June 2018 Plans

June is shaping up to be a pretty action packed month for me! I thought it would be fun to talk about the things I have planned for June. I'm really excited to travel, run, and read this month and I also can't wait to share all of these memories with you! I hope you're looking forward to them as well.

RUNNING

June 3 - Youngstown Marathon! - This month I'm running the Youngstown Marathon! I've been training for this marathon since February so I'm looking forward to taking on this challenge this weekend. Not gonna lie, I am pretty nervous (as I generally am for every marathon I take on), but I'm hoping it's a success and I'll have an awesome support team there cheering me on. Be on the look out for a marathon vlog and race review coming your way soon!

READING

All Month - First We Were IV Buddy Read for the RYFO Book Club - This is the buddy read for the Read Your Face Off Book Club in June! I'm excited to read a YA mystery/thriller and the premise for this book seems so cool. If you want to read alone with us, make sure you join the Read Your Face Off Book club over on GoodReads!

All Month - Book of the Month Month - My Book of the Month books have been piling up on my TBR lately, so I decided to focus a lot of my reading energy on getting some of these books finally read! I have created a TBR for this project, so go ahead and check it out if you're interested in seeing what books I'll be working on this month!

June 9-10 - #ReadYourFaceOff 24 Hour Readathon - The monthly 24 hour readathon will be happening over the weekend of the 9th & 10th (9AM Sat - 9AM Sun in your time zone) and I am definitely looking forward to another awesome weekend of hanging out with my books. I love that these have become a monthly thing this year. It seriously helps with getting some books read! I hope you can join. :)

TRAVEL & ACTIVITIES

June 2-5 - Pittsburgh, PA - We're heading down to PGH this weekend to spend time with our friends Erin & Cullen! Fun fact: I specifically chose the Youngstown Marathon because it's only about an hour from where they live. Brett and I are thrilled to be spending a few days with our good friends for a few days, and I'm thrilled that they will be a part of the cheer squad on Sunday for the race!

June 14-17 - Florida - Visiting my parents has become a bit more difficult since they moved down to Florida, but we're finally going to be making another trip down to spend some time with them over Father's Day weekend! My parents recently bought a house so I'm excited to see their new place and spend time with them, the pups, and the glorious sunshine! I'll probably be in the pool and/or the ocean the whole time... XD

June 20 - Six Flags New England - My work is actually taking the staff out to a day at Six Flags New England this month! I am so excited because it has been AGES since I've been to an amusement park. I love roller coasters (or I did the last time I went to a Six Flags) so I'm super excited to ride a bunch of rides and just have a really fun time with my coworkers! :D

What are you up to in June?

Vlog: #BorrowAThon Round 4

I can't believe #BorrowAThon Round 4 is already over! I always have such a great time with BorrowAThon and I'm so so so proud of the community that this lil readathon has created. I honestly believe that BorrowAThon brings out some of the best people in the online reading community, and I'm proven right every round. I'm so looking forward to Round Five in November! I hope you all had a great BorrowAThon! <3

Vlog: Youngstown Maravlog #2 & #3 | March & April 2018 Marathon Training

The Youngstown Marathon is approaching (1 week from today! SLKDGHLKSAJ) and I'm realizing I haven't kept the blog up to date with my Maravlogs! To be honest, the last month or so I've been barely staying afloat with everything else going on in my world that staying up to date with everything online has taken a bit of a hit, but I'm hoping that the slower summer months will allow me to build up some momentum again! Until then I'll be playing a bit of catch up with my posts so you all can get up to speed with everything going on in my life.

For my March Maravlog I decided to show you the brutally honest truth when it comes to how I eat on a regular basis. Mostly it's healthy meals and maybe some not-so-healthy snacks, but I try my best to not just eat junk 24/7 (even though that's what I prefer to do). I also talk a bit about what is motivating me to keep going on my training!

In April, I finally reach the point where I run my training half marathon - the Portsmouth Half Marathon in Portsmouth, NH! I also talk about how winter will not leave New England alone, as well as watch the Boston Marathon, one of the best motivators for a distance runner!
I didn't record anything for my May training, but I definitely plan on vlogging my trip to Youngstown and showing you how the race goes! I'm crossing my fingers for a successful race. Right now the weather is predicting 80 degrees and partly cloudy, so I'm a little nervous about how that will impact my race, but all I can do is my best. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get through to that finish line! <3

Book of the Month Month {June 2018}

In an effort to actually start reading all of the books that I order from Book of the Month, I'm going to read a whole stack of my previous BOTM picks in the month of June and call it Book of the Month Month! :P I love the BOTM service, but for whatever reason, I don't tend to reach for my BOTM picks, even though I'm super excited for the books I pick out each month! I'm hoping that by mainly focusing on BOTM books next month, I will feel more inspired to reach for them when I'm deciding what to read. If this month goes well, I'll probably do another Book of the Month Month in the future! :) Here's what books I'll be focusing on in the month of June:

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emie Lang
Sourdough by Robin Sloan
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs

Harry Potter Re-Read and Re-Watch Reviews #3: Prisoner of Azkaban

After a busy few weeks, Brett and I were finally able to sit down and review our experiences re-reading and re-watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! This was the first time I've read Azkaban since I was a kid, and the first time watching the adaptation EVER, so this was really a new experience for me which I loved. Brett also had some interesting observations about the plot holes of this story in particular which was great to discuss with him. We have such a fantastic time doing these reviews and I'm really looking forward to reviewing Goblet of Fire, one of my favorite stories in the series, very soon!

Book Unhaul #2

I don't know what it is, but I've been in such an unhauly mood lately. I look at my shelves and I just want to get rid of SO MUCH. Earlier this week I took two boxes of books to donate and I thought I would share with you what's leaving my collection. Like last time, these books are being unhauled for a couple of reasons, so I thought I'd separate them into a few categories:

1. Books I enjoyed but won't likely re-read

2. Book I read and did not enjoy

3. Books I'm no longer interested in reading

BOOKS I ENJOYED BUT WON'T LIKELY RE-READ

Popular by Maya Van Wagenen

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

Mad Women by Jane Maas

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Today Will be Different by Maria Semple

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

BOOKS I READ AND DID NOT ENJOY

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

BOOKS I'M NO LONGER INTERESTED IN READING

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eva Brown-Waite

Drown by Junot Diaz

Dune by Frank Herbert

Vlog: A Breakfasty Bookish Birthday Vlog!

This past Friday was my birthday! I decided to do a bit of vlogging because we had a fun day planned. We went to breakfast at our favorite spot, did some shopping at Barnes & Noble, watched trash reality TV, and hung out with friends! It was honestly such a nice and relaxing birthday. I just focused on the little things I liked to do that make me happy and it turned out to be an incredible day. Thank you to everyone who made it super awesome! <3

#LazCon Sighting!

One of the coolest things happened to me on the way to work this morning. I spotted Gary Cantrell a.k.a Lazarus Lake a.k.a LAZ, the creator of one of the most interesting races in running (The Barkley Marathons), making his way down US-20 in Charlton, MA! He embarked on a cross-country journey on foot last week (He's calling it LazCon) and while I knew he was in MA, I never would have thought I would see him. I noticed two walkers on the road as I was trudging my way through my commute and had this succession of thoughts:

1. Huh. I don't normally see people walking on this road.

2. Oh, that kinda looks like Laz. No way that could be him though?

3. Wait... I am on US-20.... and he's making his journey on US-20...

4. Omg is that Laz?

5. *passes by and gets a good look at his face* OMG IT'S LAZ!

I knew I had to turn around and snap a couple of pics for the people in my life that are also big fans of the Barkley. Laz and his walking partner looked like they were in great spirits and it was so neat to see them out there tackling an incredible goal!

I've been wanting to gush about this sighting all day, but really only my parents and Brett are the only people in my personal life that would have any idea what I was talking about, so I'm glad I was able to record this cool experience here on the blog! Honestly, this was so cool and inspiring to me and I'm so lucky to have been in same place at the same time as Laz. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!

Anyway, for some context, I highly recommend checking out Laz's blog where he has been giving daily #LazCon updates. Also, if you want to find out a *little bit* of why Laz is such a legend, check out The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young and hopefully that will give you some background as to why this is so cool!

GO, LAZ, GO!

#BorrowAThon Round 4 TBR!

I'm so excited to share what I'll be reading for the fourth round of #BorrowAThon! Round 4 starts next weekend (WHAT) and will run from 12AM in your time zone on May 20th to 11:59PM in your time zone on May 27th. Make sure you check out my informational blog post for round 4 if you want to know more!

A book award winner or nominee

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

National Book Award Longlist 2016 (Young People's Literature)

A book with your initials on the cover

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, vol. 1: BFF by Amy Reeder

Someone else's favorite book

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

2016 Favorite from MollieReads

A book that everyone else has read but you

Paper Girls, vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughn

A book from your favorite genre

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

A book featuring a library

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

April 2018 Reading Wrap Up! (feat. #BookBuddyAThon & O.W.L.s Readathon)

Y'all... the second half of April got 👏 to 👏 me. Well, basically all of April got to me, but the second half, finding the motivation to do LITERALLY ANYTHING was super tough. Hence why the huge dip of posting updates on both the blog and the channel. SORRY ABOUT THAT. I was still reading here and there and was able to complete a few more books and a few more challenges for O.W.L.s so I thought I'd just throw all of the stats in the lil ol' post with my reading vlog for the month instead of trying to play catch up and stress myself out even more than I already was. Here's how the rest of April when in my reading life. Hopefully May is calmer! :)

FINAL STATS FOR THE O.W.L.s READATHON

Pages read: 2,328

Book completed: 6

Exams completed: 6/12

Final marks: Outstanding

READING STATS FOR APRIL

Participated in 3 readathons (#BookBuddyAThon, O.W.L.s Readathon, & #ReadYourFaceOff)

Completed 1/10 books from 10 Book TBR #2 (4/10 total)

Completed 1 series

3,250 pages read

9 books completed

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta
Library book, 4/5

Collecting Sticks by Joe Decie
Library book, 3/5

Barefoot Gen, vol. 4: Out of the Ashes by Keiji Nakazawa
Library book, 5/5

Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
Physical copy, 4/5
Book 2 of 2 of the Monsters of Verity Duology
Buddy read with Michael

Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 1-3 by Hiromu Arakawa
Physical copy, 5/5

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Library book, 4/5

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Physical copy, 5/5
Buddy read with Michael

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
Audiobook, 4/5

More Than This by Patrick Ness
Physical copy, 4/5