Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

Friday, May 7, 2021

๐ŸŒž๐Ÿ–️๐Ÿ“š Summer Reading List 2021 ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ–️๐ŸŒž

One of my reading goals for 2021 was to *not* create any TBRs, but lately I've been feeling like I want to break that goal of mine and make ALL THE LISTS OF BOOKS. Now that the academic year is over and work will (fingers crossed) be much slower over the next four months, I wanted to make myself a summer reading list of sorts. Kind of like the summer reading lists you would be assigned in school, but with books I'm actually excited about. ๐Ÿ˜‚ 

Some of these titles have been on my TBR shelf for YEARS, and some are newer to the collection. There are quite a few on here that I've been specifically been saving for this time of year and for one reason or another I haven't yet gotten around to them. You might also notice that this list is quite heavy in the contemporary/romance department, but honestly it's the best time of year for that genre in my opinion! 

My goal is to read through all 20 of these titles by the end of the summer (which, in my higher ed employee mind, is September 1st), while also giving myself some wiggle room to read other things that may strike my fancy. I'll do a check in at the end of the summer to let you know how I did. If I'm able to read all 20 books, maybe I'll treat myself to something exciting as a reward. Wish me luck, and let me know if you're going to be reading any of these titles this summer!


The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai
Dreamology by Lucy Keating



Everything All At Once by Katrina Leno
Freshmen by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein


The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
Meet Cute by Jennifer L. Armentrout et. al.
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory


A Rogue of One's Own by Evie Dunmore
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow



Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Favorite Books of 2020 ๐Ÿ“š

It's finally time to share my favorite books of the year - one of my favorite lists to put together! I kind of did my favorites lists in two parts in 2020, which isn't something that I've done before but might continue to do moving forward. It's interesting to see what my highlights are from the first half of the year vs. the second half! Below you'll find my 12 favorite books of the year, including links to their GoodReads pages and the video in which I talked about them so you can find out why I loved each book. Here's to many more favorite books in 2021!

Favorite Books January - June 2020


Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Startup by Doree Shafrir


Beach Read by Emily Henry
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi


Favorite Books July - December 2020


Scythe by Neal Shusterman (+ Thunderhead, as a bonus! This series is great!)
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender


Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
Well Met by Jen DeLuca


Sรฉance Tea Party by Reimena Yee
Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Road Trip & Vacation TBR ๐Ÿ“š | Blogmas Day 16

As I've been mentioning, Brett and I are off on our southbound road trip tomorrow morning! I'm going to have a lot of time to read while Brett is taking his turn to drive (we're going to swap off so neither of us is doing ALL of the driving!), and I'll likely have some down time while we're in Florida as well to read, which I'm really looking forward to. Life has been so GOGOGO the last few months that it's felt so difficult to find time to read, so I'm looking forward to having many hours on my hands with literally nothing else to do, haha. Here's what I'll be reading over the next few weeks

Currently Reading


I'm currently in the middle of You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson and In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren, so these two will be my first priority! Having some good light hearted reads are essential for this time of year, and I'm enjoying both of these books so far. I'll also have the added benefit of having my Kindle with me, since In a Holidaze is on my Kindle) so if for whatever reason I finish all of these books (unlikely) or I'm not really in the mood for any of these remaining books (hopefully not likely haha), I will be able to easily obtain something different through the power of the internet!

TBR


The next books I'm bringing along at The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. You may recognize both of these from my 'Tis the Season-a-Thon TBR. I never got around to them during that readathon, but I'm still very interested in getting to these! So I'm bringing them along as well. I've heard so many fantastic things about both of these books so I can't wait to dive in!


And finally, I'm going to bring these two sequels along with me: The Toll by Neal Shusterman (Arc of a Scythe, Book #3) and Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (Ready Player One, Book #2). These are actually both books that Brett has gifted to me, so I am extra excited to get to both of them!

Saturday, November 28, 2020

'Tis the Season-a-Thon 2020 TBR!



Can you believe that it is the Christmas season again? I decorated our apartment yesterday and I'm honestly so ready for some festiveness. I feel like a lot of people are desperate for some holiday cheer, and I am totally in that camp as well! To kick off Christmas celebrations, I'm going to participate in 'Tis the Season-a-Thon again this year. I participated last year and it was such a great way to get into the holiday spirit that I knew I needed to participate again in 2020. I'm going to be vlogging my week of reading so you'll be able to see what I get up to (and how much I'm able to read because it's honestly been a STRUGGLE lately!), so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, here's what I'm planning to read:


The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler
A holiday themed book
A cozy read


The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
A book you meant to get to this year but didn't
A cozy read


You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
A book you meant to get to this year but didn't
A diverse book


In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
A holiday themed book
A book with lights on the cover
Group book

The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
A cozy read

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

The Week I Didn't Run + What I've Been Doing Instead (We're Moving!)

Sometimes life is just too much to have any motivation to do anything else but exist. That was me this past week. A couple weeks ago Brett and I came to the decision that it was definitely time for us to move out into our own place. This is something we've been thinking about for a while and a direction that we wanted to move in for a really long time. We haven't had a place to ourselves since 2013, and even then we were living on a college campus, where we both worked, so it still didn't feel like we were truly on our own. We've been together for 7 years now and it's finally time that we found a place that belongs to just us. No roommates. No work obligations. Just us.

The next few days after deciding it was time, we reached out to a few different apartments to set up viewings. I gotta say - it's weird apartment hunting when there's a global pandemic going on. It's a risk interacting with new folks while maintaining social distancing and a risk looking at new places that aren't your own. Luckily, this apartment hunt did not take us too long. The process to find the apartment we ended up going with went like this:

Tuesday → Contact the landlord to express interest
Wednesday → View the apartment
Thursday → Submit an application, get approved, sign a lease

And boom, we had a new apartment.

Though the process was quick (it was only about a week of searching), it was stressful and sadly, without going into detail, we're moving again because of a not-great living situation. This is twice in a row that we've felt we had to move quickly because of our living situation being negative, and it's always stressful. Because of this, my motivation to do anything outside of the minimum was at a zero. Add in the fact that it was gray and rainy everyday last week, I had absolutely no desire to go running or exercise.

So, I didn't run last week and I don't really have a training update for you for this week. 

BUT!

Now that our new lease is signed and we have plans to start moving in to our new space next Monday (!!!). Brett and I are both feeling so much better and are truly excited to start this new chapter in our lives together. Physically moving into our space will, of course, be taxing, and it will take a while to get used to, but we're ultimately so thrilled to finally have a space of our own. 

I'm also excited to get back to training this week! Now that this part of my life is figured out and we have some next steps in mind, I'm feeling like I have the mental capacity to get back to my training plan. Rock n' Roll just postponed their San Diego race weekend which happens to be the weekend before Seattle, so I'm really not feeling confident that Seattle will be happening as scheduled. 

With that in mind, I'm going to be tweaking my training plan based on how I'm feeling. With the stress of the COVID-19 outbreak and the additional stress of needing to move, I feel like I've fallen a bit behind what my usual marathon training schedule would look like. That would typically stress me out, but because I'm fairly certain that Rock n' Roll Seattle will be postponed, I'm feeling like running the mileage that feels good to me while still working in my usual 2 mid-distance, 1 short, 1 long run schedule and keeping up my general fitness will be the best for my mental and physical health. I'll keep you posted with my actual runs on a weekly basis!

Here's what I've been doing *instead* of running:


Reading up a storm! As you know I'm participating in the OWLs readathon this month and it's been great to make time for reading each day! This isn't part of my OWLs TBR, but I have a collection of Flannery O'Connor stories that I've been trying to read from every morning when I wake up. It's kind of nice to start the day with a short story and I'm excited to continue reading this. My goal is to read a story each morning until I finish the whole collection. It's been sitting on my "Currently Reading" shelf since last march so it's about time it gets the attention it deserves!

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Geocaching! This is something that I've been wanting to try for ages and over the weekend I finally tried it out. It is SO much fun! I found two things on my first hunt and I can't wait to go on even more hunts as the weather starts to warm up. I'll be sure to update you on my geocaching adventures on my socials, and probably right here on the blog as well!


Following CDC recommendations :P I barely leave the house these days except to go to to grocery store (which I try to limit to once a week) or to run/walk outside. This weekend I had to go to laundry and since the CDC recommends wearing a mask in public places to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (this is more so in the event I have it and I don't know it, I won't accidentally spread it to someone else, and not to prevent myself from getting it) I wore a buff to the laundromat. I felt like a huge weirdo because no one else was wearing one, but I want to do my part as much as possible!

All in all, I'm thankful that Brett and I have our health and we have each other in this time. Moving is going to be a huge time commitment and I'm sure it will bring its own set of stressors, but we're excited to finally be in our own space together and I'm sure there are many happy memories in our new home to come. ๐Ÿ’™ Updates will of course be shared so soon! ๐Ÿ˜Š

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

#ContemporaryAThon Round 6 TBR ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ’•

Now that I'm back to posting videos over on my channel, I'm excited to start making a return to readathon-ing and vlogging my experience! One of my very favorite readathons - ContemporaryAThon - is making a comeback next week and I am excited to join in on the fun. I've been reading a lot of particularly sad books in 2020 for some reason, and I'm hoping that indulging in some contemporary next week will be a bit of a palette cleanser. I need some joy in my reading again! ๐Ÿ˜‚ 

Like every round of ContemporaryAThon, there are 7 challenges that you have the option to try and meet. Being a more laid back readathon, the hosts encourage double/tripling up on the challenges, which I totally take advantage of these days. (Remember the days when I could read 7 books in a week? Who even was I?) Anywho, here are the challenges that the hosts are putting forth this round, which I'll be spreading across 3 books:

1. Read a book with green on the cover
2. Read a book by a new-to-you author
3. Read a diverse contemporary
4. Read a book with an illustrated cover
5. Read a dark or hard-hitting contemporary
6. Read a book that has been on your TBR for over a year
7. Read a book that's a favorite in the bookish community

CONTEMPORARYATHON ROUND 6 TBR


The Friend Zone by Abby Jiminez

This is the Read Your Face Off Book Club buddy read selection for January/February! Jess and I are planning to buddy read this together early on in the week and I can't tell you how excited I am to pick up a light-hearted romance. It has been such a long time since I've picked up something fluffy like this and I'm hoping I fly right through it. I'll be taking it on my trip to New Orleans with me this weekend (I don't fly back until Monday night) so it will be good to have something light for the trip home!

Challenges this book qualifies for:
→ A book with green on the cover
→ New-to-you author
→ Illustrated cover


Not So Pure & Simple by Lamar Giles

This is my January Book of the Month box pick to read this month (more details in my 2020 Goals post, if you're curious!) and I am so excited to get to it! Reviews are mentioning that it is quite hilarious, which is definitely what I'm looking for in my books right now. I think this is going to be so entertaining and hopefully it's something that I won't want to put down.

Challenges this book qualifies for:
→ A book with green on the cover
→ New-to-you author
→ Diverse contemporary
→ Illustrated cover


The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

Unlike the other two reads for the week, I know that this book is going to be a TOUGH read. I put this on my TBR for the last ContemporaryAThon I participated in (and let's be real, I barely participated) but I never got around to it. I wanted to put it back on for this round because I know it's a favorite of a LOT of folks in the bookish community, it's been on my shelf for quite some time, and I've heard nothing but positive things about it. I will be honest -- I am quite nervous to read it based on the subject matter. I'm planning to save this one as my last book of the week so I have a chance to read some happier books. I hope that I enjoy this one, and I think I will. It's just going to be a toughy!

Challenges this book qualifies for:
→ New-to-you author
→ Illustrated cover
→ Dark/hard-hitting contemporary
→ Backlisted contemporary (on your TBR for at least a year)
→ Book community favorite

I will be vlogging my week, so keep an eye out for that video! The February round of the Read Your Face Off 24 hour readathon is the weekend of ContemporaryAThon as well, so if I'm feeling like I have a bit of wiggle room in my reading life before then I'll update here with what books I'll be reading in addition to my reads for ContemporaryAThon. I hope that a lot of reading will be happening next week, and I hope that recovering post-marathon will encourage me to pick up books while I'm resting!