Weekly Roundup: January 20 - February 2

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! It's the year of the horse! This weekend has been very busy because of the Lunar New Year celebrations, which is probably my favorite holiday and the biggest holiday in my family. It's the one holiday in the year when the entire family gathers for a big homemade dinner, firecrackers, and best of all, red envelopes ($$$). I've been away to college for the last four years, so it's my first year back celebrating LNY with my family. It was really fun catching up with family and meeting some new cousins for the first time.

Can you believe we're already a month into 2014 already? Somehow, I managed to read seven books this month, which is a good start to the year (for me). In terms of reviews, however, I am behind, but hopefully, I can catch up on some unfinished reviews this week. Look forward to them!

Oh yeah! And if you haven't been on my blog in the last few days, I have a new blog design and rating system out. Check it out!

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup: January 6 - January 19

I ended up skipping last week's weekly roundup again, and I have a feeling this is going to be a common occurrence so I've been thinking of making this feature as a biweekly thing. My life as an unemployed recent college grad doesn't really offer a lot to talk about on a weekly basis. Then again, can I still call it a Weekly Roundup? Should I change it to Biweekly Roundup or a completely new name? There are still a lot of things I want to tweak or fix on my blog, but I guess that's just the growing pains of a new blog trying to find its identity, right?

So I'm not planning to participate in Tynga's Review's Stacking the Shelves often (maybe I'll participate more often in the future), but I received some book mail this week that I'm so thankful for getting that I just had to share.


Thank you Tor Teens for Antigoddess (Goddess War #1) by Kendare Blake and Three (Article 5 #3) by Kristen Simmons, and thank you Paper Latern Lit for Changers Book One: Drew by T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper. And yes, that is an alpaca. I'm just going to include Arpakasso in all my bookmail pictures from now on., because - well, look at it! Do I really need a reason?

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup: 12.23 - 01.05

I wasn't able to post a Weekly Roundup last week, so this post will be summing up the last two weeks. I can't say much about my Christmas and New Year's Eve though. They were pretty uneventful. This week, I did manage to finish reading a few books (reviews to come later this month) and write up a few scheduled posts. Yay! It's fun when you  procrastinate, but it always feels better when you are actually productive.

I'm Currently Reading

The Waking Engine
by David Edison

I'm enjoying what I read so far. The City Unspoken seems like a hauntingly beautiful place (that I would never want to visit), and Edison is a master wordsmith when it comes to imagery.

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup: 12.16 - 12.22

Happy Holidays, everyone! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ・゜・。・*:.。.:*・゜I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this week. I'm not sure what my family will be doing for the holidays (we're all terrible planners), but I have a feeling my siblings and I will be cooking the holiday meal this year. Maybe some lamb chops? Some creamy garlic mashed potatoes? Some roasted brussels sprouts? What else? I probably should stop planning the dinner right now as all this food talk is making me hungry!

Anyway, since this week will be busy, I probably won't be posting all that much this week. I also want to get ahead in my blogging and schedule reviews in advance, but for that to happen, I'll actually have to spend more time reading.

What's everyone's plan for the holidays? Are you doing anything special? Are there any special books you're planning to read during the break?

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup 12.9 - 12.15

Wow, I can't believe there's only ten more days until Christmas and only sixteen more days left of 2013. Where did all the time ago? To get into the holiday season, my family tried to make hot buttered rum last night, and we failed miserably. I've never tried it before but I always thought it would be the closest thing to an alcoholic version of Butterbeer. You can imagine my disappointment when it didn't taste a thing like how I imagined it would. I think I'll stick with my hot chocolate and spiced apple cider for my seasonal drinks.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug came out this past week, and I unfortunately haven't seen it yet. I'm hoping I'll be able to see it some time this week. Have any of you seen it yet? If so, what did you think? Was it better than the first one?

For all those students out there, half of you might be done with finals week while the other half still have about a week to go. For those of you are done, CONGRATULATIONS, enjoy your holiday break to catch up on all your lost sleeping hours. For those of you who aren't, my condolences and good luck.

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup 12.2 - 12.8

Bookcharmed has a new design! I spent the entire past few days working on the theme, and there are still a few tweaks I want to do, but hopefully there aren't any problems with it. Please let me know what you think, and if there are any bugs or errors, let me know in the comments!

This Past Week on Bookcharmed

• Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2014 Releases I'm Dying To Read
• Waiting on Wednesday: The Waking Engine by David Edison
• Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup: 11.25 - 12.1

I hope everyone's had a fun, safe, drama-free Thanksgiving weekend. I didn't get to do any Black Friday shopping but my weekend was still super busy between prepping the Thanksgiving meal, eating that meal, and a planning a meetup with friends that included an all-you-can-eat sushi binge and watching Catching Fire at the drive-in theater. I was debating whether I should do a movie review for Catching Fire or not, but I decided against it. All I have to say was that I surprisingly loved it. It was loads better than the first movie and much better than the books. And oh my word, Finnick. There's been a lot of hooplah about how Sam Calflin wasn't right for the role, but I certainly enjoyed watching him.

Continue Reading...

Weekly Roundup 11.18 - 11.24

Hello peeps! Thanksgiving is coming soon. For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, have a good holiday. For those who don't, have a great week. And be safe on Black Friday (or Thursday depending on where you're planning to shop)!

This Past Week on Bookcharmed

• Review: Solomon the Peacemaker by Hunter Welles
• Review: Drawn by Cecilia Gray
• Top Ten Tuesdays: Books I'd Recommend to my Future Kid
• Waiting on Wednesdays: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
• Thoughtful Thursdays: Reading Music

Continue Reading...