Search Results for: read-bait

Lauren Lately | January 2018

Posted January 15, 2018 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 3 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 ✨ Christmassy trip to Freeport and holiday things | The middle of December involved a quick visit to Freeport, ME. It’s the home of the LL Bean flagship store, plus a cute holiday market they put together in the middle of their “campus.” We walked around the town, got dinner at Linda Bean’s, and shopped for final Christmas gifts. It had exactly the kind of Maine Christmas vibes I was looking for this holiday season. We did a LOT of holiday movie-watching this year. We saw Daddy’s Home 2 in theaters and watched countless movies at home as well. I did a few round-up posts for movies if you’re curious. WWE Live event | The same weekend we went to Freeport on Friday, we went to a WWE Live event in downtown Portland. These are non-televised WWE shows and they’re pretty fun. Unfortunately we went to the last Live event before a PPV, so it was a little […]

Bookmark Lit Bulletin | November 2017

Posted December 1, 2017 / Bookmark Lit Bulletin, Features, Wrap-Ups / 7 Comments

The Bookmark Lit Bulletin was created to wrap up each month and prepare for the next. I share my book haul, books I read and reviewed, posts I shared, challenge updates, and more from the previous month. I also let you know what may be coming up on the blog in the coming month. You can read past bulletins here. I recently split out my personal posts into the Lauren Lately feature, so this is a bit shorter! Not a great reading month for me, unfortunately. I was really pushing myself to finish a few more books within the last week of the month. It helped that I started to get into the Christmas books because those tend to be addicting for me. There were two books that bugged me all month that I was never in the mood to read, which definitely added some stress. The week we were home for Thanksgiving involved almost zero reading too. Oh well. It’ll be a big push to finish the reading year strong and luckily that means a lot of Christmas books. ? Average rating for books read in Octber: 3.9 stars Highlights & Lowlights This month’s books: Year-Long Contemporary Romance Challenge 6 this month | 61 read total | 610% complete Flights of Fantasy Challenge 4 this month | 26 read total | 87% complete NONE Rock My TBR Challenge 0 this month | 15 read total | 100% complete NONE Series Enders Challenge 1 this month | 16 read total | 160% complete Fall Bingo Challenge Book […]

I Need More Books Like THESE

Posted July 26, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 10 Comments

Lately I’ve been finishing books and thinking, MAN I could use another book just like that. It’s either because the topic or story was so unique that I can’t stop thinking about it, or the book itself just fully encompasses what I look for in a certain type of book. Today I’m sharing three books or series I’ve read recently that I’m hoping you can provide some comp titles for. Think you can help me out!?

2017 Mid-Year Challenge Progress & Statistics

Posted July 5, 2017 / Book Challenges, Features, Wrap-Ups / 10 Comments

I love tracking my TBR and trying to see what else there is to accomplish by halfway through the year. I always hope it shocks me into saying HOLY SHIT get going on those challenges… but this year, I’m in pretty good shape for all of them! It looks like I’ll definitely meet my goals. Check out last year’s post if you’re curious! As you see in my monthly wrap-ups, I keep my stats updated each time. The spreadsheet I use is definitely the reason for my organization. I use this time of year (in addition to the end of the year) to REALLY go all-out with my stats. It also helps me create new goals or update existing ones. I may decide I really should read more fantasy or more books from my own shelves. I’ll highlight all of the books I’ve read so far in general too. All of the Books Read So Far Random Fun Smallest book read: Mischief & Magnolias (70 pages) Largest book read: The Sweet Far Thing (819 pages) Most read author: Beth Kendrick (4) Books read 300 pages or under: 24% Books read over 300 pages: 76% Most pages / books in a month: 5,869 pages in February / 16 books in January Least pages / books in a month: 3,406 pages in June / 8 books in May As you know, I love challenges and tend to participate in them quite a bit. I always sum them up in my wrap-ups, but this time of year is great to kick my ass […]

ARC Review: What I Lost

Posted May 29, 2017 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Trigger warning for eating disorders and some self-harm. Initial Excitement I had almost zero thoughts about this book before I started it. I’ve always been interested in books that involve treatment centers for some strange reason, so I decided to join the ARC tour for this one. I looked at the length of the book, read the synopsis again, and sighed. I figure this was going to take me forever to read and be super heavy. I’m glad that first impressions can be wrong 😉 Quick Summary Elizabeth is sent away to a treatment facility (that’s actually in her hometown) for her anorexia. The story follows her journey and watches her growth throughout the month-long process. She makes friends, tries to develop better eating habits, and struggles with other things in her life. When she first checks in, she receives mysterious packages that seem to point to her ex-boyfriend, so she tries to figure out who they’re coming from and why. Storytelling, Setting, and Feels GUYS. I physically could not put this book down. I started it on a Saturday morning and before I knew it, 350 pages (out of 400) were read. I stopped a couple times to do quick things around the apartment but I preeeetty much finished it in one shot. For a “difficult” book with tough topics, it was so easy to keep reading. I know part of it was my weird fascination with books set in treatment facilities (oh, that just inspired a new read-bait […]

The Nostalgia Project | Gemma Doyle Trilogy

Posted May 26, 2017 / Book Reviews, The Nostalgia Project / 5 Comments

The Nostalgia Project is my way of revisiting and rereading old favorites from my young adulthood to see if they still resonate with me. Learn more here and read old posts or reviews here! I didn’t include the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray in my original post about this project. Honestly it doesn’t really fit because it’s not the same kind of genre I was looking to analyze. However, if this trilogy is anything to me, it’s nostalgic. My book club decided to read this series for our meetings for March, April, and May, so it was finally the right excuse to make this reread happen! Man, this book. ? I love when rereads are a perfect mix of homey, nostalgic feelings plus a “brand new” story (because I forgot almost everything that happened!). It’s time like these where I love that my bookish memory is terrible. This was like revisiting an old favorite and being surprised at the same time. I think the biggest difference, looking back, is the pacing. I can see how some people may consider the story somewhat slow or even boring at times. The pacing is similar to a historical fiction book (which makes sense, because it is one), but there are some fantastical elements. The pacing is definitely not like that of a fantasy novel. I didn’t mind the slow-moving plot because my feels kept me going, not gonna lie. Gemma and her friends were worse to me this time around. I liked Gemma overall, even though she was definitely […]

Seriously, How Have I Not Read This Yet?

Posted May 19, 2017 / Discussions, Features / 25 Comments

A lot of books end up on my “jazzed up for this” shelf on Goodreads. I made a whole 2015 challenge about the books I MUST read because I was previously so excited for them. So why do I never read them?! This happens way way way too often. Here are some of the books I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read even though I’ve been ~so excited~ about them for years. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour | This was one of those books I added to my TBR riiiiight before I started blogging. I loved the cover and the Hollywood-centered premise. The Catastrophic History of You & Me by Jess Rothenberg | I love books where people are stuck in between life and death, in that kind of ghost-y afterlife watching their friends and family move on. The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes | This synopsis has me written all over it, but for some reason I haven’t opened it up yet. I even own this book like an asshole, as usual. 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen | I loooooved the other Rachael Allen book I read and have had this one sitting around for quite some time. I don’t have excuses because this seems perfect for me. Before I Go by Colleen Oakley | Much like the previous one, I read another Colleen Oakley first. BEFORE I GO has been on my shelf for years and the concept sounds great, but I’m not prepared for the sads. My Heart […]

Lauren Lately | May 2017

Posted May 15, 2017 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 4 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 ✨ Portland, ME | We went up to Portland to visit Chris’s sister with his cousin and had SO much fun! I have more pictures but didn’t want to spam you. We’re so in love with that city now. Above you can see the Bug Light park/lighthouse area, our seafood lunch, and walk near Back Cove. Everything was awesome. We went to a really fun Mexican restaurant at night with so many pepper-shaped lights on the ceiling and walls – literally like a blanket. We also went to a nice indoor-outdoor bar that will be super fun later on in the summer. I can’t wait to be back up there very soon! ? Reading outside | Tis the season, when the weather gets a little nicer and I get to spend my lunch breaks reading in the grass. I also try to utilize our back porch as much as humanly possible. I love being able to enjoy […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #138: Reading Wishlist

Posted May 9, 2017 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 6 Comments

Ten Things on my Reading Wishlist Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, 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 week’s topic is ten things on my reading wishlist (things you want to see more of in books – certain tropes, time periods, characters/personalities, issues, plots, etc.). This topic was done in January 2014, before I started blogging, so it’s fun to work on this one for the first time! It was kind of tough because I thought it may read as similar to my read-bait TTT (and all of those posts too).

Ten eBooks I’ve Owned FOREVER

Posted May 4, 2017 / Book Lists, Features / 17 Comments

I love freebie week for TTT because it brings so many other topics to my attention for me to steal borrow later on (with credit of course!). Pure Imagination featured a TTT of top ten books that have been on her Kindle for way too long… and I knew I needed to tackle this topic in one way or another! Top 10 Kindle Books I’ve Owned the Longest and Still Plan to Read Someday I bought so many Kindle books back in the day that I’d love to return. My reading tastes have definitely changed since 2009-2011 when I first got my Kindle(s). Fun fact: the first Kindle book I ever bought and read was The Hunger Games. That was fun to see when looking at my Amazon history! I remember reading it during college nonstop, whenever I wasn’t working on homework. Here are ten ebooks I’ve owned foooorever and still think I’ll read at some point in the future… The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti On my Kindle since 2011 Why I’ll probably still read it at some point: This is definitely the kind of book I used to reach for, but I can still see some of its appeal for my current reading tastes. People coming together to get information and learn about their family, past mistakes, etc. is definitely a topic I’m still interested in reading about. I love seeing the journeys people take and new relationships developing along the way. Key piece of the synopsis […]