Category: Monthly Wrap Up

Hello Kittens! I am so happy that this year seems to be flying by and we are already into August. I am more than ready for the Fall and getting to August means we’re almost there. July ended up being a poor reading month for me in the second half of the month, mostly due to the fact that I moved at the end of the month. Moving in July is its own particular form of Hell, in my personal opinion, and resulted in me struggling to finish any books these last 10 days or so. Without further ado, let’s take a look at what I did manage to get through.

(Title links are to goodreads.)

Total Books Read: 9

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells, Rating: 5 stars

The Shadows by Alex North, Rating: 5 stars (check out my review here.)

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron, Rating: 4 stars (I reviewed this one here.)

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole, Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4)

Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard, Rating: 4 stars

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, Rating: 4 stars

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, Rating: 5 stars (this was one of my favorite reads of the month and I reviewed it here.)

Once & Future, Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen, Rating: 4 stars

True Story by Kate Reed Petty, Rating: 3 stars

I finished 6 of my 11 planned July TBR books. This is roughly 55% of what I had planned, but I did read a few books that weren’t on the list. I’m giving myself a break on these this month because I severely underestimated how disruptive moving would be. I do have 2 of the remaining 5 books already in progress, so I will be finishing Maliceby John Gwynne and Red Rising by Pierce Brown in the next few days.

Stats:

5 stars: 3

4 stars: 5

3 stars: 1

2 stars: 0

1 star: 0

Format:

Physical: 5

Ebook: 4

Audiobook: 0

Genre:

Sci-Fi: 1

Thriller: 2

Young Adult: 1

Historical Romance: 1

Fantasy: 2

Graphic Novel: 1

Mystery: 1

New to me Authors: 6

Authors I’ve read before: 3

Total Pages: 3,189

In conclusion, I read a lot of good books this month, but I will hopefully be reading and posting more in August.

Hello Kittens! June has come to an end and it ended for me with a wicked case of food poisoning which dragged my stats for the last week way down. It’s a bummer, but it happens. I’m still reading more than I did this time last year and I’m really excited for the books I’ve got planned for July. Without further ado, here’s how June went:

Total Books Read: 15

(links here are to my reviews for these titles)

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, Rated: 4 stars

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, Rated: 3 stars

Haze by Rebecca Crunden, Rated: 3 stars

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, Rated: 4 stars

Giant Days, Vol.3 by John Allison, Rated: 3 stars

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Rated: 3 stars

Furyborn by Claire Legrand, Rated: 4 stars

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager, Rated: 5 stars

Forensics by Val McDermid, Rated: 3 stars

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, Rated: 4 stars

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson, Rated: 4 stars

Followers by Megan Angelo, Rated: 3 stars

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai, Rated: 2 stars

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson, Rated: 4 stars

The Return by Rachel Harrison, Rated: 1 star

If you’re keeping track, you’ll notice that only 6 of these are from my June TBR post that contained a total of 14 books. I’m giving myself partial completion points for that TBR, since I did exceed the total number of books read…they just weren’t the books I originally planned on. The joke’s really on me, since some of those books were on that list because they are ARCs with upcoming publishing dates and now I’m in a mad dash to finish 2 ARCs and get them reviewed in the next 5 days while still not feeling great. Will I ever learn?

Reading stats:

Personal Ratings

5 Stars: 1

4 Stars: 6

3 Stars: 6

2 Stars: 1

1 Star: 1

Format

Physical: 10

Ebook: 3

Audiobook: 2

Genre

Young Adult: 6

Romance: 1

Fantasy: 1

Graphic Novel: 1

Thriller: 2

Non-Fiction: 1

Sci-Fi: 2

Contemporary: 1

New To Me Authors: 10 (Maureen Johnson was new to me, and I did finish her Truly Devious trilogy this month, but I only counted her name once for these purposes)

Authors I’ve Read Before: 3

Total Pages: 5,283

Next month’s focus will be on getting some more reviews up for these titles and the one’s I’ll be tackling the rest of this month,

Happy Reading, Kittens!

Hello Kittens!

As we approach the mid-point in the year, I’m seeing many people reflect on their reading journeys and thought I might take a moment to do the same. I want to look back on what I’ve read and also re-focus myself for the rest of the year. It has been a disorienting year, to say the least.

In 2020 so far, I have read 66 books, totaling 20,022 pages. My best reading month was April, where I read 15 books (funny what not having to go to work can do to your reading stats).

My favorite book so far has been: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My most disappointing book so far was: Vagabonds by Jingfang Hao. I went into it expecting more action-oriented space odyssey and what I got was more lyrical literature told over the space of 640 pages.

My most anticipated release was: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. It did not disappoint.

Goals for the rest of the year:

I’ve started a few series that I would like to finish by the end of the year. I want to read the next two books in the Illuminae Files series, as well as finish out Claire Legrand’s Empirium trilogy. I’ve read the first two books in the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson and will now have to finish that, but I won’t technically be able to do that until 2021 unless I can get my hands on an advance copy. The series started as a trilogy and everyone assumed it was complete, but now it looks like Johnson will be continuing on with the characters in a fourth book due out in April 2021. I also expect to continue on with Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series, although I may not push myself to finish the remaining 6 books by the end of the year since they seem to get increasingly longer.

The release I am most excited for in the second half of the year actually comes out in early July and it is The Shadows by Alex North. I’ve got an advance copy that I will be starting this week and look forward to getting a review up for you the first week of July. I loved The Whisper  Man and I can’t wait to see what North has come up with this time.

My TBR is currently sitting at 615, so I want to make a good dent in that by the end of the year, possibly getting it into the mid 500’s. My Goodreads goal for the year was 100 books and I don’t anticipate having trouble finishing that. Even now that I’m back at work, I’ve been devouring books during my lunch hour and when I get home. Fortunately, I didn’t have a huge desire to go outside and be social before and I’ve got even less compulsion to do so now. Yay for staying home as much as possible!

I hope your reading year is going well, but even if it’s not, remember to give yourself the space to accept that everything is topsy turvy right now and it’s okay if you’re not reading as much. My thinking on the matter is that books come to you when you need them and quietly step into the shadows when you don’t, ready and waiting for when you will need them next.

Stay safe out there Kittens!

Hello Kittens! I’m going to bring you something a little different today. Normally this blog is just reviews, but I actually read more books than I end up reviewing and I wanted to show you a little bit of that side of things. Plus, I’m a data nerd so I thought some of you might enjoy the stats as well.

Without further ado, here’s what I read in May (with my reviews linked):

–The Other People by C. J. Tudor

-Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen # 4) by Joanne Fluke

–The Fallen Girls by Kathryn Casey

-Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard

–Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard

–Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade

–The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

–The Holdout by Graham Moore

-Giant Days, Vol. 2 by John Allison

–Of Literature and Lattes by Katherine Reay

-And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks

-Bunny by Mona Awad

-Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Illuminae Files #1)

 

That was a total of 13 books for May.

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Stats

Personal ratings:

5 stars: 5

4 stars: 3

3 stars: 4

2 stars: 1

1 stars: 0

Format:

Physical copy: 4

E-book: 8

Audiobook: 1

Genres:

Thriller: 3

Mystery: 3

Fantasy: 1

YA: 2

Graphic Novel: 1

Fiction: 1

Short stories: 1

Horror: 1

New to me authors: 11

Authors I’ve Read Before: 2

Total pages: 3,606

Not too bad of a month, all things considered. My reading has really kept me sane during the long weeks of quarantine. I DNF’ed (did not finish) 1 book this month that is not listed above. It’s always hard to quit a book, but it was wordy and complex in the first 20 pages and I just didn’t have the brainpower to commit to it right now.