Monday, August 27, 2018

Jodi Picoult A Spark of Light Giveaway

Jodi Picoult is at it again with her new novel A Spark of Light. Jodi's publisher was kind of enough to get in contact with me and offer a giveaway to all my blog readers. I have been a long time fan of Jodi Picoult and have always really enjoyed her books. I'm excited to read her newest novel.

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, July 27, 2018

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon July 2018 Starting Line

I'm so excited for Dewey's first ever reverse readathon and it couldn't have happened on a more perfect weekend. It starts in just around 15 minutes and lasts until 7 pm tomorrow night. I don't have many plans this weekend, so it will be the perfect time to sit around and read.

I'm planning on getting in around 2 hours of reading tonight and then I will get the bulk of my reading in tomorrow. I'll be back in a few hours to update you on my progress.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Summer TBR Wipeout Sign Up and Goal

Hosted by Candid Cover
So I'm not off to the greatest start with my COYER summer reading list, but last year this challenge was a huge help with my COYER list. I would like to try to read 6 books off the list for the challenge. I will be back for weekly updates again, which really motivates me to keep going with the challenge. 








Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Release I Missed Midyear Update

Today I'm posting an update on the releases I missed posts that went live in January. I don't usually do midyear updates, but since I'm trying to read books oof these lists an update is sometimes helpful to see the progress. I started off the year with 16 books on my 2013, 2014, 2015 list and I'm now down to 13 even though I have finished Everything Leads to You yet. I'm counting it because I'm going to finish it in the next couple of days. 

My 2016 list had 14 books at the beginning of the year and now I'm down to 13, so I've only read one book so far. 
I started off with 14 books for my 2017 releases and I have read one book taking my total down to 13 books. 


This is the first time that all three lists have had the same number of books on them, but I'm definetly hoping to read some more books off these lists before the end of the year. 

So far this year I have read 5 books off these lists. Destiny Rewritten is a 2013 Release, Ophelia and Everything Leads to You are 2014 Releases, First Comes Love is a 2016 Release, and Lucky in Love is a 2017 Release. 

This is one of my favorite posts to do every January and I think it helps keep me accountable for the books that I do want to read. 

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Down the TBR Hole 20-30



21,22,23 Then Came You, Summerland, and Stay: I'm interested in reading all this authors, but I haven't read anything by them yet. Yes do I see these books eventually being read or deleted from the list yes, but for now I'm comfortable leaving them on the list.

24. The Five People You Meet in Heaven: I read a book by Mitch Albom years ago and I have never picked him up again despite that I liked that book that I previously read. I'm deleting off the list because I don't think I'm going to read it.

25. Will Grayson Will Grayson: this book is saved by my Deal Me In Challenge. I don't think I want to read this book, but it is on my list I made in 2015, so I'm going to at least try it before I delete it.

26, 27. The Shadow of the Bear and Beauty: these were in my early days of fairy tale retellings and I read more fairy tale retellings when I added these two. I'm taking them off the list because I have so many newer retellings I'm excited to read.

28. The Sky is Everywhere: I own this one and I do plan to read it pretty soon.

29. Why We Broke Up: this was all the rage in my early days of watching booktube, but I have never got around to it, so I'm going to let it go off my list.

30. Stealing Parker: I read the first bookt his year, so I'm excited to read this book pretty soon.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

April and May Wrap Up and June TBR

April was an awesome month for reading. After You took me a little bit to get into, but I ended up enjoying it. I really loved They Both Die at the End and The Belles. I ended the month with a book that has been on my TBR forever Enchanted. It was the perfect fairy tale retelling I needed.

I came into a small reading slump in May. I wanted to read The Library Card to take another book off my owned TBR. I ended up not enjoying the book and it took me a lot longer to read than it should of. I also finished The Summer List, which I started in March. I didn't really enjoy this book until the end, but overall it was a pretty forgetable novel for me. I just overall didn't feel like reading in May. I'm happy to tell you that it changed in June and I finished a book early in the month and I'm enjoying the book I'm reading currently. 



I read 4/6 books on my March TBR as of now. I have already finished In Conclusion Don't Worry About It. It only takes about a half an hour to read. I'm currently reading First Comes Love and I'm about 100 pages from the finish. I'm so excited for My Plain Jane. It has been the book that I'm most excited to read this year. 

Sunday, May 20, 2018

COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash Sign Up Post



There is a lot going on this round of COYER, so be sure to check out the sign up link. I'm going to try to participate in as much of COYER as I possibly can. 

First off my goal is going to be spring clean read 11-20 books. 


Readathons
I'm going to try to participate in 4 out of the 5 readathons. 

  1. Fairy Tales with a Twist: Read fairy tale re-tellings and give those childhood favorites a twist! Read-a-thon runs Sunday June 17th 12am EST to Saturday June 23rd 11:59pm EST
  2. Christmas in July!: Read Holiday themed books. Read-a-thon runs Sunday July 15th 12am EST to Saturday July 21st 11:59pm EST
  3. Dusting Off The Shelves: Read the oldest books in your physical or e-library. They have to have sat on your shelf for at least 1 year. Read-a-thon runs Sunday July 29th 12am EST to Saturday August 4th 11:59pm EST
  4. Short and Sweet! Fill your final days not with Novels but with Novellas! Read-a-thon runs Sunday August 26th 12am EST to Friday August 31st 11:59pm EST
Hurricane Burls July 25-28: Ebooks under $1 only. 

The Switch Sunday June 24th- July 14th
The Strict
The List
The One with the Twist

I don't know which order I'll complete the events in yet. I'm going to be focusing on the list throughout the whole COYER, so I really just need to do the strict and the twist. 

In honor of all the nostalgia going on I combined my old COYER lists to make the new list plus I added a few new books. This will be my reading plan for the summer with a few variations I'm sure. 

The first picture is the kindle books I would like to read this summer. 


These next two pictures are books I will get from the library. 

This last picture is books that I own. 


Sunday, April 29, 2018

Dewey's Readathon April 2018 Finish Line



pg 226-244 10:38 to 11:05

Pages Read: 18
Time Read: 27 min
Pages Read: 135
Time Read: 3 hrs 22 mins







  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I went to bed around 11:00, which is hour 16. 
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season? I know you guys have worked hard on cheerleading and you just don't get the results you want, but I would love to see official cheerleaders come back and not just to twitter, but for the blogs too. 
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? the hourly updates and the mini challenges were great. 
  5. How many books did you read? 0
  6. What were the names of the books you read? Enchanted
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? . Enchanted
  8. Which did you enjoy least? -
  9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will be back in October to participate as a reader again. 

Another Dewey's readathon has come to an end. I enjoyed this readathon, so much despite being busy. My mom and I went to the high school musical 9 to 5 and it was so funny and very cute. We got home around 9:30 and then I made my bed and my brothers bed. At that post it was past 10 o clock. I layed on the couch and read for as long as I could. I was falling asleep, so I went to bed. 


April 2013: 296 pages
Oct 2013: 92 pages
April 2014: 440 pages
Oct 2014: 417 pages
April 2015: 360 pages
Oct 2015: 256 pages
April 2016: 187 pages
October 2016: 183 pages
April 2017: 192 pages
October 2017: 103 pages
April 2018: 135 pages


April 2013: 8 hours 6 minutes
Oct 2013: 3 hours 44 minutes
April 2014: 11 hours 24 minutes
Oct 2014: 8 hours 44 minutes
April 2015: 9 hours 13 minutes
Oct 2015: 4 hours and 38 minutes
April 2016: 4 hours and 38 minutes
October 2016: 5 hours 40 minutes
April 2017: 4 hours 24 minutes
October 2017: 2 hours 13 minutes
April 2018: 3 hours 22 minutes



Saturday, April 28, 2018

Dewey 24 Hour Readathon: Hour 12 Update.



pg 163-190 3:22 to 4:04
pg 190- 226 5:17 to 6:02


Time Read: 1 hour 27 minutes
Pages Read: 63
Total Time Read: 2 hr 55 minutes
Total Pages Read: 117






I've been pretty quiet this readathon. This afternoon I watched the movie Miracles from Heaven, which I enjoyed and from about 4:00-4:30 I took a short nap and put away laundry. This readathon I feel like I haven't been as distracted by technology, but more distracted just by chores around the house.


1. What are you reading right now? Enchanted by Alethea Kontis (almost finished)
2. How many books have you read so far?0
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Just going with the flow. Probably continue reading The Summer List. 
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Yes lots of interruptions today. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? It has been so much fun as usual. Keep on reading. 

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon April 2018: Hour 9 Update



1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? South Dakota
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? don't know (didn't plan snacks this time around)
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! My name is Rachael. I have been blogging for five years now. This will be my 11th readathon. I can't believe how long I have been participating in this readathon, but I think it is such a great time to read with people around the world.  I'm a first year special education teacher just trying to figure out things. 
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This is a normal Saturday. I got the house to myself and hoping to get a lot of reading done. 



This readathon has turned out so much different than I expected. I woke up around 8:00 and started reading in bed. I started the readathon on pg 109 of Enchanted. Then when I got out of bed mom had started laundry and we heard a beaping noise only to figure out that our washer was leaking water. We got that cleaned up, but I lost about two hours of the readathon. I have been reading and taking breaks throughout the day to finish the laundry. 


pg 109-132 8:08 to 8:53
pg 132-137 9:17-9:22
pg 137-145 12:03-12:16
pg 145-163 1:55-2:20



Total Pages: 54
Total Time: 1 hour 28 minutes







Sunday, April 15, 2018

My TBR List: April Winner


My April TBR List Winner is .....


Maybe One Day had four votes and the other two only had two votes each. I'm excited to pick this book up. 

Thursday, April 12, 2018

The TBR Dare, Take Control of Your TBR, and Down the TBR Hole March 2018


Here is my TBR Dare Wrap Up. My goal is always to limit new releases as much as possible and reduce my goodreads TBR. This year I managed to read 13 books. I did read one new release during the challenge period. My goodreads TBR started at 394 and I'm ending the challenge at 398 books. I did manage to read some books that have been on the list for a long time such as If We Kiss, Catching Jordan, and Mercy. 



This month I decided to ignore all the library books I have checked out and just read books off my own shelf. I managed to complete 3 books from my shelves, which I think is the most I have ever read for this challenge. I'm currently reading another book from my shelf because this challenge got me super excited about books that I own. I have so many good books on my shelf and I totally want to get around to more of them this year. 





11, 12, 13 Perfect Math, Second Glance, and Keeping Faith by Jodi Picout- Same thing as last time. Jodi Picoult is my favorite author and I'm working my way through reading all of her books. I have almost read all of them. I believe I have 7 left to be caught up. 

14. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini- I have wanted to read this book since I was a senior in high school. I own the book, so I'm going to keep it on the list, but if I decide to unhaul the original book then this one will also get removed from the list. 

15, 16. Just Another Girl, and On This Day by Melody Carlson- I used to be a big Melody Carlson fan. I read a lot of her books while I was in high school, but since then I don't read her much anymore. These get to stay on the list because they are apart of my Deal Me In Challenge. If they are not finished by the time that challenge ends they will be removed from the list. I do catch up on her Christmas novels every couple of years. 

17. A Little House Sampler by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder- this is written by Laura and her daughter Rose, so I will get around to this one eventually. 

18. Already Home by Susan Mallery- This one almost got removed, but I got sucked in by the summary. I checked the book out from the library and I'm going to give it try hopefully sometime this month and then decide if I'm going to read it or delete it. 

19. Not Quite Dating by Catherine Bybee- my first true delete as part of this project. This sounds like a book I would have loved in high school, but I'm not thrilled about the summary anymore. 

20. Waiting for the Moon by Kristin Hannah- any Kristin Hannah book I have read I have loved, so just expect all her books will be keeps. 




Tuesday, April 10, 2018

March Wrap Up and April TBR

March went so much better than February. After a month of no 5 star reads I was up for some books that I would fall in love with. I started Lucky in Love by Kasie West in February, but didn't finish it until early March. I loved this one. It was really cute, at times unrealistic, and a really fun read. I loved On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah. It sucked me in and I was so invested in this story. I recieved The Dreaming Road by Elizabeth Moore for review and I'm so happy I accepted this review request. I don't think this would have been a book that I would have chosen to pick up otherwise, but I enjoyed it so much and I even wrote a full review you can read here.  The last book I finished in March was the 5th book in the Anne of Green Gables series. I love Anne, in this novel she finally gets married and has her first child. There is a lot of heartbreak as well as happy times in this novel.

I also took part in Take Control of Your TBR Pile this month and I read 2 books for the challenge. Focusing on books that I own opened me up to my TBR pile again and let me see how many amazing books I have sitting on my shelf. I started After You by Jojo Moyes during March, but didn't finish it until April. This was another book that I own that I picked up after The Dreaming Road. I'm excited to read many more books off my shelf this year. I also donated my copy of On Mystic Lake, 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, and Between Friends by Debbie Macomber to my college library when I went up to visit my friends towards the end of the month.

After ignoring library books for the month of March I have a bunch to catch up on before their due dates. I'm currently reading They Both Die at the End and The Summer List (recieved from netgalley). I'm excited to get to all these books on my list. I'm ready to start reading some new releases since TBR Dare is over, so I've got three new releases on the list.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

How My Goodreads TBR has Grown and Changed April 2018


I wanted to update you guys quarterly this year on my mission to reduce my goodreads TBR. Historically my Goodreads TBR has increased every single year since I have been blogging. The most dramatic increase was in 2014 where I added over 100 books in the year. I started 2018 with 394 books and I have read some and added some more. My current goodreads TBR is 398. I'm going through my TBR slowly this year with Down the TBR hole and deleting books that I don't want to read anymore, so I'm hoping that this TBR is a lot less by the end of the year. 



Let's start with the books I added. Something different about this year is I have been more picky with the books that get added to the list. I want to get all the books that I own on the list, but I also use the list as a way to keep track of the books I keep hearing about and want to read. The last three are books I found at Barnes and Noble that I want to read.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (favorite author)
When My Heart Joins the Thousand by  AJ Steiger (sounds interesting)
Don't Forget Me by Victoria Stephens (sounds interesting)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (own, keep hearing about it)
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertelli (keep hearing about it)
The Innocent Traitor by Alison Wier (keep hearing about it)
My Plain Jane by the Lady Janies (favorite author)
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silveria (own)
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen (own)
A List of Cages by Robin Roe (keep hearing about it)
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silveria (own)
This is Not a Love Letter by Kim Powcell (sounds interesting)
All the Was by Karen Rivers (sounds interesting)
Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines (sounds interesting)



I have read 10 books off my goodreads TBR. I keep track of this in a spreadsheet, so it is really easy for me to see which books were on my goodreads TBR when I read them. Of these 10 books 3 are physical books I own. 7 books were off my deal me in challenge. Its fun to keep track of the stastics. The number on the book is what number it was on my TBR List. The higher the number the newer the book was. I got If We Kiss, Catching Jordan, and Mercy off the top 30 on the list.

If We Kiss by Rachel Vail
Catching Jordan by Miranda Keneally
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee
Destiny Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Panic by Lauren Oliver
Mercy by Jodi Picoult
Lucky in Love by Kasie West
On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
After You by Jojo Moyes


I also read 3 books off my shelf in March. I haven't finished After You as I'm writing this post, but it will be finished. I'm really proud of my progress this month with Take Control of Your TBR and reading some books I own this month. 








Saturday, March 31, 2018

April TBR List Let's Vote

Hosted by Because Reading
It is always a continual goal for me to read books on my goodreads TBR list. I started 2016 with 335 books on my TBR and I started 2017 with 368 books on my TBR list. I'm starting 2017 with 394 books on my TBR list. The list is endless as authors continue to write and there is a million good books out there. This year I'm doing the My To Be Read List differently. I'm always going to choose three books from my deal me in/fill in the gaps person challenge. I'm hoping this will help me to knock off more books for that challenge.

I'm interested to see which one you guys pick. I'm excited to read all of these books.


When Jason Marshall’s younger sister passes away, he knows he can count on his three best friends and soccer teammates—Mario, Jordie, and Chick—to be there for him. With a grief-crippled mother and a father who’s not in the picture, he needs them more than ever. But when Mario starts hanging out with a rough group of friends and Jordie finally lands the girl of his dreams, Jason is left to fend for himself while maintaining a strained relationship with troubled and quiet Chick.

 Then Jason meets Raine, a girl he thinks is out of his league but who sees him for everything he wants to be, and he finds himself pulled between building a healthy and stable relationship with a girl he might be falling in love with, grieving for his sister, and trying to hold on to the friendships he has always relied on.

 A witty and emotionally moving tale of friendship, first love, and loss, Breakaway is Kat Spears at her finest.


Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume is able to recreate herself in any form - a fabulous gift for a girl desperate to escape her past. But who is she really? Is she a girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother's new husband, Lord Terayama, or a lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama's kitchens, or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands? Whatever her true identity, Suzume is destined to capture the heart of a prince - and determined to use his power to destroy Terayama. And nothing will stop her, not even love.

Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend. Even when she isn't sure what to say.

 Even when Olivia misses months of school.

 Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia's crush.

 The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.?