monday musings

I hit a reading milestone this month!

100 books read for my Goodreads Challenge!

2018 Reading Challenge

Karen has completed her goal of reading 100 books in 2018!

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103 of 100 (100%)

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I’m both shocked and relieved by this because just a few years ago I was in the mother of all book slumps and wasn’t sure I would ever have fun reading again.

I’m REALLY happy that I’m keeping up with my ALA books. I always seem to fall into a huge reading slump after book conferences which sucks because you have all those new books. This time I let myself give into the slump this time and did everything but read for a few weeks and it worked! I’ve already read 6 ALA books as of this writing!

This is my August TBR pile and WHOA – I already read all but one of these!

A quick batch of minis:

A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell: I’m enjoying this but I’m not quite in the mood for sci-fi/dystopian/mystery suspense atm so I’ve set it aside and hope to still finish by the end of the month.

It’s partially told (at least for now) in journal entries that read kind of dry.

Our Stories, Our Voices – essays by assorted authors: I reviewed this on the blog last week.

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert: I loved this book and have a review coming up this week.

Save the Date by Morgan Matson: I thought I was going to love this one but it was too over-the-top silly and too long for me. I was #TeamMike – the brother who stayed away from this ridiculous family for 18 months had the right idea.

I do reccomend this for people who love family drama and rom coms though.

Love Songs & Other Lies by Jessica Pennington: Mostly cute second chance romance with a few problematic things:

~ like a teacher who's assignment is to keep a journal with notes and observations of people and encourages the male students to use this as a precursor to find out more about the girl you like  (“Gentleman, perhaps this is a good time to learn more about one of the young ladies you’re interested in.” – NOPE, not on board with that

~ a secret that loses steam by the time it’s revealed

~ and no female friendships and girls portrayed only as callus or groupies (not including the protag who is a very cool girl).

Because of all that, has a slightly dated feel of YA from a few years ago but I do like the authors style and the romance overall. If you can let some of that go – I recommend it. 

It does have the best quote ever though:

“I love my sleep like I love my food: in large quantities, whenever I can get it”

It’s only August 13th so I guess I will be ambitious and move on to pile #2!

Dating Disasters of Emma Nash by Chloe Seager: From Goodreads – “Don’t miss the laugh-out-loud novel of the year!

Online, you can choose who you want to be. If only real life were so easy…”

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: “Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago.” 

I’ve had this book on my shelf for YEARS and I’m using Bark’s Book Nonsense Ladies of Horror Fiction challenge as an incentive to clear it out. Follow the # for their August Instagram Challenge – #LadiesOfHorrorFiction for prompts and great horror book rec’s!

Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator by Catherine Reef: Even though this isn’t horror – I think this biography of Mary Shelley could count towards the above challenge as well. (publication date, September 18, 2018. Arc provided by the publisher/ALA)

Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles: “When Marvin Johnson's twin, Tyler, goes to a party, Marvin decides to tag along to keep an eye on his brother. But what starts as harmless fun turns into a shooting, followed by a police raid.” I picked up a finished copy of this at a signing at ALA. Beautiful cover and it sounds like a powerful story.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness: “With harpoons strapped to their backs, the proud whales of Bathsheba's pod live for the hunt, fighting in the ongoing war against the world of men. When they attack a ship bobbing on the surface of the Abyss, they expect to find easy prey. Instead, they find the trail of a myth, a monster, perhaps the devil himself...” Another ALA ARC. It sounds….strange. But it’s a super short read (160) pages and 'I’m curious. Goodreads is divided lol

What have you been reading this month? Any recommendations?