My Monday Musings…

My reading is still sporadic. I read ALL the books for a week - then nothing and now multiple books at once - so I’m going to continue doing a book-ish round up on Monday’s and a life-ish post later in the week & not worry too much about posting more than that unless the mood strikes.

#summerbrainblogging

Here’s what’s up in my readerverse…

READ:

*I’m linking to my Goodreads reviews/very brief thoughts

Riven by Roan Parrish – 4 stars ~ Goodreads

Prince of Killers by Layla Reyne – 3 stars (but I struggled with this one) ~ Goodreads

Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig (yes, I FINALLY finished this one!) – 3.5 stars (5 stars for originality and heisty fun! but a few quibbles lowered my rating a bit) ~ Goodreads

Rave by Kami Garcia – 4.5 stars Hoopla has a great selection and app for reading comic books/graphic novels so I’m dipping my toes in. Raven was a lot of fun and had a beautiful artistic style that was easy for me to follow. ~ Goodreads

READING:

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Cole – this is my audiobook listen. I’ve had the hardcover for a while but I’m loving JaQwan J. k\Kelly’s narration so far. ~ Goodreads

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez – library e-book read. I had to shuffle my TBR around when this hold came in early.  ~ Goodreads

Lazarus, Vol.1: Family – I asked for graphic novel rec’s on Instagram and a friend said this was a good one. It’s a dystopian, near future, sci-fi series with a kick ass heroine and it’s pretty fantastic so far. ~ Goodreads

NETGALLEY:

Both of these don’t release until November so I wont’ be reading them right away but YAY! for approvals lol

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams (Publication date – November 5th) ~ Goodreads

Not the Girl you Marry by Andie J. Christopher (Publication date – November 12th) ~ Goodreads

NEW PAPERWHITE!!

Look at the pretty precious!

I really struggled with whether to buy this or not. My *old* paperwhite was only 2 years old but I wanted the new flush screen/waterproof design. Figment drools all over me when I’m reading and it gets yucky in the grooves.

Move the cat instead of getting a new Kindle, you say….you obviously don’t own a cat, I reply.

Anyway…I asked Twitter to help me decide and of course you are ALL ENABLERS telling to me to go for it so I caved. But the most magical thing happened!!!

After I factored in the sale price, trade-in, another discount for Prime Day, a $10 credit from Whole Foods (another Prime Day deal), and a git card I had on account – I got it for FREEEEEEEE with a $15 credit to my account left over. It was as if they paid me to get it! So score!

What are you all reading this week?

Do you have any comic book/graphic novel rec’s? What is the difference between the two?


Have an awesome week everyone!

Whatever Wednesday

I hope you don’t mind when I veer off books every now and then.

A) I think I have summer brain and the urge to review is barely there.

B) Summer in the PNW is GORGEOUS! I’m so used to hibernating lol I want to share some of the fun things I’ve gotten to do so I’m kind of borrowing Lauren from Shooting Stars and Greg from Greg’s Book Haven features where they talk about their town.

I always thought Ocala, FL was a small town but now that I live in Longview, WA, I realize I was wrong.

Or at least, it’s a different type of small town. Ocala was more about retirees so there weren’t a lot of family friendly activities and because it’s FL – hello 100+ degrees – we limited our outdoor exposure.

In Longview, holidays take on a whole different meaning. There was a 3 day lead up to the 4th of July in our local park. There were food & craft vendors set up, activates like log cutting, hole-in-one golf on the lake, a carnival, concerts, 5k runs, and a cardboard regatta – leading up to the fireworks.

*Dogs were not allowed at the park during all this - Fonzi was not amused.

The cardboard boat regatta is one of the more popular events and I snapped a few pics of the entries.

They have a series of races and the goal is not only to make it across the finish line but to not sink – although the sinking is kind of the best part if you’re watching.

Every year there’s a theme and this one was classic tv shows - the Loony Toons boat was my favorite. It did pretty well but was a bit slower because of it’s size. It came in second place though during it’s two heats.

Another favorite was the Bob Ross boat. I love how the crew wore Bob Ross wigs lol

There were also the Twilight Zone, Seinfeld, M.A.S.H & Wheel of Misfortune boats – some were better decorated than others.

The big hit of the race though was the (aptly named) Wheel of Misfortune. There was a person in each side of the wheel and the idea was to run like a hamster wheel to get it moving but…it did not go well lol They valiantly tried twice but…nope. The bets on that boat were not if it would win - but how many feet it would get before going down 😂😂

*If you wan t to see it in action you can see my post on Instagram

After all the events were over there was a Beatles cover band and then fireworks.

One of my favorite parts about the move is this park. I really wish we could have all stayed out all night and had a giant group sleepover. It’s just so pretty there.

They have a concert and outdoor movie every week throughout the summer and I hope we can get to a few.

Did you have any fun events in your area for the 4th (if you celebrated) or the summer?

My Monday Musings…

Happy Monday my book-ish friends!!

My reading has been…going. I’m reading super slow for some reason so there’s a lack of reviews but at least I’m reading.

READING: 

Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig ~ Goodreads 

I think I’ve featured this on my monthly TBR pile for 6 months now but I finally picked it up. I’m about 75% through and I love how fresh and original it is despite a few flaws in the premise. A group of teen drag queens pulling off heists when one goes wrong.  Kind of Robin Hood meets Ocean’s Eleven but with teen drag queens. Roehrig does a great job of juggling the pov’s and making you care about everyone.

Prince of Killers (Fog City #1) by Layla Reyne ~ Goodreads

I love a good assassin story and I enjoyed Reyne’s previous Agents Irish & Whiskey trilogy but this one is draaaaaging and seems full of – not plot holes exactly – but plot – highly unlikely moments lol After over a week trudging through this one for a few minutes each night before bedtime -  I think I have to let it go and DNF.

The Afterward by E.K. Johnston ~ Goodreads

I’ve had the physical book since the publisher sent it to me before my move earlier this year. I almost passed on it (not my usual genre) but then read a few rave reviews so I decided to try the audio from the library. I drifted off almost immediately during the prologue so I think I need to read it so they set up sinks into my brain and then switch back to audio. 

I’m SO much better with audiobooks but still struggle some.

Riven by Roan Parrish ~ Goodreads

 I requested the audiobook for this one after seeing Tanya from Girl’s Plus Books talk about it several times on her blog. It’s a M/M rock star romance but both men are musicians which is a dynamic I haven’t read often and I’m liking it so far.

LIBRARY HOLDS:

Kill the Queen and Protect the Prince by Jennifer Estep ~ Goodreads
The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez ~ Goodreads
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary ~ Goodreads

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE: 

~ I tweeted this the other day but this is a fascinating post about the cost of purchasing library books and an explanation about Hoolpa vs the library.

MARY IN THE LIBRARY: PURCHASING DIGITAL MATERIALS FOR MY LIBRARY'S YA COLLECTION

~ I love Roberta from Off Beat YA’s new Tooting Your Trumpet feature and this was a particularly good round of blog posts & blogs I hadn't known about  (even if one of them was mine – is it wrong to toot my own toot??? lol) 

New to me blogs – I love adding new blogs to my blog roll and here are a few new discoveries:

Whispering Chapters – romance and thriller reviews & a very pretty blog! 

Elgee Writes – I love the eclectic mix of reviews, musings, quiz’s and tips – written in ways I can actually understand lol

What are you reading this week?