December 08, 2018

Stacking The Shelves #129/Sunday Post #61

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. Its a weekly post to showcase what books you got, recap the week, and talk about what will be coming up this week on the blog!

• Lety Out Loud by Angela Cervantes
• Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury
• The Moon Within by Aida Salazar

So more book mail from Scholastic this week! Thanks Scholastic! I actually squealed a little when I opened the package with Last of Her Name! I've actually been super excited about it and even thought about requesting the ARC. So I'm really happy I got one unsolicited. It's a retelling inspired by Anastasia but set in space! For those of you who don't know, the whole Anastasia legend is part of  how my daughter got her name. So I'm super into things based on it! :D 

• November Wrap-Up & December TBR
• 2018 Dystopia Reading Challenge: December Link-Up
• 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge Sign-Up

So I'm actually feeling a bit like reading this week! You guys know for the past week or two I've been a bit down in the dumps and just super unmotivated. So this is good progress for me! I finally picked up a book this week. And it's not even YA! I'm currently reading Raise The Titanic by Clive Cussler! Clive Cussler is one of both James and his moms favorite authors and there's a large amount of his books around our apartment. So I finally decided to try one James thinks I'd like (since I'm super interested in Titanic). So far so good! It's different from my normal reads but in a good way!

As you've probably noticed, I changed the blog again. I don't think it's as significant as past ones. Just the coloring and the fact this one actually has a header image. But otherwise, this one still has the drop down menus, the slider (just a slightly different one), and social media buttons. However, this one also easily explains how to do an Instagram Widget so I'll be implementing that! LOL. But how do you guys like it? I kinda like that with this one the main coloring I've chosen for it is all purple, just different shades. I just needed a change from the all pink to be honest, and this template was on sale on Etsy. So it was a good time to switch it up. I honestly think the template change is also helping my mood a bit.

Ana's party was great. She stayed the night with Nana and Granddad before her party since they were camping/RVing at the state park right up the road from us. She was so surprised when she walked in and saw all her Peppa Pig decorations and her Peppa Pig cake. She had a great birthday guys. She got some fantastic gifts, including a My Life doll. It has blonde hair and glasses just like her. She absolutely loves the fact it has glasses. She also got a TON of puzzles. She's super into doing puzzles so it was fantastic that pretty much everyone got her puzzles. I can't believe my child is 4 already guys!!

Guys! It's that time of year!! Challenge sign-ups galore! And of course, that means I singed up for a few already! You can find those on my new 2019 Challenges Page. So stop by and check out which ones I'm doing and my goals/TBRs! Most are the same as I did this year. But if you want the jist, I signed up for Dystopia (duh, its my challenge), Beat The Backlist (House Hufflepuff!), New Releases (first time doing it in 2019), and Literary Escapes. I also plan to sign up for the Discussion Challenge, and the NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge again once those sign-ups go up. The other new challenge I've decided on doing for 2019 will be the Audiobook Challenge.

Now Presenting:

The 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge Sign-Ups

Ok guys, just click the graphic or the title above it and they both will take you to the sign-up post if you want to join! I know a few of you had taken interest in joining for 2019 and wanted to know when the sign-ups went up. :) This will be the only week I post the long version of everything. The next few weeks after I'll just have the graphic in this section. :)

My Dystopia Reading Challenge Goals!

Changes for this years challenge:

• Bingo. I brought it back. It was last done by the previous host (in 2017). I like a bit of fun and bingo is fun. So I took the time and made a bingo board. It's on the sign-up post. :) It's optional though. 
• Hashtag! So I don't know if the challenge EVER had a hashtag to use on Twitter or Instagram or wherever. So this year I have one for us so we can increase interaction! #2019DystopiaReads
• No more monthly link-ups for reviews. I've changed them from monthly to bi-annual. So the link-ups will last from January-June and then July-December. I think this will increase interaction between participants and make it much easier to find others reviews. Review link-up will always be easily accessible in the drop down menu under Dystopia Reading Challenge.
• There will be 2 giveaways. There will be no rafflecopter. Lol. To earn your entries you simply link-up your reviews. Every review linked up will be an entry. Winner will be chosen from said entries at the beginning of July and mid December. To earn bonus entries, BINGO! For every row you complete you can earn an extra entry (up to 5 extra entries). 

While that seems like a lot of changes after explaining, its actually not. Most are just to simplify things for both you guys and me and to encourage more interaction! 

Also, if you sign-up, please share the post to get the word out. I have easy share buttons on the bottom of every post. So tweet it, pin it, FB it! My reach only goes so far, so I appreciate you guys sharing it as well! Thanks! :)

• Review: Journey To The Black City (After: The New Earth #1) by Keith Mueller
• New Releases: Week of December 11, 2018
• Discussion: Most Surprising Reads of 2018 - I'll chat my most surprising (in a good way) reads and I wanna hear about yours too! 
• Review: Raise The Titanic (Dirk Pitt #4) by Clive Cussler
• Most Anticipated Winter 2019 Releases!