The Holiday Adventureathon Announcement & TBR

The holidays are right around the corner and what better way to ring in the season than with a readathon!

There’s nothing better than curling up with a blanket in your comfiest pajamas with a big mug (a vat, if you will) of hot cocoa and a nice book to warm you up throughout the chilly winter nights. There’s also nothing like coming together with friends and discussing your favorite books while friendly competition ensues.

And if you’re looking to experience all of that at once, during the 12 days of Christmas, then I have just the readathon for you!

Introducing the ~Holiday Adventureathon~

This readathon is the phenomenal brainchild of Jasmine over at Novel Thoughts on Booktube. She has a blog post explaining this readathon so if you want to check that out click here. She designed all the wonderful graphics that coincide with this readathon and she was wonderful enough to ask me to be a co-host and  I couldn’t be more jazzed!

The Holiday Adventureathon will be beginning on December 13th and running until December 24th. 12 days of Christmas? More like the 12  days of BOOKMAS.

That was ridiculous and I will never utter it again.

So the premise of this readathon is that it is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure based readathon, with a side of friendly competition. There are 4 teams (each co-host of the readathon being a captain of the teams) and each team will rack up points by reading books for the readathon challenges, making posts via your blogs, twitters, instagrams and booktube channels. The team with the most points at the end of the readathon will win the coveted and sought after Holiday House Cup!

To figure out your TBR from the readathon you will follow along the map that Jasmine has designed.

To read the map you’ll begin at the bottom of the map and work your way to the top. As you go along you will find signs with your prompts on them. You must continue to work your way UP the map (at no point you should be going DOWN the map). Each sign only has the name of their corresponding prompt. The full description of the challenge can be found on this table that corresponds with the map:

Once you reach the end of your path (you should have passed 7 challenges in total) you will be met by one of 4 characters. If you wish to take part in the Holiday House Cup competition, this character will be the team you will pledge allegiance to and any points you earn will go towards this team!

 

The teams and their captains are as follows:

The captain for Team #holidayelf is me, Morgan. Hi, hey! My booktube channel where I will post daily updates throughout the readathon is here and I will also be talking with all of you guys on Twitter as well!

Team Holiday Penguin is going to be Captained by Jasmine of Novel Thoughts who as done a truly phenomenal job organizing this readathon!

My dear friend Rhiannon of Crescent Moon Reads is the team captain for Team Holiday Reindeer!

Last, but certainly not least, Julia over at That Bookie is the captain for Team Holiday Snowman!

So if you want to join any of our teams and compete with us for the holiday house cup you must ave your TBR posted somewhere and pledge allegiance to one of the four teams and use the hashtag #holidayadventureathon as well as the hashtag for the team that you will be joining!

 

To show an example of how the map can work in, I will show you the path I have chosen and my TBR for the readathon!

Here is how my path turned out:

And my TBR is as follows:

+ Presents – A book you received as a gift // More Than This by Patrick Ness

+ Santa – A book with red on the cover // Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

+ Wish – A fairytale retelling // Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

 

+ Cocktails – Read a book while drinking a festive beverage // Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle
(I’m probs just gonna drink this with a slew of festive beverages like hot cocoa, peppermint mochas while I read this and I’m pretty excited about that)

+ Naughty – Read a cover buy // Landline by Rainbow Rowell

+ Jolly – Read a book with ‘holiday’ in the title // Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

+ Elf – Read a fantasy book // A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

 

I am so unbelievably excited for this readathon, please let me know in the comments if you plan on taking part in this and what team you’ll be joining if you take part in the Holiday House Cup competition! If you want to see all the ways to ear points and how much everything is worth, definitely check out Jasmine’s blog post here!

I hope to see you all at the #holidayadventureathon on the 13th of December, and I Hope to see some of you joining team #holidayelf as well!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day and happy reading!

~ Morgan ~

#TheReadingQuest // Week Two Update

Week two came and went, and I didn’t read as much as I was planning, but that’s no reason to beat myself up by any means!

This is a recap of days 8 – 14 of the reading quest (8/20 – 8/26)

I am still trucking along on the MAGE quest path and I can finally say that I have completed a quest for the path, huzzah!

+ Forever giving all the credit to the wonderful Aentee of Read at Midnight for creating and hosting such a fabulous reading challenge.
+ Also to CW of Read, Think, Ponder for designing all the stellar character art as well as the quest board!

Pages Read: 966
Books Started: 4
Books Completed: 3
Character Quests Completed: 1
Side Quests Completed: 2

Read
Currently Reading
To Be Read

MAGE PATH

• A BOOK WITH A ONE WORD TITLE:  Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• A BOOK THAT CONTAINS MAGIC: Caraval by Stephanie Garber (I’m p sure this contains magic? If it doesn’t I’ll pick something else out)
• A BOOK BASED ON MYTHOLOGY: Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 2: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
• A BOOK SET IN A DIFFERENT WORLD: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• THE FIRST BOOK OF A SERIES: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

KNIGHT PATH

• A BOOK WITH A VERB IN ITS TITLE: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
  
• A BOOK WITH A WEAPON ON ITS COVER: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• A BOOK WITH A RED COVER: Roseblood by A.G. Howard (it’s not completely red but it’s got heavy amounts of red on the cover shh it’s fine, everything’s fine)
• A BOOK THAT HAS A TV/MOVIE ADAPTATION: A Game of Thrones (The Illustrated Edition) by George R.R. Martin

SIDE QUESTS

• Potions: Read a book concocted by 2+ authors: Archie Vol 1. by Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, & Veronica Fish
• TIME WARP: Read a book set in either the past or future: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
• EXPANSION: Read a companion novel or short story: TBD
• MULTIPLAYER: Buddy read a book: TBD
• OPEN WORLD: Read whatever you want: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
• MINI GAME: Read a graphic novel, novella, or poem collection: Whiskey Words and a Shovel Vol III by R.H. Sin (+20 XP because R.H. Sin is a person of color)
• GRIND: Read a book with 500+ Pages: TBD
• RESPAWN: Read a book you previously DNF’d: TBD
• ANIMAL COMPANION: Read a book referencing an animal in the title: TBD

#TheReadingQuest // Week One Update

So in typical morgyyreads fashion, things got hectic and I’m writing this later than I originally intended to.

This is just going to be a recap of days 1-7 of The Reading Quest! (Sunday 8/13 – Saturday 8/19)
I started my journey along the MAGE path and this is the progress I made in the first week.
Again, huge shoutout to Aentee at Read at Midnight who is the genius behind this wonderful challenge. As well as CW of Read, Think, Ponder for creating all the beautiful character illustrations as well as the quest board!

 

Pages Read: 812
Books Started: 3
Books Completed: 2
Character Quests Completed: 0
Side Quests Completed: 2

Read
Currently Reading
To Be Read

 

MAGE PATH

• A BOOK WITH A ONE WORD TITLE:  Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• A BOOK THAT CONTAINS MAGIC: Caraval by Stephanie Garber (I’m p sure this contains magic? If it doesn’t I’ll pick something else out)
• A BOOK BASED ON MYTHOLOGY: Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 2: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
• A BOOK SET IN A DIFFERENT WORLD: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• THE FIRST BOOK OF A SERIES: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

KNIGHT PATH

• A BOOK WITH A VERB IN ITS TITLE: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
  
• A BOOK WITH A WEAPON ON ITS COVER: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• A BOOK WITH A RED COVER: Roseblood by A.G. Howard (it’s not completely red but it’s got heavy amounts of red on the cover shh it’s fine, everything’s fine)
• A BOOK THAT HAS A TV/MOVIE ADAPTATION: A Game of Thrones (The Illustrated Edition) by George R.R. Martin

SIDE QUESTS

• Potions: Read a book concocted by 2+ authors: Archie Vol 1. by Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, & Veronica Fish
• TIME WARP: Read a book set in either the past or future: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
• EXPANSION: Read a companion novel or short story: TBD
• MULTIPLAYER: Buddy read a book: TBD
• OPEN WORLD: Read whatever you want: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
• MINI GAME: Read a graphic novel, novella, or poem collection: Whiskey Words and a Shovel Vol III by R.H. Sin (+20 XP because R.H. Sin is a person of color)
• GRIND: Read a book with 500+ Pages: TBD
• RESPAWN: Read a book you previously DNF’d: TBD
• ANIMAL COMPANION: Read a book referencing an animal in the title: TBD

#TheReadingQuest Sign-up, Character, and TBR!

I am so unbelievably excited to be partaking in #TheReadingQuest this month!

For those not aware, #TheReadingQuest is a magical reading challenge that gives off some wonderful Dungeons&Dragons vibes that is being hosted by the wonderful Aentee of Read at Midnight whose original post I will link here for anyone interested in signing up!

This reading challenge last from August 13-September 10th and sign-ups end on the 13th so you still have time to sign up and join in on the fun!

And because I’m super extra I took advantage of the wonderful character art provided by CW of Read, Think, Ponder and created my own custom character card pertaining to the quest path that I have chosen for this challenge!

**I made this in PicMonkey using the blank template (created by CW) and font downloads Aentee provided on the original post for the challenge, and the character art provided by CW so all the credit goes to them

So I have chosen the mage as my character class for #TheReadingQuest and I am so jazzed to be taking part on this epic journey and to complete the quest path laid before me!

That’s not all, though! I also plan on starting the Knight path upon finishing the Mage path, working my way along the top of the bingo board, as well as completing a few of the side quests!

MAGE PATH

• A BOOK WITH A ONE WORD TITLE: Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• A BOOK THAT CONTAINS MAGIC: Caraval by Stephanie Garber (I’m p sure this contains magic? If it doesn’t I’ll pick something else out)
• A BOOK BASED ON MYTHOLOGY: Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 2: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
• A BOOK SET IN A DIFFERENT WORLD: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• THE FIRST BOOK OF A SERIES: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

KNIGHT PATH

• A BOOK WITH A VERB IN ITS TITLE: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
  
• A BOOK WITH A WEAPON ON ITS COVER: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• A BOOK WITH A RED COVER: Roseblood by A.G. Howard (it’s not completely red but it’s got heavy amounts of red on the cover shh it’s fine, everything’s fine)
• A BOOK THAT HAS A TV/MOVIE ADAPTATION: A Game of Thrones (The Illustrated Edition) by George R.R. Martin

SIDE QUESTS
*This is VERY tentative because thinking that I’ll get to the Knight Path is super ambitious but I’m a planner and like to have all of my ducks in a row

• TIME WARP: Read a book set in either the past or future: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

I am so unbelievably excited for #TheReadingQuest, and I’m definitely using it to finally start or continue some series that I have procrastinated. This is such a fun and creative reading challenge and I can’t wait to take part in it!! Definitely let me know what you plan on reading if you are taking part in #TheReadingQuest, I can’t wait to see how everybody does throughout the challenge. I will be updating my progress weekly via my blog, as well as my booktube channel so be sure to follow me on either here or Booktube to see my progress throughout the reading challenge.

Once again the original post created by our wonderful host of this reading challenge, Aentee, can be found here and CW of Read, Think, Ponder is to thank for the beautiful character art so be sure to check her blog out as well!

I hope you all have a wonderful time taking part in #TheReadingQuest, a fantastic rest of your day, and happy reading!

XOXO,
Morgan~

 

 

July Reading Wrap-Up // 2017

So I read some wonderful (and some not-so wonderful) books in the month of July and I am ecstatic to talk about them in my first post on this blog~

Title: A Darker Shade of Magic
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 400
My Rating: 5 Stars
Where to Purchase: Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Goodreads Synopsis: Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.
My Brief Thoughts: I loved every second of this fast-paced fantasy adventure. There wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t entirely gripped, and putting this book down proved to be nearly impossible. This was my first time reading a book by V.E. Schwab and I was the farthest from disappointed. I can’t wait to continue on with this trilogy.

Title: Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between
Author: Lauren Graham
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Nonfiction – Autobiography – Memoir
Page Count: 209
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Where to Purchase: Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Goodreads Synopsis: In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.
In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).
In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.
Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).
Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
My Brief Thoughts: Diving into this upon watching Gilmore Girls as well as Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life for the first time was such a sweet experience and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Getting to hear Lauren’s first-hand accounts on what it was like playing Lorelai Gilmore made me feel exceptionally nostalgic and emotional. This book had me cracking up laughing at one point and tearing up the next. A remarkable memoir written by a remarkable woman.

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Publisher: Pocket Books
Genre: Young Adult – Contemporary – Coming of Age
Page Count: 213
My Rating: 4 Stars
Where to Purchase: Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Goodreads Synopsis: The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
My Brief Thoughts: I can’t believe it took me so long to read such a widely loved novel, but as the saying goes, better late than never. Filled with heartwarming and authentic moments recalling adolescence and the awkward moments that follows that. Also telling a gripping story following harmful relationships, mental illness, and sexual violence, Perks of Being a Wallflower is an exceptionally important novel for young adults and I see its contents staying with me for years to come.

Title: Since You’ve Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Young Adult – Contemporary
Page Count: 464
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Where to Purchase: Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Goodreads Synopsis: It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.
On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?
Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a stranger? Um…
Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?
Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?
My Brief Thoughts: For a summer young-adult contemporary I didn’t expect this novel to be so… dense? It was over 450 pages and I felt it could have been at least 100 pages shorter and not lose any important content. I felt that Sloane was written as Emily’s manic pixie dream girl and only existed to further propel Emily as a character. She lacked zero substance even though she was the focal point of the story as well as Emily’s thoughts and reasoning for all of her actions. I felt the love interest in this story was an afterthought and I find it very difficult to cheer on a couple that has a foundation rooted in disloyalty. I found the main characters unlikable and the side characters the only reason this book was even mildly enjoyable for me. Also reading this book was like staring at a literal jar of mayonnaise because all I saw was white. Lack of diversity and substance and the perpetuation of the manic pixie dream girl trope kept me from giving this book a higher rating. For this being my first Morgan Matson read I am utterly disappointed.

Title: The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Young Adult – Fantasy/Contemporary
Page Count: 343
My Rating: 5 Stars
Where to Purchase: Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Goodreads Synopsis:  What if you aren’t the Chosen One?
The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.
Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions…
My Brief Thoughts: I absolutely ADORED this book! After the sheer disappointment of Since You’ve Been Gone, this book felt like an absolute breath of fresh air. It was witty, hilarious, heartwarming as well as heart-wrenching and left the sweetest feeling in my heart the second I turned that final page. The representation of Mikey’s obsessive compulsive disorder was heartbreakingly authentic (as someone with diagnosed OCD, finding books with proper representation of my mental illness is crucial) and I saw myself in Mikey so much. I loved the bits at the beginning of each chapter where we got to read about the indie kids, but having a story fixated on everybody else’s lives and struggles while a bigger story is happening was such a beautiful parallel to the chosen one trope that we see too often in young adult, especially young adult fantasy.

 

All in all, I think I had a fairly successful reading month. Aside from one, I enjoyed every book that I dove into this month and it has me that much more motivated for the rest of the reading year. I hope July was a great reading month for all of you as well.
Have a wonderful rest of your day and happy reading ~ Morgan