Month: December 2018

2018 End of Year Bookish Stats

Posted December 31, 2018 in Features / 8 Comments
2018 End of Year Bookish Stats

As a book blogger, my idea of a fun New Year’s Eve is obviously making charts of my 2018 reading stats after finishing my last book of the year, and this post is exactly that- a look at some of the stats I find most interesting from my 2018 reading habits (compiled on NYE as I wave good riddance to 2018, #thankunext). Type: As usual, YA was the predominant type of book I read, but Adult fiction made up a respectable quarter of books I read. I feel like there were a few books (mainly Christina Lauren novels) that could […]


Checking In On My Most Anticipated Books of 2018- How Did I Do?

Posted December 27, 2018 in Features / 12 Comments
Checking In On My Most Anticipated Books of 2018- How Did I Do?

As everyone is compiling their lists of book they are most excited for in 2019 and looking to the year ahead, I decided I wanted to go back to the books that I put on a similar list last year for 2018 to see how I did (if I actually READ them, lol, and if so, how I felt about them!) I recently saw the fabulous Cait over at Paper Fury also do something similar (where she did a breakdown of her top ten most anticipated reads of the year and went over the expectation vs. reality- it’s hilarious, go […]


Beyond the Books: Favorite Beauty Products of 2018

Posted December 26, 2018 in Makeup / 7 Comments
Beyond the Books: Favorite Beauty Products of 2018

As much as I love reading and book blogging, I have a variety of interests outside of those hobbies that I love to chat about and share with others. I started Beyond the Books as a way to take a break from bookish content and feature some of my other favorite things! As 2018 comes to a close, I decided I wanted to highlight some of my favorite things- both bookish and non-bookish! While I’ll definitely have my “best of” posts up for my 2018 reads, I wanted to also highlight my favorite beauty products of 2018. I’m a huge […]


A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti | ARC Review

Posted December 24, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments
A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti | ARC Review

As the year comes to a close, my biggest question of 2018 is: How is it that everyone isn’t raving about this book? A Heart in a Body in a World snuck up on me and is quite possibly my favorite book of 2018. The novel is heartbreak and activism and politics and grief all wrapped up in a story that manages to capture a tragedy in such a deeply visceral and personal way that the media and news cannot. The novel follows Annabelle, a teenager who has suffered a terrible tragedy and decides to run from Seattle to Washington […]


All I Want for Christmas is You! | 2018 Edition

Posted December 21, 2018 in Features / 6 Comments
All I Want for Christmas is You! | 2018 Edition

  What’s better than finding new books under the Chirstmas tree? For me, books (or gift cards to purchase books) are usually a huge staple in my wish list, although in recent years I’ve really pared down my bookish wishlist in an effort to cultivate a more purposeful home library (and I’m running out of space, let’s be honest). There’s usually not a ton of new releases in December, so Christmas usually serves as a time for me to ask for books I can’t get from the library to try out and didn’t pre-order throughout the year (which is largely […]


November 2018 Month in Review

Posted December 19, 2018 in Features, Month In Review / 10 Comments
November 2018 Month in Review

I know I’ve been TERRIBLE at month in review posts the latter half of this year (they’re just so exhausting for me to write) but I figured no time like the present to pick them up again with the holidays approaching and therefore more fun/noteworthy things happening! Honestly my life has been TAKEN OVER by wedding planning (it’s literally a part time job if you are doing it yourself) and I’m sure that’s going to ramp up EVEN MORE in 2019…sigh. June can’t come soon enough! November is always a sweet month because it signals the last few weeks of […]


In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick | Black Dog Bay #5 ARC Review

Posted December 17, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments
In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick | Black Dog Bay #5 ARC Review

So in typical fashion, I found out that the Black Dog Bay series which I love dearly had a new installment thanks to Lauren @ Bookmark Lit who is probably responsible for a solid 25% of the books on my TBR shelf at any given moment. I hit that NetGalley request button SO FAST you don’t even know. So over Thanksgiving break I was spending yet another summer in my beloved East Coast seaside town of Black Dog Bay on another truly puppy filled adventure. The newest series installment follows Jocelyn, a local Black Dog Bay resident, who runs a […]


It’s Not Me, It’s You: 2018 DNFs

Posted December 12, 2018 in Features / 2 Comments
It’s Not Me, It’s You: 2018 DNFs

Back during my first year of blogging, I decided to do a round up of the books that I ended up not finishing, and while I don’t like to dwell on the negative, it’s interesting to have a record of the books that didn’t work out, especially to see if I ever get around to finishing them later on. Like many bloggers, I do feel guilty when I neglect to finish a book, especially when it’s one I’ve received for review or purchased for my personal collection. At the same time, my life is crazy busy and I just don’t […]


A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi | When the Teenage Feels Are Too Real

Posted December 10, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi | When the Teenage Feels Are Too Real

Clearly I am late to the Tahereh Mafi party, as A Very Large Expanse of Sea is the first book by her I’ve read, despite her popular dystopian and middle grade series. I honestly had not heard much about her first contemporary YA novel and decided to check it out on a whim when browsing my library’s Overdrive selection and seeing it was available, as I wanted a shorter contemporary novel to read in conjunction with my long, time consuming TOG reread. What I didn’t expect to find was a story that would so viscerally remind me of what it […]


Monthly TBR Plan: December 2018

Posted December 5, 2018 in Features, TBR / 16 Comments
Monthly TBR Plan: December 2018

I’ve made a lot of reading resolutions, and one of them is to be better about cultivating a monthly TBR. I know so many bloggers do beginning of the month TBR posts and I always LOVE reading them, so I’ve decided to post my own as well! I will include my physical, e-book, and ARC TBRs as well as a status update of where I am prior to starting my upcoming month’s TBR. Reading Progress Prior To This Month: 77/80 Books Read Ah, here we are, the final month of the year. We are finally closing out the dumpster fire […]