Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Bout of Books 14 Progress and Challenge Tracker I will be keeping track of my progress for the Bout of Books 14 Reading Challenge on this page, updated daily. Day 4 Challenge Stats: Currently Reading:   Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Pages Read:   118 Challenges:   None Thoughts:   Reading-wise, day four was a real gem for me.  I really felt like I read more than I actually did, so I'm counting it as a victory.  I was so bummed that I didn't finish my book because I'm so close!  I should finish it this weekend, probably tonight.  Day five shall be a reading extravaganza :) Day 3 Challenge Stats: Currently Reading:  Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Pages Read:  34 Challenges:  M.A.S.H. hosted by Sarah at Rocky Top Real Talk Thoughts:  Though not a super successful reading day, I did really enjoy participating in the mini challenge (such a fun throwback)!  I'm hoping that today is a little more productive in the reading department as I would really l

  This week's topic is:  Favorite Games Games...who doesn't love a good game?  I am a huge fan of games in general, but these are some of my favorites: Board Games Trivial Pursuit:  I freaking love Trivial Pursuit like there's no tomorrow.  I know a lot of random, useless trivia, so I am pretty good this game.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but "toot, toot"!  Scrabble:  I like words and this is my jam :) Scattergories:  A creative game of list-making.  It's great to play with a group. Card Games Apples to Apples:  A great way to have some family fun.  Cards Against Humanity:  A dirty version of Apples to Apples...for adults.  This game is perfect for me because I am an awful person... Nerts:  Hands down, one of my favorite card games.  It's a combination of Speed and Solitaire and you compete/use other people's piles to finish your stack first.  It can get super violent! Computer/Phone Games Trivia Crack:  Ties in to my lov

Today's mini challenge for Bout of Books 14 is hosted by Sarah at Rocky Top Real Talk an is a throw-back to the 90s...M.A.S.H.  What?!  I'm so excited for this one :)  Here are the rules Create a MASH game. My go-to categories as a kid were significant other, car, city (I would live in), # of kids, job, and pet, but you can choose what categories you want - this is just for fun. Don't forget to put MASH at the top! Fill in your categories with choices - I always did 4 per category. You can do 3 or 5 or how ever many you want. Here's where you can get creative! I chose to pull my s/o's from books (Braden from LA Candy, Daemon from Lux series, Adrian from VA/Bloodlines, and Jason from Heroes of Olympus), however, you can choose to live in fictional places or have fictional pets, etc. Pull from your favorite books as much as you want. Now you need a number...draw a spiral and fill in the spaces. Make tally marks and stop randomly. Use a random n

Teaser Tuesday:  Broken Monsters Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "He could hear a rasping breath.  Shadows moved in the mist, or maybe it was all inside him, his own breath.  He kept his hand on the truck because the fog was so thick he didn't know if he would be able to find his way back if he let go.  His fingers were numb.  The flecks of paint marking the tree started wriggling into the wood like maggots.  They burned from inside, spreading to other trees." --page 42           Broken Monsters  by Lauren Beukes Creepy! Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  Top Ten Authors Who Are On My Auto-Buy List .  You always have those authors who, no matter what the book is about, automatically end up in your shopping cart and on your bookshelf.  These are mine: Chris Bohjalian I love everything Bohjalian writes.  It's all so good.  Seriously, he has become one of my all-time favorite American writers.  Recommendation:  Midwives Alexander McCall Smith McCall Smith's books are so much fun.  I love the nostalgia that his 44 Scotland Street series gives me.  Recommendation:  Love Over Scotland (44 Scotland Street #3) Cecelia Ahern For light, easy reads, nothing beats a Cecelia Ahern book.  They're so good.  Recommendation:  One Hundred Names John Boyne A more recent discovery that

Bout of Books 14 kicked off today (I'm super excited!) and today is also the start of the mini-challenges!  There is still time to sign up for the reading challenge as well.  Simply go here ! Our first challenge is hosted by Between Library Shelves and is focused on travel...something else I totally love :)  Here are the rules for the challenge: List 3-6 books of fiction that take place in countries other than where you are currently residing.  Post on whatever media outlet you have access to and display your post as creatively as you feel inclined to.  Don't forget to link back to BLS! Here are my fictional travels... Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden...set in Japan  44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith...set in Scotland The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne...set in Russia Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier...set in the Netherlands The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian...set in Syria   Golden Boy by Tara

Bout of Books 14 So, with the start of Bout of Books 14 just around the weekend, here's what I'm planning on reading: Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Checked this out from the library a while back, along with about six other massive books, and it's the last one left on my coffee table.  Hoping to get it started this weekend!   Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick I haven't read an Amanda Quick book in a very long time.  Saw this one at the library and thought it sounded good...and maybe unlike others of hers I have read.  We shall see :) A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin I've been slowly working on this one (on and off) and would like to make some progress in it.  We'll see if this actually happens during the challenge. Here's hoping I can get through the first two and make some progress in the last.  If not, I have The Paris Wife by Paula McLain on the back burner if I need something a little more light. There's still

This week's topic is:  Blogging?  Where do you do it?   Well, let me tell you! I have two separate places where I tend to blog... At Home I work on a laptop when I'm at home.  Often, you can find me sitting on the couch, hunched over, typing away on my 2006 Dell (yeah...) while it's sitting on the coffee table.  It's not super comfortable, sometimes, but it gets the job done.  It also allows me to take breaks easily, as in watch some mindless entertainment on the tube and get snacks, and it's easy to pick it up, place it on my lap, lean back, and relax a little.  However, my lap gets kind of hot doing this.  One day, I'll have a spiffy new laptop to crush the blog on and maybe, just maybe, an actual office where I can work on stuff!  Ah, dreams... At Work (shhhh....) When I have downtime at work (or when I need to take a break from data entry and whatnot), I'll work on the good ole blog.  This happens more often in the summer months (mainly August

Teaser Tuesday:  The Rocks Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "As the salt spray dried on her warm thighs and stomach and the thrumming vibration of the ski made itself felt in every muscle of her body, she felt tremendously sexy.  She gazed steadily, despite the bumps, back at him." --page 264           The Rocks by Peter Nichols Sorry it's been so long since I've posted a teaser... Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  Top Ten Authors I've Read the Most Books By .  Woohoo...great topic! Here are mine: Nora Roberts Books Read:  43 Favorite Book:  The Chesapeake Bay Saga (four books) Janet Evanovich Books Read:  24 Favorite Book:  Top Secret Twenty One (Stephanie Plum #21) Heather Graham Books Read:  21 Favorite Book:  The Cameron Family Saga (six books) VC Andrews Books Read:  21 Favorite Book:  My Sweet Audrina Jude Deveraux Books Read:  14 Favorite Book:  Days of Gold (Edilean Series #2) JK Rowling Books Read:  9 Favorite Book:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Italo Calvino Books Read:  9 Favorite Book:  If on a winter's night a traveler... Roald Dahl Books Read:  7

This will be my second time participating in the Beat the Heat Read-a-Thon hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Phantasmic Reads and I'm super excited for another successful three weeks of reading!  The Rules The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from August 24th at 12:00 AM to September 6th at 11:59 PM. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well, read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach your goal! There will be mini-challenges throughout the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end! Sign up here at Novel Heartbeat or over at  Phantasmic Reads . You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize giveaway, you must sign up by August 28th. To join, all you have to do is make a sign-up post – even if it’s just a “Let’s do this!” thing – and add your post URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (wil

This week's topic is:  My Pet .  And, without further ado, here goes... I have never been the biggest animal person in general.  We always had cats and dogs growing up, but they just weren't for me.  Don't get me wrong, I have no real problem with pets in general, but I was never one to seek the comfort of a pet out.  I was always more of a cat person, though.  Because of this, I always had a cat that was "mine" as a kid.  First, there was Lucky; a beautiful Russian Blue who was damn lucky to be alive.  I got him in 2nd grade as a rascally little kitten and he was so cool.  One day he climbed into the engine of my mom's van and broke his back leg.  He had a pin until the day he died (several years later).  I believe I was a Junior in high school when he was hit by a car on the highway...  After Lucky, I rescued a Calico kitten the summer before my Senior year.  She wasn't even old enough to go to the bathroom on her own or open her eyes.  Needless

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  Top Ten Fairytale Retellings I've Read/Want to Read .  Oh man, oh  man.  What a great topic!  Fairytale retellings have become HUGE recently and there are so many great ones.  Here are my choices: Retellings I've Read Cinder by Marissa Meyer  Based on Cinderella Scarlet by Marissa Meyer  Based on Little Red Riding Hood Cress by Marissa Meyer  Based on Rapunzel Retellings I Want to Read Winter by Marissa Meyer  Based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Briar Rose by Jane Yolen  Based on Sleeping Beauty   A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C Bunce  Based on Rumpelstiltskin   Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George  Based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses Entwined by

Bout of Books 14 It's just around the corner (August 17th-23rd) and I'm so excited to participate once again.  The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team Goals for this round of the challenge: Read, read, read!  (Duh) Post a review (an actual review) of all the books I finish Participate in mini-challenges and Twitter parties Connect with fellow bloggers Keep up on my normal blogging activities (of which I have been slacking) Whew...that's probably more than I can do, but I'm gung-ho this time around!