My Expanding Bookshelf

The first Challenge I will be participating in is the 2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge, hosted by Laura @  trips down imagination lane  and Michelle @  Because Reading . The challenge runs from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2016 and you can sign up here before 1st March 2016. My 2016 resolutions are: Bookish resolutions Get Netgalley ratio up to 80% January - 57% Read 20 physical books I already owned prior to 1st January January - 2 Reread 5 books January - 0 Finish 6 series January - Finished/Up-to-date = 2 Reach my Goodreads goal this year (65 books) January - 8 Blogging resolutions Finish updating all blog posts to current layout January - A few updated this month Visit 4 blogs a week (not including memes) (by visit I mean comment on) January - 9 (Need to be better) Blog ahead - get to at least 6 weeks ahead January - 2 weeks ahead (I think...) Personal resolutions Start going to the gym again January - I'...

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share our news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

I've been blogging just under a year now and one thing (amongst many others) that has always conflicted me is DNF reviews. I'm never too sure how to deal with them. Luckily, I've only had two to contend with so far, but I'd be naive to think I'll finish every single book I pick up. On Goodreads, I don't even mark my DNF's as read because, in my view, it wasn't read. I gave up so why would I say I read a book if I didn't. I only attempted to read it. Of course, this means that I can't post these reviews on Goodreads. Source Because of this, I only post DNF reviews on my blog. And, of course, I still share links via Twitter and Facebook (and Netgalley if applicable). To me, (and I may be wrong) this means that there is less chance (probably not) of authors actually seeing these reviews. And I'm okay with this as I'm not cruelly waving all the things I didn't like in their faces. God knows what that does to an author...

Title: The Truth Author: Jeffry W. Johnston Published: 02/02/2016, Sourcebooks Fire Pages: 240 Source: Netgalley Format: Ebook Rating: 4/5 Lie, torture, kill - there's nothing Chris and Derek wouldn't do for their younger brothers... When Chris wakes up tied to a chair in a dark basement, he knows that he's trapped - and why. He shot and killed Derek's little brother. He had his reasons, but no matter how far Derek goes to uncover the truth about that night, Chris's story won't change. It can't. There is far too much at stake... Derek is desperate to prove his brother didn't deserve to die. And if kidnapping his brother's killer is the only way to the truth, then he'll go to extremes. But Chris's truth is far more dangerous than Derek could have imagined, and knowing could cost both their lives...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and The Bookish . This week's topic is a freebie. Therefore, I've decided (and I can't remember if I've done this before or not) to do my top ten series I NEED to start now! And there's slightly more than ten this week...

Title: Fangirl Author: Rainbow Rowell Published: 30/01/2014, Pan Macmillan Pages: 461 Source: Bought - Secondhand Format: Paperback Rating: 4.5/5 Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fanfiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible... A tale of fanfiction, family, and first love.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share our news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

Title: Learning to Live Series: Infinite Love #1 Author: Kira Adams Published: 11/01/2015 Pages: 214 Source: Amazon freebie Format: Ebook Rating: 3.5/5 Ciera Nelson wants what any other outcast wants, invisibility. If she can just make it through the rest of her year with minor incidents and a head held low she will be able to put the hell hole they call school in her rearview. Unfortunately, life has different plans for her. Topher Carlson is one of the biggest jocks on campus. All the guys want to be him, all the girls want to claim him. When secrets are uncovered, Topher's life spins wildly out of control. They are far from friends when the school year begins, but each will impact the other's life in ways they never dreamed possible. Can Ciera help Topher realize that popularity and status mean nothing in the real world? Can Topher help Ciera learn the true meaning of living? Sometimes you have to let go to really live. Sometimes being alive means taking risks.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and The Bookish . This week's topic is my top ten books that I've recently added to my TBR.

Title: Riders of the Purple Sage Author: Zane Grey Published: first published 1912 Pages: 142 Source: Amazon freebie Format: Ebook Rating: 1.5/5 Told by a master storyteller who, according to critic Russell Nye, "combined adventure, action, violence, crisis, conflict, sentimentalism, and sex in an extremely shrewd mixture," Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic of the Western genre. It is the story of Lassiter, a gunslinging avenger in black, who shows up in a remote Utah town just in time to save the young and beautiful rancher Jane Withersteen from having to marry a Mormon elder against her will. Lassiter is on his own quest, one that ends when he discovers a secret grave on Jane's grounds.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share our news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

On 21 February 2015, I started both My Expanding Bookshelf and my Goodreads account. Before then, I didn't really keep track of how many books I was reading. Cause laziness really... However, since then, I read 58 books with 16,015 pages in 2015. That's 1.09 books a week! Averaging at 43.9 pages a day! I think that's pretty damn good. Especially, when I tie in the fact that I was working 2 jobs for 5 months of the year and then quit them both to start my first full-time job in September. I leave my house by 7.30am and get home at 6.00pm. I honestly have no idea how I found the time to read at all never mind read 58 books. And that doesn't even take into account the time blogging takes up! I'm honestly mind blown by the idea that some people can read 150 to 200 books a year!  Source I mean how on earth is that possible? Fitting that in with family, jobs and other commitments seems impossible to me. I applaud anyone that manages this! Source ...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and The Bookish . This week's topic is my top ten 2015 releases I meant to get to but didn't.

Title: The Secret Garden Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett Published: 16/05/2012 Pages: 308 Source: Amazon freebie Format: Ebook Rating: 3/5 When spoiled child Mary Lennox loses her family to a cholera outbreak, she moves to her uncle's manor surrounded by a massive garden. Within, Mary discovers a whole new outlook on life thanks to a supportive household and the garden's power of healing.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

Title: Diverging Cadence Series: Cadence #2 Author: Katie Hamstead Published: 25/08/2015, REUTS Publications LLC Pages: 282 Source: Netgalley Format: Ebook Rating: 5/5 When Cadence Anderson woke to find her husband and infant daughter had been killed, she thought her life was over. Instead, she was offered a second chance and sent back in time to do it all again. She's made the most of this opportunity, repairing her relationship with the best friend she lost the first time, avoiding the romantic mistakes she made originally, and even bringing her family closer together. But she's also done something she wasn't planning on - she's fallen in love with someone other than her future husband. Stepping onto a plane and flying across country to attend university is the hardest decision she's had to make. But unless she follows through with it, her future with Austen might never happen. And what becomes of her beautiful baby if she stays with James, the man she w...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and The Bookish . This week's topic is my top ten resolutions for 2016. It's highly unlikely I will keep to most of them...

Title: This Is Where It Ends Author: Marieke Nijkamp Published: 05/01/2016, Sourcebooks Fire Pages: 292 Source: Netgalley Format: Ebook Rating: 2/5 10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next time. 10:03 The auditorium doors won't open. 10:05 Someone starts shooting. Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.