Tag Archives: update

2016 Monthly Status Update: July

Posted in 2016, ARC August 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by

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July was a crazy busy month. I feel like I’m barely keeping up this month just with work and house stuff so there has been pretty much no time for reading. I’ve been trying to keep up with deadlines but I’ve fallen WAY behind. Luckily I am participating in ARC August again this year so I can use this month to hopefully catch up a bit! Anyways, here’s my progress for July.

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 7
# pages read this month: 1,763
# books read year-to-date: 71
# pages read year-to-date: 22,253

Favorite Books I Read:

How The Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell – 4.0 stars
The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel – 4.0 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

I didn’t really have any books in July that I didn’t enjoy. I had books that didn’t exactly thrill me but I still found them enjoyable for the most part.

Other Posts this month:

Author Interview! Tiffany McDaniel – Author of The Summer That Melted Everything
ARC August 2016 Reading Challenge Sign Up

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 18/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 7/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

August TBR list:

I have a rough TBR list on my ARC August Sign Up post that I’ll be working off of but other than that I don’t have a set TBR list for this month. My focus is more to get as many of the ARC’s on my back list read as I possibly can. I hate that I fell so behind and I’m hoping I can use August to catch up. I might end up straying off the list a little anyways depending on which new ARC’s pop up on my schedule. I’m very excited too for August since mid-month I’ll be going on vacation with my Dad to a house owned by his family off the southern coast of Maine. There is no electricity on the island and no wi-fi and very little cell signal. I can’t wait to unplug for a week and just read and relax and spend time with my family! Hope you all have a wonderful month as well!

2016 Monthly Status Update: June

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by

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Well. June wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped. I had a sort of mini-crisis mid-way through the month and had to make some hard choices. I only tend to have a couple hours of free time each night and I have to choose how to spend my time each evening between exercising, reading, and sleeping. And most of the time above everything else I choose reading. Which leaves not much time for taking care of my health. So long story short I turned June into health month. Which also meant I didn’t get much reading done for June. And since I had like 20 books on my TBR list for June I most definitely fell off path but that’s ok. Hopefully July I’ll get a little more reading done and I can learn how to balance reading time and exercise time. Anyways, here’s my progress for June.

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 7
# pages read this month: 2,110
# books read year-to-date: 64
# pages read year-to-date: 20,490

Favorite Books I Read:

The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner – 4.5 stars
Beauty and the Highland Beast by Lecia Cornwall – 4.0 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid – 2.5 stars – I just didn’t really get it, I’m hoping one day someone can explain to me what happened

Other Posts this month:

Didn’t get to post anything else this past month, will be working on that for July hopefully!

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 18/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 6/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

July TBR list: 

Since I didn’t really make any progress on my June list so I’m pretty much going to work off of the list of books I didn’t read in June. And I’m not planning to read them in any particular order, I’m winging it for this month! I’m hoping to re-claim my reading spark in June and also find a way to balance my new exercise time with my reading time. Happy Fourth of July to everyone and Happy Reading!

2016 Status Update: May

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by

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MAY ROCKED! I got SO much reading done and I was able to participate in some great read-a-thon events, one of which I had never participated in before. May’s TBR list was intimidating but I think I really did a great job of keeping up with the schedule as much as I could. I gave myself a couple nights off to drink too much wine but having so many days off that I could devote to reading I think offset any breaks I took. And I had retreat for the last weekend of the month with pretty much two full days devoted to reading. Retreat was great this year and I loved spending time with my quilting ladies, be sure to check out my post about retreat below!

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 18
# pages read this month: 6,228
# books read year-to-date: 57
# pages read year-to-date: 18,380

Favorite Books I Read:

The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch – 4.75 stars
People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper – 4.5 stars
The Beast of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood – 4.5 stars
Lana and the Laird by Sabrina York – 4.25 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

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I didn’t really like Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (2.75 stars). I just couldn’t really get into the story line on this one and it fell flat for me. I also didn’t particularly like Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (3.25 stars) which was a HUGE disappointment for me because I usually LOVE her novels in the Maiden Lane series.

Other Posts this month:

Tall Poppy Book Giveaway
Author Interview!  – Mary Waters-Sayer – Author of the Blue Bath
Bout of Books 16 – Read-a-thon, contests, giveaways, and more!!
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 1
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 2
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 3
Bout of Books 16 Day 4 – If You Like This, Try This
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 4
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 5
Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 6
Bout of Books 16 Update Day 7 & WRAP UP
Reading Retreat! 2016
Reading Retreat Read-a-thon Wrap up!

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 17/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 3/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

June TBR list: 

-Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-The Good Kind of Bad by Rita Brassington (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis (The Reading Room)(rolled from May TBR – I haven’t received from the publisher yet!)
-I Take You by Eliza Kennedy (LibraryThing)(rolled from May TBR – I haven’t received from the publisher yet!)
-How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell (The Reading Room)(rolled from May TBR – didn’t get to)
-Frayed by Kara Terzis (NetGalley)(rolled from May TBR – didn’t get to)
-Quarter Life Poetry by Samantha Jayne (NetGallley)
-Anything For Her by Jack Jordan (NetGalley)
-The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell (NetGalley)
-The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis (NetGalley)
-The Creswell Plot by Eliza Wass (NetGalley)
-The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner (NetGalley)
-I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (NetGalley)
-The Girls by Emma Cline (NetGalley)
-If You Left by Ashley Prentice Norton (NetGalley)
-The Vintner’s Daughter by Kristen Harnisch (own – for Fiction Lover’s Book Discussion)
-Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (NetGalley)
-Beauty and the Highland Beast by Lecia Cornwall (NetGalley)
-Thirty Days to Thirty by Courtney Peak (NetGalley)
-First Comes Love by Emily Giffin (NetGalley)
-All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (NetGalley)
-The Killing Game by Nancy Bush (NetGalley)
-Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner (NetGalley)
-Stormswept by Sabrina Jeffries (NetGalley)
-Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney (NetGalley)

So that is the plan for June. Similar to my May TBR, June seems daunting with the amount of books I have on the list. I feel pretty confident in how well I did on the May list though, so I think June will (hopefully) be a successful month as well!

Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Update Day 7 & WRAP UP

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Day 7 was mostly spent traveling and visiting with family but I managed to read about 3 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: 226
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,719
Books read today: I started Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
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 did that! I read about 27 hours over the course of the 7 days which was good. And I read over 1,700 pages which seems like a great accomplishment for one week!

My Goals

My goal for this read-a-thon was to learn the ropes and have fun! I posted a update every day on how the previous day went and I also did Monday, Tuesday and Thursday‘s “challenge” post.  I really had a lot of fun with Thursday’s “If You Like This, Try This” post!

Books to Read

Overall I think it was a successful week. I had a great time participating and I will definitely want to participate in another Bout of Books in the future!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Day 5 of my first Bout of Books and I have to say I thought things would move a little faster for me but I’m finding it really hard to concentrate sometimes. I read probably about 2 and 1/2 hours but I don’t think I made as much reading progress as I could have if I was concentrating. So anyways, my Friday’s progress is below:

Updates

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 140
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,233
Books read today: I started Troublemaker by Linda Howard
Challenges: I did not participate in the Friday challenge, it had to do with posting something scary and I’m not so good at that.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of the read-a-thon and I will be traveling a lot and visiting with my husband’s family so not sure how much reading I will get done, but I will try my best! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 4

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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I had to go to an all day training on Day 4 so I didn’t get to read like I had been the previous days (all day) but I did read probably around 4 hours since I read most of the night once I got home. So my Thursday’s progress is below:

Updates

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 343
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,093
Books read today: I finished Every Bride Has Her Day (you can see my review here)
Challenges: I loved the Thursday challenge, “If You Like This, Try This” it was a really fun post and I’m pleased with my book ideas.

Today (Friday) I’m hoping to get some work out of the way this morning and then devote the afternoon and evening to reading! And tomorrow is Goal Day, which I am really looking forward to and will hopefully get a bunch of reading done! Happy reading everyone!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 2

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Well Day 2 went better than Day 1. I got distracted for a bit mid-day but I ended up reading for over 7 hours and I finished one book and started a next one. So my Tuesday’s progress is below:

Updates

Tuesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 456
Total number of pages I’ve read: 541
Books read today: I finished Wilde Lake and started Kill or Be Kilt
Challenges: I did the book shelf shelfie challenge for Tuesday, I posted it on Twitter here

I’m hoping to make good progress through the rest of today and tomorrow. I’ll either be posting an update tomorrow late in the day or I won’t post an update again until Friday. Happy reading to you all!

Bout of Books 16 Update – Day 1

Posted in 2016, Bout of Books 16, Reading Challenges by

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So! This read-a-thon started out slightly slow for me yesterday. I did met my goal of reading 2 hours but I only ended up reading 85 pages. Today so far is going MUCH better but that is information for tomorrow’s update! So my Monday’s progress is below:

Updates

Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 85
Total number of pages I’ve read: 85
Books read: Still working on Wilde Lake as of last night,so no books finished yet
Challenges: I did the introduce yourself in six words challenge for Monday, posted it on Twitter here

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

2016 Status Update: April

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist, Reading Challenges by

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Well April was definitely a more productive month for me. Between tax season drawing to a close of my sleep budget being re-instated I was able to get a lot of reading done in the beginning and middle of the month. Unfortunately, even though I had the last week of the month off I was doing so much other fun stuff that I got almost no reading done. Still was a good month though!

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 12
# pages read this month: 3,832
# books read year-to-date: 39
# pages read year-to-date: 12,152

Favorite Books I Read:

The Winemakers by Jan Moran – 4.0 stars
Dead Distillers by Colin Spoelman and David Haskell – 4.0 stars
The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke – 4.25 stars

Books I Didn’t Particularly Enjoy: 

I didn’t particularly care for The Art of Not Breathing and I Know What I’m Doing and Other Lies I tell Myself.

Other Posts this month:

Best Laid Wedding Plans book giveaway (closed)
Book of the Month subscription

Status of 2016 Reading Challenges:

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2016 Checklist – 14/20 books read
Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge – 3/24 books read
Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Reading Challenge – 0/26 books read

May TBR list: 

-Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (The Reading Room) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-Lake of Dreams by Linda Howard (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-The Good Kind of Bad by Rita Brassington (NetGalley) (rolled from April TBR – didn’t get to)
-The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer (NetGalley)
-Kill or Be Kilt by Victoria Roberts (NetGalley)
-Every Bride Has Her Day by Lynnette Austin (NetGalley)
-Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman (Edelweiss)
-Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (NetGalley)
-The California Wife by Kristen Harnisch (Author)
-Troublemaker by Linda Howard (Edelweiss)
-Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis (The Reading Room)
-Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka (Fiction Lover’s Book Club)
-People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper (The Reading Room)
-Wicked Whispers by Tina Donohue (NetGalley)
-I Take You by Eliza Kennedy (The Reading Room)
-How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell (The Reading Room)
-Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt (purchased – need to read so can read next in series)
-Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (NetGalley)
-The Beast of Clan Kincaid by Lily Blackwood (NetGalley)
-Lana and the Laird by Sabrina York (NetGalley)
-His Wicked Wish by Olivia Drake (NetGalley)
-Frayed by Kara Terzis (NetGalley)

I’m just not even going to think about how daunting this list is. I’m just gonna read and hope for the best this month! I do have 3 days off during the second week in May because I am participating in the upcoming Bout of Books reading challengeBout of Books reading challenge and I am looking forward to having some days devoted to reading!

Happy reading everyone!

2016 Status Update: March

Posted in 2016, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, For the love of books, Penguin Random House: Challenge Your Shelf A-Z Challenge, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2016 checklist by

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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!