Announcement: BOUT OF BOOKS 14

Hey, y 'all! It's time for another round of the Bout of Books read-a-thon! I participated in the last round in May and just had a really great time with it. (You can see May's posts by clicking the "Bout of Books" tag at the end of this post.) So I decided to do it again! Here's a little more information about Bout of Books if you're new to the read-a-thon! 

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, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -- from the Bout of Books team

Just like last time, I plan on participating in all of the challenges, so I will be posting daily updates here on the blog to keep track of my progress. Since I'm a little late in getting this post up, expect an update post later today!

Bout of Books Goals!

I have my TBR planned for the week and I feel very confident that I can accomplish it, During the read-a-thon, I'll keep you updated on the books I'm reading and how many pages I've read, so here are the books I plan on getting to this week!

 

1. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins -- 368 pgs.

I have the first two Stephanie Perkins books in paperback, but this came out last year in hardcover. So I've been waiting to buy it and read it until it came out in paperback, and I'm so excited to finally read it!

2. Hawkeye Vol. 1-4 by Matt Fraction and David Aja -- 138, 136, 120, 160 pgs.

I've been slowly collecting this series for a few months, and now that the fourth volume has finally been released and I have them all, I just want to marathon through the whole thing!

3. The Avengers: Enemy Within by Kelly Sue DeConnick, et. al -- 152 pgs.

I've become obsessed with Captain Marvel recently, and absolutely loved the first two volumes. But this one has been ridiculously hard to come buy, as it's selling for upwards of $30 on the Amazon Marketplace. But my mom decided to gift it to me (THANK YOU, MOM), so as soon as it gets to my house, I'm devouring this baby.

4. Matilda by Roald Dahl -- 240 pgs.

On a whim, I decided to round out my TBR with a children's classic, because I haven't read a children's book in a really long time. And I figured, "If I have these books for my future children, shouldn't I read them, too?" So onto the TBR it went!

The read-a-thon has already officially begun, so I'll be posting my Day 1 update fairly soon. Any time you want or need to go to the Bout of Books homepage, you can either click on the Bout of Books picture in the upper right sidebar of my blog, or the picture I'll put at the top of every update post. The picture in both locations is linked to the blog! 

Tell me: are YOU participating in Bout of Books 14? If so, what are you most excited to read this week? Let me know in the comments below!

Recap: Vacation 2015

My summer vacation is finally over, much to my disappointment. I got back last Thursday, but it has definitely taken some time to fully relax and decompress, and settle back into the swing of things. So I'm finally back here on the blog, ready to roll! But first, I thought I would share a few memories from vacation! 

One thing you should know is that when my family goes on vacation, we always drive to our destination. Florida is about a 19-hour drive from the Kansas City area, so it's a long drive. We used to be able to drive pretty much straight through, stopping for a few hours to sleep in our car, but now that we're all older, we can't really take it anymore. So we stop overnight for two or three nights on the way there and back. But driving gives us some awesome views. 

The "Batman" Building in downtown Nashville, TN!

All pictures of the Appalachian mountains from the drive home!

Once we got to Florida, we spent a few days in Daytona Beach playing in the pool, wading in the waves, and soaking up the sun!

Then we moved inland and spent the rest of our time in Florida at my aunt's house, spending time with my cousin and her son, and having a ton of fun with the whole family. I don't really have any of these pictures, because I was way too busy talking and joking around to be taking pictures. My parents have a few more for posterity, though. 

My parents and I went to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on Saturday. We hadn't been in almost ten years, and with the recent expansion of Fantasyland we just KNEW we had to go. And it was an absolute BLAST. 

The entrance to Magic Kingdom. 

Cinderella's castle! (With some random people in front!)

Prince Eric's castle, and the front for the new
Ariel's Under the Sea dark ride! (Which is so
adorable.)

The Beast's castle up in the mountain! 

Gaston's Tavern in Belle's little town!

Big Thunder Mountain!

And let me just say this: if you haven't been to Disney World in while, GO. Seriously, you're never too old for Disney. And the new Fantasyland stuff is SO cool. I loved the additions of the Beast's and Prince Eric's castles. There's a very cute walk-through show in Belle's cottage that features Belle herself! And most of all, the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train is one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. It's half rollercoaster, and half dark ride, which completely works. The wait time is killer, but do like my mom and I did: wait until dark, when the parades and fireworks are about to start. Most people, especially those with little kids, are going to be near the castle and Main Street to watch the fanfare, and the wait time will be dramatically decreased. Most of the day while we were there, the wait time was anywhere between 70 and 135 minutes, which is insane. But when we went on the ride a little after 9? We were only in line for about 25 minutes. And it was so worth it. 

We got to Disney around 10:30 AM, and we got in our car to leave at about 1 AM. For those of you who don't like math, that's 14 1/2 hours spent at Disney, walking around the entire park and riding almost every ride. It was completely exhausting, but still one of my favorite places on the planet. 

We even got to see Jurassic World on Sunday with my aunt, which was awesome. If you're a fan of the original Jurassic Park, please go see the new movie. It's funny and touching and has you on the edge of your seat the whole time. AND it has so many references to the original that were so much fun for a megafan whose seen the movie a million times like I have. 

We left Florida on Monday and started the long drive home. We decided to stop at my uncle's house in Tennessee on the way, and our route took us right through Asheville, North Carolina. And because my parents are the absolute best and pretty much down for anything, they agreed to make a pit stop in Asheville for a short visit to Malaprop's Bookstore! Malaprop's is the home bookstore for great YA authors like Beth Revis, Meagan Spooner and Stephanie Perkins. I've ordered a signed copy from them online before, and it was such a lovely experience, and I just had to go. 

I ended up buying three books, and my mom bought one book for us and three for my aforementioned little cousin, whose 4th birthday is next month. And because we bought so much, we were allowed to choose some books from the "free" shelf, which is amazing. I ended up finding six ARCs on that shelf, several of which seem fresh from BEA! I'll be filming a June book haul later this week so look for that! Then I'll post some pics of the books I got on Instagram, in case you don't watch videos. 

That same day, we got to my uncle's house, where he has this amazing garden, and a huge yard where they have a ton of adorable chipmunks to call neighbors. We even saw a deer behind his land, and my dad got a picture of several wild turkeys! My aunt made a ridiculously delicious dinner for us all, and in the morning, we were off again. By Thursday, we were back home, but vacation wasn't quite over! 

That night we got to go see the national tour of the Broadway musical Once, based on the movie. It was SO amazing and beautiful. And a perfect way to end our official vacation. 

Now that I've done absolutely nothing for a few days, I think I'm ready to get back to things. I've already started back onto Instagram with my Owl Crate unboxing, and my Twitter has not been forgotten. On Friday, I'll film a book haul, so this weekend my Youtube channel will be back in action, as well! 

I hope you all get the chance to go on vacation this summer, even if it's just for a long weekend. It's always so wonderful to unwind and relax, and do things you don't normally get to do, and spend some much needed time with family that you miss all year round. I know this vacation will be one I treasure for years to come. 

Tell me: did/do YOU have plans for a vacation this summer? Where will you go? Let me know in the comments below!

Announcement: VACATION HIATUS!

Hey guys! By the time you're seeing this post, I will be in Florida on vacation! My parents and I will be spending a few days at the beach before heading to stay with my aunt for a few more. Then we'll be at Disney World next weekend, too! I'll be back somewhere around the 18th. So this is all to say that I will going on hiatus for the next two weeks! No blog posts, no videos. I may tweet occasionally, but for the most part, I'm just going to be enjoying my time in the sunshine. So I hope you have a good start to the summer, because I know I will. And I'll be back on the 22nd! 

Tell me: are YOU going on vacation this year? Where are you going? Let me know in the comments below!

#RYBSAT 5 -- Announcement

Hey guys! This is going to be a fairly short post, but I just wanted to come on my blog and officially announce my participation in #RYBSAT Round 5! 

For those of you who don't know what RYBSAT is, it stands for Read Your BookShelf-A-Thon. The way this particular read-a-thon works is you find a spot on your shelf and start reading from there, continuing along the shelf. You are allowed to skip books you've read before, and you're allowed to skip 2nd books in series. For instance, if you have a trilogy on the shelf you pick, you would read the first book in the trilogy, but you're not required to continue on to the second and third; you would be able to skip the rest of the series and continue down the shelf.

This round is going from May 18th-May 24th midnight, so I'm a day late. But I was still unsure I was going to be participating until today when I thought, Why not?

RYBSAT is hosted by several people, as you can see from the graphic above, but I became aware of it through Lainey @gingerreadslainey. You can find her on Youtube or on Twitter, and please do, because she is totally awesome.

If you'd like to see my TBR, you can go to my Instagram and check out my latest photo! I won't be posting updates here like I did for the Bout of Books, so if you want updates on my progress, be sure to follow my Twitter and/or Goodreads!

ALSO, if you want to participate, make sure to use the #RYBSAT on all your tweets or Instagram pictures as you read, and follow the official RYBSAT twitter handle, @RYBSAT15!

Tell me: are YOU participating in #RYBSAT? Let me know in the comments below!

Announcement: BOUT OF BOOKS 13

Hey guys, I think it's about time I finally decided to participate in a read-a-thon! It's been almost a year since I started this blog and my Youtube channel, so I thought I might try this thing! For those of you who don't know what Bout of Books is...

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 11th, and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone 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 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books team

Because I live with my parents, and I have a part-time job, and I have a lot of TV shows that I watch, I often don't get to read as much as I'd like to. I especially don't usually have the time to participate in these read-a-thons that look like so much fun! But since it's almost the end of the school year, I don't have as many substitute jobs. And my parents are going away for the weekend next weekend, so I'll have some free time while I take care of our dogs. So I thought, why not? I'll try this! 

I will be doing my daily updates from this here blog, but hopefully I will also be able to put up a couple of videos throughout the week. Fingers crossed! 

Bout of Books Goals!

In order to get the most out of this read-a-thon, my goal is to help reduce my TBR by reading several shorter books and/or graphic novels! Throughout the week, I'll be keeping track of both the number of books I read AND the number of pages I read. So without further ado, here are some of the books I'm hoping to get to during the read-a-thon! 

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas -- 416 pgs.

Okay, I know what you're thinking. But Danielle! You just said you were going to read shorter books. I know! But I'm going to a Sarah J. Maas ACOTAR signing on Sunday, and I just can't wait to pick this book up. I will probably start this Sunday night, so I will just be finishing it at the beginning of the read-a-thon. But I can't wait any longer!

2. Deadly Class Vol. 2: Kids of the Black Hole by Rick Remender, Wesley Craig, and Lee Loughridge -- 128 pgs. 

I read the first volume at the beginning of last month and loved it, so what a better time to pick this up than a read-a-thon? 

3. Austenland by Shannon Hale -- 202 pgs. 

I have had this book for SIX YEARS. And I still  haven't read it. But I loved the movie! And it's short, so I'm confident I can knock it out next week. 

4. The Perks of Being a Wallfllower by Stephen Chbosky -- 213 pgs. 

Another case of loving the movie, but haven't read the book. Though this one I actually picked up last year, so it's a newer shameful unread book. But this will be remedied!

5. Chew Vol. 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman and Rob Guillory -- 128 pgs. 

I found this cheap at Vintage Stock last month and it just sounds like fun!

So there you have it! I'm fairly confident I can get through all of these. Hopefully! Check back next week to see my progress and cheer me on! (No really, I may need that encouragement to make it through. Ha!)

Tell me: are YOU participating in Bout of Books 13? If so, what are you planning on reading? What's your plan of attack? Also, if you've participated in read-a-thons before, do you have any tips for a newbie like me? Let me know in the comments below!