It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (April 6, 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...

This was a busy, short week at school. Since it was the end of the third quarter, I was busy doing grades for my 240 or so students. I also printed report cards for my fellow specialists since they were all busy packing their rooms and moving. Our elementary addition project begins when we return from Easter Break and all of their rooms are involved.

I have been on break since Thursday and have enjoyed staying quietly at home. Reading, relaxing, and some cooking have been keeping me busy enough. I did stop over at school on Thursday to submit my formal letter of resignation. I mailed off my application to begin collecting my Teacher Retirement Annuity on Wednesday. It won't quite be official until the School Board accepts my resignation on April 13 and I hear back from TRA but things are in process for my semi-retirement.

There are just seven more weeks of school for the elementary this year and nine weeks for the high school and I will have finished my 39th year as a school library media specialist. Every year seems to go faster than the one before. I'm sure these last weeks will go by in a flash too.

Read Last Week

Hot Lead, Cold Iron by Ari Marmell was an intriguing urban fantasy novel set in 1930s Chicago. The main character is a fae who left faerie for reasons not disclosed in this story and who is working as a private detective. His current case has him trying to find the child of a man prominent in the mob. The child was replaced by a changeling when she was small. The plot had lots of twists and turns and the characters were very interesting. My review will be posted on May 2.

The Heat of the Moment by Lauren Barnholdt was from my YA review stack. I really didn't care for this story because I strongly disliked the main character. Since the story was told from her viewpoint, I couldn't really connect with any of the other characters. My review will be posted on May 6.

Lowcountry Boneyard by Susan M. Boyer was a mystery that I received for review from the author. She connected with me after I reviewed The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook and said I thought her recipe for Pimento Cheese sounded good. I enjoyed this mystery which features a ghost who protects our heroine. My review will be posted on April 22.

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge was also from my YA review stack. This was a lush fantasy based on a couple of fairy tales. It told the story of a girl who through recklessness became a bloodbound and who was determined to kill the Devourer who ruled all bloodbound and who wanted to conquer the human world. This twisty plot also had a romantic triangle. My review will be posted on May 7.

 

Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti was an intriguing fantasy with some steampunk aspects. I loved the characters and the world the author created. I quickly bought the other two books in the trilogy and added them to my reading stack. My review will be posted on May 7.

The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman was from my YA review stack. This contemporary fantasy was told from multiple points of view and was a story about using magic to ease life's difficulties, i.e. not pretty enough, buy a beauty spell; grieving for a loved one, buy a spell that erases that person from your memory. There was a lot about the consequences of using magical shortcuts. My review will be posted on May 9.

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs is the latest book in her Alpha and Omega series. In this one, Charles and Anna travel to Arizona to get Anna a horse for her birthday and to let Charles say goodbye to an old friend who is dying. There they run into fae trouble. My review will be posted on May 9.

Currently

The Trouble with Magic by Patricia Rice is a historical paranormal romance that I added to my Kindle in January. I was planning to read and review it earlier in the year but it got pushed back because I had other books I wanted to read first.

Next Week

These are the books that have reached the top of the stack of adult books.

Dark Debt by Chloe Neill is the latest in her Chicagoland Vampires series. I've had it for a month and am eager to finally be able to start it.

Tiger Paw by Charles A. Cornell is also a Kindle book. I saw a glowing review of this one earlier in the year and decided I needed to read it.

These two are at the top of my YA review stack. Both are young adult contemporaries being released in May. I got them both from Edelweiss.

• Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu
• The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher

Reviews Posted

• Lies I Told by Michelle Zink
• Thrown by Charlotte Auclair
• The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre
• The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

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

• Inside of a Dog
• Ms. Martin Teaches Media

March was a good month for reading. I read 25 books this month containing 7414 pages. Ten were mine and 15 were from my review stacks. Thirteen were young adult books and twelve adult books. There were lots of good books this month, but the highlight has to be the three books I read in Anne Bishop's Others series. Dear Hank Williams by Kimberly Willis Holt was the standout among the young adult books I read.  

Thus far, for the year, I have read 71 books. I still have 27 books on my review stack but am current because I have books there that won't be released until August. I am keeping up pretty well with reading what I buy this year. I have nine books on that stack including the four professional books that I bought to read and donate to my HS Media Center Professional Collection and the final two books in the Clockwork Heart series I bought yesterday after finishing the first book. 

What was your week like? I hope everyone who celebrates had a Happy Easter.

December Reading Report

Time for the last report of 2012 and a brief look at the whole year statistically. 

I will finish book number 20 of the month later today but I'm writing this at 9:30 AM and have completed 19 books with a total of 6986 pages. Nine of the books I read were young adult books; ten books were adult books. Nine of the books were review books and the other ten were off my TBR mountain. I was excited to finally get a chance to read at least a few of the books that have been waiting until I caught up on review book reading. 

My favorite adult books this month were She Can Tell by Melinda Leigh and The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts.

My favorite young adult books were Aurelia by Anne Osterlund and Fire Season by David Weber.

I added 60 books to my stack this month including fourteen review books. I did save some space though on my crowded bookshelves by making 40 of the new books ebooks on my Kindle. My TBR mountain currently sits at 1473. The last couple of days have been the worst. I added 19 books including seven review books and quite a number of sale books for my Kindle. 

2012 in (very brief) review:

• I read 270 books
• I read 86,973 pages.
• I read 175 review books
• I added 620 books to my LibraryThing account
• I weeded my bookshelves and removed 1500 books (most of which were donated to my local Friends of the Library group for their annual sales)

For a more detailed look at my 2012 reading, here is my Google Docs spreadsheet.

November Reading Report

I found this image at Mrs. Wilks Word Processing Blog

I finished 18 books this month. That seems to be the most common number of books I read a month during the school year. I read 18 in January, February, October and November. This month I read 5801 pages bringing my year's total to 79,803. My eighteenth book in November was my 250th of the year on the list I keep. 

Like October, November was a big month again for review books. I read 15 this month. Nine of the books I read were young adult and nine were adult.

My favorite adult books were Archangel's Storm by Nalini Singh and Dangerous Waters by Toni Anderson. My favorite young adult books were Griffin's Storm by Darby Karchut and Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst. The titles are linked to my reviews. 

According to LibraryThing, I added 43 books to my TBR mountain in November. 16 were new review books. I added 18 non-review books to my Kindle this month including 4 free books. 23 of the 43 were new young adult books. My total number of books in the To Read collection is now a staggering 1439.

What was November like for you?

September & October Reading Report

My how time flies when you are busy! I just noticed that I didn't do a September reading report. So I am combining the last two months here. Here is my reading spreadsheet which has a lot more details about what I read.

The basic overall theme of the last two months has been trying to catch up on my review books. I read sixteen books in September and 14 of them were books I had for review. I read eighteen books in October and all of them were review books. In September I read a total of 5891 pages and in October I read a total of 6068 pages.

Year to date stats:

• I have read 232 books
• I have read 73,992 pages
• I have read 117 Young Adult books
• I have read 150 review books
• I have read 83 ebooks

In September, nine of the sixteen books were young adult books. In October, ten of the eighteen books were young adult. While all of the young adult books were enjoyable, my favorites were The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clark and The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa.

My favorite adult books over the last two months were Delusion in Death by J. D. Robb, which was one of two non-review books I read in the past two months, and Dangerous Affairs by Diana Miller which was a review book I got from Amazon Vine. Most of my adult review books were romantic suspense titles.

Adding to the Pile

In September, I added 40 books to my LibraryThing account. Thirty-five of them are still unread. Six of them were review books. In October, I added 35 books to my collection. Sixteen of them were books for review and 29 of them are still unread.

I currently have 1405 books in my LibraryThing marked TBR. Twenty-eight of them are books that I have for review. My library at LibraryThing contains a total of 5602 books.

Reorganizing and Weeding the Shelves

Over the course of the last week, I have been weeding my bookshelves which are filled to overflowing. I have removed 575 books so far. I still have the letters M - Z to sort through.

Bags of Discards (5 bags not shown)

I have to get the TBR books out of baskets and boxes and on shelves. I can't find a thing!

Adult TBR Books

I think I probably have shelf space for about 3000 books (thank heavens for my Kindle!) and have to reduce the size of my physical book collection or buy a bigger house. While a bigger house is tempting, getting rid of books I have already read and don't plan to read again is the more realistic choice.

Do you buy books? What do you do with them after you have read them? Please tell me I am not the only person about to be buried in books.

August Reading Report

I did lots of reading in August as my summer vacation wound its way to the end. I took part in the second round of the #summerthrowdown and, while I did my part, the teachers managed to out read us librarians -- which was only fair since we "won" the first round. 

Personally I read 29 books in August for a total of 9498 pages. You can see my reading spreadsheet here. I read 13 books from my review stack, 14 ebooks, 12 romances and 16 mysteries. This month I began to re-read the In Death series by J. D. Robb and finished the first eleven books in the series. 

Besides the In Death books, my favorite adult reads of the month were Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews and Biting Cold by Chloe Neill. My favorite young adult book this month was Darkbeast by Morgan Keyes. 

According to LibraryThing, I added 62 books to my stack this month. I attended two author signings (Tate Hallaway and Heather Anastasiu) in August and have 5 new autographed books. 

Me with Heather Anastasiu

Tate Hallaway and me

I got 17 review books this past month. 40 of the books I got are still marked TBR. My total number of books marked "to read" is 1394. 

What was your month like? What was your favorite book?

July Reading Report

Image credit: Beverly & Pack via Flickr, Creative Commons. 

July was another excellent reading month for me. I read a total of 35 books this month for a total of 10,844 pages. Here is my 2012 Reading Log.


I read 23 review books this month, 20 young adult books, and 16 ebooks. Twenty-three of the books I read were fantasy, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Only three of the books I read this month count for my TBR challenges. 


Most of the memorable books I read this month were young adult books. (All my links go to Amazon because that is where I buy books. I have no other association with Amazon.)

My three favorite review books were Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, and Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Two non-review favorites were The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong was my favorite adult book of the month.

According to LibraryThing, I added 49 books to my collection this month. Fifteen of the books I got this month were review books including six from Amazon Vine. I also added six free audiobooks via the SYNC Summer program. Seventeen of the books I got were ebooks. Twenty-one of the books I got this month are still marked TBR. My "To Read" collection has reached 1368 books. 730 of those unread books are Kindle books. 

I am also taking part in Round 2 of the #summerthrowdown reading challenge which runs from July 22 through August 18. I have already read 11 books for that challenge.

How was your July? What was the best book you read?

June Reading Report

Ahh...summer vacation and time to dive into all those books I've been piling up.

I read a book a day this month. Actually, I finished 31 books this month for a total of 10,428 pages. Here is my 2012 reading log. Sixteen of the books I read were young adult books. Nineteen were books I had for review. I read 8 ebooks this month. My preferred genre this month was Urban Fantasy/Paranormal. Thirteen of my books fit into that category. But mysteries and romances were also read.

Lots of the books I read this month were really good. My two favorite Young Adult books were Seraphina by Rachel Hartman and The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead.

My two favorite adult books were Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold and Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost. 

According to LibraryThing, I added 62 books to my collection in June. 37 were review books, 6 were audiobooks, and 8 were free. 49 of them are still marked "to be read" which isn't surprising since some of the review books won't be published until September or October.

I also started taking part in a Twitter reading challenge called the #summerthrowdown which pits teacher and librarians in a friendly contest to see who can read more. This one began on June 18 and will end on July 17.  Currently librarians have a slight lead. I know I am trying to do my part!

How was your June?

May Reading Report

May was a great reading month for me. I finished 24 books for a total of 7588 pages. I read 15 young adult books and 9 adult books. Eighteen of the books I read were books I had for review and most of them were young adult books this month. Check out my spreadsheet for the titles of the books I read.

My favorite young adult book was Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. You can see my review here. Consent to Love by Abby Wood was my favorite adult book. It was an ebook that I received from Carina Press via NetGalley. You'll have to wait until June 13 to see my review on this blog but my review has already been posted to Amazon, GoodReads, and LibraryThing.

This month I added 45 items to my LibraryThing account. Seventeen of the books I added were young adult books for review. I also added nine other young adult books to the pile. Seven of the books I received were adult books for review. Two of the books I added were free for my Kindle when I added them. You can see all my additions here.

My To Read collection has grown to 1331 books this month. I have added a total of 275 books to my LibraryThing account so far in 2012. 79 of them were review books. 181 remain tagged TBR today.

For the year, I have read a total of 102 books and am well on my way to blowing my GoodReads goal of 144 books out of the water. When I hit it, which I hope to do in June, I will have to increase it. Realistically, I think I can read 200 books this year. Summer vacation, which begins tomorrow, is my peak reading time each year.

What was your month like? What were your favorite books?

April Reading Report

April was another good reading month for me. I read a total of 22 books with 7197 pages. I read 12 young adult books and 10 adult books this month. Fifteen of the books I read were books that I had for review. Nine of the books were ebooks. Check out my spreadsheet here.

My favorite adult book this month was The Witness by Nora Roberts. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa was my favorite young adult book. The review for The Witness will be posted on this blog on May 5. It is already up at Amazon, GoodReads, and LibraryThing. The link for The Immortal Rules will take you to my review.

According to LibraryThing I added 41 new books to my TBR mountain. Here is how I tagged them: 26 YA books, 8 review books, 4 urban fantasy, 8 free. Thirty-six of them are still unread but I have already read 4 of the 8 review books. I am currently reading the fifth of the review books that arrived this month.

I currently have 1310 books in my To Read collection at LibraryThing.

March Report

March was a good reading month for me. I read 19 books and 6113 pages. I read a pretty even balance between adult and young adult books this month. Ten of the books I read were adult books; nine were young adult books. Five of the books I read were ebooks and five were from my TBR stack. Nine of the books I read this month were review books. Check out my spreadsheet.

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts was my favorite adult book and Loss by Jackie Morse Kessler was my favorite young adult book.

I added 60 books to my TBR stack this month including eighteen books for review. Thirty-six of the books I added were young adult books. My To Read stack is an even 1300 books on April 1 (and I only wish I was joking). Check out my LibraryThing account here.

How did you do last month? Do you have any big goals for April?

February Report

Even though February was a short month I did get a lot of reading done. I finished 19 books in February with a total of 5122 pages. Ten of the books were young adult and the rest were adult books. You can see the entire list here.

I read a lot of good books this month. My favorites on the young adult side were Hunger and Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler. My favorite adult book this month is a tie between Timeless by Gail Carriger and Celebrity in Death by J. D. Robb. Eight of the books I read were books that I had received for review. My favorite among them was Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea by Sophia Nash.

The only challenges I am doing this year are TBR challenges. Four of the books I read were from my TBR stack.

I added books to my TBR stack too. I was doing all right and being conservative and responsible in my book purchases until the last week in February. I added 21 books this week (so far) for a total of 55 additions to my TBR mountain this month. Ten of them were new books for review. Forty-six are still unread. My To Read collection has grown to 1299 books. You can see the whole list here.

How was your month?