2017 Monthly Status Update: March

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Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 15
# pages read this month: 2,722
# books read year-to-date: 28
# pages read year-to-date: 7,156

Favorite Books I Read:

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If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio – 4.5 stars

Other Posts this month:

Last Night with the Duke BLOG TOUR!!
The Enemies of Versailles BLOG TOUR!!
Wine and Cocktails – New Releases!

Status of 2017 Reading Challenges:

  1. Finish 2016 ARC’s from NetGalley that I missed – I got a chance to read one this month, so one down! Only 27 to go
  2. Participate in 2 reading challenges – Scheduled for May and August
  3. Other goals:
    1. Write shorter reviews – I’m trying! I think this past month I was able to get out a few shorter ones
    2. Continue establishing relationships – I think I’m doing it, we’ll see how it goes I guess!

Next Month TBR List:

-Windswept by Sabrina Jeffries (part-way through now)
-My One True Highlander by Suzanne Enoch
-I Sared the Duke by Anna Bennett
-The Lady and the Highlander by Lecia Cornwall
-Geekerella by Ashley Poston
-Hannah’s Moon by John A. Heldt
-The Young Widower’s Handbook by Tom McAllister
-Running With Scissors by Auguston Borroghs
-Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse
-The Whole Art of Detection by Lyndsay Faye
-The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
-Never Let You Go by Chevy Stevens
-Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach
-The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

That’s the general reading plan. Fortunately, tax/busy season will be ending for me in less than 3 weeks (only 16 more workdays!!!!!!) and then I have about a week and a half off where I will be spending a lot of time reading. So I am hoping to read everything in the list above and maybe catch up on a few other ones I missed in March as well!! Plus my husband and I are taking a couple trips that I’m really looking forward to, including a new quilting retreat in Ogunquit, ME! So stay tuned for some serious reading in April!

2016 Status Update: March

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YES! It is almost April, the end of tax season is in sight! March was an interesting month for me since I have been working more hours and therefore would have less time for reading. Combine that with the fact that I have requested WAY more than I can possibly manage to read on the various ARC sites, and I instituted a new “sleep budget” policy where I’m only allowed to sleep a maximum of 6 hours a night. That lasted right up until I got sick (probably from lack of sleep).  My friend at work (my day job) keep telling me to just stop requesting the books but when you see something on there that you really want to read, how can you not request it? I guess the main problem is that I really want to read a lot of books, hence the over abundance of books in the March/April TBR.
On a really positive note, I won an awesome giveaway this month! I won a giveaway on the Tall Poppy Writers site for signed books from 16 authors plus a $100 gift card to Storiarts! Stayed tuned for a separate post on this, once I receive all my books I will post about them and what I ordered from Storiarts!
Anyways, here is my status update for progress I made on reading challenges this month and some highlights of my posts for this month.

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 3,527
# books read year-to-date: 27
# pages read year-to-date: 8,320

Favorite Books I Read:

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz – 4.75 stars
Just Fall by Nina Sadowsky – 4.75 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

I honestly can say that I enjoyed every book I read in March, therefore there weren’t any March reads that fall into this category for me 🙂

Other Posts this month:

OwlCrate February Subscription Box
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 9/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 1/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

April TBR list: 

-A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams (BookBrowse) (rolled from March TBR – didn’t get to)
-Change of Scene: A 100 Page Novella by Mary Kay Andrews (NetGalley)
-The Winemakers by Jan Moran (NetGalley)
-The Rivals of Versailles by Sally Christie (NetGalley)
-You Can’t Always Get the Marquess You Want by Alexandra Hawkins (NetGalley)
-Remember My Beauties by Lynne Hugo (NetGalley)
-Amazonia by James Rollins (Fiction Lover’s Book Club)
-Dead Distillers by Colin Spoelman (NetGalley)
-The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke (Won an ARC on their Facebook!)
-The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman (BookBrowse)
-I Know What I’m Doing — and Other Lies I Tell Myself by Jen Kirkman (Edelweiss)
-The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander (NetGalley)
-Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (The Reading Room)
-Lake of Dreams by Linda Howard (NetGalley)
-Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax (NetGalley)
-The Good Kind of Bad by Rita Brassington (NetGalley)

I’m overwhelmed just looking at this list. 16 books. So basically I need to read a book every two days at a minimum. Which I’m already falling behind at, so I guess we’ll see how this goes. I have some titles on this list that I’m really excited about though so I think it will be a good month. I’m technically already about a third of the way through A Certain Age and I love it!

So! That was March overview and my plan for April! Hoping to find more time for reading this month! Happy reading to all!

2016 Status Update: February

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Ugh. I can’t believe it is March already! Its tax season for me right now so I am definitely finding myself falling behind schedule a little bit. That and I am requesting WAY more than I can possibly manage to read on the various ARC sites.  Anyways, here is my status update for progress I made on reading challenges this month and some highlights of my posts for this month.

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 7
# pages read this month: 1,988
# books read year-to-date: 15
# pages read year-to-date: 4,793

Favorite Books I Read:

Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf
The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert
Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

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Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – Was just too much weird stuff all thrown together for me

Other Posts this month:

Friday Finds (Feb 5)

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 5/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 1/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read
Holiday Bingo 2015 Reading Challenge – 13/25 books read – this challenge is over as of 2/29/16, look for my wrap-up post on this coming in the next couple days! My next challenge I will be doing is the Bout of Books in May

March TBR list: 

-Wedding Night with the Earl by Amelia Grey (NetGalley)
-I Kissed a Rogue by Shana Galen (rolled from Feb TBR – didn’t get to) (NetGalley)
-The Last Girl by Joe Hart (NetGalley)
-The Passenger by Lisa Lutz (rolled from Feb TBR – didn’t get to) (NetGalley)
-A Sudden Crush by Camille Isley (The Reading Room)
-Tales of My Childhood by Anna Lillian Young (author request)
-Little Bee by Chris Cleave (book club)
-Just Fall by Nina Sadowsky (NetGalley)
-Dreaming of Antigone by Robin Bridges (NetGalley)
-Good on Paper by Rachel Cantor (Reading with Robin book discussion)
-A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams (BookBrowse)

So I have a full schedule for March and I’m sure I’ll still end up requesting more as we go through the month because (a) I’m addicted to books and (b) I love reading. I have to say though I am looking forward to my post-tax season time when I can take a few days off and hopefully get caught up! Maybe even read one of the 300 books that I own and haven’t read (a girl can dream). Specifically if I have time I think I’ll be picking up The Glass Sword (sequel to The Red Queen) since I pre-ordered it and it came during Feb but of course I couldn’t read it because of all my other books I already had scheduled. Hopefully this month!

So! That was February overview and my plan for March! Hoping to find more time for reading this month! Happy reading to all!

ARC August – Check in #3 – 8/22

Three weeks down now, I’m a bit behind but I’m not exactly panicking at this point (only a little). I got even less done this week than last, hoping to have a little time to catch up over the next week! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

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My progress: 

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed during Week 1
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed during Week 1
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed during Week 1
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed during Week 1
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Read & reviewed during Week 2 plus an author interview!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed during Week 2
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed during Week 2
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier – Read & reviewed during Week 2
9. Friction by Sandra Brown – Read & reviewed
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – Read & reviewed
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 16th-22nd:

51-iNctMrSLFriction by Sandra Brown – 4 stars

51ETKpUBQzLWe Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – 3 stars

That’s it for this week unfortunately! The Terryville Fair is coming up next weekend so that will be a busy time for me but I am hoping to get some reading done before then so hopefully I can catch up. Have a happy Saturday everyone!

ARC August – Check in #2 – 8/15

Two weeks down now, halfway through the month and I think I’m making good progress. I didn’t get as much done as I had planned this week but we all need a little down time once in a while! ARC August, which is hosted by Read.Sleep.Repeat is a reading challenge that centers around catching up on reading your ARC’s! And I definitely needed the encouragement this month since I have a long list of them to get done.

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My progress: 

1. Awake by Natasha Preston – Read & reviewed during Week 1
2. On The Way: A Working Woman’s Field Guide by Robin Lake – Read & reviewed during Week 1
3. The Guilty One by Sophie Littlefield – Read & reviewed during Week 1
4. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner – Read & reviewed during Week 1
5. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – Read & reviewed plus an author interview!
6. Steele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed
7. Melting Steele by Kimberly Amato – Read & reviewed
8. 33 Cecils by Everett DeMorier – Read & reviewed
9. Friction by Sandra Brown – Up next after I finish the book for this month’s book discussion
10. We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
11. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
12. Goddess of Suburbia by Stephanie Kepke

Books read August 8th-15th:

41ipsFo0VdLImaginary Things by Andrea Lochen – 4.25 stars

81bJqKePfdLSteele Resolve by Kimberly Amato – 2.75 stars

51KO56Q-KBLMelting Steele by Kimberly Amato – 2.5 stars

A1yPvrKsVaLThirty-Three Cecils by Everett De Morier – 3.5 stars

So that is what I have accomplished this week! Lots still to read, I didn’t have these on my original sign up post but I realized that I have 2 more ARC’s that I need to read for 9/1 and therefore will likely read in August. So that makes a total of 6 more books to read before 8/31. And with the Terryville Fair coming up at the end of the month, I lose a whole weekend to that. Lots of reading to do!! Will have to fit everything in.
Happy reading to you all!