July 2017 Wrap Up!

It has been almost 2 years since my last wrap up post and I think it is high-time I pick back up! I do owe all my invisible readers an explanation as to why I've been gone for so long. It would be easy to blame the long hours of work (and in part it would be true), and it would be easy to blame planning my wedding (and again it would be partially true), but in all honesty, I did not hold myself countable to good time management. In my home/work, in my reading/life, and in my home/fun. I was learning to be an adult, and sometimes that means that you suck at it for a while before you get better at it. Well I've been better at it, not good, but better. So here I am again. 

This month I read 27 books!

1. The City of Ember by Jaenne DuPrau
2. Untamed by A.G. Howard
3. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
4. Goddess of the Sea by P.C. Cast
5. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
6. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
7. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
8. A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi
9. Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak
10. Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
11. Atlantia by Ally Conndie
12. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare
13. Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare
14. The Lost Herondale by Cassandra Clare
15. The Whitechapel Fiend by Cassandra Clare
16. Nothing by Shadows by Cassandra Clare
17. The Evil We Love by Cassandra Clare
18. Pale Kings and Princes by Cassandra Clare
19. Bitter of Tongue by Cassandra Clare
20. The Fiery Trial by Cassandra Clare
21. Born to Endless Night by Cassandra Clare
22. Angels Twice Descending by Cassandra Clare
23. Towering by Alex Flinn
24. Legion by Julie Kagawa
25. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
26. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
27. Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

Now I debated marking this as 18 or 27 books because 10/11 Cassandra Clare books were shorts. In the end I went with the 27 because Goodreads has them as individual books and I read them as separate ebooks.  Thoughts? 

Some statistics, because I love statistics!

I read a total of 27 books and 7,551 pages in July.
I gave a total of 87 stars out of a possible 135
3 books received 5 stars, 5 books 4 stars, 15 books 3 stars, 3 books 2 stars, and only 1 book got a 1 star.
I posted reviews for 1 of the 27 books so far.
24 of the 27 books were part of a series, 3 were stand alone books.
8 of those 24 were first books in the series

My favorite book of July was:

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

This is a beautiful series, and I know that I am not alone in loving Sarah J. Mass's amazing writing, and beautiful stories, but I really feel that this author rejuvinated my love of reading! She reminded me that even though you may read 100 3 stars, there is always that one 5 star hiding among them that makes it worth it!

Least favorite

My least favorite book was Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James.

I didn't expect to love it, but I found this book particularly disappointing, even in the context of this series. It unfortunately fell prey to the disappointing last book trap.

Currently Reading

July and August have been 'clean out the currently reading list' months so the books I am reading are nothing new but I am determine to finish them soon! I am down to 11 books on my currently reading and I need to get this down to a manageable list. 

1. The Naming by Alison Croggon

2. Fractured Dream by K.M. Randall
3. Inferno by Dante Alighieri
4. Justice Buried by Hilary Thompson
5. Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
6. Size 12 is not Fat by Meg Cabot

We will see how well I do this month finishing them off, but I did put a nice dent in the currently reading list in July. 

Project Brad

This is on hold during the summer months, because Brad feels that he needs to be outside while it is warm and he will catch up once it is chilly again!

Wrap it up!

Not bad for the first update in over a year! July was a big month for me and I'm hoping to follow through with August!
What are your summer reading habits? Do you speed up and power through like me, or put it on hold till the cooler months like Brad?
Let me know!

August 2015 Wrap Up!

Second wrap up post! This month was a very busy month and not just in the book variety! A little announcement to make: I'm no longer on night shift! I am now the full time RN Supervisor, a switch that happened this month. I'm very excited about this, but it's been a big change. There are a lot more people to interact with, and family members and doctors to work with, but I love it and I'm so much happier now, although the sleep adjustment situation means I fell back to impulse reading, and just read what I felt like and not what I planned to... I also have not been posting as much this last few weeks because... I got my wedding dress! What an experience! Stressful but amazing! Which brings me to the books!

This month I read 12 books!

1. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

2. Frostfire by Amanda Hocking

3. Once by Anna Carey

4. Fire by Kristin Cashore

5. Dawn of Eden by Julie Kagawa

6. Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

7. Transformed by E.V. Fairfall

8. Deep Dark Fears by Fran Krause

9. Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas

10. The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

11. The Blight of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

12. The Scourge of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

Statistics!

I read a total of 12 books and 4,105 pages in August!

I gave a total of 49 stars out of a possible 60.

3 books received 5 stars, 7 books 4 stars, 2 books got 3 stars and no books were below 3 stars. 

I posted reviews for 6  of the 12 books so far. 

7 of the 12 books were part of a series, 3 were stand alone books, and 1 was a graphic short. 

3 of those were first books in the series and 3 were second books in series. 

1 book was a comic short, and 1 book was a novella. 

2 books were advanced reading copies.

My favorite book from August was:

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

This has been on my to read list for a while and I finally just read it and it was beautiful. It was fairy tale retelling story which is one of my favorite genres. On top of that it was still young adult, but it was on the higher (as far as age/maturity goes) of young adult to the point where I almost didn't classify it as such, and that was a nice change of pace. 

Least favorite book in August:

Once by Anna Carey

It was't that this book was bad, it just wasn't great and there was a lot of really great books this month. If there had been some books that I didn't like this book would have fallen solidly in the middle of the pack, but there weren't any I really did not like, so what can you do?

Currently Reading

You know me, there's never just one book I'm reading at a time!

1. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

2. Inferno by Dante Alighieri
3. Justice Buried by Hilary Thompson

   

Crown of Midnight is the second book in the Throne of Glass series, which I know I'm behind on, but is wonderful non the less! I started Inferno thinking I'd knock it out before reading Inferno by Dan Brown only to find it was harder than I expected and it's taking longer I planned. Justice Buried is an ARC I received, which I am really enjoying so look for a review next month!

Project Brad

Brad and I are still working on Revan by Drew Karpyshyn. I am pleased to report that Brad seems to be enjoying this book much more than previous ones. We are reading slowly, but steadily which is nice. There's a really good chance we will finish this book this fall. 

Wrap it up!

That's August! I'm really glad that I not only maintained, but increased my reading from last month! Even with life getting in the way and work being very busy, I've been really enjoying the books I've been reading! Exciting news too, I completed my 2015 goal! I actually finished out August with 40/40 books for the year. That being said I am going to be raising my goal because I was able to read a lot more than I expected to be able to this year! My new goal for 2015 is: 75! I know that's almost double the goal I had, but it's a challenge, and it maintains last year's goal! It put's me 9 books behind schedule but I am hoping to make that up next month!

How did everyone else do in August? Did anyone get some beach reads done?

July 2015 Wrap Up!

I thought that I'd do something a little different today, since it's the end of a month this will be my first wrap up post!

Before I talk about July and the books I read, I just wanted to give some background. About a year ago I found Booktube. I absolutely love watching all the videos about books and the wonderful community there but due to 1. I am terribly on camera, 2. my camera is terrible, and 3. I do much better with blogs than vlogs, I decided to go the text post direction instead, I've never seen a wrap up post on a typed blog, but I love them on Booktube and I  love the idea, so here goes!

This month I read 11 books!

1. The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore
2. Eve by Anna Carey
3. Queen of Tomorrow by Sherry D. Ficklin
4. Rogue by Julie Kagawa
5. Murwood: The Lost Abbey by Jeff Wheeler
6. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
7. Dracula by Bram Stoker
8. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
9. Pure Insanity by Sean Ryan
10. The Last of the Firedrakes by Farah Oomerbhoy
11. The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Some statistics, because I love statistics!

I read a total of 11 books and 3396 pages in July.
I gave a total of 42 stars out of a possible 55
2 books recieved 5 stars, 5 books 4 stars, 3 books 3 stars, and I only rated 1 book 2 stars, and none were rated 1 star.
I posted reviews for 9 of the 11 books so far.
9 of the 11 books were part of a series, 1 was a stand alone book,1 was part of a world, but not a series.
5 of those 9 were first books in the series
2 books were comics or graphic novels
4 books were advanced reading copies
2 books were read aloud with a friend

My top two books of July were:

1. Queen of Tomorrow by Sherry D. Ficklin
2. The Last of the Firedrakes by Farah Oomerbhoy

Both of these were given to me as advanced reading copies, which is still very new to me and I am still always a little concerned that I will hate the books, but they ended up being my favorites for the month. (Yes, I know that I gave The Last of the Firedrakes a 4 star, and The Ice Dragon a 5 star, no one said I had to make sense!

Least favorite

My least favorite book was Dracula by Bram Stoker.

I went into this book knowing I would probably not love it, but I wanted some context for a Stephen King book I am reading. I am glad I read it, but it was just very slow, and frustrating, and I didn't really enjoy it. 

Currently Reading

I am also working on a few other books right now that will now be finished in August, but I read a large chunk of them in July, and those books are:

1. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

2. Transformed by E.V. Fairfall

 

These are the two books that I am currently working on. The first is 'Salem's Lot, and it is part of my Stephen King project (basically, I want to read Stephen King, and I'm making my way through his work chronologically because I'm a crazy person, I may post about that later!). The second book is Transformed and it was given to me by the author for review, I'm about a third of the way through this book and I really like it so far! So keep an eye out in August for my review!

Project Brad

Honorable Mention goes to Revan by Drew Karpyshyn

This book is part of another project I'm working on, and that's Brad. My fiance. I love him so much, but he has one [major] flaw: he is not a reader! It's been a running joke that I'll make a reader out of him yet, and I've been [not so] gently nudging [shoving] books at him since we met. He agreed that we could read books together and the first series that we read were the Chronicles of Narnia and her seemed to enjoy them, but I think that he was mostly trying for my sake! Its actually very sweet, we take turns reading chapters out loud to each other. These books usually take a lot longer because we read together at a much slower pace. Once we finished The Last Battle (this month!) he wanted to start reading some Star Wars books and I can tell that he is enjoying reading a lot more now! This book will probably be on my currently reading for a long time, but the level of excitement he has is so much higher it is worth it to draw this one out!

Wrap it up!

This was July in a nutshell! I think it was a really good month for reading. I had been in a reading slump and I really kicked it's butt this month! I was still really busy with work, but things are beginning to settle down again and I'll hopefully have a lot more time to read! I ended up catching up with my Goodreads goal and am 5 books ahead of schedule!

Look for my August to read post in the next few days!

What were your favorite books of July and what are you planning on reading in August?

Happy Reading!

2015 Reading Challenge

Angela has read 28 books toward her goal of 40 books.

hide

28 of 40 (70%)

view books