September Wrap-Up

Well, here we are in October my favorite month of the year! That means September is over and the crisp air and falling leaves can start....any time now! Please!!! Ahem. Anyway. September started out on a crazy trip to Oregon to furnish our vacation home, to fancying up the exterior of one of our duplexes to, well, nothing. Things seemed to have calmed down and I'm loving it! More time for reading, binge watching shows and enjoying the cooler weather....anytime now, Fall.

 I read 8 books this past month. 2 print books 3 ebooks and 3 audiobooks. Fairly balanced I'd say.

The Girl From The Well
A creepy read about a murdered girl who seeks revenge until she meets a boy with an even more creepy ghost attached to him.

Shadow and Bone (Grisha Verse 1)
All the regular ingredients to a fantasy but tasted delicious.

A Simple Favor
Stupid, pointless story with deplorable characters.

The Woman in Cabin 10
A likable character in a psychological thriller? I know! I'm shocked too!

The Orphan Keeper
Intriguing page turner about a kidnapped child and his journey home.

Before We Were Yours
Surprising with twists and turns through past and present.

Big Mushy Happy Lump
Get ready to laugh for the few minutes it will take to read this delightful book.

Siege and Storm (Grisha Verse 2)
Slower middle but still so yummy! (review to come)




And there you have it. Big Mushy Lump gets 5 stars because there's nothing to dislike and I'll definitely be reading it again but The Grisha books,The Woman in Cabin 10 and Before We Were Yours were all great books too.  Besides A Simple Favor, which was just awful, I had a pretty good reading month.

August Wrap-Up 2018

I'm finally getting a minute of downtime to do my wrap up post for August. Hopefully I can start getting some reviews written so there's SOMETHING going up on my blog. August was a crazy month!  With the trip to drive to Oregon at the end of the month looming and trying to get everything organized and packed my stress levels were through the roof. The trip went well, by the way, We made it there and back in one piece and after getting back home and both my husband and I crashing emotionally, I think we're finally back to finding some normalcy. Well, normalcy for us, anyway (we're painting at one of our rentals). Some how I managed eight books in August. Five of those were audiobooks which explains how I managed so many. Thank goodness for audiobooks, right?!

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer, Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz, Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris, First Comes Love by Emily Giffin, Moonlight Over Manhattan by Sarah Morgan, A Gathering of Finches by Jane Kirkpatrick and Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage.

Favorites of the month were Letters to the Lost and First Comes Love. Lease favorites were Bring Me Back and Genuine Fraud.

July Wrap-Up 2018

July, as I've mentioned before, is NOT my favorite month. It's just too hot! Even with a pool it's unbearable. And it seems to go on and on! Am I right? Anywho, I'm glad Dewy's 24 Hour Readathon decided to do a reverse reathathon. It was nice having something to look forward to and it really upped my reading numbers. I read 4 books for the readathon bringing my books read in July up to 11. I'm so close to reaching my Goodreads goal for the year and I still have so many months to go! Wahoo! Here's what I read.

Wishtree by Christine Applegate, The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, Bird Box by Josh Malerman, All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin, Startled By His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison, Ship Out Of Luck by Neal Shusterman, A Grown Up Kind Of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson, Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf, The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby, Kristy's Great Idea by Raina Telgemeier and Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer.

Phew! Favorite was Bird Box for sure. You must go read this book! Least favorite was Our Souls at Night and All We Ever Wanted but even those were two star reads.

Dewey's 24 Hour Reverse Readathon!

In case you haven't heard, Dewy's is doing a Reverse Readathon and since I love any excuse to read, I'm joining up. This Reverse Readathon doesn't start Saturday morning and run all day this time; it's starting Friday night 8:00pm Eastern 6:00pm my time. So it's starting...like...right now!

Here's what I'll be reading.

I've got a couple of GNs, my traditional Georgia Nicholson book (I'm on number 7) and I'll be working on the books I'm currently reading too.

Let's face it, most of us don't participate in these things for the legit 24 hrs. People have to eat and live life and use the restroom, right? And there's that pesky thing called sleep. I'm never able to do a full 24 hrs and I highly doubt this Reverse Readathon will help with that. I need sleep people! So I'll be trying to go to bed later and trying to get up earlier but I will be taking a sleeping break...especially because, as I write this, I'm already tired. Sigh!

As per usual, I won't be updating on my blog; I'll be on Instagram, Twitter and Litsy (@Jenny) if you care to see how I'm doing. One thing I wanted to do differently was keep track of the time I actually spend reading so I'll be using my stopwatch. This should be interesting...or really depressing. 

Are you participating? Wish me luck! I'll see you on the other side!

June Wrap-Up 2018

June brought another crazy month around here. We FINALLY got our backyard finished; that dragged out way too long. I don't have complete pictures yet because I'm waiting for my husband to re-set the diving board for the pool so it's all perfectly complete. When that's done I'll be posting some very dramatic before and after pics. Seriously! I just hunted down the before pictures I took four years ago and it's NUTS! It look so different!

Besides all that craziness I had to finally go see a orthopedic surgeon for my thumb. It's been giving me grief for over a year. After an X-ray and an MRI, they determined that, no, I didn't injure the ligaments (yeah, I could have told them that) and that, no, there's no cancer, (thank goodness!) but that there's tendinitis (just as I suspected) and calcification around that joint that may be a cause or a result of the tendinitis. So basically they gave me another steroid shot and told me if it acts up again I'll most likely need surgery to remove the calcification. Can I just cut my thumb off? Grrrr!

And we have another real estate deal underway that's turning into a huge ordeal. When that's all done and set in stone I'll let you know know all about it. For now, I'm just trying to get ready for the pool party I'm having for Independence Day and trying to read as much as I can to counteract all the stress.

Here's what I managed in June. 8 books. Not bad.

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani, The Broken Girls by Simone St. James, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, The Optimist's Guide To Letting Go, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

Favorite this month was Eleanor Oliphant. Least favorites were The Perfect Nanny and The Broken Girls.

May Wrap-Up 2018

For some reason I feel like I read a lot more in May then I really did. Seven books isn't bad but it felt like more. Sadly, there weren't any 5 star reads either. That's always a bummer. Oh well. May was eventful. My husband and I took a short vacation to our happy place; the Oregon coast and then less then two weeks later, spontaneously drove back for Memorial Day weekend.

How can this not be our happy place?! It's so beautiful! Anywho, I listened to two audiobooks on the drive which made it a tinsy bit more bearable but, dude, that's a LONG drive. Flying is much better. Here's my books.

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy, Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Allbertalli, Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Allbertalli, Finnikin of the Rock my Melina Marchetta, Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin and Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. 

Favorite of the month was Being Friends With Boys. Least favorite was Finnikin of the Rock.

April Wrap-Up 2018

April was a busy month for me. With the concrete poured we got to start putting patio furniture in but that meant assembly which was a big headache. Plus it looks like spring is finally here and so we've had to start mowing at our rentals so....yeah, I'm crazy busy and when I get busy I often don't feel like reading in my downtime. So I didn't read that much this month. Dewy's 24 Hour Readthon helped me get two more books under my belt though.

Our new swing, Cliff has made himself at home, and the new fence on the north side of the house

Pergola minus the fire pit.  I'll get complete pictures one day

So there's a few pictures of the backyard for you. Now onto the books.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier, Optimists Die First by Susan Nielsen, Daughter of the Sun by Zoe Kalo, My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood, Ross Poldark by Winston Graham and Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Favorite of the month with five stars was Optimists Die First. Least Favorites was Daughter of the Sun.

March Wrap-Up 2018

March has come and gone and hopefully it took the snow with it. Remember how my backyard is getting redone? Well, the last day in March they poured new concrete! It's coming together now. I'm super excited!

It's looking good, right? AND I read 11 whole books! I'm super happy about this.

The Five Thieves of Happiness by John B Izzo, Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier, Summerlost by Ally Condie, Pivot Point by Kasie West, I Liked my Life by Abby Fabiaschi, Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia, Geekerella by Ashley Poston, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume and The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli.

I think I liked pretty much all of them this time! Top rated were, I Liked My Life, The Upside of Unrequited and The Five Thieves of Happiness. Nothing less than three stars so I think it's safe to say there's no bad ones here.

February Wrap-Up 2018

As February came to a close last night, I sat in bed wondering why I was glad it was over. I feel like I'm just tolerating life lately and can't wait for the day, week, month or the year to end. It's as if I think things will get better in the future. The truth is things are pretty good right now; in the moment but I'm in the habit of being grouchy. It doesn't help that February did have a lot of crappy things happen and that near the end of the month I hit a reading slump and my anxiety attacks went into high gear but all in all my life is good. I need to get out of this nasty habit of being irritated all of the time. Another thing I need to work on, right? Anyway, sorry to ramble. I managed 6 books in February. Most were read at the beginning of the month before my book hangover/reading slump hit.

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff, The Women in the Window by A.J. Finn, White Tears by Hari Kunzru, The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell.

Favorite of the month and inducer of my book hangover and coinciding reading slump was The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett. Least Favorite was White Tears.

I also DNF two books this month.

Lincoln in the Bardo was one of the Tournament of Book books and it was just written in too weird of a style for me. Every Last Word just felt unedited and childish.

On to March where I hope to get out of my slump and read more and start having a better attitude. Now watch the universe really test my limits.

January Wrap-Up 2018

January is over and for some reason it felt like the longest month of my life! Maybe that explains why I managed to read so many (for me) books.

The first week of January my husband and I went to the Oregon coast, as I mentioned, and I didn't read a single book that week. So I'm impressed with my eight books. I chose this very unflattering picture of my husband because, well, I look better in it. I'm so nice!

Then, when we got back in town, my brother, who will be working on our backyard this spring, decided to get an early start because the weather has been so nice. Goodbye, dirt and weeds. You'll all be concrete soon!






So needless to say, it's been a wild January. Maybe that's why it felt so endless. Anywho, here's the books I read.

So Much Blue by Percival Everette, Annihilation by Jon VanderMeer, Idaho by Emily Ruskovich, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

No really bad books this month so that's something but no five stars either. I'd say So Much Blue, The Way of the Superior Man and Annihilation were my favorites of the month.