Monthly Wrap-Up – July 2024

Books Read – June 2024

Books

Title links (if there are any) go to my reviews.

1. Stars of Fortune (Nora Roberts) – reread (reviewed 5/05/2017)
2. Bay of Sighs (Nora Roberts) – reread
3. Island of Glass (Nora Roberts) – reread
4. Owlflight (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (reviewed 5/14/2015)
5. Owlsight (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (reviewed 6/04/2015
6. Owlknight (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (reviewed 8/26/2015)
7. The Meriwell Legacy (Stephanie Laurens) – new
8. Where the Heart Leads (Stephanie Laurens) – reread
9. The Spellshop (Sarah Beth Durst) – ARC; reread

Audiobooks

I have decided not to continue listening to The Vanished Days for now; I love the book but haven’t had the attention to listen to it or much of anything else this month. I can concentrate on an audiobook while I’m doing routine housework, or driving to familiar places, but not when I’m pruning and packing up my belongings (as I was this month, for our home renovation.) Those require more attention and focus, and I lose track of the audiobook.

Challenges

These are the books I read for various challenges. Since I have not written or posted all the reviews yet, some may not show up on my 2024 Challenges tracking page (which isn’t working yet anyway.) All links go to my reviews.

Goodreads Challenge 2024: I read 9 books in July, which is a really low number for me. I have read 90 books read this year so far, toward my year-end goal of 125 books, which puts me about 20 books ahead of schedule. (Titles listed above.) NOTE: Goodreads said the total on July 30 was 93 rather than 90 by my count. One of the “extra” titles is a short story, which I am not counting as a book. Another of the extras is a duplicate (Wards of the Roses), which GR thinks I read twice in February, even though the “read” dates only show one set of dates for that month. And I haven’t figured out where the third extra book is coming from.

The Backlist Reader Challenge 2024: I didn’t read or review any qualifying books in July, alas. I did post reviews for two backlist titles (Wait Until Midnight and Hideaway) but since the first wasn’t on my “To Read” list before Jan. 1 of this year, and the second was a reread, neither one counts toward the challenge. For the year so far, I have read 5 books and reviewed 3 of them, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 16 books.

Audiobook Challenge 2024: I didn’t finish or review any audiobooks in July. For the year, I have listened to 6 books and reviewed 3, toward my year-end goal of 10 books.

Library Love 2024: I didn’t read or review any qualifying books in July. So far this year, I have read 3 library books and reviewed 2 of them, toward my year-end goal of 12 books.

NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2024: I reread 1 ARC in July, but haven’t yet posted the review (The Spellshop.) I didn’t post any reviews for ARCs that I read earlier in 2024 or in previous years. For the year so far, I have read 15 ARCs and reviewed 8 ARCs, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 15 ARCs. Current NetGalley percentage: still 52%; I started the year at 52%.

COYER Unwind, Chapter 3 (Summer): In July, every book I read counts toward COYER! Since I had previously reviewed four books on the list (see reading list above), I edited and annotated those reviews to indicate that I reread them for this season of COYER 2024, then submitted those links to COYER. (I checked with the challenge host to make sure that was OK.) In addition, I posted 3 reviews for books I read between Jan and June for either Chapter 1 or Chapter 2 (Hideaway, When a Dragon Comes Courting, and Wait Until Midnight.) NOTE: Although I am counting my reviews for the season in which I read the book, the COYER Challenge actually counts them in whichever season I post the review. For the Chapter 3 challenge so far, I have read or listened to 9 qualifying* books, four of which I had reviewed in the past; I wrote no new reviews (yet). My 3-month challenge goal is to read and review 10 qualifying books between July 1 and September 30.

*The rules are much looser for the Summer COYER challenge, aka Chapter 3. To qualify: (A) the book can be in any format, including both digital and print. (B) I can get it from any source, including ARCs, gifts, books I buy or own, and books I borrow, including through Amazon Prime. (C) The price doesn’t matter. So basically, every book I read counts! Chapter 3 of the COYER Unwind Challenge began on July 1 and ends on September 30.

Resolutions (this month)

Writing: Days I wrote: 5. Number of words written: 2615 (my goal was 7500). I participated in the July Camp NaNoWriMo, but obviously I didn’t “win”, since I didn’t reach my goal. Most of what I did write is part of a long fanfic, which I’m using to practice several skills.

Reviews posted this month: 3, so I just barely missed my goal of at least one review per week.

Reviews of ARCs from 2023 or earlier: None, so I failed to meet my goal of one overdue ARC per month. So far this year, I’ve written 1 review for an overdue ARC, which is a pretty poor showing.

Prioritizing reading time over screen time: Actually, both of these took a back seat to packing up our belongings for the renovations, and a 5-day family reunion.

Pruning and reorganizing my book collection: Books sold or given away: I lost track, but there were a few. Physical books bought/received: 1; I bought myself a signed copy of Naomi Kritzer’s Catfishing on CatNet, which I picked up at Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis while on vacation.

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