My First Ever Month In Review! - August Edition

~ August Edition

What happened on It's a Book Life?

• I participated in Bout of Books and kicked some major butt! Here are my results. My favorite challenge that I participated in was the recreate a cover challenge. I nailed it.
• I only had three review posts this month. Now that is a depressing number.
• Mini Reviews of Adult Books: Stay, Married with Zombies, & The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
• ARC Review: Dangerous Boys
• Review: We Were Liars

My Favorite Read of The Month

My review will be posted shortly! I gave it five well earned stars.

What went down behind the blog?

• I went to Vegas for the second time in my life. My friend won a trip from a bridal magazine to celebrate her bachelorette party. So our flight and hotel were paid for! I had a blast, won a little bit of money, and was extremely tired when I got home.
• I got a new job! Don't worry, I still work at the library. I am now a desk clerk instead of a page. It's a pay raise and so far I am really loving it.
• Today I took part in my annual family fantasy football draft. I'm ready for football season! Fall is my favorite time of year not only because of football, but because it means my cardigans, sweaters, boots, and scarves can be taken out of the closet.

My New Obsession

The television show Outlander! I have been hooked since the first episode and I now want to read the rest of the books more than ever! (I have only read the first one.)

September Is Here!

My Bookish and Non-Bookish Goals For September

• I am so very far behind in writing reviews and posting them. My goal, get it together.
• Read my three ARC's that debut in September.
• Catch up on the television show, Vampire Diaries, before it comes back on.

The Book I look Forward to Reading The Most This Month

Other Sept. Releases I want to read

Review: We Were Liars by: E. Lockhart

We Were Liars by: E. Lockhart (May 2014)

227 pages

Genre: Young Adult/Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: A beautiful and distinguished family.

A private island.

A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.

A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.

A revolution. An accident. A secret.

Lies upon lies.

True love.

The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

My Review

I am sure you are aware of all of the hype surrounding We Were Liars. Many have said that it is THE book to read this summer. With that in mind I was hesitant about reading it. No one wants to be let down by all the hype surrounding a novel. Not only was the book blowing up all over the blogosphere, it become a hot topic at my library as well. After all that I finally decided to take the plunge. AND….

We Were Liars has everything I love in a book. An unreliable narrator, check. Crazy family drama, check. Beautiful writing, check. A shocking reveal I didn’t see coming, check. Nicely done E. Lockhart.

I enjoyed reading We Were Liars from beginning to end. The characters are intense. The writing is wonderfully dark. From the first page I knew that I wanted NEEDED to find out the truth and I had a feeling I wouldn’t be getting it from any of the liars. This novel will make you think. When you think the big reveal isn’t shocking, keep reading, you know nothing. I loved following the little pieces and trying to see everything coming together right along with the main character. While reading I felt:

Have you read We Were Liars yet? Have you? Read it. If anything else discover for yourself if you think the book lives up to the hype or not. I think it does. I know some people had a hard time liking the main characters and didn’t enjoy the book as much as I did, so I can’t say for sure if you will like We Were Liars, but I still suggest you give it a shot. If neither I nor the hype can convince you to read this book, re-read that summary.

TTT #25: Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Have In My Posession

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's original topic is Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet. Since I use the library more often than I purchase books I decided to mix this week's topic up just a little bit. I had a lot of fun with it, but I did cheat a little. I ended up mentioning 14 books instead of 10. Tell me what you think of my list below and share your Top Ten Tuesday with me as well!

The Bookish Report

Here are all of the top bookish stories, blog posts, pictures, and videos I found this past week. I put this post up every Sunday so come back again next week for more bookish awesomeness.Click away and enjoy your Sunday!

News

Minnesota is home to The Floating Library! You read that correctly, now check out their website. It is pretty neat, although I would just be so paranoid to have books that close to water all the time.

"Amazon Publishing and Alloy Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Television Group, announced a digital-first imprint that will focus on young adult, new adult and commercial fiction. The new imprint, named Alloy Entertainment, will be part of Amazon Publishing’s Powered by Amazon program." One of the books from this new imprint, Imitation, sounds really interesting.

Epic Reads does it again. They entertain, delight, and share the truth about us book nerds in the Epic Reads Glossary. :) You have to read the entry "book stripping."

To all my fellow grammar nerds out there, check out these Movie Titles With Errors! A lot of these I picked up a long time ago and they always bothered me.

Want a laugh? 16 Pickup Lines That Would Work On Any Book LoverI have never laughed so hard, especially at number 11.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's memoir is going to be published. It is going to be gritty. I loved the Little House books while growing up (I really do want to re-read them) and her memoir will be a must read for me.

Blog Posts

I discovered a new feature thanks to The Book Monsters titled Write On Review-A-Thon! It is hosted over at The Book Vixen. I feel like I always get behind in writing reviews and this feature would help me with that!

Do you love Jane Austen novels? Do you love looking at pretty covers? Check out the Stay Bookish post: The Many Beautiful Editions of Austen Novels!

The Book Addict's Guide has written a great post about novellas. You should definitely check it out if you are a fan of Throne of Glass.

Apparently The Selection novels aren't done yet. I haven't read these ones and I have yet to decided if I will, but for those of you who are fans this is probably some pretty good news for you.

Photos

Bout of Books: Book Chain & Recreate a Cover Challenges

Book Chain

Hosted by:Christian Bookshelf Reviews

The Challenge: You must link four books by using the last word of the previous title to the first word of the next one.

My Book Chain

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
(The) Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

**This challenge was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I ended up having to use books from my TBR, I couldn't seem to create a chain just from books I have read (that have been recorded on goodreads.)

Recreate a Cover

Hosted by: Spines & Covers

The Challenge: Recreate any book cover any way you choose!

The Original

My Recreated Cover

**This is probably my favorite challenge to date. My husband even helped out! We used real french fries, ketchup, gummy worms, and a little Photoshop to recreate the cover of the hilarious zombie novel Eat Brains Love! I think it turned out pretty darn awesome, and it was a lot of freaking fun.

Bout of Books: Like This, Try This Challenge

Like This, Try This

Hosted by: Writing My Own Fairy Tale

The Challenge: You must recommend a book based on another book, movie, tv show, etc similar to this: “If you liked _____, you should try _____ because _____.”

If you liked this...

You should try this...

Because a funny and unique zombie novel shouldn't be passed up.

If you liked this...

You should try these...

         

Because they are all well written, have hot men, a good romance, time travel, and are awesome.

Bout of Books: Book Spine Poetry Challenge

Book Spine Poetry

Hosted by: My Little Pocketbooks

The Challenge: Take a minimum of 3 books and put them in a pile to make a poem. It doesn't have to rhyme or make sense.

My Book Spine Poetry

The River of No Return

Marked

The Storyteller

a Dark Witch

Burning For Revenge.

Nineteen Minutes

A Dance With Dragons,

Shiver.

Bout of Books: Scavenger Hunt Challenge

Scavenger Hunt Challenge

Hosted by: The Book Monsters

The Challenge: Go on a book scavenger hunt! You do not have to use Instagram, you can post on your blog, twitter, tumblr, or goodreads. You can take your own pictures or use images you find online. Up to you. You can complete as many of the hunts as you like. The more you do the more chances you have to win! If you like hashtags, use this one – #boutofbookshunt Simple, right? To participate and enter the giveaway head on over to The Book Monsters.

Book Scavenger Hunt

1. A Book that begins with “B”  (for Bout of Books!)

The Battle of the Labyrinth is my B book pick!

2. A book that has been made into a movie/tv show

My new obsession! I love the show and I am now even more interested in finishing this series.

3. A series you love

Chaol - Need I say more?

4. An anthology of poems or short stories

I own this. I love this.

5. A book on your TBR shelf, or your full TBR shelves

My Current Library TBR