Top Ten Tuesdays #252: Avoiding my TBR

Posted September 10, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 9 Comments

Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why 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 love this topic! I probably could fill this with like a million books??? I am the worst about reading books I’m excited for or just books on my TBR in general. There are a lot of them on here that could just be answered with “I never read my owned physical copies because I’m the worst and prefer reading digitally” but I’ll try to pick more unique books/reasons than that one 😉 I decided to sort my Goodreads shelf by oldest to highlight five books from the far past I have been avoiding, and then I looked to add five books I’ve recently added to my physical TBR that I haven’t read yet. Golden by Jessi Kirby | Owned paperback | I bought this based on its praise in the book blogging community, and then read a different Kirby book soonafter. I didn’t love it, so this has just been sitting on my shelf ever since. The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes | Owned paperback | I really don’t have a good excuse at this point because so many people love this book and I’ve enjoyed […]

Spotlight: Backlist Books (2014)

Posted September 6, 2019 / Features, Spotlight / 3 Comments

Backlist Books My new Spotlight feature highlights anything within the bookish world that I feel deserves a spotlight for a few minutes – publishers (or more specifically, imprints!), new or old favorite authors, bookish people/bloggers, covers or cover trends, topics/genres within books, and anything else that should be on your radar. One of the bigger issues with book blogging is that we all tend to chase the new pretties. We get excited for new releases, read advanced copies, and yell about them… until the next new release comes around. I do love having TTT posts to highlight books from ALL reading and blogging years, but I often notice myself reaching for the same titles on those posts too. I’ve tried to bring some old books to the blog with my Nostalgia Project, reread-a-thons with Cristina for books from our pasts, and Backlist Book challenges, but it doesn’t feel like enough. I think now would be a great time to pull out a bunch of Spotlight posts that focus on books I read in specific ~past years~ that I loved, yelled about at the time, and have since not talked about as much. Each Friday of September will feature one year of books/releases from my blogging past, from 2014-2017. BL Favorites from 2014 Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver | This is one of my favorite books in general – I’ve even reread it, which I never do. I read it for the first time in 2014 and it’s the book that […]

July-August Bookish Bullet Journal

Posted September 5, 2019 / Features, Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc., Wrap-Ups / 1 Comment

When I mentioned the idea of sharing layouts from my reading-related bullet journal on the blog, most of you seemed interested to read about it! I can’t justify making one post each month dedicated to the 3-4 bujo pages I make during that month, so I thought doing a little bullet journal update every two months would be fun instead! In these posts you will see all of the new pages I added during the past two months. July New Releases: I’ve been keeping my spreads super simple lately and this is a leftover picture from last month! The Summerathon page was from June but the next page begins my July-related layouts, obviously. Summer TBR and Bucket List / All Grown Up Book Club: I made a post on the blog where I discussed some of the books I wanted to read this summer, as well as the summery things I was hoping to accomplish outside of reading! I did a decent job in July for some of these. I also included a little schedule for the All Grown Up Book Club’s reading of THE FLATSHARE in July. July TBR: Pretty straightforward TBR and I did really well on it! I had a mix of required reading books, readalongs, book clubs, review copies, etc. As usual, I did the worst at reading owned physical copies of books. Oh well. July Reading Tracker: I read very consistently in July and managed to finish my “reading numbers” in the middle of the month. Everything […]

Contemporary-a-Thon | Sign-Up & TBR

Posted September 4, 2019 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

Information Despite the fact that I never need motivation to read contemporary fiction, I’m hoping that this read-a-thon will just be a fun reading boost within my favorite genre! I’ve come to really love Chelsea’s channel (video announcement below) and watch literally everything she posts, so I felt very compelled to join in. This read-a-thon goes from Monday 9/23 to Sunday 9/29, and the liveshow on Chelsea’s channel will be Saturday 9/28 at 6pm PST / 9pm EST. I won’t be able to watch live, unfortunately, as I’ll be up at my sister’s college for family weekend and various birthday happenings in Maine, but I still plan to read my buns off. Goals There are seven challenges, which I’ll discuss and plot out below, so my goal is to read seven books during the read-a-thon! I don’t mind if the seventh one is incomplete as long as I manage to start it and make a good dent by the end. My other goal is to read MOSTLY review copies, as that’s an area I always need help in. If it’s not a review copy, it should be an owned book that’s on my shelf and would hopefully apply to my Picky Pledge and/or other challenges I have to complete. I’m also reaaaaally hoping that I can post an Instagram picture for each of the days/challenges. Challenges & TBR I’m basing my TBR completely off of the challenges for this round. A lot of them were pulled from my September TBR but […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #251: Out of Comfort Zone

Posted September 3, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Books I Enjoyed that are Out of my Comfort Zone 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 read too many contemporary books each year, if I’m being honest, but they’re my favorite and easiest to read! Anything that falls into a different category (maybe besides mysteries because I read many of those) tends to be out of my comfort zone. I’m going to include some books that are WAY out for various reasons. Jackaby by Ritter | I don’t read a lot of paranormal books but one set in the wayyyy past with a female character written by a male? Nah. I read this series randomly with my book club and I really enjoyed it though! Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Bardugo | Yes, I love Bardugo, but I don’t like DC Comics all that much. I like Wonder Woman (the recent movie specifically) but I would usually not think about reading a book about her? I haven’t gotten into the rest of this series and I probably won’t, but this was good. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare | I don’t read a lot of classics so this was definitely a random one. I needed to read a play or something for one of my reading […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | August 2019

Posted September 2, 2019 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 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. Lol if July was impressive as hell (14 books, 10 of which were completed by the midpoint of the month), August was a big ol’ fail for ya girl. I also didn’t enjoy the VAST majority of August’s books. I should have known I wouldn’t be able to read quite as much based on some my plans, but again, I still feel out of sorts? I’m not feeling quite like myself and don’t have a lot of interest in reading, blogging, being on the internet… I can’t shake it. I’m getting better and back into the swing of things now that my favorite month is here! I also think I’m a little burnt out on book blogging specifically, so my second blog I’ve been thinking about may get going by the end of the year. We’ll see! This blog won’t go anywhere though <3 All of the books from this month: Check out my 2019 challenge sign-up post for more details, goals, etc.! Popsugar Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 31 read total | 78% complete This month: Ghost […]

September TBR

Posted August 29, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 3 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. August Progress August was bizarre. I usually have a lot of success with ARC August but I think my lack of reading time or mojo hindered everything. I was lucky to pull off reading 9 books this past month, blazing through basically 3 entire books in the last few days/week of August. I had two readalongs, IRONSIDE and THE DIVINERS, that were spread out nicely in the first half of the month. We had Chris’s sister’s wedding later in the month and therefore Bout of Books was a failure. I didn’t meet my plans for 10 ARCS + 2 readalong books, but I did manage to read 9 total books… Up Next in September Review Copies I’ll keep up my five-ARC-TBR plans as usual, with my backlist, upcoming releases, freebies, and far-away pub date mixture. I’m actually doing okay on Netgalley right now and would love to get ahead on some of upcoming releases. Past Perfect Life by Eulberg | All Eyes on Us by Frick | Ricochet by Berla The Bromance Book Club by Adams | Love on Lexington Avenue by Layne I have a couple leftovers from ARC August on […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #250: Personal Library

Posted August 27, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 3 Comments

Books I’ve Read That I’d Like In My Personal Library 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 apparently deleted my Goodreads shelf specifically about this so THAT’S FUN, past-Lauren! Regardless, I do read a whooooole lot of books from the library (physical, ebooks, and audiobooks) or from Scribd. That’s how I often get away with not buying a lot of books. I like supporting those platforms and organizations, plus I get to save some money and space. Here are some books that I borrowed from somewhere and would love a physical copy of someday. (I’ve done another post similar to this but I’m not going to cheat and look at those rn.) Book: Red, White, and Royal Blue by McQuiston | Source: Library, Scribd I LOVED THIS BOOK just like everyone else on the planet. I got the library book out but also listened to the audio on Scribd. I definitely need a couple for my personal library because I have a feeling I’ll be wanting to reread it someday! Book: There’s Something About Sweetie by Menon | Source: Egalley I realized that I am the WORST and don’t own this book! I have Menon’s other YA books that I’ve loved, like DIMPLE and […]

Review Round Up | A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Well Met, and We Came Here to Forget

Posted August 26, 2019 / 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! ARC August Edition As always with fantasy books, I kind of waited forever to read my review copy of this book. I was hoping to mix in the audiobook but I couldn’t track it down in my usual places, so I just broke up my reading and charged through. I also made sure it was both my August book club selection AND a pick for my Disney-a-thon TBR, so I would be guaranteed to have read it. I’m not 100% sure if this book is classified as a true portal fantasy, but I loved that it featured both “our world” and another fantasy world – Emberfall. It was fun to learn about that world and those who inhabit it (Rhen, Grey, etc.). The curse and Beauty and the Beast elements were really well done and more unique than the traditional Stockholm Syndrome-esque story or other retellings. I appreciated that a lot. Harper was kind of a badass main character and it was cool to read about a fantasy heroine with cerebral palsy. Like the author’s note said, she wasn’t defined by it throughout the story but there were clear mentions about how it affected her daily life. I do wish I read this all in […]

FaerieAThon Reviews: Modern Faerie Tales

Posted August 22, 2019 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

FaerieAThon is hosted by Super Space Chick, Mel to the Any, It’s Jane Lindsey, and Alexa Loves Books. It’s a six-month-long event that involves reading or rereading all of Holly Black’s books set in the fae world. This includes the Modern Faerie Tales series, The Darkest Part of the Forest, and The Folk of the Air series. Each month has daily chapters to read and live shows to recap/discuss. Links above are directly to announcement posts and videos. I’ll be including my thoughts on the book and anything else I want to discuss related to the fae world! Tithe Quick facts Is this one a first time read or a reread? Reread! I read it the first time probably within the first few years after it was published? I would venture to guess early high school. If rereading, did my review or rating change? I didn’t rate this one the first time around but it was one of those classic “this is one of my favorite books!” situations. I didn’t really have a place to track ratings around 2006! I feel like I considered this a “favorite book” back then though and this time I only rated it 3 stars. Did I keep up with the reading schedule as planned? Yes! I was very diligent about the daily chapters. It was helpful to have the ebook on Scribd so I could read here and there throughout the day. I tried to finish them during work breaks so I didn’t have to cram anything […]