Tag Archives: Bout of Books

Bout of Books 21 Update – Day 3

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 21, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

cc4sUlk

Wednesday went well! I was able to find a little time to read during the day and then a little more before bed, so I ended up just meeting my 2 hour goal plus I finished a book. So my Wednesday’s progress is below:

Update

Wednesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 177 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 500 pages
Books read: Finished Like Broken China (Review to be posted later today)
Challenges: I did not participate in the daily post challenge for Wednesday

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Thursday update and check back later for my review on Like Broken China!!

Bout of Books 21 Update – Day 2

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 21, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

cc4sUlk

Tuesday wasn’t a great day for the challenge for me, between work and a meeting I had at night I didn’t have any time to read other than bed time, only ended up reading just over an hour before I fell asleep. So anyways my Tuesday’s progress is below:

Update

Tuesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.25 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 105 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 323 pages
Books read: Started Like Broken China
Challenges: I did the 2018 Goals post prompt for Tuesday, posted it on Twitter here

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Wednesday update!!

Bout of Books 21 Update – Day 1

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 21, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

cc4sUlk

Started out strong yesterday for the first day of the read-a-thon! I met my goal of reading 2 hours and I got through a good chunk of reading! I’m trying to balance my work schedule this week so that I can spend more time reading, I have a meeting tonight though so I might be distracted today. So anyways my Monday’s progress is below:

Update

Monday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 3.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 218 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 218 pages (Day one! Ha)
Books read: Finished The Girl in the Tower (see my review here) AND The Crown Prince’s Bride (review to be posted later today)
Challenges: I did the introduce yourself in six words challenge for Monday, posted it on Twitter here

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Tuesday update!!

Bout of Books 21 – Sign Up Post

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 21, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

cc4sUlk

So for one of my goals this year to help me focus more on reading and having concentrated time for reading, I am participating in all 3 Bout of Books reading challenges / read-a-thons this year! The first one is next week (luckily its before my busy season at work officially starts).

For those of you who don’t really know much about Bout of Books, it is basically a week-long, no pressure read-a-thon that has been going strong since 2011! Here is a description directly from the Bout of Books blog:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

The Bout of Books Read-a-Thon was created by Amanda @ On a Book Bender on a complete whim in August 2011. It took on a life of its own and was such a hit that Amanda decided to do it again and turn it into a somewhat regular occurrence.

  • Bout of Books is a week long read-a-thon, usually from 12:01am on a Monday through 11:59pm on a Sunday in whatever time zone you are in.
  • It is low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week. There is no competition between readers.
  • How much time a reader wants, and can commit, to read, tweet, or network with fellow bloggers is left to individual preference. All challenges and giveaways are optional.
  • Networking with fellow bloggers is actively encouraged, though never required.
  • Use Twitter to post updates throughout the read-a-thon. Everyone will be tweeting with the #boutofbooks hashtag.

Since I’m so behind in my reading schedule, this will be a great week to devote to reading and catch up!

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 2 hours each day during the week, with hopefully additional hours on Friday. Also the Saturday during Bout of Books I have Goal Day planned but then I have other family plans in the evening so I’m hoping for a good 4 hours of solid reading. And then Sunday I don’t have anything planned other than house work so hopefully a solid 4 hours that day as well.

My Goals

My goals for this read-a-thon are that I’d like to participate in as much as I can: the daily posts plus reading every day.

Books to Read

 

Hopefully I’m actually able to get through all (or at least a few)of those, if so I could at least catch up with one week of books which would be great. I have a long list of backlog books that I have to catch up with still from 2016 and 2017, but hopefully those will happen over the rest of the year. I’m really looking forward to this week-long reading challenge devoted to reading ! If you do want to join make sure to add yourself to the page’s Sign Up Post by Tuesday, January 9th at 11:59pm! Happy reading!

Bout of Books 19 Update & WRAP UP

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

KcxHEGZ

Day 7 was mostly spent with family and I also spent the morning volunteering but I managed to read about 2 hours at night before bed. My Sunday’s progress is below followed by my wrap up of my overall Bout of Books accomplishments:

Updates

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 110
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,076
Books read today: I finished Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler, review will be up tonight!
Challenges: Sunday was a free day so there was no challenge

Time Devoted to Reading

My goal was to devote at least 2 hours a day to reading and I unfortunately did not reach that goal every day! I read about 17 hours over the course of the 7 days which was good, but last year for this challenge I read 27 hours so there was a definite decline. And I only read just over 1,000 pages compared to over 1,700 pages so while I accomplished a lot in one week I wish it had gone a little better!

My Goals

My goal for this read-a-thon was to do the daily challenges, read about two hours a day and have fun! I posted a update every day on how the previous day went and I also did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday‘s “challenge” post.  I really had a lot of fun with Thursday’s “Character Dating profile” post!

Books to Read

Overall I think it was a pretty successful week considering how many other engagements / work projects I had going on. I had a great time participating and I will definitely want to participate in another Bout of Books in the future!

Bout of Books 19 Update – Day 6

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

KcxHEGZ

Day 6 was not my most productive reading day. I had planned to get up early and read before the plans we had with our family but I ended up sleeping in so I only really ended up reading for like an hour before bed. So anyways, my Saturday’s progress is below:

Updates

Saturday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 70
Total number of pages I’ve read: 966
Books read today: I continued reading Mediterranean Caper
Challenges: I did not participate in the Saturday challenge, there just isn’t enough time in the day, and also similar to Friday I didn’t feel like digging through my boxes of books

Today (Sunday) is the last day of the read-a-thon and I spent time volunteering this morning and then spent the afternoon at my little cousin’s First Communion and then having brunch with my family! I am going to try and do some reading now but seeing as how its already almost bedtime I’m not sure how much I’ll get to read. That’s ok though, Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 19 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

KcxHEGZ

Day 5 of Bout of Books 19 and I have to say I thought things would move a little faster for me. I tried to schedule a bunch of time for reading this week but other plans got in the way! I read probably about 5-6 hours yesterday though so that I think I’ll count as a good day. So anyways, my Friday’s progress is below:

Updates

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 316
Total number of pages I’ve read: 896
Books read today: I finished The Simplicity of Cider (I loved it, you can see my review here) and started Mediterranean Caper
Challenges: I did not participate in the Friday challenge, the challenge was to make a book spine rainbow and all my books are currently packed up in boxes until the library is done. I didn’t feel like digging around in the boxes.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of the read-a-thon and between family plans today and tomorrow (Mother’s Day and my little cousin’s First Communion) and a Lions event that I’ll be helping with, I’m not sure how much reading I will get done, but I will try my best! Happy reading everyone!

2017 Book #44 – The Simplicity of Cider by Amy E. Reichert

Posted in 2017, Book reviews, Bout of Books 19, Fiction, Magical realism, Reading Challenges, Women's fiction by

61EYgKWCiDLTitle: The Simplicity of Cider
Author: Amy E. Reichert
Date finished: 5/12/17
Genre: Fiction, women’s fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: May 16, 2017
Pages in book: 336
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Fall in love with The Simplicity of Cider, the charming new novel about a prickly but gifted cider-maker whose quiet life is interrupted by the arrival of a handsome man and his young son at her family’s careworn orchard by the author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and Luck, Love & Lemon Pie.
Focused and unassuming fifth generation cider-maker Sanna Lund has one desire: to live a simple, quiet life on her family’s apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin. Although her business is struggling, Sanna remains fiercely devoted to the orchard, despite her brother’s attempts to convince their aging father to sell the land.
Single dad Isaac Banks has spent years trying to shield his son Sebastian from his troubled mother. Fleeing heartbreak at home, Isaac packed up their lives and the two headed out on an adventure, driving across the country. Chance—or fate—led them straight to Sanna’s orchard.
Isaac’s helping hands are much appreciated at the apple farm, even more when Sanna’s father is injured in an accident. As Sanna’s formerly simple life becomes increasingly complicated, she finds solace in unexpected places—friendship with young Sebastian and something more deliciously complex with Isaac—until an outside threat infiltrates the farm.
From the warm and funny Amy E. Reichert, The Simplicity of Cider is a charming love story with a touch of magic, perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Gayle Forman.

My rating:  4.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Sanna Lund, who lives with her father at their family orchard. The orchard has been their family’s land for generations, with their normally large family all living together in the large farm house. It’s narrowed down to just Sanna and her father, Einars, now though and they rattle around the house and the land, trying to keep their orchard afloat. Sanna has a talent for making cider and her father decided to invest in a great renovation of their barn to install more cider machinery. Unfortunately neither of them know how to get the word out though so the orchard is now pretty deep in debt. Despite that, when father and son Isaac and Sebastian roll into town Einars decides to hire them to help out. Isaac feels an immediate attraction to Sanna, but his life is complicated enough with what he’s running from. With all their complications, is there really any chance for them to have a happy ending?
Overall I really just loved this book. There was just a touch of magic in the book and it really made it come alive for me. I loved Sanna’s character, she was strong and proud but also so loving and generous. And the cidery and orchard added such an interesting aspect to the story. The author really did such a wonderful job too of weaving this romantic and touching love story, Sanna and Isaac’s story really reached into my chest and just squeezed my heart tight. And I loved the ending and how creatively the author made a happy ending not only for Sanna but also for so many of the other characters in the story as well. This was such a great read and I would really recommend it!

The bottom line: I just loved this book, this was a beautifully woven love story with just a touch of magic to it. This one is a must read for the summer, I would definitely recommend!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

Bout of Books 19 Update – Day 4

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

KcxHEGZ

I had a really busy work day yesterday and then Kris and I went out to dinner and watched a movie, so I definitely didn’t get to even read for two hours, I’d be surprised if I read for one hour. Luckily today (Friday) I have off so it will be a catch-up day for reading. Anyways, my Thursday’s progress is below:

Updates

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 30
Total number of pages I’ve read: 580
Books read today: I continued reading The Simplicity of Cider
Challenges: I did the Thursday challenge, which was to create a dating profile for a character from a book. I picked a character from a recent read, Vasya from The Bear and the Nightingale

Today (Friday) I’m home reading and hope to get a lot done. Especially since the upcoming weekend will be such a busy one! Happy reading everyone!

Day 4 Challenge: Character Dating Profile

Posted in 2017, Bout of Books 19, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

I decided to do a character profile on a character from one of my recent reads, The Bear and the Nightingale. I really loved this book and how fantastical it was, I thought the main character of the book would be a great inspiration for this post!

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Name Vasilisa (Vasya) Vladimirovich
Height 5’9″
Eye Color Green
Hair Color Black
Age 18

Hometown the edge of the Russian wilderness

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Family I have three brothers, one sister, and one half sister. My mother died in childbirth but my father is loving. My stepmother is the same kind of crazy as me but super mean

Occupation Well it isn’t a paid position but I keep the town safe. At least until the new priest came to town and started mucking up everything.

Hobbies Talking to wood nymphs and guardians of the stove (domovoi) and the stables. Adventuring in the woods. Talking to horses. 

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Looking For A man on a brilliant white stallion with startling blue eyes who I met in a dream when I was young