Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts

Sunday, December 2, 2012

December Book Challenge!




Hey Everyone, Happy December!! For this month of reading I have decided to create a book challenge/goal for myself! I am going to only read books this whole month that I have already read. There are tons of books that I have been wanting to re read for quite a while but I never do because I always have so many new books to read. Even though I still have tons of new books, I am going to take a break from them and re read some of the great ones I already have. I thought December would be a perfect month for this challenge since it is the last month of the year! I'm really excited about this and I can't wait to share with you all the books that I choose to re read. I did a blog post in the past on books worth reading twice, which you can check that out here!  I may read some books from this list but I might pick some other ones that are not on there as well.

Since I am going to be re reading a lot of books this month, I might not post a whole lot of books reviews. There might be a few books that I will do a review for but I know there are some books that I'm going to read that I will not being doing a review for, because it would be a book I don't find necessary to review or I might have already done a review for it. I will keep an update along with different kinds of book related posts on here instead of reviews!

When I do my monthly wrap up post for December I will be sure to include why I chose to re read the books that I did as well. I'm not 100% sure which ones I'm going to be re reading yet, I do have a few ideas in mind. I might just start out with a Harry Potter book ;).

I will also be doing a lot of other themed reading challenges/goals in the future as well. I won't be doing it every month but I will be doing some more in the near future. If anyone has any suggestions for a theme for the reading challenge feel free to comment below and leave your suggestions! If anyone would like to join me on this read challenge then please do so!  Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!





Sunday, November 11, 2012

Day and Night book tag!

Today I'm going to do another book tag survey! I usually find this tags somewhere on youtube and I always think they are so fun so today I am going to do the Day and Night book tag. Basically you go through each letter from day and night and it asks you a question about reading! I hope you enjoy this post and happy reading :)

QUESTIONS:
D: Do you read more in the morning or at night? I would say I read mostly in the morning/day time because I get most of my reading done while I'm at work during my down time. After I get home from work at 7pm I am usually doing other things and don't have time to read. Unless I am really close to finishing a book (50pgs or so) I will read before I go to sleep so I can get the book finished and start a new one in the morning. 

A: Are there any books that changed the way you thought about things? Lots of books have changed the way I think about things. I have read many books that have brought different aspect to my attention and blew my mind away. Each and every book I read is important to me and gets me thinking about some thing or another. 
Y: YA or Not? Definitely! I love reading young adult books. 

A: Are there characters that you honestly believe are real? Only Harry Potter. ;)
N: Nobody touches my books or I don't mind loaning my books out? I don't mind loaning my books out. When I read a really great book I love to share it. I'm always thinking 'Who can I let read this book?'
D: Do you ever smell your books? Sometimes. If I have acquired a really old book for instance, I will smell it to see if it has that old book smell. 

N: Not everyone loves books...is this a positive or a negative? Negative!! Just kidding, liking books is a personal preference. Although, I wish everyone would love to read as much as I do. Talking about books makes for a great conversation. 
I: I keep my books in the best condition or maybe not? Which are you? I try to keep mine is the best condition. I love for my books to look brand new but I do have some that don't and I am fine with that too. I always have a book in my purse and the paperback ones tend to get bent a little. 
G: Gosh I have to many books! True or False? You can never have too many books! No but really, I am a book hoarder. 
H: Have you ever spilled or stained your books before with something, and if so how? Only once! I knocked water over my copy of The Notebook on accident one time. It definitely has some water damage to it and I was really upset at the time but it dried out and is still readable. 
T: Toned or untoned while reading? ..or in other words...Do you read and workout at the same time? LOL no. I have never tried to read while working out, but I might enjoy listening to an audio book while working out. Maybe I will try it. 



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

What I Read in October

Hello Everyone! I have seriously been slacking on my blog posts, I don't think I have written on here for at least a month, sorry! I had read a lot more books last month in October then in the previous months when I started this blog and I had a lot of reviews planned out. Sometimes life gets in the way and we get side tracked with things, and my heart just wasn't into writing for a little bit. I am back now and I hope to write a lot of posts in the near future.

Anyways, here is my (late) October Wrap up! I read 5 books last month, which were The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Whispers at Moonrise by C.C Hunter, Hold Still by Nina LaCour, and I finally, finally finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. 



-The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead was the first book that I read last month. I absolutely fell in love with Rchelle Mead's writing and the whole world she has created all over again when I read this. I put off reading this book for so long and when I finally read it I was like why didn't I read this sooner?! You can read my review for this book here.

-Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan was the second book I read this book. I know I say this about every John Green book I read but, this was definitely unlike any other book I have read before. His books keep amazing me with each one that I read. Both him and David Levithan are phenomenal writers and I encourage anyone who has not read any of their books to do so. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other John Green books that I read, but I still really liked it because of the two different writing styles that were entwined into the book. It made a totally different and interesting aspect to my reading experience that I don't get in a lot of books.

-Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter was another really great book I read. It is the 4th book in the Shadowfalls series, and I sware with each book in this series the books just keep getting better and better. The next book in the series is going to be the final book and I'm so sad that the series is ending. This is such a great series in the YA fantasy/paranormal genre.

-Hold Still by Nina LaCour was another great contemporary novel that I have added to my collection. I read this one on my kindle, and it was a quick read. There were so many aspects in this book that I loved and it is one that I highly recommend. This was one of the books that I planned of doing a review for, but since that didn't happen I will include a mini review here. It has great character development in it, along with some amazing characters. It is about a girl whose best friend commits suicide and she finds her journal she leaves behind. It's a very emotional heart lifting book about their friendship and we get to see the main character heal and gain strength from her grief.

-Lastly, I finally finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin which is the first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. I was so proud of myself for reading and finishing this book because it is so long (809 pages!) plus I own the mass market paperback edition so the writing is super tiny! Also, this book has a lot of detail and it's hard to read and pay attention to everything that is going on, at least for me. I tend to stay away from adult novels like this, but I loved the TV show so much that I wanted to read the book. I tried to read the book first, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on so I'm glad I watched the show first. I can't wait to read the next books in the series but they are a little overwhelming because all of the rest are 1000+ pages. Yikes!

This is all for my October wrap up post. This post was a little bit longer than my usual wrap up videos but I wanted to talked a little bit more about the books I read since I didn't do any reviews for them. This month I started reading both Hidden by P.C Cast (10th house of night book) and The Golden Compass but I wasn't really getting into either book. I am still trying to read Hidden so we will see how that goes! Thank you all for reading and have a great day :)







Monday, October 1, 2012

September Wrap up

Last month in September I only read 3 books again. I read Tilt by Ellen Hopkins, Venomous by Christopher Krovatin, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. However even though I only read three books, I read about 200 pages of A Game of Thrones, which I started at the end of August. I put down that book so I could read different ones because it was taking me forever to read. I hope to finally finish it this month in October.


I really enjoyed Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. It wasn't my favorite book that she wrote, but I still liked reading it. I didn't do a review on this book, but I gave it 4/5 stars on goodreads.

I also enjoyed reading Venomous by Christopher Krovatin. It was a fun and quick read but it has a lot of deep and mature content in it. It was different from any kind of book that I've read before. You can read my review on this book here.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was my favorite book that I read this month. John Green is a phenomenal writer and this book definitely did not disappoint me. I did a review on this book as well, and I will leave the link to it here.

I'm currently reading The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead, which is the second book in the Bloodlines series. So far I'm enjoying it, but I don't remember all of what happened in Bloodlines so it's a little hard for me to get into. After this book I'm going to be reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. I am so so so excited for this book and I can't wait to read it. It was a pleasant surprise that J.K wrote another book!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my (small) September wrap up!

Monday, September 3, 2012

August Wrap Up

Sadly I was only able to read 3 book last month in august, so my august wrap up entry is going to be a short one. Hopefully I will have more time to read this fall than I did this summer.

Last month the three books I read were Tricks by Ellen Hopkins, The Pact by Jodi Picoult, and Looking for Alaska by John Green. I also started reading Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin at the end of the month but I'm no where near being finished. I might stray from the book to read some other ones because Game of Thrones is over 800 pages long ha ha.

I really enjoyed Tricks by Ellen Hopkins. I did not do a review for it but it is probably one of my favorite Ellen Hopkins books that I've read so far.

I loved The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I was totally blown away by this book. It's a very emotional read and it's a really amazing story. You can read my full review on the book here.

I also really loved Looking for Alaska by John Green. It's another one of my new favorites and I was really surprised on how much I enjoyed reading this book. You can read my review on this book here.

Overall I was happy with the books I read in August, I hope to have a bigger monthly wrap up post for you this month! Thanks for reading!!

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Book Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Yesterday I finished reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. This book is a young adult contemporary novel that seems to be highly talked about and loved within the book community. This was the first book by John Green that I've ever read and I had really high hopes for this book. I can safely say that I was not disappointed one bit. I really enjoyed reading this book, and it was very different from any book that I've read before. I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting for this book, but both the writing style and the whole plot/book it's self was different for me. I was pleasantly surprised on how much I ended up enjoying the book. Now onto my thoughts and the summary!



Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

So this book is about a boy name Miles who goes to a boarding school in Alabama and leaves his family and old school behind. He didn't have many friends in his old school so he was excited to start something new while he was looking for his "Great Perhaps." While he is at his new school he meets some new friends and starts to fit in and find his place. The book goes through their lives at Culver Creek boarding school, it deals with real life issues, etc. Along with making friends with The Colonel, Takumi, and a girl named Alaska Young, Miles finds himself falling in love with her as well.

 I really, really loved all of the characters in this book. I thought they had really strong personalities and great character development. Miles character grew so much in this book it was really amazing to see. I absolutely loved The Colonel. He was hilarious and so fun to read. My favorite character was Alaska Young. She deals with her own personal problems in the book which makes her a little mysterious at times because a lot of the time she doesn't share what she's going through. When she does share part of her self or past in the book it just makes her 10 times more amazing because it's so awesome when you start to understand who she is. Her character was so well written and beautiful, I felt like she was a real person and not just a character in the book.

This is definitely a book that I would recommend reading if you haven't read it yet. I cannot wait to read some of John Green's other book soon. I have put The Fault in our Starts on my fall TBR list but I will definitely be checking out his other books as well! I'm currently reading The Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin. This book will probably take me 10 years to read because its so long!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my book review.



Friday, August 24, 2012

Book Review: The Pact by Jodi Picoult

A few days ago I finished reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult and I wanted to share my review of this book on my blog. First off I want to say that Jodi Picoult is a phenomenal writer and if you haven't read any of her books I encourage you to check them out. I've been so amazed by each book that I've read of hers so far. Now on to my review. :)



For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described


As you can see from the summary this book is about two families who live next to each other and they have been friends most of their lives. Their children grow up together, etc. This book is about Chris and Emily, who were born three months apart and have known each other forever. Basically, they are soul mates. Growing up they were best friends and they eventually started dating, as everyone knew they would. A terrible accident happens one night that no one in each family ever expected to happen. Emily  is dead from a gun wound to the head and Chris was with her. He's hurt and unconscious when the police find them. There was two bullets in the gun that night and Chris claims the other bullet was for him. They had planned on making a suicide pact, but Chris is still alive. So the ultimate question is, were they really going to commit suicide or did Chris Murder Emily?

The book switches back and fourth between the present day and past time. We get to see what is happening now after Emily's death and we go through all the lives of the characters as well. We get to see when Chris and Emily start dating, as well as all the events leading up to her death.  I loved all of the characters in this book and I felt that they were all written extremely well. I had a slight issue with Chris's character towards the beginning though. I thought he was lacking in emotion a little bit but that changed towards the end. I especially loved Emily's character and I loved reading from her point of view when the book went into the past.

I absolutely loved everything about this book. It was such an amazing read that I can't rave enough about. It's hands down one of the best books I've ever read. This book made me feel so many different emotions while reading it. It was definitely a book that left me completely speechless and I couldn't even gather my thoughts about it for a few days because I was just so overwhelmed with emotion. The last 100 pages or so were so exhilarating, especially when it comes down to the end and you finally find out what really happened the night that Emily died. Through this book I was laughing and crying and there were parts where my heart was beating out of my chest! I highly recommend reading this one to anyone who hasn't yet!

I hope you all enjoyed my review and thanks for reading! I'm currently reading Looking for Alaska by John Green, which was one of the books on my fall TBR list! I will be doing a review on this as well when I'm finished.

Find me here on goodreads!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Top 10 favorite book series

Hello Everyone, I wanted to share my top 10 favorite book series here on my blog!



1. Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling
Harry potter will forever be my favorite book series of all time.

2. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
This is a trilogy made up of three books. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angles, and The Sweet Far Thing. This series is completely amazing and everything about it is so magical and enchanting. This is one of the best young adult fantasy series I've ever read.

3. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of glass, City of Fallen Angles, City of lost Souls. I also love the prequel series, The Infernal Devices, but I enjoyed the mortal instruments series a lot more.

4. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, The Last Sacrifice. This is a series that I really loved when I was in my 'vampire book' phase. I still love the series despite the fact that I am not into vampire books anymore because it is a really wonderful series! I also like the spin off series Bloodlines.

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, MockingJay. This probably comes to no surprise that the Hunger Games is another one of my favorites. It will aways be a series that I love as well.

6. Divergent by Veronica Roth
I also love the 2nd book Insurgent and I believe this is going to be a 3 book trilogy. I can't wait until the third book to see how the rest of the story goes!

7. The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale
The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born are the books in this series. I'm not exactly sure if I would consider this series to be in the young adult section. They are pretty long books, but I would say they are more lighter reads then your typical young adult book. It is a fantasy series but it isn't harsh or heavy in action, but there is definitely a great story.

8. The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa
The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, and the Iron Knight. This is the only series about fairies that I've read the I've actually enjoyed.

9. Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia
Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos. I absolutely love this series about caster/witchcraft. I can't wait for the 4th book to come out.

10. The Blue is for Nightmares series by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Blue is for Nightmares, White is for Magic, Silver is for Secrets, Red is for Remembrance, and the graphic novel Black is for Beginnings. This is a wonderful series that I read a few years ago that I often forget about. It's really captivating and a little suspenseful.

This is my top 10 favorite series and they are ones that I've recommend a lot of people to read. I am also planning of doing another blog post of my top 10 favorite stand alone novels as well. As you can tell all of my favorites series are in the fantasy genre, but none of my favorite stand alone novels are! I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and look forward to my favorite stand alone novels! :P

Find me on Goodreads here!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Fragment Friday!

 I watch a lot of youtube videos on book reviews, hauls, discussions, etc and I seen one a while back called Fragment Friday where every friday a youtuber would read a portion or 'fragment' of the book that she was reading. I loved the idea, mainly because a lot of the time it wasn't a book I has read before so it was kind of cool to hear a part of the book that I didn't know and had no idea what was going on in the story. The concept was interesting to me so I've decided to make a blog post on it as well!

The book they I'm currently reading is Tricks by Ellen Hopkins.  I'm sort of on an Ellen Hopkins kick right now and these books are the only ones that I have been reading for the last 3 weeks or so. For anyone who isn't familiar with her books, they are written in verse. It was a little different at first when I started reading them but I've grown to love verse novels. They are such light and easy reads and I've found some beautiful poetry in them which is why I decided to do this post. I found a section of the book that was such a beautiful poem and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it here on my blog.


Reach 

They say you should
           reach for the stars, 
           and I’d like to, but
 my arms
           are much too short. 
           they say to reach 
           out for hope, but I 
don’t 
           understand what hope
           is. They say to reach for
           goals, but I don’t 
know 
           how to define mine, 
           and so I won’t listen. 
           But if you only tell me 
how to 
           love you, I’ll reach 
           into the depth of me 
           and find a way to
 hold you.


I absolutely love this poem. When I read it I thought it was so beautiful and I love things that leave me speechless when I read them.

I hope you enjoyed my Fragment Friday post! Thanks for reading :)


Monday, July 30, 2012

Book Review: Notes to Self

Hello everyone! Today I'm going to be doing a book review on the book Notes to Self by Avery Sawyer. I read this book on my kindle, and it was a book I've never herd of previous to reading it. I believe it was only $3.99, but I'm always unsure of what to expect when buying cheap/free kindle books. I was surprised to find out that I really enjoyed reading this one. It was a quick and easy read which is exactly what I was hoping for.  Here is the summery to the book:

Two climbed up. Two fell down. 

One woke up.

In the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury, Robin Saunders has to relearn who she is and find out what happened the night everything changed.


The book starts off with the main character Robin being in the hospital with a brain injury after her and her best friend climbed up an amusement park ride and fell down. Robin has no recollection of the fall, or why she and Emily climbed up in the first place. Now Emily is in a coma and is not waking up. Robin is deviated and needs her best friend to come back to her. Her friends at school start to blame and bully her for the accident. With Robin having a brain injury, she forgets how to do simple normal things in life and all she knows that there is something important she needs to remember.

The whole time I was reading this story I was so anxious to know what was going to happen next. It's such an easy story to get wrapped up in and feel all the emotions that Robin feels and I found myself hoping that Emily was going to wake up every time Robin talked about her. I found the story to be well written and very engaging. The plot was original and I have not read many stories about brain injuries or amnesia. I found all of the characters to be likable and easy to connect with as well. Even the little bit of romance that was in it was enough to make me all giddy! I gave this a 4/5 of starts on goodreads only because towards the middle of the book it went slightly slow and took a while for something exciting to happen again. I definitely recommend this book for anyone to read!

Thanks for reading!

Find me here on goodreads!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

New blog and summer favorite reads!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new blog :) ! I've been wanting to create a blog for quite some time and I've finally decide to do it! I'm going to be blogging about everything and anything to do with books. I love to read and I love to talk about books so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for me! I mostly read young adult fantasy and fiction, but I'm also trying to branch out and try reading new things. I plan on writing some reviews in the future, but for now I'm going to share my top 5 favorite books that I've read this summer!

1. Burned by Ellen Hopkins
2. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
3. Notes to Self by Avery Sawyer
4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
5. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

I'm sure number 4 and 5 are no big surprise on my list :p
I've enjoyed each of these books, and I plan on doing a review on Notes to Self by Avery Sawyer. I read this one on my kindle and it was a book I've never herd of before then. Currently I'm reading Identical by Ellen Hopkins and I'm going to be doing a review on that as well.

I hope you all enjoyed my first blog post and expect more from me soon!
Thanks for readin!
<3