Category: Features

Pass the Truth, Please: That Incredible Time I Met Susan Dennard and Alex Bracken

Posted January 16, 2016 in Book and Author Events / 13 Comments

Truthwitch and Passenger are books that are near-inescapable right now in the YA community. Some of the first big releases for 2016, they cultivated a buzz throughout the fall and winter that has definitely deemed them both worthy of purchase and pre-order. I was lucky enough to receive both from my boyfriend for my birthday this month, and in the perfect compliment to this gift was the realization that both Susan Dennard and Alex Bracken were going to be on tour in my state. So I planned out a 17 hour day to ensure that, come hell or high water […]

Christmas (Book) Haul and Recap 2015!

Posted December 26, 2015 in Features, Stacking the Shelves / 21 Comments

Merry Christmas, blogosphere! This holiday season definitely snuck up on me, and while it was a crazy rush Christmas shopping and prepping for the holiday, I managed to finish all of the essentials! I received some wonderful gifts (and books!) this year and thought I would share them here! Max and I started the morning at our place with our personal tree and gift exchange. As it’s our first full size tree together (and not one of the mini-trees used in our college dorms and previous apartments) the decorations are a little sparse, but we do love it! One of […]

The Transatlantic Book Project: Stop 2 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone [1]

Posted December 6, 2015 in Features / 12 Comments

I am so, so excited to announce that I am 1 of 10 bloggers participating in the Transatlantic Book Project! The brain child of Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense and Rachel @ Confessions of a Book Geek (both lovely bloggers who I first “met” when I started blogging almost two years ago on wordpress.com), it’s sort of a traveling book club/pen pal/secret santa project. Two books will circulate the United States and the UK/Ireland, with each blogger reading and annotating the book along the way. You can view all of the details in the project’s launch post on Alicia’s […]

I’m Starting to Feel My Age: Top 5 Adult Fiction Books on My TBR

Posted December 4, 2015 in Features, TBR / 29 Comments

Lately I’ve been going through a phase where I find myself semi-tired of my beloved YA. Titles that I thought I would CERTAINLY be on the edge of my seat reading have ended up being a chore to read (I’m looking at you, Winter). Perhaps because I’ve recently been thrust into adulthood in my real life, I find myself craving characters with more mature relationships, life challenges, and goals. While I don’t see myself ever turning away from YA or even demoting it from my number one preferred genre of books, I think incorporating more adult fiction into my TBR […]

The Gift of Fear: Non-fiction that can save your life

Posted November 18, 2015 in Features, Guy in the Pages / 7 Comments

Since graduating from college, I don’t read nearly as much nonfiction as I used to. While the break from monotonous texts in exchange for all of the fiction I want has been great, it also means I’ve been missing out on critical, thought provoking reads that I was often exposed to in college. Max is a recent college graduate in psychology and for his birthday earlier this year asked me to gift him with a non-fiction book that he had read excerpts from in his upper level psychology classes: The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. This text is […]

November, November: the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year

Posted November 8, 2015 in Features / 11 Comments

November may be my new favorite month. This year, November’s brought with it the first hints of fall (the weather has literally dipped twenty degrees over the course of two weeks) new holiday traditions, and a return to a state of calmness in my life. At the end of August I experienced some major life changes, and have moved to a new town, started a new job, and gone on an epic vacation in the course of the past two months. This has led to a decrease in posting and reading, but an increase in amazing life-changing opportunities. However, mid […]

Finding My Groove with Audio Books

Posted September 30, 2015 in Features / 27 Comments

Despite the fact that I’ve been reading since before I could actually “read” (when I was a toddler I was quite fond of carrying around picture books and “reading aloud” to anyone who would listen, which is to say I would make up stories I thought went with the picture) I haven’t actually listened to an audio book until the last month. I started a new job which requires a 1.5 hour commute each way, and I cannot for the life of me read without getting motion sick. It was the perfect opportunity to start venturing into the world of […]

From Plot to Personal: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between by Jennifer E Smith

Posted August 26, 2015 in Features, Plot to Personal, Reviews / 2 Comments

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between deals with the dilemma that so many young couples face upon graduating from high school: to break up or not to break up. Over the course of one evening, Jennifer E. Smith’s novel explores Aiden and Clare’s last night in their hometown before they embark on their journeys to colleges on opposite coasts. The premise of this novel really struck me because I was in the exact same position when I was there age. I was in a happy relationship and had been for about two years, was going away to school a significant […]

Don’t Be Author Shy: 5 Tips For Talking To Authors At Events

Posted August 13, 2015 in Features / 14 Comments

Recently on Twitter, the lovely Nova from Out of Time Book Blog asked for advice on talking to authors at events. While I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, I immediately set about crafting a post because I’ve recently had quite a few author meet and greets. At the beginning of 2015 I hadn’t met any YA authors, and by August I’ve met dozens: Morgan Matson, Marissa Meyer, Leigh Bardugo, Stephanie Perkins, etc (Thanks YALLWEST and ALA for the opportunities!) I’m sharing some of my go-to conversation starter tips when meeting authors that help when you’re dealing […]

Relationship Role Models: Jase & Sam from My Life Next Door

Posted July 30, 2015 in Features / 15 Comments

Relationship Role Models is a new, original feature where I highlight YA couples that portray happy, healthy, realistic and/or constructive relationships. I look at what less than desirable YA romantic tropes they don’t subscribe too, how they function, and how they example healthy, respectful behavior toward one another. This may contain mild thematic spoilers for the novel the couples appear in, but they are kept at a minimum! If you’ve read My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, chances are that you know how perfect of a YA summer contemporary read it is: adorable, heartfelt, compulsively readable and with just […]