December/End of 2019 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Forward to 2020

December has gone by so fast, and now we are at the end of the year, and the end of a decade!  And it has been a decade of blogging for me as well!

Got probably more reading done this month, although a few of the books were either really short audio books and one was a re-read of a book I'd gotten to do kind of a beta read as a critique partner on a website I was trying out for getting my own stuff read.

I got the last two weeks off for holiday break, great Christmas times with family and my friend who got a job at Macmillan this past summer was home and I got to sit down with her one morning and talk about her job and catch up.  I haven't gotten as much as I would like to get done though, because the bookstore where I work didn't hire enough holiday help, so I've had to work a ton.  Money though, right?  I am looking forward to being the assistant bowling coach for my high school where I am a librarian though in January and February.  No, I'm not a good bowler or anything, they just needed an assistant, so I decided to volunteer!

On with the reading stats for December

According to Goodreads, I've completed my goal that I upped to 220 books as I got closer to it, and I've gone over by 4 more books.  December made up 22 of those. So yay for reaching and exceeding my goal! 

Here is a list of books I read in November, and I'll link to my review if I've finished it:

1. Shopping for a Billionaire #1 by Julia Kent
2. Shelf Awareness by Katie Ashley
3. Adorkable by Cookie O'Gorman
4. The Lineup by Meghan Quinn
5. Shopping for a Billionaire #2 by Julia Kent
6. Beard Necessities by Penny Reid
7. The Younger Man by Karina Halle
8. The Boss Who Stole Christmas by Jana Aston
9.  If You Give a Jerk a Gingerbread by Jana Aston
10.  Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao
    
11.   The One Night Stand Before Christmas by Jana Aston
    
12.  Wait for Me by Tia Louise
    
13.  Recipe for Disaster by Allie York
14.  Shopping for a Billionaire #3 by Julia Kent
    
15.  The Pretenders by Rebecca Hanover
    
16.   Shopping for a Billionaire #4 by Julia Kent
17.  Dear Beau by Penny Reid
18.  So That Got Weird by Amelia Kingston
19. Beauty and the Beard by Penny Reid
20. The Setup by Rachel Van Dyken
21. Chosen by Kiersten White
22.  The A.I. Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole
    
 

I did really good this past month about reviewing everything I read except for the audiobooks I listened to.  I did get audiobooks I was behind on reviewing done though, six of them HERE:  Beauty and the Mustache, Dating-ish, Happily Ever Ninja, and Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid, as well as #Heart by Cambria Hebert, and Back in the Game by Meghan Quinn.  One other review I didn't get done last month was Naughty or Nice by Rachel Stewart.



Another stat I want to talk about is books that I don't finish.  While I haven't added anymore since October, there is one ARC that I'm close to DNFing if I don't get back to it soon.

My number of posts in December was much better, only 36!  I'm getting much better about turning down tours that I might normally want to go ahead and try.  But I'm still kind of booked to the gills for the first month or two of 2020.  Now, of those 36 posts, 13 were reviews.  I've been good with my weekly posts I want to keep up with too.   My average rating was down to 4.3 stars.

I did a fun Book Tag this month:

• Christmas Songs Book Tag

I rejoined the Top 10 of the year posts and completed them all for 2019:

• Books I wish I'd Made Time to Read in 2019
• New or New-to-Me Authors
• Captivating Characters
• Cover Love
• Favorite Book Boyfriends
• Best of the Best
• Books I'm Looking Forward To In 2020

Okay, on with my challenges.

1.  I mostly kept up with my Looking Forward To posts, on Wednesdays as much as possible to tie in with the Can't Wait Wednesday posts.  However there really aren't a lot of books that come out in December to share.

December 10th
December 31st

I'm still working on visiting other blogs and commenting as much as I am posting on my own blog, but I still haven't been keeping track of it in my calendar where I was trying to do that.  Don't know if that'll ever get going again.

Been doing well on cleaning up my Goodreads TBR with my weekly post and giveaway (except that I keep adding new to Goodreads), as well as even my physical TBR a little.  I think I now have two people occasionally joining in, and you should feel free to join in as well.  Here are the posts for that:

December 7th
December 14th
December 21st
December 28th - giveaway still going till January 3rd!


2.  My Reading Goals for the Goodreads challenge as I mentioned above were completed.

3.  Still no writing actually completed. But still planning to try to get a story ready to submit to SmartyPants Romance next year.

Overall my Beat the Backlist Challenge was a bust.  I only got four of the 12 books I planned to read:

• Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith
• Tinfoil Heart by Daisy Prescott
• Sweet Southern Secrets by Colbie Kay and Chianti Summers
• Midnight Blue by L.J. Shen

I only got two of my goal of four discussions done.  :-(.

• I Will Always Love You - Favorite Authors
• After Movie

I never came up with a button for the First in the Series Challenge, although I didn't complete my goal of 6, I'd say only 3 done, and two of those weren't on my original list

• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• First Down by Michelle Sodaro
• Truth or Beard by Penny Reid

Looking forward to in January:

Okay, so here is my proposed TBR based on my blog tours and review requests for this month:

1. Oasis by Katya de Becerra - I am reading this as I write this post, should be posting the review on the 2nd.
2. Keystone by Katie Delahanty - Supposed to be doing a review tour and posting on the 4th
   
3. Just Kidding by Lani Lynn Vale - Supposed to be doing a review tour and posting on the 7th
4. Always Mine by Kennedy Fox - supposed to be doing a review tour and posting on the 7th
5. You Too? 25 Voices Share Their #MeToo Stories - part of a review tour and posting on the 9th
   
6. Jane Anonymous by Lauri Faria Stolarz - part of a review tour on the 10th 
7. Spark by Aleatha Romig - part of a review tour on the 14th
   
8. Finding Mr. Better Than You by Shani Petroff- part of a review tour on the 16th
   
9. Frenemies by Emma Hart - part of a review tour and posting on the 22nd
   
10. BMBG by Meghan Quinn -Not sure exactly what book this is but I'm scheduled to post a review as part of a tour on the 24th, and if it's by Meghan Quinn, I'll love it
    
11. Must Love Forever by Leigh Lennon- part of a tour that I'll be posting on the 27th
    
12. Bachelor Bastard Society by Sara Ney - part of a tour to post a review on the 28th
    
13. A Favor for a Favor by Helena Hunting - part of a tour to post a review on the 30th

ARCS I have that I hope to get to this month:

1. Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry
2. What I Carry by Jennifer Longo 
3. Wardens of Eternity by Courtney Allison Moulton
4. A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier
5. The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring - been trying to get this one read and reviewed for a couple months now
6. A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy - this is the one I kind of started, but may end up DNFing.

Hopefully I will get the audiobooks I haven't reviewed yet posted on my blog.  I signed up for a lot of tours this month it seems.  May keep me from getting writing done or any extra books read.  We'll see. 

I think I'll do a separate post later this week with my challenges that I'm signing up for in 2020.  

So, how was your December?  Are you excited for 2020?

 

June Wrap-Up Incuding ALA Convention Highlights - Can You Believe 2018 is Halfway Over?

You know, this year has been soooooooo busy!  I keep saying I'm going to slow down on signing up for tours, and then, I don't.  That's still a goal that I have for this year!  This June has been an exciting one.  And July is going to be as well I think.  But I'll talk more about that later.  First off, let's talk about stats for June:

# of books read June/year so far:  15/104 - I've dropped my Goodreads goal for the year to 200, so I'm now 5 books ahead.  Just didn't see how I was going to get to my 265 as the number I was behind kept going up.
# of reviews posted in June/year so far:  12/99 - and actually, I have 9 reviews overdue!

Challenge updates:

My goal for the year was 4, and I at least have one done, Book Blogger Woes.  I still have some other ideas, just need time to do them!

My goal for the year is 6, and I am getting close, 5 done!

Everlife (Everlife Trilogy #3) by Gena Showalter
Chaser (Dive Bar #3) by Kylie Scott
True Storm (True Born Trilogy #3) by L.E.  Sterling
Down Shift (Driven #8) by K. Bromberg
Brave (A Wicked Trilogy #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My goal was 12 books, in March I had 3, since then I've only read 2 more. 

Felony Ever After:  A Domino Anthology - 13 authors - 1 story
Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Cordova - no review written yet

1.  My first goal was to finish one of my works in progress, which I did finally finish my short story.  Then, I let a friend read it.  Well, she read just the introduction and kind of blasted it apart.  So, I'm going to go back and rework it.  Editing you know!  Guess that is important!  I did catch on to something that I do seem to always do with my beginnings, and I know that I need to make them more interesting, so I'm working on that.  Of course I haven't had much writing time. And actually, for about a month after I got her comments on my story, I kind of was feeling like it was a waste of time. But since then, I've decided that I do still want to write.  Still, not much time it seems!

2.  My 2nd goal was to read books that have been suggested by friends.  Sad to say, I've not made any progress with this at all.

3.  Cutting back on blog tours.  Well, I keep thinking I've done it, but yeah, still not doing that great.  Lots to work on.  One thing that I think might help me is that I've started adding dates on my calendar for when I need to do a review for my ARCs.  So that might help since it will show less days open for tours.

Well, I signed up to do June, to comment 5+ times on my partner's blog.  I failed this time.  I think I only did 3 times.  Not sure if my partner got over to mine more than 5 either, although we did communicate on Twitter as well a few times.  Since I did so bad, I decided not to join up for July.

I had a total blast!  Got to meet a lot of authors, got a lot of ARC unicorns and other cool books.  Enjoyed good food in New Orleans, and really am so glad I got to go.  I was bad about taking more books than I should have.  Let's share some pictures below!

Books galore!

Authors everywhere!

Swag all around!

I borrowed the slide show idea to show all my pictures from another blog, It Starts at Midnight.  You can go check out their ALA wrap-up post HERE.

Of course, what I got at ALA is not at all a complete listing of all the books I got this past month.  But I don't have the time to go through all of that. 

Coming up in July, I've got my trip to Book Bonanza, so stay tuned for pictures and posts about that.  Instead of bringing a ton of books, though, I'm working on creating a photo book with Shutterfly, to get signed.  I am still bringing a few books, but for the most part, just want pictures and my autograph book signed. 

Of course after that it will be getting close to back to school time.  My summer has been so busy working at my part time job at the bookstore to make money for my trips, I haven't been able to do as much writing or other things I'd have liked to do.  We'll see how this month goes.  I mean, it is just July 1st!

So, how was June for you?  Are you ready for the 2nd half of the year? 

Mid-Year Wrap-Up Post and Thoughts on Blogging/Reading/Writing Life in General

Honestly, 2017 has not been the greatest on all fronts this year.  Or let me say that there have been a ton of ups and downs for me.  Part of that is why I've been so busy I haven't been able to do my Sunday Posts, or my end of the month posts.  Right now part of the reason I'm doing this one is because I'm working on the Mini-blog ahead challenge.  Also, I've got a lot of things on my mind right now, many in regards to either blogging, reading, writing, and even friend issues.  But, to keep this from going downhill right away, let's do some statistics to start this out.

2017 Reading Statistics So Far:

• Number of books read:  126 (Goal of 250 for the year)
• Number of DNF books:  5
• Number of reviews posted on blog:  115
• Number of all types of posts on blog:  363

Progress on Challenges:

• Blogger Shame Review Challenge:  Well, I've not read any of the four books that I'd said I would.  I also didn't do a check in post the first week of June.  So that one is a fail so far.
• 2017 Discussion Challenge:  Goal was 4 for the year. So far I haven't done any. But I have two scheduled in July done as part of my Mini-Blog Ahead Challenge at the end of June.
• 2017 Series Ender Challenge:  Goal was 12 books.  So far I've only finished 3 that were on my list, and then there are probably 2 others that were not included on my original list surprisingly, even though I knew they were coming out this year.  
• Mount TBR Reading Challenge:  My goal was 12 books.  I've only read one off of my list.  I've probably got a few others that I've read, but I'd have to go back and look and see if I actually had them when the year started and that they weren't just ones I'd added this year.
• 2017 Bookish Resolutions Challenge:  I have still been working on how I title my posts, forgetting some things and remembering the others.  I haven't been doing well with  my commenting on other blogs as much as I wanted to.  My writing goal, well the whole short story thing got shot when the very first one I started on got longer than I planned.  I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo in March or April, and didn't quite make my goal there, but did get more done on my NaNo project from last November, Fault Lines.  I'm starting another Camp this month, hopefully working on that.  I'd hoped to maybe get one of my novels finished by the end of the summer to try to get it published on Amazon just to see if anyone would read it, but I don't see that happening now.  I haven't done great about setting up the one hour a week for writing either.  Also, the short story challenge was with a former writing partner and friend.  I say former because she stopped being friends with me when she didn't like the way I reviewed her books.  Although she never bothered to click on the links I sent her to my reviews.  She didn't even look at them until MONTHS after I'd posted them, when someone else pointed them out to her.  

I've had some great times this year.  I got to attend the ApollyCon convention in Orlando and meet some of my newest favorite authors, including Anna Todd.  

While I was in Orlando I had a great time, and met some new blogger/reader friends, got to catch up with some sorority sisters, and got to visit the awesome Harry Potter Wizarding World parks at Universal Studios.  As you can see, pretty much the first thing I HAD to do once I got there.

I have been in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, making payments, since November of 2012.  It should have been 5 years, but imagine my happiness and surprise to get a letter in May saying that I was done, I had paid off everything I had to.  That was awesome.  Of course this past week my first goal was to go out and finally get a new car.  My current car was paid off as part of the bankruptcy, and it should be worth anywhere from 4-6 thousand.  I was all set to do this, had even figured up how everything would work out.  And then they turned me down.  So I'm a bit depressed at the moment.  Hoping I can make it in my current car, which isn't in bad condition, I just know it is at the age when I'm going to have to start worrying about things going wrong, especially since my warranty is over.  I've never bought a used car, other than my very first one, and I'm guessing at least if I did that I could get a used car warranty?  I don't know.  It was only my first attempt, but I'm guessing if Ford won't give me a loan/lease, probably most other dealers won't other than the second chance places.  Wondering if since I have a Toyota, they might work with me?  

However, other things I'm looking forward to for the rest of the year.  Getting to go back to my wonderful library job, even if I still make less than I would have if I'd stayed in my teaching job where I was miserable.  Going to Orlando again in a couple weeks, with my 5 year old niece and family, this time to do the Disneyworld side.  And I also got selected to be a volunteer at ApollyCon in 2018, in Washington DC.  I've already reserved my room in the  hotel, now just need to start saving for a plane ticket, etc.  Guess if I don't have a new car payment I can do that, right?

It's been such a roller coaster of a year.  Up and down and good and bad and money and then broke and you name it.  I did go see New Kids on the Block last month, awesome concert as always, but didn't realize I was an Ed Sheeran fan until after tickets for my local concert were already sold out.  :-(

I hope the rest of my year will go well, because I'm ready for the roller coaster to be over and things to settle down.  More like the It's a Small World Ride at Disneyworld.  Just an easy, smooth, everyone is happy trip. 

September End of the Month Wrap-Up Post

Okay, September has been a crazy, crazy month!  Very busy, but also the end of the month was awesome because of my trip to New Orleans for NOLA StoryCon!  I'll share more about all of that probably in my end of the week post this coming Sunday.  This post is for last month, and I kind of have a set format that I'm going to try to stick to in order to save time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many people to sign up this year.  Only 3 people besides myself.  So I'm thinking, if they are okay with it, I may just give them each a $10 gift card or order from TBD just for participating and forget the giveaway rafflecopter.  I'll be getting in contact with them sometime this week.  As for how I did with my own goals on this, my goal was 8, and I only got 6 done:

1. Swan Riders (Prisoners of Peace #2) by Erin Bow *
2. Redeeming Trust (sequel to Broken Trust) by Michelle Sodaro *
3. One King's Way (On Dublin Street # 6.5) by Samantha Young
4. Cream of the Crop (Hudson Valley #2) by Alice Clayton
5. Elementals 4:  The Portal to Kerberos by Michelle Madow
6. Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles #2) by Kresley Cole

One of the sequels I haven't had a chance to review yet, so I don't have a link for you to click on yet.  I'm thinking next year I'm not going to do this challenge.  Doesn't seem to be catching on, in fact seems to be kind of dying.  Since next year I want to focus more on writing, this will probably fall right in line with that.

I did not get a discussion posted in September.  :-(  I may try to  make up for it when I do the Blog Ahead Challenge this month to get ready for November and NaNoWriMo.  So look forward to possibly two discussions in November.

I got quite a few in this month it seems.  Some new series that I do love, and a couple that are authors I'm not going to be reading more by.  I've only started two of the series I planned to start, but have definitely gone way past the goal of four new series for the year.  If you're interested in joining into this challenge, you still can by going HERE. 

• Smut by Karina Halle
• Draw (Gentry Boys #1) by Cora Brent
• Luck on the Line (On the Verge #1) by Zoraida Cordova
• All Lined Up (Rusk University #1) by Cora Carmack
• Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
• Inclusions (Flawless #1) by Emily Duvall
• Legal by Bree Dahlia
• The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

 Only one this month.  Still not so great.  And I added a ton of new books, especially after NOLA StoryCon this past weekend.

• The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

Now this month, when they did some revamping to the website, I realized I had a few on there that I needed to post reviews on. And by doing that, I ended up raising my percentage to 73%!  Yay!  I actually went and found 9 books I'd requested and hadn't done reviews/feedback for.  So technically I didn't really do any this month to share, but I did get my % up by going back and making up for lost time on some others.

I really didn't do any big series enders this time.  But I do have a second book in a duology, I think I can count that.

• Redeeming Trust (Broken Trust #2) by Michelle Sodaro

One of my resolutions for next year is definitely going to be to not have so many challenges and resolutions to do each month!  LOL!  Once again, I'll be doing the short, short version.

• Still doing well with  not downloading egalleys from Netgalley or Edelweiss, but have asked a few tour groups for review books.  Need to cut back on that as well!
• Still basically posting every day.
• End of month post - check!
• Still getting two reviews a week at least, but still have a stack of books needing to be reviewed!  Must work on that this month.  I hope.  I did post two reviews that were books in the same series together in one post, so that was a good thing.  Did some other posting of more than one review a day when I had the time.
• I had money saved clear up until a couple weeks before I was going to New Orleans.  Then I ended up taking some clothes back to get money back.  And I ended up selling my laptop, or supposedly selling it.  Hopefully by the time this post goes live on Thursday, I will have the money.  I just wish I'd had it before I went to New Orleans.  However, thanks to the trip, once I get the money from the laptop, it will be to pay some bills off.
• My walking goal didn't quite make it the whole month.  With getting really busy getting ready for New Orleans, I let it slide.  This month I really need to get back on track to the three times a week.  

Some statistics from the past month:

• # of books read:  19 (same as last month)
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  15
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  8

Possible October TBR:

• Illusion (The Heir of Watson Island #3) by Martina Boone
• Black Widow #2:  Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl
• Glitter by Aprilynne Pike
• The Diabolic by SJ Kincaid
• Fangirl  by Rainbow Rowell
• Bright Side by Kim Holden
• Be With Me (Wait for You #2) by J. Lynn
• Ice-Out (sequel to Frozen) by Mary Casanova
• The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics
• Wrecked by Maria Padian
• Secrets in the Snow by Michaela MacColl
• The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot
• I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Gretchen McNeil
• Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1) by Sophie Jordan
• Point of Retreated (Slammed #2) by Colleen Hoover
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts 1 and 2

Now that does not include any ebooks that I may get to as well.  And a few listed up there are audiobooks.

How was your September?

July End of the Month Wrap Up Post

Wow.  I'm not sure if my year is ever going to slow down!  So I'm going to still do this, but I'm going to make this a very quick wrap up for each challenge. 

First, I mentioned doing a Halloween in July Challenge.  And I did it, and posted it.  My goal was 3 books, but I only got one done.  :-(  There was a giveaway, speaking of which I need to go pick a winner in the rafflecopter!

I would definitely say last month was a great time with the comment challenge!  I was partnered up with Peyton at A Bookish Mess.  I know I commented at least 11 times that I remembered to keep track of. And it was fun following her blog more, because she reads a lot of the types of romance books that I've been really getting into lately.  This month my partner is Marilag at Story and Somnomancy.  I am looking forward to getting to know her better!  Once again I am entered to do 11-20 comments.

My July post was a topic I've been seeing around on a lot of blogs lately, but still one that I think is good for discussion:  To DNF or Not To DNF, That Is The Question - Or How Do You Decide If You Should Give Up On A  Book?  Feel free to click the link and join into the discussion!  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do a post on in August, but I'm still thinking!

Once again not so sure I did that great on my own challenge.  At least since I changed the plan to add even just new authors that helped.  Here you go:

• Sojourn by Tara Dawn
• Dare to Love by Carly Phillips
• Dirty Sexy Saint by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde

 I didn't get anything from my TBR pile this month.  :-(

This month I got three titles' feedback sent.  Once again I'm still at 70% for my ratio.  Here are the three I got added:

• Girl in the Shadows (Girl on a Wire #2) by Gwenda Bond
• And I Darken by Kiersten White
• The Killer in Me by Margot Harrison

 

I just joined this challenge back in June.  You can check out my sign up post by clicking the button right above. Last month I got three from my list.  This month I got 7 more from the list.  But, one of those was a DNF audiobook, although I may go back and read it at some point.  Two others that I'll highlight below I actually read in June, but didn't review until July.  And then three of the seven that I read this month won't be reviewed till next month.

• Nash (Marked Men #4) by Jay Crownover
• The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater
• Girl in the Shadows (Girl on a Wire #2) by Gwenda Bond
• Losing It by Emma Rathbone
• The Killer in Me by Margot Harrison
• And I Darken by Kiersten White
• The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole - DNF audiobook

Again, I'm going to go really quickly through these this month, and you can check out my original goals by clicking on the button above.

• Still doing well with the Edelweiss and Netgalley goals, although a couple books on Edelweiss came up that I HAD to download for sure!
• Still posting every day, or to make up for those days that I didn't, there are some days that have more than one post.
• Again have been so busy I haven't been as great at commenting, but definitely met my comment challenge goal above!
• Later with this end of month post than planned, but still done!
• Still getting 2 reviews a week done.  I'm considering this next month that I'll put more than one review a day on review days because of how far behind I feel like I'm getting. One of the books I just finished may not even get reviewed till September, and that's ridiculous.  
• I actually got some money saved finally.  I ended up getting a bigger check at the end of July from my library job.  Actually it was 3 paychecks in one, hard to explain, but still was nice.  I had planned to put $1000 in savings, but ended up only putting $500. But hey, it's better than I did have!  And, I finally used part of that money to get myself a personal laptop.  Although I decided not to splurge on a Mac, so will be getting used to a Windows computer again!  Hoping to get all my stuff switched over from my work Mac to my personal laptop this weekend!  Also my new laptop should be good enough to play The Sims if I decide I want to start playing again.  I've mostly kept up with my 3 times a week goal.  But not perfectly.  But then I've had a couple days I've got my goal number of steps in without actually going to the gym.  I think for August I'm going to stick to the 3 times a week since school will be starting back up.  I need to make sure that I can keep up with that much before I bump it up.  I haven't gotten much writing done. But, I do have a writing date set up with my former writing partner for this Sunday.  I'm looking forward to it!

 You can check out my goals by clicking on the button above!  I only got one this month.  But I'm pretty sure some that I've read this month, but won't review till next month, will add up for the August End of the Month Wrap Up.

• The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater

Those are my challenges.  I did bump my Goodreads goal up because I was pretty close to reaching it.  Here are the number of books I read, reviews, and mini-reviews from last month.

• # of books read:  31
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  13
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  10
• # of DNFs:   1

Again, as much as I'd love to do a TBR for August, I'm running out of time!    How did your July turn out?

June End of Month Wrap Up Post

Another crazy month!  When will it all slow down?  Even with my nice little vacation in Colorado last weekend, I'm still so far behind!  The crazy thing is that I think I want to create my own little read-a-thon this month for some scary books I've had for about a year now.  Kind of a "Halloween in July"?  Not sure. We'll see.  Let's look at my challenges.

I don't know if I necessarily kept everyone updated with my progress on this weekly, but I think that I did my goal.  My partner last month was Anne at My Head is Full of Books.  It was fun keeping up with a fellow high school librarian!  This month I intend to do better with keeping track of how much I comment, I think I did right about 11 comments, and my goal was the 11-20 level.  This month I'll be partnering with Peyton, at A Bookish Mess.  I'm excited to get to know her better as well!

Well, I had mentioned last month that I had two ideas for discussion posts in June, but I ended just kind of doing one as a Top 10 this past week.  So really I'm still keeping up with my plan of one per month.  You can check out my June discussion post and chime in with your thoughts here:  Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews?  You can check out my sign up post for this by clicking on the button above.

Well, not sure how great I'm doing with the one that is my own challenge.  Of course part of the issue right now is how far behind I am on my reviews, so I have to decide whether to list all the books I've read this month that would qualify, or just any that I've reviewed.  If you want to know more about the challenge, and even join in, click on the button above to go to the sign-up post.  I'm also debating if I should count the free e-books I've been downloading.  I'm going to list my books I reviewed this month in order to get this done quickly.  I'm counting some of the ones below because they are also new authors, which is one way I kind of changed this challenge.

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• Slammed by Colleen Hoover
• At Any Price by Brenna Aubrey
• Sing Your Heart Out by Crystal Kaswell, (same post) Monday (Timeless #1) by E.L. Todd, Wilder by Vivian Lux
• Timely Death Series by Shannon A. Thompson
• Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I've linked my sign-up post to the button above if you want to see what I decided to do for this. This month I got two more from my pile.  Both are linked above in the Series Starter Challenge.  And both were on my original sign up post!

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

So, I didn't do that great, once again.  Two of them were DNFs, so I can't link you to a review in the note below.  I have linked the button above to my sign-up post though.  My ratio is still at 70%.  However I am reading a couple right now that I will soon review and hopefully that will raise the ratio a little?

• Black River Falls by Jeff Hirsch
• Gifted by H.A. Swain

I just joined this challenge this past month.  You can check out my sign-up post by clicking on the button above. I have read 5 of the books on my list this month, although only 3 have been reviewed this month, so I will just link those for now below.  Also, 3 on my original list are DNFs, including the 2 above.  And a couple more on the list are ones that I am currently reading.

• Elementals 3: The Head of Medusa by Michelle Madow
• Empire of Dust (Blood of Gods and Royals #2) by Eleanor Herman
• Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street #3) by Suzanne Young (with my new book boyfriend, Nate Sawyer!)

I'll go through my goals one by one below, and you can click on the button above if you want to check the original goals out.

• I'm continuing with not downloading from Edelweiss, and even Netgalley really.  Same as I mentioned last month, I'll write the egalleys down on my calendar, but not actually go download them until I am ready to read them.
• I pretty much posted about every day, if not more than once on some days!  June has been pretty crazy, and so I'm still behind on reviews.
• Again I haven't been as good at commenting as I wish I was, but I'm still doing what I want to for the basics, and the comment challenge has helped!
• Once again with this I'm on top of my end of the month posts, although I did wait a little late to get this done.
• Still been getting at least 2 reviews a week done.  And to save time and posts, I'm continuing to combine several free e-book mini-reviews at a time as one post.
• Personal goals include still no money saved.  My next walking goal was to get to 3 times a week for June and July, and other than last week when I went out of town over the weekend, I was on top of it. But I'm working to get back on top of it this week.  I haven't really done a reward for last month's goal reached, but I kind of decided spending money on books for NOLA Story Con would be a good enough reward.  I also got some writing done on my little weekend vacation to Colorado.  So I've decided that I want to get more writing done.  I'm going to try to get more of that done this summer.  I haven't set a specific writing goal.  Maybe I should think about that.  A number of words to get written in July?

 Once again I've linked the button above to my original sign-up post.  I'd say I haven't done as great this month once again.  It's like I did begin a series and then also finish it, so I guess that can count.  And then I think this is the last book in the Lux series, so that should count.

• Timely Death Series by Shannon A. Thompson
• Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Once again, so many challenges to wrap up!  I'm going to tell you again how many books I read, and how many reviews I finished, still no time for listing all the books.

• # of books read:  30
• # of full reviews posted on blog:  11
• # of mini-reviews posted on blog:  14

 And that's it!  My June wrap-up.  I'd love to do a TBR for July, but no more time!  

May End of Month Wrap Up Post

Time to look back at the month!  While I didn't do a Sunday Post this week, I was on vacation until yesterday, out of town, so I feel it is okay.  Plus, I didn't get that many books, so I'll share next Sunday instead.  I think I may have a new challenge to talk about next month though.  I've joined into a Comment Challenge for June.  And hope to continue with the rest of the summer months as well.

I'll keep you updated on that weekly!

So far I'm keeping up with this, with one a month, although I have two ideas for topics right now.  I don't know if I'll do both in June, or save one for July.  You can check out my May discussion:  This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or is it okay to review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog?  You can click on the button above to see my sign up post for my goals.

Now this next challenge is my own challenge, one I started back in December to try to get through all those series that everyone else loves, and I have yet to start, but maybe already have the first one sitting on my TBR shelf.  I didn't do so well this month. Didn't really start anything new. Although I have started some that I'll be able to share in my June wrap up.  You can click on the button above to find out more about it!

Once again I've linked to my original post with the button above.  This is another challenge that I didn't quite live up to this month.   However, as with the last challenge, I've got a few to talk about in June, and with it being summer break, expect a lot more!

My original post is linked in the button above.  I'm not doing so great.  While I did give feedback on one book in May, I also downloaded some others, and so my feedback ratio is down to 69%.  Here is the one book that matched this goal for May:

• True Born by L.E. Sterling

If you click the button above you can see my original goals.  Let's go through them one by one again:

• While I mentioned above that Netgalley wasn't doing great for my downloading, I have definitely done better with Edelweiss.  I'll go write it down in my calendar, and then only go to download it if I know I'm going to have time and actually read it.
• While I didn't technically post every day of the month, for example yesterday, I did have a lot of posts to take up every day.  And I don't see things slowing down in June!  But with it being summer, I hope that I won't feel overwhelmed and can hopefully get more done ahead.  Like all the reviews I'm behind on!
• I haven't been as great at commenting this month because of all the end of school stuff. But with the comment challenge I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I plan to pick it back up this month!
• Still on top of the monthly wrap up posts!
• Still reaching my goal of two or more reviews a week.  With all the ebooks I was reading through last month, I've had quite a few to share!
• Personal goals:  Still no money saved.  In fact, because I spent a bit too much at Comic Con a week or so ago, and then I didn't get my end of the month paycheck until today, I had to borrow money from my mom to have fun in Branson this past weekend.  I did meet my walking goal of twice a week.  I haven't done my reward yet.  Still deciding between a new Alta Fit Bit, or a pair of Tom's, and of course the reward will have to wait till I get some money.  I will be upping my exercise goal to three times a week.  May not get that many done this week, but will stick to my twice a week for sure.  My three times a week goal will be until the end of July.

So I did get one this month.  You can see my goals for this challenge by clicking on the button above if you'd like. 

• Lady Renegades (Rebel Belle #3) by Rachel Hawkins

I mentioned last month about how I'm hoping to do some more writing this month.  I've set up a writing retreat at a friend's condo in Fort Collins, CO, at the end of June.  This is just for me.   My former writing partner doesn't seem to be able to go this time.  But I'm looking forward to going and getting some alone time, both for writing and even for reading.  Remember if you're interested in the stories I've worked on, the YA novel I finished in 2014's NaNoWriMo is on Swoon Reads HERE.  And the NA novel I need to finish up is on Wattpad HERE.

Whew!  That's a lot of challenges to wrap up!  I'd love to do some other statistics too, but it takes so much time just for the above!  So maybe I'll just do quick numbers, and not list actual books.

• # of books read:  27
• # of reviews posted on blog:  15

I'll see what other statistics I might want to post next month.   Thanks for stopping by!

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?