Category: Bookish Thoughts

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen | In Which I Fall In Love With Dessen’s Summer Stories Again

Posted August 26, 2019 in Bookish Thoughts, California Here We Come, Reviews / 6 Comments

I think there are few adult readers in the YA communities that didn’t grow up with Sarah Dessen being a staple on their summer reading list. Whether it was set on the shores of the lake in Colby or in the quiet suburban streets of Lakeview, reading her novels are like coming home to one of the best summers of your teenage life. I was, however, a little scared that this magic was starting to wear off when I was terribly underwhelmed with Once and For All and then reread This Lullaby and could not fathom why it was a […]

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab | Review

Posted November 26, 2018 in Bookish Thoughts, Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

There’s something about City of Ghosts that drew me to it, despite my black sheep status as being one of the only bloggers and readers I know that didn’t enjoy perhaps Schwab’s most well known book, A Darker Shade of Magic. Perhaps it was the eerie quality of the cover artwork, the decidedly dark premise for a middle grade novel, or simply the fact that it features a pale girl with long dark hair who’s a little different than kids her age and has a cantankerous cat (basically how my 11 year old self would like to have glamorously and […]

It’s Not Me, It’s You: 2014 DNF’s

Posted October 8, 2014 in Bookish Thoughts / 22 Comments

As an avid reader and blogger, I really hate not finishing books. I definitely tend to feel a sense of guilt, and hate returning books unread to the library, knowing that I was holding them hostage from people who actually will read them. Yet I’ve also come into the mentality over my past nine months of blogging that life is just too short, and my TBR list is just too long, to justify reading books that I just really don’t click with. This can be especially daunting when the books are popular ones that you want to read because everyone […]

Free Yourself: The Pressure to Be “Well Read” and Why It Shouldn’t Matter

Posted April 18, 2014 in Bookish Thoughts, Discussions / 5 Comments

I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve never felt that I’ve been “well read” enough to be an English major. Let’s face it- English majors are often literary elitists. They scoff at reading King Lear or The Wife of Bath in Brit Lit 201 because they’ve already done in it high school. They line up to take that voluntary Shakespeare class. They’ll respond to something that happens with the phrase “Oh, that’s very (enter author’s name here).” It’s intimidating, and often discouraging, when you’re the only one who has to read The Great Gatsby sophomore year of college in […]

Serial Series: The Problem with series that just won’t quit.

Posted March 30, 2014 in Bookish Thoughts, Books, Discussions / 10 Comments

I recently moved last summer, and in the long process of unpacking and setting up my new living space I’ve acquired three lovely new bookshelves and a neat loft area to serve as my at-home library. In the process of unpacking, purging, and organizing all of my beloved books (which I generally find to be a soothing activity), I’ve noticed a rather growing (literally) trend on my bookshelves: series that turn into twelve book monstrosities that I lose interest in halfway through. This is really quite a shame, because I’ve invested money in and no doubt enjoyed the premise of […]