Weekly Recap #149: Week of 3/29 – 4/4

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I honestly don’t have much to talk about this week. Apologies for my lack of blog hopping this week.  I’m finding that my one big challenge with working from home is that my desk (or maybe it’s the chair) is not comfortable for sitting 7-8 hours in a row.  My knees have been killing me all week so as soon as I’m done working, I abandon my computer and spend most of the rest of the evening trying to stretch my legs and get comfortable again.  I tried to rig up a standing desk for myself but am not having much luck because I need something big enough to hold 2 monitors, plus everything else I use for work, including a large adding machine.  Virginia’s governor has issued a stay-at-home order for us through June 10th so I may have to actually buy a standing desk if I’m going to be home for that long.  Until I figure out a more comfortable setup, I’ve been confining my blog hopping to a few minutes in the mornings before I start working and then the rest on the weekend.

So my big accomplishment for the week is that I’m now completely caught up on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Thanks to insomnia and lots of free time on my hands in the evenings, I breezed through the 1,000+ pages of A Dance with Dragons and now am really hoping that Martin is using his social distancing time to bring me that 6th book.

Because I was so hellbent on finishing A Dance with Dragons, I did get a little behind on my Aprils ARCs. Or so I thought. I don’t know if publication dates have gotten pushed back because of the pandemic or if I’m just losing my mind, but I was sure I had several April 14th ARCs to read and now I only see one on my list.  No clue what happened there, but oh well, on to late April/early May ARCs then. I doubt I’ll get to all 6 titles I’ve shared below, but we’ll see.  If my insomnia continues, it could be a record reading week, lol.

I hope everyone out there is staying safe, healthy, and is practicing social distancing.  Take care!

 

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

 
  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

  
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

      
           
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #148: Week of 3/22 – 3/28

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Apologies for my lateness in posting today, but I had completely lost track of the days and didn’t realize it was Sunday, lol.  Anyway, I hope everyone is holding up okay out there.  I’m hanging in there, still working from home thankfully, and after a phone conference on Friday, I feel cautiously optimistic that I will still have my job once we make it through this pandemic.  Fingers crossed that it turns out to be the case, but at least for a little while anyway I feel like a weight has been lifted.

Because I felt a little better about my situation, I’ve been better able to concentrate on and enjoy my reading as well.  I actually decided to use my social distancing/stay-at-home time to finally read A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book from the A Song of Ice and Fire series.  I’ve read and re-read the first four books in the series but had never taken the plunge into the most recent book.  I’m already over 600 pages in so I hope to finish it in the next few days, which would be amazing since this brick of a book has been sitting on my shelf for well over two years now, lol.

I’m also plugging away slowly but surely at my April ARCs.  One of them, Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me, was a mixed bag and slowed me down, but I’m starting Ruthless Gods later today, which I have high hopes for since I loved the first book in the series.  After that, I’ll be diving into To Have and to Hoax, which should hopefully be a fun and light-hearted read.

Not much else is going on. I still have plans to celebrate my 4th blogoversary with a giveaway. I had been debating putting it off because of the shipping delays and restrictions I’m seeing on The Book Depository for some countries because of the pandemic, but at the same time, I really want to give away some books, especially since so many author events, etc. to promote new books have been cancelled.  Has anyone else done a giveaway since all of this started?  Were there any issues with getting books shipped to your winner?

Oh well, it’s something to think about.  Have a great week and please stay safe, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

   
  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

  
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

     
          
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

Weekly Recap #147: Week of 3/15 – 3/21

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I don’t know about you guys but I’m feeling mentally exhausted right now.  My first thought with all of the social distancing going on because of COVID-19 was “No problem. I’ll just get ahead on my reading.” But the reality for me is that news of the virus has become all consuming and I can’t concentrate on anything that I sit down to read.  Schools are now closed here until at least April 14th and as of this past Friday, the firm I work for has shut its doors and set us all up to work remotely.  The work part is good news because I know many others will not have that luxury, but I am still proceeding on the assumption that I will probably be laid off at some point.  I hope I’m overreacting, but as someone old enough to remember 2008 and who got laid off then, the similarities are eerie so it’s on my mind a lot contributing to my distraction.

But we are definitely doing our part with the social distancing, only going out when absolutely necessary.  The stores are still mostly empty, but I was at least able to get some bread yesterday and some cat litter because in the initial panic, I forgot my cat has other needs besides eating, lol.  Still no Lysol, wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, frozen pizzas, and also no yeast, vegetable oil or eggs.  I’m still trying to figure out the rush on oil (baking bread maybe?), but pickings are definitely slim everywhere.  I have a few packs of yeast, so I made an Amish friendship bread starter so that if the bread continues to be an issue, I can at least bake my own.

But yeah, anyway, reading has definitely suffered because of this.  I managed to read one book this week and it was a backlist read, Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas.  I’m slowly working my way through Code Name Helaine right now and hope to finish that historical fiction today.  That will at least finish out my March ARCs anyway.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week and stay safe, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

 
  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
  
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

      
        
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #146: Week of 3/8 – 3/14

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I don’t really have much to report this week.  Everything is kind of a blur because of the coronavirus and all of the news surrounding it.  We do have one confirmed case in my county but so far it doesn’t seem to have spread beyond that one.  Our state’s governor has declared a state of emergency and closed schools for at least the next two weeks and all of my son’s soccer activities have been cancelled accordingly.   The biggest surprise for me though has been how hard it is to buy groceries.  I’m not talking hand sanitizer, toilet paper, etc.  I’m talking soup, cereal, oatmeal, pizzas, etc.  It now takes trips to three or four different stores just to buy basic food items.  My husband and I went shopping yesterday and where shelves weren’t bare, they had signs posted limiting how many of certain items you were allowed to purchase.  We got what we could and now we’re all hunkering down aside from going to work.  As of right now, neither my company nor my husband’s has come up with a plan for teleworking. I’m very curious to see if that changes.  We aren’t worried for ourselves, but we do worry about our elderly and more vulnerable family members, friends, and neighbors.

As an intovert, I’m totally cool with hunkering down, but my extroverted son is not at all excited by any of this, lol.

I am continuing to get plenty of reading done and will be sharing reviews for several of my March ARCs this week.  I’m also starting on my April ARCs so I’m feeling good about my progress there and with my backlist reading.  I finished Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House this week and just started Justin A. Reynolds’ Opposite of Always this morning.  I only read 35 backlist books all last years, so the fact that I’m already reading my 18th and it’s only mid March makes me feel pretty good about my goal of reading more of the books I already own.  That’s not to say I haven’t purchased more books though.  All of Marie Lu’s books being on sale for $1.99 each was too irresistible to pass up on since I haven’t read her Legend or Young Elites series.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week and stay safe, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

  
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

    
      
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #145: Week of 3/1 – 3/7

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

So last week was a great week.  We got our temp on Monday, got her trained to take care of all of the time-consuming receptionist/administrative tasks that eat up so much of our time, and I had a very productive week with each of my 5 workdays being 80-90% billable for my firm.  It was the best week I had had in ages and I was happy.  But then Friday happened.  Late Friday afternoon I was informed that Friday would be the temp’s last day and that she doesn’t know it yet so I wasn’t to say anything.  I have no idea what happened and people were being cagey with the details and wouldn’t answer me when I asked if we’re getting a replacement temp.  Needless to say, I am not thrilled.

Outside of work, I’ve spent most of my time with the TV off and my nose in a book, trying to get a few moments’ reprieve from the Coronavirus talk and politics.  I don’t usually talk politics on here, but I have to admit I’m really bummed that Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination this week.  I thought she was an amazing candidate, so smart and so passionate, and I’m honestly starting to lose hope that I will see a woman President in my lifetime.  I just don’t know what it’s going to take to finally make it happen. Why are we so obsessed with having old white dudes in charge?  Anyway, off my soap box now…

So yeah, reading was, as always, my escape this week.  I read You Are Not Alone, which unfortunately was just an okay read for me. But then I jumped into Undercover Bromance, which I absolutely loved. I also saw that there’s going to be a third book in that series and I already have grabby hands for it!  I’ve just started Harley in the Sky this morning and am really enjoying it so far. I’ve had really good luck with Akemi Dawn Bowman’s books so I have high hopes for this one.  On the backlist front, I finished Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret and I started the audiobook of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, which I’m really enjoying.  As you can always see below, I drowned my work and political life sorrowing in a book buying spree. I didn’t mean to do that. It just kind of happened. It made me happy though so whatever. Sorry not sorry!

I also just looked at my calendar and realized that I have a blogoversary coming up later this month. 4 years!  I can’t believe it has been this long already and I definitely want to do a giveaway to celebrate, so be on the lookout for that.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
  
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

 
      
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #144: Week of 2/23 – 2/29

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I don’t know where the time has gone, but here we are, already at March 1st and just a few short weeks until spring.  I can’t wait for those warmer temps to finally get here. I feel like I’ve been in a weather-induced funk for months now.  This past week was thankfully a little better at work and our temp starts tomorrow, so I’m very excited about that.

Outside of work, not too much else has been going on.  My son and I have been discussing what he would like to see and do when we take him to NYC in June.  We have tickets to see Hamilton (my third time seeing it!) because he’s dying to see it, but that’s all we really have planned so far.  We talked about other plays/shows and he expressed interest in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as well as To Kill a Mockingbird, so I’m checking into both of those for availability.  He has also mentioned wanting to see Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Central Park, but so far that’s it.  If anyone has ideas on what else might interest a 12-year old boy vacationing in New York, I’m all ears!

Reading-wise, I had a pretty good week. I finished reading all of my February ARCs and got started on the ones I have for March.  I’ll be posting a selection of mini reviews tomorrow to share my thoughts on those with you.  As you can see below, I also acquired several more ARCs this week. I hadn’t planned to do that since I’m trying to focus more on books I own this year, but it just kind of happened anyway. Most were invitations to review that I couldn’t resist, but there were also a couple of requests in there that I got approvals for as well.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

    
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #143: Week of 2/16 – 2/22

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Last week the stress of being short staffed at work got to me. I barely slept at all a couple of nights and felt utterly nauseous every time I thought about work.  By Thursday I was just flat out exhausted and took a mental health day so that I could rest, regroup, and spend some quality time with my pup.  I had a good talk with my supervisor about the whole situation when I went back to work on Friday though and am really hoping that things will improve moving forward  We’re bringing in a temp who can at least handle the more basic administrative tasks so that the rest of us can focus our attention on all of the deliverables that we have in progress and that need to go out the door soon.  It’s not an ideal scenario but I’ll take whatever help we can get at this point.

When I wasn’t stressing out and having mini meltdowns about work, I was helping get my son ready for soccer tryouts for his school team, which are in a couple of weeks. Paperwork, concussion training, conditioning, etc. I also took him for his sports physical and learned what I had been suspecting for a while now — my baby boy is now as tall as I am and will soon be taller than me.  That’s such a weird feeling, lol.  Thankfully he’s also in exceptionally good health so it’s full steam ahead with tryouts.  He didn’t make the team last year but he’s been playing on a travel team since October so hopefully his chances will be better this time around. Fingers crossed for him!

Anyway, needless to say, with all of that going on, I wasn’t around here much and didn’t really get much reading done either.  I finished an audiobook of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and I read a couple of my February ARCs.  I still have a couple of February ARCs to knock out so I’m really hoping I’ll have more time for books next week.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
 
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

    
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

From bookstr.com

Weekly Recap #142: Week of 2/9 – 2/15

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

So I kind of fell off the face of the blogosphere by midweek last week.  Some of that was due to being busy, and taking care of my dog post-surgery (he’s doing great, thankfully), but some of it was just because I was in a terrible mood because of the way last week’s work drama panned out.  The woman I was talking about got the new position so after eight months of wasting my time training her, my team is yet again short-staffed right as we’re moving into busy season.  I think what had me in such a mood is that she wasn’t even the least bit remorseful about the situation.  She hasn’t even acknowledged that she completely screwed us.  I’m sure I’ll get over it eventually and we’ll be better in the long run because she honestly wasn’t a very good team member in the first place, but the timing just couldn’t be worse.  We’ve had several emergency meetings to discuss how to move forward, which just further ate into my time, so by the time I got home each day, I just buried my nose in a book to escape reality for a while.

Even though work life sucked, I will say that I had a great reading week.  I had two 5 star reads with The Sun Down Motel and The Dark Corners of the Night.  I’ll have reviews posted for those this week, but let me tell you, they were exactly what I needed to get out of my own head for a while.  After I read those, I fell down a Netflix rabbit hole watching To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (for the third time, lol) followed by the sequel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: P.S. I Still Love You. I still need to read the actual book series these movies are based on, but I really enjoyed both of these.

Sadly, I’m not one of the lucky ones who has a three-day weekend so it’s back to the grind for me tomorrow.  Today I’ll be blog hopping, writing some reviews, and doing my soccer mom thing.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
 
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

    
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #141: Week of 2/2 – 2/8

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Why is every week such a blur to me when I sit down to recap it?  I guess because it’s mostly the same old, same old and therefore nothing stands out.  There’s also drama at work again that consumed me for the past few days.  I learned this week that a woman I had been training and mentoring for the past eight months applied for another job within our firm. She had apparently just used my team to get her foot in the door of the firm and then move on to what she really wanted to do.  She had her interview on Friday so now we’re all just sitting around waiting to see if they’re going to let her move and leave my team short-staffed yet again just as we’re going into our busiest time of the year.  So frustrating.

Anyway, on to other things because I don’t want to think about work anymore.  Since it was rainy here all this past week, I stayed inside a lot and ultimately fell down the Disney + rabbit hole again.  Toy Story 4 is now on there so I finally watched that (I’m still not sure how I feel about it) and I also watched the first four episodes of Diary of a Future President, which I thought was really good.

In odd news, my dog has developed a weird little growth right in the center of his nose right around Christmas time and it still hasn’t gone away. It looks almost like a little tube or horn.  His veterinarian doesn’t think it’s anything serious, maybe a wart or a skin tag, but without removing it and sending it off to be tested, she’s not entirely sure what it is.  Based on his reaction every time someone tries to touch it, I think it hurts him so we’re going to go ahead and get it removed this week. It will be minor surgery but he’ll still end up wearing the cone of shame for a few days, lol.

On the reading and blogging front, I finally sat down this week and wrote mini reviews for all of the backlist books I read in January.  I finished 9 books so it will be a pretty big post. It probably sounds silly, but I also have to say it’s very satisfying to look at my TBR shelf and actually see a few gaps in there for a change.  I’m sure I won’t be able to keep that pace up all year but I’m going to try. Wish me luck!

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
 
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

 

 NONE

    
 

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Weekly Recap #140: Week of 1/26 – 2/1

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It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Work, followed by being too tired from work, pretty much sums up my week.  Our first deadline of the year was 1/31 and one of my team members called out because her daughter tested positive for the flu.  That couldn’t be helped of course, but it made for a very hectic three days for the rest of us.  We made it through the deadline, I was in couch potato mode watching the latest seasons of Grace & Frankie and Fuller House from Friday night until this morning and now I guess I’m ready to get up and do it all over again this coming week, lol.

The Super Bowl is tonight but I don’t think I’m going to watch it.  I like football well enough but don’t have much interest in either of the teams that are playing this year.  I’m behind in both writing reviews and blog hopping, so getting caught up on those is my plan for Super Bowl Sunday.

I’m still making decent progress on my ARCs in spite of being busy and tired. I did finish reading all of my January ARCs and just need to write a couple of reviews to wrap those up. I also started on my February ones, although two approvals I had given up on came through this week so I now have 13 to read this month. I’m only halfway through my second one so I probably won’t be doing much more backlist reading after I finish listening to the audiobook of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.  I’m excited for my February reads though, especially for Meg Gardiner’s The Dark Corners of the Night (UNSUB #3), Simone St. James’ The Sun Down Motel, and Sandhya Menon’s Of Curses and Kisses.

Oh well, I think that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

  
    
 

 UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

 
 
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

 
    
 

TOTALLY RANDOM