Top Ten Tuesday #76 - Bookish Delights

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Top Ten Bookish Delights

Bookmarks
Bookmarks aren't a must but I love them all the same. I don't like dog earring books. If I have absolutely nothing to use as a bookmark (or a toddler who pulls them out of my books and destroys them) I will memorize the chapter or page number I am on.
 (I have a Hobbit themed bookmark giveaway up right now for my blogiversary and have been designing/making more so look forward to some more bookmark giveaways in the future!)

Book Smells That Remind Me Of My Childhood
Certain book smells take me back to my early years and I love knowing that those smells can bring back a wave of memories. My elementary school library had a specific smell that I encountered again recently in a very old book. Some books remind me of the text books from early elementary grades, others from high school. Some book smells don't have specific early memories for me but who knows, maybe 10-20 years from now I will associate them with memories from this decade. 

Having Sisters Who Love to Read
My sisters didn't always read. In fact, one of them hated reading when she was a kid and told me so very often when I'd recommend a book I loved to her. One told me years ago that she started reading because she saw how much I loved it. Now my 3 sisters all love to read and I love that I can share my thoughts on books with them or pick up a book from a book sale that I think they might like or keep an eye out for books they are missing from their favorite series and vice versa.   

Bookstagram
I'm very new to bookstagram but I'm already hooked on the lovely photography (although there are a lot of similarities between the majority of stuff I see.) I've always loved photography so pictures of books make me very happy!

BookTube

I've been watching Booktube for about 4+ years now and still enjoy it so much. Seeing people's faces light up over their latest favorite read is always fun. 

Book To Movie Adaptations
These aren't always well done and they also don't always stick to the book but I love adaptations, whether they are a movie I watched as a kid and then read the book, or a book that I read and then watched the movie. They've urged me to read books that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise.

My Local Library
How can I not include the library?! It's what started my love of books, after all. I absolutely love that I can borrow books to read. As a chlid who didn't have an allowance or anything to buy books, the library was my little savior. It was a huge part of my life as a child and still  is.

Storytime
This one is more for my daughter but I enjoy taking her to Storytime at my local library. I love seeing her interact with the storyteller while she reads and sings songs. I love seeing her interact with the other children. Most of all, I love that the library and storytime is helping me instill a love for reading in my daughter.

My Personal Library
I don't have a fabulous instagram worthy personal library with brand new books and Funko characters but I do have a pretty big selection of secondhand books all shoved on 4-7 shelves that I love to peruse. They are completely unorganized other than having some separated by genre or age group so I often have to go searching if I don't know exactly what I'm looking for and I love that. It's always an adventure when it comes to my library. And it will probably stay that way. I've thought about organizing by title or author name but I have over 2000 books and that would take forever. I'm not an organized person and my library fits my personality.

Bout of Books 16 Sign Up & Goals

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On A Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01 am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever timezone you are in. Bout of Books is low pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books Team

Bout of Books was the very first readathon I ever participated in on this blog (and ever) so I make a point to join in every one that I can. I love week long readathons because there's just enough time to read as much as I can with a busy schedule and still get plenty of reading done and possibly finish a few books! It is great motivation and a lot of fun.

GOALS

I'm participating in the Clean Sweep ARC challenge so I have a few arcs to read as well as a few other books that I would love to read this month. I'm confident that I will read at least 5 books during this read-a-thon. 

The Books I Will Probably Read This Week
subject to change

Hopefully I can make time to join in on some of the challenges as well!

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Are you planning on participating? If you are, let me know and I will stop by and cheer you on! 

Book Blast & Giveaway - A Kiss and A Dream by Linda Andrews

 

  A Kiss and a Dream by Linda Andrews 

She escapes with a dead woman's name and finds sanctuary with a widower reeling from his wife's betrayal. Can a love built on lies survive the truth? Gretchen Foltz honors her late father's request and ends up locked in the workhouse by her greedy brother. Dreaming of a home and freedom, she embarks on a dangerous winter journey. She awakes in a stranger's home. Hiding behind a lie, she discovers a man worthy of her trust. Kian Bryne is struggling to feed his four children. The last thing he needs is to rescue a woman stranded on the ice and running from her own demons. With his rich in-laws threatening to take custody his children, he'll make a desperate alliance to keep his family together. When a simple kiss shatters their agreement, he's left yearning for more. Can they untangle the lies before someone separates them forever?

   

  Excerpt: In this scene, Gretchen learns that Kian has a secret dream to be a carriage driver on the island. She has a dream of her own and knows the power of them, so she is determined to help him achieve his goal. "It was a stupid dream. I should sell it, ta pay ya." Kian jerked the covering into place and turned away. "Nein. No." She followed him. "Dream is not stupid. Dream is good." She slowed down to hit the correct sound at the end. Just so he understood. He yanked pieces of oak from the pile near the door and dropped them into her pail. "I help you vith your dream." She pulled out the bigger pieces and returned them to the stack before tugging the handle from his grip. Selecting the right size for the cook stove, she filled her bucket. "You see." "Why?" He stared at the wood pile and huddled in his jacket. She didn't want to think too hard about the why. Instead, she clasped the pail to her chest and hustled for the door. He beat her there and pushed back the snow, so she could squeeze through the opening. Before she exited, he stayed her with a hand on her arm. "Why?" "Because I have the dreams, too. And you are helping to make them true." She ducked under his arm and walked into the cold. More than he knew. Maybe more than was safe for her heart.

 

Author Linda Andrews 

 Linda Andrews lives with her husband and three children in Phoenix, Arizona. When she announced to her family that her paranormal romance was to be published, her sister pronounce: “What else would she write? She’s never been normal.” All kidding aside, writing has become a surprising passion and she’s followed that passion into history, the future, and beyond. Sometimes, she incorporates her science background and other times, she allows the magic of love to take center stage in sweet historicals.

Website * Twitter

  Blast Giveaway $50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 5/11/16 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. 

VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.  

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Sunday Post #16

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things you received, share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead, and more.

It has been a somewhat eventful week for me. I finally changed by header (if you hadn't noticed). I honestly don't know how I went three years with the old one. It got to a point where I just overlooked it because I don't have any editing programs and little time to bother but I finally did something about it! So, yay!
I participated in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon for the first time and did much better than I thought I would despite the distractions. 
We took my daughter to a petting zoo earlier this week because she loves animals. She waved and said 'Hi, I love you.' to just about every animal we saw. She especially loved the miniature ponies.
It rained all day on Earth Day so we didn't get to do much that day which was a little disappointing. In the past I've made a point to do something every year for Earth Day whether it was an awesome camping trip, a long hike, cleaning up a highway, or planting a tree. This year we just drew flowers on the porch with chalk.
And today I will be attending a birthday party! Hurray for getting out of the house and doing things! 

This Past Week On The Blog
Picture Book Review: Moon Rabbit

Top Ten Tuesday #75 - Funny Haha! 
Book Review: The Girl On The Train
Kid Lit Blog Hop - April 2016
Graphic Novel Book Review: Camp Midnight
Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Sign up & Goals
Freebie Friday #12
Stacking the Shelves #58 - Library Book Sale Part 2
Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon 

Coming Soon

Book Blasts & Giveaways

Books I Finished This Week

What I'm Currently Reading

Nothing! But I will be starting these tonight.

(physical book)

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Finally. I've been putting this off for too long. I mean to finish the series this year.

(ebook)

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Yes, I'm having Throne of Glass withdrawals. I'm not sure if I should have read this before continuing the series but better late than never.

What I'm Watching 

inspired by Greg from Book Haven

This isn't new but I just came across it yesterday and it's super cute and funny. 

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon

I meant to post this sooner but I spent most of my time last night creating my new blog header so I'm behind, as usual. 

I am currently participating in this since it's past 8am and am taking a little reading break to catch up on listing my goals, what I'm reading, and do the mini challenges. I am only going to make this one post and update it throughout the day with my progress and my wrap up.

Goals

I never really do good with short read-a-thons but I am determined to try and finish The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman (left off at page 302 out of 482) and read Grayling's Song by Karen Cushman (224 pages) in it's entirety today. 

Challenges

Intro Meme

1. What part of the world are you reading from?

Florida, but nowhere near a beach.

2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I'm hoping to finish The Dark Days Club so I can start Assassin's Blade or Cress.

3. Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Cookies but I don't have any. :(

4. Tell us a little something about yourself!

I have a toddler who isn't going to let me read much today.

5. First readathon? What are you looking forward to?

Nap time! It's probably going to be the only part of the day that I get some uninterrupted reading time. 

(I decided to do the challenges in the comments of the posts like everyone else!)
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Interruptions!

Ok, so my darling little daughter decided that today was the day to only take a 25 minute nap ONCE. Usually she takes 2 naps and they are least an hour each. And because she refused the second nap she was super fussy and wanted all of my attention! But I put her to bed early (by 8)  and was able to finish The Dark Days Club and get half way through Grayling's Song.

WRAP UP

1. The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman (180 pages read during the RaT)

2. Grayling's Song by Karen Cushman (___ pages)

Stacking the Shelves #58 - Library Book Sale Part 2

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by TYNGA'S REVIEWS that features the books we bought, borrowed, were gifted, and were given for review.

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I have no new acquisitions other than the boxes of books that I bought at my library's book sale. 

I got 192 books for $12 and that doesn't include the books I shared in last week's haul.  That's a lot of books, I know, and there's no way I could list them all, especially since I already put them all on my shelves. 

I think this is the first time I didn't take a picture of the stacks of books that I bought from a book sale. I ended up getting them on my shelves as quickly as possible because my toddler loves to throw my books everywhere. Sure, they are used books but that just means they don't need any excess damage! 

Because there are so many books, I am going to split them into genres and just show my favorite finds. I won't have time to link up to Goodreads and am just going to make this as brief as possible. 

FANTASY

Plus a ton of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Mercedes Lackey books! 

Young Adult

Horror-ish

Literary Fiction

Other

Ok, so I ran out of time and didn't even get all of my favorite finds up here! Maybe I'll add to it later today. Now I'm off to read for the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon! Are you participating?

Freebie Friday #12

I skipped last week's Freebie post because it was my blogiversary (there's still a giveaway going!) but I'm back with some great free ebooks for you to grab up while you can! 

Books were free at time of posting. 

Children's/Juvenile

Awesome Opossum Visits the Zoo by M.K. Mathias

{Amazon}

Ernie the Elephant and the Teddy Bear by Leela Hope 

{Amazon}

Sandy the Selfish Seagull by Uncle Poppy
{Amazon}

Bees Like Flowers by Rebecca Bielawski

{Amazon}

Emerald the Mermaid by Mary K. Smith

{Amazon}

Misty the Littlest Mermaid by Mary K. Smith

{Amazon}

MG / YA

Earthking by Christopher Hall

{Amazon}

Conrad Edison and the Living Curse by John Corwin

{Amazon}

The Sorcerer's Ring by Julius St. Clair
{Amazon}

FANTASY

White Feather by CJ Parmenter

{Amazon}

Eolyn by Karin Rita Gastreich

{Amazon}

A Grave For Kings by Joseph Walter

{Amazon}

Prophecy's Ruin by Sam Bowring

{Amazon}

The Bravest of Souls by Robert W. Oliver

{Amazon}

Paranormal / Urban Fantasy

Fire Song by Val St. Crowe

{Amazon}

The Lycan Socirty by Steven J. Shelley
{Amazon}

Little Red Riding Hood: Werewolf Slayer by Carl Waters

{Amazon}

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Enjoy and don't forget to check out my blogiverary giveaways!