July 2014 Recap

Hi guys! I can't believe July is already over. My last semester of school is quickly coming up, which means I have to read as many books as I can before I have to focus on studying ... right? Right.

Because of the BookTubeAThon, I read a lot more books than I normally do in a month. Here are all the ones I finished in July!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was such a raw and beautiful read. I loved the different roles that all the adults play and the "up-in-the-air" ending.

After hearing Whitney from whittynovels go on and on about Warner in Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi (specifically Chapter 62), I wanted to continue reading the Shatter Me trilogy. I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint, and I liked it a lot more than Shatter Me. I now understand why so many people are swooning over Warner and ignoring Adam, haha.

The last four books (The Distance Between Us, Unite Me, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Such a Rush) were all read during BookTubeAThon, so you can hear more about them in my recap video :)

Branded by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki was my first read of July (as well as my first ever ebook read and first NetGalley request/approval!)

Where She Went by Gayle Forman turned out to be a much better book that I thought. Although the ending is quite predictable (or is it?), I loved it and am now excited for the movie adaptation of If I Stay.

Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman were both great stories, but the author's relationship with his father (you read about it throughout the two books) caused it to fall flat for me.

I wasn't planning to read The One by Kiera Cass anytime soon but as I was typing out my "top five trilogies to finish" post, I realized that I REALLY wanted to know how it ends. I borrowed it as an ebook from my library, and it didn't disappoint me. The ending was resolved a little too nicely, but I didn't go into it with high expectations so it was fine with me.

I know I mentioned this a lot already, but I highly recommend this trilogy for anyone. If you're looking for a light and fun read, or even if you hate reading, I think this is a great starting point. (The Selection is the first book and if you want to know more about it, I gave a bit of a summary in the beginning of this video!) I've also filmed a book talk on The One, so it should be up very soon ;)

POSTS AND VIDEOS

• The only book review I did this month was for Branded by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki. I've been trying to create different content, so I hope you don't mind the lack of reviews!
• For Top Ten Tuesday, I talked about some classics I'd like to read (but probably will never end up reading :x)
• BookTubeAThon, a readathon created by Ariel from Ariel Bissett, was held during the third week of July. Although my tbr video went up a bit late, I managed to read the amount I wanted to! I also made one progress video and just put up my recap yesterday night :)
• I also talked about a book I wanted to read (and ended up reading, yay!), filmed a book talk on We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, and listed the top five trilogies I'd like to finish.

READING CHALLENGE UPDATE
Books read in July: 11
Books read this year: 50/60
Reading goals completed: 0/6
After looking over my reading goals, I realized that I only have six instead of the seven I've been typing out in my monthly updates. I guess this makes it a little more accomplishable! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to attempt to read the last two books in the Delirium trilogy in August to (finally) fulfill one of my goals. If I complete one goal per month, I should be able to complete all of them by the end of the year!

How was your July? Did you do anything fun and/or special? :)

Top 5 Trilogies to Finish

I wrote a post back in April about the top five trilogies I wanted to start this year (which I'm going to have to change to next year because I haven't started any of them), so I thought I would talk about the trilogies I'd like to eventually finish. I don't have any excuses because all of the books mentioned are already published, but ... too many books, too little time!

5. The Maze Runner by James Dasher
I read The Maze Runner back in November for my "dystopian-themed" reading month and thought it was just okay ... but after watching the movie trailer, I really want to find out what happens. I'll probably borrow them as ebooks from my library instead of buying them because they'll only be a one-time read.

4. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
I read the first book when I was in middle (or high) school, but I never continued reading the second or third one. I've decided to try it again because I remember enjoying it (and I told myself that I would have to finish this trilogy before purchasing To All The Boys I've Loved Before :p)

3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
The first book started off really slow for me but by the end, I was surprised at how much I liked it. It left off at a cliffhanger and I own the last two books, so I've made finishing these two my only goal for August! (Also, have any of you watched the pilot episode on Hulu? I was really hoping it would make a good TV show, but it turned out pretty awful ...)

2. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Shatter Me was good and Unravel Me (the second book) was even better, so I'm expecting a lot of good things from Ignite Me. I haven't picked it up yet because I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback, but I think I'm going to borrow it from the library as an ebook first because I'm impatient :x

1. The Selection by Kiera Cass
I would consider this trilogy to be a light and easy read (which means no thinking), but I can't help but enjoy the plot. I'm currently reading The One, the last book in the trilogy, and it has been as interesting as both The Selection and The Elite were. If you don't like reading but want to start, I would recommend this trilogy.

Are there any trilogies (or series) that you've started and would like to finish but haven't yet? If they are unfinished trilogies/series, are you waiting for all of the books to come out before continuing on?

IT'S HERE!

I have been planning to redesign my blog for quite some time now, so I'm really excited to finally share it with you all! Although I love a good minimalistic layout, I wanted to add something bright and fun. Yellow was not my first choice as a background color, but I like the way it looks with the turquoise. The bit of magenta came a little later :)

NEW ADDITIONS

• Updated tabs — I thought it would be fun to create a drop down menu for easy access to all my reviews. You can search by author, title, rating, genre and even page count.
• Disqus comments — I never realized that you need some sort of account (whether it's Google or Wordpress) to comment on Blogger, so this widget definitely make things a little easier for everyone to leave a message.
• Sidebar icons — Instead of leaving my links at the end of each post, clickable icons are now placed in the sidebar.
• Pineapple ratings — To match the yellow background, I chose to replace the boring star ratings with pineapples. I think this spices things up a little!

Other than that, everything is generally the same. I'll be adding a lot of new features and changing the format of my wrap ups in the next couple of months, so look forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think about the new design :)

BookTubeAThon (Day 1)

Day 1 of BookTubeAThon is over, so I thought I'd share an update. (I am already straying from my TBR, but what else is new?) I lost a little bit of time after taking a nap, but I'm ready to continue with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire now. I might also use Maus I by Art Spiegelman as a "break" book if I don't feel like reading HP. If you're participating, how many pages have you read so far?

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