January Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up

This was a busy week. One of last week's basketball games was rescheduled for this week. That made four basketball games for the week. Four, I say! Add this to a stressful week at work and I was exhausted by Wednesday night. I was reading some great books this week and found it impossible to go to bed early instead of reading a bit before going to sleep. So that made for late nights.

I finished three books this week which I find amazing. My favorite read of the week was Rarity by D.A. Roach. It was a real tear jerker!  I didn't have much time for visiting other blogs this week and have been trying to makeup for it today. I've been visiting some other like posts today and have found a few books to add to my TBR list.

January Reading Challenge Update

Full House Reading Challenge

January Progress

I've crossed off seven of the boxes for this challenge.

Published in 2016 - The Muse & The Fairy Tale by Mary Smith

You Didn't Want to Put it Down - Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Author Outside Own Country - Fever by Melissa Pearl

First in a Series - Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

A Dominant Color on Cover - Tragic by J.A. Huss

New Author to You - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy

Published 2015 - Rarity by D.A. Roach

January Progress

I've completed seven letters for this challenge.

B - Bending Under Pressure by Lindsay Paige

F - Fever by Melissa Pearl

H - Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

M - The Muse & The Fairy Tale by Mary Smith

R - Rarity by D.A. Roach

T - Tragic by J.A. Huss

W - Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

Holiday Bookish Bingo

January Progress

I've filled in one more for this one.

	B	I	N	G	O
	Romance	Snow On Cover	Has Been Translated	Holiday Themed	Epistolary
	Multi POV	Series Finale	Fantasy	Pink Cover	2015 Release You Missed
	Time Travel	A Friend's Fav	FREE	Thriller	One Word Title
	Award Winner	Black Author	White Cover	Book was a Gift	Retelling
	2016 Debut	Graphic Novel	Start A New Series	Royalty	Blue Cover
		KEY
		read	reading

Romance - Without A Doubt by Lindsay Paige

Multi POV - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy

Start A New Series - Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

One Word Title - Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

A Friend's Fav - Tragic by J.A. Huss

2015 Release You Missed - Fever by Melissa Pearl

Goodreads Group - 2016 Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

January Progress

A Book That is Becoming a Movie This Year - The 5th Wave

A Book With a Blue Cover - Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

A Book About a Road Trip - Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

A Book Recommended by Someone You Just Met - Tragic by J.A. Huss

A Book You Can Read in One Day - The Muse & The Fairy Tale by Mary Smith

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2016

MY GOAL: Mount Blanc, 24 books

January Progress

Books Read

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy, rec'd as Christmas Gift - READ Jan 20, 2016

Tragic by J.A. Huss, downloaded July 31, 2015 - READ Jan 13, 2016

Winters Heat by Cristin Harber, downloaded Dec 27, 2015 - READ Jan 8, 2016

Fever by Melissa Pearl, downloaded Oct 4, 2015 - READ Jan 24, 2016

Rarity by D.A. Roach, downloaded Dec 1, 2015 - READ Jan 25, 2016 

Reviews Posted

Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

 

MY GOAL: Discussion Dabbler (1-12 Discussion Posts)

January Progress

1 Post - Managing Your TBR List 

NEW CHALLENGES I’VE DECIDED TO JOIN

2016 Dystopia Reading Challenge

This is a challenge for people wanting to read more dystopian books. I really enjoyed The Hunger Games and a few other dystopian series I’ve read. So I have decided to give this one a try. This challenge is hosted by Tracy at Cornerfolds and Claudia from My Soul Called Life.  Details of the challenge can be found here. I’’m going for the Recruit badge which is to read 5 dystopian books. 

January Progress

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy

This challenge is hosted by Montana @ The Book Belles and Jillian @ Jillian’s Books. You can sign up here. I’m going for the Poppy Level, 1-5 books reviewed. 

January Progress

While I've read books for this category, I won't have reviews up until February.

Weekly Wrap-Up

This has been a good reading and blogging week. Last weekend I took part in the Mini Bloggiesta and prepared posts for Sunday through Friday and scheduled them. That was nice! Now here it is Saturday and I haven’t even started a post for today. I planned to do a Wrap-Up post and didn’t think there was a way to do that ahead of time. I thought about starting it several times during the week and getting some thoughts down. But I never did. Thus my rambling.

I finally finished The 5th Wave Wednesday. I really got into the book at the end; however was a little disappointed with the ending. Yancy builds your emotions up so much that the ending just sort of left you high and dry. Questions are answered except for one. So it wasn’t a huge cliffhanger, but it was still a letdown in my book.

I also finished my ARC last weekend. It releases on February 2 and I will have a post then. I also started reading Fever by Melissa Pearl and have made progress in it this week. Two nights ago I began my next physical book read -- To The Nines by Janet Evanovich. I have another ARC that I need to get to and will probably try to start it next week. I’ve picked up so many great books recently that I’m not sure where I’ll start after I finish these three books.

We had lots of freezing rain and a bit of snow this week. It was enough to cancel school, but not enough to keep me home from work. In one way that’s disappointing because I would have loved a snow day. But on the other hand I tackled W-2s this week and got those out to the employees. Now I just have to finish up with the reportings I need to do for the company and do the 1099s. I HATE January. I’m so ready for February. I plan to take a vacation day in February to take a long weekend for myself. Anyone know of any challenges or read-a-thons going on in February that I could plan around?

In the past I've linked up to some great blog posts I saw around the blogosphere the past week. But I didn't make it to many blogs this week. So I have nothing to share.

Happy Weekend! I’m off to try to write some reviews and posts for next week.

November Wrap-Up

I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a whole month! It seems like just yesterday I started this blog. It wasn’t the greatest month for me reading wise. But I did get to see my daughter twice this month. So that's the greatest thing about November for me.

Books Obtained in November

14 Freebies

2 Contest Wins

1 ARC Received

9 Purchased Books

4 Signed Books Purchased

I only read two books this month. But I did make progress on three other books one of which was on my Tackling the TBR List. I’m glad I actually read a book off of my Tackling the TBR List. It would have been embarrassing to do the post on it and then not do anything with any of these books. I did finish this book on December 1. I think this month I will only choose five books to put on the Tackling the TBR List. Now I just have to decide whether to keep the same books or put new ones on the list.

Pretty poor reading for me this month. I think I’m going to have to try to carve out some reading time this month.

BOOKS READ

   One Dream Only by Elodie Nowodazkij - 3 Stars

   Hector by Lindsay Paige and Mary Smith - 5 Stars

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH

Hector

Books Read in November: 2

Books Read in 2015: 58

I posted 6 Reviews this month.

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN DECEMBER

I’m looking forward to having some time off work and spending time with my family during the holidays. I have three Christmas celebrations coming up - four if you count our own Christmas morning celebration. I always try to make something special for breakfast and we enjoy spending the morning together.

However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, this month starts the busy season for my job. Or rather the end of the month starts it off. I have to close out the books for 2015. Then I will have to prepare W-2s in January. This will be the first time I’m doing it all on my own. I just took this position in May. I have to admit that I’m a little scared.

How did your November end up? Read anything great? Feel free to leave me a link to your wrap-up post in the comments or comment with your answers.