Top Ten Tuesday: Books Added to My TBR Recently

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:

Ten Books I’ve Added To My To-Be-Read List Lately (inspired by my New to the Queue posts)

I’m constantly adding books to my TBR. To make it easier, I’m only adding books that have been released. I’ll be doing one of these for 2017 releases in a few weeks, so that seemed like a better idea to me than having lots of duplicates.

As I Descended by Robin Talley // When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore // The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson // The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst // Feed by M.T. Anderson

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy // Metaltown by Kristen Simmons // Tattoo Atlas by Tim Floreen // Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel // This Song is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin

What books have you added to your TBR lately? I always need more recs!

Bout of Books 14: TBR, Goals, & Updates

IT’S HERE! Bout of Books 14 has officially begun! I am super excited, as I always am, and I can’t wait to get reading and interacting with everyone else who’s participating! In this post, I’ll be sharing my goals, the pile of books and comics I’ll be reading from, and my daily updates.

MY TBR: (Not pictured: The Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano – on my Kindle)

Don’t Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche / 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith / The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich / and lots of comics I am behind on reading

This is not an official list, nor do I think I can read all of this in one week (though it’d be awesome if I did). I like to have a variety of books and comics to choose from, because I’m a mood reader. I am excited to read all of these books though, so we’ll see. I might power through all of it.

GOALS

– To read – as much or as little as I have time for. I am not going to give myself a certain amount of pages or books to read this week. The only set goal I’m going to give myself in regards to reading is:
– Make time (at least 30 minutes) to read each day this week
– Participate in at least TWO challenges because I always love doing them
– Participate in at least ONE of the two Twitter chats – I probably won’t be able to do the one tonight, unfortunately

That’s it. No other expectations or goals. Just have fun and read. 🙂

UPDATES

MONDAY

Pages read today: 70% – 168 pages
Total number of pages: 168
Read today: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Total number of books I’ve read: 70% of 1
Challenges participated in: I did the Fictional World Travel Challenge over on Twitter. I loved finding books set all over the world.
Notes about today: I am LOVING A Curious Tale of the In-Between and I probably would’ve finished it yesterday if I didn’t go to a friend’s house for dinner and Teen Wolf. I’ll finish it today though. 🙂 I missed the Twitter chat, which I’m pretty sad about, but I’ll be at the one on Saturday!

TUESDAY:

Pages read today: 336 – 30% of A Curious Tale of the In-Between (72 pages) + 264 pages of The Dead House
Total number of pages: 504
Read today: I finished A Curious Tale of the In-Between (4/5) and started The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich (AH!)
Total number of books I’ve read: 1.5
Notes about today: No challenges today because of work, but I got completely engrossed/terrified by/enchanted/creeped out by The Dead House. This book is absolutely amazing and also ridiculously creepy. It’s great.

WEDNESDAY

Pages read today: 196 – 148 of The Dead House + 48 of The Day the Crayons Came Home
Total number of pages: 700
Read today: I finished The Dead House (Holy crap, you guys) and all of The Day the Crayons Came Home (LOVE LOVE LOVE)
Total number of books I’ve read: 3
Challenges participated in: I did the MASH challenge, which was so much fun and super nostalgic. Plus, apparently, I will live in an apartment in Henrietta with my hubs, Cricket, our 2 kids & our pet, Chainsaw, assassinating people on my broom.
Notes about today: I finished The Dead House which was so wonderfully creepy, and I finally got to read The Day the Crayons Came Home, which was everything I was hoping for! Loved it.

THURSDAY

Pages read today: 168 – 32 of Wherever You Go by Pat Zietlow Miller (a really adorable picture book) + 136 of The Rose Society
Total number of pages: 868
Read today: See above – I’m feeling lazy today
Total number of books I’ve read: 4.2
Challenges participated in: I did the #4SeasonsBooksCovers challenge hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads over on Instagram. We had to choose a book/cover that fit each season either literally or figuratively. That was fun!
Notes about today: I totally changed my TBR because I got The Rose Society and I could NOT stop myself from reading that right away instead of what I “should” be reading. I got chills 2 pages in, so I think I made the right decision.

FRIDAY

Pages read today: 82 – 32 of Rosie Revere, Engineer + 50 of The Rose Society
Total number of pages: 950
Read today: Rosie Revere, Engineer (recommend by the wonderful Emma at Miss Print) and The Rose Society (which I am LOVING)
Total number of books I’ve read: 5.5
Notes about today: I didn’t read that much today. Had a not-so-great day at work and was feeling SUPER stressed. I actually left work early because I was NOT feeling well. I read the 50 pages of The Rose Society after I got home, but just couldn’t keep going. 😦

SATURDAY

Pages read today: 80 pages of The Rose Society
Total number of pages: 1030
Read today: The Rose Society (still loving!)
Total number of books I’ve read: 5.75
Challenges participated in: I did the Road Trip Challenge over on Instagram! I love finding books set in places I want to go!
Notes about today: I got to participate in teh Twitter chat. YAY! That was so much fun, like always. After, I went to the first-ever Mississippi Book Festival, which was wonderful and SUPER packed! I’m hopeful that next year’s will be even bigger! That’s why I only read 80 pages yesterday though. I was so exhausted by the time I got home (and a little sunburned).

SUNDAY

Pages read today: 324 – 132 of The Rose Society + 6 comics at 32 pages each (yep, counting pages with ads)
Total number of pages: 1354
Read today: Finished The Rose Society and read six comics: Robin: Son of Batman #2, We Are Robin #2, Prez #2, Thor #8, Bat-Mite #1 and 2.
Total number of books I’ve read: 6 + 6 comics
Challenges participated in: I did the What to Read Next Challenge hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much and recommended three books I think everyone should have on their fall TBR.
Notes about today: I’m so sad it was the last day of Bout of Books. I always love this week, so I’m really looking forward to January now! I finished The Rose Society and YOU GUYS I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS AND I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW.

December TBR

Yesterday was the start of December. There are 30 days left in 2014. How is this possible? So crazy. Anyway, I decided to try this challenge on Instagram (one of those you post a themed picture every day of the month). I’m really, really bad at them, but I figured I’d try. I always have fun for the 5-10 days I actually post, so why not? 🙂

The post for the 1st of December was your TBR for the month. I thought it’d be fun to see what everyone else was planning to read this month. So here’s mine. Tell me what you plan to read in December in the comments! ALSO, I completely forgot to include My True Love Gave to Me in the picture, and I plan on reading one essay from that a day for the days leading up to Christmas. 🙂 I will probably read more than what’s in this picture, but I don’t want to feel obligated.

View this post on Instagram

Chatty's hanging out with my #DecemberTBR. 🙂 Probably not everything I'll read this month. Also, #Linger is a reread. #halfbloodsnowflakes #decbookchallenge14 #books #legend #marielu #everyday #DavidLevithan #maggiestiefvater #AThousandPiecesofYou #ClaudiaGray #thebookofstrangenewthings #michelfaber #tbr

A post shared by Stefani (@stefanisloma) on Dec 1, 2014 at 5:05pm PST

Legend by Marie Lu / Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (this is a reread) / Every Day by David Levithan / A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray / The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (which I’ve already started and really like so far)

Sunday…er. Monday Funday! Week in Review

[Monday] Funday: Week in Review

Ooops. It’s Monday. Not Sunday. Oh well. I’ve been sick for the past few days, so I haven’t felt like doing ANYTHING. You might have noticed I haven’t posted anything on the blog since Wednesday. I know that isn’t that long, but I feel like my blog is a little lonely and sad. So I’m going to do my regular Sunday Funday post today instead! (I also forgot to do one last weekend, so I’ll have a few things from that in here)

September 22 – October 6, 2014

In the past two weeks, I’ve mostly been working, BUT I went to see Joshua James for the THIRD time. That was awesome. He’s incredible live, so I had a blast (it didn’t hurt that he remembered me and gave me a huge hug afterward). 🙂

I also went to a wedding, to see TMR for the second time, bought some new comics, and put up some pretty displays in the library where I work.

I am so sorry, but I forgot to announce on my blog (I announced it on Twitter) that Dana (from DanaSquare) won my giveaway! Yay! LINK UP

What have I read in the past two weeks?

I finished and reviewed Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

I read Volumes 15-20 of The Walking Dead comics (which means I’ve read all the volumes we currently have in our library system. Good thing I bought Volume 21 yesterday!!)

I also read The Intern by Gabrielle Tozer (which I’ll be reviewing on WatchPlayRead this week)

I listened to the audiobook of Panic by Lauren Oliver (read by Sarah Drew) – which I’ll be reviewing on the blog this week

I read an assortment of children’s books at work, but one of the ones I really enjoyed was Kiki’s Blankie by Janie Bynum. I read this one for my library’s preschool story time and the kids (and I) thought it was adorable. It even inspired me to draw Kiki. 🙂

Books/comics I’ve added to my shelves:

I don’t believe I have bought any new books in the past two weeks (WHAT? I know, right?) but I checked out The One and Only Ivan from the library; it looks like a fun and easy read.

I bought several new comics yesterday though – like I mentioned earlier, I bought Volume 21 of The Walking Dead because we didn’t have it in our library system. I also bought Issues #129, 130, and 132. I need Issues #127, 128, and 131 so I can be completely caught up to the last issue. I’ll probably order those three online (unless one of you lovely people has it and would like to send it to me!! – I’ll pay!). I also got Issue #23 of Saga. I bought Issue #1 of Low (from Image) and Thor (who’s a girl now! From Marvel). I’m excited to start those and see if I like them. I haven’t read a whole lot from Marvel since starting comics, so hopefully I’ll be able to dive in with Thor.

Also, I thought I’d update everyone on my Goodreads reading challenge: I set my challenge in March to read 100 books this year. I didn’t really start updating Goodreads until then (when I started my blog), and I’ve currently read 118/100 books. Haha. Yay!! That doesn’t even count my single issue comics I’ve read (which has to be about 100 at least). I think I’ll set my goal higher next year!

So what about you guys? What’s been happening in your life in the last few weeks? What great books have you read or added to your TBR? Fill me in below!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:

Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Be-Read list

In no particular order, here are ten of the books I’m looking forward to reading this fall. As always, all book titles have been linked to their corresponding Goodreads page.

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Batman and Son by Grant Morrison

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Horns by Joe Hill

The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey

Have you read any of these books? Which were your favorites? What’s on your fall TBR? Link me up to your TTT!

Waiting on Wednesday: Snow Like Ashes

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine in which we share a book that we are eagerly anticipating!

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Author: Sara Raasch

Release date: October 14^th, 2014

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.
Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.
Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.
So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

Why I’m excited:

Female heroine. Magical kingdoms. Fantasy, magic, good and evil, and an ancient locket. I don’t know, it just sounds crazy good to me, and I love the title. I kind of hate love triangles, but still, I am looking forward to reading this one.

What are you waiting on?

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I want to read but don’t own

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet

So there are a bunch of books I want to read that aren’t out yet and a bunch that I want to read that ARE already out, so I’m going to give you five of each. 🙂

**All titles linked to their corresponding Goodreads pages**

Have you read any of these? Which would you recommend I try to buy first? Also, link me up to your TTT!

Top five books I want to read that are already out:

V for Vendetta

Echo Boy

The Girl with All the Gifts

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller

Wool: The Graphic Novel

Bonus: Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour

Top five books I want to read that aren’t out yet:

The Rosie Effect

The Beat Goes On

A Thousand Pieces of You

Afterworlds

Snow Like Ashes

Bout of Books 11: Wrap Up!

This past week I participated in my second Bout of Books read-a-thon. I really enjoyed it, just like last time, and I exceeded my goals which is super exciting!

Here are my goals with how I completed them!

– Read two novels: I read The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco and The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (review this week). I also read half of The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (review this week)
– Read five children’s books: Okay, I guess I didn’t meet this goal, but I read 4/5 so that’s pretty good. I read Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, Lost and Found and Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.
– Read at least three single issue comics: I read four issues of Batman and Robin and four issues of Batman, Incorporated!
– Read two trade paperbacks or graphic novels: I read Volumes 6-8 of The Walking Dead comics and Volume 1 of Chew
– Post reviews of at least half of what I read: I reviewed The Girl from the Well (review up later today), Through the Woods, Chew over on WatchPlayRead. Okay, not quite half, but I think I did pretty well.
– Participate in at least two Bout of Books challenges: These are linked to where you can find my entries. The Book Scavenger Hunt, The Book Spine Poetry Challenge, and The Spell It Out Challenge. Three challenges! Yay. All three of these were super fun.
– Participate in at least one Bout of Books Twitter chat: I participated in the chats on Monday and Saturday. The Twitter chats are a lot of fun and also super overwhelming, but I made some new blogger friends and gained some new followers. 🙂

The bottom line: Bout of Books is my favorite thing. I enjoy challenging myself to read more than I usually do in a week, and I’m really proud of myself for this week – I read 1,824 pages! That’s awesome. I exceeded my page count from last time and I met pretty much all of my goals. I’m looking forward to the next Bout of Books!

Bout of Books 11: update post

Bout of Books 11 starts today! I’m so excited to participate again. This post will be where I update my progress at the end of each day (okay, sometimes at the beginning of the next day). I’ll include what I read each day, including number of pages, links to the challenges I completed, links to any reviews I’ve posted, and a total number of pages I’ve read so far. Just in case you missed it,

Here are my goals for the week:

– Read two novels
– Read five children’s books
– Read at least three single issue comics
– Read two trade paperbacks or graphic novels
– Post reviews of at least half of what I read
– Participate in at least two Bout of Books challenges
– Participate in at least one Bout of Books Twitter chat

My TBR:

I have not yet chosen the children’s books I will read, but here are the two novels, two graphic novels, one trade paperback, and the single issue comics I will read this week.

Batman and Son, Chew volume 1, Through the Woods, The Girl from the Well, The Geography of You and Me, and several issues of Batman and Robin and Batman, Incorporated. (TBR is subject to change based on my mood)

Monday
Number of books I’ve read today: 2
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Read today: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (208 pages), Chew, Volume 1 (128 pages), four issues of Batman and Robin (roughly 30 pages each), and four issues of Batman, Incorporated (roughly 30 pages each)
Pages read today: 576
Total number of pages: 576
Notes about today: I loved the first day of Bout of Books 11! I participated in The Book Monsters Book Scavenger Hunt. You can check out  my entries on my Instagram! I also participated in the first Bout of Books Twitter chat of the week. It was so much fun though pretty overwhelming. I read roughly the same amount of pages on my first day this time as I did the last time I participated in Bout of Books. Yay!

Tuesday
Number of books I’ve read today: 0
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Read today: Started The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
Pages read today: 103
Total number of pages: 679
Notes about today: Today was a little slow for me. I had a lot to do for my online job and the site that I write for (WatchPlayRead). I also went to the movies with my brother (we saw Let’s Be Cops, which was HILARIOUS), so I didn’t get to read as much as I want. I was also feeling a little stressed, so I kind of just stepped back from everything for a while. Hopefully I’ll be able to read more on Wednesday. I did participate in the Book Spine Poetry challenge, and you can find my entry here. That was fun!

Wednesday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Total number of books I’ve read: 3
Read today: Finished The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
Pages read today: 162
Total number of pages: 841
Notes about today: I finished The Girl from the Well today; I plan on reviewing it in the next day or so. Today was a little less stressful, but that’s mostly because I was at work today, and I love my job at the library. Unfortunately, I completely forgot about the Bout of Books chat so I didn’t get to participate. Oh well. At least there is another one on Saturday. How’s everyone else doing?

Thursday
Number of books I’ve read today: 3
Total number of books I’ve read: 6
Read today: Volume 6 and 7 of The Walking Dead comics; Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Pages read today: 304
Total number of pages: 1,145
Notes about today: I had a little change of my reading list today and I read volumes 6 and 7 of The Walking Dead comics (because they finally came in at the library). By the way, volume 6 is AWESOME. I also read my first children’s book of the week, Jumanji, which I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I also started The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith, but I only read 14 pages which is why I didn’t add it to my count. I didn’t do any challenges today because I worked most of the day, so I plan on doing at least one on Friday. Also, I need to visit some more new blogs!

Friday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1.5
Total number of books I’ve read: 7.5
Read today: Volume 8 of The Walking Dead comics; 115 pages of The Geography of You and Me
Pages read today: 251
Total number of pages: 1,396
Notes about today: Today was a pretty good day as well. I got a HUGE haul from the library because all of my holds came in at the same time. Of course. So I had to read one more volume of The Walking Dead. Then I read some more of The Geography of You and Me, which I’m really enjoying. Again, no challenges. 😦 But I had a busy day and my aunt and uncle are in town, so I just spent time with them instead.

Saturday
Number of books I’ve read today: .5
Total number of books I’ve read: 8
Read today: Finished The Geography of You and Me
Pages read today: 222
Total number of pages: 1,618
Notes about today: Today, I participated in the Spell It Out Challenge, and you can see my entry on Instagram (I spelled out my named, STEFANI). I also finished reading The Geography of You and Me, which I thought was pretty cute (I’ll review it soon). I participated in the Bout of Books chat as well, but I was eating breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and then walking around an outlet mall with my family, so it was kind of haphazard tweeting. I can’t believe tomorrow’s the last day already. I’ve enjoyed this Bout of Books; I exceeded my expectations in page count, and I’m also going to start a new book on Sunday, which means I’ll be reading more than my goal! Yay!

Sunday
Number of books I’ve read today: 3.5
Total number of books I’ve read: 11.5
Read today: Read Lost and Found and Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, and half of The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
Pages read today: 206
Total number of pages: 1,824
Notes about today: Today was the last day of Bout of Books 11! 😦 I am really proud of myself and how  much I read. I met my goals and more! So that’s super exciting. I had a blast and I’m glad I got to participate again. Looking forward to the next one!

SUNDAY FUNDAY: WEEK IN REVIEW [11]

The lovely Cristina over at Girl in the Pages started Sunday Funday as a way to recap the bookish (and not-so-bookish) things that have happened that week.

August 11 – 17, 2014

This week was pretty great. Definitely more fun that the week before. Highlight of the week? I had my first blogger meet up! I met Annette (aka Booknerderie) in person. She drove up to my house Friday and we saw The Hundred-Foot Journey Friday night. On Saturday, we went to B&N and bought Isla and the Happily Ever After. We spent a couple hours reading and drinking coffee, then went to the comic book store. It was so much fun! I’m looking forward to going to visit her next.

I also made plans with my friend Georgie to go to the Decatur Book Festival the last weekend in August. I am SO PUMPED about this. Stephanie Perkins, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer E. Smith, Lauren Myracle and a bunch of other awesome authors will be there. CANNOT WAIT.

Books read: I finally finished reading One of Us by Tawni O’Dell (review tomorrow). I also read all of Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins yesterday (review either tomorrow or Tuesday), which I LOVED. Obviously.

I also read the first two issues of The Wicked and the Divine, issues 19 and 20 of Saga (I’m beyond obsessed), about 15 or 20 issues of Batman and Robins, the first several issues of Batman Incorporated, and I think that’s it. I’m a little comics-obsessed. But I’d say two books and 20-30 issues of comics is a GREAT week.

TBR: This week I bought Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid and The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (on Amazon; should be here this week). They’ll both be at the Decatur Book Festival in two weeks. Definitely need to read their books before then.

Non-bookish things I’m excited about:

DOCTOR WHO premieres on Saturday!! Yay!

Teen Wolf. Duh.

It’s bookish, but I believe I’m going to see The Giver this week.

Also going to see Let’s Be Cops with my brother. It looks so funny.