Sunday Post #24 and Stacking the Shelves April 19th, 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:

• A to Z Challenge:  K Reviews, L Reviews, M Reviews, N Reviews, O Reviews, P Reviews
•  Review and Blog Tour: Supervision by Alison Stine (Giveaway)
• Blog Tour:  Never Sleep by Cady Vance (Giveaway)
• Review and Blog Tour:  Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke (Prisoner of Night and Fog #2) by Anne Blankman (Giveaway)

My mini-reviews are going pretty well.  It was nice having them all done for this past week ahead of time.  Later today I'm going to try to get all of them done for this week.  It was nice realize that I'm halfway done with the challenge as well.  As much as I'm enjoying being a part of it, I don't always do some of the other memes I do because of it, and I do miss those.

This week on the blog:

• A to Z Challenge:  Q-V posts
• Review:  An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
• Review:  The Replaced (The Taking #2) by Kimberly Derting
• Possible Reviews:  Of Shadow and Stone by Michelle Muto or Be Not Afraid by Cecilia Galante
• Trailer Reveal:  Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidit
• Cover Reveal:  The Gatherers by Ashley Ehlers

I'm trying to sign up for less tours that I have to review the book, just because I have so many e-galleys to read I'm not getting to books I have sitting on actual bookshelves!  I only work one night at the bookstore this week, so hoping to get a lot more reading done.  I've got a few e-galleys I downloaded from Netgalley that I'm going to just give a quick feedback on as I had trouble getting into them, and that will hopefully help bring my percentage up on that site.

My Fit/Walking Goals:
I'm trying to work on getting back into shape, and I am a walker.  I've got a Fitbit and so I'm using the steps on that until I get better/more time to walk.  I'd like to get back to my 20 miles of walking a week.  For now I'm walking when I can, and trying to get about 10,000 steps a day.  Starting next week I'm going to post a daily update of steps on this post, as well as how many miles I walked.  My 20 miles a week is separate from how many steps I get a day. While those steps from the miles count towards my daily step goal, the normal daily steps don't count towards my 20 miles.  Does that make sense?

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.
HI, my name is Lisa, and I'm a bookaholic.  (I'll pause while everyone reading says "Hi Lisa").  I sometimes can't believe how ridiculous I am about books.  It's like a serious addiction. There is no way I will ever get to all the books I have sitting in my house to read, yet I keep adding more!  Anyway, here's the past week's additions.

Physical copies of books:

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I checked the first one out from the library.  I've seen the sequel's egalley up somewhere and it reminded me that I'd wanted to read the first one.  Hope to get around to it.  The 2nd one was a strip cover from the bookstore, and I don't like this cover as much as the hardcover one, but it may make more sense for what it is about. And I found the third book at Half Price bookstore for less than half price, and I really need to finish that series!

For Book Tours:

Free ebooks:

I haven't read either of these series, but this novella was free, so I thought maybe I'd try reading it and see if it got me interested at all in the two series.

E-galleys:
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Both are from Edelweiss.  I've still asked the publisher for a physical ARC of Persuasion, because I got an ARC of the first book last summer at BEA and would like to have a matching set, but we'll see what happens!

Those are the things I added this week.  What about you?  What are your plans for the week?  What have you added to your shelves?  And don't forget while you're here to enter my month long giveaway that goes with my A to Z Challenge below!

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Bookish (And not so Bookish) Thoughts - January 22nd, 2015

Well, things have led to me not getting my book finished in time to post a review today like I'd hoped, so I searched Thursday book memes online and found this one that Bookishly Boisterous hosts.  It sounded like an easy one for me to do today so that I can keep up with my goal of a post every day this year.  Basically it is just to allow you the blogger to post whatever random thoughts you might have for the day, related to books or not.  So, that's a good one for me today.

1.  Last night I went to an early showing of the movie The DUFF.  It's a book I've wanted to read for awhile, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  The movie was really good.  It started out and I was a bit worried it might be kind of lame, but then it got pretty funny, and there was even a part where I just understood completely what the main character was going through and had tears streaming down my face.  I highly recommend seeing this one for a fun teen movie.  It touches on things like cyberbullying, and just being yourself.  There's a locker room scene that was hilarious, as well as a scene where the "Duff" is teaching the "Jock" how to kiss.  I still smile when I think of those parts.

2.  I really need to start exercising.  Several years ago I lost a ton of weight by walking, and also doing Weight Watchers.  Since then I've tried going back to WW, but they changed the program and now it really doesn't work for me.  There is a park I like to go walk at, and the weather has actually been pretty decent for January here, like in the 50s and 60s.  But on the days that I have had time to go walk, I've instead cleaned house, something I don't like to do anyway.  Or been lazy and said I didn't want to get dressed for the day.  All my clothes are too tight, and I refuse to buy any bigger sizes than the sizes I have.  So yeah.

3.  I joined eHarmony this week.  I should say rejoined, because years and years ago when it first came out I belonged for awhile.  It's so expensive though!  I'm going to try it without paying so that I can try not to be shallow about looks like I think is the problem when I try sites like Match.com.  So, wish me luck on that.

4.  I had to go back to working part time at my bookstore job.  Which don't get me wrong, if I have to work part time, it is the perfect place to work.  But last year this time I went seasonal.  And it was so nice to not have to go work anywhere else.  To be able to just go home and watch tv, read, etc.  I have to work tonight is why this is on my mind, because it means that I won't have time to read my book like I want to.

5.  I'm starting the editing process of the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo last November.  I've gotten some good feedback from two people, one of them was my writing partner.

6.  I love YA Book Exhange, but.  The issue is that I can't trade with a lot of the people because I don't have anything new enough to trade with them for the newer ARCs.  And that makes me sad.  Especially when they got an ARC that they didn't want, or they get two of them.  Or it makes me jealous? Both?

7.  I'm so excited that this week it was announced that NKOTB would be touring again, and they're coming to my city in May!  American Express pre-sale tickets are tomorrow.  Hoping to get some good seats.  I always go with one of my cousins and now a friend of mine that I didn't know was a fan until last year.  And, the announcement that Jonathan Knight and his partner/boyfriend are going to be on the Amazing Race next season was exciting as well!

8.  I'm missing going to the movies as much as I used to.  I had a really good friend, whose mother worked for AMC corporate, and so she had free passes.  And we went almost every Friday, often seeing 2 movies at a time!  I've had to learn to think which movies do I really want to pay to go see in a theater, and which ones can I wait till I can get them at Redbox.

Hmm, I think that might be all of the thoughts I have to share today.  Any random thoughts you'd like to share with me? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Goals/Resolutions For 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.  The goals can be bookish, blogging, or anything else.  So here goes!

1.   I want to continue to do at least 2 book reviews on my blog every week.  Along with that, I want to try to have a post every day of the year.  To do that, I am going to try to do as many scheduled posts as I can.  Possibly to try to have at least 10 ready to go at all time, and when one is used, then I will make another one.  
2.   My Goodreads goal was 125 this year, as of the time that I am posting this, I've read 136 books, and the year is not over.  For 2015, I want to bump it up to 130.  I know that is below how many I ended up reading this year, but I hate to set a too high goal.  What do you think?
3. I'm participating in the Winter 2014-2015 COYER Challenge to help clean out all those e-books that I download when they're free.  I will probably try to participate in this if it is offered for other times during the year.
4. I haven't signed up yet, but I think I will sign up for another TBR Pile Challenge, I have a lot of books I really need to get to.
5. I'm up in the air about my September Sequels Challenge.  I think I need to do it, but it really messed up my schedule of reading this past year.  Partly because it interrupted my getting through the ARCs I'd picked up at BEA.  So, that is in the air, but I will probably do it again, as I am not going to BEA this year, so won't have that same issue.
6. I am working with an artist friend of mine to re-do the banner and button for my blog.  I want to add the dogs I have now, and make a few other changes.  Only issue will be with how to add it, and if I'll have to have the person who did my current design add them or if I can figure it out.  What I like is that for the price my friend quoted me, I will have the image of the banner that I can then use for a Facebook page, or for business cards, etc.  My current banner I do not have the image for, so when I tried to use it for my Facebook page, I was unable to use it.  That's the reason I don't really have a Facebook page for my blog.
7. I want to work more on my Instagram presence.
8. I need to start my walking 20 miles a week again, and working on what I'm eating.  I'd really like to lose some weight.  Even if I don't lose any weight, I have a goal that by summer I will be able to be okay enough with myself that I can wear a swimsuit in public.  I am tired of not doing any swimming because I hate the site of myself in a swimsuit.  So that is working on my brain more than just my body itself.
9. I want to start saving money so that I can attend the Annual ALA Convention in the summer of 2016 because it is in Orlando.  I want to go down a week early, or stay a week after the convention so that I can go to the Harry Potter park and all the other Disneyworld and Universal Studio attractions.  
10. Revise the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo this past year enough to where I feel okay letting someone else read it to tell me if it is even worth working on anymore.

So those are my goals.  I would love to put something about getting more ARCs requested from publishers, but I don't know how to go about that, and feel weird asking for them.  I feel greedy to email and ask. What are your goals for the year?  Bookish or otherwise?

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!)

Still on track with book number 3

This is going to be a quick blog, because tonight I need to finish book number 3 to stay on track. But I have less than 100 pages left, so shouldn't be a problem. This is also turning out to be a really good book. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Got to have dinner with a sorority sister who moved back to Missouri this summer. It was nice. I haven't gotten together with this group in a long time, so I hope now that she's back I'll get to see her more. And I definitely hope to go visit her for a girls' weekend in Columbia.

Tomorrow I get to go see Final Destination 3D, I'm so excited! Tried WW tonight, couldn't find my little book. So that means that Saturday morning I intend to do some cleaning and find it! I won't be able to walk at Macken, because there is some charity walk. I walked 2 miles tonight. I'm going to try hard to get 5 miles in tomorrow before movies, and then 5 on Sunday. I'm still only at having lost 24, my goal was 25 by when school started, but I've been stuck on this last pound for several weeks. Not being able to walk every day is I'm sure a big part of the problem. Don't know how I'll take this.

Ready for fall tv to start

While I'm glad there isn't much tv going on, because I don't seem to have much time to watch it, I'm also ready for all my shows to be back. I got five miles in today. Worried if I would because the clouds just looked really scary all night, but we didn't get anything. Then I went to visit my step-mom in the hospital. She had a routine surgery, doing fine, but she's going to need help when she goes home because my dad has to go out of town for a few days right after. So I'm going to have to find some time to go visit her. Of course, in another week, my mom is having back surgery, so I'll be visiting her in the hospital too. I think I've set a goal to NEVER have surgery. I'm guessing at this point I'll probably never have kids, so I think I hope to not ever have surgery either. Although, my hip/back/sacroiliac joint keeps bothering me, who knows what we'll have to do about this. Plus, my shingles are acting up again. Probably the stress of the pain as well as being back to school. Today went the same as yesterday. Good morning, not so good afternoon. If only winning Powerball tonight could really happen. I'd be done teaching the end of this week. If they were nice, I might give them a couple weeks to find someone. If I won, these are the things I was thinking I'd do for other people: I'd give my friend Jo and her husband the money for a downpayment on a house, I'd give all 4 of my parents, my two sisters, and my brother 2 million each, I'd donate half a million to the cancer charity David Cook helps as well as the same amount to lung cancer research, I'd help lots of people. I'd also buy/build a house that I wanted. I want a ranch with a basement and a library with built in shelves. I want a flat yard so I could mow myself, and be able to fence the yard. In a nice neighborhood with sidewalks or walking paths.

Okay, I'll probably write more tomorrow, maybe, I've got a party to go to in Excelsior Springs, and I should try to go visit my step-mom, so I may not get to walk tomorrow. Which means I'll only have walked 10 miles this week. Oh well. I'll do better next week.

First REAL day of school

The morning started out pretty good. I actually felt after the first 2 classes that I could maybe do this for another year. Then, my 5th hour started. A class of 20 boys and 9 girls. That should tell you right there what the issue was. Boys with constant, stupid questions, just to be smart-alecs. God, all I can hope is that I win the Powerball tomorrow. Last hour of the day wasn't as bad, but with the crazy way we scheduled to spend extra time instead of going to Advisory was just a pain. Plus, I wonder when in the world will the buses get there on time. I'm so tired of waiting sometimes 10 minutes past when class is supposed to be over. Just add in the minutes to our classes and don't make us wait with nothing to do for that long at the end of the day. These are the things that reminded me why I do not want to be teaching anymore.

Wanted to play Sims 3, was really enjoying it, then my stupid Sim got stuck. I hope the hint on how to fix it will work next time I play. It's so addicting though, I was supposed to be watching my tv and not playing on the computer, and there I was.

I walked 5 miles tonight. Decided that was enough. It felt good though, I was worried it might be hard to get going, but no, that first mile was over before I even knew it!! Tomorrow night I'll get out and walk before I go visit my step-mom at the hospital. She's having a hysterectomy tomorrow, so she'll be in the hospital for a few days.

I got an email from MASL today, (Missouri Association of School Librarians), about the Truman selectors for next year's list. They were asking for student readers, but I emailed and asked if they needed any teachers to do it, and they told me to go ahead. So I'm excited so I can read another list. It's a lot of books, but it's so great to do. Makes me feel a part of the library world even if no one will hire me to do that.

First Friday Post

Tonight was a favorite Friday night for me because I got to see two movies: The Time Traveler's Wife and District 9. So I'll now do my first movie reviews on this new blog.

The Time Traveler's Wife: This was a really good book. It's been a while since I read it, but I think the movie stayed pretty true to the book. They bill it as a love story, and it is. No matter what anyone says.

District 9: Pretty good as well. An interesting new slant sort of on alien type movies. A little of the camera work that makes me kind of sick, although I'm not sure if it was that, or all the cinnamon sugar powder I put on the popcorn. But I spent part of the movie feeling nauseated. Still kind of do. So I got a diet 7-up out of the fridge when I got home.

I walked either 9 or 10 miles today, lost track for sure. Didn't quite make my goal, I still have about half a pound, but I decided that I will go ahead and open the laptop tomorrow. I figure I've worked hard all summer. I've denied myself a lot to stay on my diet, and I've walked so much that while it was a good summer, and I enjoyed walking, I didn't get any days really to just lay around all day in my pj's, which is part of what makes a teacher's summer enjoyable. So I'm also thinking tomorrow I will take a day off from walking, even though I have the time. I'm going to pretty much stay at home all day, until I go to work, or possibly also to have lunch with a friend. I will probably do my Wii fit some though, and follow my WW diet still. But it will be nice to sleep in as well. Even though I still didn't get up as early as school will make me, I rarely slept in much really, so I plan to do that tomorrow. I wish it would rain tomorrow though, that would make a perfect sleep in morning.

The pain today was still enough to make me scream. And while walking didn't bother it, as soon as I would sit down for even a minute, I'd be in pain again. So I called the doctor's office to find out if I could take tylenol like my brother said. They said I could. So far, the extra strength tylenol is a miracle worker. Now, I wasn't calculating correctly the time to take my second dose, and so I took it a few hours early, which could also possibly be what led to me feeling sick at the movies.

Okay, off to watch tv and go to bed soon. Tomorrow I may do my first book review on this blog as my main blog of the day.

A Thursday with no must-see tv

Summer has been weird with nothing to watch on Thursday nights. I mean, from September till May, I usually have so many shows on at the same time that I have to record 2 on the DVR and one on the VCR in my bedroom. Makes me want uverse, but I don't want to switch email and all that stuff. I'm so eager though, for fall tv to get going. Survivor, The Office, Supernatural, all the other shows as well. As soon as Entertainment Weekly puts out the new fall schedule, I'll post on here what "my" fall tv schedule will be.

Got quite a bit done at school today, but not near as ready as I'd like to be. So tomorrow I'll go walk, going to try to do 10 miles, maybe weigh in, lunch, and then go into my classroom for a few hours. Don't know if we're doing movies tomorrow night. I hope so, I really want to see The Time Traveler's Wife.

Got my hair done tonight. It looks really cute, my hairstylist took a picture, I'm just waiting for her to post it on Facebook, so maybe tomorrow night I'll post it in my blog.

My hip/leg hurts a lot. This morning it hurt so bad I wanted to just scream in pain. It still isn't doing great. So I think tomorrow I'll call my doctor and tell her the Celebrex isn't helping at all. I did some online research into the sacroiliac joint issue, and the prognosis is kinda scary to me. The physical therapy sounds really painful, although I saw suggestions of massage unlike what my doctor said. I see it could have something to do with driving long distances. And I think it first started bothering me after a couple long trips I made. Maybe next Memorial Day, if school gets out earlier like it's supposed to, I can maybe ride with someone else to Branson instead of driving myself.

Not sure what else to talk about right now, kind of a boring day. So I'll try to write more later.

Third time is the Charm

This is my 3rd official blog, and also tonight I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the 3rd time. Saw the movie this time on IMAX. I still didn't get to see the preview for The Lightning Thief, which I'm really wanting to see because I loved those books so much.

Convocation was good today, because I never saw the one person who would have made it bad. And, I skipped out of the speeches in the middle and went and got some shopping done at Target. The bad thing is that I forgot to do some balancing in my checkbook, and I think I'm about broke now!! Oh well, what will I do? I need Friday's paycheck so bad. But Friday I need to pay my water bill, so I'll be kind of poor for a week. No cooking next week probably, just will buy what I need for easy lunches.

Only walked 5 miles, just not enough time by the time I got home, figured out my money error and then got to park. Because I needed to take a shower before I met my dad and step-mom at the movies. Tomorrow night I'll miss out on the staff party at Lyn's house because I have a hair appointment at 5. I'm excited for the hair appointment, which is going to have to go on my credit card because I'm broke. So I hope that will be okay. I also have to figure out how to get to Jacque's new salon. I'm going to stay with the same colors, but not sure about the style. I've had so many compliments lately that I'm not sure about cutting it too much.

Last thing to talk about tonight before I go to bed. The celebrex my doctor gave me seemed to be working well last night, today, not so great. I hope it does better tomorrow. Also, the Juice Plus that my brother had told me about had a booth at Convocation. I may try it, again, I'm pretty broke. Okay, almost 11, need to go to bed.

Two for the money

Yeah, I don't know what the title of this blog has to do with anything. Just thought it was cute. Got quite a bit done in my room today. Went to the doctor and finally we may be onto something. She thinks it is my sacroiliac joint that is the problem. If that's the case I may need either physical therapy, or she says a shot of prednisone, but an epidural shot, which scares me. She had me do some blood work to check this hypothesis. She also gave me some Celebrex samples to try. So far, they seem to be working. I did have to call my brother, who is a pharmacutical (sp?) sales rep, and ask about the drug. I have heard on those lawyer commercials this drug name before and so I was curious. He gave me some info, said it was probably okay since I wasn't probably going to be on it long term. But now I can do some research into it and the injury on my own. The doctor said this didn't seem to be a muscular injury that massage probably wouldn't do any good.

Got to walk 5 miles today, but kind of late, so still going to bed later than I planned. Tomorrow is Convocation at PVBC in Liberty. I hate Convo, it's a waste of time in my opinion. I don't want to see the person who got my library job, and I really don't want to go sit through the science curriculum meeting, it is an hour and a half this year. I swear it has always been only an hour. Oh well. I intend to go talk to some bank people about getting my finances in order so I can think about quitting the district at the end of the year. Other than that and my meeting, I am bringing my book to sit and read through most of the time I have to be there. I refuse to go sit at the stupid motivational ceremony. Maybe I'll leave for lunch or do some shopping at the Target during that time instead. Tomorrow night supposed to go see Harry Potter on the IMAX. It will be my 3rd time, my dad and step-mom's first. I'm excited to go, it was really good.

Okay, going to go to bed, or at least to go watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory and then go to bed. Driving to Liberty adds some time to my morning.