Top Ten Tuesday: Books recently added to my TBR.

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Ten Books You Recently Added To Your To-Be-Read List

I usually do this at the end of the week with another meme I participate in (Friday Finds), but I figured I would participate in TTT this week and it’ll hopefully end up making my Friday post not so massive, haha. Here are ten of the most recent books I have added to my TBR list (all linked to Goodreads):

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Modern Romance: An Investigation by Aziz Ansari
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

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Never Never by Colleen Hoover
Diary of a Teenage Zombie by Kristy Berridge
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

I tend to add so many books to my TBR list. It’s definitely a problem of mine and I’m sure a problem with most (if not all) book lovers. I am most excited for Aziz Ansari’s book to be released. I love all his stand ups, I love all the characters he plays, and of course I LOVED his character Tom from Parks & Rec. So many books, so little time. Sigh.

What are some books you recently added to your TBR list? Or link me to your post! 🙂

Here is a link to my last post in case you missed it. It’s a book haul post and I guess those are always fun, because BOOKS! 🙂 Also…have some random pictures of my furbabies and other maybe fun stuff?

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++ This is ColbyJack chillin on the end table in the living room. Yeahh..that’s a TARDIS coaster. If you haven’t noticed already, I am way too obsessed with Doctor Who and I have Doctor Who everything…almost!
++ There is my pup Dax and I was totally laying on that pillow reading, but I got up for literally a minute and he stole my reading spot. He’s too cute to move, so I found a new spot.

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++ Here they both are half asleep; they were really tired. If you don’t notice, they are laying on a comforter on the floor of my bedroom, because my boyfriend and I make sure they are always comfy. They also have like four beds and you can see some of them in the background, but ColbyJack ALWAYS lays in his box. We have purposely left that box there just for him.
++ The next picture is just a hilarious picture of ColbyJack. I can’t get over how funny it is STILL a year later when he does it. hahaha.

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++ Sunrises and Starbucks sweet tea are probably the only greatest things about Monday mornings. It’s what I look forward to on Sunday nights, to be honest. I go to bed dreaming about the everything bagel that I am going to get on Monday.

You can see these and more of my pictures over on my Instagram: heyyitsashley.

Tomorrow I’ll probably post my March recap post. Link me to your TTT posts or let me know any books that you recently added to your TBR list! 🙂 I always need more books….right? The almost 300 on my list and almost 100 on my bookshelves obviously aren’t enough for me. 😉 Off to work for me! BYE! ❤

Another book haul, yikes!

HEY! 🙂

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend! I have done nothing that I planned on doing so far this weekend, oops! I did go shopping for Easter goodies for the niece and nephew and then ended the day with another trip to a different Goodwill. I am totally in a reading slump as you have probably read in the last couple posts I have done, but I am in no way in a not buying books slump..hah. I think I rather be going through that! The trip only ended up being $12 though, so that’s awesome! Onto the books…

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Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

I thought it was totally awesome that I found THREE Ender books! I read Ender’s Game, which I got from the library, but I decided to buy the book so I could own it. I was also so happy that I found some others! I am excited about Ender’s Shadow, because it’s about Bean!

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For One More Day by Mitch Albom
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
Allies & Assassins by Justin Somper
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
The Bourne Deception by Robert Ludlums

I am pretty excited that I found For One More Day. I love that book so much and I love Mitch Albom. The boyfriend chose The Bourne Deception, but I am sure it’ll sit on the bookcase and never be read by him; just like the others he chose before, lol. My younger sister chose Reality Check, but I think I might read it also. Allies & Assassins I seen last month or so when I went there and was on the fence about getting it, so I didn’t get it. I seen it again this time, so I decided to just get it. All the books together 🙂

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Tomorrow I have to get some work done. I brought home work from my job to do over the weekend, so I have to get that done tomorrow. I also did not accomplish any Dorothy read time in today, so I have to try to tonight and also tomorrow. I am really trying to make it a point to finish it before April 1st! Blehhhh. I love the book, but I am in a slight reading slump…so there’s that. Nothing at all against the book. Tomorrow will be busy. I also have another book club chat about The Glass Arrow tomorrow, so I have to get my work done, so I can join that.

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Throne of Glass came in the mail yesterday and I am excited about it! It’s the book chosen for the April read in the book club, so that’s awesome. I love this version of the cover. And that’s me trying to read Dorothy Must Die last night, but the reading slump totally took over, blehhhhh. I also look insanely tired, because for some reason the last month or so I haven’t been able to get to sleep early enough during the week. Oh well!

Just in case you missed them, here are a few of the last posts that I did and sorry for the repeat in linking from other posts, but I haven’t done that many posts recently. Hopefully that changes SOON!

Okay..that’s all for now. I am off to MAYBE read or catch up on Broadchurch with the boyfriend. I love David Tennant so much and Broadchurch is amazing! We are two episodes behind on the new season. 🙂 BYE!

Friday Finds #7.

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FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). Hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

HEY! 🙂

I know I haven’t been updating as much this week as I usually do, but I guess I’m in this weird place right now when it comes to books and reading. I can’t believe I even said that! If you read my last post, then it kind of explains it. I hit 100 followers this week though and that is awesome! I’ve been actively only using this blog again since January of this year and I already hit 100 followers. I actually only had two followers (my bestie and my younger sister) when I started back on this blog. So a 98 follower increase in just 2.5-3 months is pretty amazing! THANK YOU GUYS! ❤

I don’t think I went too crazy (well as crazy as I usually do) with adding books to my TBR list this week. Here are ten of the books that I found this week:

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli
The First Third by Will Kostakis
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

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The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
SYLO by D.J. MacHale
Control by Lydia Kang
The Nethergrim by Matthew Jobin
Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

I decided to share pretty much all the books I found this week, because it was hard to choose and I love the covers of all of these! I exported my entire TBR list on Goodreads to Excel and printed the book titles off and put them into a container, so I can have it as my “book jar”. I also printed off blank slips, so I can hand write any new adds that didn’t get printed off. I think once I finish all (or at least some) of my Netgalley books, I am going to start drawing books to read next. I hope that it helps me to get to my older adds and also help me decide what to read next.

Are any of these on your TBR list? What are some books you found this week? Or link me to your post!

Just in case you missed them, here are a few of the last posts that I did.

I am going to try to finish reading Dorothy Must Die this weekend and then start on some of the Netgalley books that I have. It’ll be the last book I read for March. I am currently listening to Beautiful Darkness, but should have it finished by today. It’s almost time for my monthly recap post, so that should be fun. I recently added Throne of Glass to my TBR list and it was chosen for the April read for the book club (Bloggers’ Book Club) I am in. I am excited about that! I should be receiving the book in the mail today!

It feels weird ending this post without a random picture, so here is yet ANOTHER picture of my kitten ColbyJack and my pup Dax. I swear I mostly take pictures of my furbabies.

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Happy Friday! & Happy Reading!
Thanks again for being awesome! This blog would be nothing without you guys; my followers! It’s been so awesome getting to know you all and sharing our love for books. ❤

Eleanor & Park.

Hi 🙂

I know I am slacking with the 30 day book challenge I started. I guess I just haven’t been up for it the past few days. I might get back to it soon. I figured I would do a post for the 2015 Reading Challenge I am attempting to also do. There is a category for it on my blog if you want to check out other posts.

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I finished Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell in one day (yesterday). I started to listen to it at work and then I HAD to finish it, because I was just so into the book. I usually just pick it up the next day at work if it wasn’t finished. I couldn’t do that with this one, because I wanted to know how it ended and I only had three more hours of it left. This book was perfect. So perfect. I was crying throughout the entire book. I am not sure that I like the way that the book ended though. 😦 Overall, I loved it! Park was perfect and probably every girl’s dream guy. Eleanor, I really liked her, but at times she annoyed me. The book made me happy and it also made me so sad! This was me geeking out at work…

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LOL 😀

Have you read Eleanor & Park? Is there any books that have made you cry?

On a random note: I kind of feel overwhelmed right now with the amount of books I have to read (well want to read/bought). I’m also kind of annoyed at myself, because I haven’t been reading as much as I would have hoped I would this month (at least physical books anyway – I listen to tons of audiobooks while working). I’ve kind of just been not in the mood for it, I guess. I did get through a lot of Dorothy Must Die over the weekend and I am making it a point to finish it before the month is over. I have five books I got from Netgalley that I should start on and that is kind of overwhelming in itself…sigh.

I think over the last couple months I have put so much stress on myself over this that it has been feeling like a chore (and probably why I am finding it hard to want to read) and that’s never a good thing; especially when books and reading are some of my favorite things. I try to live a stress-free life, so it kind of sucks when some of my favorite things are the cause of the little stress that I do have in my life. When I say stress-free, I really mean it. I never let things get to me. Even if something bad happens, I just accept and move on. I’m a lot happier when I live that way, so I really don’t let things get to me and it sucks that this actually is. Part of me feels kind of silly about this, but it is what it is.

Just in case you missed them, here are a few of the last posts that I did.

  • Book Haul and random adventure/pictures.
  • March book from the book club I am.
  • Last post from the 2015 Reading Challenge; happens to also be a Rainbow Rowell book.

Last but not least; here’s a random picture of me and my pup from the other night. I love this dude so much! You have no idea.

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Bye. ❤

Book Haul, Adventures, & Pictures.

Hi 🙂

Remember when I said I was on a book buying ban? Yeah….I suck, lol. There is a Goodwill literally 5 minutes walking from my house, so I decided to drag my younger sister on a walk to the Goodwill with me. I was really going to look for a jar there for the book jar I wanted to make, but of course I had to look at the books too. I failed to find a jar, but I left with a bunch of books. Together they only cost me about $10 though!

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Walking isn’t too bad, but since I live in Florida it is so dang hot! WHERE’S THE SNOW THOUGH?! The walk wasn’t bad though, thank God. It could have been worse had it been a further distance. The Goodwill is across from a railroad track that is at the end of the street that my house is on, SO CLOSE!

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This is the railroad, of course. I love that there are flower bushes along the side of it. I live on the other side of those bushes; well toward the end of the street anyway, but close enough. I also have one of those bushes in my backyard, it’s pretty.

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My sister and I found this pretty neat mirror at Goodwill. If my apartment was bigger, I probably would have wanted to get it. I’m the one with the colorful TOMS on and she’s the one with the black shoes; well those are our legs anyway, lol 😉 Onto the books and then some other random pictures from today and this week.

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Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tyler
Chasers by James Phelan
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
The Long Wait for Tomorrow by Joaquin Dorfman
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

So, those are all the books that I got! They were all in great condition! I couldn’t pass up on the Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox. It’s the sixth book in the series, but I want to eventually own and read them all, so I had to buy it. I already read Water for Elephants, but I really loved the book, so I wanted to own it. The rest of the books I have never read and they all sound like good books. I had Thirteen Reasons Why on my TBR list, so it was nice finding it. There is a picture of ColbyJack chillin amongst the books. He really just wanted to lay on the plastic bags.

I printed off my entire TBR list from Goodreads on Excel and I plan to do the book jar soon! I have seven books I want to read before I start the jar, so I printed off extra pages, so I could fill out new books that I add to my list. I know I’ll probably end up adding tons more books before I actually get a chance to do the jar (like all the books I bought today). I wrote down the seven books I want to read before, so I can check off from there. I am thinking about doing two jars; one of books I own already and one of books I don’t own yet. That way I am not constantly having to spend money on books and I can also get the books I own already read.

Okay, so other than Goodwill, my younger and older sister and I went to the pet store. My younger sister has gerbils, so she wanted to get some bedding for them. There was a snake at the pet store that some lady was holding. It felt so cool. They also had this cute little bird that my older sister and I really wanted, but it was over $100! That’s my sister’s arm in the picture with the snake. And my older sister bought me this to hang in my apartment; she knows how much I HATE cleaning, so it’s perfect.

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Earlier this week I posted how I got a ton of Bath & Body Works in the mail, well this week I also got some new TOMS and my book light. I am in love with both so much! The TOMS came with a pretty awesome bracelet!

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And here are a couple of random pictures that I took this week. Purple flower in my backyard and tree branches and leaves that I thought looked pretty cool.

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Anyway, that’s all for now! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Just in case you missed them, here are a couple of the last posts that I did.

  • Book club post about the book we read in March; The Glass Arrow. – Random Excitement: Kristen Simmons tweeted me a smiley face, lol. 
  • Friday Finds – some of the books I added to my TBR list this week, because you know, it’s never-ending and I can’t stop.

Bye! ❤

Bloggers’ Book Club: March – The Glass Arrow.

Hi 🙂

I know I have mentioned this a couple times in my blog already, but I am in a book club over at Goodreads called Bloggers’ Book Club. It was started by one of the book bloggers I follow on here and I am so excited to be apart of it. There are tons of bloggers (some I’ve met on here and some I haven’t yet) that are in the book club as well. Twice a month we are supposed to do group discussions/chats on the book and we did our first one and that was actually so much fun! I figured I would do small little blog posts about the books we read each month. Basically, just how I felt about the book and whether I liked it or not. I’ll try to keep from spoilers as much as I can in case you haven’t read the book yet or plan to ever read it. I set up a “category”, so you can find the posts easier if you are interested in reading them. There is a drop down menu on the right sidebar on my blog with it in there. The book that was chosen for March was….

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The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons. 4 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it was good at keeping my attention. It was kind of a scary read, even though it wasn’t the scary/horror type of genre. It was scary, because it’s something that I could see happening in the world. There were also some things and views of some of the characters that you see every day in the world today. It really makes you think about society now and what it could possibly be like in the future. It was kind of realistic, to be honest; similar things like what was happening in the book could very well be happening in other places that we really don’t know about. I loved the main character Aya, she was such a badass. Some of the other characters were lovable too, especially Brax (he’s a wolf). You also have your annoying characters and the characters you want to knock some sense into! The entire story was so great and I really like how it ended, although I really wanted more. It ended perfectly, but there is still part of you that wants to know what happens to everyone afterward. Like what happens now? It was a great read though.

Here is the Goodreads description of the book: “The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder. In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning.”

The moderators of the book club set up a Q&A with the author Kristen Simmons, so I am excited to see how she answers all of our questions!

Have you read The Glass Arrow? If so, what did you think about it?

A couple recent posts to check out in case you missed them:

  • Friday Finds – some of the books I added to my TBR list this week.
  • Day 14 here from the 30 day book challenge that I am doing. It’s about unfinished books.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! ❤

Friday Finds #6.

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FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). Hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Hi 🙂 It’s Friday! I’m so glad it’s Friday, because I am so tired. I want to get through work today and take a nap when I get home. For some reason lately I haven’t been able to sleep. I didn’t go to sleep last night until after 1AM and the furbabies woke me up at 6:30AM today. So. Tired. This week I added more books to my TBR list than I actually thought I did. I blame Pinterest, because I finally went through some of my book board and added them to Goodreads. I’ll only post eight out of the 3458937583 ones I found. You can check out my Goodreads account over here if you want to see more or add me as a friend. 🙂

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After Mind by Spencer Wolf
The Dark by David C. Cassidy
The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher
Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius
The Labyrinth by Dorian Zari
The Undelightened by Bentz Deyo
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Inhuman by Kat Falls

I love all the covers for these books and I am really excited to read them. I still need to figure out what I want to do with that situation. I am leaning toward the book jar after I finish some of the books that I already have. I feel like so many books will never get a second look if I keep adding and adding to my list. We’ll see how that goes! I’ve been slacking with reading, to be honest. I don’t think I picked up my current book I am reading in a few days. 😦

Are any of these on your TBR list? What are some books you found this week? Or link me to your post!

Random: I have a ton (like 60) of body sprays from Bath & Body Works and my kitty decided he now likes sitting next to them. He always seems to knock some off the shelf. WELL….this morning, he decided it would be fun to climb on top of them and that didn’t end well. He knocked almost all of them off. Ugh. He does whatever he wants.

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Recent/Other Posts to check out in case you missed them:

  • Friday Finds from last week.
  • Day 14 here from the 30 day book challenge that I am doing. It’s about unfinished books.

Off to work for me! I am crossing my fingers that the day goes by fast! I hope everyone has a great Friday! ❤

30 Day Book Challenge // Day 14.

Hi 🙂

A quick post, because I am going to go see Insurgent tonight with the boyfriend. We are re-watching Divergent before the movie starts.

Day 14: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished).

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I don’t think I have ever told anyone I read a book and not actually have read it or finished it. There are two books that I started, but haven’t finished yet though. I do plan on finishing them and I don’t tell anyone that I have read them. I might mention that I started them, but I never claim to have actually read them through completely.

I read the first Harry Potter book pretty quickly and started to read the second. I couldn’t get into the book, so I put it on hold and started to read others. I do plan on picking it up again and eventually reading the rest of the series at some point this year. I swore a long time ago that I would never read any of the books or see any of the movies, but now I want to. I’m not really sure why I told myself I would never get into Harry Potter whatsoever, but it seems kind of silly now that I think about it. I am looking forward to reading this book and the rest of them, hopefully soon.

Endgame: The Calling I started when it first came out and then about 30% (according to Kindle), I stopped reading it. It wasn’t horrible, but I couldn’t really get into it or stay focused on it. It felt like it was taking me so long to read it and I found my mind drifting to other things. There are so many points of views that I started to get lost and confused. I am actually waiting on the audiobook from the library to listen to at work. I don’t think I can physically read it myself. I know it might sound like I hate the book, but I don’t and I didn’t get so far into it to where I can even say I completely hated it. It has just taken so long to really get into it. My fault, not the book’s…at least that is how I view it right now. I do plan on finishing it even if that means listening to it.

Dax got a haircut today! He always looks so cute with his haircuts. ❤

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Check out my previous couple posts for the 30 day blog challenge. 🙂

  • Day 13 here: Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelletes, etc.).
  • Day 12 here: Favorite poem or collection of poetry.

Anyway, I am off to finish Divergent with the boyfriend. He started it without me (I am listening though). Bye! 🙂

WWW WEDNESDAYS #4 & DAY 13.

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This is a weekly MEME hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Simply answer the following questions. 🙂

The three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

*Goodreads links in the pictures

Currently Reading:

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I am finally able to read Dorothy Must Die guilt free. I was so excited when I bought it that I put whatever book I was reading at the time on hold just to start it. I eventually felt guilty about doing that and couldn’t let myself enjoy the book, so I stopped reading Dorothy until I finished those. I am listening to the Beautiful Creatures audiobook at work. It was always a back and forth struggle with me on deciding if I ever wanted to read the series. I decided to listen to the audiobook since the library had it. So far I really like it and the audiobook is an enhanced version, so there are so many sound effects and music playing, lol. I feel like I am actually in the book and I also get a better sense of the surroundings. Like if it’s raining, you get to hear the rain and thunder. It’s pretty fun. Also, the song that is always mentioned in the book, with this enhanced version they play the song.

Recently Finished:

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I recently finished The Glass Arrow over the weekend and I really loved the book! It was the first book of the book club I am in (Bloggers’ Book Club). A post about my thoughts will be coming over the weekend. I have it typed up, but I’m gonna post it on the weekend. I finished Lost In Babylon! It was one of the three books I started, but never finished. I kind of cheated and listened to the audiobook at work to finish it. I’m still glad I did though.

Reading Next:

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I am excited about both of these books. I got the audiobook from my library for Eleanor & Park, so I’ll be listening to that at work. I recently bought We Were Liars, so I’m excited to start it. After these I need to start on the books I got from Netgalley.

What are you currently reading? Finished reading? Reading next? Or link me to your post!

Since I won’t be home tonight to do day 13 of the book challenge, I am going to include it in this post and I am going to try to make it a small, so this post isn’t so long.

Day 13: Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelletes, etc.).

The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald

“The Day Boy and the Night Girl begins by telling of a witch named Watho who, in her pursuit of complete knowledge, undertook an experiment to mold two people from birth by strictly controlling their environments.”

No fancy cover, because I didn’t like what Goodreads had and Amazon wasn’t any better. It was first published in 1882! There is also so many variations of the cover, which is crazy! I read this a couple years ago and I loved the story so much. I loved the characters and the ending was perfect. The witch kept the boy (Photogen) from seeing the night and kept the girl (Nycteris) from seeing the day, but one day she finds a way out of the chamber that she is kept in and every day sneaks out. It’s a cute little story. I would suggest that everyone read it. It’s a super short read, but even with how short it is, it is amazing! ❤ One of my favorites.

In case you missed it, you can check out my day 12 post about a favorite poem of mine over here and some random rambles and pictures. 🙂

30 Day Book Challenge // Day 12.

Hi 🙂

I hope everyone had a good day today! I’m just going to jump right into today’s post and then a random little update and some pictures at the end.

Day 12: Favorite poem or collection of poetry.

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The cover makes me dizzy, lol. Goodreads linked in the cover.

So for today’s post I am supposed to post a favorite poem or collection of poetry. I have done a post on this book before, but I love it so much. You can check out my other post about this book that I used for the 2015 reading challenge over here. I am going to post two poems from this book in my post, because they are all so great and it was hard to really choose! The book is filled with amazing photography, poems, and words. I love it so much! Anyway…

The Layer’s Unseen
“There is magic even here, in gridlock, in loneliness, in too much work, in late nights gone on too long, in shopping trolleys with broken wheels, in boredom, in tax returns, the same magic that made a man write about a princess that slept until she was kissed, long golden hair draped over a balcony and fingers pricked with needles. There is magic even here, in potholes along back-country roads, in not having the right change (you pat your pockets), arriving late and missing the last train home, the same magic that caused a woman in France to think that God spoke to her, that made another sit down at the front of a bus and refuse to move, that lead a man to think that maybe the world wasn’t flat and the moon could be walked upon by human feet. There is magic. Even here. In office cubicles.”

The AWOL Hearts
“Let’s play hopscotch in malls. Let’s drive fast with the top down. Let’s turn up the music as loud as it’ll go. Let’s put a couch on an island in the middle of the freeway and wave at everyone on their way to work. Let’s hug strangers in parking lots. Let’s hand out secret messages at traffic lights. Let’s make lists of all the things that make us smile and tick them off, one at a time. The world will carry on without you and me when we’re gone. Let it carry on without us, today.”

What is one of your favorite poems or a collection of your favorite poems? Let me know in the comments!

Random update:
I’ve been good with not buying any books and I am proud of myself for that. I did however, buy other things. I bought a new pair of shoes (TOMS – which will be here Friday!), I bought a new book light and I am totally excited about it (Doctor Who of course – that’ll be here this week too), and I ordered some things from Bath & Body Works and it was delivered today! I am so glad I had a $50 gift card for B&BW and a 20% off coupon. The total at the end was about $60, so I only had to use $10 of my own money! 🙂 That’s always exciting. Today I baked cookies with my younger sister and decorated them. I also saved some for my niece and nephew to decorate. That’s always fun.

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The little bags (four little bags) have more hand santizers in them. I still haven’t opened them yet. I need to, because I want to smell them, lol. I also need to reorganize all my B&BW stuff over the weekend. I just have so many pocketbacs (hand sanitizers), ugh. Maybe almost 500? I’m crazy.

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My decorated cookies! SPRINKLESSSSSSSS! I only ate one and then let everyone else have the rest. I just wanted to decorate. And then me…always reading. 😉 I’m using my Supernatural bookmark. I love my boys and so glad they are back tomorrow!

That’s all for this post! In case you missed it, you can check out my day 11 post about five random books on my to be read list over here and if you love cats, you can see a cute picture of my kitten ColbyJack at the end of the post, lol! 🙂 I might not do my post for tomorrow, because I’ll probably go to the movies to see Cinderella with the boyfriend. I also still need to post the entry I wrote for The Glass Arrow. I think I might post it over the weekend. It’s sitting in my drafts. Anyway, that’s all! BYE!

30 Day Book Challenge // Day 11.

Hi 🙂

I am so glad that today is pretty much over. It was such a busy day and so many annoyances. I really dislike Mondays, because they are always so busy. I think the only thing I love about Mondays is that some of my favorite TV shows are on; Bates Motel and The Following. I am beyond excited that the new seasons started back up. Now I need Hannibal to start back up and everything will be right in the world; at least my world anyway. Do you have any Monday night favorite TV shows?

Anyway, onto why I am really here…

Day 11: Any five books from your “to be read” stack.

For this topic I decided to go with some of the books that have been on my reading list for awhile and since I do the Friday Frinds posts and those show the newest books added each week.

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The Moaning of Life: The Worldly Wisdom of Karl Pilkington by Karl Pilkington
S. by J.J. Abrams
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick

Anyone that really knows me knows that I love Karl Pilkington. He understands me. We are the same person. If he was God, I would totally worship him. He has several books out and I want to read them all. I’ve read one of them, which was his journal entries while he was doing the first season of An Idiot Abroad, so hilarious.

‘I’ve been on the planet for forty years now, and I’m still none the wiser as to what it’s all about really. I’ve never worried about life’s big questions. People at my age sit about pondering “why are we here?” The only time I ever asked myself that is when Suzanne booked us a surprise holiday to Lanzarote.'”

My older sister bought me a Karl Pilkington shirt – it says “I won’t be socializing. I don’t do that.” – I love this man.

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All of these books sound SO good to me and I really have no idea why I haven’t read them yet. I’ve had them on my list for so long and they kind of just got lost with my never-ending add sprees. I have seen a few people on here and seen on Pinterest where they have made a TBR jar and draw books from there to read next. I was debating on if I wanted to do this or not. It would help to get to the older adds.

I have so many good books (well, might be good books) on my TBR list and it’s kind of sad that they get lost, because I am adding so many every week. I need a better solution to this problem. I have ideas forming in my head. I think I need to write them down, sort them out, and put one or more into play. Honestly, this can get kind of overwhelming when you want to read so many books. sigh.

What are some of the books from your reading stack? Any that are really old? Let me know in the comments. 🙂

Anyway, it’s getting late and I want to at least get one of my TV shows in tonight before I have to go to sleep. By the way, I probably have just as many TV shows that I watch as I do books that I want to read, lol. It’s kind of crazy that most people my age are worried/stressing about work, money, kids, family, weddings, or other “adult” stuff and I am over here stressing about what to read or watch next. Remember when I said I don’t feel at all 27? Well, there you go.

A ColbyJack picture, just because.
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Goodnight

Versatile Blogger Award.

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Hey 🙂 I’ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by drizzle and hurricane books! Thank you so much for the nomination! I love your blog! Everyone should go check it out! 🙂 I’ve already been nominated for this before, but I don’t mind doing it again. You can check out my other post over here.

How does it work?
1. Nominate 15 other bloggers relatively new to blogging
2. Let the bloggers know that you’ve nominated them
3. Share 10 random facts about yourself
4. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post

The hard part since I have already done this, is coming up with 10 new facts! So, let’s see if I can do this! I should know about myself, right? 😉

1: I love nail polish. I have about 80 bottles of nail polish and anytime I go to Walgreen’s (which is one of my favorite stores, lol), I end up buying more. One of my cousins bought me a nail polish rack for dogsitting for her and now I can display my nail polish. My nail polish rack below:

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2: I love pop punk music and going to concerts. I love music just as much as I love books, so I spend a lot of money on concert tickets and books. Some of my favorite bands: The Story So Far (seen them 3 times), Real Friends (seen them 2 times), Neck Deep (seen them 3 times in just one year, lol), Knuckle Puck (seen them 2 times), The Summer Set (seen them 2 times). I also seen SO many other amazing bands live. New Found Glory being one of my favorites to see live. Next month I am seeing Taking Back Sunday again. First picture: The Story So Far and second picture: Brian from The Summer Set.

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3: I am obsessed with TOMS (shoes). I have so many pairs of them and I actually just ordered a new pair last night and I am so excited to get them. I even got my boyfriend obsessed with them. We probably have TOMS thrown everywhere around our home.

4: I am addicted to Pinterest. I could spend hours on there and every time I pick up  my phone, I go straight to the Pinterest app first. I am constantly rearranging my pins and my boards. I am so proud of my Pinterest that I force my boyfriend to look at all the pins I’ve pinned, lol.

5: I’ve been with my boyfriend for almost seven and a half years. It’s kind of crazy that we have been together so long. It doesn’t at all feel like it’s been that long and that’s the amazing part of it. We are huge geeks, so it works out perfectly. We met at a grocery store we both worked at and have been together ever since. This picture is from New Year’s last year from a party at a local bar. And we’re that couple that has matching shirts. One happens to be Doctor Who. 🙂

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6: I am still a kid at heart. I love playing video games on my 3DS (especially Pokemon and Animal Crossing) and I love coloring. I have tons of crayons, markers, and coloring books. I also hate sharing my crayons and markers, lol. I’m always paranoid that someone will use them all up or break the crayons. hahah.

7: I have no idea how to cook. My boyfriend does all the cooking. I can make macaroni and cheese though! That’s about it. I do however make the best sandwich. Other than that, I am pretty useless in the kitchen. I really want to learn though, because my food boards on Pinterest are constantly calling my name.

8: I love the beach, but I don’t like getting in the water. I am paranoid about sharks and stuff, but I love sharks, lol. I usually just put my feet in the water and that’s about it, lol. I don’t even like going in pools though. We have a pool at our house, but I never use it.

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9: I love holidays and birthdays, because I love giving gifts. I take pride in my gift giving ability, lol. I always find the perfect gifts for everyone and I love seeing everyone’s face when they receive them. It’s probably one of my favorite feelings and things to see.

10: And for number ten I leave you with the song that I am currently obsessed with right now. I am actually on and off obsessed with this song. I’ll listen to it forever and then when I can finally get myself to stop and move on, I always end up coming back to it a few months later and I am now back on it. It’s just SO good and so relatable. Something’s Keeping Me Here by Real Friends.

I am currently jamming the hell out of it right now on repeat. You would probably be laughing at me if you seen me right now. Here is a good visual/example:
JAM OUT SUPER

I tag everyone for the Versatile Blogger Award if you haven’t done it already or if you want to do it again, that’s cool too! I would love to get to know everyone and read your post. If you decide to do it or have done it already, link me to your post in the comments. 🙂 Starting back tomorrow with the 30 day book challenge and I have a post lined up for The Glass Arrow. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Ten.

Hi 🙂

I am so glad it is Friday! I am looking forward to a weekend of catching up on sleep and reading. The work week went by really fast, but it was also really busy at work. I definitely got overwhelmed a lot with work this week and took it out on my books by not reading as much as I usually do. Earlier today I did my Friday Finds post and you can check it out over here in case you missed it. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a post about some of the books I added to my to be read list this week. 🙂 Onto day ten…

Day 10: Favorite childhood book.

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Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. I loved this book as a kid. It was so fun and filled with so many amazing things! I remember one of my teachers  would read a chapter to us every week from this book. It was one of the greatest parts of going to school as a kid. I still think Mrs. Gorf is scary! I sadly don’t remember exactly everything in the book, because it has been SOOOOOO long since I have read it. I am going to do a reread of it; I want to relive part of my childhood and the book is so great. I think every kid should read this book or every parent should read this book to their kids! I still have a copy of it and I have to be careful with the pages, because it’s so old. I love it though. 🙂

Last year I read the first chapter of this book to my niece and nephew, because I wanted them to experience this amazing book. I took this picture last year of my nephew Jackson. He was totally into the book and it was a proud moment for me, lol.

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^^^ I am still totally excited about the book! 😉 ^^^
What is one of your favorite childhood books? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

  • You can also check out my day nine post about a book I didn’t think I would like, but ended up loving over here.

Friday Finds #5.

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FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). Hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Hi 🙂 It’s Friday again, so I am here to share some of the books that I added to my TBR list over at my Goodreads. I only added 14 this time, which is a little less than what I did last week. I tried to stay away from adding books this week and I also been kind of busy this week too, so I didn’t look at too many books. I won’t include them all, but here are some of the books I added.

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The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
Spelled by Betsy Schow
Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn
Mosquitoland by David Arnold
Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

I also added Carry On to my TBR list (which is a Simon Snow story and spin off from Fangirl). You can check out my post about Fangirl over here.

I recently got approved for some books I wanted to read on Netgalley, so I am also going to share those below. I tried not to request too many, since I don’t want to overwhelm myself and I have books I recently bought that I want to read too. I’m going to do reviews on them all as soon as I read them, which I am hoping to start reading in the next week or so.

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Abomination by Gary Whitta
Uncle John’s Beer-Topia by Bathroom Readers’ Institute
**Netgalley has it as “beer-topia” and Goodreads has it as “beer-vana”**

I also got Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel on Netgalley, which I showed in my last Friday Finds I believe. I am a sucker for a good beer, so I really wanted to read Beer-Topia and I also love the Bathroom Reader books; so it’s two good things in one! I am excited about reading these books and doing reviews on them.

Are any of these on your TBR list? What are some books you found this week? Or link me to your post!

I’ll be back later to do my day ten post for the 30 day book challenge and I’ll end this post with a totally cute picture of my kitten ColbyJack that I took a week or so ago. He’s obsessed with sleeping on the bookcase now. I had to edit the picture with him dreaming of a fish, because you know, he probably was.

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Fangirl.

Hi 🙂

This post is going to be two different challenges into one post, since I am going to use the same book for both. I am doing day nine of the 30 day book challenge and a topic from the POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge.

Day 09A book you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving.
Also, A book by a female author.

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I’ve heard so many things about Fangirl and noticed so many people loved the book. I read the description and it didn’t really sound like a book I would like, so I never read it. I continued to hear good things about it and I continued to go back and forth deciding if I should read it. I recently discovered that I could listen to audiobooks on an app on my iPhone that connects to my public library, so I decided to listen to Fangirl while working this week. I ended up liking it a lot more than I ever thought I would.

This was the first time I read (well listened in this case 😉 ) a book by Rainbow Rowell (although I do have two other books that have been on my TBR list), so it was interesting to finally see how she writes. I felt like I could relate to Cath a lot, even now. I loved the story and I loved the parts of Simon Snow that were included and the fanfiction that Cath wrote about Simon and Baz. Levi…oh Levi, he was perfect. I love my boyfriend to death (been with him a little over seven years), but I won’t lie, there were times I wish he were more like Levi, lol. All guys need a little Levi in them!

I am glad I finally gave in and read the book. I think that the book is relatable for a lot of people, especially younger people, fresh out of high school, trying to make it in the real world and through college. Finding yourself and what really is important in your life. I never did college like that (small community college in Fort Myers for me), but it was nice getting a small peek into that. Sometimes I did get annoyed with some of the characters and the story, but overall I really liked it.

I am also excited that Rainbow Rowell is releasing Carry On as a real book! I am excited to read more about Simon and Baz. Throughout the book I was wishing I could hear more about them. The little scenes about them were nice, but I wanted more of it. Carry On is supposed to be released this year in October, so that is something to look forward to!

HAPPY 11 DOCTOR

Have you read Fangirl? If so, what did you think and are you looking forward to the Simon Snow story?

  • You can check out my previous post from the POPSUGAR reading challenge about a book by an author with my initials over here.
  • You can also check out my day eight post about a book turned into a movie and completely desecrated over here.

Off to have dinner and possibly read or find a new show on Netflix. Have any Netflix suggestions?

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Eight.

Hi 🙂

I am currently trying to set up my iPod on my new computer. It’s kind of annoying and I lost all my playlists. I was so proud of my playlists as geeky as that sounds, lol. I guess when you connect your iPod to a new computer, they have to completely wipe it and put everything back. I have a ton of music, so it’ll probably take most of the night. My iTunes also doesn’t want me listening to music for some reason, ugh. Anyway, here is my day eight post.

Day 08: A book turned into a movie and completely desecrated.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I can actually name quite a few that can fall under this, but I chose The Lightning Thief, because Percy Jackson & The Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series are some of my favorite books! I was so disappointed with the movie, like so disappointed. I sat there and pointed out every single thing that was wrong with it and it drove my boyfriend crazy. I didn’t understand how they could take such a great book and turn it into crap!

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I am convinced that the director read an entirely different book. I decided to torture myself even more and go see The Sea of Monsters with my boyfriend, niece, and nephew. Same thing. So depressing. I decided to compile some random things I found on the internet and post them in this blog post.

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The movies were a HUGE let down. I’m not a person that normally likes the book to movies, but I always make myself watch them. I hate it even more when the movie is done completely wrong and nothing at all like the book. One of the things I hated the most was that the age of the characters were completely wrong, so I felt like the personalities weren’t really the same. The age gap kind of changed their personalities. Blehhh. I get angry just thinking about it!

Have you read The Lightning Thief? How did you feel about the movie? Is there any other books to movies that you felt were completely desecrated?

I am off here though! I have a discussion with the book club on the first half of The Glass Arrow. If you missed it, you can check out my day seven post about a book I’ve been wanting to read, but still haven’t read over here. Bye 🙂

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Seven.

Hi 🙂

It’s been crazy busy today and I finally got caught up with Once Upon A Time and a couple other shows that were sitting on my DVR. That’s why my post for today is being posted kind of late tonight. Sometimes I get so caught up in reading or binge watching shows on Netflix that my DVR fills up so fast. I actually have no shows started on Netflix (that’s a first) and I’m pretty much caught up on my DVR (that’s definitely a first in awhile). Sad to admit, but I have no social life whatsoever, so books and TV shows are pretty much my life (besides the boyfriend and our furbabies). But anyway!

Day 07: A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t.

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I have had Cinder by Marissa Meyer on my TBR list since 2013 and I have been really wanting to read it, but still haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve heard a lot of great things about it and notice that a lot of people love the series so much. I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but I definitely want to. I finally bought the book and I am hoping to get around to reading it this month or for sure in April. I also have had Paper Towns by John Green and The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken on my reading list since the time I added Cinder. I own all three books now, so I am hoping that soon they will be no longer on my TBR list.

Is there any books that you have wanted to read for a long time, but haven’t read yet?

I am torn between reading before bed or watching The Following; both are excellent choices. I do have a discussion on the first half of The Glass Arrow with the book club (Bloggers’ Book Club) tomorrow night – I am not quite to the halfway mark, but almost, so I may try to get more reading from that done before then. Decisions, decisions. In case you missed it, you can check out my day six post about my favorite book from my favorite series over here and you can check out my new bookmarks that I can’t wait to use, lol.

I went to a carnival with my older sister, niece, and nephew on Sunday night. They had fun. Here’s a picture from that and then I should go. bye! 🙂

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30 Day Book Challenge // Day Six.

Hi 🙂

Jumping back on the 30 day book challenge! I decided I would do the posts Monday-Friday. I know that’s not exactly 30 days straight, but oh well!

Day 06: Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time.

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Since I have done my favorite book of all time already (check it out over here), I am going to go with my favorite book of my favorite series. The Divergent series is my favorite series, but Insurgent was my favorite book out of them all. I felt like there was so much information and action jam packed into Insurgent and it was great! So much unfolded in the book and it was the book that was the hardest for me to put down. The way that it ended made it that much harder to wait the year for Allegiant.

This is going to be a short post, because I really want to go read. I’m finally starting to get more into The Glass Arrow and wanting to find out what happens next. I’m hoping this means the end of my mini-reading slump. I’m crossing my fingers, because I got approved for some Netgalley books that I really want to read, so I am hoping to get to those soon. I also have a bunch of books I bought recently that I want to get to. I’m itching for something new, so I am getting excited about all the books I bought.

I completely forgot I ordered bookmarks on Etsy until I got them in the mail today! I was so excited about it and it was a nice surprise. Bookmarks of a fangirl.

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Sherlock, Supernatural, Doctor Who

ColbyJack (my kitten) scratched up my other Doctor Who bookmark (ughhh), so I ordered a different one. Well, I am off to hangout with my younger sister for a little while and then read until the boyfriend gets home. 🙂 bye!

Liebster Award.

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I was nominated to do the Liebster Award by Josie at Josies Book Corner. I’ve been nominated before, but I decided I would do it again. I love Josie’s blog and it’s been so awesome becoming friends with her. I definitely recommend everyone to check out her blog and follow her!

The Rules:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
  2. Display the award on your blog – by including it in your post/ or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post).
  3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person you nominated you.
  4. Nominate 5-11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 200 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!).
  5. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
  6. List these rules in your post. (You can copy and paste).
  7. Find some way to inform those who have nominated you.

Questions from Josie:

1. FAVORITE BOOK YOU’VE READ THIS YEAR?
I’ve read so many great books so far this year, but my favorite that I read this year would have to be Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It’s such a great read!

2. PICK A CHARACTER YOU LIKE AND A SONG THEY’D SERENADE TO THEIR OTHER HALF.
I’m drawing a complete blank with this one! Sorry 😦 I’m definitely going to think about this though and maybe I’ll edit the post later with it or answer at a later time in another post.

3. A QUOTE THAT INSPIRES YOU.
“What’s the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” – John Green, An Abundance of Katherines.

4. A CHARACTER YOU WOULD DATE IF THEY WERE REAL.
This was kind of hard to answer, surprisingly. I think I would choose Tobias from Divergent or Minho from The Maze Runner. I love them both so much!

5. A BOOK THAT SURPRISED YOU OR A BOOK THAT YOU DIDN’T EXPECT TO LIKE.
Angelfall by Susan Ee definitely surprised me and I also loved it so much and didn’t expect that I would like it so much! The second book was just as great (World After) and I am impatiently waiting for the next book! The series has been so awesome so far.

6. NAME AN AUTHOR YOU’D LOVE TO MEET AND PICK THEIR BRAINS.
I am so shy and probably wouldn’t have the guts to ever meet an author, but if I could, I would want to meet Veronica Roth or Rick Riordan. I love them both and their books! Mitch Albom would also be great to meet.

7. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF BOOK TO READ ON A COLD WINTER DAY?
Probably some type of thriller/paranormal type book. I think it fits the mood of a cold and winter day, perfectly. I live in Florida though, so cold and wintery type days is pretty much non-existent. So I’m not entirely sure what book I would gravitate to if I was in the situation.

8. DO YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT YOU READ EVERY YEAR OR HAVE RE-READ MORE THAN ONCE?
I actually don’t have a book that I read every year, but a book that I have reread more than once was The Diary of a Young Girl. I love Anne Frank and her book. I’ve read that for school and then I read it again on my own. I believe I’ve read it three times.

9. FAVORITE ENDING TO A BOOK?
My favorite ending to a book was The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. It was the perfect ending and it is one of my favorite books.

10. A BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY.
Allegiant by Veronica Roth; I cried forever it seemed like. I had to stop reading for a while, because I couldn’t see the letters clearly from crying so much. I cried long after I read it and every time I thought about the book. Also, Messenger (third book in the Giver Quartet) by Lois Lowry. That book tore me apart and for days I was talking about it and crying when I thought about it. You can check out my post on the series over here and I posted a picture of myself after I read the book (well after I kind of calmed down from crying, lol). After reading Messenger, I got into a huge reading slump that lasted me the entire rest of the year and I refused to read the last book until four months after I read Messenger.

11. A BOOK YOU BELIEVE EVERY BOOK-LOVER SHOULD READ, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR PREFERENCES.
This is kind of hard to answer, but I always recommend Eightysixed: Life Lessons Learned by Emily Belden. It’s actually a book that I didn’t think I would even like that much, but ended up loving so much. I’ve mentioned it before how I probably never would have found the book had the author not comment on one of my Instagram pictures about it.

I really loved answering these questions. They were such great questions! This is kind of breaking the rules, but I’m going to skip nominating anyone. I would love for everyone to do it and answer the above questions that I answered. If you do decide to do it, link me to your post or you can tell me your questions in the comments section if you like. 🙂

I need to get myself out of this mini-reading slump I am in, so I am off to read The Glass Arrow. So far it’s okay, but I haven’t been in the reading mood and have only read 45 pages over an eight day period of trying to read it. It’s kind of sad, because I bought so many books over the last month that I really want to get around to reading. I’m hoping by getting further into The Glass Arrow it will pull me out of the reading slump.

A Good and Useful Hurt.

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*goodreads page linked in cover*

Goodreads: “Mike is a tattoo artist running his own shop, and Deb is the piercing artist he hires to round out his studio’s motley crew of four. The last either expects is romance, but that’s what they get as they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete and total disaster. When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution — and solace — he will sorely need. And when the life of a serial killer tragically collides with the lives in the tattoo shop, Mike and Deb will stop at nothing in their quest for revenge, even if it means stepping outside the known boundaries of life and death. Ink that is full of crematory ashes, a sociopathic killer, and pain in its rawest form…this is going to hurt.”

A Good and Useful Hurt by Aric Davis. I thought it was going to be hard to find a book written by an author with my initials, especially an audiobook. I was adding Kindle audiobooks to a wishlist to find them easier later and I decided to go through all the books I added; one of them happened to be a book by an author with the same initials. I was excited, because I thought it was going to be hard to find one, especially an audiobook.

I personally loved the book. It was different and so interesting. I tend to keep going for the serial killer/murder type books lately. The love story thrown in the mix was also really great. It wasn’t too much, like most books are these days and I really liked that. It had its laugh out loud moments, its teary eye moments, its OMG moments, and even some scary moments. There are also times where you will get angry. The characters were great and the background stories were nice. I loved the closeness and friendship the characters in the book had with each other.

There is a serial killer on the loose and he is killing women. Mike and Deb are trying to catch the murderer before he murders again. I love how it all came together and the use of the tattooing and the cremated ashes. It also had some paranormal stuff in there too. It was so different from anything I’ve read so far. I’m trying not to give away too much, because I really want everyone to read the book. I loved it so much.

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One of the things I took from this book is that life is short and you never know what can happen. Live, be happy, don’t take things for granted, tell the people you love exactly how you feel any chance you get. Here is a quote from the book that I loved: “I just need to accept that some bad things happened and that I can move past them. I need to learn to be thankful for the time I had and not be so angry about the time I lost.” – this can be for anything in life. Things happen and you move on from them. If you don’t, you lose so much time in the now and you let life pass you by.

Unrelated: The boyfriend and I took Dax to the dog park today and he was so happy. He ran around like crazy with all the small dogs and the big dogs. He had the time of his life it seemed. We haven’t been able to take him in so long, because the boyfriend works a different schedule than I do and he usually doesn’t have weekends off work. I also went to Target today (I need to stop going to Target) and spent money on things I didn’t need (of course) and ended up buying two books. Ughhh.

I decided not to buy anymore books for awhile, unless someone else is buying for me or I have gift cards. I’ve spent way too much money last month on books and it’s kind of crazy. I have a library card, so I need to use that more! I also have Kindle Unlimited and there are tons of books on there that I want to read too, so I might as well just read those. I have about 50 books at home that I’ve probably only read ten of the 50. I also have about 10 books I bought on Kindle that I haven’t read/started, but didn’t finish and a few I got approved for from Netgalley. So I have plenty of books I can read that I already own. Let’s see if I can actually stick to not buying books over the next few months. Let the book buying ban begin! *with the exception of book club books if I can’t find them for free anywhere*

To end the post: here is a picture of Dax after the dog park. He was so happy! And the two books that I bought today.

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The Young Elites by Marie Lu
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I’ve been kind of slacking with reading (besides audiobooks at work; I believe I mentioned this in my last post), so hopefully tomorrow I can make a bigger dent in The Glass Arrow. Sometimes I go through this and a lot of my TV shows are starting back up. I can’t blame Supernatural anymore, because I am all caught up! Anyway, the boyfriend is playing COD, so I think I’ll start reading some. I’ll start back on the 30 day book blog challenge on Monday. I think I’m just going to do the posts Monday-Fridays and take a break on the weekends. The post got pretty long, oops. I hope everyone is having a great weekend! 🙂

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Five.

HI 🙂
Back again for my day five of the 30 day book challenge. I did a post early about the books I found this week and added to my TBR list; Friday Finds.

Day 05: A book or series you hate.
*goodreads linked in the cover*

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Honestly, there hasn’t really been a book or series that I hated besides a book I read last month called The Curse Keepers. I wrote a couple times in my blog how much I hated it. There has been books that weren’t as great as I thought they would be, but I didn’t completely hate them. The Curse Keepers was an entirely different story, I hated it. It’s the first book in a series and maybe the series gets better, but I know that I won’t be continuing the series.

THIS BOOK:
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This boy and this girl are the curse keepers and when they accidentally break the curse, they have seven days to fix it and save the world. It sounded like it would be a great read, but it wasn’t. The entire book the girl was more worried about getting laid than saving the world and the boy was just plain annoying; they both were. I was bored the entire time. I was annoyed the entire time. I wanted to climb into the book just to choke the main characters, because they were so annoying.

ME HALFWAY THROUGH:
NOPE DOCTOR

I was a little over halfway done with the book and I couldn’t take it anymore. I started to jump around and skim the rest of the book and it never got better. I hate when something sounds promising and then it really isn’t. I was so glad I didn’t pay for the book. Another reason why Kindle Unlimited is great; I don’t end up wasting money on terrible books. There really isn’t much more I can say about it, it was terrible in my opinion.

In case you missed it, you can check out my day four post about my favorite series ever over here.

Have you read any books or a series that you hated? If so, what were they?

Friday Finds #4.

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FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). Hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

I added 21 books to my TBR list from Friday after I posted my Friday Finds to Thursday night. That’s so insane! I just came across so many good sounding books and I couldn’t resist. Isn’t that most (if not all) a problem that book lovers have? I obviously am not going to post all 21, because that would be crazy and a little overwhelming!

TANGLED BOOKS

As I type this right now, I’m not entirely sure how I am going to go about this. I guess I should look at all the books I added and come up with the top ones I am most looking forward to (all of them, lol), but I have to limit it. *mini break to look at books* Okay, I got it down to eight books and it was so hard choosing these eight.

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Lucky Us by Amy Bloom
Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel
The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue
Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis
Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy by Susan Vaught
The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
The Water Travelers: Heir of the Unknown by Daniel Waltz
Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff
*goodreads linked in the covers*

So many books, so little time. I can’t believe I added 21 more books to my list. Just because I was curious, I decided to see how many books I added between the beginning of this year until now and the total is about 150 books. That’s kind of insane, but anyway, those are some of the books I added in the last seven days. Now if only I actually get around to reading some of them. I did get Charlie, Presumed Dead on Netgalley yesterday, so I am probably going to read that at some point this month and do a review on my blog about it.

I will also be done with A Good and Useful Hurt today and I am going to do a post about it sometime over the weekend. I’ve been doing the 2015 Reading Challenge from POPSUGAR, but I’ve kind of been slacking with my posts for that and finding/reading books for it. A Good and Useful Hurt is going to be part of that challenge. I’ve done a few from the list and they are floating around on my blog somewhere. I’ll probably reorganize my blog posts over the weekend. I also need to get reading more of The Glass Arrow, I’ve kind of been slacking with reading this week (besides audiobooks I listen to at work).

I guess that’s all for this post. I’ll be back later for my day five of the 30 day book challenge. To end this post though, here is a picture of my pup Dax. He’s always this happy. It’s almost time for him to go to the groomer again.

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What are some of the books you found this week? Or link me to your post!

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Four.

Hi 🙂
Here to post day four of the 30 day book challenge that I am doing this month. It’s actually been kind of fun doing these posts and reliving and thinking about all these books again.

Day 04: Your favorite book or series ever.

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The Divergent series. I am going with my favorite series ever since my last post I did my favorite book. It’s also day four…fits perfectly to the post. 😉 I was looking for a new series to read after I read The Hunger Games and I came across this on Amazon. Amazon decided that because I read THG, I might like Divergent. They were correct! I instantly fell in love with the book and I rushed to buy Insurgent. I finished the first two books in a matter of days! I told my boyfriend and my mom how amazing they were and I got them to love the books. Next, I told my friend Alex about it and he was hooked. I told anyone and everyone; and everyone I told I got them hooked to the books. I felt like I was so cool because I got everyone hooked on these amazing books. Basically me after reading Divergent & Insurgent

WONDERFUL STORY

  • And then the waiting game. The FOREVER waiting game for Allegiant.
  • All the count downs, days, months, over a YEAR.
  • Pre-ordering and more waiting.
  • Staying up until after midnight waiting for it to finally download to my iPad.
  • Facebook messaging Alex about waiting.
  • Fangirling with Alex about it.
  • Listening to Veronica Roth read the first chapter.
  • Alex and I freaking out because it wasn’t downloading!
  • WHY WASN’T IT DOWNLOADING AT MIDNIGHT LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO!?
  • It finally downloaded and of course Facebooking and Instagraming a picture about finally having it!
  • Staying up two hours later after it downloaded to read some of it even though I had to get up for work four hours later.
  • Getting so close to the ending and trying to stall as much as possible from reading it because I didn’t want it to end.
  • And then…the tears, so many tears.
  • Basically me after reading finishing the series….

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I loved everything about this series. The story was perfect and the characters were so great! I’m actually kind of sad that I don’t know the hard copies of these books yet. Most of the books I own are on Kindle (110 books on Kindle), but I plan on buying the complete series soon. No bookcase is complete without these books. I’m sure a lot of people have read the books and if you haven’t, you really should! The Divergent series was everything. Definitely my number one favorite series. Well done, so well done.

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In case you missed it, you can check out my day three post about my favorite book that I read in the last 12 months over here. 🙂 Off to work for me.

Have you read the Divergent series? If so, what did you think about it? What’s your favorite series?

30 Day Book Challenge // Day Three.

Hi 🙂

I figured I would do my day three before I have to leave for work. I am so tired this morning. My furbabies woke me up really early and I didn’t go to sleep last night until really late. My dog went back to sleep (lucky him) and my kitten is non-stop crying because he broke his toy. Anyway…

Day 03: The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months.

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Psycho by Robert Bloch. I briefly mentioned this book in my last post for my Top Ten Tuesday about my all-time favorite books. I had never read the book or seen the movie before, but last March I was watching the show Bates Motel on Netflix and I fell in love with the show after the first episode. I decided not to continue to watch the show until I read the book. The show is like a contemporary prequel for Psycho the movie, which is based off the book. Last October I found the movie for $5 and bought it. I still haven’t fully watched the movie yet though. I watched about half and then got busy and forgot to watch the other half.

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It’s a short read that’s a little over 200 pages, but it is SO GOOD. I read the book in a day and it instantly became my number one favorite book. I am really into serial killers, murders, and court type stuff. I used to only watch the Investigation Discovery channel on TV. I also had this crazy obsession with Charles Manson. I guess it’s interesting because stuff like that can really happen, it has happened and probably will continue to happen. So it’s scary, because it could be real life and you know, real life can be scary sometimes.

This was a book that I couldn’t put down and the ending is an OH MY GOD type ending.  Psycho is a great read and I would most likely reread it a million times and never get bored of it. If you want a book that you can’t put down and that keeps you interested the entire way through, read Psycho. You lose track of time and I love when a book can do that to you.

I’m going to post Goodreads’ description of the book and Amazon’s description. I like both descriptions, but I felt like Goodreads didn’t give enough.

Goodreads: “It was a dark and stormy night when Mary Crane glimpsed the unlit neon sign announcing the vacancy at the Bates motel. Exhausted, lost, and at the end of her rope, she was eager for a hot shower and a bed for the night. Her room was musty but clean and the plumbing worked. Norman Bates, the manager, seemed nice, if a little odd.”

Amazon: “Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the Bates motel. One night Norman spies on a beautiful woman that checks into the hotel as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her. Mother is there though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.”

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I should finish getting ready for work now. It’s only Wednesday, blehh. I love my job though, but lately I have been getting maybe five hours of sleep a night, so I am really tired lately. You can see my day two post over here about a series I wish more people were reading/talking about. I hope everyone has a great day!

Have you read Psycho? If so, what did you think about it? Have you seen the movie? What’s your favorite book?

Razorland Series.

Hi 🙂

I’m back! I did a post this morning for Top Ten Tuesday with my all-time favorite books, but now I’m back to post my day two for the 30 day book challenge.

Day 02: A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about.

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Razorland trilogy. I read these books back in 2012-2013 and I personally didn’t see much talk about them then or now. Enclave, Outpost, and Horde are the main three books in the series; Endurance was a side book in the series about what happened with other characters after Enclave.

I personally loved this series so much and it’s one of my top favorite series. I was randomly looking for books to read on Kindle and I came across Enclave because it happened to be free at the time, so of course I read it. It sounded interesting enough and it was free, so why not. I wasn’t expecting too much because I figured if it was free, was it really going to be THAT good? I really liked it and it only got better.

I loved the whole concept of the story and I loved the characters in the book. I loved that Ann Aguirre explained things so well that it was easy to visualize things and there were times that I got kind of grossed out (because of the monsters aka “Freaks”), because they were explained so well. It’s hard to talk about it without giving a lot away in case anyone wants to read, but it was interesting throughout all the books how the Freaks changed and developed.

AWESOME SUPER

I wish that more people were reading and talking about it because it really is a great series, especially if you like dystopia. Of course that’s my own personal opinion, though.

Goodreads for Enclave: “New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20’s. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters–or Freaks–who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight–guided by Fade’s long-ago memories–in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs.”

Have you read the Razorland Trilogy? If so, what did you think about it? Is there any books that you wish more people were reading?

Unrelated: I mentioned in my post from earlier that today was my birthday. Well, my boyfriend bought me the cork board and whiteboard I wanted and I am pretty excited about it. My older sister got me a shirt that has Karl Pilkington (from An Idiot Abroad) on it and I am in love with it. I also got some really cute balloons from my younger sister. I went to Target after work and bought two books that I’ve been wanting to read and one I’ve had on my TBR list since 2013 and I bought some cute pens and more cute paper clips and thumbtacks, lol. I am pretty much a geek and get excited about weird stuff.

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I’ve had Cinder on my TBR list since 2013 and I’ve been really wanting to read Red Queen. 🙂 Not entirely sure when I will get around to them, but hopefully if not this month then for sure April. Anyway, this is long enough and I am starving. The boyfriend made homemade pizza rolls for dinner, YUM! BYE! ❤