Read Game Craft

I don't always do monthly favorites posts, mostly because I'm not good at being consistent. However, I've been enjoying a lot of things lately and this is partially because I finished my first semester of college a couple of weeks ago and have a bit more time to do things other than my calculus homework. So really, the end of the semester is my first favorite thing. This was a rough semester, but I managed to come out of it with only one B and honestly, I'm a bit shocked but really, who am I to argue?  I'm going to start by talking about the wonderful Hannah Witton because my discovery of her is what made me want to write this post in the first place. You can find her blog  here  and you can find her YouTube channel  here . She is wonderful and she talks about feminism, sex ed, books, and all sorts of other wonderful things. She loves Harry Potter and mostly films proper sit-down videos, but also films travel vlogs, which, while not typically being my thing, I

I received a lot of books from both my mom and grandmother for Christmas and I couldn't be happier about it. I haven't been able to read any of these books yet, but I thought I'd share them with you anyway. I also got a Books A Million gift card and a Barnes and Noble gift card which I am so excited to use. Let me know in the comments which books I should buy. Here's a quick picture of the books I got for Christmas: One of them didn't fit in the box nicely, although since taking this picture I've stacked some extra books on top of the  ones in the box. I got 15 books along with a boxset of six graphic novels. This is the one that didn't fit.  And this is the box I put them in. It's from Target and you can find it in the home section, but I can't find it online. This was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend and I've decided to use it to hold my reading list because I'm running out of shelf space in my dorm room. Here's

I haven't posted in months. This has been bothering me, but there have been a lot of reasons for my silence. After I graduated high school, I needed a break from writing.  I also started a job that was keeping me busy.  And then I started college, which was really exciting.  And then my grandmother died. I don't want to get too much into this in this post, but I've had a few Major Depressive Episodes in my life, the first one happening when I was 12/13. The combination of the stress of moving, starting college, and the death of my grandmother triggered another episode. I'm working on getting better, but it made it harder for me to get back into blogging or to do any of the things I wanted to do.  But I can't stay silent anymore. Last night, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America. And I am angry. And scared. And sad. We cannot change the fact that he was elected. But we can use our voices to affect change and to combat the hat

Title: Lies We Tell Ourselves Author: Robin Talley Publisher: Harlequin Teen Release Date: September 30th 2014 I'd heard about this book online a lot and had wanted to pick it up for a while and finally did once I had enough money.  Synopsis: In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever. Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily. Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal. Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another. Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning

Title: Tell the Wind and Fire Author: Sarah Rees Brennan Publisher: Clarion Books Release Date: April 5, 2016 I received an early copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis:  In a city divided between opulent luxury in the Light and fierce privations in the Dark, a determined young woman survives by guarding her secrets.  Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised. Lucie alone knows the young men’s deadly connection, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth. Blood and secrets alike spill out when revolution erupts. With both halves of the city burning, and mercy nowhere to be found, can Lucie save either boy—or herself? Re

I've always been someone who buys a lot of books. But I'm also still not able to buy as many books as I'd like to. Usually I'll get some money or have a gift card and buy a bunch and then not be able to buy any for a long time. I'll buy a book here or there from Amazon, but mostly that's it. I'm not constantly going to the bookstore the way other book bloggers always seem to. One reason for this is the fact that I live about an hour from the nearest book store.  Books can also be pretty expensive. Luckily YA books are generally cheaper than, say, literary fiction. This weekend, I went to the bookstore and picked up Lady Midnight  by Cassandra Clare. Normally YA hardbacks are about $18. It was only after I'd gotten to the register that I realized Lady Midnight is for some reason $25. I still bought it because I wanted to review it, but I almost didn't have enough money. This is why you haven't seen me doing any book hauls. I just don't hav

I've recently allowed ads to be placed on my blog which I talked more about in the post before my most recent one. Bloggers can earn a small amount of money from ads on their blogs and that's ultimately my goal. But I think I only earn anything if someone actually clicks on the ad. So I was hoping that some of you might sometimes click on them and let the page load. That's all you have to do. You don't have to buy anything. Just click. It's also fine if you don't do this. I just wanted to let you guys know how this seems to work.

Today I received my financial aid package from the university other than my local one that was most likely to give me the most aid. And it still wasn't enough. This means that I'll almost definitely be staying in Birmingham for college. While my top choice school is all the way in Philadelphia, I'm not as bummed about staying in town ass I previously thought I would be. Over the past few months, I've been warming to the idea of staying in the city for college and now, having made this decision, I feel pretty good about it. I'll be able to keep my current job and be able to keep volunteering at the Birmingham Crisis Center. I also have a friend who will be going to the same college and another who might be my roommate next year, which is really exciting. This also allows me to graduate with as few student loans as possible. This may not be the most fun post with all the talk about money, but I'm excited! I graduate in 2 months and six days and prom is less th

I know some bloggers bigger than I am work with companies and do promotional work they get paid to do. But I don't have a large enough readership to be contacted to do work like that. If I do, you will know when and if I've been paid to do something. While I haven't reached the point of making money from the blog that way, I have enabled AdSense which just means that sometimes ads will be on the sidebar or under posts. If you have adBlock enabled, then nothing will change for you and as someone who also sometimes uses adBlock, I don't blame you. There aren't very many of you (I appreciate every one of you) so it will take time for me to see any money from these ads, but I'm about to transition from being a broke high school student to being a broke college student and I could use all the help I can get. I hope your experience isn't impaired by the presence of ads and that you don't think less of me for putting ads on my blog. However, if you do feel

Unfortunately, my favorites are a little light this month, both because February is a short month and because I've been super busy (as always). Normally I would split my favorites into different categories, but this month I don't think I have enough to really do that. So here goes. Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard Glass Sword is the sequel to Red Queen and I've absolutely been loving it. If you read my review, you know how much I loved Red Queen, but Glass Sword is, without a doubt, even better. It's better in every way. The writing in general is better because writers get better with practice, but I especially noticed a difference in the pacing. If you liked Red Queen , but weren't entirely sold on it, I would absolutely recommend picking up a copy of Glass Sword .  Here  by Alessia Cara One of my Valentine's day presents was an iTunes gift card and I'd been wanting to buy new music for a while, but didn't really know what I wanted to buy. The

My first favorite of the month isn't a product, but rather something I've been doing. For just a couple weeks, I've been learning to code using Khan Academy. Right now I'm learning Java Script and I'm really enjoying it. The way Khan Academy teaches it is kind of childish but it's really easy to understand. I'd been playing around with the idea of learning to code for a while because my school offers a Computer Science Principles class that I wanted to take. (I ended up taking AP Calculus because of college applications, but I've ended up really liking Calculus.) My boyfriend does programming and while he's not the reason I started doing it, it's nice to be able to better understand something he loves so much.  Favorite Books Passenger  by Alexandra Bracken (I've already posted a review of it on the blog) Any Other Girl  by Rebecca Phillips The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes The Naturals Series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Musi

After reading and loving As I Am  by Annalisa Grant, I had the opportunity to interview her for the blog.  Annalisa Grant is the author of The Lake Series, Five, and As I Am. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Here's the interview! What is your favorite aspect of living in the South? Least favorite? My favorite part of living in the south has to be the general atmosphere of kindness. People say “hello” or give a nice smile as you walk by. Also, having grown up in south Florida, I love the fact that we have 4 whole seasons in North Carolina! We get JUST enough snow to shut us down for a few days and then that’s it! And when the leaves change in the fall it’s simply breathtaking! Honestly, there isn’t anything I don’t like about living in the south! What’s your favorite show right now?  That’s a tough one! On the serious side, I love The Walking Dead (#TeamDaryl). On the funny side, I’m a big fan of The Mindy Pr

Title:  As I Am  Author: Annalisa Grant Rating: 3.5/5 I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher Synopsis: “You’re not invisible. You’re invaluable.”  When Kinley Carmichael looks in the mirror, she doesn’t see her blonde-haired, blue-eyed, size 4 twin sister. She sees her dark-haired, brown-eyed, size 12 self.  Kinley and her twin sister Addison are excited to start their second summer as counselors at The Camp at Lake Hollis. All Kinley wants is to earn enough money to meet up with her mother so they travel the world as professional photographers. All Addison wants is to work on her tan, seduce a boy, and build her fashion budget. And while Kinley and Addison couldn’t be more opposite, nothing has ever stopped them from being the best of friends.  It’s an especially great summer for Kinley as the official camp photographer with Notre Dame Quarterback Cal Harper showing interest in her. But when artist Miller Conrad arrives and rejects Addison’s advance

Title: Passenger Author: Alexandra Bracken Publisher: Hyperion Review: I just finished Passenger —as in, two minutes ago just. Normally it can take me a while to write a review but with Passenger I just couldn’t wait. In my opinion, it was the best of Alexandra Bracken’s books so far—which is how it should be. I really love being able to see an author grow. Passenger was fast-paced and incredibly engaging with characters you fall in love with from the very first page. At the beginning, I found Passenger a bit hard to follow but part of that could have come from the fact that being an e-galley made the formatting a bit wonky. After the first chapter or two, I found my rhythm in it and from then I loved it until the very last page. Even if you don’t find time travel particularly interesting, you should read it all the same. Passenger has the best aspects of multiple genres and mixing them all beautifully. Alexandra Bracken combines time travel, action, historical fic

I've recently joined NetGalley which is a website where so-called "professional readers" (read: bloggers, librarians, booksellers, etc.) can request print ARCs and e-galleys from publishers. Of course, this is not the only way to request books from publishers. Sometimes bloggers are sent books from publishers without having to ask, but I have not reached that level yet. The other way to get advanced copies is to email the publisher directly and ask for a copy. To do this, you have to write out a whole, official email telling them about yourself and your blog and asking for a copy, which can be very intimidating. I have requested books from publishers directly and I do plan on continuing to do this (it's how I got my copy of Tonight the Streets Are Ours  by Leila Sales) but NetGalley is a great option. You get a faster response and you don't have to write out a whole email. There are a lot of books available to request, especially ones you might not have known

Title:   Paisley Memories: The Beginning of Me Author: Zelle Andrews Synopsis: At seventeen, Tess Cooper was a high school drop-out, an orphan, and a single mom to a baby girl with Down syndrome. The next two years didn’t turn out like she thought it would.   After her dad’s death, she flees Brooksville, Alabama, in his beloved 1957 Thunderbird before the red clay on his grave can settle. A year of traveling from place to place brings Tess and Paisley to the deep fried, southern town of Panacea, Florida, where her money runs out.  A stranger, named Butterball, takes them in and gives Tess a job taking pictures at Wakulla Springs State Park and the annual Sopchoppy Work Grunting Festival.   Afraid to trust these people, Tess plans to leave, but the T-bird is stolen and she is forced to stay. Paisley is thriving on all the attention. Tess weighs her options. Can she give her baby what she needs? Should she put down roots in this place where she has found friends? Or shou