Hi everyone! I am so happy to be writing this post on day one of my Spring Break! So far it's been great! Thursday night I went and saw Rachel Hawkins, Alison Goodman, Sabaa Tahir, April Genevieve Tucholke, and Alwyn Hamilton on the Penguin Teen Tour with some friends! We had a great time and I finally got a copy of Rebel in the Sands!

 

Friday I met my dad for lunch and we checked out this hip taco place in Nashville and then went and got ice cream at my favorite ice cream place, Jeni's! Then I finally got around to the new Sprouts they opened here. It's smaller, less expensive version of Whole Foods. I love it! I also watched Syracuse take on Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 and WE WON! Holy crap that was the most stressful game EVER.

 

This week I have something really huge going on, so keep your fingers crossed for me that THINGS happen! :)

 

Monday:                         The Monday Musts: Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, Dave Matthews Band, Post-It Inspiration

                                               REVIEW: All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan (3 stars)

 

Wednesday:                  W...W...W...Wednesday: A Better Man by Candis Terry, All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan, Addicted by Elle Kennedy

 

Thursday:                       REVIEW: Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (4 stars)

 

Friday:                              REVIEW: A Better Man by Candis Terry (3 stars)

 

 

 

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

 

It's finally mine! I've been so excited for this book and I had to splurge at the signing last night and buy it!

 

 

Hello friends! Whew! What a busy week this was!

 

First of all, I had a BLAST at the SE-YA Book Festival! SO MUCH FUN!

 

Monday and Tuesday were our only 'normal' school days. Wednesday, our boys basketball team played in the state quarterfinals and WON, so our school let the kids (and some of us teachers!) out at 11:45 to head to the game. Thursday, we began this standardized testing mumbo jumbo, so I was stuck in the cafeteria for the first half of the day on supervision duty (aka grading papers and helping a teacher beat this Wordbrain level). The second half of the day I actually had to give a test, so no classes were really held. We had parent-teacher conferences that night too, so basically Thursday was the LONGEST. DAY. EVER. And today, our boys went back to compete the semifinals and I am bummed they lost 46-41! We did get to leave at 10 though, but we all had to be back by 2:15. (Yeah, the majority of the kids didn't bother to show. LOL)

 

But guess what?! Spring Break starts on Thursday at 3:45! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :) I'll be pretty busy getting some things done, but I'm hoping to get some good reading in as well!

 

 

 

Monday:                       The Monday Musts: Searching For Someday and Perfect, Zara Larsson, SE-YA books!

 

Tuesday:                       REVIEW: Hawke by Sawyer Bennett (3.5 stars)

 

Wednesday:               W...W...W...Wednesday: Walk the Edge by Katie McGarry, Out of Frame by Megan Erickson, On an Edge of a Glass by Autumn Doughton

 

Friday:                           REVIEW: Out of Frame by Megan Erickson (4 stars)

 

 

 

MORE SE-YA BOOK FESTIVAL FUN

 

Adam Silvera and Lauren Oliver

 

(They were a great pairing. I loved them together!)

Lauren Oliver

Victoria Schwab

Victoria Schwab, Gwenda Bond, Beth Revis, Kristin Tubb

 

(OMG this panel was hilarious. Note to self- do not get invested in any of their characters just in case they kill them off. That's their thing, apparently!)

 

 

 

 

      Bookish SQUEES! of the Week:

 

 

I have three this week because I am SO excited for them! Thank you Sourcebooks, Spencer Hill Press, and Nina Bocci for these!

 

 

Hey everyone! So I've been a bit MIA around the blogosphere this past week in terms of blog hopping and social media. I've been busy with school and trying to make some life changes, so I just haven't been around that much. Hopefully next week will calm down, at least school wise.

 

I chaperoned the SE-YA Book Festival today and had SO MUCH FUN. It was awesome seeing the kids interact with the authors and hear them say how today was 'the best day ever'. I also got to hang out with one of our school librarian's and I had a great time chatting with her.

 

Tonya got here this afternoon so we are headed back tomorrow for more book shenanigans! I also hope to meet up with some other bloggers and friends!

 

 

Monday:                         The Monday Musts: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The OC Mixes, and SE-YA in the Boro Book Festival

 

Tuesday:                         Tasty Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti

                                              MINI REVIEWS: The Leaving Season by Cat Jordan and A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (3.5, 3 stars)

 

Wednesday:                 W...W...W...Wednesday: What Remains by Helene Dunbar, Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy, Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

 

Thursday:                        REVIEW: Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy (4 stars)

 

Friday:                              Discussion: Authors and the Impact They Have on Readers

 

 

SE-YA BOOK FESTIVAL FUN

 

 Kelly Creagh and Bethany Griffin

 

Lauren Oliver

 Colette Ballard, Katie Cotugno, Helene Dunbar

Maggie Stiefvater

Ruta Sepetys

 

 

               Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

 

They were selling Katie's book 2 weeks early! (With publisher permission of course) So naturally I had to buy and have her sign! (After I flailed and knocked over her display books.)



Hi guys! So I had my mini-vacation this week and it was so nice to have Saturday-Tuesday off! Going back to school Wednesday wasn't too bad, and Thursday was ok, but yesterday things just went to shit. For the first year ever, we have divided up our Spanish classes into honors and standard. My Spanish 2 classes are fine- I have NO issues with them. My Spanish 1 standard on the other hand.... is awful. They are the class that can't handle playing games, doing anything fun. They work best when they are doing written work (worksheets, book work, etc.) There are a bunch of sophomore boys in there and if you didn't know... sophomore boys are annoying as hell. I have always had good test scores, but I was absolutely wrecked when I saw this particular 3 and 1/2 weeks, their average was the lowest. EVER. Of my career. I have NEVER had scores so low from a class. And it's just one class, so I know it's not ME. The next time someone tells me that it's my job to make kids learn and if I'm not doing this, I'm not engaging enough- I will punch them in the face. You cannot force kids to learn. I'm sorry. You can't. I can be as cool and chill and awesome as possible and try to make things fun, but it ultimately boils down to whether or not that student wants to step up and learn. It's not on me.

 

Sorry. Rant over. I haven't been as active commenting wise, etc. because I've been in a grading hole, trying to get everything squared away for report cards this week. Hopefully things will settle down for a bit now.

 

19 days until SPRING BREAK!

 

Monday:                          The Monday Musts: Golden by Jessi Kirby, Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson on Idol

                                              REVIEW: Siren's Song by Mary Weber (4 stars)

 

Tuesday:                          Tasty Tuesday: Chicken Teriyaki with Broccoli

                                               Monthly Recap: February

 

Wednesday:                  W...W...W...Wednesday: The Leaving Season by Cat Jordan, A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro, Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

 

Thursday:                       The Hamilton Book Tag

 

 

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

 

Tonya from Lilybloombooks is talking about Reading Challenges and how they should actually be used to challenge readers.

 

Quinn from Quinn's Book Nook is recommending romances with nice guy heroes! (My favorite kind!)

 

Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction has a great post about the fine line between inspiration and copycatting.

 

Micheline from Lunar Reviews is talking about getting stuck in a genre and variety reading!

 

Megan from Reading Books Like a Boss has posted Volume 1 of her List of Bookish Things That Need to Happen. (I LOVE THIS!)

 

 

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

 

Thank you Heather for my own copy of Jonah's novella and to Bloomsbury for The Long Game!

 

 

Hi guys! I skipped my wrap-up post last week, as I was participating in the 2016 Love-a-thon! I had so much fun again this year! I love meeting new bookish friends and have so many new blogs to follow!

 

I am taking Monday off this week and we already have Tuesday off for Super Tuesday, so I have a little mini-vacation! I am looking forward to get some end of the month reading in, as well as get caught up on some of my DVR'd shows. (Oh, and I have papers to grade. Blah.)

 

 

Week of February 14-20:

Sunday:                            The Valentine's Day Book Tag

Monday:                           The Monday Musts: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, Nouela, Society6
                                                REVIEW: Strong Signal by Megan Erickson & Santino Hassell (4.5 stars)

Tuesday:                           Tasty Tuesday: White Chicken Chili
                                                Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Songs I Wish Were Books

Wednesday:                    W...W...W...Wednesday: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy, You're Still the One by Rachel Harris, Scorched by JLA
                                                 Blog Tour: You're Still the One by Rachel Harris (5 stars)

Thursday:                         Blog Tour: 1001 Dark Nights- Searching for Mine by Jennifer Probst

Friday:                                SERIES REVIEW: Love Me With Lies by Tarryn Fisher (4, 4, 5 stars)
                                                 2016 Love-a-thon Questionnaire

Saturday:                           Love-a-Thon Mini Challenge: Mix and Match
                                                 Love-a-Thon Mini Challenge: Book Spine Poetry


Week of February 21-26

Sunday:                              Love-a-Thon Mini Challenge: Book Bingo

Monday:                            The Monday Musts: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy, Anna Kendrick, Hamilton at the Grammys!
                                                REVIEW: The Return by Jennifer L. Armentrout (4.5 stars)

Tuesday:                            Tasty Tuesday: Breaded Pork Cutlets with Lime and Puerto Rico Style Beans
                                                 Blog Tour: The Power by Jennifer L. Armentrout (4.5 stars)

Wednesday:                    W...W...W...Wednesday: Siren's Song by Mary Weber, The Power by JLA, Riders by Veronica Rossi

Thursday:                         Discussion: How I Deal With Reading Slumps

Friday:                               REVIEW: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy (4.5 stars)

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

 

Wendy over at Book Scents has a Café Chat talking about the Steps of Falling into a Book Obsession!

 

Rachel over at A Perfection Called Books is talking about her Book Hoarding Journey!

 

Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction is talking about Books That Intimidate Us!

 

Alexa from Alexa Loves Books talks about reading less and writing more.

 

Tonya from Lilybloombooks talks about the bookish worlds she would never want to live in!

 

 

 

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

Thank you so much Entangled! I cannot WAIT to dive into this one!

 

 

Hello lovelies! I couldn't be more glad to see the weekend, as we have Monday off for Presidents' Day! We were also surprised with two snow days and a 2 hour delay this past week! (While that sounds WONDERFUL, it made yesterday especially difficult because NONE of the kiddos wanted to do any work!)

 

Monday:                          The Monday Musts: Servants of Fate by Sarah Fine, Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes 

                                              REVIEW: He Will Be My Ruin by K.A. Tucker (3.5 stars)

 

Tuesday:                         Tasty Tuesday: Skinny Mac and Cheese Main Course Soup

                                              Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite OTPs

 

Wednesday:                  W....W...W...Wednesday: The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher, Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan, An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

                                              Release Blitz: Legend by Katy Evans (4 stars)

 

Thursday:                        REVIEW: Jockblocked by Jen Frederick (4 stars)

 

Friday:                               REVIEW: Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan (4 stars)

 

 

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

 

Eva from All Books Considered talks about whether or not there should be ARCs.

 

Kim from Kimberlyfayereads and Grace from Rebel Mommy Book Blog both do The Valentine's Day Book Tag!

 

Danielle from Love at First Page has me convinced that I need to read Lisa Kleypas after sharing her top ten favorite quotes!

 

 

 

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

 

Thank you Nina! I am so excited to start this! I loved HIM!

 

 

Happy Saturday friends! It felt like such a long week back at school for me and my students. (Probably because we hadn't done a full week in 2 weeks due to snow and MLK Day!) I am working the ACT this morning and then I'm looking forward to getting some reading in before the Super Bowl on Sunday! (Go Broncos!)

 

Sunday:                          January Challenge Wrap-Up

 

Monday:                        Monthly Recap: January

                                            The Monday Musts: The Girl of Fire and Thorns series, Hamilton the Musical, and Lin Manuel Miranda 

 

Tuesday:                        Tasty Tuesday: Chicken Sausage and Peppers Macaroni Casserole

                                             Series Review: The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

 

Wednesday:               W...W...W...Wednesday: Six of Crows, Time Enough for Drums, Jockblocked

 

Thursday:                    Mini Reviews: Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi, The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross, and Always by Lynsay Sands

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't get as much commenting done as I would have liked this week, so I don't have any posts to share this week. I will next week though!

 

 

 

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

 

 

SO excited to read this one! I love Katy's books and I'm super excited to see Maverick and Remy butt heads!

 

Thank you TRSOR!

 

 

 

I ended up having Monday off this week also due to the snow and ice we got last weekend! The kids had a half day Thursday and then today was Homecoming! So all in all, it was a pretty easy week!

Thanks to Teresa's Monday Must Listen, I am now officially addicted to Hamilton the musical. As in I drove 35 minutes to buy the soundtrack from Best Buy kind of obsessed. It has been the only thing I've listened to in days. And while I was trying to get kids to buy pizza today I told them we needed their Alexander Hamiltons. Please send help. Not really. I love it.

The end of the month is upon us tomorrow! As of when I was writing this post (yesterday), I had two books to finish to complete all my challenges for the month. I hope I can do it!

Monday:                      The Monday Musts: The Song of Achilles, Chris Stapleton, and SNOW!

Tuesday:                      Tasty Tuesday: Skillet Chicken Cordon Bleu

Wednesday:               W...W...W...Wednesday: The Distance from A to Z, Boiling Point, The Unexpected Everything

                                            REVIEW: Boiling Point by Tessa Bailey (3 stars)

Thursday:                    REVIEW: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (5 stars)

Friday:                            REVIEW: The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt (3.5 stars)

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

Christy and Erica over at Novel Ink are doing a Hunger Games: Bookish Edition and are looking for others to join the fun and sign up!

Grace over at Rebel Mommy Book Blog talks about how audiobooks changed her reading!

Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction talks about Culling Your TBR (which I totally need to do!)

Nick and Nereyda both had great unique, review posts this week- Nereyda talks about the 10 Emotions You'll Experience While Reading Taylor Jenkins Reid's After I Do and Nick talks about the 3 Thoughts She Had While Reading the Mara Dyer trilogy.

Tonya from Lilybloombooks has done another Book Spine poetry post!

Sarah from What Sarah Read has her High Five feature with Huntley Fitzpatrick!

Bee from Quite the Novel Idea is talking about uncertain sequels and the suffering they bring!

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

A Tale of Two Cities retelling? *dies*

I cannot freaking wait to read this!

Hello from snowy Tennessee! Wow, it's not very often I get to say that! In addition to MLK Day this week, I also got TWO snow days! Yahoo!

Wednesday was really more of an ice day, but today it snowed from 9 am until 5-6 pm! It was crazy to see! We definitely got some good inches. Ok, you Northerners don't laugh. I'm from NY. I know what "real" snow looks like! Those of you that are REALLY getting hit by Winter Storm Jonas, I hope you stay safe and have lots of great books to read!

I finally started my Series a Month, The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo! I'm really enjoying Shadow and Bone so far!

Monday:                           The Monday Musts: Everything, Everything; Kaleo; and the Chicago series

                                                REVIEW: The Veil by Chloe Neill (4 stars)

Tuesday:                           Tasty Tuesday: Grilled Rosemary Chicken and Red Peppers with Cucumber Relish

                                                REVIEW: Paige in Progress by Brighton Walsh (4 stars)

Wednesday:                   W...W...W...Wednesday: The Song of Achilles, Appealed, and You're Still the One

                                                REVIEW: Appealed by Emma Chase (5 stars)

Thursday:                        REVIEW: The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens (4.5 stars)

Friday:                               REVIEW: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (4.5 stars)

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

Tonya and I have a new feature we are doing called Rec it to Me, where we pick a book for the other that will push us out of our comfort zone! See what we picked for each other here

For those of you that know my good friend Tonya of Lilybloombooks, you probably know she isn't into hyped books. So she is starting a new feature where you can convince her to read some of the hyped books that you love!

Danielle from What Danielle Did Next has a new feature on her blog called Chit Chat that she will be doing semi-regularly to keep us updated on all things Danielle!

Christy from Novel Ink swore she would never read this particular book but now she wants to! Go convince her it's a FABULOUS idea!

Rachel from A Perfection Called Books has written a great post on why it's important to blog your own way.

Nick and Nereyda from Nick and Nereyda's Infinite Playlist had so much fun with their Appealed review. They played Kiss, Kill, or Marry & Ship It or Sink It!

Nikki from Take Me Away talks about spoilers, excerpts, and chapter reveals and how she likes knowing nothing before going into a book!

Alexa from Alexa Loves Books has another edition of her Tunes and Tales, where she matches up songs from a particular album to a book! This time it's all Adele songs!

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

Thank you Atria! I am really looking forward to this one, even though it sounds like it's going to be quite emotional!

This week I participated in the Clean Slate Read-a-thon hosted by Lisa and Becca from Lost in Lit, Gen from Latte Nights Reviews, and Erica and Christy from Novel Ink! It technically goes through the 17th, so I should get another book or two read before it ends. So far I've read 3!

We have Monday off so I'm looking forward to my 3 day weekend!

Monday:                         The Monday Musts: The Off Campus series, Adele, and Beads Mark the Spot

                                              REVIEW: The Score by Elle Kennedy (4.5 stars)

Tuesday:                         Tasty Tuesday: Skinny Hash Browns, Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Casserole

                                               Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn't

Wednesday:                  W...W...W...Wednesday: Always, With Every Breath, Legend

Thursday:                       MINI REVIEWS: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (4 stars), Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (4.25 stars), and Soundless by Richelle Mead (3 stars)

Friday:                             REVIEW: With Every Breath by Lia Riley (3.5 stars)

Other Posts That Caught My Eye:

Tonya from Lilybloombooks talks love triangles on her Random Rants and Ramblings this week!

Danielle from Love At First Page features Nick from Nick and Nereyda's Infinite Booklist on her Love at First Page, with Bloggers feature!

Teresa from Readers Live a 1000 Lives is starting a new feature called On My Shelf, where she will feature an older book that has been on her TBR and get input from other bloggers on what they think of it!

Nereyda from Nick and Nereyda's Infinite Booklist wants to introduce you to the guys of the Oxford series by Lauren Layne!

Grace from Rebel Mommy Book Blog talks about why she is loving on real books again.

Shannon from It Starts at Midnight talks about Numerical Ratings- do you love 'em or loathe 'em?

Trish over at Between My Lines is doing The A-Z of Handy Tips for Bloggers and talks about comments this week!

Happy Blogoversary to both Tonya from Lilybloombooks and Nicole & Ashley from The Quiet Concert!

Kaitlyn from Reading is My Treasure talks about resisting ARCs!

Bookish SQUEE! of the Week:

I absolutely cannot wait to see how this trilogy ends!

Thank you Thomas Nelson!