My Life
I cannot believe that we are already halfway through 2015. It feels like just yesterday that I was laboring over a million midterms, and now I am studying for even more finals. The year goes by so quickly.
Unfortunately, reading was not a big priority this month because of all of the end-of-the-year projects, late night cram sessions, and countless panic attacks over homework, essays, and finals.
On the bright side, there was also a lot of end-of-the-year festivities, including yearbook signings (I managed to fit a pun into every one that I signed), classroom parties (with a lot of cake), and the exchange of friendship bracelets (I make friendship bracelets every year for my circle of friends. It has become somewhat of a tradition).
But, I did manage to read a couple and they were AMAZING. I am officially out of my reading slump and ready to tackle summer.
Unfortunately, reading was not a big priority this month because of all of the end-of-the-year projects, late night cram sessions, and countless panic attacks over homework, essays, and finals.
On the bright side, there was also a lot of end-of-the-year festivities, including yearbook signings (I managed to fit a pun into every one that I signed), classroom parties (with a lot of cake), and the exchange of friendship bracelets (I make friendship bracelets every year for my circle of friends. It has become somewhat of a tradition).
But, I did manage to read a couple and they were AMAZING. I am officially out of my reading slump and ready to tackle summer.
Books I Read
I read five books this month, which is one more than last month. Hopefully, I will be able to read more during the summer!
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Somewhere Only We Know by Cheyanne Young
Challenge Updates
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015: I have read 30 out of 100 books for my Goodreads challenge, which is apparently 10 books behind schedule. I am becoming more and more disheartened about this challenge. But, I am ready to prove Goodreads wrong and get back on track with this challenge during the summer.
2015 Book Blogger Discussion Post Challenge: I wrote one discussion post this month about my initial thoughts of the Shadowhunters TV series. This brings my total up to 10, which is one away from the goal!
Projects around the Blogosphere
Nova @ Out of Time is facilitating a "You are Appreciated" Project. Basically, you can send an email (as yourself or anonymous) to a blogger or author who inspired you. You do not have to know their email address or anything like that, Nova is finding them herself. A ton of emails have already been sent and Nova is anxious to send more!
Amber and Jessica @ The Books Bratz are hosting their annual Summer Blogger Promo Tour. It is like a blog tour that promotes other blogs instead of books. Every Sunday during the summer, you are assigned another blog to write a promo post for. So, every week, a different blogger is promoting your blog and you are promoting another blog. If that was confusing to you, check out Amber and Jessica's explanation (they do a much better job). You can sign up here. Another great thing about this project, EVERY blog that signs up will participate in the event!
Rachel @ A Perfection Called Books and Dana @ DanaSquare started their #MeettheNewbs series to help promote this year's debut authors. They have already introduced a ton of books and authors with interviews and a giveaway in nearly every post! The series is going to run until the end of July, so you can meet all of the debut authors all summer! They are also hosting a Twitter chat on June 20th at 4 p.m. EST. I participated on the chat in May, and let me just say it it was AWESOME! So many authors, bloggers, and readers were chatting up a storm. It does not hurt that there were a couple of giveaways thrown in too!
Popular on Crazy for YA
Links to See
Maggie Stiefvater explains America's problems.Cait talks compares ordinary, extraordinary, and in-between characters.
Shannon gives her tips for book hoarding.
Brittany created a list of 51 statements bookworms can relate to.
Mishma shares her dream of becoming a writer.
The bloggers at Stacked worked together to create a very detailed guide to YA non-fiction (yes, it actually exists).
Jessica shares 11 post ideas for book bloggers.
Cait sheds new light on writing (and reading) diverse books.
Lauren tries to figure out the battle between head and heart while reading and reviewing.
Zoey lists her top fears about blogging.
Claire gives tips to find time for blogging.
Jillian confesses to being a logophile (which is not a bad thing!).
Sneak Peek
Very exciting things are coming this summer. I decided to make a list, so that my thoughts are at least a little bit organized and not just a long paragraph of senseless excited babble.
1. We are hosting a summer readathon.
Clear your calendars from June 17-23, because we are hosting our first summer readathon! The week will consist of challenges that will spark your creativity, awesome achievements to earn, and several Twitter chats to share our progress, bad jokes, and everything bookish. For more information or to sign up, check out the introduction post.
2. There is going to be a major redesign of the blog in the first two weeks of June.
I have been thinking obsessing about. I have been making a ton of little changes, but I think it is finally time to do a total redo. I am going to try to do everything myself, so it might take a while. So, the site is going to be under construction for the first two weeks of June, but it will definitely be finished before the readathon. I am hoping to have a new background, header, and maybe a completely different layout. Wish me luck! (Also, if you know of any blogging tips/resources that could help me, please leave them in the comments!)
3. More time to read.
Summer is coming in three days for me, so I am going to (hopefully) have a ton of free time so I can catch up with my reading. Lately I have been reading an average of five books per month and Goodreads keeps telling me that five is not good enough if I actually want to achieve the goal I set at the beginning of the year.
4. More reviews.
With more reading, there should be more reviews, right? I am going to work on posting at least one review a week. Also, my coblogger, Max, has recently returned from her unexpected hiatus. She posted her review of Scarlet and is hoping to post a couple more soon!
5. More time to comment, think of awesome post ideas, and connect with all of you lovely readers.
I am also planning on getting more in sync with the rest of the book blogging community and make a couple of more friends along the way. I want to reserve more time to read and comment on other blogs during the summer.
How many books did you read this month? Which one was your favorite? Why? What are your goals for this summer? What would you like to see in our new blog design?
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