Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Book Talk: The Lunar Chronicles



I've been wanting to make this book talk for a while (and I'm thinking I'm going to continue making book talks for series that I finish), but I'm finally sharing my spoiler-free thoughts on The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer! This YA sci-fi series that is based on fairy tale retellings is an extremely enjoyable and entertaining read and I really had fun during my time reading through each of these books! Click play on my video to find out about my thoughts on the series as a whole.

Books Discussed:

Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Fairest
Winter

 All by Marissa Meyer

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Vlog: Miscellaneous Vlog | September & October 2017



Over the past few weeks I've been recording random video clips of exciting things I've been participating in. Time got away from me and I never posted any of the footage, so I thought I'd throw it all into one miscellaneous vlog! In this vlog you'll see me attending the Katy Perry concert at the Garden, running the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY, and getting the chance to watch the Patriots vs. Chargers game from some amazing seats! It was great to look back on these awesome memories, so I'm excited to share them with you all! I hope you enjoy. :)

Friday, November 24, 2017

Book Haul Revisit #2 | Tackle Your TBR & RYBSAT Round 9 Vlogs


Happy Black Friday, everyone! In the spirit of spending ridiculous amounts of money, I thought I'd post a book haul revisit and see if I've actually read the books I've spent my money on! This time around I'm taking a look at the books I hauled during my RYBSAT Round 9 & Tackle Your TBR vlogs from last fall, which totaled in 22 books between the two vlogs. Click play on the above video to see how I did! :)

Monday, November 20, 2017

Vlog: #ContemporaryAThon!


Last week I participated in the #ContemporaryAThon! This was such a brilliant idea to focus on just reading contemporaries for the duration of a readathon. Contemporaries are so much fun and such a breeze to read so I'm happy the Chelsea and Julie came up with this idea! I had a really fun week focusing on my TBR and also hit a very exciting milestone on my channel! Hit play to see what I got up to over the course of the week. I hope that another round of ContemporaryAThon comes about sometime in the future! :)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

BookTube About Me Tag!


It's been a bit since I've done a book tag, and posting this seems to have come at a very serendipitous time because I recently surpassed the 1,000 subscriber milestone thanks to a shout out from the lovely  Chelsea Dolling Reads! What better way to introduce myself to my new friends than answer some random questions about myself? :P Press play to hear my answers for this tag and keep reading to get the questions so that you can do this tag yourself!

Questions:

1. What do you study/what is your job?
2. What is your favorite social media channel?
3. If you had another channel what would it be about?
4. Do you play any instruments?
5. What are your hobbies other reading?
6. Favorite TV shows?
7. What got you into reading?
8. What are your favorite and least favorite genres?
9. What books define your childhood?
10. Tell us an interesting fact about you

Original Tag by Harriet Rosie
I was tagged by Becky at Beck's Books!

I TAG:

Alyssa @ Books and Cats

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Fall 2017 Book Haul!


Hooray! It's finally time for another book haul! These are some of my favorite videos to watch and to make, so I'm always very excited when I get to sit down and show off the books that I've purchased over the course of the last few months. This time around I managed to rack up 34 books

I know what you may be thinking - what happened to your Project 5 book buying plan?! (You're probably not thinking that but I feel weird not explaining myself SO I'M GONNA.) Basically, it went out the window this fall. I went through a really tough period of time in September/October and one of the things that brought be comfort was buying new books, so I allowed myself to do so. 

Overall, though, I'm finding that through my Project 5, I have less of an inclination to buy books that I'm not sure if I'm genuinely interested in and don't have foreseeable plans to actually read in the near future, which was the whole point of putting myself on this plan in the first place. So, SUCCESS! Moving forward, I think I'm going to continue to be cautious with my book buying and if I'm finding that I'm back on a "buy 20-books from Book Outlet for no real reason" habit, I'll turn back to Project 5. It's honestly been such a great help in learning to curb my book buying habits!

Anyway, here are the books that I've purchased for myself this fall. If you'd like to hear me talk briefly about each of these books, click play on the video above! Definitely let me know if you've read/enjoyed any of these books. I'd love to hear from you!

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice & Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Audiobook

It by Stephen King
Physical copy & audiobook

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Physical copy

Sourdough by Robin Sloane
Physical copy
September Book of the Month box

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Physical copy
September Book of the Month box

Startup by Doree Shafrir
Physical copy
September Book of the Month box

This One is Mine by Maria Semple
Physical copy

Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North
Physical copy

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Physical copy

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Physical copy

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Physical copy

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Physical copy

Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey, White House Years by David Litt
Audiobook

Lumberjanes, volume 5: Band Together by Noelle Stevenson, et. al.
Physical copy

More Than This by Patrick Ness
Physical copy

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash
Physical copy

The Long Walk by Stephen King
Physical copy

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Physical copy

Misery by Stephen King
Physical copy

The Power by Naomi Alderman
Physical copy
October Book of the Month box

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
Physical copy
October Book of the Month box

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
Physical copy
October Book of the Month box

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Physical copy

Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Kindle eBook

Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness that Ended the Sixties by Dianne Lake
Audiobook

Artemis by Andy Weir
Physical copy
November Book of the Month box

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Physical copy
November Book of the Month box

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Physical copy
November Book of the Month box

The Shining by Stephen King
Kindle eBook

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Kindle eBook

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Kinde eBook

The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
Kindle eBook

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Kindle eBook

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Kindle eBook

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Vlog: #BorrowAThon Round 3!


I'm so sad that #BorrowAThon round 3 has come to an end. I always have such a great time with BorrowAThon. The community around this readathon is so awesome and I think this round has been the best one yet! Major shout outs to all of the hosts that helped me out this round, as well as all of the folks that joined in and had a great time with us! Click play on the vlog above to see what I got up to last week and to hear my thoughts on all of the books that I read throughout the readathon! :)

Check out more round 3 videos on this playlist!
And don't forget to follow BorrowAThon on Twitter!

Thursday, November 9, 2017

#ContemporaryAThon TBR!


GUYS! I'm so excited for this readathon! A few weeks back, Chelsea and Julie announced the ContemporaryAThon which, pretty obviously, is a readathon that encourages you to read exclusively contemporaries for a week. I am ALL ABOUT THIS! Contemporaries are usually so much fun to fly through and such feel-good reads and honestly, that's what I need in my reading life right now. I am so excited! :D The readathon will be 7 days (November 13-19, 2017) and Chelsea and Julie are encouraging folks to just have a low-key fun time, which I'm totally here for.

Keep reading to see what I'll be reading for this readathon and click play on the video above to learn a bit more about the books I picked! :)

The most recent contemporary book that you purchased/acquired
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

An adult contemporary
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

A contemporary with characters on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

A romance that is 5 years old or older
This is the only challenge I didn't have a book I could read on my shelf! It's okay, though. 
Romance doesn't tend to be my favorite genre, anyway.

A contemporary that is not set in summer
How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

A dark/taboo contemporary
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Buddy read a contemporary
I will be buddy reading both Little Fires Everywhere and Dark Matter with Michael!

Thursday, November 2, 2017

November 2017 TBR!



Somehow it's November again and it's time for another monthly TBR! This month I will be participating in two readathons - BorrowAThon (TBR here) and ContemporaryAThon. Because I'm posting separate TBRs for those readathons, I'm only talking about my goal reads and a miscellaneous buddy read I'm planning for this month. Trust me, there's a lot more on my reading plate in November! Stay tuned to find out what else I'm reading this month, but for now, here are my goal picks for November.

Buddy Reads

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Buddy read with Libby

2017 Goal Picks

Classic: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Non-Fiction: March by John Lewis
Diverse: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Buddy read with Michael
TBR Jar: The Bear by Claire Cameron

October 2017 Reading Wrap Up!


October has been a fairly decent reading month considering everything that has been going on in my personal life on top of going through a reading slump at the beginning of the month! I am really thankful that I'm back in the groove of reading and I'm hoping that this groove continues for the rest of the year! Keep reading to see my stats and the books that I read during the month of October, and to hear what I thought of each title, hit play on the video above!


READING STATS FOR OCTOBER

Participated in 1 readathon (#SpookAThon)
Completed diverseTBR jarclassic, and nonfiction reads
3,874 pages read
10 books completed



BOOKS COMPLETED

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Library book, 4/5

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Library book, 5/5

The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck by Sarah Knight
Kindle e-Book, 4/5
Non-fiction pick for October

Final Girls by Riley Sager
Physical copy, 4/5
Buddy read with Becky & Michael

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
Physical copy, 4.5/5

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Physical copy, 5/5
Classic pick for October

It by Stephen King
Physical copy/Audiobook, 4/5
Buddy read with Becky & Michael

Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years by David Litt
Audiobook, 4.5/5

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Physical copy, 3/5
Diverse pick for October

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
Physical copy, 4/5
TBR Jar pick for October