It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Oct. 11, 2015)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey  It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading... 

School is going well. I love my short days. Going home at 1:30 each day is not a bad thing. I have been busy at school planning my digital literacy curriculum for grades three and five since USA-SOS went away. I have conferences next week on Monday and Tuesday evening and, since no one wants to confer with the Media Specialist, I will have lots of planning time to firm up both of those units.

I have next Wednesday through Friday off for our state educators' convention (which I have never attended in my 40 years of teaching.) I'm not traveling and plan to do a lot of fall purging. I have been trying to do a room at a time. My office is looking better since I worked in there. After filing a pile of papers that have been accumulating, I can actually see the top of my desk. I also discarded a hundred or so VHS tapes that have been gathering dust and donated a whole bunch of children's books to a book drive at my school. My TBR mountains are stored in my office too. I still have lots more work going through those shelves of books to donate the ones that no longer interest me. I haven't gone through the closet in my office yet which is filled with office and school supplies.

Saturday morning I switched to my bedroom and purged my shoe collection. I finally got tired enough of stepping over piles of shoes when looking for my daily outfit. I have a big garbage bag of usable shoes to donate and finally have all my shoes on the shoe rack and not just in piles on the floor. I also packed away the summer capris and shorts. I still need to go through all the shirts to decide which are keepers and which can go. That's a project for my break.

TBR Mountain

My TBR mountain sits at 2116 books as of October 10. I have 659 young adult books in that group. I also have 44 review books. I have 540 print books on the stack that are not YA. About 130 of them have been on the stack since 2008. My goal is to evaluate those 130 books and either add them to my reading calendar or donate them before the end of this year.

I set a goal when this year began to read all the adult books I added to my stack in 2015 in 2015. Currently I have 14 books on that stack. Since four of them are books I have for review, they are already on the calendar. I have added 189 adult books to my stack so far this year, I feel that goal is going pretty well.

I have already declared 2016 as the year TBR mountain falls. I plan to add fewer books and read more books from my stack.

Read Last Week

Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal finds Jane and Vincent stranded and destitute in Murano the victims of scam artists. This was both a heist story and a story of a marriage in trouble. I loved it and can't wait to read the next book. My review will be posted on December 10.

Devoted in Death by J. D. Robb was more a police procedural than the usual In Death story. Eve and her team need to track down a pair of spree killers. I love watching Eve and Roarke's marriage and relationship strengthen in each of these books. My review will be posted on December 5.

Currently

The Producer's Daughter by Lindsay Marcott is a new arrival from Crooked Lane Books. The book will be released on November 10 (which required me to rearrange my calendar yet again.)

Next Week

This week's choices are all from my TBR mountain.

The Secrets of the Heart by Kasey Michaels is a historical romance that I have had since 2008. It was released in 1995.

The Trouble with Fate by Leigh Evans is the beginning of an urban fantasy series that I have had since 2012. It was just released when it landed on my stack in December 2012.

Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels is also the beginning of an urban fantasy series that has been on the stack since 2014. It was originally released in 2006.

Reviews Posted

• Silent City by Carrie Smith
• Thirty and a Half Excuses by Denise Grover Swank
• Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

The Producer's Daughter by Lindsay Marcott arrived for review this week from Crooked Lane Books. This mystery is a hardcover re-release of a book first published in 2013. It will be released on November 10.

I also got A Call to Arms by David Weber et al. which is the second book in a new series set in his Honorverse.

Closer to the Heart by Mercedes Lackey is also the second book in a new story ARC set in her fantasy world Valdemar.

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.