A little while ago author Jessica L. Brooks came up with the idea to have a readathon where you can set goals to get through a whole heap of books on your TBR in time for the holidays! Here is her original post so you can see what it's all about. I'm sure there are many of us bookworms (almost all most likely) who have that 'so many books, so little time' dilemma, so this is a fantastic way to make things happen. I'm going to be participating and hope to get through these books:

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnely

Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Hush by Donna Jo Napoli

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

Eight books may be a little ambitious given that I haven't read nearly as much as I would have wanted to in the past couple of weeks (because working in a bookstore doesn't mean you get to sit around and read books all day), but hopefully with this goal I'll be more motivated to work towards it. 

Will you be participating in any readathons over the holidays, or if you've done them before have you achieved your goal?

Excuse-to-read Readathon

Basically the #Excusetoread readathon is a week of reading just for the sake of it - no pressure, just making time to read and getting that TBR pile down! Thanks so much to authors Jessica L. Brooks and Cheyanne Young for setting it up :)

Personally, I'm not going to be all too ambitious since as of today my exam block has started...but here are a few I hope to read from now until 4th August:

Look out for updates on my progress here, on twitter or instagram!

Genie's Weekly News (40)

It has been a while since I've blogged (blame my exams coming up *sigh*). Holidays are a distant memory and now it's right back into the frenzy of study notes and trying to not stress out too much about what's coming up. I might not be as active on the blog for these next two weeks as well, but after that I should have more reviews and discussions happening.

*Reading Right Now*





I'm trying to read this before I see the movie - but 20% in and I'm hoping it gets better.

*Recommendation of the Week*



Such a strange book, but a beautiful one.

*From The Interwebs*

• Jeann @ Happy Indulgence discussed the 3 star debacle
• Aimee @ Deadly Darlings did the real neat blog award
• Cait @ Paper Fury talked about when she unfollows blogs
• Emily @ Loony Literate posted about book series amnesia
• Nova @ Out of Time discussed the representation of culture in YA
• Brett @ Brett Michael Orr questioned What is YA?

*Haul*

This is *the* book of the year I've been waiting for! As the sequel to the amazing #SPARK by Rachael Craw, I can't wait to see what'll go down in this book. I can sense it's going to be a 'read this in one sitting' situation already... STRAY releases on 1st September, but there will be an exclusive short story not included in either of the books coming out July 31st from @walkerbooksaus so look out for that! #SparkArmy #STRAY #yalit #yascifi #series #sequel #readyforallthefeels #bookstodevour

A photo posted by Eugenia (Genie In A Book) (@genie_inabook) on Jul 23, 2015 at 12:26am PDT

A photo posted by Eugenia (Genie In A Book) (@genie_inabook) on Jul 23, 2015 at 12:26am PDT

This week's #booksfortradeau haul! I'm really looking forward to reading some more contemporaries and there seems to be some promising ones here. #bookstagram #bookhaul #bookblogger #bookswap #yacontemporary #booklove #coverlove

A photo posted by Eugenia (Genie In A Book) (@genie_inabook) on Jul 24, 2015 at 5:36pm PDT

I'm especially excited for Stray by Rachael Craw - since I haven't been able to get to it this weekend, it's going to be my big reward to look forward to after exams!

*Bookish News*

Author Jessica L. Brooks is looking for expressions of interest for her new 'early reader program' looking at distributing physical ARC's for her upcoming releases - it's generally much easier to read on paper, and this is a wonderful opportunity to do that.



Though the timing is in the middle of exams, I'm still going to endeavour to participate in the 'Excuse to Read' readathon hosted by Jessica L. Brooks and Cheyanne Young, to get a few books knocked off my TBR. Look out for another post on that tomorrow :)



*What I've Been Watching*

Gossip Girl season 5 has been pretty hectic so far - OH THE DRAMA (well, more than usual anyway). Aside from that though, I've been delving back into historical drama:

Sense and Sensibility



I loved this three-part series! Great acting, and of course a wonderful stoyline (who doesn't want a happily ever after?).

The Paradise



I've only seen the first two episodes so far, and while I have a pretty good idea of the 'twists' which may be coming, it's still a pretty good show. It's interesting to think of how far department stores have come!

*GIVEAWAY*

Just a reminder, I have a giveaway for a YA book of choice up to $10AU from The Book Depository running at the moment!

How has your week been?