Monday, August 1, 2016

Previously on WLABB: July 2016

Previously on We Live and Breathe Books is an end of the month wrap up post. Previously allows us to recap all our posts from the past month and discuss what's going on in our lives, including what books we're reading, any fun things we've been doing, and a TBR for the next month. Our inspiration for this meme comes from Midnight Madness Newsletters created by Melanie at YA Midnight Reads.

Posts from July 2016


Stuffed Animal Saturday: Ghost Talkers - Mary Robinette Kowal
Emily from Emily Reads Everything Talks Baking (SBPT)
Waiting on Wednesday: Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Review: The Memory Book - Lara Avery
Double Review: A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
Series Review + Giveaway: The Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Top Ten Tuesday: Facts About Me
Review: This Raging Light - Estelle Laure
Review: Vanishing Girls - Lauren Oliver
Pokémon Go Book Tag with Bayram from Never Ending Books (SBPT)
Review: Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies - Laura Stampler
Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set Outside of the US
Waiting on Wednesday: The Secret of a Heart Note - Stacey Lee
Review: I'll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson
Double Review: You Know Me Well - Nina LaCour & David Levithan
Bookish Scavenger Hunt with Tina from Tina the Bookworm (SBPT)
Double Review: How to Hang a Witch - Adriana Mather
Top Ten Tuesday: Things Books Have Made Me Want to Do or Learn About After Reading Them
Review: 99 Days - Katie Cotugno
ARC August & #ReadThemAllThon TBRs
Stuffed Animal Saturday: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin
Favorite Dances with Eli from The Silver Words (SBPT)

Kiersten's SBPT posts on other blogs
Cover Cosmetics: The King Slayer - Virginia Boecker @ The Book Reaper
Ghost Talkers Discussion with Eli @ The Silver Words
Bookish Scavenger Hunt @ Tina the Bookworm

Keeping Up with the WLABBers 


WLABB is on Instagram!



This past month, Noor and Kiersten decided to start a We Live and Breathe Books bookstagram account! We don't have many photos yet, but we'd love it if you checked us out. You can find us @wlabb. Here's what our feed looks like so far:


We like to keep to a pretty loose theme when it comes to photos. It's fun to be able to take pictures that look really different, so that's what we decided to stick with. We also decided to participate in three bookstagram challenges for August. We're going to be doing #BackToBooksAugust, #SerialTalesInAugust, and #EOSChallenge! It's going to be fun to have prompts to go off of and get creative to combine prompts.

If you bookstagram, let us know so we can check it out!

Kiersten


Hello, friends! I don't know why but July felt like a really long month to me. I mean, I'm not complaining - it just felt longer than June did.

I started out this month by taking the GRE, which went well! I ended up getting good scores, so I'm right on track for graduate school applications in the fall.

I didn't do a lot this month, but I did go into the city one day, which was really fun. First I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology museum, which had an exhibit about uniforms. I wasn't super interested in going at first (it's free so I figured why not go), but it ended up being really interesting! They showed uniforms for military, companies, and schools partnered with fashion designs inspired by the uniforms. After that, I went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Manus x Machina exhibit. The exhibit was absolutely gorgeous! It was amazing to see the way designers were using technology in their work. From laser cutting to 3D printing, everything was so cool. Since I was in the area, I decided to go to Central Park to Pokémon Go! Unfortunately, my phone wasn't able to connect to the server for most of the day. It was very disappointing. After that, I headed to Chinatown to get some onigiri for dinner, and then to see one of my friends in a play at Dixon Place. Overall it was a really fun day! It definitely would've been better if I had gotten credit on my Poké Eggs for all my walking though...

July was a great reading month! I really enjoyed everything I read this month except for Ghost Talkers, which was kind of "meh" for me. It was nice to finally finish off The Lunar Chronicles by reading Fairest and Winter, and I finally got to read Lady Midnight! It took me a while to really get invested in the story (I think because I got distracted by Jem and Tessa's mention in the prologue); I'm really looking forward to the next book! How to Hang a Witch came out last week, so you should definitely check that out, and Whatever. and Nevernight both come out soon, so look out for reviews in the next two weeks!

I decided that I'm going to participate in ARC August and #ReadThemAllThon this month, so my TBR is really ambitious. You can check out my full (overambitious) TBR on my ARC August and #ReadThemAllThon TBR post. For the sake of the photo collage, I decided to just show off my highest priority books for next month. I'm moving back to school on the 20th, starting rehearsal for a show on the 22nd, and starting classes on the 29th, so I probably won't even read all of these. BUT I WILL TRY!!! I'm going to have to obsess over my bullet journal and micromanage my time so I can be productive.

Noor


Sup home skillets. I'm with Kiersten, I feel like the beginning of July was years ago. I can hardly remember it. It was a more youthful, joyous time and now I am a frail, old woman made decrepit by time.

The month started off with some fun stuff: TWO of my friends from New Jersey were in North Carolina (not together, two separate occasions) so we did fun stuff like brunch and boating. When we went boating, our group of six split up into three boats, and my friend and I were unarguably the most uncoordinated. We kept failing to turn around and heading the wrong direction and were met with our friends yelling stupid jokes at us but in my defense, I was not the weak link. Anyway, we didn't flip over like that time in Oklahoma (still bitter) so it was still a Positive Experience.

There was also some not-so-fun stuff like my transfer orientation for NC State. I got to see the area where most of my classes were, which was cool, but other than that it was a rehashing of all the stuff you already know that they just tell you when your parents are there so they feel in-control. My biggest personal accomplishment of the month also falls in with the not-so-fun stuff. I finally went to the dentist for the first time since maybe age 12. I know you're all probably raising your eyebrows and silently judging, but I swear I'm not a decaying crone with two teeth left because I leave them in a state of negligence. I brush every day, they're perfectly straight, my friend even commented over FaceTime less than an hour ago that they were white. I've just had really awful terrible experiences with dentists in my youth and eventually I just refused to go out of sheer terror. I figured I'd ever go if I was dying or something but not unless I really needed to. Well, the other week I had some gum irritation and it seemed like an infection so my mom made me hit up our local dentist and it was actually a Pleasant Experience. I feel like this was a great stride toward personal growth and self-actualization.

As you can see, there's no coherency with my July reads, I just read whatever tickled my fancy at the moment, but here are some brief comments on my reads:

How to Hang a Witch: Kiersten and I reviewed this last week and both gave it 5 stars. This was so unexpectedly good and I definitely recommend it if you want something paranormal.

The Geography of You and Me: I usually love Jen E. Smith but I wasn't totally feeling this one. However, it was still a cutesy story and a nice concept.

You Know Me Well: I'm always here for a David Levithan book and while it wasn't my favorite of his works, it was a fun story and I'm definitely going to look out for Nina LaCour's work.

The Sun is Also a Star: I loved Nicola Yoon's debut -- Everything, Everything -- and couldn't wait to read her next book so I read the ARC Kiersten got me from BEA as soon as I received it and I was totally in love with every piece of this story. I can't wait to review it when the release date is close!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: Okay, so I cheated a little and I put this on my read list even though I'm not finished. I will be done by the time this posts but I got distracted reading Cursed Child today and didn't finish Mara Dyer. I have mixed feeling about what I've read but we'll see.

The Wrath and the Dawn: Another book I can't wait to review; this was so spectacular and riveting, the sequel is one of my top priority books right now.
So, I cheated again, just like in the last section. I actually have already finished Cursed Child but the graphics were already made when I did so now it's staying in my TBR. I guess I shouldn't have assumed it would take me past the release day to read it, but also in my head I was expecting to be like 700 pages and it was only 300 so. Anyway. as I mentioned, I seriously need to read The Rose and the Dagger because its predecessor had a very vague ending and I need to soak in every bit of information about these characters. I also have heard great things about The Last Boy and Girl in the World and I read a few pages when I was in Barnes & Noble waiting for my mom, so I'm intrigued. Lastly, I have an ARC of Holding up the Universe and it keeps staring at me.

Remember to follow our bookstagram and see the cool challenges we're doing!

Amrutha


So another month of summer, another month in which Noor & Kiersten lead far more exciting lives than lil ol' me. But worry not, anyone who actually reads these personal bits of my life! Next month I'll be back at school and while I'll still be boring, I'll be boring with slightly more interesting stories to tell you guys.

So for those of you who don't know (all of you) I danced Indian Classical dance for like 13 years of my life, so that was a thing. Anyway, because of ankle issues and the like I haven't been involved the last couple years. Anyway, a friend of mine who is a little younger was doing a big performance last week and so I spent my month being involved with that! I wound up making this my project of the month just because 1) her event was in July it wasn't something that could be pushed and 2) turns out wood work is an expensive hobby...lots of tools and things are involved. Not sure what I'm doing yet for August but I'll let ya'll know in next month's post!

So, July had its ups and downs in terms of reading. The Memory Book was STUNNING. I loved it so much, both the premise and the writing. I also, to an extent, enjoyed You Know Me Well & I'll Give You the Sun. I, like Noor, am also kind of fake because I put The Problem With Forever on here but I started it and have not finished it yet -- it does seem to have some promise though. I didn't really enjoy either Katie Cotugno book -- I reviewed 99 Days and said I'd like to read more from her to see if it was just a plot problem, but to be honest I think I just didn't jive too well with the writing style. 

Like always, half the books here are from last month's TBR because I am #theworst. Harry Potter is on here because Harry Potter. Girl in Pieces is on here because Kiersten declared that I would read it, and Kiersten's wish is my command.


What have you been up to last month?
Let us know in the comments!
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1 comment:

  1. KrystiannaAugust 1, 2016 at 7:55 PM

    I'll definitely have to go follow the instagram! I love following bookish posts on there.
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

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