Shaina Reads

The last day of 2015 and my Twelve Books of Christmas challenge is upon us! I've returned from Oregon just in time to get this last post up and cheer you all to the finish line. As for me, I couldn't get twelve books in even if I spent the next eight hours and 39 minutes reading. A friend and her boyfriend are...

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Happy Sunday, my holly, jolly readers! I'm posting early this week because, starting tomorrow evening, I'll be firmly ensconced in the land of no Internet or cell service, AKA my boyfriend's mother's house in Oregon. I can't wait to get festive without any emails or other notifications to distract me! Well, except maybe for new visitors in Neko Atsume... My boyfriend's mom is...

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Hello, my festive bookworms! December is absolutely flying by, and we're just about halfway through the challenge now. Since my last update, I've finished no fewer than four books, leaving me sitting pretty at five books down. I'm still not quite on target to hit twelve by the end of the month, but I'll give it my darnedest.  1. The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren...

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Hello, merry readers! Sorry that this post is coming late—I was laid out in bed all day yesterday with a cold. The silver lining? I got a ton of reading done! Even with that boost, Twitter tells me that y'all are blazing right through this challenge and leaving me in your dust. Good thing I'm not the one gunning for the Book Depository...

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Happy December! It's time to get down to some serious reading. Naturally, I start off the month with about 50 pages left in a book I intended to finish last night. D'oh. I won't be counting it toward my 12, but if you have 100 or more pages left in a book you still need to finish, feel free to count it toward your...

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Easing back in after a hiatus, I am all about the simple but fun link-up posts. Shannon's Library Checkout, a roundup of our monthly library adventures, fits this bill nicely. Plus, with yesterday's announcement about my resolution to read my own damned books, who knows how often I'll be linking up in the future? Library Books Read The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson...

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Before we get into the books, HI GUYS! I've missed you all so much.  Since I last posted, I've submitted applications to my top-choice graduate schools and enjoyed a too-short-but-still-wonderful Thanksgiving vacation at home in sunny Florida. Unfortunately, I do still have some application work to get in before the new year, so posting might remain sparse (except, of course, for #12BooksOfChristmas) until...

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Happy Tuesday, all! After the GRE madness passed, I hoped that I'd be able to jump right back into blogging with a vengeance. Unfortunately, as my paltry posting schedule has shown, this has not been the case. I've hit an all-time low with my blog visiting and commenting, too. I feel guilty, and I know this guilt is making my life harder than...

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Between grad school apps, illness and an all-around blogging slump, October was quiet, y'all. All I can say is thank you for sticking with me when things have gotten uninspired or haven't appeared at all. I think there's a light at the end of this tunnel! I read/reviewed: I only have 4.5 hours left of IT by Stephen King. I know that means I'm not finished yet,...

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Ah, the holidays. The season of delicious food, quality family time and lots of leisure is nearly upon us. But who am I kidding? The season also brings overeating, bickering and stressing out over holiday shopping. Wouldn't it be nice if we had an excuse to take a break from it all and curl up with a good book (or... twelve)? You're in...

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"We enjoy magnificent advantages over our forebears in the quest to remedy unfairness. We know much more than they did about human behavior, we possess amazing technologies to track, address, and prevent problems, and we have a greatly enhanced capacity to coordinate actions that affect millions of people. But for it to matter, we must act. The arc of history does not bend...

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I was all set to get a review of Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice by Adam Benforado written and posted today, and wham—hello, severe sore throat, hacking cough and endless napping, nice to meet you. There's a slim-to-moderate chance this could be mono (sharing drinks will get you every time), so send all the non-Epstein-Barr vibes you can! I'll hopefully find...

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Happy Thursday, everyone! It's time for Thrifty Thursdays, a weekly book meme dreamed up by Sal over at Motion Sick Lit. He hasn't been posting lately, but here's hoping he comes back to us soon! Thrifty Thursdays is designed to get book bloggers hunting for new and/or interesting reads on the cheap. Scoping out your favorite independent bookseller is especially encouraged! Sal's rules for the feature...

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All book covers courtesy of Goodreads. The R.I.P. X Challenge, hosted by The Estella Society, has had me devouring all of the spooky, mysterious fiction I could get my hands on in September and October. I successfully completed their Peril the First challenge this month, and I wanted to share some thoughts on the books that helped get me there. A quick note: the...

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100% impulse buy. 0% regrets. A photo posted by Shaina (@shainareadsbooks) on Oct 8, 2015 at 12:31pm PDT I'M BACK, Y'ALL. Mount GRE has been scaled, and though I was hoping for a better math score, I'm above average for everywhere I'm applying. Perfectionist me can go pout in a corner while sane, rational me calls this good. I still have the actual...

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Welcome to Hour 5 of Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon! The first 1/6 of the event is in the books (hehehe), and I hope you're all still going strong. Now might be a good time to break out a tasty snack. Just sayin'. I first participated in Dewey's in October of 2014, and it is not an exaggeration to say that my experience is the...

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Guys. I'm done with the GRE (for GOOD) and the Readathon is finally here! This is the happiest Saturday that ever was. I'll be storing all my updates, mini-challenges and readerly ramblings here. We'll see if it actually gets updated during the day. Also, check back here during Hour 5 for a most awesome mini-challenge. Happy reading to all, and to all a...

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Oh, y'all. It's about to be a week. I'm hanging out with Shannon on Planet GRE, but I'm not catching the shuttle back to Earth until Friday afternoon. The test anxiety is setting in, but I know all I can do is keep practicing, eat and sleep plenty, and do my best when the time comes. With any luck, I'll never have to...

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Life has gotten a little crazy, and for a while I'm going to have much less time to craft the original, well-thought-out content that you've all come to know and love (*cough*). Thankfully, the fantastic book bloggers I follow put up oodles of excellent posts every week. This feature will help keep my blog rolling and serve as inspiration to dive into my...

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Where did this month go?! Oh... right. I read/reviewed: My Goodreads tally leaves me with four books read this month, but I humbly request that the 24+ hours I sunk into IT by Stephen King are duly noted! The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway (read 8/31) — You guys! My first ever audio book! All of these words were promptly...

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If you’ve followed me for a while (or, heck, a day), you know that I’m a big fan of horror. Now that the air is getting crisper and the daylight wanes that much sooner each evening, I want nothing more than to curl up with a big mug of something warm and all the creepy-crawly literature I can get my hands on. At...

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