Tag: monthly wrap up

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February 2023 Wrap Up: can you tell I was tired? xD

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 3 books, AND I READ ALL THREE! WHAT A RARITY! But in total I finished 7 books this month.

The Plan:

I just went for 3 books in February, because I think even at that point I knew how the month would go. xD

The Result:

As I noted, I finished the three I had wanted to get done in February. Thank goodness I had Hero in a Halfling by William Tyler Davis as a lighthearted and fun read, because Her Name is Knight by Yasmin Angoe was WAYYYYY more brutal and violent and hard to read for the subject matter than I expected. I really needed those to counterbalance.

I also stumbled into some unexpected nonfiction this month with Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies) which was a lovely memoir with a good mix of behind-the-scenes fun and personal reflection from him that made me feel warm and fuzzy. This is How Your Marriage Ends by Matthew Fray was one I found from an article about a blog post he wrote years ago. I’m not married and don’t plan to be, but I found it was applicable to any long-term relationship you might have. Honestly, I even used some of the ideas in meetings with coworkers this month! I really enjoyed it overall, from both a practical standpoint of ideas for fixing (or preventing!) relationship problems, as well as from an emotional reflective point that got me thinking and considering.

The Dalai Lama’s Cat by David Michie probably wins for favorite book this month because of how it made me think, opened me up to new ideas, possibly showed me a spirituality I can embrace, and genuinely entertained and interested me. Super recommend!

Biggest flop of the month was definitely Really Good, Actually which is an ironic-sounding sentence. You can read my review if you want to hear about all the ways it disappointed me. 🤷‍♀️

Reviews Posted in February:

~stats

  • My reading was 29% nonfiction this month
  • My top genres were all tied at one each!!
  • I mostly read books that were reflective, funny, or emotional
  • My average rating was 3.14
  • I traveled to Canada, England, Ghana, and Russia. In the United States I went to Miami.
Continue reading “February 2023 Wrap Up: can you tell I was tired? xD” →
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December 2022 Wrap Up: all the reviewsss

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned roughly 7, mostly to get my nonfiction goal for the year wrapped up. I read all of them, and finished 13 in total (including a buzzer beater entirely on Dec 31st!).

The Plan:

The Result:

I wanted to finish a lot of the things I had started this year and not completed (in particular, Will by Will Smith had been on my “in progress” list for like a year and a half). Then there were several nonfiction titles that were meant to fill my 25 nonfiction books in the year goal (success!). Other than that, it was mostly random things I decided to read, like The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman when I decided I wanted a cold, arctic fantasy. Or when I saw a review (driving me nuts that I can’t remember from who!) for When The Tiger Came Down The Mountain by Nghi Vo and decided that it was finally time to read that book I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

Continue reading “December 2022 Wrap Up: all the reviewsss” →
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October 2022 Wrap Up: hello goodbye!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 6 and of those, I read 4. In total, I read 16 books. So…. clearly I went off track a bit. xD

The Plan:

The Result:

LOOK AT THAT, A BINGO! Meaning, I used one of each of my categories and symbols: still to be read, in progress, abandoned, and completed! Let’s dig in…

So of course, since I’ve already put together my November TBR with several of these titles on it, I had some hold overs. Primarily Morning Sun in Wuhan (which is now reviewed and published!), and The Night Ship which I’m still working through (slowly…).

For books I finished, I went on two different binges: graphic novels, and nonfiction (and in at least one case, a combination of the two with Commute!). I have so much nonfiction in my TBR that sounds so fascinating and interesting, and I just made it a priority in October and I’m so glad I did because they were great!! I also have made it a habit to browse the “New Nonfiction” shelves at the library and that has yielded some great finds. In fact, Strange Planet, Commute, and The Office BFFs all came from there!

My topics were similarly split. Some were kind of dark or grim: Commute dealt with societal harassment and one woman’s taint from men and abuse early in her life; Jokes To Offend Men also touched on inequality and the daily sufferings of women; Something Happened To Ali Greenleaf is a story about a girl who was raped and the girl who knew about it; Sign Here was a bit silly at times, but overall told a pretty painful story no matter the ending.

Maybe it’s no surprise then that the other side of my reading was jokes by Jerry Seinfeld (Is This Anything?) and self-discovery in new places (Pride, Prejudice, and Turkish Delight) and teen romance with the boy she always knew who also happens to now be a mega k pop star (Seoulmates).

Anyway, a lot of these were great and it was a surprisingly excellent reading month. Especially considering the “Life” portion of this post.

Reviews posted in October

Continue reading “October 2022 Wrap Up: hello goodbye!” →
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September 2022 Wrap Up: fun and books and August too!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

Well, do you remember in early September when I planned 4 books? Of those I read… two. 😂 But in total, I read 16 books. So.. I guess I went another direction with the month.

The Result:

Considering I feel like I did a lot besides reading in September, it certainly doesn’t look that way. xD Some highlights were re-reading the City of Bones series for the first two books and being way more uncomfortable with the incestuous flirting that goes on, even knowing how it resolves. Weird. I also read a few books that have been on my radar for a while, because I guess all my holds came in right now. Some were pretty great (I Named My Dog Pushkin, If You Could See The Sun, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes) and some were almost DNFd or at least a bit underwhelming (Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club, The Bodyguard).

My reading was kind of all over, too. I read things on my tbr for a long time, and I read brand new releases, and I read books that aren’t even published yet. I read nonfiction books about death, and LGBTQ boy-band themed romances, and a character with kleptomania, and a ghost story about the world in-between, and a medical finding-myself journey. I read all kinds this month, and I loved it.

I’m falling headfirst into a nonfiction pile though, and I think that will continue! (Read: it already is continuing since it’s almost mid-October as I write this. xD)

Continue reading “September 2022 Wrap Up: fun and books and August too!” →
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July 2022 Wrap Up: a month of parties!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

Of the 9-ish I had planned I finished 4, DNFd 1, and was in progress with 1. In total though, I ended up reading 13 and DNFing 2.

The Plan:

I planned nine, which was kind of ambitious, but I figured I could at least start them. In particular, The Mists of Avalon was a lengthy one that I knew for sure would be carried over (again).

The Result:

I read a lot of books I didn’t plan to read this month, clearly. And I never actually published a TBR post. So I guess I’m back to my old habits! 😁 A lot of these were planned based on my 20 (well, 15) books of summer sign up! book list that I’m trying to finish up. Now that I’m in the last month (halfway through the last month!!) the pressure is on! But I have most of them wrapped at this point. 🙂

The best surprises of the month were A Quest of Heroes by Morgan Rice and Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardey.

Morgan Rice’s book was delightfully classic fantasy, with knights and princesses and chosen ones and noble deeds. I frickin’ loved it. There was something so comfortable about it embracing some of the classic tropes of good versus evil and humble, chosen peasants that made it super easy to sink into and love. The voice all through is wonderfully accessible and I just loved hearing about every character. There was never a point where I was bored or wanted to skip a part. Plus, highest praise of all, I immediately started (and finished) the second book (also great).

Continue reading “July 2022 Wrap Up: a month of parties!” →
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June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 6 books in my June TBR and of those I read 4, with one in progress and one not started. But in total, I read 15 books so… I guess I plowed through anyway.

The Plan:

A mix of library loans of new releases and books I had on my shelves but hadn’t read, this was the goal for June.

The Result:

WOWW did I ever want to abandon two other books in this list: Crying in H Mart and Remarkably Bright Creatures were both duds for me in different ways, and I super wanted to stop reading them. But since I’ve met my quantity goal for the year, I’m pushing myself to read more widely and things I might not usually try. That includes continuing with books even when they’re a struggle or I would usually ditch them due to my mood-reader-ness. I think the slog of those are partly why I read so much: trying to break them up to make them more palatable. xD

Besides those two, I plowed through a ton of other books. I peg this largely on the 20 (15) books of summer challenge that i joined a little bit into June where you have to read and review a certain number of books in the summer. I may have gone aggressively into that list, and even posted ONLY reviews for like a week straight which was an interesting experiment.

Here’s a massive list of all the reviews that came up in June, because I went on an absolute tear there for a minute.

Phew!

~stats

Last month I put an unnecessary amount of time into creating my own charts and graphs and such of my reading tracker, on top of all the wonderful charts and graphs and data that Storygraph tracks for me. So to showcase that a bit, here’s a little section for all the data people like me out there to drool over. 😍

  • My reading was 7% Nonfiction this month (and the remaining 93% fiction).
  • My top genres were Young Adult (8 books) and Romance (7 books).
  • I mostly read books that were emotional, adventurous, or lighthearted.
  • My average rating was 3 stars out of 5. I read a total of 5,958 pages in May.
  • I traveled to South Korea, Japan, France, and even the Underworld through my books. In the United States, I was in Washington, California, and Boston.
Continue reading “June 2022 Wrap Up: apparently I read a lot” →
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May 2022 Wrap Up: hectic!!!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

In my May TBR post, I plotted out 6 books to definitely read, but I had 10 actually on my list to try to get through. Of those ten, I read 7, so not bad! And I also read 7 totally other random books for a total of a mind-boggling fourteen books that I somehow read in May. 🤯

The Plan:

A few of these were in the list to be finished — Around the World in 80 Plants and Dune in particular — with a few new releases / ARCs rounding out the rest (You’ve Changed, Queen of the Tiles, A Hundred Silent Ways, The Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, The Olympus Trinity).

The Result:

text/image

Yo, let me address Dune right away. I threw that one OUT of my LIFE, and I feel so good about it! That damn book has been HAUNTING me for literally years now! I recently gave myself (and anyone else!) permission to give up on this book, which I don’t usually have an issue doing, but this one stuck to me. Marking it as Attempted/Abandoned was extremely liberating, and I think I went on an absolute tear of reading after in a mixture of a rush of freedom and trying to escape it. 😂

I have since finished Pachinko by Min Jin Lee which was also a slog of a book. That combined with Dune was a tough mix. I dove into some mysticism to escape the monotony with Dragon’s Mage and Dragon’s Protector by Ava Richardson, which yes, are part of a series. ABOUT DRAGONS AND MAGIC! It was just what I needed!

I also squirreled away into some swoony romances with The Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (LOOK FOR THIS ONE ON JULY 12, IT WAS EXCELLENT) which is absolutely one of my new favorites. 😍 Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee (also a July pub for the 26th) was a big-city-goes-small-town second chance romance with lawyers, books, and beer. An eclectic mix that worked so well.

And then I wrapped up the month by combining mysticism with swoony romance and went for Lady and the Vamp by C.C. Wood, which is about a Valkyrie and Vampire who meet on a dating app for non-humans. It’s a short read that was extremely fun and I can’t wait to meet the other characters in the world. ^.^

Posted Reviews:

~stats

A NEW SECTION THIS MONTH! I put an unnecessary amount of time into creating my own charts and graphs and such of my reading tracker, on top of all the wonderful charts and graphs and data that Storygraph tracks for me. So to showcase that a bit, here’s a little section for all the data people like me out there to drool over. 😍

  • My reading was 21% Nonfiction this month (and the remaining 79% fiction).
  • My top genres were Romance and Fantasy with 5 books each.
  • I mostly read books that were emotional, reflective, or adventurous.
  • My average rating was 3.9 stars out of 5. I read a total of 4,584 pages in May.
  • I traveled to Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, and Los Angeles, USA through my books (plus one that went global!).
Continue reading “May 2022 Wrap Up: hectic!!!” →
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April 2022 Wrap Up: From Sh*t to Shine

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned out 6 books for April, and I read 4 of them (and partially read one). I added a few others to the list, for a total of 11 books — wow eleven?? seriously?? WHEN?? — for the month.

The Plan:

I had planned on books that were a mix of books I owned but hadn’t yet read, and books I wanted to read and had from the library.

The Result:

Continue reading “April 2022 Wrap Up: From Sh*t to Shine” →
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March 2022 Wrap Up: 🤷‍♀️

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

Well evidently I just gave up on doing a published TBR list for March, but I had planned 5. Of those 5, I read 3 and DNFd too, plus finished 3 others for a total of 6 finished.

The Plan:

  • 1 – BOTM book
  • 1 – book gifted to me
  • 2 – Amazon First Read books
  • 1 – ARC

The Result:

I had a couple of stinkers this month, and both were from Amazon First Reads, so I’m kind of turned off from them this month. The Paid Bridesmaid was shallow and dull, and Like Me was gross for the sake of being shocking, I guess? It didn’t feel like it had a point.

On the positive side, I read a new release I got from Book of the Month Club that I enjoyed in Peach Blossom Spring! Finally, a BOTM that didn’t disappoint. An Ember in the Ashes was a Christmas gift that I finally got around to, and it was enjoyable but not mind-blowing. Two Fast Forward Friday titles were checked off the list with Loveboat, Taipei and You Truly Assumed and both were again decent but not mind-blowing. And finally, A Court of Mist and Fury… which led me to the actually mind-blowing realization that maybe I just don’t like Sarah J Maas anymore. 🤯

Continue reading “March 2022 Wrap Up: 🤷‍♀️” →
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February 2022 Wrap Up: BIG CHANGES!!!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 4, and read 3 of those 4, but finished 8 total books.

The Plan:

I really only planned about 4 books. Three of the four I expected to be slower reads for me, either due to length or complexity. I was like half accurate with that. xD

I didn’t plan on much, really…

The Result:

I read 3 of my 4 books, but I ended up reading a whoooole lot more. Turns out The City of Brass is exactly the kind of book I love wildly, and I immediately purchased and read the next two books in the series in the same month, for a total of over 1500 pages just from those 3 books. xD I think I also actually binged a webcomic series or two, but for whatever reason I didn’t add those in. Ah well.

Continue reading “February 2022 Wrap Up: BIG CHANGES!!!” →