TILT: Summer Bookish Fun!

Summer is in full swing here in Texas, with record high temperatures and freak pop-up thunderstorms. Perfect time to...stay inside, in the air conditioning, with a good book. Or possibly lounge in the pool. But make sure to slather on that sunscreen and only bring a book you don't care gets wet by annoying splashing children. (I know they're not being annoying on purpose, usually, but it seems that way.) So I've gathered up a few things to make your summer perfect on today's Things I Love! (click to make bigger)

(If you do not want your picture here, let me know & I will remove!)

I am so into the crazy pool floats this year! I may have to actually go buy one now after seeing this mega list on AshleyBrooke. Also, if you have a Five Below in your area, you should definitely go there, they're only $5! (It's my new favorite store after Daiso lol.)

In need of a fun, lighthearted book? Check out my Summer Romance Formula tag and find a new favorite read.

A library in Canada came up with a great way to stay inside where it's cool and still have fun. Check out their Facebook page for the full-sized bingo card.

Once you pick up your bingo books, why not make yourself a little cave in the coldest room in the house? (If you know the source of this pic, let me know!) I suggest comfiest pjs, lots of cool cotton sheets and blankets, possibly a fort situation with fans blowing in. Warning: may attract wayward pets and children, possibly significant others. Perhaps a sign: "this is a one person cave, get your own!" ;)

I love this list of 33 Ways to Have a More Bookish Summer on BookRiot so much that I am considering doing some of them myself. Perhaps for August, when everything seems stale and summer has lost its appeal. Who's in with me? I wonder if they have a hashtag for it already on Instagram or Twitter.

Finally, here is a great list of places to read this summer by Scholastic. I like "in a fort on a rainy day" and "at a secret place" the best.

What's your favorite way to have a bookish summer? Give your best tips below!

Review: "Kristy for President: The Baby-Sitters Club #53"

Kristy for President: The Baby-Sitters Club #53 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Kristy looks super weird on this cover. Like they spray-tanned her first, to match Emily Michelle. And David Michael too (I'm guessing that's who that is). This book starts off on a Friday at school, where Kristy is headed to another boring assembly (don't know what for), which is interrupted by a fire drill. Then it's lunchtime and we start right off with Disgusting School Lunches by Kristy Thomas. (Warning: don't read if you are about to eat or have just eaten lol.)

"Splatter art," I [Kristy] agreed. You know, like in those horror movies..."

Mary Anne picked up her fork and started to cut the meat loaf. Just as she cut it, I shrieked. Mary Anne gave a little shriek herself and dropped the fork. I lowered my voice mysteriously. "I think it's still alive."

I picked up my own fork and took another look at the meat loaf. It was gray, and the tomato sauce was pale red and watery. The mashed potatoes next to it had a sort of oozy quality. And I wasn't so sure I liked the color of the broccoli. It looked like something that had been attacked by Bunnicula, the vampire rabbit.

This led to the girls discussing the upcoming student elections and how Kristy should run for President and change the food if she hated it so much.

She [Dawn] pointed to the soggy piece of angel food cake on my tray, which was beginning to look a little too much like the mashed potatoes. "Your motto could be 'Let us eat cake.'"

That sets Kristy's little "take charge of all things" wheels spinning and she begins to seriously consider it. Even though she's already super busy and really doesn't have time for it. She's even almost late for her baby-sitting job for the Newton's. Luckily, Jamie is too preoccupied with his new bicycle that's coming to care. A "real" bicycle, not a baby one. Before we get more into that, let's see What Claudia & Stacey are Wearing.

Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black hightop leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped to the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other. [Her hair] was pulled up on top of her head and fell down to one side.

[Stacey] is also a way cool dresser. Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band. She looked smashing.

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At the meeting, Claudia brings up the class play, which is Mary Poppins. Everyone immediately starts bashing it, saying how childish it is. But I'm pretty sure it's Stacey's favorite movie (after Parent Trap oops no, that's Dawn's fave) and she doesn't say much, but it's still kind of weird. Kristy goes on a rant about it, which turns into a speech, which leads to her finally saying she's running for President. Oh and Mallory is running for 6th grade secretary, but really, who cares?

Kristy is up and running with her candidacy...Claudia comes up with some K+ slogans (see what I did there?) and becomes her campaign manager. Kristy is pretty sure she's got it in the bag. Her other competition is the reprehensible Alan Gray, Grace Blume (Cokie Mason's sidekick), and Pete Black (Kristy just says he's immature, whatever that means.) The girls plaster the school with Kristy's posters and get fierce with their competition. Kristy goes a little overboard during Campaign Day and tosses this little gem out: "Grace," I said. "The best woman - and the best candidate - is going to win. So why don't you just go somewhere and get some more practice at being a loser?" Oooh, harsh. The stress is getting to her, for sure.

Oh! We get another Claudia outfit with bonus comparison to Janine the Genius. Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette. But Janine, with her short hair and bangs, her pullover sweater, and plain skirt and loafers, made Claudia look extremely exotic.

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Now let's get back to Jamie and his brand new bicycle. I got a new bicycle a couple of months ago too. :) (Shown here with The Unexpected Everything because it matched lol.) I was like Jamie actually, in the beginning. I haven't ridden a bike in at least 20 years a really long time. I not-so-jokingly said I wanted training wheels but my sister said no. But I managed to get on it and ride the first day! I was pretty proud of myself. I'm still pretty wobbly on it and straight-line challenged but I'm getting there. Okay, anyway, Jamie! He is not doing so well and will barely move, even with the training wheels. He stops for every crack, stick, and leaf on the sidewalk and has to get off the bike to turn around. Then he decides training wheels are for babies and removes them, which of course makes everything worse. He finally agrees to put them back on after the "big kids" in his neighborhood stop and tell him how they all started with them too.

And how's Kristy faring with her campaign? Well, it's just lucky she's not running in the real presidential election. (Although I'd still vote for her (or even Alan Gray) over one or two of our nominees right now.) Her grades begin to slide, she has to retake a science test that she didn't even study for, she cancels Krushers practice, and considers, for a brief moment, taking a break from the BSC. Finally, she realizes the only logical thing is to drop out of the campaign. As soon as she makes that decision, she feels better and everything becomes easy again.

And oh my lord, we get a 3rd Claudia outfit and 2nd Stacey one! What's so special about this book?? Hope you enjoy these as much as I do making them!

Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears.

Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy+" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed [I'm kind of in love with the dress I picked for this lol] every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings, and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye.

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Top Ten Tuesday: My 10 Favorite Underrated Books

This is such an interesting topic on The Broke & The Bookish today! My 10 favorite underrated books, as done by Goodreads (with less than 2,000 ratings). So let's see what we come up with, shall we? Have you read any of these? Let me know below and also link up your TTT list so I can find some new reads!

1. Haunted by Eileen Maksym --this is a first book written by a friend of a friend and I think it's well worth a read. From my review: a talent for telling spooky, hair-raising tales. This is definitely a good read for around Halloween.

2. To Catch a Cheat & Real Women Don't Wear Size 2 by Kelley St John --these are from my pre/early blogging years, when I read tons of "pink books" & "chicklit". Pure fluff, but the fun kind!

3. Princess Jellyfish vol 1 by Akiko Higashimura --I'll have a review up of this sweet manga graphic novel next week, but let's just say I am not a manga reader but I loved this one! So much that I already ordered vol 2!

4. Jem & The Holograms: Showtime by Kelly Thompson --another graphic novel that I'll be reviewing soon. Are you an 80/90s girl? Do you love Punky Brewster, Cyndi Lauper, and/or the original Jem?? Then you should be reading this series!!

5. The Thing About Jane Spring by Sharon Krum --this has been my go-to recommendation since I first read it way back in 2006. It has such an old-fashioned quality but it still works. Jane is a tough, no-nonsense lawyer who is happy with her life...except for one part. She can't get a man and she has no idea why. In the middle of an old movie marathon during a snowstorm, she gets the answer: Doris Day always got the guy.

6. Rachel Rising, Echo, & Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore --anything by Terry Moore is an A-Plus for me. I would start with SIP, because it's my favorite, but the others are just as good too. Echo is science fictiony, Rachel Rising is straight up horror, and SIP is both of those plus romance, action, adventure, friendship.

7. Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs --“It's too hard to explain. I can't say why I love the book. I just do. You don't pick the books you fall in love with any more than you pick the people you fall in love with. It just happens, and when it happens, you know. Who's to say where love comes from?”

8. Nerds series by Vicki Lewis Thompson --another pick from my pre-blogging days. If you want hot nerdy guys who are secretly bikers getting with former models who are into weird stuff like building hover crafts, accountants who get the showgirls, Some Like it Hot remakes, and Bigfoot sightings then these are the books for you! :D Talk Nerdy to Me is my favorite but they are all pretty equally delicious and drrrty lol.

9. The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz --I love a good music themed book and this one had its flaws, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Also, any book that has a "Rocky Raccoon" reference is okay with me!

10.The Time-Traveling Fashionista On Board the Titanic by Bianca Turetsky --this book combines a bit of history with gorgeous fashions and a dash of time travel to make a really sweet middle grade book. Check out my review and also the book trailer here.

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you're enjoying your holiday and long weekend. And if you have to work today, I hope it goes smoothly and you have free time to read your favorite book!

(pic by me)

Bookshelfie

It's been awhile since I've shown off my bookshelves (oh yeah, over a year oops) so I thought I'd post an updated shot of them on this lovely Sunday. And I want to see your bookshelves too! I always love snooping looking at other's shelves and see how they have organized them and such. So comment below with links! And click any of the pictures to make bigger.

I cleaned my shelves up again a few weeks ago, so let's start with the before shots, starring sleepy Binky Cat. The bags and stacks were all books that I had recently purchased and needed to find homes for. I had to do some creative thinking this time; I am seriously running out of space. I even got rid of a couple. (I love that my middle sister is a Reader (capital R) like me because I can give her all the books that I kind of liked but not enough to keep lol.)

And here is the first after shot. This is my main bookshelf, which faces my bed, so I had to stand way back in the corner to take this picture. It holds, from the top, my Harry Potter books & Funkos (which I have become addicted to collecting all of) and Neil Gaiman, "pink" chicklit books, young adult contemporaries, Pretty Little Liars and "traditional" romance books, all my Christmas books (which have grown exponentially in the last year), history-ish books plus tearjerkers, and Baby-Sitters Club books on the bottom (mysteries and specials are on the trunk). And a whole lot more.

To the left are all my classics, sitting on the Reader's Digest specials that my mom found at a thrift store for me a few years ago. Below is my old trunk holding all my children's picture books and 80-90s reads like Christopher Pike, Sweet Valley High, and lots more. (If you're interested in seeing these in more detail, let me know!) The trunk is stacked three deep in spots, which drives me crazy, but I don't have much choice at the moment. I'd like to get a new bookshelf for that space but I know I will fill it immediately with all those books, so it won't do me much good for new books. I just need more room. :)

And here's my second bookshelf, which is in front of my window, to the right of my bed. (It gets too bright and hot when I open the curtains anyway, so I didn't care much about blocking it.) The top shelf is my to-reads. I really need to get back to "reading my shelf" again. The rest of the shelf is graphic novels and supernatural-ish books. Lots of vampires and dystopian of course. The odd one out is the stack of Gossip Girl books. Unfortunately, I just could not fit them on my other shelf so they had to go here.

You can also see a lot of my owls on this shelf, which I started collecting accidentally on purpose. I wish my Pops weren't on there, but I don't have room for them anywhere else. (I've got a serious shelf shortage situation going on everywhere lol.) The monster statue in the bottom left was made by my sister. The clear box you can just barely see in the bottom right corner holds my single issue comics, which I have recently gotten more into. To the right of that is my comfy reading chair.

I'll end with a closeup of my Harry Potter collection and artwork (links below), which was the main reason I started cleaning my shelves that day to begin with. I have one more art piece I need to get a frame for, this zombie HP one I've had a few years. I am so bad at hanging pictures! I want to eventually get a real shelf or shadow boxes for my Pops because I do plan on getting them all, but they're okay like this for now.

Creepy Voldy by Locoduck (Facebook)

Potter Kitties by Lululinart (Website)

Trio Portraits by ?? (given to me by a friend, 

if you know the artist, let me know!)

And that's my bookshelfies! This turned into a massive post, didn't it? What do you think? Would you organize anything differently or have new techniques I should try? See any of your favorites or don't see something I should absolutely have? Comment below. :)

Book Haul: Birthdays & Warehouses

I'm going to work really hard at this blogging thing again going forward. Because I do really like doing it. I got my planner out again and that always really helps me. I think I've got most of July scheduled and half of the posts written already, so that's good right? Right! So let's start with a book haul, which is mostly from two different weekend splurges. I tend to by books in spurts usually, not just one or two at a time.

First is from my birthday weekend, which was May 2nd. I got an Amazon gift card, because my family knows me so well, and splurged on a few newer books that I wanted plus some summer fun. I've actually already read all of these (in both pics) and will have some reviews of a few of them up soon. Also that weekend, I went to Half Price Books (Boys of Summer was purchased at Target) and actually found several that I had been wanting for awhile. I just finished A Little Life this week and it pretty much destroyed me.

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And second, a few weekends ago was my local library warehouse sale which I always try to go to, if I have money. My sister, the nonreader, went with me and she went thru and pulled all the Sweet Valley High and any 80-90s books that looked interesting, while I went and looked for other books. She's surprisingly good at it too! Afterward, I mentioned that Half Price books was having their big warehouse sale too that day and I hadn't planned on going but my sister said sure why not so we did. :) She found me quite a few SVH plus some Sleepover Friends and I even found my coveted Camp Sunnyside Friends #1 I've been looking for. I also found a couple that were actually on my to-buy list (it's impossible to go there with a list) and even a complete series of summer fun books.

This pic below is just for fun so you can see more of the covers and details. I picked up a graphic novel, Sidekicks, that looked pretty interesting too. And of course some more classics. I even got two new Christmas books. I've become really interested in gathering Christmas stories and anthologies in the last two years. I blame Stephanie Perkins' My True Love Gave to Me. It made me want to read ALL the holiday books.

And finally, I went to Half Price to get my dad a gift card for Father's Day and saw The Disenchantments on a shelf, which I had read from the library and loved, so I bought my own copy of it. That's it for now. Do you have any haul pics? I'd love to see them, so comment below with links and I'll go check them out.

New Name, New Banner!

I have been thinking for a while about changing my blog name to See Jenn Read, which matches all my other social media (Links to the right if you aren't following me already). It just makes sense and reflects me more, so I finally decided to do it this week. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it would break all my links...everywhere. Gaaahhh!! What a hugemongous pain that is going to be!

I think I've gotten all the main links switched but I will have to start fixing my reviews on Goodreads soon. Which is kind of okay, because I realized I was sporadic about adding them there in the beginning. In the meantime, please be so kind as to resave my blog if you need to and let me know what you think of my new, simpler banner. :) And maybe tell me I didn't make a huge mistake changing it lol.