Top Ten Books With Awesome Friendships in Them (53)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I love books with good friendships. I didn't always have the best time with friends when I was YA-aged, though. I think reading about them kind of makes up for it. Or gives me hope for the future. Or helps me reflect on my current friendships. I don't actually know. I just like friendship books (Although I also like when there's also a love-interest thing thrown in with all the friendship stuff. Delicious.)

PS: Please note - not all of the books featured below are book one in their respective series, but I decided to feature the book in the series that best shows the development of the friendship in question. So pay attention, okay?

Bout of Books 10.0: Wrap Up Post

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Bout of Books 10.0 is OVER and now I have to WAIT until the next one. Which is sad. But I guess I should tell you all how I did with my goals this time around...

A BEAst of a Convention Part II

I half-heartedly wrote a BEA post like three weeks ago about how awesome I think New York City and its parks are. You can read that one HERE. But it really doesn't have that much useful information in it. It's just kind of silly. So if you want to read about me being silly, please read that post. 
However, the other day I was thinking: "Most of my readers probably aren't going to BEA. And those of my readers who are have probably read a million prep posts. So this really isn't so very necessary. But I feel feel the need to put out of few bullet points for the small minority who thing they need to read up more on this convention."
Also I was thinking: "Maybe I should tell the people a little about me and my BEA practices so, if, perchance, they see me on the floor, they'll know what kind of insanity to expect. Even though most people reading this aren't going to BEA and there's really no point. But oh well."
So here are two short lists covering both of these unnecessary thinking moments I had...

Review: Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

Title: Second Star
Author: Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Release Date: May 13th, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Page Count: 248
Source: ARC from Publisher

(I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest
review. No favors were exchanged, my opinions are my own.)
First Reaction: I'm gonna be thinking about this one (romance aside) for a long time, aren't I?

A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them.

[Summary Source: Goodreads]

Pick of the Week: The One Where I Need it to Be Summer

Pick of the Week is... well, it's exactly what it sounds like. Once a week I pick a book. I may pick said book because I'm super excited about it. Or maybe I was super excited about it, forgot how excited I was, and am now using this to refresh my memory. It's also possible said book was blurring in with all the other books in my brain and I want to get re-excited about it. Another possible option is that I just want to flail about a book I'm about to read/am currently reading. Basically, I'm writing a love-note to a book I haven't started/finished yet to build hype for both myself and my reader. Which doesn't sound like a smart plan, but, oh well, too late.

And in case you want more of an origin story, you can check out my first Pick of the Week post.

This week is all about the summer time swoons. It's also got an incredibly swoony cover. Basically, everything about this book makes me swoon. And it makes me want to go to the beach immediately. Not to mention, it's one I'm sure I'm going to love, especially since I loved the first book in the set.

I feel like my hints were vague enough for you to not know what book I've picked this week. Maybe? But it's also one of my Bout of Books picks. So you could probably go back to that and figure it out...

Did you go back?

Did you figure it out?

Yes?

No?

Ready to know what the pick is anyway?

Okay.

Bout of Books 10.0: Progress Report

Welcome to my Bout of Books 10.0 Progress Report post. Because I am crazy and neurotic, I have separated this post from my Goals post. My Wrap Up post (to be posted in a week, when all of this is over) will also be a separate post. Although, I will be posting any and all of my challenges here, as they are part of my Bout of Books 10.0 Progress Report.

I hope that explanation made sense to you. I feel like it does to me but things often make more sense in my head that out of it.

Anyway, in case you're wondering what Bout of Books is...

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Now, for my progress.

Top Ten Books I Put Off Reading For Dumb Reasons (52)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

So this week's Top Ten Tuesday post is TECHNICALLY "Top Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't," but, honestly, the books I almost put down but don't usually don't fit on any Top Ten list. I mean, I don't dislike them or anything (mostly), but I don't have a Top Ten of them. I also generally suck at DNFing and don't really think about doing so while reading (unless I'm really, really miserable). So then I was going to do "Top Ten Books I Almost Didn't Pick Up." But then when I was putting together the list, I realized this post is actually titled "Top Ten Books I Put Off Reading for Dumb Reasons." Which is how we got here.