Category: Monday

Currently Reading: The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, The Essential Feminist Reader, and Prince of Hazel and Oak by John Lenahan.

       

Challenges:

• Take Control of Your TBR Pile Progress: I’ve met my goal!
• Once Upon a Time IX Progress: Prince of Hazel and Oak is the only book I’m currently reading that counts for this challenge.  I’m expecting to have it finished before the end of the week.
• Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 12 out of 51.
• Outdo Yourself Progress: 15 out of 66.
• Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 7 out of 50.
• SF/F Bingo: I’m working on filling in the whole card, and it’s getting a bit more difficult.

Total pages read for the week: 489

Total number of books for the year: 16.  I’m back into the swing of going to classes and working on my research papers, but I’ve added looking for a part-time job into my already busy schedule, so I haven’t had much time to read.  Also, it was the Boyfriend’s Birthday this weekend.  Besides the holidays, it’s the only day of the year that I don’t mind not getting at least a little time to read.  When I did get time (other than during my commute), I concentrated on The Essential Feminist Reader, since it’s due back at the library soon, and I really want to at least get to the ’90s, when I was first introduced to Feminism by way of the Riot Grrrl bands.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Berls over at Fantasy is More Fun.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, and The Essential Feminist Reader.

      

Finished: Stardust by Neil Gaiman, and Buan: The Perfect Mortals by Reece Bridger.

 

Challenges:

• Take Control of Your TBR Pile Progress: I’ve met my goal!
• Once Upon a Time IX Progress: This just started on Saturday, and none of my current reads count.
• Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 12 out of 51.
• Outdo Yourself Progress: 15 out of 66.
• Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 7 out of 50.
• SF/F Bingo: I’m working on filling in the whole card, and it’s getting a bit more difficult.

Total pages read for the week: 832

Total number of books for the year: 16.  Spring Break is over, and despite hurting my back and being stuck on the couch, I didn’t get as much reading done as I thought I would.  I also didn’t finish most of my current reads.  That’s ok, though.  I watched a lot of TV, and I read a book that had nothing to do with most of my challenges.  It was a recommendation from Erika at Book Punks.  Anyway, my mind wasn’t in the right place to read critically, and I just wanted something to enjoy while I wasn’t able to go anywhere or do much of anything.  Stardust was that book.  I won’t be reviewing it because I deliberately didn’t take any notes or do any thinking about it after I finished it.  I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars on Goodreads, and that’s all that matters.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?  Do you have any go-to books when you’re sick or injured?

Currently Reading: Buan: The Perfect Mortals by Reece Bridger, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, and The Essential Feminist Reader.

      

Finished: Shadowmagic by John Lenahan, The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, and The Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki, all of which I’ll be reviewing sometime this week, along with Nightfall Gardens by Allen Houston, which I was supposed to review last week.

  

Challenges:

• Take Control of Your TBR Pile Progress: I’ve read 3 books towards my goal of 4.
• Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 11 out of 51.
• Outdo Yourself Progress: 13 out of 66.
• Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 7 out of 50.
• SF/F Bingo: I’m working on filling in the whole card, and it’s starting to get a bit more difficult.  I had to do some rearranging in order to get the squares I have marked now, but I haven’t decided yet which square I’m going to put The Gift of Charms on.  The obvious one would be “Dragons”, but then I would have to move The Sunken by S.C. Green.

Total pages read for the week: 586

Total number of books for the year: 15.  It’s Spring Break for me, and I hurt my back on Sunday, so I’ve got a lot of time on my hands for reading.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish all of my current reads, or at least most of them, by the end of the week.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: The Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, The Essential Feminist Reader, and Shadowmagic by John Lenahan, which I listen to during my commute to and from school.

      

Finished: Nightfall Gardens by Allen Houston, which I’ll be reviewing sometime this week.

Take Control of Your TBR Pile Progress: 1

Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 9 

Outdo Yourself Progress: 10

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 7

SF/F Bingo: I’m working on filling in the whole card.  I haven’t decided which squares The Burning Land by Victoria Strauss and Nightfall Gardens will be placed on, and I might have to do some major rearranging.

Total pages read for the week: 486

Total number of books for the year: 12.  I’m still on schedule, despite the insanity of the past week.  I’m still feeling exhausted.  I’ve got Midterms this week and then I’m kicking off Spring Break with a weekend meditation retreat, so I don’t know how much reading I’ll get done.  I plan on finishing Shadowmagic and The Gift of Charms, though.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenters were Julie from Chapter Break and Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: Nightfall Gardens by Allen Houston, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, The Essential Feminist Reader, and Shadowmagic by John Lenahan, which I listen to during my commute to and from school.

      

Finished: The Burning Land by Victoria Strauss, which I’ll be reviewing sometime this week.

Winter 2014-2015 COYER Progress:  I’ve hit my goal of 10 books, and participated in 2 read-a-thons towards my goal of 3.  I’ve been keeping up with the Facebook group, and I did a mini-challenge.

Take Control of Your TBR Pile Progress: This challenge just started yesterday.

Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 8 

Outdo Yourself Progress: 9

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 7

SF/F Bingo: Since I’ve already finished this challenge, I’m working on filling in the whole card.  I haven’t decided which square The Burning Land will be placed on, but I’m thinking “new to me author”.

Total pages read for the week: 659

Total number of books for the year: 11.  I’m back on schedule, for now.  I’ve got another 3 papers to write and an exam on Friday, and then I’ll be getting into Midterms week before going to a weekend meditation retreat as Spring Break starts.  I’m exhausted, and trying not to have a meltdown.  Everything feels like work and all I want to do is sit on the couch in my PJs with a bottle of wine and some chocolate and binge watch everything on Netflix.  Even gaming feels like too much productivity to me right now.  I’m really enjoying Shadowmagic though, and it has greatly improved my commute.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: The Burning Land by Victoria Strauss, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, and The Essential Feminist Reader.

     

Finished: Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran by Marion Grace Woolley, which I’ll be reviewing on Wednesday.

Winter 2014-2015 COYER Progress:  I’ve read 9 books towards my goal of 10, and participated in 2 read-a-thons towards my goal of 3.  I’ve been keeping up with the Facebook group, and I did a mini-challenge.

Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 7 

Outdo Yourself Progress: 8

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 6

SF/F Bingo: Since I’ve already finished this challenge, I’m working on filling in the whole card.

Total pages read for the week: 376

Total number of books for the year: 10.  I’m still a little bit behind schedule.  I had 3 papers to write this week, and I’m busy writing 2 more that are due by Friday, so I’m not likely to finish my one remaining review book for the month before the 28th.  I’m hoping I’ll finish it by March 6th, though, since it’s the last book I need to meet my goal for COYER.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, The Essential Feminist Reader, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, because I’m insane.  Also, there’s a read-along for it.

        

Finished: 1536: The Year that Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb, and The Very Best of Kate Elliott, which I reviewed on Saturday.  I might post an edited version of the paper I had to write on 1536 as a sort of review once I get it back from the professor.

 

Winter 2014-2015 COYER Progress:  I’ve read 8 books towards my goal of 10, and participated in 2 read-a-thons towards my goal of 3.  I’ve been keeping up with the Facebook group, and I finally did a mini-challenge!

Show Your Shelves Some Love Progress: 6 

Outdo Yourself Progress: 7

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 5

SF/F Bingo: BINGO!  The Very Best of Kate Elliott was published this year, I’ve read a book containing dragons (The Sunken by S.C. Green), a book by a female author (The Eterna Files), a book published prior to 2000 (Walking the Labyrinth by Lisa Goldstein) and an Urban Fantasy (The Kingdom Lights by Steven V.S.).  My “Free” book is Tommy Black and the Staff of Light by Jake Kerr).  Now that I’ve met this challenge, I’m going to attempt to fill in the whole card.

Total pages read for the week: 384

Total number of books for the year: 9.  I’m still behind schedule and had to move back the review dates for this month’s books again.  Also, I made the mistake of forgetting to download a review book before it was archived *face palm*.  I had an exam and 2 papers to write this week, and I’m busy writing more papers over the next 2 weeks, so I’m not likely to get caught up with all my review books this month.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: The Very Best of Kate Elliott, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club, 1536: The Year that Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb, for one of my college classes, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, because I’m insane.  Also, there’s a read-along for it.

         

Winter 2014-2015 COYER Progress:  I’ve read 7 books towards my goal of 10, and participated in 2 read-a-thons towards my goal of 3.  I’ve been keeping up with the Facebook group, but I still need to do a mini-challenge.

Show Your Shelves Some Love, and Outdo Yourself Progress: 5

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 4

SF/F Bingo: So far I only need to read a book published this year.  The Very Best of Kate Elliott will qualify for that. I’ve read a book containing dragons (The Sunken by S.C. Green), a book by a female author (The Eterna Files), a book published prior to 2000 (Walking the Labyrinth by Lisa Goldstein) and an Urban Fantasy (The Kingdom Lights by Steven V.S.).  My “Free” book is Tommy Black and the Staff of Light by Jake Kerr).

Total pages read for the week: 477.  I was apparently in the middle of another reading slump without knowing it, but I accidently discovered a cure: reading a book from a series I love.  I thought my reading was just being interfered with by all my school work, but on Wednesday evening I got home after a craptastic day with a huge case of the “F-its”, went immediately to my TBR shelf, picked up The Fiery Cross, and started reading without any regard for all the things I should’ve been doing instead.  It turns out all the books I’ve been reading lately have been kind of heavy, and instead of reading I was filling my time with busy work and random chores whenever I wasn’t working on school work.  I enjoy heavy books, but I got bogged down, and I needed another world to escape to and just enjoy the story and characters without dealing with serious modern day real life issues.  The crazy part is now that I’m out of the slump, I’ve been able to return to those heavier books with a renewed interest.  I think from now on, I’m going to keep a light read going along with all the other heavier reads so that this hopefully doesn’t happen again.

Total number of books for the year: 7.  I’m now behind schedule and I moved back the review dates for this month’s books.  However, now that I’m out of my reading slump, I think there’s a chance I’ll be able to complete most of the challenges I’m participating in.  These next couple of weeks are going to be particularly busy, though, so I’m not likely to get caught up with all my review books this month. Wednesday’s Words will now be monthly, along with all my other features except this one.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

Currently Reading: The Very Best of Kate Elliott, a review book, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which I’m reading for the Sword and Laser bookclub, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott for The Classics Club.

   

Finished: The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber, which I’ll be reviewing on Feb. 3rd.

Winter 2014-2015 COYER Progress:  I’ve read 7 books towards my goal of 10, and participated in 2 read-a-thons towards my goal of 3.  I participated in the Twitter chat on Saturday, but I still need to do a mini-challenge.

Show Your Shelves Some Love, and Outdo Yourself Progress: 5

Netgalley/Edelweiss Progress: 4

SF/F Bingo: I may end up moving these around a bit, but so far I only need to read a book published this year.  The Very Best of Kate Elliott will qualify for that. I’ve read a book containing dragons (The Sunken by S.C. Green), a book by a female author (The Eterna Files), a book published prior to 2000 (Walking the Labyrinth by Lisa Goldstein) and an Urban Fantasy (The Kingdom Lights by Steven V.S.).  My “Free” book is Tommy Black and the Staff of Light by Jake Kerr).

Total pages read for the week: 327

Total number of books for the year: 7.  I’m still ahead of schedule, but I don’t know how long that will last.  2 of my 4 classes this semester are requiring me to write 20 page research papers on top of all the normal coursework that comes along with the typical college class.  Due to this, I’ve already made the decision to cut Friday’s Fairy Tales down to every other week, which is why there wasn’t a post on Friday.  I may end up doing the same with Wednesday’s Words.  I know this will likely hurt the blog, but earning my degree has to come first.  The amount of reading I get done every week will suffer too, since most days I’m only reading for about 30 minutes before I go to bed.

Top Commenters: This week, my Top Commenter was Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?