October 2017 Wrap-Up (Part 2)

Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
(Gallagher Girls, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 15 – 16
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Dem sweet spy skillz!
Least Favorite Thing:  Boys somehow being more important than life-or-death missions???? (Don’t get me wrong, I get why it’s like that, but I still roll my eyes every single time.)

I read this one in one sitting, which should tell you how engaging it was. So far I think it’s the best of the Gallagher Girls series, although I’ve got 3 books still to read, so maybe that will change!

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover


Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
(Gallagher Girls, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 16
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Overprotective besties.
Least Favorite Thing:  Townsend. Obviously.

I’ve realized something. I could literally never be a spy in this world. Why, you may wonder. Because of the danger? No. Because of the need for super special spy skillz? No. Because it’s fiction? Nope. I could never be a spy in the world of the Gallagher Girls because when people give me cryptic ass responses to more than two questions in a row, I start planning their murders.

I literally don’t even like Zach anymore. Just like answer a fucking question ever you mediocre boy. Ugh.

Other than the fact that no one can just answer a straight question ever, the book was good.

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About Only the Good Spy Young


Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
(Gallagher Girls, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 16 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  That music trigger thing was coolio. (But obviously, you know, very bad.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Dr. Fucking Steve. Like honestly could I have even said anything else? Screw that guy…

Is this my favorite Gallagher Girls book now? I think it might be? There was a moment in the beginning where I was Not Enjoying It, but that did not last long at all! I think this has got to be my favorite yet. Wow.

Also like, I never liked Dr. Steve because he was annoying, but what the fuck dude… He better die in the next book I swear.

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About Out of Sight, Out of Time


United We Spy by Ally Carter
(Gallagher Girls, book 6)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  “the blow stuff up and run approach”
Least Favorite Thing:  For super secret spies, almost every op they go on is like suuuuper public!

Well, that’s the series done! I’m pretty glad I decided to go back and reread the first book and finish the series. It was worth it.

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About United We Spy


Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 19 – 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I could practically taste everything they ate through my eyeballs. Yummy book.
Least Favorite Thing:  I can’t believe nobody punched that prick Matteo in the face.

I made a separate post about the Mexican knife fight thing because I have Emotions™ about it and because it’s one of the reasons this book is 3 stars and not 4. Not the only reason, but a decent sized part of it.

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About Love & Gelato


We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  October 21 – 22
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The rhythm of the writing.
Least Favorite Thing:  I literally can’t think of anything I didn’t like. Sorry, not sorry.

I can’t wait to get my hands on more books by Nina LaCour. Reading this book reminded me of reading a Cynthia Voigt novel. Which anyone who has spent any amount of time on my blog would know is the highest compliment I can give anything.

I read this book for The Cookie Read-A-Thon 🙂

My Posts About We Are Okay


Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
(The Lynburn Legacy, book 3)
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  September 28 – October 30
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Lillian’s favorite story. Ha!
Least Favorite Thing:  Um…why does every male in Kami’s circle that isn’t her father have to profess his romantic feelings for her?

I’m kind of disappointed… I didn’t like this one very well. It didn’t flow as well and didn’t really hold my attention well. It was okay, but only that, in my opinion.

My Posts About Unmade


In Progress

Musing Monday: October 23, 2017

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ____, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Are there any books you really want to see made into tv shows or movies?


I blogged about ____ this past couple weeks…

Okay so this prompt is usually for a single week, but since I just finished up a read-a-thon, I figured I would go back over the past two weeks because I blogged way more than usual and also I just like things to be more even so there it is.

  • Monday, October 9 – Just a little Musing Monday action with a great prompt about books that changed your life.
  • Thursday, October 12 – Thursday everything was about Empress of the World by Sara Ryan. It started with a Currently Reading bookstagram (where I also took the opportunity to show off my delicious food), then once I’d finished that book I posted a rating post for it, and I used it for Thursday Quotables as well.
  • Friday, October 13 – This was the start of The Cookie Read-A-Thon, and a very busy day for me! First Lines Fridays went up as scheduled, then I shared Mary’s tumblr post about her Cookie Read-A-Thon before I started on my own read-a-thon journey with Day 1 of the Kind of Daily Challenge. I intended to read just my weekly chapter of Persuasion, but I managed to enjoy myself so much I kept reading all the way to the end! This resulted in a very long version of my weekly Persuasion update, a rating post, and after some consideration I went ahead and put together a Persuasion Project master post. But wait, there’s more! I started another book, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter, so I posted a Currently Reading bookstagram for that, then later that night my first daily wrap-up for the read-a-thon.
  • Saturday, October 14 – I finished the first Gallagher Girls book and did a rating post for it, then a Currently Reading bookstagram for the next one (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy), and that night my second read-a-thon daily wrap-up.
  • Sunday, October 15 – Sunday blogging started with a delicious cup of tea (and more biscuits than would strictly be necessary for just one person) which I posted for Tomes & Tea, then a rating post when I finished the second Gallagher Girls book, followed by Day 3 of the Kind of Daily Challenge. Later, a Currently Reading bookstagram for the third Gallagher Girls book (Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover), which I also managed to finish that day so I posted another rating post, and then my read-a-thon daily wrap-up.
  • Monday, October 16 – Monday started with a Currently Reading bookstagram for the fourth Gallagher Girls book, Only the Good Spy Young, and then Musing Monday, where I talked about my decision to give the new John Green book a chance, and how I felt about memoirs. I finished the book I was reading and made a rating post, followed by a Currently Reading bookstagram for the fifth Gallagher Girls book (Out of Sight, Out of Time), and lastly my daily wrap-up for read-a-thon.
  • Tuesday, October 17 – I finished that fifth Gallagher Girls book (officially my favorite of the series) in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and got my rating post out, and since I had already scheduled Teaser Tuesday I decided to get some sleep! My sleep lasted longer than I intended, but I still managed to get through the sixth Gallagher Girls book and do a Currently Reading bookstagram and a rating post. Then I talked about my favorite genre in Day 5 of the Kind of Daily Challenge, and wrap the day up for read-a-thon.
  • Wednesday, October 18 – Sad, sad, neglected Wednesday. I fully intended to do things, but my body decided my intentions meant nothing and that I should sleep fitfully all day long and completely neglect everything that didn’t have to do with sleeping on the couch and worrying my husband by missing every phone call and text all day long. Whoops!
  • Thursday, October 19 – I got (kind of) back on track Thursday, starting with Thursday Quotables and posted a Currently Reading bookstagram just before I took a long bath with Love & Gelato. Admittedly I didn’t get very far before I fell asleep (and the book thankfully fell on the floor and not into the bath…), but when I woke up I did post a progress update. Before I went back to bed, I did Day 7 of the Kind of Daily Challenge and waxed poetical about all the favorite reading spots I had the privilege of knowing in my life. (I didn’t, I’m not poetically skilled, I just talked about them, but it did earn me the greatest compliment I’ve ever had from one of my favorite book bloggers.) And of course I ended the night with my daily wrap-up of my read-a-thon progress.
  • Friday, October 20First Lines Fridays & Friday 56 went up first thing, then a rating post for Love & Gelato, and that night I did my usual daily wrap-up for read-a-thon.
  • Saturday, October 21 – I did eventually get my thoughts in order (after talking to a friend who very helpfully tells me when I’m over-reacting to things and when I’m normal-reacting) and put together a post about some casual racism found in Love & Gelato. I actually managed to pick a book to read pretty easily (We Are Okay by Nina LaCour), which surprised me, and I used it in a bookstagram for Day 9 of the Kind of Daily Challenge, and ended the night with a penultimate read-a-thon daily wrap-up.
  • Sunday, October 22 – I finished We Are Okay, easily one of my favorite books in a while, and posted a rating for it as well as some quotes. Then I picked a new book, Mind Games by Kiersten White, yet another that I have no idea how I wound up with it on my TBR, and used it in Tomes & Tea, then my final wrap-up for The Cookie Read-A-Thon.

Woo! Busy two weeks for me! So aside from the fact that I feel icky sicky and can’t even remember how it feels to just breathe without suffering, I think I’m doing pretty well.

Are there any books you really want to see made into tv shows or movies?
Yes! Yes! Okay! I’m going to try to put my thoughts in order for this because I can see it so perfectly in my mind and have for a while, but I’ve never tried to explain it to anyone before.

First of all, it would be a miniseries, three or four 90-minute episodes per season, four seasons in all. Each season would cover a single novel in Cynthia Voigt’s Tales of the Kingdom series.

This series is a non-magical fantasy, so it would probably look somewhat like Game of Thrones, except without all the gratuitous rape scenes and dragons.

It’s also important to note that it is a loosely-connected series, meaning it’s all set in the same world, but at different times, so the main characters of each book never meet each other. For example, in book 2 (On Fortune’s Wheel) there is a point where Birle and Orien are shipwrecked on some rocky outcropping and are trapped. They scratch their names on the rocky cliff. Later in book 3, Oriel and Griff are hiding out there and they find the names on the cliff wall, which is how Oriel comes to be called that in the first place. By this time Birle and Orien are long gone of course.

All this is to explain why, in my mind, they use mostly the same ensemble of actors for each season even though the previous season’s characters are gone into history already. This would also be an easy way to show when someone is a descendant of a main character from a previous novel, because they could be played by the same actor.

It would be so amazing! In fact, when I read them I can picture it playing out in my mind so perfectly. If I was loaded I would pay to produce this I swear.

Cookie Read-A-Thon: Day 5

Well, I met my goals, but only barely. To be completely honest I slept most of the day today. I’m only awake now because I got up for water and was thinking about my read-a-thon goals and just couldn’t stand the idea of breaking this good streak I’ve been on. So I spent some very drowsy hours finish the Gallagher Girls series. It’s a testament to the writing I think that it held my attention and I actually retained what I read.

I’ll probably go back to bed once this is posted…

Books Read Today:

Time Spent Reading Today:  4 H 6 M

Total Pages Read:  1745

Total Time Spent Reading:  20 H 56 M

Books Completed During Read-A-Thon:  7

I don’t even know what to set as a goal for myself for tomorrow… I don’t even know what I’d like to read next! (I’ll gladly take suggestions from anyone, the books I have to choose from can be found here.)

I suppose my goal will be… figure out what I want to read and read at least half of it (all of it if I manage not to sleep the day away, but I won’t get my hopes up).

Cookie Read-A-Thon: Day 4

Ha! I stomped all over my goal from yesterday. Take that, Goal!

I’m pretty proud of myself considering I feel terrible physically, I waited a stupid long time to actually start reading today, and I didn’t even read for very long.

Books Read Today:

Time Spent Reading Today:  4 H 54 M

Total Pages Read:  1362

Total Time Spent Reading:  16 H 50 M

Books Completed During Read-A-Thon:  5

My goal for day 5 of the read-a-thon is to finish the Gallagher Girls series completely (just a little over 1 book at this point). I’m pretty confident that I can do that, but once that’s done I’ve got no idea what I’ll read next!