The Monday Mix (06)

While I did enjoy doing A Sunday Retrospective, I've made the decision to stop posting on the weekends. I rarely open up my laptop during that time, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. The only thing that made me really sad was the fact that I would no longer have an outlet to share my favorite links from the past week. I mourned that for all of ten seconds before realizing that I could just start a new feature - and so, The Monday Mix was born.

The Monday Mix basically gives me the opportunity to share with all of you the links I loved online from last week, everything from reviews to articles about writing and perhaps other things too. I've always valued the opportunity to share the great things I've read or seen, and this is my way to share the love.

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First things first: one of my blogger friends Rachel has arrived in NYC! We had an adventure of NYC proportions as we commuted from the airport to her dorm, and then went to Target to stock up on supplies. It was pretty fun getting the chance to finally meet her in person! Our conclusion? We're basically twins.

Last week, I participated in Bout of Books 7.0. It's an event I've been meaning to join for a while, but always let my perpetual busy state deter me. Glad I didn't hesitate to jump in, in spite of a busy week -- I ended up getting a lot of reading done and meeting a ton of new bloggers! The next Bout of Books will be in August, and I highly encourage you to join.

I was really sick last week, as my allergies were bothering me to the point where I had difficulty breathing. Thank goodness for two days off! Even though my plans to go to Boston were derailed, the amount of sleep and good solid meals I managed to have were enough to heal me up. I also went to the grocery (one of my unfinished errands from the start of the month) and stocked up on healthier eating options, as well as took the opportunity to hang out with a couple of friends and eat Shake Shack in the park for the first time since the weather got warmer.

On Friday, I finally got to watch The Great Gatsby - and I loved it. It was a pretty spectacular production, particularly the parties and the costumes and the crazy set. I also thought the casting was superb, and that Leonardo di Caprio was truly a great Gatsby. The only thing that threw me off? The way the music was integrated into the film. I love the soundtrack apart from it, but it kind of jarred me a bit when certain songs played.

This week, I stumbled across a few posts that interested me. Here they are:

1. Jackie (of In the Best Worlds) shares her thoughts on why NA is a relevant genre. I haven't personally read a lot of NA, but her post intrigued me and made me want to read more books classified under it!

2. Look everyone, one of my blogger friends, Anna (of Anna Reads) is featured as the first Goodreads Voice for the debut Goodreads YA newsletter!

3. Jamie (of The Perpetual Page-Turner) never fails to amaze me with her level of authenticity and charm in her more personal posts. I loved this post about her book habits that might make people cringe, mostly because I pretty much do every single thing she listed on there too.

4. Curious about what being an editorial assistant is like? Alexandra Bracken (author of The Darkest Minds) wrote this post about her experience as an editorial assistant. It kind of makes me want to pursue that job for myself (if only someone would hire me!).

5. I'm a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles, and have been dying to have Cress in my hands since I first read Scarlet last year (as an ARC). Marissa Meyer definitely convinced me that she's one of the coolest authors ever by posting these tips to survive the (long) wait for Cress.

6. The girls of Epic Reads are pretty much some of the coolest book nerds I know. Case in point - they created a workout that will appeal to booklovers everywhere!

7. Books have the power to transform you - and there are certain books you will always have a soft spot for because of the way they changed your life. S. Jae-Jones challenges readers to remember what age they experienced a transformation with books in her article.

8. What do you get when you combine one of my favorite books and the insane creativity of one of my friends? This: Elena (of Novel Sounds) created a beautiful wallpaper with a quote from Throne of Glass.

9. Erin Bowman (author of Taken) reveals the title for book two!

10. I was so, so excited when I read that Sarah J. Maas (author of Throne of Glass) had sold another series, and this time it was a series based on Beauty and the Beast. Plus, it doesn't hurt that she's giving away an ARC of Crown of Midnight in the same post ;)

11. Estelle (of Rather Be Reading) does a brilliant job picking books and categories for last week's Top Ten Tuesday topic, which was books with tough subjects.

12. Julie Eshbaugh reminds all writers of this important fact - you should write what you love.

13. Amie Kaufman (author of These Broken Stars) shares her practical tips about spotting the flaws in your own writing. It's always tough for me to be extra critical about my own work, so I'm going to definitely being taking a page from Amie and trying out her tips!

14. BEA is nearly upon us! My friend Jen (of Almost Grown-Up) shares some great tips for the event. (P.S. Let me know in the comments if you're going to be there too!)

15. Elena shared a recipe for Butterbeer cupcakes for her new feature, The Sweetest Note. I definitely sense an adventure in baking (for me) happening soon!

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I wanted to add a new aspect to The Monday Mix. Since I'm an avid Twitter user, I thought sharing my top tweets of the week would be fun. Every week, I'm going to pick one author/publisher/bookstore tweet and one blogger tweet that I personally really liked. Without further ado, here are this week's favorites:

 

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And in case you missed it, here are my posts from last week:

One of my greatest accomplishments of this year is finishing A Game of Thrones.

Hallowed is a solid second book in the Unearthly series - and also the book that made me love Christian.

I fell in love with this final book in The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy, The Dark and Hollow Places.

Here are all the official details about the BEA Blogger Picnic!

Gadget Girl was a cute contemporary read, and I loved that it featured Japan and France!

I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I did! Now it's YOUR turn - are there any posts (on your blog or other blogs) from last week that I missed out on? Please feel free to share links in the comments and I'll try to check them out.