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Showing posts from June, 2023

The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods #1) by Tara Sim

              On Friday's I take part in two weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.  Happy Friday everyone!  How is it already the end of June?  This week I'm spotlighting one of my  Pride Month 2023  books,  The City of Dusk  ( The Dark Gods  #1) by Tara Sim .  This dark fantasy series opener just sounds really cool. Beginning:  The flash of a dying star made the boy pause and look up. 56: The s

Pride Month 2023 - Wrap Up & Mini Reviews

  Happy Thursday everyone!  This month in honor of Pride Month, I celebrated by reading some LGBTQIAP books that have been on my TBR.  If you like, you can check out my original TBR post here .  I managed to complete all ten books that I was hoping to get to and lucked out with a pretty good reading experience this past month.  Keep reading to see the books I read for Pride Month: ❋   ❋  ❋  ❋ The Bone Shard Daughter  ( The Drowning Empire  #1) by Andrea Stewart  has been on my radar for ages and I've been putting it off for way too long.  I'm glad I finally decided to pick it up because it's a great series opener.  I was absorbed by the world-building and the magic system.  I'll have to read the rest of the series soon. My review is also on Goodreads . ❋   ❋  ❋ The City of Dusk  ( The Dark Gods  #1) by Tara Sim  was a solid if overly long series opener. I haven't quite decided if I'll be back for book two yet or not. I really liked that Google Lens thing you cou

Spell It Out Reading Challenge 2023 - Announcement & TBR

Happy Wednesday everyone!  For the month of July (and maybe longer), I've decided to revisit and old book tag.  I just happened to rediscover my 2018 tbr post for the  My Name in TBR Books Tag  a little while ago and I decided to play another round.  This time around I've decided to call it the Spell It Out Reading Challenge 2023.  The rules are pretty easy - you have to read books to spell out your name by using book titles.  That means I'll be reading to spell out my first name and blog name, LAUREN ALWAYS ME, so I'll be reading 14 books for this redux.  Without further ado, keep reading to see the books I plan on reading for this challenge: LAUREN L - Lake Silence ( The World of the Others #1) by Anne Bishop - I loved The Others series and I can't wait to see what's next with this continuation. A - The Assassin's Accomplice by Kate Clifford Larson - I've read nonfiction featuring Mary Surratt's role in Abraham Lincoln's assassination, but I

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of 2023

    Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half Of 2023.  It looks like there are a lot of enticing books coming soon and these are the top ten I'm most looking forward to.  Without further ado, here we go in order by release date: Thornhedge  by T. Kingfisher - Release date: August 15th, 2023 He Who Drowned the World ( The Radiant Emperor #2) by Shelley Parker-Chan - Release date: August 22nd, 2023 Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas - Release date: August 29th, 2023 Starter Villain by John Scalzi - Release date: September 19th, 2023 The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft - Release date: September 26th, 2023 The Fragile Threads of Power ( Threads of Power #1) by V.E. Schwab - Release date: October 6th, 2023 Saga, Volume 11 ( Saga #11) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples - Release date: October 11th, 2023 Stranger Things: Flight of the Icarus ( Stranger

Music Monday: Authentic Unlimited

      Welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm sharing a couple of favorites from the bluegrass band, Authentic Unlimited .  I love hearing these guys on my local bluegrass radio show.  They have a great sound and I'd love to see them live one day.  Give a listen to Hannah and Rain Keeps Fallin' : You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2023 - June Update: Lawn Boy & The Men With The Pink Triangle

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been doing well.  How is this year already half way over?  Anyway, I've now competed the twelve tasks of  Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed this month required me to r ead  book that’s been challenged recently in your school district/library OR read one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author and a  nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history   and I selected  Lawn Boy  by Jonathan Evison  and  The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in Nazi Death Camps  by Heinz Heger  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month: ❋   ❋  ❋ Lawn Boy  by Jonathan Evison  is a coming of age novel that came to my attention thanks to book bans and book challenges.  Otherwise, it probably wouldn't have been on my radar.  It's a solid read, but It's not quite my style.  Honestly, that comes down to Mike

The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire #1) by Andrea Stewart

              On Friday's I take part in two weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my  Pride Month 2023  books,  The Bone Shard Daughter  ( The Drowning Empire  #1) by Andrea Stewart .  This is has been on my tbr for way too long and it's been recommended to me so many times.  I'm glad I finally decided to give it a try. Beginnin

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Summer 2023 TBR

  Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Books On My Summer 2023 TBR.  I think I've got a lot of great reads lined up this summer. Here we go, in alphabetical order:  Bella Poldark  ( The Poldark Saga  #12) by Winston Graham  - I love this series so much and I'm just not ready for it to end.  I'll be listening to the excellently narrated audiobook which is performed by Oliver J. Hembrough.  I'll be reading this for  Popsugar Reading Challenge . Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes  by Robin Ha  - I really liked what I've read from this author before, so I hope this will be interesting as well.  Maybe I'll get some good ideas for recipes to fix myself.  I'll also be reading this for  Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge .   The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein  by Kiersten White  - This sounds like it will be a great retelling, and I've had it on my TBR for way t