10 Great Websites for Book Lovers

All of the reading I’ve done this year has really made me a lot more interested in book websites and book blogs. I could write a whole separate post about my favourite book blogs, so maybe I’ll do that someday, but today I’d like to share some book websites that I love. Let me know if there are any great gems out there that I missed!!

1) Goodreads (Obviously. You can connect with me here).

I love the ability to track what I’m reading. It’s also so easy to read others’ reviews and see recommendations. The groups are great. The lists are addictive. I will admit that I do find it overwhelming at times, and I try not to think about the fact that my to-read list is massive. I am trying to add books that absolutely only interest me and not just books that are popular with my Goodreads friends. So many books, so little time! 😉 Here are a few great posts about enhancing your experience on Goodreads:

Get Organized on Goodreads from Hannah at So Obsessed With
11 Ways to Love Goodreads Even More (I learned a lot from this one – especially about adding your library in the Bonus Round section)

And one humorous read that I can’t help but agree with: How I will Improve Goodreads when I rule the World. <– Totally agree with the half stars!

2) BookBub

I’m not sure how I first stumbled upon this, but it is a GREAT source for finding free or cheap e-books at Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo, etc. You can choose which categories you’d like to hear about, and which platforms you read on (I’d highly recommend selecting as many as you can – I have a Kobo and I still subscribe to the Amazon ones because I can read those on a tablet with the Kindle app if I really find a good book for free!) This is a wonderful resource and I can’t recommend it enough. I get an e-mail every day and some of the offers only last for that day, so I usually skim it quickly but if you end up not checking it every day, no big deal either. It’s like Groupon for books. They also have a BLOG which you can access here. A similar service to this one is called ManyBooks.

3) BuzzFeed Books

I get an e-mail from Buzzfeed books once or twice a week with some great lists about books and book-related things. It won’t be relatable all the time, but it’s still fun to check out.

Some examples:
Charts for People who Love to Read
Things Everyone who grew up a booknerd will understand.
46 Brilliant Short Novels You Can Read in a Day (in case you need some helping reaching your Goodreads reading goal!)

4) Reading Room

I follow this site on Facebook and they are always sharing interesting things, like beautiful pictures of libraries or places you should go if you like “…”. Again, maybe it’s not for everyone, but they do share some great recommendations and I think every book lover should at least check it out 🙂

5) Librivox

Home of many, many audiobooks that are in the public domain. Very easy to use and some GREAT narrators. You can search by novel, author, narrator etc. Elizabeth Klett is my personal favourite so far. I’ve listened to Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre via downloads from this website and I have Little Women cued up too. I kind of want to be a reader for this site someday. I think it would be fun!!!

6) Project Gutenburg (Canadian) (American)

This is the e-book equivalent to Librivox, and it has hundreds of titles that are in the public domain available for download. Great for reading the classics!!

7) Whichbook

Some might say that you can accomplish this site’s idea through Goodreads and while that is definitely true, this one is still fun to check out if you’re really looking for a general recommendation, or if you feel like you’re in the mood for something in particular (then you can go and look up their suggestions on Goodreads :)).

8) Overdrive

I read or listen to most of my books via my public library or the above mentioned resources. The Overdrive app is AWESOME because you can listen to audiobooks from it directly (kind of like Audible), renew, or read e-books in it. I prefer to read my ebooks on my Kobo, so I usually download them onto that from the Overdrive site, but I am loving it for audiobooks. You can easily link your library to it so you can browse and sign out immediately!

9) NetGalley

I don’t consider myself to be a big blogger by any stretch of the imagination and I have still scored a few books via NetGalley (one of which I haven’t read yet and one of which I still have to review). It’s worth checking it out because it doesn’t seem extremely hard to get approved if you are either a blogger, active on Goodreads, or very interested in books. The selection isn’t always the best, but it’s worth checking out!!

10) Audible

I’d be pretty amiss if I didn’t at least mention this one. While I don’t subscribe to this (I’m not into audiobooks enough to really use the subscription service, but maybe someday), I have still used it occasionally and I definitely appreciate its value. Here are a few great posts on getting the most out of Audible:

A trick to save bigtime on Audiobooks from Modern Mrs. Darcy
Get the most out of Audible
Getting the most out of your Audible Membership

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

#Bookstagram #books #currentlyreading #bookblogging and other book tags on Instagram and Twitter – here are a few posts with suggestions: HERE, HERE, HERE.
I am intrigued by Scribd and Oyster, but I don’t want to read books on our tablet (too much screen time) and I don’t have a Kindle so I am uncertain whether they’d be worth my time and effort. Any input on these “Netflix for Books” sites, anyone??

What book websites do you love??

PS – Tomorrow is the monthly Show Us Your Books link up with Steph and Jana…the one year anniversary! Check it out for even more book love!!!

Fall To-Be-Read Books (Top Ten Tuesday)

Last week, I jotted down a list of books that I really wanted to get to this fall, so this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a perfect topic for me! My own list has more than 10, but I’ll share my favourites! I’m waiting for a few of them from the library, but I am hoping I’ll get to all of these before Christmas 🙂

All images via Goodreads

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling

I read the first in this series and although it was a bit slow at the beginning, I was hooked by the end. Looking forward to following Strike’s story in this one. There’s a third in the series coming out this fall too, so maybe I’ll get to that one before Christmas.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I loved Fangirl and I can’t wait to read this story about the fan fiction 🙂 Comes out in October!!

Winter by Marissa Meyer

The much-anticipated finale to the Lunar Chronicles…comes out in November and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. I’m listening to The Fairest right now, and it’s an interesting perspective on Queen Levana.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty

This will be my second Liane Moriarty book, so I hope it lives up to how much I loved Big Little Lies!

Persuasion by Jane Austen

I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet, but I can’t wait. I know the storyline (although I haven’t seen the movie either!) and I think I will really enjoy it. I might listen to some of it on audiobook and read parts of it…we’ll see how it goes.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This book is recommended for fans of The Martian (even though it is not at all the same) – It seems like it will be a fast paced read.

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

I’ve heard nothing but good things about this regency book and I think it will tie in well to all of my Jane Austen reading over the next few months 🙂

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I’m already partway through this short read and feeling so motivated to GET RID OF THINGS. Now if only I can get my husband on board?? 😉

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen

I loved Water for Elephants and I have heard this one isn’t quite as good, but it’s still worth a read.

My True Love Gave to Me (Various authors/ short stories)

To read in November (or sooner – whenever the library gives it to me?) in anticipation of a wonderful holiday season!!!

To check out some other Top Ten Tuesday lists, go to the link-up HERE. Thanks to the Broke and the Bookish for hosting!

What’s on your reading list for the fall???

Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge Final Link Up

When I first saw the info about this summer reading challenge on Kristen’s blog, I immediately went to work writing down possible books for the categories. I did end up changing my mind a bit, but my final list was as follows:

YA Book – Sloppy Firsts 4/5 Stars

A book with a one word title – Cinder 4.5/5 stars

A book about summer, or a book with summer in the title – Twenty Boy Summer 2.5/5 Stars

A book recommended by a blogger – The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry 4.5/5 stars

A book by a non US author – Big Little Lies 5/5 Stars

A book on my TBR list for more than a year – The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4/5 Stars

A book with a female heroine – Jane Eyre 5/5 Stars

A suspenseful book – Gone Girl 3.5/5 stars

Book written by a celebrity or comedian: One More Thing 4/5

Book that will be a movie or TV show – The Martian -5/5

And as I mentioned in my last update post, I finished all the books from my list in August!

The books I would absolutely recommend that I read: The Martian, Big Little Lies, Jane Eyre, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I also (obviously) loved Cinder and I have gobbled up the rest of that series in the past month or so.

I’d like to take a minute now though to reflect on the challenge and how I feel about reading challenges now that I’ve got this one under my belt 😉

One thing I absolutely LOVED about the reading challenge was that I really expanded my horizons in reading. There were some books on my list that had been on my “to be read” list for WAY too long and I knew that if I thought I “had” to read them, I would. And I’m so glad I did!! I also loved the interactive component of this challenge and the fact that it increased my participation on Goodreads/commenting on blogs/talking to other book lovers about similar choices. Additionally, I liked that I didn’t binge on one particular series. Usually (like most people, maybe?), if I read a good book, I will read the sequel immediately after, and then the next in the series, etc until I’m done it and in withdrawal. haha. This really forced me to move onto another book for a bit and absorb each series bit by bit. I wouldn’t necessarily do this moving forward, but it was interesting. Finally, I liked how this challenge made me fall in love with audiobooks. Throughout the challenge, I’d usually have 1 (or 2!) books on the go, and an audiobook, and I loved that because sometimes you have time to read, but sometimes you need to wash dishes or go for a run, and then you can turn to an audiobook at that time.

The only thing that I didn’t love about myself during this challenge was how intense I got about it…haha. By that I mean I really wanted to finish first so I felt like I chose books that weren’t TOO TOO long or hard (although some were longer, and none of them were necessarily SUPER easy). I also rushed through a couple of them, and I felt like I should be reading every single second that I wasn’t with the kids or working…so that was a bit weird, but I did enjoy all the reading I did this summer!! And this feeling isn’t the challenge’s fault, it’s all mine. 😉

I’m not doing any other challenges at the moment (although a fall one would be great!!) but my current reading goals include finishing all of Jane Austen’s books (I haven’t read a few of them yet!) by Valentine’s Day 2016, finish 100 books by December 31 (Goodreads tells me I am a few behind schedule but it doesn’t realize that summer socializing is coming to an end LOL) and if I finish 100 books I will allow myself to read Harry Potter again for the 10th ish time 😉 I am dying to read it again, and I know I should just say OK go ahead, but I’m also trying to really broaden my horizons a little bit. So many books, so little time!!!

Thanks for hosting such a great reading challenge ladies! I’m looking forward to the next one!! 🙂

Fabulous Friday Favourites

Today is a good day. The sun in shining, it’s warm but not too hot, and it feels like fall. I finished the Sea of Tranquility this morning on my way to work, and I loved it. It reminded me of how I finished when I finished reading Eleanor & Park. It was a good read. I am actually loving how many great books I have read this year thanks to being more interactive on Goodreads and listening to others’ recommendations. I’ll be posting my thoughts on the Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge on Monday 🙂

Here are some of my Friday Favourites for the week!!

FAVOURITE MUSIC:

I love this one for running…great beat!!!

z

FAVOURITE YOUTUBE VIDEO:

I can’t wait to watch it this weekend, since I missed it the first time around on TV in June.

FAVOURITE LINKS AROUND THE WEB:
11 ways to love Goodreads even More
Listen to Your Kids <— this has really stayed with me since I read it
This post from today on Gilbert Blythe vs. Mr. Darcy

FAVOURITE PHOTO OF THE GIRLS:

My tiny walking toddler machine

Because every 4 year old needs a huge pink unicorn to call their own

FAVOURITE RECIPE:

I made some cold brew coffee this week after spending $5 for a cup of it last week (just black – ridiculous!) Here’s the recipe:

Cold Brew Coffee via Sage the Blog

FAVOURITE LOLs:

FAVOURITE INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE:

FAVOURITE QUOTE FROM A BOOK I READ RECENTLY:

From The Sea of Tranquility

Happy weekend, everyone!! xo

Literary Ladies Update #2 and current reads

I’ve drafted several posts lately and then I haven’t had enough time to edit them or add pictures, so they’re left sitting as drafts and the moment has passed. BUT here I am today, so that counts for something?? We have had an insanely busy past few weeks. Stressful moments at work followed by nights at home with a screaming, tired, preschooler and a teething toddler have left me totally burnt out. Every day this week, I actually felt like digging myself a hole and hanging out there for awhile on my own with some peace and quiet. However, I let a few things go for this weekend, and my mind is MUCH clearer today, and I think I will survive now 😉

So, aside from turning 30 last Friday (ahh!!) I have been doing a lot of running, reading, and listening to great tunes and podcasts lately. Here is my update for the Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge:

Books read: 10/10!!

Books read since last update: The Martian (see thoughts below) and One More Thing.

I finished all my books awhile ago (almost within the first month, but The Martian on audiobook took a bit longer and One More Thing did too). Here’s my previous update, in case you want to know what I thought of the other 8 books I read.

My favourites from the challenge:

The Martian – honestly one of the best books I have read (listened to?) in years. It was amazing as an audiobook, and I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed the print version nearly as much. I can’t wait to see the movie. By the end of the book, I was actually squirming with anticipation to find out what happened with Mark Watney. Amazing, amazing book. Thanks to Kristen’s recommendation…I hadn’t even heard of it until I read about it on her blog, and I have already recommended it to everyone I know (my dad and my brother both absolutely loved it too!)

Big Little Lies – this book had me hooked right from the beginning and I couldn’t stand not knowing the ending so I finished it in about 2 days.

Jane Eyre – I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book (I listened to most of it, actually). Classics are classics for a reason.

Cinder – I have since finished Scarlet and Cress, and I love this series. I can’t wait for Winter to come out this fall. I have been actively seeking out more fairytale retellings too and I think I will try to get back into watching Once Upon a Time sometime soon too.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – this was a heartwarming and pleasant read, and I loved it.

I’m so glad I did this challenge. It definitely broadened my reading scope and got me to read more books this summer than I otherwise would have. Now that I’ve caught the reading bug again all the time, I don’t think I’ll stop anytime soon!

Right now I’m reading In the Unlikely Event (so far it’s about 3/5 stars for me, but I’m only about a third of the way through – I’m interested but not 100% hooked on the characters and I have an ominous feeling about what is to come)…and I have these others on the horizon in the next week or so and while I’m off work for a week (Sept 1-8) 🙂 This one is for the Literary Ladies Book Club pick of the month.

I just finished the other two Lunar Chronicles books, and I loved them. Cress was probably my favourite of the three so far. I liked Scarlet too, but the storyline just wasn’t as exciting to me as Cinder and Cress. I am actually glad in a way that I didn’t discover this series until this spring, because now I don’t have to wait quite as long for the fourth book to come out 😉

I’ve also read the 2nd and 3rd Jessica Darling books – the third wasn’t my favourite but I am hoping the fourth will be better! Still a good series to pass the time 😉

I have heard amazing things from many bloggers about the Sea of Tranquility, and I hope it isn’t TOO emotional for me, haha.

Anyway, I’m off to go for a run on my lunch hour here…hope everyone has a great weekend!! I hope my weekend looks a little bit like this photo:

But I’m sure it will end up being more like this:

Happy 35th birthday Harry Potter!!!

If I could send a letter via owl to anyone today, I’d send it to my good (fictional) friend Harry Potter on his birthday!! All I’m going to do here today is profess my love for this series and the amazing character that J.K. Rowling created. What better day to do that than on his birthday?

Note- I didn’t know this, but today is also J.K. Rowling’s 50th birthday – wow – look at what she has accomplished in these 50 years. She has changed many children’s lives forever by creating books that kids LOVE to read. I loved these birthday greetings to J.K Rowling from people involved in the Harry Potter franchise.

This probably sounds silly to some people (hi, Brian, xox) but Harry Potter has profoundly impacted my life, particularly during my teenage years. Growing up, my parents always got us at least one book for Christmas, and the year I was 14 they got us the original Harry Potter trilogy. My dad usually picked out our Christmas books after reading reviews or browsing a bookstore, and he thought this series would appeal to his 3 children who seemed to love fantasy type fiction (I had already inhaled His Dark Materials and the Time Quintet aka A Wrinkle in Time at this point). So on Christmas morning in 1999, we woke up to see some fun gifts from Santa and some books about a wizard. I wasn’t sure about the wizard books, and I even remember rolling my eyes at my dad a bit but he was certain we would like them. I read another book on Christmas Day before finally resolving myself to starting “the wizard books” so my dad knew I liked his gift.

I started the first book on Boxing Day, and at first I found it SOOO boring (and it is! kind of! in the beginning!) I got partway through it and was suddenly completely hooked. By the time I was done the first book (in a day or two), I just HAD to start the second one immediately even though it was the middle of the night. I was onto the third book by New Year’s Eve. A reminder, this was 1999, so New Year’s Eve was a BIG deal that year because of Y2K. We were at a party at my aunt’s house with a lot of family that night and celebrating with live music and all I wanted to do was sit in a corner by myself and finish Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. So I did. My family made fun of me, but it was worth it at that time. I hadn’t ever read books this captivating before.

After that, I had to wait a bit until the 4th book came out, and by then my brother and sister (and dad) had caught up to me and we had to share our copy of the 4th book. My parents decided it would be fair for me to read 2 chapters, then give it to my sister to read 2 chapters, then my brother, etc. etc. This was great except that I am older than my siblings and I was a faster reader, and eventually I *needed* to know what happened in the book! One afternoon, my family went out somewhere and I finished it all off in one sitting. I got in trouble for that but again, it was worth it. By the time the 6th book came out, we decided to buy more than one copy so we could read it simultaneously. lol.

Anyway, long story short, Harry Potter is probably the book series that has had the most impact on me. It’s the only series that I have read more than twice. There are a lot of books out there that I’ve re-read, and many that changed the way I think, but Harry Potter is different. I made friendships because of it. It made me feel closer to my siblings because we all enjoyed the books so much. I loved the world of wizardry. I related to the characters so much because they were around my age when I was reading. Even now, sometimes I say to Brian that I wish I could just apparate somewhere, and although he rolls his eyes, he totally agrees 😉 I am dying to re-read the books again, because it’s been a couple of years, but I want to finish a few more other books this year. I want to re-watch the movies again too, so maybe I’ll do that first.

(source)

I’d love to do a post someday about all of my favourite moments and thoughts throughout the series, but I think I’ll do that when I re-read them this fall. I’ll end this post today with a couple of my favourite quotes from the books (none of which will be “new” to fellow fans, I’m sure):

Are you a Harry Potter fan?

Which book in the series is your favourite? Least favourite?

My favourite in the series changes…I used to always like Goblet of Fire best, and I think it’s still between that one and Prisoner of Azkaban, but I love the way things wrap up in Books 6 and 7, even if they are darker. My least favourite has always been Book 5…I felt so much rage at Umbridge and felt that Harry was so grumpy, not to mention the part about Sirius…*sob*

Thank you for creating a fictional world that we’d all love to be a part of, J.K. Rowling!!

I’m going to convince Brian to watch one of the movies with me tonight & drink some homemade butterbeer via Recipe#4 here.

Update: Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge

I think I read more books this month than I have in years! I loved the break from watching TV in the evenings. I love having an audiobook and a regular book on the go, because sometimes it is just easier to listen to a book (i.e. walking to work, on the bus sometimes, going for a run, washing dishes.) I know I posted last week about books lately, but I wanted to create a post just for the challenge so I can link up today.

I’ve read 8/10 of the books from my list so far, and I’m hoping to be finished by the end of the week!

Books I’ve read so far:

YA Book – Sloppy Firsts 4/5 Stars

A book with a one word title – Cinder 4.5/5 stars

A book about summer, or a book with summer in the title – Twenty Boy Summer 2.5/5 Stars

A book recommended by a blogger – The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry 4.5/5 stars

A book by a non US author – Big Little Lies (amended from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up which was less than 200 pages) 5/5 Stars (and I will read the Life Changing Magic soon!)

A book on my TBR list for more than a year – The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4/5 Stars

A book with a female heroine – Jane Eyre 5/5 Stars

A suspenseful book – Gone Girl 3/5 stars

Books in progress:
Book written by a celebrity or comedian: One More Thing
Book that will be a movie or tv show – The Martian – I AM SO, SO, SO HOOKED ON THIS AUDIOBOOK!!!

Books that I will be reading when I finish the challenge:

Scarlet
The Husband’s Secret
Second Helpings

Friday Favourites!!!

We are in the middle of a BEAUTIFUL summer here in Nova Scotia, so almost all of our “free time” these days is spent outside with the girls! I love it! This past week, Brian was home with the girls two days on his own and they went in their kiddie pool in the backyard one day and on an outing to the Discovery Centre the other day! My wonderful mother and mother in law watched them the other two days and our babysitter is back from vacation next week. I have had an insanely busy week at work, so I’ve tried to take it a bit easy in the evenings at home and just enjoy some down time reading or watching the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix 🙂

Sunrise from our back deck last week

Here are some of my Friday favourites for this week:

Favourite Song:

Book Club by the Arkells

I can’t get enough of The Arkells after seeing them live on Canada Day…another of my favourites by them is Michigan Left. Perfect summer music, in my opinion.

Favourite Recipe:

Simple Summer Chopped Salad via Peanut Butter Fingers. MMMM so delicious!

PS – I am making cauliflower pizza dough for the first time this weekend…wish me luck :)!!

Favourite Book lately:

I was so happy to finish Jane Eyre this week (as I mentioned yesterday) and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great classic. The audiobook version I listened to was great.

Favourite Quote:

Via

Favourite Coincidence:

Brian and I, spurred by a long afternoon of fussy kids last Saturday, called his wonderful parents to see if they would watch the kids so that we could catch a movie in the afternoon. We went to Jurassic World, and when we walked into the theatre we ran into some of our friends! We hadn’t seen them since their wedding and we went over to share supper with them after the movie to catch up. It was great to see them, and we often have a hard time making plans with them so the spontaneous visit was so appreciated! I loved Jurassic World too and it’s definitely the kind of movie to catch in theatres…I don’t think it’d be the same off the big screen!

Favourite Posts from around the web:

Twister Sifter sends out the top 50 photos of 2015 sporadically and some of these are fantastic this quarter.

Moms with kids home in the summer, you should check out this post with details about Camp Google. I might do some of the activities with Molly.

I love When at Home and this post has gone viral, but I wanted to share it in case you haven’t read it. I feel this way all the time and it is a good reminder that we’re not alone as mothers.

Happy weekend, everyone! We’re mostly taking it easy around here!!

Linking up with Amanda here.

Books Lately

I have read a LOT of books in the past month or so because I am participating in the Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge! I am so happy with my 10 choices for the challenge so far and I was enthralled by many of the books I’ve read lately. I have quite a few more on my to-read list this summer, but I still have lots of time! 😉

Image via Stocksnap.io and edited by me

Here are some of my recent reads:

Sloppy Firsts – the first in the Jessica Darling series. I ate this book up in about a day. It was very well written and I loved the characters. Can’t wait to read more in the series, especially after the ending of this one!! 4/5 stars

Cinder – I have had this series on my TBR list for ages now, and I’m so glad I finally got through the first one! It was an easy read and I loved the take on the Cinderella story. I am a huge sucker for Cinderella stories, for some reason…I also got pretty hooked on Once Upon a Time last year on TV but I haven’t finished the series yet. Anyway, loved this one too, another fairly easy read and I will be picking up the next book in this series ASAP! 4.5/5 stars

Jane Eyre – I’ve been at this one for a few weeks via audiobook on Librivox (*love* Elizabeth Klett as a narrator!!) I finished the last 10 chapters or so via paperback that I picked up 10 years ago at a used bookstore. This was one of the best classics I’ve ever read, and I absolutely loved it. They call it a classic for a reason!! I would highly recommend it because there were some interesting twists and I adored the characters. The audiobook version is wonderful 🙂 Now I can go watch the movie on Netflix!! 5/5 stars

Big Little Lies – I could NOT put this book down. I started it in the car on our trip to New Brunswick and I read it off and on in the car the entire weekend – which is usually not something I can pull off! It was SOOOO captivating in the sense that I just had to know the ending!!! I almost googled it, but I’m glad that I held out because it was pretty surprising. I enjoyed reading about the relationships in this book – especially as a mother of young children. I will definitely check out more books by Liane Moriarty because her writing really hooked me! 5/5 stars

Gone Girl – I am one of the last people on earth to read this book, I’m sure, but I saw the movie floating around Netflix and I kenw the basic premise of the book so I knew Brian would enjoy the movie. I can’t say that I am a huge fan of the book, to be honest. It kept my attention and I needed to finish it, but I didn’t really LIKE it. The movie wasn’t much better, but I can still see how it was so popular…because everyone needed to know how it ended! I just didn’t feel like it resolved enough for my own liking. 3/5 stars

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – this was recommended by A LOT of bloggers and people on Goodreads, so I was anxious to give it a try. It was short and sweet (very sweet characters) and I really enjoyed all of the “book talk.” I’d highly recommend this one! 4.5/5 stars

Twenty Boy Summer – another book for the Literary Ladies Book Challenge (actually all of the above were from my original post on that), and this one was a very quick read. It stirred some emotions, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. It was good, but I felt like I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I wanted to be. 2.5/5 stars

The books that I have left for the challenge are The Martian (started it last night via audiobook), One More Thing (halfway done) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (just got it from the library last night!)

Other books I’ve read lately (June 2015):

The Cuckoo’s Calling – I was dying to read this series by Robert Galbraith AKA J.K. Rowling, and although this one was no Harry Potter (obviously, it’s an adult book ;)), and it took me awhile to get into, I still really enjoyed it and I would highly recommend it if you like private investigator type stories, although this one is not as funny as the Veronica Mars or Stephanie Plum books. (3.5/5 stars)

Me Before You – I haven’t felt this emotional about a book in ages and I loved it. It was SUCH a good read. Although I couldn’t necessarily relate to it in very many ways and I am also undecided about whether I am in agreement with it, I still absolutely loved it and it was a great fictional journey. I can’t wait for the sequel which is supposedly coming out this fall. (5/5 stars)

In short, I’d definitely recommend Me Before You, Big Little Lies, Jane Eyre, and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. 🙂

Linking up with Show Us Your Books here.

Literary Ladies Book Club & Summer Reading Challenge!

Hi there! It’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted in this space!

However, as you may remember, I LOVE to read and I am finding a lot more time for it lately on my commute to work and now that I have children who mostly sleep all night 😉 Last week I came across an awesome SUMMER BOOK CHALLENGE that I’m so excited to participate in, and I wanted to share my book choices for the challenge on my (old) blog space!!

Here are my reading picks for the Literary Ladies summer reading challenge (Jun 21-Sept 21 2015):

1) A YA Book – Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (Jessica Darling Series #1)

I’ve already picked this one up from the library, so it might be the first one I start on Jun 21! I’ve heard a lot of good things 🙂

2) Non US Author – The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo who is Japanese!!

A few people recommended this to me, and while I’ve heard it is a bit extreme, I think I need it in my life!!

EDIT: I amended this book choice to Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty because the book by Marie Kondo is less than 200 pages on my Kobo!! So I’ll still read it sometime, but it won’t count for this!

3) Book recommended by a Blogger – The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin recommended by Kristen here.

I’ve heard SO many good things about this book and I can’t wait to jump into it.

4) A book that’s been on your to-read list for 1+ years- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by

This one has been on my to-read list on Goodreads for ages now, and I haven’t seen the movie either…so I think this summer is a good time to give it a go!

5) A book with a kick-ass female character – Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

The audiobook is all cued up thanks to Librivox!

6) Book that is or will be a movie – The Martian by Andy Weir

Going the audiobook route on this one too – I think I will understand it a bit better that way! Can’t wait to check out the movie this fall with my husband’s favourite actor as the main character!

7) A book written by a celebrity – One More Thing by B.J. Novak AKA Ryan from the Office AKA Mindy Kaling’s “best friend”

I started this a long time ago and didn’t finish it, so I guess it counts as a bit of a re-read. I think the short story format will work well for the bus commutes. If for some reason, this book of short stories doesn’t fit the category, I am going to amend this choice to Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

8) A book with a one-word title – Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I deliberated on this category for a long time, and almost went with Invisible by James Patterson. The problem with Goodreads is that it’s too easy to read reviews, and I figured Invisible might be a bit more gruesome than I’m up for right now, so the highly recommended first book in the Lunar Chronicles fits this category for me.

9) Suspenseful book – Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

I must be the only person on the planet who hasn’t read this book yet, and I want to read it before seeing the movie which I noticed is now on Netflix!!! Unfortunately, I have encountered a few spoilers for it, but I think I’ll still enjoy it.

10) A book about summer or has summer in the title – Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

Oh, boy did I ever deliberate over this one too. There are so many books with Summer in the title and some of them seem a bit too teenage-angsty for my current mood (i.e. turning 30 in a few months, lol). Who knows, maybe my choice will be that way too, but it seems pretty good! I will also probably check out Summer at Sea at some point this summer 🙂 This category also made me remember Summerland…whatever happened to that show? It was OK for a bit there!

ANYWAY….

If you’re looking for a fun virtual book club to join, I am pretty intrigued by the Literary Ladies Book Club! They have a Goodreads page and they are planning to host a Twitterchat on the last day of the month to discuss that month’s book. Their pick this month is Saint Anything, and I’ve been anxious to try out Sarah Dessen for awhile!!

You can follow along with my progress for this book challenge on my Goodreads page. I hope to blog a bit more this summer too, because I am finding myself with free time (occasionally) in the evenings these days and I want to try to capture this season of our lives with a bit more sincerity!

XOXO!!