Welcome to The Book Report where we run down everything that happened in the month and update you on challenges, giveaways, reviews and more!
Shari’s Update
Hot July out of the way and onto hot August here. Moved my mom into a Dementia Living situation and it isn’t going well. Time will tell. School is going back in session in August. We had a choice of in-person or online, but they made the online so bad, there really wasn’t a choice for education. I heard a rumor that our health director says we will spend more time out of school than in because COVID will spread quickly through the schools. Not what a mom wants to hear, but it is a rumor.
Reading has slowed down some this last week as I am making big decisions for a lot of people and then just can’t get lost in some of the books I want to read. Hopefully, things are going better for everyone else!
My Reading Breakdown:
- Read: 12
- Reviewed: 12
- Kindle Unlimited: 8
- Purchased: 2
- NetGalley: 1
- ARC: 2
Best of…
- Favorite Book Read: Guardian’s Grace by Rebecca Zanetti – I may have skipped two books in the series to read this one.
- Addictive Series: House of Kalmar – not a great series, but it was addictive!
- Blast From the Past: Blushing Violet by Ann Mayburn – felt like reading an author I hadn’t in a while
Challenges
- The Series That Never Ends: 14/7
- Bad Boys of Romance: 13/25
- Literary Pickers: 32/45
- Books ‘N Tunes: 20/30
- Review Writing: 36/100
Sophia Rose’s Update
The 4th of July has come and gone so swiftly. I feel like it happened last month. Then again, I feel like it shouldn’t be the end of July. We had an isolated holiday. It was super hot so we nixed our cookout and had take out. Then we sat out in our lawn chairs after dark, eating frozen fruit bars, and watching a few of the neighbors shooting up their fireworks. It was pretty impressive. I’m convinced that one guy on the street over must be a closet millionaire or practicing to be a spectacular pyro-technician because he did fireworks two weekends in a row and these were those impressive ones that launched pretty high and changed colors for about a half hour straight both times.
When the governor announced that we were mandatory for masks through at least mid- August and my husband was already mandatory at UPS all this time, it occurred to me that we might need more than one mask each. I bit the bullet and hit Etsy for some fun, fashionable masks in a men’s XXL (hubby has a big noggin). Our current masks were frayed and played out. We decided to go for whimsical so he picked patriotic and Detroit Tigers baseball and bet you’re not surprised that I went for country bandana and Jane Austen. If you are selling masks or there is a great charity who are selling them, let me know and I’ll happily support your business because I have a feeling I’ll be buying some more in a bit.
Garden is really producing on the cucumbers and tomatoes. I am loving it. I’ve had enough to put a bushel basket out for the neighbors and give some of it to friends. We’ve enjoyed BLT sandwiches, salads, veggie omelets, and I’ll be making up salsa as soon as I get enough cilantro from the herb garden.
On the book front, I’m back in the saddle and the reading and concentration struggles are a thing of the past. This is good because I’ve been catching up review arcs and showing no self-control about accepting more.
July reading and listening total: 32
Reading Breakdown: 9 NetGalley (97%), 14 author/publisher requests, 1 library, 1 Prime, 7 TBR, 12 new to me authors, 8 new to me series, 6 finished/caught up on a series
Reading Challenge Update:
Because Reading’s COYER Quarantine- 56/70 books
Unconventional Bookworm’s New Release- 101/100 books COMPLETED New goal 200 books
Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and Books Are My Heart’s Library Love- 11/23 books
Austenesque Lovers TBR 27/50 books
My Reader’s Block’s Mt. TBR- 50/100 books
Because Readings Reading Assignment Summer- 13/16 books
Delighted Reader’s Series That Never Ends- 8/8 books COMPLETED New Series Goal Linnea Sinclair’s Dock Five Universe sci-fi series 0/4 books
Passages To the Past’s Historical Fiction- 74/100 books
Delighted Reader’s Literary Pickers- 93/100 books
Under the Covers and Peace Love Books Romanceopoly- 59/78 books
Caffeinated Book Reviewer’s Audio- 58/100 books
Delighted Reader’s Books N Tunes- 28/50 books
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Carole Rae’s Random Ramblings’ Romance BINGO- 21/25 books
Redbubble Free Reading Challenge Ideas
Are you looking for a good personal summer reading challenge idea? Or for fall, winter and spring for that matter?
RedBubble Life has several challenge printables they have available for readers. Read through the post about how to find the right challenge for you and then peruse the free printable challenge downloads.
Check it out: https://www.redbubble.com/life/reading-challenge/
Shout out to Elsie for sharing this opportunity with our readers!
How’s your summer (winter in the southern hemi) going? Hitting your reading and blogging goals? Do Tell!
This Month’s Reviews
Did you miss a review? No fear! Here’s what we wrote about.
- [2 Jul] Never Look Back by Mary Burton ★★★★
- [3 Jul] Cowboy Strong by Carolyn Brown ★★★★½
- [5 Jul] Shatter the Earth by Karen Chance ★★★½
- [6 Jul] Dragon Unleashed by Grace Draven ★★★★
- [7 Jul] The Heir Affair by Jessica Morgan ★★★★
- [8 Jul] Edge of Darkness by Lara Adrian ★★★★
- [10 Jul] Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall ★★★★
- [11 Jul] Spent Identity by Marlene M. Bell ★★★½
- [12 Jul] Teased by Rebecca Zanetti ★★★★
- [12 Jul] Tricked by Rebecca Zanetti ★★★★
- [12 Jul] Tangled by Rebecca Zanetti ★★★★
- [13 Jul] The Commander's Captive by Miranda Bridges ★★★
- [13 Jul] Everything by DC Stone ★★★★
- [14 Jul] The Monarch's Mate by Miranda Bridges ★★★½
- [14 Jul] Flutter by Nicole S. Patrick ★★★½
- [15 Jul] The Bodyguard’s Breeder by Miranda Bridges ★★½
- [15 Jul] Talen by Rebecca Zanetti ★★★★
- [16 Jul] The Legislator's Lover by Miranda Bridges ★★½
- [17 Jul] The Healer's Hellion by Miranda Bridges ★★★½
- [19 Jul] Night Broken by Patricia Briggs ★★★★★
- [20 Jul] The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick ★★★★
- [21 Jul] Play Dirty by Cari Quinn, Taryn Elliott ★★★★
- [22 Jul] Vampire's Faith by Rebecca Zanetti ★★★★
- [23 Jul] The Single Mom's Second Chance by Kathy Douglass ★★★★
- [24 Jul] Return to Magnolia Harbor by Hope Ramsay ★★★½
- [25 Jul] Love Under Quarantine by Audrey Carlan, Kylie Scott ★★★★
- [26 Jul] Legacy of Secrets by Helen Starbuck ★★★★
- [27 Jul] The Billionaire in Boots by Julia London ★★★½
- [28 Jul] A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley ★★★½
Shari
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@ Shari, sorry to hear the situation with your mom isn’t going well. The whole school situation with COVID sounds difficult. I hope it goes well and hopefully if things have to go online they improve that. @ Sophia, sounds like you had a nice 4th of July celebration. That’s greta when you have a neighbor who has a lot of cnie fireworks so you can just watch those. My mom made two masks for me in case we need them, but here they arne’t used much except for in public transport. It is handy to have more than one… Read more »
Yes, it was fun to watch the cool fireworks around us. I don’t go out as much and mostly walk where I need to go, but I wear a mask in our grocery store and around any friends at the grad parties I get to when we have to be close to strangers. It’s nice not to keep handwashing and drying the same mask each night. Love the fun designs.
It’s amazing how all out some people go with the fireworks. We had a pretty amazing show here too just from the neighbors! And BLT sandwiches are the best, especially with stuff from the garden. July did fly by, hard to believe it’s August already.
Also best of luck with the dementia living situation. That is so hard. It’s very scary too with the back to school situation. So much uncertainty now. Best of luck with your situation.
Yeah, some of the neighborhood shows really blew my mind. I love fresh tomato season for BLT sandwiches. Yum!
A good month for sure!
Lots of little blessings to enjoy even if some big stuff wasn’t great. 🙂
Yall had a good reading month!
Happy reading in August ‘)
We will definitely give it a go. Thanks for dropping by, Sharonda! 🙂
Doing good ladies!
Thanks Carole! Have a great August!