Sunday Funday: Week in Review [27]

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back!

March 16-22, 2015

Life

This week has been a real roller coaster. Have you ever had a period of time when you were really excited and really nervous at the same time? Or gotten really good news and really bad news close together so you’re not really sure what you’re supposed to feel, as being too happy or too upset seems to extreme? This week has kind of been like that.

I know I’ve mentioned here and there about an exam that I’ve been prepping for since January. It’s not a final or midterm, as I graduated from college last May. It’s the GRE, the graduate school entrance exam required by many schools in the US (and possibly elsewhere, I haven’t checked to see if it’s used internationally). It’s basically the SAT for graduate school, and while I’ve taken my fair share of standardized testing in my life, I haven’t been under such pressure to do well on one since I took that SAT when I was 17. I’ve worked really hard on studying (which is why it’s been a little quieter on the blog this month especially) and usually do well in school, but at the same time it’s exhausting having to learn all of the nuances of the test as well as re-familiarize myself with concepts that I haven’t had to focus on in a while (like math, seeing as I was an English major). It’s also a little nerve wracking considering every graduate school will give different weight to how important the test is, and it can be frustrating knowing your performance on one test can impact your entire student profile.

I’m taking the test tomorrow, and it’s scary knowing that months of preparation will be over in just 4.5 hours. I’m trying my best to relax today so that I’m not stressed or burnt out when I take the test, catching up on Crown of Midnight and doing a little blogging. Sorry for the stream of consciousness in this post, but I wanted to update everyone on why it’s slowed down a little here (although I’ve still managed to post several times every week so I’m trying not to be too hard on myself) and will be back in blogging action after tomorrow!

Also, amidst the studying and preparing for the exam I received some fantastic news: I’m going to Disneyworld! My boyfriend’s extremely generous family gifted us a trip there for his graduation present, so we have been starting to plan and while it’s overwhelming it’s also SO MUCH FUN. We’re HUGE Disney people and I’ve been to Disneyland numerous times as well as Aulani (the Disney resort in Hawaii), so visiting Disneyworld has been a huge dream of ours for a long while now. I’ll be doing updates about our Disney planning and vacation experience as fun little side features on my blog for anyone who’s interested!

Books

So I bought Crown of Midnight on a whim a few weeks ago, thinking I probably wouldn’t love it since I had such mixed feelings about Throne of Glass. I’m eating my words though because it’s SO GOOD. I just finished part one and I was not expecting the twist! (Also the romance is getting me right where it hurts, guys). After I take my exam tomorrow I will be treating myself and ordering Heir of Fire and The Winner’s Crime, as I’ve been on a fantasy kick lately and am extremely eager to find out what happens in both series!

Blog

What Happened Here This Week:

Tuesday: Top Ten Books on my Spring 2015 TBR

Wednesday: The Cover Struggle

Thursday: I rave about The Winner’s Curse

If you’ve stayed this long, thanks for listening to my ramble! I hope you have a successful upcoming week and find some time to read!

Sunday Funday: San Francisco Edition!

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is my weekly(ish) post recapping the events in my bookish, blogging, and personal life from the past week. This week I’m featuring my trip to San Francisco instead of my usual weekly recap. All photos are my own!

Life

It was my boyfriend’s birthday this past week so we decided to do something special and take a trip to the city! SF is a city near and dear to my heart, and I love exploring a new aspect of it each time I visit. This trip we decided to pay a visit to the historic City Lights Bookstore, Chinatown, and Union Square.

Waiting for the book store to open!

City Lights Books is a historic literary landmark in San Francisco. Originally it gained notoriety from the beatnik generation in the 1950’s, and their independent and anti-authoritarian vibe is still present throughout the shop. It has three levels, from a poetry reading room upstairs to children and YA selections in the basement. At 10am it was already filled with people (and we waited for them to open the doors!) There was also a fantastic mural painted alongside the building, which is pictured at the beginning of the post. City Lights Books also serves as a small publishing house, and this year marks its 60th anniversary of publishing titles! You can learn more about City Lights Books here.

Right around the corner from City Lights Books is Chinatown! We proceeded to walk around the district, taking in the early morning shoppers at the markets selling everything from tourist knick knacks to fresh herbs, veggies and meats.

After Chinatown we braved the crowds out for the St. Patrick’s day parade to head to the Union Square area for lunch and shopping. We visited Nordstrom, MAC, and the Disney Store, and then ventured a few blocks down (in the unseasonably WARM weather!) to a small french bakery where we picked up macaroons! (Which unfortunately I ate before I had a chance to take a picture of!)

Books

Reading has been slower this week than I would’ve liked, but it’s my last push before my grad school entrance exam and most of my spare time has gone to studying! It might be a little slow this week here due to test prep, but once it’s over I plan to get a LOT of reading done! As of right now I’m still working in The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski and loving it.

Blog

What Happened Here This Week:

Monday: I’m moved by the rawness in I’ll Meet You There.

Tuesday: Top Ten Books for Those Who Like Older-Skewing YA

Thursday: I’m nominated for my third Liebster Award!

Friday: I have mixed feelings about Lola and the Boy Next Door.

Here’s to a good week for everyone, and cheers to everything you’re looking forward too (whether it be passing exams, spring break, a vacation, or just the impeding warmer weather!)

Sunday Funday: Week in Review [25]

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back!

March 2-7, 2015

Life

This week and weekend have been busy. I spent all week studying (no surprises there, I’ll be so glad when this exam is over!) and this weekend I traveled out of town for a wedding! My boyfriend’s step-brother got married in a beautiful ceremony and reception and I was so honored to be invited. My boyfriend’s family had traveled from all over the US to be in town for the wedding, so we spent a lot of time with them both before and after the wedding. It was fun but exhausting!

My dress matching the color scheme of the wedding was a complete accident!

Books

I finished I’ll Meet You There this week and WOW what an emotional book. Contemporaries aren’t always my favorite and this one was slow for me in the beginning, but I came to be really invested in the characters’ lives, and I thought the portrayal of the military and having a character be so young and be a veteran was extremely well done. Review to come this week!

I decided to treat myself by reading a book I purchased a while ago that’s been taunting me from my shelf (do you ever just hold off on books you really want to read after you buy them because you want to save them for sometime special?) I’m enjoying Lola and the timing is perfect as I’ll be vacationing in San Francisco soon and can’t wait to perhaps take some bookish pictures of the novel in the city it takes place in!

Blog

What Happened Here This Week:

Monday: I present five reasons why Fairest is #flawless.

Tuesday: Top Ten Books I’ve Read in the Past 3 Years

Wednesday: I participate in The Revolution of Ivy Cover Reveal!

Thursday: I don’t drink coffee, but I’m tagging others for the Coffee Book Tag.

Friday: Red Queen neither impresses nor disappoints me.

How was your week, reading or otherwise?

Sunday Funday: Week in Review [24]

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back!

February 9-15, 2015

Life

Like last week, this week I went on a mini vacation, this time to visit my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day! We’ve been together a while so instead of doing something overly-elaborate we chose to do some of our favorite things together, like finding new recipes online to try, catching up on our favorite Food Network shows (we’re obsessed with Kid’s Baking Championship!) and going to the movies (and seeing anything BUT Fifty Shades of Grey). We had a Valentine’s Day picnic as well as spending part of the holiday driving around town in search of Girl Scout Cookies! (I successfully got my hands on my two favorites: Thin Mints and Trefoils!)

Also, like I mentioned last week, I’m now on Instagram! Come follow me!

Books

This week I finished Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke and it was such a powerful portrayal of anxiety and depression balanced with the whimsy of a fairytale retelling- look for my review soon! I also finished my reread of Princess In Waiting, the fourth book in my Princess Diaries Reread. I started I Was Here over the weekend because I owe it back to the library in a few days. While I want to discover the mystery around the suicide, I’ve been having trouble feeling connected to the characters. It’s my first Gayle Forman read though so I hope it improves!

Blog

What Happened Here This Week:

I had a lot of fun posting this week with a lot of content inspired by Valentine’s Day!

Monday: I have an unpopular opinion of The Darkest Part of the Forest in my review.

Tuesday: Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes to Fictional Romance

Wednesday: In my second installment of Cristina’s Close Look, I explore Oppressive YA Relationships.

Friday: In honor of Valentine’s Day I talk about my favorite fictional couples in YA.

Also, in case you haven’t heard, inhonor of my one year blogiversary I’m hosting a giveaway! Be sure to check it out to win a book of your choice (of up to $12 USD) from Book Despository!

Did you have a good weekend? Did you do anything to celebrate the holiday? Let me know in the comments!

Sunday Funday: Week in Review [23]

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back!

February 2-8, 2015

Life

This week I had a whirlwind mini-vacation to the coast where it was unseasonably sunny and beautiful. I was able to reconnect with a lot of my college friends and professors and had an absolutely wonderful time soaking up the sunshine and doing some tourist-y activities! I toured some really cool historic ships in the harbor, tried a lot of new food thanks to my best friends (I can’t believe I’ve been missing hummus in my life for so long!) and talked to one of my favorite professors about co-writing an academic article! It was also my best friend’s birthday a week ago so I got to have a belated birthday celebration dinner with him! (And gave him the gift that keeps on giving- YA novels of course). We also talked about how we’ll be buddy reading the Game of Thrones in the future!

Books

This week was a pretty successful reading week for me considering I was gone for half of it, and didn’t have much time to read (I usually can’t read on planes because of motion sickness). I finished The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (review will be up on Monday) and inhaled Fairest by Marissa Meyer in just a little over a day! This weekend I started Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke and I’m really excited about the psychological themes, as well as being excited about using the new bookmarks I treated myself to that I can use to keep notes while I read!

Blog

This week marked my one year blogiversary! I celebrated by joining the Instagram world and hosting a giveaway!

Posts I Liked This Week:

Asti @ Oh, The Books! discusses her incredibly creative feature Bookish Mail.

Mel @ The Daily Prophecy declares Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard a must read.

Ashley @ Nosegraze discusses that it’s OK to want to grow your blog.

Tara @ The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shh gives extra credit to her experience at ALAN.

Lauren @ Bookmarklit launches two new features: Read-Bait and Inside & Out.

How was your week? Are you daydreaming of sunny skies or still enjoying the winter chill? Planning any upcoming vacations? Have you read any fairy-tale retellings in 2015 yet? Let me know in the comments!

Sunday Funday: Week in Review [22]

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) post I’ve started to recap the bookish (and sometimes not-so-bookish) happenings in my life the past week! Feel free to participate, just link back!

January 12-18, 2015

Life

This week was significantly less exciting than my birthday week last week, but I still had a lot of fun! I visited my grandparents and extended family for a few days (they live a few hours away and I didn’t get a chance to see them on my birthday) and my aunt took me to a delicious belated birthday dinner and surprised me at the end with a Barnes & Noble giftcard! (“So you can buy books that I can borrow”- my family is hilarious, clearly).

This week was also back to work studying for graduate school exams after taking two weeks off for the holidays and my birthday. I’ve been consoling myself with my new books!

Books

I started and finished Eleanor & Park this week (it was AMAZING… you can see my discussion post it inspired here) and started Splintered (which is really creative) and am still trudging through Wicked by Jennifer L Armentrout (which I’m so disappointed I’m not loving- I don’t think I’ve ever rated anything by her under 5 stars). I also pre-ordered a paperback copy of The Winner’s Curse with my giftcard and I’m so excited to start the series when it gets mailed to me in March!

Blog

What happened here this week:

Monday: I review The One by Kiera Cass

Tuesday: Top Ten 2014 Releases I Didn’t Get To

Wednesday: Wish Review and Blog Tour

Friday: I introduce and post the first in a new discussion feature: Cristina’s Close Look!

Posts I Liked This Week:

Lauren from BookmarkLit shares some thoughts on her blogging experience so far.

Asti from Oh, The Books! introduced a new feature where she shares beautiful photos of her books.

Tara from The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shh! discusses the Instagram cult following surrounding the stars of Dance Moms.

Sunday Funday: Birthday Edition!

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Sunday Funday is a weekly(ish) feature that I started to share the bookish and not-so-bookish happenings in my life over the course of the past week. This week I’m also linking up with Stacking the Shelves as well as showcasing my birthday book haul! Feel free to participate, just link back!

January 5-11, 2015

Life

This week I celebrated my birthday! It was the first one since I moved in May and unfortunately most of my friends from college live 400+ miles away from me now so I wasn’t sure how it would be celebrating with just immediate family and my boyfriend. I ended up having a wonderful birthday, with my boyfriend taking me out to lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant and then shopping, visiting Barnes & Noble to pick out a few books for myself with some of my Christmas giftcards, and then celebrating with a home cooked meal with my parents and brother. I had recently been craving yellow cake so my boyfriend made me yellow cake cupcakes and I got to make my birthday wish on them.

I also received an outpouring of love and well wishes from my friends and family that couldn’t be with me today, especially from my two best friends from college, favorite professors, and sorority family. Everything from funny snap chats, Facebook photo collages, and phone calls and emails warmed my day and reminded me that distance can be bridged by true friendship!

My boyfriend, knowing my love for all things Disney, insisted on getting me two tsum-tsums as a “birthday bonus” from the Disney store. It was hard to choose, but I couldn’t resist Marie and Pooh! Big bird is also there as an inside joke from my mom…apparently I was quite fond of him when I was little!

No birthday is complete without a trip to the bookstore!

The birthday celebrations continued the next day with lunch at a fun Japanese grill and then seeing Annie (which I LOVED by the way…I tend to be a fan of modern adaptations though).

Today also marks a year since I went on my first trip abroad to London for an incredible Harry Potter travel course! It’s definitely giving me withdrawals as I LOVED London and made so many incredible memories while there, including meeting my best friend while on the trip! I’m itching to go back to Europe now!

Books

So I only got one physical book for my birthday since my family prefers to get me giftcards to choose my own. I was thrilled with the generous amount of bookish gift cards I received and so on my birthday started putting them to good use (although a good portion are being saved for many of the Spring New Releases I’m anticipating).

I received A Game of Thrones as a birthday gift from my boyfriend (it’s his favorite book and I admit I really need to read it as I am possibly the most knowledgeable person in the universe about the books despite never having read them or watched the TV show). These Broken Stars and Splintered have both been on my TBR for a while and I excitedly picked them up from Barnes & Noble with a Christmas giftcard! I ordered Wicked from Amazon the night of my birthday immediately after opening gifts, and I’m really excited to read it as it will be my first New Adult read (and it’s paranormal, my favorite genre, so I have high hopes!)