already posted about them. I also am going to avoid review copies AND books from my Summer TBR posts (here and here). Therefore, we’re looking at books being published between late September and December. I absolutely couldn’t put down Dear Martin when I read it so you know Dear Justyce is on my list. I hope it’s equally impactful and quick to read! I’m super excited for A Deadly Education because it sounds similar to Harry Potter with a wizarding school. Gorgeous cover too! Simmer Down focuses on the food truck scene, which is something I’m super into in general, so this will be awesome. Another fun cover too! I love books set over the course of one day, and This Is All Your Fault involves saving an indie bookstore too. Sounds right up my alley. The Truth Project is another one that drew me in because it’s a bit of Lauren-bait. DNA results come back and […]

The Bright Side (6/26)

Posted June 26, 2020 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 1 Comment

As we’re all going through the same global pandemic with various levels of “stay the F home,” I thought it would be fun to highlight the good things in each week, instead of dwelling on the negatives, the unknowns, and the uncertain future. I tend to do some kind of wrap-up or rundown of my week/month/etc. on Fridays each week (often linking up with Friday Favorites/Currently) so this isn’t too much of a diversion from that. ✨ Murder in Hollywoodland Podcast I’ve been somewhat slacking on podcasts lately because I’m not commuting anywhere, and barely driving at all! I’ve been trying to use audio time for books instead. Anyways, I still listen to the usual ones each week while doing dishes and other household chores. This podcast, Murder in Hollywoodland, is new and really enjoyable! I loved the fictional Deadly Manners podcast and this one kind of reminds me of that, except it’s based on a real murder in Hollywood in the 1920s! Great production style and narrators. ✨ Skinnytaste One & Done I posted about this at the end of last week’s post because I had just gotten this in, but we’ve made quite a few recipes since then! I’ll probably do the usual roundup like I did for the Cravings cookbook next week, but we’ve made the spicy fried chicken sandwiches, chipotle chicken tostadas, carne asada fries, broccoli cheddar soup, and philly cheesesteak egg rolls as of this post! ✨ Outdoor Reading As usual, I continued to ATTEMPT […]

Summer Bucket List

Posted June 25, 2020 / Book Lists, Features, Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., TBR Lists / 1 Comment

I write similar posts every year, where I share the items on my summertime bucket list and the summery or beach-setting books I hope to read. While my reading has been shit, I usually can count on my nice porch to bring my reading mojo back. I’m finding that working from home, for some reason, makes me read LESS and not more. I hope the warm weather continuing will help me get into reading. Bucket List & To-Do’s Take a couple of local nice-weather day trips We’re blessed to live about an hour away from Mystic, one of my favorite places in Connecticut. Our state overall has been doing much better than many others from a Covid transmission perspective, so things have been reopening. I’m still not ready for indoor dining personally and have yet to eat outside on a patio (even though that’s been open for multiple weeks already), but I feel ready for that part somewhat soon. Anyways, I hope to take a day trip or two in Connecticut on a nice weekend day (and/or during our Fourth of July week of vacation!) to Mystic and probably Niantic or a similar coastal town. Enjoy friends’ backyards and pools We’re still social distancing to a pretty decent extent, but we’ve been able to see friends from a distance by setting up chairs in backyards and hanging out that way. One of our friends has a nice swimming pool so we’re hoping to spend time over there and grill out […]