Sunday Post – 2 August 2020 @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality @Tynga

Posted August 2, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly  @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week, and showcase books and things we have received.

Stacking The Shelves is also a weekly meme hosted by  Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene from Reading Reality.  It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar.

I’d made peach crisp Saturday night.  Sunday was the usual blog visiting. I also had the new experience of the COYER Book Club in a Facebook room.  It was fun to see everyone.  I had only read one of the four books – A Study in Charlotte which I did really enjoy.  We decided to only do 2 books in August. I am leading the discussion on one of them – The Last Move by Mary Burton.  It’s an author I enjoy and I am working on her backlist. It was available at Kindle Unlimited.

The week has started out HOT.  Monday, I paid bills, handled a bunch of emails, reviewed some medical and financial information.  It felt good to have some of those tasks out of the way.  Now I just need to file a bunch of paperwork.   I was worried for some reason about using the new grill for the first time. I grilled salmon for dinner and it went just fine.  Monday was my mother’s 93rd birthday.

As the week continued, I lost focus.  I’m getting very concerned about the level of lies and unkindness in the world.  So I lost energy for doing things.  Wednesday, I was doing some email cleanup. I have a folder with emails for all my Kindle purchases which includes freebies.  I created a new folder for freebies, so my regular Kindle folder would only have the ones I paid to get.  I went through every email, getting them to the right folder,  almost 4000 emails. I found lots of books I want to read! I’m actually shocked I was only down that rabbit hole for 3 hours.

Then I went on a new tangent.  I had just finished The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter. It is in the Will Trent series, which is preceded by the Grant County series.  I had some character confusions. I was able to clear some of it by asking Jonetta (who has some amazing character lists)  and then I also checked out the ebook for every Will Trent book #3-8.  I skim reread #3 Undone, and then searched the rest to see if a character was in them.  Nope.  I just shouldn’t read books out of order.

I need to water the tomatoes a bit less, some are getting blossom rot. The greens beans look like they need it; they are barely starting.  The forecast always shows 3 days or so of mid-90s (32C) and then high chances of rain and cooler temps in the 80s.  So pretty much it has stayed in the mid 90s.

Thursday the neighbor right next door texted me they are selling their house.  They are the only neighbor I know very well, so I’m sad to see them go.

Friday we settled on the classes for Fall and paid tuition. My daughter will take World Civilizations I and Music Appreciation.  She would take other / more classes on campus but two is enough for online  Friday night I read until 4am, which made Saturday more challenging. I started with a headache.  I made pumpkin muffins & bread my daughter likes. I updated my challenges.


How do I do it?

This is just a curiousity question.  How many ARCs do you have?  I currently have 18 on Netgalley with only a few overdue, some won’t be published until November.  I also have audio ARCs, about 7, with 3 of them being older.

If you have any tips for me, please comment.


July Reading:  I had another good reading month.  I managed to read  25 books. Audiobooks continue to help me read more. Some count for more than one challenge.  I listened to 11 audiobooks, read 7  library books, 17  COYER reads,   and  4  books which I already own.

All Library books (including ones not reviewed on the blog)  2020 Library Love Challenge


Bookish Resolutions update:   I’m not having a good time breaking down my goals any further and we are well into the year.   I read many library books I just wanted to read, however.  I created post shells as I got ARCs. I have a standard type of information I am using for the Library Love emails and am working on a new plan for next year.

I did manage to read 4 books I own (goal is 3 per month):

  • Agent 355 by Marie Benedict (audio)
  • Night Broken by Mercy Thompson
  • Truth and Lies by by Caroline Mitchell (audio)
  • This Christmas by Jeannie Moon

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality.  These are the exciting ARCs I received this week (If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry):

         

Thanks so much to Tachyon Publications, and Ace Roc Books.

 

(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)

NOTHING.

 

Now the really scary one. This is all the Kindle and Audible freebies I grabbed this past week. You can see why I need to do Thrifty Thursday to be sure I read a few at least one each month.

                   

                 

                

I really meant to cut back on freebies BUT  they are free so I guess that won’t be happening.

 

I’m not including things like reviews posted or upcoming as they are always in the right sidebar. And, my challenge status is also there.

If you like this and want to see me do the Sunday post, as often as I can manage, leave me a comment and let me know.

Anne

 

 

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Posted August 2, 2020 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments


55 responses to “Sunday Post – 2 August 2020

  1. I wish I had done a garden this year since we were home but it has been so hot that I am not sure how well it would have done. I do miss garden tomatoes.

    I really need to see if I can salvage my Bookish Resolutions since this year was just a mess. I plan to carry over my goals to next year because I refuse to give up on my resolutions, I am not a quitter! lol

    Pumpkin Muffins and Bread sound amazing, I might have to get some stuff to make that this weekend, I am now craving it! lol

    Have a great week, Anne! Happy Reading!

    • Thank you Michelle. The tomatoes, basil and rosemary love the heat. The green beans and chard not so much. I will have to plant a bit differently next year because tomatoes can’t stand as much watering either. I continue to try and mostly I am meeting the goals I set this year except for the discussion one and doing something for JIAM but I’m not sure I put that in my formal goals. At least I am reading a lot.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
  2. Happy Birthday to your mom and pumpkin bread sounds yummy!
    I am bad over at NetGalley, I’ve promised myself not to take on any more books until I am caught up on the ones I have over there.
    Enjoy your books this week, I have The Silent Wife on my TBR pile as well.

    • The Silent Wife is amazing. I love all the Karin Slaughter books. I try really hard not to take things if I won’t review them on a timely basis. I read a couple really old ones last year and I still have a couple oldies to go. But there are so many new pretties! Thank you.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
  3. You had a brilliant reading month in July, Anne! I currently have 14 arcs with Netgalley and a 90% feedback rating with them. But then, they are my only source of arcs, so it’s reasonably easy to keep track of all my arcs, whether I’ve read them, written the review and when they are due to be posted:)). I do it using a digital sticky that I have on my Screensaver so I can always keep track of it. And as soon as I post the review, I delete it. Not sure if the above is at all useful…

    I hope the coming week is a good one – how annoying about the tomatoes! Generally once they get mildew here, I pull them up, because I can’t save them – but our climate is a lot damper and cooler than yours, so you might be okay. Have a good week, Anne.

    • Thanks for sharing about the Netgalley. I don’t know but I like to analyze things and look for ways to improve my systems. I also have Edelweiss (but they usually decline me) and 10 audio publishers so I keep a single spreadsheet. At the top are ARCs I haven’t scheduled and below are rows for the scheduled. Title, format, Review Date, Release Date, Notes, Y/N is Post setup.

      This is just my personal calendar – the blog has a calendar in WordPress and the team has a shared Google calendar. We each have our own color. I do lots of shuffling because audio books are released much closer to the release date.

      I think the tomatoes will be fine but I have stopped watering them so often. I have more tomatoes than I can keep up eating which I will be requesting suggestions for them next week. lol

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: The End of Her by Shari Lapena
  4. I’m starting to garden a bit due to someone leaving some free plant roots for people to take. So if you ever have a chance to give away roots I recommend it. It will really help a novice plant grower (is that word?)

  5. You only have 18 ARCs on netgalley?! I have 62…So yeah, lots of them are past due. But, my ratio is 90%. What I have found is that as soon as I get an ARC on netgalley, I schedule a post around or on release day. That sort of puts it on my schedule and helps me not forget about it.
    Sorry you were feeling zapped from all the crappiness in the world. Its hard to escape at times for sure.

    Samantha recently posted: #SundayPost: Hello August
    • Thank you Samantha! I have a spreadsheet where I track all ARCS including the audio ones. I do try to schedule right away (or not take the ARC) but sometimes I just have to have something?

      I’m not going to say I’m depressed but I am anxious and usually I am not even that. It’s not a time where I feel very motivated.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
  6. Jen

    *HUGS* The world really does suck so much these days, but there is lots of lightness in the world, too. Happy birthday to your Mom! Did you celebrate via Zoom or Facetime? Your question on ARCs has me curious… Currently, I have 6 unread ARCs (with a couple not out until November) and 3 ARCs I’ve read but not yet posted the reviews. I only have 2 audio ARCs, but requests pending on 5 or so. I hope you have a good week ahead!

    • Thank you! I am not whinging. I have things so much easier than most people. It’s just hard to see things and be motivated right now. But I KNOW there are great people in this community.

      You do well. You have to realize I post at least 3 reviews a week, sometimes more. So I am going to read more ARCs than some people and read well, 25 books this month. Here’s more of my ARC discussion I already responded to Sarah.

      “Thanks for sharing about the Netgalley. I don’t know but I like to analyze things and look for ways to improve my systems. I also have Edelweiss (but they usually decline me) and 10 audio publishers so I keep a single spreadsheet. At the top are ARCs I haven’t scheduled and below are rows for the scheduled. Title, format, Review Date, Release Date, Notes, Y/N is Post setup.

      This is just my personal calendar – the blog has a calendar in WordPress and the team has a shared Google calendar. We each have our own color. I do lots of shuffling because audio books are released much closer to the release date.” The WordPress calendar shows me 3 weeks ahead so I try to have all the posts for those 3 weeks set up, which means I am typically creating a couple posts for 3 weeks out, but mine I try to create the setup as soon as I get the ARC.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Engagement and Espionage by Penny Reid
  7. 18 ARCs??? I would die from stress Anne! LOL So sad to see your neighbors leave. I hope the new ones will be amazing. Stay safe!

  8. Too bad about your neighbor. I was sad to see our neighbor of twenty years move away, but it has been nice meeting the new one and starting to get to know her and her kids. Our garden is really starting to produce so I’ve pushed tomatoes and cucumbers on everybody.
    I have 24 NG arcs, two other eARCs, and 8 audio arcs. 10 are past the release date though a couple were given to me later. If I keep up my pace, I am hoping to be caught up on the late ones by the end of the month and back on track with new releases. I did have to back off my COYER and Library Love reading to hit my catching up pile hard, but that’s just temporary. 🙂
    Looks like you got lots done with your productive days and glad the first grilling experience went well.

    Have a good week, Anne!

    Sophia recently posted: Sunday Post - 2 August 2020
    • Thanks Sophia! You are a star but I knew that already. Well ARCs should count for COYER too. I use library books to catch up on series where I want to read a later in the series ARC, and also for genre reads of Series on Saturday themes. Or just things I want to read.

      I may get to the give away produce again. So far we have been eating them, but I picked a large batch this morning.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: August 2020 Library Love Challenge Link Up & Giveaway
  9. It’s been really hot at my house and just a little cooler at my daughter’s. For some reason even though her temps are lower than ours it feels just as hot. Maybe the humidity is higher. At any rate being out between 10 and 5 is pretty miserable. It did cool off beautifully last night and we sat out on the patio last night, ate dinner, and looked at the planets with our grand kids on our phone app. So nice.

    I have 27 (I think, just tried Netgalley and can’t get onto it) with two of those being audio books. Although, my feedback ratio is over 90%. It’s hard to knock it down because the more I clear out books the more become available to grab, lol! I try to be particular about taking books on, though. I have about 6-8 ARCs that have been sitting on my shelf for ages, because I’m never motivated to pick them up. I should just clear them out, but I worry about sending that “won’t be reading these” message. How it affects my approval chances in the future. What do you do about those, Anne?

    Rachel recently posted: Sunday Post #84
    • This is the hot time of year here and I only go out to take Lulu out, pick produce, pull weeds. I pull 3-4 weeds while I am waiting for Lulu to go so it’s not enough time to get too hot.

      I am really excited about the discussion I created here about ARCs today. I had no idea it would be but I love it. I love analyzing things and figuring out systems. You asked what I do about those. I currently have just a couple old ones and I will be reading and reviewing them. I try to fit one in a month or so and just do it. For example, one is a quilting book and I wanted to make some of the patterns to comment on the ease of the instructions, etc. Sometimes, I just don’t get them in on the planned timing and then it is harder because the next few months are already scheduled. But I do work them in eventually. That should be one of my Bookish resolutions, to work one in a month until they are done.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis
  10. I hope your peach crisp tasted as good as it looks! It has been hot here too–thank goodness for air conditioning! There’s been a nice breeze in the evenings though which make sitting on the patio a nice play to be. I wish your daughter the best with her studies! I am glad you had such a great reading month in July! I hope you enjoy your new books. I have enjoyed Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville books. The first book in the Hell’s Library series is one of my TBR poll options this month. The series sounds right up my alley. I hope you have a great August, Anne. Stay safe and well.

  11. I had ten ARCs that arrived this year, but also read some that came last year. I think I had around thirteen altogether. I need to cut down on those numbers, though; the stress gets to me.

    Enjoy your books, which are all new to me.

    Here are my WEEKLY UPDATES

  12. I couldn’t keep up with the one ARC I had. I don’t know how I’ll handle 18. Sorry I’m not the right person for that question 😀 I do have dreams of reading a lot and having a mile-high nightstand but in reality, a nightstand like that will take me months to read.

    My tomato plants are having blossom rot too. 🙁 I know I’ve been watering them a lot but the beans seem to be needing more. Arg.

  13. I feel you Anne. All this hate and violence really gets to you, and it just wears on you, and its hard to keep your positivity and energy for life …I just hope people will start to be more open-minded, understanding and caring for others. What we need is more love and not hate. Sending you lots of happy vibes and hope this week is better for you.

    • Thank you! Our book community is GREAT, a sharp contrast to some of the people out there. I know there are amazing folks out there. The nasty folks seem to shout so loud. Trump is all about the distractions and having all the attention on him which is soul sucking. He can’t seem to ever praise or honor others. (I don’t follow him on Twitter or I’d go crazy)

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis
      • Well I do think the book community can be great…but there is more hate building within it, unfortunately–which is happening in society more so its sad to see but that could just be my experience especially lately.I do have issues with how Trump tweets at times. Not always, some days aren’t bad, but some days I wish Melania would censor his tweets and hide his phone from him for a while LOL because I agree he can be senseless and self focused at times. He could do so much more good if his tweets weren’t that way. But there are so many nasty folks on both sides that are just creating more division when we need unity more than ever right now. I never give up hope it will happen though…even if it kills me I try to stay positive.

  14. Happy birthday to your mom! I tend to disappear down rabbit holes too. I’ll start one thing, get distracted with another task, and emerge hours later wondering what I meant to do in the first place. I’ve been really bad since the pandemic started. Enjoy your week!

    • That’s exactly right. It IS nice to have the time to do some free flow thinking, organizing and analysis though. Here in the US, we rarely get any blocks of time off. We have this sense we should always be producing and accomplishing. I’m retired but being home feels like I never take a day off.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
    • Well they are for releases over the next 4 months. Plus I read/.review 4 or 5 books a week, about 18 books a month so they go pretty fast actually. I’ve gotten a LOT pickier about the freebies though. I love having ones by authors known to me. But I got my first Colleen Hoover book as a freebie when nobody knew who she was and loved it.

      It’s too hot for leafy greens right now but the third season here will start in September and I’ll be planting spinach, lettuce and broccoli again.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Engagement and Espionage by Penny Reid
  15. You don’t want to know how many eARCs I have, it’s bad and I am so behind! I am having a hard time concentrating on ebooks and seem to always want to listen instead and I need to break it and get back to my ebooks!

    Have a great week and happy reading!
    Stormi

  16. That peach crisp looks yummy and pumpkin muffins sound relish – pumpkin is something I wish they would use more in Scotland, I love it.

    I am ok with my ARC’s I’m actually managing to read them on schedule mainly due to resisting requesting on NetGalley at the moment.

    Have a lovely week.

    Heather @RandomRedheadedRamblings recently posted: The Sunday Post - 2nd August 2020
  17. It’s always a good feeling to get the email inbox sorted out. I try not to let things linger in there and deal with them but it inevitably gets clogged up with stuff I have to sort through. I think I have maybe one ARC pending right now. About a year or so ago I virtually quit requesting. I found that I was spending all my time reading ARCs and not getting around to the books on my shelves. Now I only request the rare book by a small handful of favorite authors. Otherwise I read from my own shelves and it makes me so happy to do that. 🙂 The pumpkin muffins sound wonderful. I just love pumpkin and wish it was used more year ’round.

    Tanya @ Girl Plus Books recently posted: August of Books Giveaway Hop
    • Great job for you Tanya! I’m glad you are able to resist and enjoy the books you have mostly. I only take things I really plan to read but it doesn’t always go according to schedule. I make these muffins year round. They are a favorite. I also have a recipe from a friend for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. He brought them to work one time but I have yet to make them myself.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
  18. a nice variety of books and it sounds like it was a good week. after seeing your crisp, i realized i haven’t eaten breakfast yet. 🙂

  19. I made Apple Crumble tonight 🙂
    I currently have 19 books for review on Netgalley, about 5 at edelweiss, and about 30 print ARCs, I think the latest release date is November atm. I have a couple of print books overdue, but they were unsolicited, so I don’t feel too guilty though I’m determined to catch up this month.

    Wishing you a great reading week

    • Thanks for sharing! I didn’t even count the couple of print books I didn’t request. I sometimes read those but I think I have 2 I just didn’t want to read. Other than those 2 I have NO print ARCs as I prefer digital. They used to send me the CDs and MP3 for audio and I requested to just do digital for those as well.

      The peach crisp is in individual custard cups so it is gone the same meal. Tonight I made apple crisp in a pan which will be good for several servings.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: The End of Her by Shari Lapena
  20. This hot weather has been doing me in. Thank heavens Sunday brought much needed rain and cooler temps – even if it is will only last a few days. Happy Birthday to your Mom. Hope she had a good one. Like you, the lies and all the crap going on right now seems to make everything even more difficult. The numbers in our state keep increasing and I don’t see an end in sight! Hope you and your daughter, as well as that adorable pup, have a wonderful week!

    • Thank you Barb. Everything with Lulu is the best. Although she doesn’t like to go out in the rain so I was glad she went this morning before the rain started. I’m looking forward to a slightly cooler week. I probably need to peruse less of the news and social media but I also want to know what is happening.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: ICYMI: One in a Million by Jill Shalvis
  21. I’m pretty old school about keeping track of my ARCs. I have a spiral bound paper planner that sits open on my desk and I pencil in tentative review dates for each ARC close to their publication date so I don’t forget about them.

    Mmm, peach crisp sounds amazing.

  22. It’s super hot here at the moment and it’s sapping all my energy. 🙁 I have about 18 ARCs waiting to be read too but at least half are now overdue *hangs head in shame* I just can’t motivate myself at the moment.

    I hope this week has been another productive one for you!

    • It’s been a better week than some. I just got some audio ARCs I have really been waiting to receive and now I just want to read them and ignore everything else. But we are busy getting things ready for my daughter’s fall college session. It’s hot here too. Hopefully only a few more weeks of this heat.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Audio: Left for Dead by Caroline Mitchell