Lauren Lately | December 2019 – January 2020

Posted January 10, 2020 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 8 Comments

You can read my monthly Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups to learn about the bookish and blog-related things I’ve accomplished. Lauren Lately was created 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. Ummm you know it’s been a while when you need to include TWO months in your recap post title! I usually try to do this post or a Five on Friday every week but clearly the holiday season derailed that quite a bit. Here’s a big ol recap of my life. What I’ve Been Up To I usually go weekend by weekend but simultaneously a lot has happened and not a lot, so I’ll do some categorizing instead through the holiday season! Jonas Brothers concert • I went to see the Jonas Brothers concert with Chris’s sister and mom way back before Thanksgiving. We had some annoying people around us (that’s my life, every time I go anywhere) but the show itself was WONDERFUL. The next day, Jen and I grabbed lunch at our favorite spot. Thanksgiving • We always do a fun, comfy Thanksgiving at Chris’s parents house, so this year was no exception. We did onesies! I had a nice day at my nana’s house in the morning before heading to their house after. We made apple cider mimosas. My favorite part of Thanksgiving though? The post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches with everything on it. Breweries and brunch • Chris and I have been […]

2020 Reading Bullet Journal

Posted January 9, 2020 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 8 Comments

I tried to share some bullet journal posts last year and got lazy for the final pages of the year. I think I was not giving myself enough ability to be creative with it and just lost steam. I ended up putting a lot of thought and effort into my layouts for this year, so I thought I would share my bullet journal setup for 2020! This includes all of the yearly pages (reading tracking overall, challenges, etc.) but not the monthly layouts. I kept some layouts the same, moved stuff around, and came up with brand new ideas for my new challenges. I also ended up using the same bullet journal from 2019 and just setting up a 2020 section because I barely made a dent in it last year haha. So, here we go! 2020 Divider Because I’m continuing in the same bullet journal from last year, I decided to make a 2020 divider page so I know where the new year starts. I’m keeping the little bookmark there as well. Year in reading and dates completed/read These pages are similar from last year’s setup as well. I made a large book where I color in one stripe/line across for every five books I finish. By the end of the year, the book should be full of stripes and colored in! The second page here features a year-long calendar. If I finish a book on a specific day, I circle that date in the calendar. If I finish […]

ARC Review: The Map From Here to There

Posted January 8, 2020 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I realized while reading this book that I have not read new words from Emery Lord since 2017. (She did have a small story in an anthology from last year, I realized, but whatever.) That is EONS ago. I was obviously eager to read this book because THE START OF ME AND YOU is probably (???) my favorite Emery Lord book. I will tell you: I recommend rereading that one before this if you have a bad bookish memory. It’s obviously a contemporary romance, which makes it less challenging to get up-to-speed on (IMO), but I still found myself completely forgetting who people were. It didn’t take long to sink into her writing and characters though. This story follows Paige and Max beginning at the end of the summer. Max, as we know, was in Italy for a summer experience. Paige did an NYU film program and came home to work at the local cinema. We’re introduced to Hunter, her coworker that I LOVED, and I could just sense that some trouble may brew from their friendship down the line. Sidenote: give me a Hunter Chen book. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE! Anyways, this story brings us through senior year moments and highlights (as well as some definite lowlights). Paige is really struggling with her anxiety in this one and I definitely felt for her. I certainly deal with that on a daily basis but in a different way; it was challenging to see her unable to express her feelings. I wanted […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #269: Anticipated Releases

Posted January 7, 2020 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 13 Comments

Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First 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 recently made my anticipated sequels and next-in-companion-series post the other day, so today you will find ONLY standalones or series-starters for the first half of 2020. I usually also try to avoid books that I already have review copies of, but no promises if I’m THAT excited for them 😉 Throw Like a Girl by Henning | Big fan of sporty girl books, especially when football is the main topic! Infinity Son by Silvera | Adam Silvera has broken my heart in contemporary novels, so I can’t wait to see how he pulls it off in his new fantasy series! Lucky Caller by Mills | I’m a little bummed I won’t be spending my third New Years Day in a row reading an Emma Mills novel, but I’m still incredibly pumped to read this one! Her books are so wonderful. Off Script by Watson | I’m always a fan of books taking place around Hollywood and rich people. This is an Emma retelling apparently, where a teen starlet plays matchmaker to her friends. Layoverland by Noone | Another trope I’m a sucker for: purgatory! Or, the place […]

Five Star Predictions

Posted January 6, 2020 / Book Lists, Features / 0 Comments

Post found on Pretty Deadly Reviews | Inspired by Mercy’s Bookish Musings 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. Here I go again, this time for 2020 releases… I decided to order them from the most likely to be five stars, down to the ones that maybe are wishful thinking but still have a good chance. The King of Crows by Libba Bray | This series has been such a wonderful experience. I loved Bray’s writing before, but holy crap – she is so damn SMART. I loved the first book, seriously enjoyed the second, loved the third… I’m hoping she REALLY gets me with the final book. I’m simultaneously not ready at all and also cannot wait. Girls with Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young | As you saw in last year’s post and the recent update, I was spot-on in assuming that the first book in this series would be a five-star read. I was blown away. I’m continuing to hope and assume Young will knock my socks off yet again in book two! Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally | I adored the Hundred Oaks series even though there were a […]

Blog Tour: The Little Bookshop on the Siene

Posted January 3, 2020 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | December 2019

Posted January 2, 2020 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 6 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. December involved just enough reading to satisfy my Goodreads Challenge, as well as my Christmas-loving heart. I managed to finish 8 Christmas books (I started 2 more but DNFed them, unfortunately)! It was so nice to just get lost in the holiday feels over the month and not worry about the challenges I decided not to finish for the year. 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 | 38 read total | 95% complete Monthly Motif Challenge 2 read this month | 28 read total This month: Last chance Retellings Reading Challenge 0 read this month | 7 read total | 70% complete Picky Pledge My goal is to work on Alexa and Hannah’s Picky Pledge, reading one book from my shelves per month that fits a category on this TBR idea list. (I may read more each month but I’ll just highlight one book and category.) This month: None [/one_half_last] Breakdown: 1 bought | 0 borrowed | 0 free/gifted | 4 […]

2019 Reflection / Wrap-Up

Posted January 1, 2020 / Features, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

I usually do a few end-of-year bookish surveys to mark the end of another reading year, but I decided to swap one of those out, keep Jamie’s EOY survey, and do something different. I’ll share stats and highs/lows from both my reading year. I participated in the Statistics Survey in years past (2014, 2015, and 2016), created and hosted by Brittany and Andi, two of my all-time favorite bloggers and friends. They didn’t move forward with hosting it for this year and I decided to make some adjustments to their questions for my own purposes. I always share stats and EOY information at this time anyways, but there are bits and pieces sprinkled in from their survey as well! Monthly Reads and Stats, Book Buying Habits Average book rating for 2019: 3.8 stars Average number of pages per month: 3,757 pages Average books acquired per month: 11.3 books Most books/pages read in a month: March, July – 14 books (5,568 pages, 4,422 pages) Least books/pages read in a month: September – 7 books (2,562 pages) I usually read the most in January because I tend to get reinvigorated by a new reading year. I like being able to get ahead of my challenge early. However, this year’s biggest reading months were March and July! Looking back at my monthly recap, it seems like I was just excited to read in March for some reason. I got into a groove, listened to a lot of audiobooks, and enjoyed my reading. July was another solid reading month where I met […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #268: Favorites of 2019

Posted December 31, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Favorite Books Read in 2019 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 going to keep this post short and sweet – here are the books I rated five stars and 4.5 stars from 2019. All of my favorites for the year basically! 5 Stars 4.5 Stars

2019 End of Year Survey

Posted December 30, 2019 / Uncategorized / 4 Comments

I loved filling out Jamie’s survey in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. This is the 10th time she’s hosted this survey and it’s so fun to see what everyone chooses for the categories. Last year, I didn’t allow myself any duplicates. I’m going to try to keep them to a minimum for this survey, but it feels impossible. I’ll need to have a few. To learn more about it and see a blank set of questions, check here! It was so fun to reread my answers for last year, since I copied that survey here to clean out and fill out. Number of Books You Read: 123 Number of Re-Reads: 4 | Number of DNFs: 7 Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary 1. Best Book You Read In 2018? Totally cheating and adding multiple categories! (Not including rereads.) See a full list of my “best reads” of the year (5 stars and 4.5 stars) here if you’re curious. Best of the best: Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston Best contemporary: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang Best non-contemporary: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo Best adult fiction: Meet Cute by Helena Hunting Best sequel or companion: The Map From Here to There by Emery Lord Best diverse read: There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon 2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? I feel like I had quite a few books that disappointed me this year or didn’t live up to what I was expecting them to be. The biggest disappointment overall was probably […]