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It’s Monday – What Are You Reading?

02 Jan

its-monday-what-are-you-reading

It’s Monday – What are you reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Happy first Monday of 2017 – here’s hoping that the year finds everyone with lots of new books to read, new authors to try and old favorites to fall back on!

One of my goals for 2017 is to be a more consistent blogger – I’m aiming for at least 12 reviews a month, including a couple of audiobook ones, as well as 4 blogging posts (kind of like this one). I also need to be better at planning posts for reviews, so that I’m not writing them on the day they are supposed to go live (yeah, I did that a few times last year!). My other non-blogging related goal is to make sure that when I buy kindle books that I log them onto my shelves on Goodreads! I just spent the last couple of days logging 3 years worth of purchases (and I’m still not done yet). Yes, I read a lot, but most of those picks were based on books I had listed on my Goodreads and not other ones that I owned. According to my shelving, I bought 420 books from Amazon in 2016, and only read like 15 of them (out of the 350 odd books that I read). (This also means that I should apologize to any Goodreads friends who may have had me spam the heck out of their feed the last few days as I was shelving books).

crossing-hearts-pictureNow onto what am I reading…in true fashion, I spent most of yesterday in bed reading and finished up my first book of the year – Crossing Hearts by Kimberly Kincaid – I won this in a giveaway on her Facebook author page and wow! My review will go up closer to the book’s release date (Feb 7, 2016). Now, I’m digging into some older books that are in my kindle archive – several of which I’ve owned since the first year I bought my kindle (2008/09)…Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay and Fire and Ice by Liz Andrews.

promises-in-deathOn the audiobook side of the house – i’m still slowly chugging away at Les Miserables (you can anticipate seeing this update for the next couple of months). For context, Valjean and Cosette are currently on the run from Javert and have just found themselves in the Convent in Paris. I am also listening to Promises in Death by JD Robb (and all I can saw is Morris 😦 ). One of my goals this year is to listen to at least one of the In Death books a month – which will put me in the high 30’s range by the end of the year (not quite caught up but getting there). When I finish up Promises in Death, I’m going to jump over to the next book in Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series, with Blood Shot.

Stay tuned for my first Bout of Books 18 post that will be going live soon and have a great first Monday of the year!

 
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Posted by on January 2, 2017 in It's Monday! What are you reading?

 

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It’s Monday – What Are You Reading? (26 Dec)

27 Dec

its-monday-what-are-you-reading

It’s Monday – What are you reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

I’ve been really horrible about blogging over the last few months – I realize it, do a few posts to get “up to date” and then promptly lapse back into oblivion. Its part of the reason why I’ve been carefully pondering my word for 2017 (as part of Sheila @ Book Journey’s Word of the Year). so I do know that one of my goals for 2017 is to be a more consistent blogger – both with these weekly status updates, but also getting reviews posted in a more timely manner. But onto my current reading shenanigans…

I spent the last couple of days deep in a binge read of Catherine Bybee’s Not Quite series – thanks to Kindle Unlimited, I was able to read all of these as part of my monthly subscription. They are like candy to me – I keep reading them and don’t want to stop – very similar to my candy eating approach. Now I’m kind of up in the air on what series I’m going to read next…so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

lesmisOn a audiobook front, I’m alternating between three different books to include my third attempt at Les Miserables – I swear one of these days I am going to finish this book! I’m alternating my listening of Les Miserables, with The Poisoner’s Handbook – which is all about the development of forensic chemistry in the 1920’s and different ways that poison’s that killed people (either through murder or incidental causes) were identified and how it influenced the overall body of medical examinations and death investigations. And while at work, I’m listening to the next book in JD Robb’s In Death series – Promises in Death – i’m only a couple of hours into it, but I’ve seriously teared up a few times.

playing-the-partOn my kindle – i’m working my way through my normal wide variety of books – I’m on a pretty solid contemporary romance kick right now. I’ve had both Sea Glass Sunrise (Donna Kauffman) and Half Moon Hill (Toni Blake) chosen for me as part of a reading challenge based on the board game, Monopoly. I also started Playing the Part (Robin Covington) this afternoon as a quick read – double bonus since Robin is a local author for me to read.

In other news, I’m still trying to figure out what my first book of 2017 will be so that I can get that blog post prepped and i’m making plans for Bout of Books 18 which will be held in the first week in January.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy Holidays

 
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Posted by on December 27, 2016 in It's Monday! What are you reading?

 

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TBR Tuesday – 6 Oct 2015

06 Oct

TBR Tuesday While I’ve been horrible about actually posting reviews for my TBR Tuesday books, I have slowly but surely been chugging away at them. Many people know that I moderate a few groups on Goodreads and in one of them, the other mods and I came up with the idea of a challenge called Pillaging the Pile – where we would each set a goal for a three month period and see how many books from our TBR we could read in that time. There were two options that people could choose, books that had been on their shelves for more than 6 months, or those that had been there for more than 12 months. I had typically been picking the more than 12 month option, just because I have so many.

Anyways, the most recent iteration of the PtP challenge ended on September 30th, and I thought I would post a quick list of the books that I read during the preceding three month period and my initial thoughts on a few of the books, although you may see a few of them pop up as full reviews later on down the road.

1) Behind Closed Doors – Shannon McKenna – Bought Dec 2009 – Finished – 7/3/15
2) Crux – Moira Rodgers – Bought Oct 2010 – Finished 7/3/15
3) Remember When – Nora Roberts/JD Robb – Bought Apr 2012 – Finished 7/5/15
4) Silver Lining – Maggie Osbourne – Bought Sep 2009 – Finished 7/13/15
5) Haunted in Death – JD Robb – Bought May 2012 – 7/19/15
6) Three to Ride – Sophie Oak – bought Jan 2011 – Finished 7/18/15
7) Mouth To Mouth – Erin McCarthy – bought July 2009 – Finished 7/31/15
8) The Wallflower – Dana Marie Bell – Bought December 2009 – Finished 8/18/15
9) Hands on Research – Pam Champagne – bought February 2010 – Finished 8/28/15
10) Holiday Bound – Beth Kery – bought November 2010 – Finished 8/29/15
11) Kiss Me Again – Dee Tenorio – bought June 2009 – 8/30/15
12) Nice and Naughty – Jayne Rylon – Bought December 2009 – Finished 9/1/15 (i think this was a reread)
13) The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho – Bought August 2011 – Finished 9/3/15
14) Dark Harvest – Anitra Lynn McLeod – bought December 2011 – Finished 9/7/15
15) Deep in the Woods – Annabel Joseph – Bought November 2010 – Finished 9/7/15
16) Felicity Stripped Bare – Vanessa Jaye – bought August 2009 – Finished 9/11/15
17) Kink – Saskia Walker/Sasha White – bought April 2010 – Finished 9/13/15
18) Homecoming – Lacey Baker – bought October 2013 – Finished 9/16/15
19) Sacred Revelations – Roxy Harte – bought April 2010 – Finished 9/28/15

so I managed to cull my TBR pile down 19 books in that time period (of course, I probably added equally as many new books…lol). Hopefully, this next three month period will be as productive – I started with a goal of 10 books (which has been my base for the previous sessions, and i typically up it if needed).

 
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Posted by on October 6, 2015 in TBR Tuesday

 

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Seriously Saturday Series Catch-Up – Update #4

11 Oct

series catch-up

Ok, I swear while my updates on this have been rather sketchy, I have been reading books on my list. I just took a look and out of the 29 that I had on my originally list, I’ve read 17 of them. So i’m probably a bit behind in the reading, but still have time to finish (maybe/hopefully). Anyways, I’m going to try and actually post my updates over the next couple of weeks to get caught up. But here is the first of several 😉

visiosn in deathVisions in Death – J.D. Robb – #19 in series
I always find it hard to believe that a series could still be going strong over 15+ books, but the In Death series is one of them. While my goal isn’t to get caught up on this series this year (since there are 36 books out), I wanted to at least make sure that I finished up a couple more. The thing I liked about Visions in Death was that you got to see a more human side of Eve – early on in the series, she seems so cold and mechanical, but as each book is released, you see who she really is. The mystery in this installment was intriguing, I only had it partially figured out by the time it was revealed in the book but there wasn’t anything earth-shattering around it – the whole taking the eyes from the victim was kinda cool (in a freaky way though). Lots of quotes that I enjoyed and laughed over – one of my favorites being: “I’m late,” she snapped before Summerset could speak. “But here’s the thing, I’m not always late, but you’re always ugly. Who’s got the real problem?” (the whole Eve/Summerset dynamic is one of my favorite things about the series). Overall, I gave this entry in the series 3.5 stars and will be continuing on.

this is who i amThis Is Who I Am – Cherise Sinclair – #7 in series
Since I started this series and he was introduced, I wanted to read Sam’s story – for some reason, he has been the most intriguing (aside from Sally and the FBI agents) of all the Dom’s in the series. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the other guys, but there is something about an author that can write a convincing sadist (and make me like him) that wants happy. And Ms Sinclair didn’t let me down. I thought she did a great job tying up the story-arc from the previous 3 books of a human trafficking ring and showed people who have been involved try to get back to their normal life. I also thought that she made an interesting story with having secondary characters who weren’t aware of Linda’s preferences and when finding out, their reaction – which I think would be more common in society, than people just accepting. I gave This Is Who I Am 4 stars and can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out.

helsinki bloodHelsinki Blood – James Thompson – #4 in series
I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t hold off reading this book now, since there is only going to be 1 more book in the series, after the authors death a few months ago. While the third book in the series was like a 180 in the character of Kari Vaara, this book started to turn him back into the cop that I liked in the first 2 books. While it was still dark in places, so much more of the book was devoted to Kari getting his life back to how it was. While I wanted to slap his wife upside the head a few times, for the most part – it was a solid read. Unfortunately, the wait for the release of book 5 is dwindling down and then there will be no more Kari 😦 I gave Helsinki Blood 3.5, but rounded up to 4 on Goodreads.

flash and bonesFlash and Bones – Kathy Reichs – #14 in series
After the disappointment of Spider Bones, I was leery of how Flash and Bones would turn out – I was thinking that the series may have jumped the shark and while I didn’t love F&B it was a def. improvement. But it is on my monitor and follow pile – just going to be taking it one book at a time. you could tell that the author felt in her element with the NASCAR descriptions – while personally, i’m not a fan, you could tell that she had done her research. I liked the mystery around this one, it reminded me more of the earlier books in the series – and it had Reichs trade-mark gruesome deaths of secondary characters. I gave Flash and Bones 3.5 stars, and will continue the series, but in no rush to do so.

 
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Posted by on October 11, 2014 in Reading Events

 

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