Gabriella M Reads

The Broke and The Bookish Secret Santa Anyone who knows me knows that Christmas time is my absolute favorite time of year and yes, for me it starts before Thanksgiving. For years I've been watching people doing gift swaps on Twitter, but never really knew when or how to sign up. This year I actually found out and was able to participate in a Secret Santa swap! Thank you Jana for keeping it alive solo this year! I signed up a couple days before the deadline and waited super impatiently for my match. I can now reveal that I was Amy's Santa and the presents seen above are the ones that I sent to her. I had the best time shopping for my Santee and I cannot wait to do it all over again next year. In the end I think I spent more than I planned and I learned a huge lesson on shipping things. If you have a large box, go to UPS because you will probably end up paying the $80 that I paid at USPS otherwise. I plan to take the advice of fellow Santa's and use Priority ship...

Tucson Festival of Books 2019 This year I went to the Tucson Festival of Books yet again and I did it mostly solo. My friend Gwen joined me for part of day one, but like I said mostly a solo adventure. I met lots of great authors and was able to get most, if not all, of books signed. I think one of the greatest memories is of Gwen and I having Scott Magoon draw us a shark fighting a velociraptor. Gwen and I also got to meet the incredibly kind and funny Jonathan Stutzman. We joked around and talked about work before finally taking a picture together with Tiny the T-rex. I need to get myself a copy of his new book, Llama Destroys the World. The days were long and I got a bit of a sunburn, but I also had the pleasure of attending half of a Star Wars panel. I say half because I was that poor girl coughing up a storm in the front row and I kindly excused myself so that everyone else could enjoy the discussion. It was fun all the same and I got to see all of the authors ...

Summer Reading Being that I haven't really been able to finish a book since January, I'm planning on keeping my upcoming TBRs very light. Or I at least won't get my hopes up/pressure myself to complete it. That being said, I've been working on reading The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas. I' about 100 pages in, but I have been for a while now. I also recently purchased The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn and started reading it too. I believe I have managed to get somewhere around 50 pages in. With any luck I will be able to finish both of the books mentioned above. However, I have a copy of Something Like Gravity by Amber Smith headed my way and I'm dying to dive in. The Chase by Elle Kennedy also have my attention. I absolutely loved her Off-Campus series so I have high hopes for this Briar U spin-off series. Fingers crossed that it does not disappoint. I don't think I will necessarily get to all of these books or if other books will grab my attention, ...

To Read or Not to Read? As y'all have probably noticed I haven't been very active. Work is just a lot right now. My main focus is the kiddos. Unfortunately this means I'm tired a lot and I spend my free time either asleep instead of reading. So what on Earth have I been reading and what do I plan to read if all I do is sleep? Well I've been working on reading two books for the past few months. The first one is Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea by Tami Oldham Ashcraft, formerly titled Red Sky in Mourning: The True Story of a Woman's Courage and Survival at Sea. I really struggle with reading non-fiction, but something in me had to read this book. I wanted to know how this woman pushed herself to survive. It's taking me a long time to read it, but I am most certainly enjoying it. I really hope to finish it this month. I'm also slowly making my way through Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus. Even though I did not read her fi...

What to read? I have more time to read this month and I am so stoked! Some of you might be able to tell from the picture that I'm rereading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer right now. I think I like it better than the first time around. I'm really not sure yet. The process of rereading the whole series is steadily moving along and I'm happy with it. As far as what else I would like to read this month, I'm not really sure. I'm in kind of a weird mood. I foresee at least one poetry book in June and I want to try and read I Hate Fairyland Vol 3 by Skottie Young. I would love some graphic novel recommendations from y'all. I'm very new to that side of the book world. I love it and I want more. Maybe I'll read one of my recent purchases. I can't be the only one in the book world constantly buying books and then waiting forever to even read them. On my latest trip to Barnes & Noble I snagged A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena, Adrift by Tam...

For the first time in a long time I decided to make myself a TBR for the month. In my April TBR post I was honest with myself. I know I suck at sticking to plans for reading so I only gave myself three books. So let's see how that worked out, shall we? If you've seen my review then you know the first book I managed to finish this month was The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy and I really enjoyed it. It didn't go exactly where I wanted it to go and yet it was still a really good read for me. If you enjoy a little mystery mixed with adventure and romance then this one is for you. I also finished Midnight Sun which was second on my list. SUPRISE! I can follow through, sort of. I read a lot of reviews about this book before I even had the chance to finish it and a good chunk were saying that it was a cheap copy of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. I say screw that. I loved both of these books and while they both have a girl who feels like she's missing out on l...

As many of you know, I hate making TBR's. I never stick to them because I am very much a mood reader and I cannot predict my moods, try as I might. This isn't always the best for my blogging and I am trying to change it, but you know. So that being said, I have a few ideas for what I would like to try and read during the month of April. The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy I've actually already started this, but wasn't able to finish it in the month of March so on we go. Amy is such a kind human and I love a good puzzle. Especially if part of the story takes place in Arizona. I was stoked when she gave me a copy. Midnight Sun by Trish Cook I actually didn't plan on reading this one. I was interested in the movie though. However, one of my coworkers decided that we should read it and see the movie together like she had a week before when we both read Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. I am always down for more reader friends and could not say no. It...

Expanding My Horizons For those of you who don't know, let's be real you probably do by now, I work in a preschool. Well about a month or so ago we did a Scholastic book fair and I just couldn't help myself. There were so many cute books! So since I spent my money on them I've been reading them and yes, they count towards my reading goal. Since my reviews on these picture books are so short and all pretty much exactly the same, I thought I would just share which ones they are. Short and sweet. I've purchased all of the books pictured above, but I've also been reading some review books that are not pictured. One that really got me was Me, My Dog, and a Sheep by Melissa Mullamphy. Her book is a true story about the love between her son and his dog as well as the strength they have. I cried a bunch and I cannot recommend it enough. Next year I'm supposed to be leading a "book club" at the preschool and I am loving discovering books to read t...

Once again, it's one of my favorite times of the year. The Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona! It's a free two day festival filled with books, food, science, art, etc. There are so many booths it's hard to visit them all, try as I might. Day one started with some wonderful humans and equally wonderful books. My day didn't start off perfect, I got stuck in a parking garage and ended up being late. I was headed to a panel when I noticed a line was already forming for Victoria Aveyard. I decided not to chance it and to just jump in and wait for an hour. Very worth it if you ask me. She is so kind! I had made a friend last year and spotted her one line over waiting for Holly Black so with her permission I joined her. I've never read a Holly Black book, but I have heard amazing things about her writing. I bought The Darkest Part of the Forrest just for this event and am so excited to see what everyone has been talking about. Have you ever me...

Bookish Facts About Me! Hello and welcome back! Today is my 23rd birthday and so I thought it would be fun to share 23 book related facts about myself rather than the standard 25. I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit better! One: My love for reading was sparked by my love for Beauty and the Beast. I wanted to be just like Belle and she loved books! Two: My first notable read was Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and my grandma is the one who bought it for me. Three: My favorite part of second grade was weekly library trips with my grandma.  Four: I never did the required reading for school. There's just something about having to read that makes me not want to. Five: My favorite childhood series was Magic Tree House and to this day I still plan to repurchase them all so that my future children can have them. Six: I started Harry Potter when I was around 18 and I still have not finished. I need to read Deathly Hallows. Seven: The Twilight series by Steph...

ARC August 2017 As I'm sure you know by now, I'll be talking about ARC August. This is an event hosted by Read Sleep Repeat where we all get together and read our ARCs or Advanced Reader Copies. These can be new ones or old ones. As long as it's an ARC it doesn't matter. Now this is only my second ARC August and to avoid a slump, I'm giving myself a ton of options. My overall goal is to finish at least two. Which may not seem like a lot, but I also want to read some published books as well throughout the month. Being as July isn't over, I could still get to some of these before August but I'm making my TBR anyway. Wish me luck! Tentative TBR: - Submerge by Tobie Easton - The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed - As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti (I want to read this one around my birthday) - Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer - Change Places With Me by Lois Metzger - A Season for Fireflies by Rebecca Maizel - How It Feels to Fly by Kathryn Holmes - Race t...

Armchair Book Expo is over for this year. I'm already ready for next year, although I am hoping to actually be at BEA for the first time ever. So we'll see how that goes. In a dream world I'd get to do both. Anyway, This is basically a post to say goodbye to all of my Armchair BEA friends until next year and wrap things up nicely. I've met so many great people this year! If you missed my previous posts we talked about diversity, good blogging habits, dining with authors and so much more. Feel free to go back and take a look, I love chatting with you. I'm still looking for more diverse recommendations so feel free to leave those in the comments. As always I am very grateful for this community and feel very lucky to have found it. Thank you for stopping by. Happy reading! Xoxo, Gabriella

Welcome to my final Armchair BEA post for 2017! Today is all about recommendations! Giving them and receiving them so let's get to it! My Recommendations! Every reader is different, but for those who enjoy contemporary and want to dive into the adult genre I tend to recommend The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley. This book made me cry and it was just so damn good. Not to mention the cover is gorgeous which is actually why I bought it. For a gritty non-fiction I recommend Riding in Cars with Boys by Beverly Donofrio. I used to watch this movie all the time when I was little and I never knew it was based on a true story. So naturally, I had to buy the book and it didn't let me down. I guess I should recommend some young adult huh? Paula Stokes. Any book of hers. Seriously, but I really loved Girl Against the Universe. The mental health aspect was done very well in my opinion. If you're into vampires, Thirst by Christopher Pike is wonderful. It's a good ...

It's day three of Armchair BEA and things are getting good. I hope everyone has been having a good time reading and sharing posts and chatting with each other. I know I have. On to today's topics. Delving Into Diversity I don't really have much to say regarding diversity because I don't read diversely enough. I'm trying to change that and would love any recommendations you throw my way so feel free to leave them in the comments. As for diversity in book format, I'm pretty into paperback novels. Hardcovers if I'm super excited about a book and cannot wait for the paperback to come out. I haven't tried an audiobook yet, although I own two of them. I just tend to zone out and would probably need a physical copy to follow along with. I also have read two graphic novels and am trying to buy/read more of them. I'm taking recommendations for these as well. And lastly, ebooks. I'm not the biggest fan because I don't like staring at a scree...

Welcome to day two of Armchair BEA, the from home version of Book Expo America which I hope to attend someday. Let's just get straight into today's topics, shall we? What Do Readers Want? What I want as a reader is to be sucked in. I want a story to hold my attention and make me care. That is actually how I rate my books, based on how well they keep my attention. When it comes to events, I would like them to be spread out more. Maybe that's a weird way to say it. What I mean is, change the cities you visit. Don't always do the major ones, some of us can't make it to those. And if you insist on making them so far, can you make them at a reasonable time? Example: Most of the events are a two hour drive from me, but don't begin until 7 PM and on a week night. Let's say I only stay for an hour? I'm still not getting home until after 10 PM if I'm lucky. We all know well known authors might not get to everyone in a simple hour. This is why I rar...

Armchair BEA! Welcome to my second year of participating in Armchair BEA, the online version of Book Expo America. We talk books an blogging and celebrate the community. This is day one, I hope you enjoy! Introduction I'm Gabriella and I'm 22 years old, almost 23. I love to read, hike, watch television, and just relax. My current read is Freeks by Amanda Hocking and I'm enjoying it so far. My summer plans include reading, adventuring, and visiting with my friends from out of town. That's about it. Day One: Best Practices Within the Online Book Community Some of my best practices include kindness (which honestly goes a long way, especially with everything going on lately) and persistent use of my Twitter to stay involved. I think we all know there can be a lot of hurtful things, rude people, and general negativity within the community and I try my best to be one of the positive people. It's not hard to be supportive of one another. Honestly. As far...

Aesthetic Concerns: Books I judge books by their cover, there I said it. Mostly I rely on the cover to pull me in when I'm browsing. I know I'm probably missing out on a ton of great books because of this, but it's the sad truth about advertising. If I know and like a synopsis ahead of time then the cover doesn't really matter because I know what kind of story I'm in for. I wouldn't say I'm often surprised, while a cover pulls me in, the synopsis is what keeps me around. I can't name a single book that I bought strictly because of the cover without reading the back. As for how things look on my shelf, I definitely want my books to match. If it's not possible then I obviously have to deal with that. If I can get matching covers in matching formats that's a top priority for me. For example, I bought and loved the paperback copy of Winger by Andrew Smith and the sequel came out last year, but, as it often is with new releases, it was only...

Armchair BEA! Hello and welcome back to my blog! For those of you who don't know, Armchair BEA is the online version of Book Expo America held for those who cannot attend the live event. I personally hadn't heard of it until this year and I was in a definite need to join. So let's give this a shot! Introduction Questions! What is the name you prefer to use? You can call me Gabriella. How long have you been a book blogger? I started blogging a little over a year ago, but about a month ago I decided to switch blogs. Have you participated in ABEA before? This is my first time doing Armchair BEA and I am quite excited about it! Do you have a favorite book? My all time favorite book is Water for Elephants and I am definitely do for a reread really soon. If you could recommend one other book blogger who would it be and why? I would recommend Grace from Grace Lucy Reviews . Her reviews are very thorough and in my opinion, she deserves more attention than sh...

Welcome to my first conversations post! I planned to start last month, but didn't really have much to say on the topics so here we go! Why did you start blogging? I actually didn't originally plan to have a blog. I started watching a lot of "booktubers" and I had my mind set on becoming one. Mostly because my writing isn't the best and also because they seem to do a lot of cool stuff. This was my outlook before I realized that bloggers do all of the same stuff, you just might not see it because it's not a video. Anyway, I scrapped that idea because I very quickly realized that I knew absolutely nothing about editing and all of the work that really goes into a Youtube video. It was actually quite a while after that when I realized that book blogging was a viable option for me. I hadn't seen as many book blogs, mostly because I wasn't following the right people, but I decided it was for me. Yeah, I wasn't as creative as some and for a ...

My very first Book Outlet order! If you watch as many "Booktube" videos as I do, you've probably heard of Book Outlet. Book Outlet is notoriously known for their amazingly low prices or "read-iculously low" as they put it. On December 28th they had this Boxing Day sale where if you spent a certain amount of money, you got a certain amount of money off of your order. I managed to spend around $75 so I received $30 off of my purchase. I finally decided to give in and purchase from Book Outlet because they had ten of the books in The Princess Diaries series. I wanted to start reading them so I can read the new adult book in the series. Unfortunately, three of the books sold out before I checked out, but I was still able to get the rest. Anyway, I now see why everyone is so in love with this company. If you don't have a ton of money, but you fly through books like there is no tomorrow then they allow you to feed your addiction without breaking the bank. O...