April End of Month Wrap Up Post

So I've been good about the Sunday Posts again this month, however not as great with my challenges I think.  But let's do a recap.

I signed up for this challenge last month, and if you click on the image above you can see my sign up post.  My goal was to do about one a month, and so far I'm on top of that with my April post:  It's In The Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings On My Blog.  I even have already come up with a discussion topic for May!  It's fun to talk about these things, and then see what others think, as well as going and reading other blog's discussion posts.

Of course my next challenge I'm going to talk about is the one that I'm hosting.  If you click on the image above, you can go see my sign up post, and you can still sign up yourself!  Not only that, but those of you who have been participating already, or start in May, can go HERE, and add in links to your reviews for this challenge, and enter another giveaway!  I have surpassed my goal of 4 new series, and have reached to 6 new series. And I don't think I'm done!  Most of these are also authors that are new to me, and I am going to get to meet them in September at the NOLA Story Con.   Here are my posts that meet this challenge from April:

• Losing It by Cora Carmack
• On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
• Calendar Girl Vol. 1 by Audrey Carlan
• Rule (Marked Men #1) by Jay Crownover
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

 

You can see my original sign up post HERE, and see how many I've signed up for again this year. I'm not doing as well with this challenge as others, I need to get caught up on this, maybe this summer.  

• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - This book has been sitting on my TBR shelf since last year at this same time!  It was one of them that was on my list in the sign up post though, so that is good.

 

My feedback ratio is still at 70%, and I've requested a few more unfortunately, but at least I'm keeping at 70% and  not dropping.  I've reached my goal number of 10 feedback for the year, but still working on the ratio.  You can see my original sign up post for this HERE.   

• Elementals 2:  The Blood of the Hydra by Michelle Madow (7 days left on Giveaway)
• Flawed by Cecilia Ahern
• Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey (3 days left on Giveaway)

 

Okay, so we'll go through these one by one, and HERE is the original post of my resolutions.   

• I'm doing better with the not downloading a ton of e-galleys.  Still making note of them in my blog planner, and only going back and downloading them when it gets closer to time and I know I'm going to read them, unless of course it is one I know I have to read.
• I posted every single day this past month.  One thing that is nice though, is that I did have some weeks where I was able to post for almost the whole week ahead of time, so I wasn't as stressed about it.  
• But, because of the end of the school year getting busier, and probably all the posting I was doing, I don't feel like I got as much commenting done as I wanted.  
• Still doing my monthly wrap up post, as you can see with this post!  
• I have beat my goal of 2 reviews a week, with doing at least 3 each week!  Yay me!
• Personal goals:  No money saved, but I borrowed the money I needed from my mom to get my air conditioner fixed, so I'll just be paying her back over the summer, and it will be nice to not have to sweat in my house when the summer temps really get here!  My new walking goal is to walk twice a week, and I've done that so far this month!  This goal will be met in May, hopefully, and then my reward is to maybe upgrade to the new Alta Fitbit.  

 

You can see my original sign up post for this challenge HERE.   And I'll just say I've not done any this month.  So far I've only done one this year.  I've really got to get a move on this!  I have The Raven King sitting on my shelf to read, I think I'm having trouble picking it up knowing that it will mean the end!

I think I'm going to get some writing done this summer, I may even add a goal for that next month, as a summer type of goal.  I've got another story idea, plus a picture book that I want to finish and submit!  I also have my NaNoWriMo from several years ago that I'm posting on Wattpad that I'd like to get finished this year as well, if you want to check it out so far, go HERE.  I've decided that I kind of need a "me" vacation, where I go away from home, so not a staycation, but I also have no dogs and no family and no big plans.  I used to go to a library conference every year in April, and that was always nice to be at a resort, and have the evenings to myself to write, or just be alone with no stress.  I have a friend who has a cabin in Colorado, and she's offered to let me borrow it. So I just have to plan when I'd like to use it and see about getting it set up with her.  

My April was pretty busy.  How was your April?

February End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up

So this month I didn't do very well with my normal Sunday posts.  It just didn't seem to work out.  So there are a lot of books I did get this month that I haven't shared.  I'm going to try to start again next week, with the first Sunday in March and get back to that.  But for my one goal of doing the monthly wrap ups of my challenges, I'm still on track this 2nd month of the year.  Last month at this time I was behind on my Goodreads goal, but this month, due to my picking up and devouring a  new series, I am ahead.  Only one book at this moment though because that series has created a huge obsession to where I am listening to the audiobooks of the books that I've already read because I need my #Hessa fix.  More about that in a bit.

As usual I'm going to start with my own challenge.  My goal for this challenge was to start 4 new series this year.  You can read about the challenge if you click on the button above, you can even still sign up yourself!  I started one new series last month, The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd.  This month I started, and finished, a new series that wasn't even in my original plan.  It is the series I am now seriously obsessed with.  I think about the characters all the time.  I'm listening to the audiobook of the 2nd book, even though I actually read the 2nd book, and will probably soon listen to the audiobook of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th as I am able to get them!  I own all the books now, and probably am going to try to buy the digital downloads of their audiobooks because of how much I love listening to the story. They make walking at the gym go by so fast!  Here is that series:

• After by Anna Todd 

I loved it so much I'm offering a giveaway of any of the books in the series that you want, it is international as long as The Book Depository ships to you.  You can enter by clicking on the link above, you have until the middle of March to enter.  I loved the book so much, I even spent time at work one day making a Someecard for it:

And if you follow me on Twitter, you'll probably see lots of tweets from me about this.  Usually with the tag of #Hessa.

Okay, how am I doing on this one?  Well, none of my choices which you can see in the original post HERE, were ones that I got to.  The only one I think I can count is one that I got an ARC of last year towards the end of the year.

• Titans by Victoria Scott

During March I will have a week of spring break, and even though I told my part time job that I had all the days free to work, looks like they still only have me working 2 days that week.  So my goal for that week is going to be to try to finish 5 books, which is about a book a day.

Yeah, none this month.  So let's move on from the depressing part of not doing what I needed.  :-(

• My goal about not downloading egalleys is going well.  Now when I find them on Edelweiss or Netgalley, if they are ones I don't have to request, then I just write them down in my calendar in the month they'd be published and wait to download them, just in case I can't get to them.  If I have to request them, then they have to be ones that I really, really want.  
• I've tried harder about not having to post every day of the month, and have continued to do better about it.  Both Friday and Saturday of this past week, I didn't post.  And while in the back of my brain I was thinking about what can I post, I just took a break.  
• I'm trying harder to go comment on other blogs, going through my GFC scroll on nights that I don't have a post to get done, and trying to click on more of the emails I get to go to the posts and comment more.  
• This post keeps me up to date with my end of the month challenge post.
• For the most part I've done 2 reviews a week.  If you average out how many I've done for the month, then I'm good.  But this After series obsession is really hurting me on the audiobook and reading in bed at night fronts.  I often go to bed listening to the audiobooks instead of reading like I was doing.  So that is something that needs to be worked on in March!
• For personal goals I still haven't saved any money. Although I'm hoping to be good with my tax return, depending how much it is, and spend it to get a new air conditioner for my house.  Although I do really want the new Fitbit that comes out this next month.  That goes along with my other personal goal of getting to the gym.  I've been once a week this past month, and I have the goal of doing that until spring break.  If I do, then I am going to start saving money and thinking about my next tattoo.  :-)  Hoping that after spring break, and during, I'll start going to the gym, or walking twice a week.  

You can see all of my goals by clicking HERE.

Hmm, this is an interesting one.  I just signed up for it last month.  I set my goal at Level 3, which was to read 10-15 this year, more specifically 12.  I got one done last month.  The only thing I can possibly count for this month is finishing the After series.   So, again, hoping March and spring break will get me back on track!  In fact maybe I should do some planning on what to read in March, especially during spring break week, like I see some blogs doing. 

That's my progress this month.   How did you do with your challenges?  One other thing I'm planning to do is set up another giveaway for my It's New to Me Challenge that I mentioned at the top of this post.  It will be for participants only, and I'll have them link up to their reviews!

January End of the Month Challenge Wrap-Up (and One New Challenge Sign-up)

Hello everyone!  Since one of my blog goals for the year was to make sure I was keeping up on my challenges every month, I'll be posting an end of the month wrap-up, discussing my challenge achievements today instead of a Sunday Post. I'm also going to join into another challenge today and use this as my sign up post for it.  I'm actually a book behind on my Goodreads Chalelnge goal today, and I'm going to blame it on a book that gave me a severe hangover this past week, November 9.   I did a Stacking the Shelves yesterday, so that won't be included here either.  So, hang on, I hope you'll wade through my long post!

I think we should definitely start with my own Challenge.  I know I called it a series starter challenge, but the more I've thought about it, the more I think it is either a series, or an author maybe that is new to you.  So if you haven't joined in yet, please do HERE!  At the end of February I'll probably be hosting another giveaway for the people who are participating.  My goal was 4 new series this year.  And I would say I'm right on track with that.  Here is the link to the review of the one series I started this month:

• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd  

If I choose to do the new author idea for myself for this series, I will have another one to include for February, and will also have to probably up my goal of 4 for the year at that rate.   If you've joined my Challenge, how did you do this past month?

For this challenge I have to actually use the same book as above.  It was actually one of my planned books from my original sign-up post HERE.  So I won't add it again to this post since you can just go click on the link above.  I'm right on track with this one as well, as my goal was only 11 most likely.

Now, for my goal on this, I was going to give feedback on 10 books to try to get my feedback rating back up to 80%.  I've got two books that I've done this with so far.

• Elementals by Michelle Madow  
• Firsts by Laurie Elizabethy Flynn

There are other books that I didn't finish, and I did try to go back and add feedback on them.

• The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller - I didn't finish it, but reviewed it as a good book on Netgalley because it is something I would purchase for my school library.
• Sneak Peek:  Soundless by Richelle Mead - I didn't even start this. When I first requested it, I thought it was the full book.  I don't like sneak previews.  I prefer to wait until the whole book is available to read.  And so that is what I added to the feedback on Netgalley.

I haven't actually raised my rating because I have added a few new books as well.  Oops.

• My first goal was to subscribe to comments.  Well, unfortunately, I did this.  The reason I say unfortunately is because most of the time it isn't just subscribing to replies to my comment, it is to all comments on the post.  So I had to stop doing it.  :-(
• I'm doing better about not actually downloading every egalley that I think I might want.  I am still writing all that are available down in my calendar.  What I need to do this month is make a mark of some sort on which 2 I actually have downloaded.
• My next goal was about not having to post every day of the week this year.  It's really  hard to get out of that routine.  So much so that I've had to even take breaks, make myself take breaks and skip a day when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I've still got to work on not signing up for tours unless it is a book I already know I'm going to read or am dying to read.  And I've gotten better about that.  I've stopped looking through all the tour emails I get other than a quick perusal.  
• Then my goal of an end of the month challenge post is starting out great with this post!
• The two reviews a week goal, still doing well with keeping it up!
• On my reading goals I haven't done any of that really, no recommended books, no classics, but I have worked on my Goodreads goal, one book behind though!
• For my personal goals, I have actually been to the gym once, so kind of working on it.  Haven't done well with saving money though.  I did get some organizing done in my house, got my bookshelves worked on one weekend.  Shared some pictures of that back then as well.  

If you want to check out what my actual goals were, go HERE.

 

I've decided to go ahead and join into this Challenge again as I have at least read one to get going.  Here is the info on what it is all about:

This challenge is for all of you series readers who are scared to death of that last book in the series. You anxiously await it. You stalk it. You get your hands on it as soon as possible. But then…you put off reading it for fear that it might not be everything you thought it would be. Or, maybe you just have a backlog of series started and you need to finish that last book. 

Levels: (how many series enders you are planning to read)
Level 1: 1 – 5
Level 2: 5 – 10
Level 3: 10 – 15
Level 4: 15+

My goal is going to be Level 3 as I have about 12 or 13 I want to read.  One is already done, and I'll put the link below.

1. Will to Survive (Rule of Three #3) by Eric Walters
2. The Countdown by Kimberly Derting
3. Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige
4. The Crown by Kiera Cass
5. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
6. Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins
7. Reborn by Jennifer Rush
8. Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau
9. Revolution by Jenna Black
10. Redemption by Debra Driza
11. Illusion by Martina Boone
12. The Shadow Cabinet  by Maureen Johnson
13. United by Melissa Landers

If you want to join in, go HERE to the sign-in page.  So I'm already ahead with even just signing up right now!

So there you have it.  A really long end of the month challenge check-in post.  Maybe next month I'll figure out a more streamlined way to do it.  How did you do on your challenges this past month?

Review: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd (TBR Pile Challenge and It's New to Me Challenge)

The Madman's Daughter is a book I'd wanted to read for a long time.  I believe some time last year I won it in a giveaway on another blog.  But I keep forgetting to leave notes in those books to remind me when I blog about them.  This is the 2nd book by this author that I've read.  The first was The Cage, which is not related to this story at all.  Once again though, this author has written a story that is very unique.  I love that it is a retelling of a classic story, while not a fairy tale, still a story that is great to have more insight into. 

Basically it is kind of a retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Or more precisely not necessary a retelling, but some additions to the story.  The main character for us is Juliet, who is the daughter of Dr. Moreau.  Her father left her and her mother when she was just a girl.  He left because whatever kind of experiments he was doing were considered against the laws of nature, and he was chased out by the other doctors and scientists of the time.  As far as Juliet knows, he is dead.  Because she and her mother had to work at horrible low paying jobs, and lived terrible lives.  Juliet is 16 years old, and of course has an interest in medical science, as well as quite a vast knowledge of it thanks to her father.  But all she can do now is work as a maid at a college nearby.  But one day she discovers her father's old assistant is in town.  Montgomery was about her age, but because he was a boy, her father took him in and taught him to be his assistant.  She finds out from Montgomery that her father is still alive, and on an island where it seems he has continued his experiments.

As I mentioned, she works as a maid.  And one of the men she works for is kind of a jerk.  After she has a bad interaction with him, she decides she must leave town, and so she insists that Montgomery take her back with him.  They do, but the ship ride is long, and it is on an older, sketchier ship.  On the way the ship rescues a man who is floating by himself on a raft in the middle of the ocean.  His name is Edward, and he says he's from a well-to-do family back in London.  While they are on the island, her father tries to get Juliet and Edward together, as he feels they would be a good match, and he could take care of her back in town.  But Juliet still feels an attraction to Montgomery, which she's unsure if he reciprocates.

Now the island is full of genetically modified animals that are now very human like thanks to her father.  While they mostly seem to follow his rules, some are growing uneasy and unhappy.  Not to mention there is someone or something on the island that has begun killing.  Dr. Moreau takes the medicine away from his creatures in punishment, and then all chaos breaks loose.  Making it a fight to stay alive, and figure out how to get off the island.

Really an interesting way to make this story come alive.  I've never actually read the original story, but have seen the movie, the newer one.  This story makes me want to go back and watch the movie again, especially since I didn't really enjoy the movie, but think maybe now I will.  Maybe watching the original instead.  I'm looking forward now to reading the next book in the series, and I was glad to read that it would be based on another story instead of just a continuation of this one.

And this book also will count towards two of my challenges:  TBR Pile, as well as the challenge I'm hosting this year:   It's New to Me.  It's not too late to enter into my challenge either!

2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge #2016TBRPile and 2015 TBR Challenge Wrap-up

     

Now, I tried this last year, and my goal was to do 11-20 books.  I ended up doing 11, only 4 of which were ones I'd listed in my original post.  But here are the ones I did:

• Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
• Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
• Broken Symmetry by Dan Rix
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• World After by Susan Ee
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
• Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
• Arianna's Destiny by Michelle Sodaro
• The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

I'm joining up at Bookish Lifestyle again this year, and setting my goal the same at 11-20:  A Friendly Hug.  As I mentioned last year, I often read whatever I feel like, so my choices may not all make it again.  But I'm going to try to combine some of them with another challenge I am hosting myself this year, It's New to Me - Series Starter Challenge.  Here is my proposed list for the 2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge:

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
• Zodiac by Romina Russell
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
• Until the Beginning by Amy Plum
• Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Broken Trust by Michelle Sodaro
• Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris
• The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
• Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

And as I think about it, there may be more, I may actually make it to the 20 instead of just 11 this year.

So, what challenges are you doing this year?  If you want to join in, you can click on the banner at the top to go sign up!

Review: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin (TBR Challenge #11)

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this when I went to BEA a year ago.  I also got to meet the author and get an autograph.  As you can see though, I didn't get to it for over a year.  So it is #11 on my TBR Challenge list for the year.  It was a pretty good book, had some definite unique parts to the story, and reading the author's note at the end about a real walled city made it even better after I was done reading it.

There are three main characters that we get the story from, and their stories are all interwoven.  First we meet Jin Ling.  Jin Ling is a girl who has disguised herself as a boy in the Walled City in order to try to find her sister who she knows was taken to be in a brothel.  Life on the streets for her is dangerous.  But she is fast, and being able to get away really is what keeps her alive.  Until she steals brand new boots from another street kid, a big bully.  As he is trying to get his boots back, and probably kill Jin Ling in the process, we meet Dai, our next character.  Dai isn't a normal kid living on his own in the Walled City.  He is there to find information about one of the biggest gangsters for the authorities outside the city.  If he can do this, he will not be thrown in jail for crimes he committed before.  A crime that ended in the death of his own brother.  He comes across Jin Ling, and decides to help her, a boy as he thinks, in order to get Jin Ling to be a runner for him, and help him get into the gangster's headquarters to get the info he needs.  It is in this headquarters, which has a brothel, that we meet the third character, Mei Yee.  She is a prostitute, but she doesn't have to be with a lot of customers as there is an ambassador that pays very well to keep her only for himself.  He treats her pretty well, other than the prostitute part, but she wants more.  And when she sees the handsome boy outside her window, Dai, she knows what she might want and what might be out there.  You may have guessed the Mei Yee is Jin Ling's sister.  But the connection isn't made until the end of the story.  Dai has 18 days, and the story is told by the days.  The last day will be New Year's Eve, when the authorities are planning a raid, and they need the info that Dai is supposed to find. 

Of course there will be lots of obstacles along the way.  Jin Ling will get a very serious wound and Dai will find out that she is a girl.  But Jin Ling won't let that wound keep her from helping Dai earn his freedom from his past crimes, and it should all work out to hopefully free them all.  Mei Yee will have to deal with the danger that comes from trying to help Dai as well, only hers will be the threat of being hooked on heroin for betraying the gangster.  Not to mention that her ambassador will not be happy when he detects her thinking of someone else. 

Really a good story, and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Ryan Graudin and I at BEA 2014

Sunday Post #32 (including July wrap-up) and Stacking the Shelves August 2nd, 2015

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

Last week on the blog:

• Crystal Kingdom by Amanda Hocking,  The Young Elites by Marie Lu, Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar
• Book Blitz:  Timekeeper Rising by Allyssa Painter (Giveaway)
• Cover Reveal:  Dangerous Games by D'Ann Burrow
• Waiting on Wednesday:  The Rule of Mirrors by Caragh O'Brien

I got three reviews done last week, could actually have been four if I hadn't had the Book Blitz and Cover Reveal to do.  But 2 a week is my goal, so I'm definitely meeting that.  

For my TBR Pile Reading Challenge, I didn't get anything read this past month.  Good thing I was three books ahead last month.  I only got one book for my COYER Summer Challenge, so I'm behind on that already.  For the Book Blog Bingo I got N:  a book that takes place in a school by reading:  Exorcising Aaron Nguyen.  Those are my updates for my challenges.  For my Goodreads challenge, I'm way head!

This week on the blog:

• Reviews:  While You Were Gone by Amy K. Nichols, Ghostlight by Sonia Gensler
• Possible Reviews:  Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward, Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Book Blitz:  Silverwood by Betsy Streeter
• My 6th Blogoversary!!!!!  Stay tuned for a giveaway to celebrate!
• Sign ups for my 4th Annual September is for Sequels Challenge and Giveaway sign-ups.  

I had 12 people besides myself who signed up for the September is for Sequels Challenge last year.  I hope to have the same or more this year, here is the link to last year's post if you want to see what it is:  http://misclisa.blogspot.com/2014/08/3rd-annual-september-is-for-sequels.html.   I did the Giveaway Hop with I Am A Reader last year, not sure if she'll participate again as I know she's not doing as many hops these days.  But I will find out before I get it set up.  Maybe I can get Bookhounds to co-sponsor.  Guess I'd better go start planning!  Meetings for school start this week, so I'm guessing my reading time will fall way back. Especially the staying up until midnight reading.  :-)

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  I had a pretty good week.  

Physical Books:

 

The top three are all books I purchased.  Couldn't wait and enter contests for Every Last Breath, although I may not get to it until September as part of my sequels challenge.  I also got a cool coloring book.  And finally, I get to go to New Orleans for the first time in September, so figured I'd probably better get a more clear idea of what I want to do, besides go to see Marie Leveau's grave.  I won The Wrath and the Dawn from Emily at Follow the Yellow Book Road blog.  The last book, Until We Meet Again, was a surprise ARC I received in the mail from Sourcebooks!  I also won a couple contests this week, from a blog, and also a Goodreads giveaway.  And I did a couple trades on Twitter for the #books for trade. But none of those have arrived yet, so I always like to wait until the book is in my hands.

Netgalley:

I'm finally getting around to reading The Walled City by this author, which will go to my TBR Pile Challenge, but am excited to get approved for this World War II book.

Free e-books from Amazon:

They sounded good, and they were free, so I grabbed them.

Oh yeah, and I got this cute bookmark!

So, did you have a good July?  What did you add to your shelves this week?  

Can you belive 2015 is halfway over?

 

First off, to all my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day!  I was thinking I needed to do an end of the month wrap up to catch up on some of my goals and challenges for the year. Then, I realize, the year is half over, so why don't I do a halfway through the year update?  So that's what you're going to get today.

• I've definitely been doing my two reviews a week, some weeks have been more than that.

• I had planned to give my blog a new look, and it is in the process.  It is almost done.  Hoping to do the whole update in August as part of my blogoversary!

• I've tried to do more on Instragram, even doing some of the 30 day challenges this year, unfortunately I never quite completed any of them.

• As for my walking goal, I've definitely gotten closer to walking 20 miles a week, one week I even made 21, but haven't quite gotten back on track for every week.  I blame all the rain we've had, and then the heat of summer.  

• I've not saved any money for ALA next summer, but I'm still thinking about it and trying to figure out how in the world I can do it.

• I've had a few chapters of my NaNoWriMo story read by a friend and critiqued, and I'm putting those up on Wattpad as I get them changed from the suggestions. 

• I also once again participated in the April A to Z Blogging Challenge and completed it.

• I completed the Winter COYER Challenge, and have actually joined into one for summer that is going on right now.

•  My Goodreads goal is doing pretty well.  Probably because it is summer and I'm able to get more reading done.

• I joined the TBR Reading Pile Challenge this year, and  I've done okay.  I've only read 2 of the books I actually planned to read, but have read others that will count.  I'm actually 3 ahead of where I should be to meet my goal of 12 books.  Here are my books I've read:
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
• White Space by Ilsa J. Bick
• Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
• Broken Symmetry by Dan Rix
• World After by Susan Ee
• Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
• Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

So those are my updates for the first half of June.  Seems like I'm doing pretty well for the most part!  One sad thing about this year, I've only been able to meet one author, and it is an author I'd already met last year at BEA, but the cool thing was that I got lots of time to talk to her.  That author was AG Howard, who wrote the awesome Splintered series that was the modern retelling of Alice in Wonderland.

Review: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (TBR Challenge #3)

This is an ARC that I was lucky enough to pick up last summer at BEA.  I could have sworn I'd met the author, but it's not autographed and I don't have a picture with her.  :-(  I finally got back around to it in order to work on my TBR Pile Challenge.  It was definitely an interesting read.  I knew there would be some kind of big reveal at the end, but I didn't figure out what the twist was going to be, and I feel like it was a really good one.  Don't worry, I won't give it away!

The main character is Jam Gallahue.  Jam has just been sent to a special school called The Wooden Barn.  This is a boarding school for teens with emotional problems.  Jam is there because she lost her British foreign exchange student boyfriend.  Now, we don't know till the very end how she lost him.  So you'll speculate until the very end.  Jam is one of only a few students selected to be in a special honors English class.  In this class they are given journals to write in as the study an author, and this semester the author is Sylvia Plath.  The title of this book, Belzhar, is pronounced basically like the name of Plath's book, The Bell Jar.  But what Belzhar is in the book is kind of a different dimension, one where Jam and her friends in the class get to go and things are like they were before whatever their big traumatic event was.  In Jam's world, her boyfriend Reeve is there, and they get to spend every time together.  One girl who is now paralyzed gets to run and walk, and use her legs again.  Another person in the class gets to go back and spend time with her brother before he disappeared.  While they are in this other dimension, they write five pages in their journal.  They have figured out that by the end of the class, they will have written on every page in their journal.  And when they reach the final time? Well now they must come to terms with this big event, and they must decide how they will go on to live their lives. Will they continue to let whatever happened to them define the rest of their lives, will they choose to try to keep the wonderful times in this world, or will they move on and give themselves another chance?

I love when we learn about all the other students' past experiences, and I love the ways their final journal entry affects them.  And the way they choose, some are very emotional, and again, I have to say wow at the twist in what really happened with Jam's boyfriend.

A good read, pick it up if it sparks your interest!

2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge #2015TBRPile

I didn't do this last year, and feel like it would be a good one to try again this year.  As before it is sponsored by Bookish.  I got a lot of ARCs at BEA that I really wanted to read, but got messed up in my plan when September and my Sequel Challenge came around.  So those are kind of top on my list.  As well as some books that I had been given or won in giveaways.  So, I'll set my goal to the same number I've done in the past, I plan to read 11-20 books from my TBR pile between January 1st, 2015 and December 31st, 2015. All the books have to have been published in 2014 or before.  Any new books don't count as cleaning out your TBR pile.  I think the fact that they will be doing link ups on the 25th of every other month is going to be helpful for me to doing that.  With the challenge I participated in this past year, I was able to do updates every two months, until October that is, then I got behind.  I hate to pick exactly what I'll read, as I tend to go with what the mood fits at the time, but here are some that I'm hoping I will pick up for this challenge:

• Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
• Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnston-Shelton
• Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle
• The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
• Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Time  Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
• Arianna's Destiny by Michelle Sodaro
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

The top 5 are ones that I got at BEA, so really hope to get them read.  Others are ones that I really need to read.  If you are interested in participating, click on the link on Bookish above to go get signed up.

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge Wrap Up

Well, once again this year, I didn't do a good job at making sure to comment in my reviews if they were for this challenge or not.  So, it took me awhile to figure out if I met my goal of 11-20 books or not.  Here are the books that count for this challenge, and a link to their reviews:

1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
2. Undead by Kirsty McKay
3. Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett
4. Whatever You Make of It by Michelle Sodaro
5. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
6. Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth
7. All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1) by Gabrielle Zevin
8. Because it is My Blood (Birthright #2) by Gabrielle Zevin
9. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
10. My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith
11. The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi
12. Ashen Winter (Ashfall #2) by Mike Mullin
13. Tales from the Scales by Erin J. Shea
14. The Selection by Kiera Cass
15. After:  Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
16. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
17. Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber
18. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
19. Quarantine:  The Loners by Lex Thomas
20. From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don't Die #2) by Katie Alender
21. The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix
22. Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton
23. Scorch (Croak #2) by Gina Damico
24. Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed
25. Origin by Jessica Khoury

So as you can see, I beat my goal by 5 books!  Yay!  

2012 Wrap-Up and Goals for 2013

So this year I participated in 2 year-long challenges:  The TBR Pile Reading Challenge and the A-Z Book Challenge.  Both of which I completed!!!  The TBR pile should have been easy, yet as I got new books, those sounded better than the ones I'd already had sitting on my shelves, even though I'd been so excited for those books too!  The A-Z challenge was more difficult, finding books to go with Q, X, Y, and Z was not easy, and so I stretched a bit on those. You can see how I did if you go to the links above for those posts.  Because I have such a big TBR pile, I've chosen to participate in that one again this year, and you can see my post for that here.  I also started my own 1 month challenge, that I plan to run again this year, maybe even in conjunction with a blog that does a lot of giveaway hops holding one week of a hop during that month, it is my September is for Sequels Challenge.  I think I had about 10 people participate this year, I'm hoping to get more next year!  And talking about getting more, my blog following is up over 1000!!  Which means to expect a giveaway in January!  I'm thinking either a gift card, or maybe a choice of book from the Book Depository.  
I set my reading goal with Goodreads at 125.  But as I got later in the year, I think around September, I realized I might not quite make the 125.  For many reasons, so I decided to drop my total.  First I dropped it to 105.  I figured that would be a 5% increase over last year, so that would be good.  But then, I started being ahead of my goal, so I bumped it up to 110.  Then to 115.  And now, I'm one book away from that, so by midnight tonight, I must finish my current book to reach my goal!  And as my New Year's Eve plans involve a quiet day at home while it snows outside, I see no problem in completing the goal.  I plan to set my goal for 2013 at 120.  I'm hoping to go to 125, but for now I'm being realistic with 120.  Blog goals, hmm.  I'm hoping to maybe do a re-design on my blog sometime this year.  Probably save some money and have someone do it as I do not really know how to do that kind of stuff.  But I have some ideas I need to write down to share with whoever I get to do it.  
My personal goals for 2013 are to get back to the walking I was doing.  I was doing anywhere from 3-5 miles almost every day.  Then I worked 3 jobs for awhile, and that killed any time I had, or energy to actually leave the house.  Which then lead to my bad eating habits, feeling too lazy to cook, just running through the fast food drive thru on the way home from work. So I plan to work on that as well.  My goal as a teacher, besides continuing to look for a library job, is to keep up on my grading.  Try to stay an extra hour after school and get the current day's grading done that day if possible.  Although, with the new puppy, I may have to run home, let the dogs out, then go back to school to work for an hour.  But getting into that habit will be great for getting ready for the good weather when I can start walking again.
Other great things this year, I continued meeting awesome authors.  In fact, going to BEA was so much fun!  I wish I could afford to go again this year, but I just can't.  And my principal did let me teach a Communication Arts class this year, so that is a bit of a step closer to my goal of being a school librarian.
So, now I'd like to hear from my followers.  How did you do with your goals and challenges this year?  What are your goals for 2013?  And, what would you most like to see for my 1000 follower giveaway this January?  (Be reasonable, I'm working on finances, and we do have the big fiscal cliff that we may be going over soon in America!)

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all my followers!  Or whatever holiday you might celebrate, I hope you enjoy it.  I've already got the number 1 book I had hoped for, Insurgent!  The special edition with Four included!  Had a great family get-together with my Mom, Step-dad, younger brother, sister-in-law, and niece last night.  Today is my 2nd get-together with my Dad, Step-mom, and two younger sisters.
I must come up with an idea for a giveaway for getting over 1000 followers this past month.  So look for that in the new year.
I am also making sure I've completed the two challenges I signed up for this year, the A-Z Challenge, and the TBR Pile Reading Challenge.  Both of which I have completed to the best of my ability!  I'll be joining in the TBR Challenge for 2013, and I must decide if there are any other challenges out there I want to join.
One thing I do have to do while I am off from teaching for the next week or so, I must get some songs taken off of my iPhone, ones that I don't listen to that much, so that I have room for doing the new operating system update.  Also, once again, for some reason my Adobe Digital editions has unauthorized me, and so the e-galleys I have on my Nook won't let me read them.  And I was right in the middle of a good one!  Grr!  Hope to be able to remember exactly what I need to do to fix it!
One last final note, I had been looking at getting a new puppy for my dog Dora to have a sibling to play with since I lost my Sydney (the cartoon at the top represents Sydney) last January.  And on Saturday I got to bring home, hopefully forever, a little dachshund boy named Argyle.  I think the name is really cute on paper, but when you try to call it out, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue.  I've been calling him Buddy, so don't know if that'll end up being his name, because I'd really like something more unique, since he is such a unique looking little boy.

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

So, I'm participating once again in this, this challenge which is being sponsored by Evie @ Bookish.  I did finish all  my goal last year by May, but I was bad about linking up my reviews.  I've got to go find out if I can link up those I didn't do earlier for this final month.  But anyway, I'm going to stay with the same level this year. Seeing as how I probably have at least as many books left on my TBR list as I did when I joined last year, plus at least 10 or more from BEA.  My goal this year is to read between 11-20 books between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013.  The books have to have been published in 2012 or before, can't be any new books or else they don't count in cleaning out the TBR pile!!  There are 5 different levels, you can go up at any time, but you can't go down, and I've chosen the 2nd level this time.  You can list your books in this post if you want.  I'm going to do like last year though, and just mention in the actual review that they are part of this challenge, as well as coming back and adding them to this post later.  Which reminds me that I need to go add two more to the original post last year.  There are cool contests and giveaways each month, which as I mentioned earlier, I didn't do so well with last year.  I'm going to do better in 2013 though!
To find out more go to the link for Evie above and sign up!