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.
Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar.
Sunday, cool and windy. I did some visiting. Then I was reading my book I’m trying to finish to review tomorrow. Ugh. I managed to get some coupon items at BJ’s so I went over to fill the propane tank and do a pickup. Unfortunately, their propane wasn’t working so I went over to Uhaul. It’s 50% more but at least I got it filled. I’d put things away and worked on my reading. Then Max’s family came to get him. So I ran the dishwasher, started some laundry, and cleaned up the half bath. I finished my book then right before dinner. After dinner, I went up to write my review.
Monday, I went to bed an hour early and got up 2 hours later than usual. Then the neurologist called and wanted to start in about an hour and my daughter wasn’t even up! So we settled on 1:30 which is the latest time they do infusion each day. So all ours will be 1:30. There wasn’t time to do much but go. The nurse explained everything in detail. The infusion lasts 2 hours so with the checkin / checkout and explaining it was about 4:30 before we headed home. My daughter luckily didn’t have any nausea so she didn’t need those drugs. It seems to be helping a bit. She had a snack and went to nap when we got home. I did the blog visiting and stuff I’d normally do. Poor Lulu in the crate and no walk today. Tomorrow will be easier because we know more of what to expect.
Tuesday, I walked the dogs and then we left for the next DHE infusion. While she had the treatment, I went to Trader Joes, Food Lion and Aldi to get a few items. We got through about an hour faster than yesterday and I felt less wiped out when we got home. I put things away while she ate a lunch, then she went to nap before dinner. I fell asleep early.
Wednesday, today I woke late. Kayla had a dental cleaning so it was just Lulu, Abby and me. Then it was off to the next DHE infusion for my daughter. I read while she was in her appointment.
Thursday, Kayla was still not the usual after her dental cleaning. So it was Abby, Lulu and me. After, I went right to Harris Teeter for my flu shot and to pick up an Rx. Then I went over to Costco for rotisserie chicken and a few other items. I had a little time and then it was taking my daughter for a massage and I went to Aldi’s for another few items. I went to sleep early enough but then was awake a couple hours during the night.
Friday, so happy to have a day at home. I got going with laundry and computer stuff. My daughter got up and it’s the first day in 30 days without the migraine! She still has gastro issues and muscle/joint pain but it’s an improvement. Lulu and I went for a walk on the longest route. After dinner, we finally got the rain which had been threatening all day.
Saturday, I didn’t hurry with getting up. I’m drowning in social media. I can’t get to it all. I’m looking at but not posting on a bunch of them. I don’t follow enough people on some to get much interesting info/ interaction. I say this every week, don’t I? Or am I just thinking it? If I’m home this week maybe I can do something about it. My daughter has an MRI so another trip back to the neurology center. Well it didn’t go well. She got claustrophobic and nauseous as soon as she got in and had to get out. We came home and relaxed. Here’s hoping this week will be quieter. The weather will be nice and even into the 70sF/20C. Tomorrow besides visiting I need to write some reviews.
How do I do it?
I have chosen to do the Read-along each year to reread favorites or start a long series I never seem to manage to read. With the longer series, it seems even those who are interested are not participating as much after 6 months or so. Should I just expect that with any long series? I’m doing a shorter series, 6 books, to start 2024. Should I stay with shorter series (although that defeats the purpose for me). Is it because I generally choose urban fantasy type series and many readers are romance readers? I want to do series like Harry Dresden, October Daye, Jane YellowRock, Spellbound, etc which are even more 15-18 books. Should I take 1.5 years for them or read a book every 3 weeks or not do long series? What are your recommendations for me? What would encourage you to read with us?
If you have any tips for me, please comment.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by 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):
My sincere thanks to Berkley Romance, Minotaur Books, Grand Central Publishing.
(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)
I bought all of these at Chirp for $3.99 each. Great narrators including Susan Erickson, Kristine Hvam and Gildart Jackson, in series I want to read or love.
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.
Anne
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
I’m so glad the infusions worked for your daughter. It sounds like a very busy week. Hopefully you’ll get more downtime this week. Have a good week, Anne😁
Thank you Tammy. It was exhausting for both of us. This week will be less hectic and the weather will be great 0s-70s. Lulu will be thrilled to have us at home too.
Sweet Lulu💜
Regarding your series question. As you know, I do a few series group reads on Goodreads. We have detailed discussions about each book but this year, all of us seemed to get behind. We recently explored what happened and most buckled under because they had too many going on. When I asked about the length of the series maybe being an issue, with the exception of a couple, most said it wasn’t a problem. However, it was unanimous that we have two months to read a book before advancing to the next one. Many spoke of issues with library availability (I have also since they disabled the recommendation feature and seem to be buying fewer copies). And, we were doing two or more series in one group and we all agreed that one was enough.
I hope that’s helpful. Not a scientific survey but it was in my group that is specifically focused on series reading and participation has always been high.
Have a wonderful reading week, Anne!
Thank you Jonetta! That is very helpful. We do allow a month but with it taking the whole year they could be a little ahead or behind and still participate. Library stuff really is a problem I hate we can’t recommend anymore.
I’m glad the infusions are working!
For the read along question: I think I’ve only tried to participate in 3 of them. My life has been absolute chaos for 3 years with continuous major life changes. I start with the best intentions but once things start to get crazy I try and eliminate things that take the most of my time or brain space. The book picks have been amazing and all series I will finish!
Thank you so much Stephanie. I appreciate your input and great to see you busy woman that you are.
Glad the infusions helped! That’s wonderful! My mom can’t do MRI’s either because of the claustrophobia. They have to knock her out. Even the open MRI is too much for her. I have never done the read along challenges because I just can’t keep up. I am such a mood reader.
Thank you Samantha. She used to be able to do MRI but not anymore. yes if your schedule is inflexible sometimes it can be hard, or your moods swing away from the series.
I had no idea infusions took that many time but I am glad they help your daughter!
Thanks Sophie. I didn’t know either. I’d never heard of them, just like I’d never heard of rescue injections until she had them. But I’m very glad they worked.
Wow, you were a busy gal this week. Lots that got done and yay for the infusion working on the migraine struggles. Some weeks are all running around it seems and I hope you have some home time this next week to make up for it. Great finds on Chirp and freebies.
I don’t have any brilliant idea for keeping up reader participation from start to end. Personally, I don’t mind if the series takes a year and a half to finish, but I know I wouldn’t be able to do it by increasing frequency to fit into a year because of all my other reading commitments that I wish to fit in, too. Is it a possibility to do as much of a series as you can in one year for the readalong and then if there are leftover books, to let people finish the rest on their own timing?- this would be if you wanted to do something different each year for the readalong. As to the genre, I’m perfectly fine with those shy of the romance element b/c I get plenty of that with other reads.
Have a good week, Anne!
Thank you Sophia. It was a rough week. Going to the failed MRI didn’t help. Today we are finally at home. I am putting off errands as long as I can for now. I need a few days at home to catch up. I appreciate your input – as always – on the Read-alongs.
That’s great the infusions helped. You had a busy week. Hopeful this coming week will be not so busy.
As for the read-along. Genre isn’t the problem its life. I have all the good intentions to participate, but then things happen. I’ve also been in a reading/review slump since COVID and just can’t knock it. For the long series giving people more time like a 1 1/2 year to 2 years would help. Those long sereis are daunting. Not sure if this helps you.
Thank you Angela. You are really busy right now. I appreciate your ideas. I have my 2024 stuff to prep soon also. eek – November is around the corner now.
A very busy week for you–but so nice to hear the good results! Hope things settle down a bit in this coming week.
Thank you Catherine. A quiet week would be great.
I am so happy she had a migraine free day. Thank goodness they started the infusions. I hope that continues, but sorry to hear about the MRI. As for the readalong, I wish I had better insight. I’ve done a few but it’s been a while, but I can imagine partiipation might be down a bit, it seems that way in general in the book bloggy world lately. Less of us, I guess.
I’m with you on the social media. I’m down to just about Twitter now and rarely tweet, although Blue Sky is looking like maybe a bright spot. I don’t really do much else with the social media (I have Instagram but haven’t used that in ages).
Anyway have an awesome week!
Thank you Greg. The days without the migraine anymore are a real blessing to us. We’re both recovering a bit because the treatments were exhausting. This week has gorgeous weather which is a plus. yes social media is a mess. There’s so many now and I like each of them differently. They aren’t all easily blog connected though. I read posts more than posting beyond the auto sharing.
I agree the social media situation is crazy. I have settled mostly on Threads. I haven’t been able to find peeps on Blue Sky but try to post a little on all of them.
yes crazy. I look at all of them a bit. There are lots of folks on Bluesky. It seems to be full of content for me. Mastodon and Threads seem like I haven’t followed enough people yet since I can read posts since the last time I posted in a couple minutes. Threads isn’t connected easily to the blog yet, although I keep saying I will try FS Poster soon.
So happy to hear the infusions have helped! Wow, can’t imagine having a migraine for a month. So stressful for both you and your daughter. I have a trick for MRIs that may or may not help. Tell your daughter to not look at the machine at all before entering. Then when you lay down, BEFORE you’re put into the tube close your eyes. Do not open your eyes AT ALL, until the procedure is finished, and picture something nice. Like laying on a beach or lounging next to a fire. Whatever she finds relaxing, set that in mind and focus on that. I think on books that I’m reading. Working out the plot.
You’ve had a busy week, Anne! I hope things calm down for you. I’m looking forward to that Lisa Gardner. I need to request it, but I need to listen to the one prior first.
As far as the read-alongs go, I have no problem with a longer one as long as I’m enjoying the series. I think one per month is a good time frame. It’s hard to organize something and have everyone stick to it just because life can get so hectic. I’ve been enjoying our read-along and plan on joining the next one. It’ll be interesting to see if the shorter series will have more participation.
I appreciate your thoughts Rachel and I love having you with us on the Read-along. It helps when we get a core group that sticks with us. The discussions that way are awesome.
Thank you so much Rachel! It was tiring but without the migraine is awesome. That Lisa Gardner series is a favorite. I’ve listened to the first two on audio which was great.
I like the idea of a read along but I am not good at reading books on a schedule that someone else sets. 1 book per month seems to be working for me as I work through some longer series on my own. I hope that your daughter gets the relief that she needs. Have a great week, Anne!
Thank you Carole It is hard to read on a set schedule at times. I hoped allowing a full month would work someway. The migraine is over for now!
I’m glad your daughter is finally feeling better! The Lynn Painter book is on my TBR too. Have a great week!
Thank you Jodie. I’m hoping for a quieter week and the weather looks amazing.
I’m glad to hear the infusions are helping your daughter. I hope it continues to be that way. Your books look really good. I hope you enjoy them and have a great week!
Thank you Yvonne. I was so glad the infusion treatment got rid of the migraine. This week we will need to rest up and get back on track with some things.
I’m glad the infusions helped and your daughter woke migraine-free!! But bummer about the MRI.
I’ve enjoyed doing the read-along this year and am considering doing it again. But I think I’d want to do a series I’ve not read this time. One per month is about all I could handle and I wouldn’t mind doing a 3 or 6-month version instead of a full year… are there series like that out there? I have wanted to try the Murderbot Diaries (that’s Sci-Fi), which isn’t finished, but is doable to catch up. I also own but haven’t read the The Adam Binder Novels by David R. Slayton, which is three books. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Thank you Jen. The Read-along for 2024 is set for White Trash Zombies by Diana Rowland which is just 6 books, one a month. I own them but have not read them. Have you read them? After that I planned 18 months of Harry Dresden which is where I am worried about people sticking. I have read them all.
Oh, I’ve not read those and I’ve heard great things. I will strongly consider doing it. As for Harry – they are some of my favorite books, but I also hating “that thing” that happened 50% through the last book and DNF’d it. I’ll have to see if I’ll go back to it if/when there are new books.
I thought of another author I want to read: Dannika Dark.
Go glad to hear the infusions have helped your poor daughter – 30 days with a headache is a living Hell. I hope she is now able to feel more like coping. As for your question – I’m wondering if it’s because there are so many people out there still struggling. I still love reading my series – but I’m the ultimate mood reader and often don’t choose what will come next until I’ve completed the previous book. I’d agree that lengthening the reading time would help – especially for those excellent longer series:)).
And it was lovely to see a certain familiar cover in your freebie section:)). I hope the coming week is a little less fraught, Anne.
Thank you Sarah. I’m hoping for a rest up week without the migraine. yes I think some people are more into buddy or read-alongs than others. Also some people are more mood readers. I can be moody but for the read-along I picked things I really want to read and haven’t had any trouble with mood for them. It was scary to pick series I hadn’t read when I might not like them enough. So far I’ve had excellent taste for myself anyway.
I’m glad your daughter got some relief from her persistent migraine.
And I hear you on the social media thing. I can’t even keep up with my blog some weeks, let alone all the folks I follow one way or another. It was easier years ago, when I was only blogging and not trying to do social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X on top of that. At least I’m mostly off Twitter these days. If Musk follows through on his plans to use people’s tweets to train AI, I’m out of there. Right now I’m mostly staying to keep anyone else from using my account and handle.
I’m sorry I’ve missed the recent IDC chats. I got behind and haven’t managed to catch up. I’m still enjoying the series, and I don’t actually mind spoilers for this series, but I figured I wouldn’t have anything to contribute at the last chat, so I didn’t come. Maybe I’ll come to the next one even if I’m not caught up yet.
As far as future series, I don’t know what makes sense. (TL;DR: It’s not you, it’s me.) I know that I’m enough of a mood reader that sticking to a series over the long haul is sometimes tough. What I used to do, before I was a blogger, was binge an entire series in a row, which worked best with my tendency to hyperfocus by immersing myself in a single world or author. Come to think of it, I did that this summer with Celia Lake’s Albion books, though I didn’t actually read them all in order since it’s not that type of series. (Some of the books have an order to them, others relate to some other book or books but can be read out of order, a bunch can be read as standalones even though they are distantly related to at least one other book, and a few are barely related at all, except through the world—although they might get tied in to future books.) Anyway, it may be that even though the series readalongs sound fun, I’m not the best fit for them? I still might try them in the future if it’s a series that sounds really fun, but I might have an easier time keeping to the schedule with a shorter stories rather than a long one.
Anyway, I’m so glad you did the IDC Readalong, because it got me past the inertia caused by book 3, the first time I read it. Now I’m definitely going to finish the series as I find time to listen to them. (That might also have been part of it. I love Luke Daniels’ narration, but I can’t listen while I’m working or blogging or writing, so I don’t listen as often as I should to stay on track. I might do a little better if I were reading rather than listening… though the mood-reading thing and the difficulty of slowing down to stick with the schedule still come into play.)
Have a good week, and I wish you and your daughter both good health!
Thank you Kara. I appreciate your thoughts. It’s hard to fit in to some plans unless you are just open. Even then, sometimes the mood isn’t right. I have a bit of that. I find it easier to read series because of the familiarity of world / characters where a brand new standalone takes more energy.
In social media, I work first to get my posts to the sites, then I start reading stuff. I have a couple things causing me problems. On Twitter, I have 2 accounts and same on Mastodon. One account is books only, the other is diverse with books, crafts, Harleys, gardening, politics and world events. It was easy when I didn’t pay attention to any politics and world events but that bubble is over.
I am glad the infusion seemed to help some. What a relief to have no migraine after so many days with one!
Happily Never After sounds like such a fun read. I hope you enjoy all your new books, Anne.
I wish I was better with read-a-longs, but I tend not to do well with them, especially as someone who doesn’t get through books as quickly as others do.
I hope you have a great week–and a quieter one!
Thank you Wendy. I appreciate your thoughts on the Read-along. I am so glad for my daughter to finally be over the migraine and now she can hopefully get rested and recover.
Hope the infusions continue to help your daughter. I have never had an MRI, but imagine I would feel the same as she did. Hope she’s able to do that another time so they can help figure out what is going on for her. I’m not good at read-alongs or anything like that because my reading schedule always varies by what my mood is really. Hope you have a good week!
Thank you Lisa. My daughter is on the rest and recovery now. We are both just tired after it all. I’m grated for your thoughts on the Read-along. I know it’s hard to stay on board for a long one, and especially as a mood reader.
I’m so glad to hear the infusions are giving your daughter some relief from her headaches. Oh wow, you scored some excellent book deals this past week!
Thank you Suzanne. I am relieved for my daughter to be able to rest now and get back to more normal. It was just so tiring for both of us. I always think I got the best books!
I’m glad to hear your daughter is doing better after the treatments! That’s good news! Hopefully they can give her something to help her get through the MRI next time time. Hope you have a great week!
Thank you. We are going to look at open MRI but I’ve heard you have to have a failed attempt with a regular one. She’s had that. I don’t know if it’s because open MRI is more expensive or higher in demand.
I’m glad your daughter is getting some relief. You always accomplish so much, I feel like I am lazy. 🙂 As far as the series, do what feels good for you.
Thank you Sherry. Now she just has to rest up. I don’t feel like I do enough!
Oooo looks like you have a couple of good Halloween books there 😉
There were so many great reads available to me this week.
Good luck to your daughter. That has to be so frustrating. I hope you have a great week ahead and enjoy all your reading.
Thank you! This week is going better and we are trying to progress on a few things and not just hang on to survive.
Some freebies can be good. I still have a few on my Kindle. I love it when I come across a really good freebie. I’m glad the medicine is helping with the migraines.
Thank you Mary. My daughter is glad to be without the migraine and resting up to recover now. I love getting freebies and find lots of good ones. I had to make myself read them so Thrifty Thursday and Series on
Saturday help me read more of them.
I’m so glad the infusions are helping your daughter. The relief she felt must’ve been incredible.
Glad you got an at-home day to rest and recharge. Hope this week is going well so far.
Thank you Jinjer. We are glad to be past the migraine and resting up this week. I’m trying to progress on some things. There’s just never enough time. All the social media and trying to figure out how to handle it is distracting.
Yay for a day without a migraine! All the time at the doctor’s does have to be draining though. I hope you’ve had a great week!
Thank you Katherine. It’s been a good week with 70s and 80s, a little Indian summer. But next week looks like 50s.
What a busy last week you had. I’m glad your daughter’s migraines finally stopped and the infusion treatments help her. I don’t blame her getting claustrophobic with the MRI. I had my flu shot this past week too, it left me feeling tired. I’m very late with return visits his week, so catching up today.
Thanks Naida. I’ve been trying to catch up and do some planning all week and I’m finally getting there. I want to get out and about since it’s so nice but I also have reviews to write.