Tag: bookblog

Posted in Chatty

June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 6 books in my June TBR and of those I read 4, with one in progress and one not started. But in total, I read 15 books so… I guess I plowed through anyway.

The Plan:

A mix of library loans of new releases and books I had on my shelves but hadn’t read, this was the goal for June.

The Result:

WOWW did I ever want to abandon two other books in this list: Crying in H Mart and Remarkably Bright Creatures were both duds for me in different ways, and I super wanted to stop reading them. But since I’ve met my quantity goal for the year, I’m pushing myself to read more widely and things I might not usually try. That includes continuing with books even when they’re a struggle or I would usually ditch them due to my mood-reader-ness. I think the slog of those are partly why I read so much: trying to break them up to make them more palatable. xD

Besides those two, I plowed through a ton of other books. I peg this largely on the 20 (15) books of summer challenge that i joined a little bit into June where you have to read and review a certain number of books in the summer. I may have gone aggressively into that list, and even posted ONLY reviews for like a week straight which was an interesting experiment.

Here’s a massive list of all the reviews that came up in June, because I went on an absolute tear there for a minute.

Phew!

~stats

Last month I put an unnecessary amount of time into creating my own charts and graphs and such of my reading tracker, on top of all the wonderful charts and graphs and data that Storygraph tracks for me. So to showcase that a bit, here’s a little section for all the data people like me out there to drool over. 😍

  • My reading was 7% Nonfiction this month (and the remaining 93% fiction).
  • My top genres were Young Adult (8 books) and Romance (7 books).
  • I mostly read books that were emotional, adventurous, or lighthearted.
  • My average rating was 3 stars out of 5. I read a total of 5,958 pages in May.
  • I traveled to South Korea, Japan, France, and even the Underworld through my books. In the United States, I was in Washington, California, and Boston.
Continue reading “June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot” →
Posted in Book Talk

August Wrap Up: oh, hi there

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! It’s been a little bit, but here’s a small update about how things are going. 🙂

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 8 books and read 5 of those, plus one other that I added during the month.

The Plan:

The Result:

The book that I attempted was one I found, tried, and quickly hated. That’s all I’ll say, because it’s not worth any more time.

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina didn’t really pull me in because it seems to be told in the perspective of about thirty different people, and that is REALLY not what I wanted any time recently. So I might go back to this, but at the moment I’m just reading a chapter here and there. The Land of Big Numbers was similarly vignette-ish, so same story: even though they were interesting and compelling, that’s probably a later thing.

I *did* however finally finish Skyhunter a year after I learned that I had won it from Goodreads! For real, I got the memory reminder this week. I just made it. 😂

~life

Still some health stuff keeping things limited in August, but getting better. On top of that, work was pretty hectic so there were some long days in there.

~blog

I didn’t do a whole lot of posting myself, but I did read some fabulous ones from other folks! Take a look and check them out. 😊

Here are some of my favorite posts I worked on this month, in case you missed them!

And here are some of my favorite posts by other bloggers!

Posted in Chatty

The visual review gallery is live!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

I’ve been working on a new blog feature that I’m pretty excited about, and I think it will add a lot of value to the site. There is now a way to view all book reviews sorted by the author’s last name, in a lovely visual format featuring the book covers!

Benefits of the new reviews page:

🔆it shows ALL the reviews (the other review page shows most recent 100)

🔆you can quickly navigate to a specific author or title

🔆you can navigate to different sections easily — no eternal scrolling!

🔆you can use the search function on the page to locate a title or author once in the right area

🔆the book covers are so pretty!!!

🔆plus the covers link to the review on the site

🔆miscellaneous fascinating data about how SO MANY AUTHORS apparently have last names that begin with M? Yet N is basically empty??

So how do you get to this gorgeous new page? Just check out the top of the page in the navigation bar and click “Review Gallery (by Author)” (or click here, or the photo below. 😊)

It was really fun to go through the list of reviews I’ve posted here and think back on the good and bad ones. I might have to do some re-reading soon now that they’re on my mind again! 😊 One last thing: if you do happen to go check it out, and find a book that isn’t linked… please let me know!! There were so many and I started to go cross eyed, so it’s totally possible even though I’ve checked and rechecked more than Santa Claus.

Another topic I kept going back and forth on was HOW I should organize the new page! Author’s last name is pretty standard and safe, so that’s what I went with. But personally I am pretty mediocre at remembering the author’s name, but I will probably definitely remember the book’s name. It’s not terribly hard to look that up, but I debated if I should sort by author, title, COLOR?? So I’m wondering…

What method of sorting books / reviews do you prefer? 😊

Posted in Book Talk, Chatty

January 2021 wrap up: a lot of stuff besides reading

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned eight. Of those eight I read — one. One. Because I got distracted by a bunch of other books instead (6 total finished). My mood reader-ness hit hard this month, and I actually don’t hate it!

The Plan:

The Result:

So I read 6 in January, and only 1 was planned (the one that had already been in progress, of course. 🤣) The rest are still on the backlog to read through. I did attempt one other from the list, but gave up about 75% of the way through.

Continue reading “January 2021 wrap up: a lot of stuff besides reading” →
Posted in Book Talk, Chatty

January 2021 TBR: probably starting off slow

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! I do recognize that it’s already almost halfway through the month, but nonetheless here is my TBR! In reality I probably wouldn’t have stuck to it anyway, so it doesn’t matter if I post it early in the month or not. 😂 Here are some of the books I’d had in mind to start off the year. 🙂

BOTM Delayed

Well in December I got two books from Book of the Month, Memorial and The Office of Historical Corrections. I didn’t read either of them in December because I was going all-in on challenge books and newer releases, so they’re on the list for January! Which works out, actually, because I’m not interested in any of this month’s BOTM selections.

Continue reading “January 2021 TBR: probably starting off slow” →
Posted in Book Talk

December 2020 Wrap Up (a very low-key month)

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned on six, because I had several high priorities to wrap up for challenges by the end of the month. But I ended up reading, um, a lot more than six. 😂

The Plan:

The Result:

Okay, so I might have gotten a little distracted by this incredible comic series I started (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl). And it might have been exactly what I needed. And still need. And my favorite superhero ever. I recommend it, to everyone, right now. It’s the hero we need in 2021. 😍

Continue reading “December 2020 Wrap Up (a very low-key month)” →
Posted in Book Talk, Chatty

December TBR: ending the year however tf I want!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all

This month’s theme I would like to call “doing whatever I want.” Although that said… there are a few books I’m reading as giveaways, and challenges, and books of the month… 😂 But still — it’s what I want to read! ^.^

I’m not really sure how my reading time will look this month, with a full time job again and holidays and possibly closing on my house and all. But if current status is any indication, it might go okay?

Giveaways

Remember forever ago when I accidentally found out I had won a giveaway for Skyhunter? It finally showed up. 😂 So I guess I’ll finally read that one now! I also just finished Cuttle which was pretty dang good once I reset my expectations. (Why did I think it was nonfic? No idea. But it was a tough adjustment. xD)

Continue reading “December TBR: ending the year however tf I want!” →
Posted in Book Talk, Chatty

November 2020 Wrap Up

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

ONE. HUNDRED. PERCENT. Which I think was like, 8/8. So apparently 8 is my magic number for what I can honestly commit to in a month, and then I’ll add in whatever else as I go. 😂

The Plan:

The Result:

OMG WHAAAAAAT?

Yeah y’all, that’s right, I actually… read every book I planned to read last month?! What? Pretty sure this has 100% never ever happened. I was a woman on a mission, apparently. To be real I think it’s because stress was pretty high so I escaped into reading pretty often when I could to try to combat that.

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Posted in Book Talk, Chatty

How to write a blog post when you have no ideas: a memoir

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! This post is definitely inspired by my own lack of inspiration right now. So since I can’t seem to get something solid out of my mushy brain at the moment, I came up with some ideas for what to do next time this happens! For me, for you, for anyone — if you’re feeling stuck give these a go!

You’re welcome, future me.

  • read posts by some other favorite bloggers
  • review old posts of your own and see if you have any opinions that have changed
  • read an old review for a book that you’ve since re-read and see if you felt any differently on the latest read
  • a list of books you weren’t into right away but loved by the time you finished
  • check out different bookish memes and see if one strikes you (Top 5 Saturday / Tuesday, Let’s Talk Bookish, First Lines Friday…)
  • write a review, because you KNOW there are books that you never got around to reviewing 😂
  • look up pictures of libraries in cities you want to visit because they’ll be gorgeous and then you’ll want to visit them even more 😍
    fun fact (or maybe just a nerdy-me fact): when I was in Amsterdam I spent an entire day reading and exploring in their library because IT IS AMAZING.
Continue reading “How to write a blog post when you have no ideas: a memoir” →
A picture of a hand giving a thumbs up. The hand is made of words, and the words "book review" are in pink in the middle, with all the other words in black
Posted in Reviews

Review: I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones

Posted on by Jennifer

I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones – ⭐⭐⭐

Recommended: yes
For a totally wild ride through a normal town gone mad, for reluctant allies forced to help each other when no one else will, for race relations sprinkled throughout, for a story that starts with a bang and only gets more intense from there, for teachers looking for conversation starters about racial issues in America

I love a clever cover 😍

Summary:
Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she’s going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school. When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together. They aren’t friends. They hardly understand the other’s point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they’re going to survive the night.

Thoughts:
I mean honestly this book was its own kind of terrifying. The escalation happened so quickly, and yet the inciting incidents for it were something I could easily see occurring at so many schools. I didn’t have to wait long for the action to start, but once it started it didn’t stop. Right up until the last chapters, the tension was carried the whole way through. I was so clenched up while reading this, so on edge wondering what was going to happen. I literally delayed dinner and made my S.O. wait so I could finish the book, because even the last pages were critical.

Continue reading “Review: I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones” →