Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2019

Image Source: POPSUGAR Photograph

I stumbled upon this hashtag on my Instagram feed #popsugarreadingchallenge2019 and got curious. I haven’t done a reading challenge before, other than the goodreads reading challenge which is basically a reading goal, so I thought this will be a fun first for me. 😊

Since I’m starting this list in April (yikes it’s almost May) – let’s see what I’ve checked off on this list so far:

  1. A book becoming a movie in 2019:
  2. A book that makes you nostalgic:
  3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction):
  4. A book you think should be turned into a movie: The Wicked King by. Holly Black (I want the whole series as a movie or tv series 😍)
  5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads:
  6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by. Brigid Kemmerer
  7. A reread of a favorite book: Traitor Born by. Amy A. Bartol
  8. A book about a hobby:
  9. A book you meant to read in 2018:
  10. A book with “pop”, “sugar” or “challenge” in the title:
  11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover:
  12. A book inspired by mythology, legend or folklore:
  13. A book published posthumously:
  14. A book you see someone reading in a TV or movie:
  15. A retelling of a classic: Pride by. Ibi Zoboi
  16. A book with a question in the title:
  17. A book set on a college or university campus:
  18. A book about someone with a superpower: Defy Me by. Tahereh Mafi
  19. A book told from multiple POVs: The Priory of the Orange Tree by. Samantha Shannon
  20. A book set in space: Nightchasers by. Amanda Bouchet
  21. A book by two female authors: Honor Bound (The Honors #2) by. Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre
  22. A book with a title that contains “salty”, “sweet”, “bitter” or “spicy”:
  23. A book set in Scandinavia:
  24. A book that takes place in a single day:
  25. A debut novel: The Storm Crow by. Kayln Josephson
  26. A book that’s published in 2019: Dark Shores by. Danielle L. Jensen
  27. A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature: Even the Darkest Stars by. Heather Fawcett
  28. A book recommended by a celebrity you admire:
  29. A book with “love” in the title:
  30. A book featuring an amateur detective: Serious Moonlight by. Jenn Bennett
  31. A book about a family:
  32. A book written by an author from Asia, Africa or South America:
  33. A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title:
  34. A book that includes a wedding:
  35. A book with an author whose first and last names start with the same letter:
  36. A ghost story:
  37. A book with a two world title: Devil’s Daughter by. Lisa Kleypas
  38. A novel based on a true story:
  39. A book revolving around a puzzle or a game:
  40. Your favorite prompt from a POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE:

ADVANCED

  1. A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book:
  2. A “choose your own adventure” book:
  3. A “choose your own adventure” book:
  4. An “own voices” book:
  5. A LitRPG book:
  6. A book with no chapters, unusual chapter headings, or unconventionally numbered chapters:
  7. Two books that share the same title (1):
  8. Two books that share the same title (2):
  9. A book that inspired a common phrase or idiom (e.g., Big Brother from 1984):
  10. A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage or convent:

There are so many books I’ve read in the past that would fit all these criteria but what’s the fun in that? So I’ll try my best! And if you have any titles to recommend to help me meet my challenge – please leave them in the comments below. Thanks! Happy Reading 😘

It’s Wednesday…

Happy Wednesday everyone! Can you believe it’s the middle of the week already? Time flies by so quickly! My oldest child is in kindergarten and school ends for him at the end of May. And that thought leads me to another – that we’re also nearing the middle of the year – wait…I’m not ready!

But this also means the last season of Game of Thrones starts in 11 days. My emotions are all over the place for this: excited, happy, nervous, sad, ready, but SO not ready for it to end. 😭 It’s been an amazing run. ❤️

I was engaged to my now-hubby when the first episode aired. Years later, I’m married with two children. My own “dire-wolf” (well husky/Malamute), Sky, just passed in August last year 😭💔 A lot has happened in my life during this Game of Thrones era. It will be an amazing last season I’m sure, though I’m afraid to see which characters will die! 🙈

My sweet girl, Sky (2006-2018)

So today, I’m just catching up on errands, playing with my daughter, planning an Easter Egg hunt party, drowning myself in tunes on my Spotify app (currently listening to the new Billy Eilish album). I might even borrow my son’s Nintendo Switch and play some Tetris 99 or Splatoon 2🤷🏻‍♀️ What I really need is a deep tissue massage in my upper back – hopefully soon.

Have a wonderful day and Happy Reading!😘

Overdrive and Kindle App

I love to read physical books and ebooks, it doesn’t matter as long as I can get my hands on a story! I still love the weight and smell of a physical book but when I’m reading at night (which is 90% of the time), I use my Kindle app on my iPad. I also have a Nook app and and an iBooks app. I have books on all of them but because my Hawaii State Library card is linked up to Overdrive and their online selection, I read those ebooks through my Kindle app. It’s so convenient! I haven’t quite gotten into Audiobooks though – someone reading to me always puts me to sleep. It’s too relaxing.

I also subscribe to Kindle Unlimited mostly because I’m impatient. I’ve cancelled a few times and keep coming back! 🤷🏻‍♀️ I put books on hold at the library, but sometimes it just takes awhile for me to get my hands on them. I’d love to buy more books but I have a budget (kids needs are priority!). At first I was wary about the books on Kindle Unlimited. I just wasn’t familiar with the authors and wondered why some novels were so short and some genres I stumbled into like Romance with a dash or lump of Reverse Harem in it. Ha! Much to my surprise! It’s been a learning experience and quite an adventure. I’m enjoying finding new authors! And it gives me a reprieve when I’m waiting on those much anticipated best seller novels that can take a year to be published. What’s a book addict to do? 😔

Anyway here’s a screenshot of my Kindle App listings as of today. I just finished The Hidden Witch and so I am going to either tackle The Queen’s Rising (I admit I tried a few months back and had to put it aside), or Archenemies (I feel like I need to read Book 1 again though) – so I guess my first review will be The Hidden Witch! Stay tuned…😊

What’s on your TBR list? Or Read list?

Reading Past Midnight

I haven’t kept a blog in years so I’m a bit rusty at this but I have lots of time to relearn how to do all this.  Bear with me!

I’ve created blogs about my life, blogs about my crafting (when I used to do a lot of crafting) and I’ve always wanted to do a book review blog, so why not start now?

Ever since I was a pre-teen (back in the early 90’s) and stumbled upon my older cousin’s Teen Dreams young adult books, I was hooked.  Then came Sweet-Valley High and books by R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike!  Wow, I’m really taking myself down memory lane here.  I can see the library at middle school just at the front of my mind, the smell of the paperback books, that sense of calm perusing the library shelves.  And then L.J. Smith wrote The Vampire Diaries and I wasn’t only hooked, I fell in LOVE, hard.

If that shows my age, so be it!  I know the story has been made into a successful tv series, but I was 12 when that book came out.  Those Salvatore brothers – swoon.  And Elena and her friends – loved them!  I read and re-read all of her books, over and over and over again, well into my late 20’s.  My original copies of the books fell apart and I bought the new editions.

Many years later, now I’m a mother of two children, E is 6 going on 7 this year, and L just turned 2.  I went from a working woman to a stay-at-home mom.  It’s been filled with challenges, fun times, hard times and I’ve never had my sleep cycle tested so much until I had kids.  Some nights I’m just crazy exhausted, but I’m getting back into the groove where my sleep cycle is getting back to what it was pre-kids.

Yet even through life’s changes and challenges – the one thing that stayed constant is my love of books.  I read.  I read so much.  I started logging how much I read on my GoodReads account and last year I read 60+ books alone.  Why so much?  Reading online through the kindle app in the past few years has given me chances to read while putting my kids to sleep.  I still love physical books but leaving the lamp on all night – past midnight – wasn’t ideal for me, my hubby or my kids (wherever I parked myself to sleep at night for the past 6 years haha).  Reading on my iPad is so convenient – I’m usually reading past midnight while everyone sleeps.  Hence the title of my blog.  Appropriate, don’t you think?

I read a lot of romance and young adult genres lately, it used to be more varied.  I had phases growing up: mysteries, horror, suspense, thrillers, fantasy, but lately I just want to read happy endings.

If you have recommendations on new romance and young adult books you think I’d like, please let me know in the comments below!  I’m always looking for new books to read.  post