Monthly Wrap-Up – July 2023

Books Read – MONTH 2023

Books

Rereads are indicated with an asterisk. The number after a book refers to how many spaces each book is worth on the gameboard for the COYER Upside Down, Chapter 2 challenge.

This month, I ended up binge-rereading nearly an entire series: the Celta’s Heartmates series by Robin D. Owens (also known as the Celta series.)

1. Heart Mate (Robin D. Owens) * – 3 pts (reviewed 10/26/2015)
2. Heart Thief (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
3. Heart Duel (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
4. Heart Choice (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
5. Heart Quest (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
6. Heart Dance (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
7. Heart Fate (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
8. Heart Change (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
9. Heart Journey (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
10. Heart Search (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
11. Heart Secret (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
12. Heart Fortune (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
13. Heart Fire (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt
14. Heart Sight (Robin D. Owens)* – 1 pt
15. Hearts and Swords (Robin D. Owens) * – 1 pt pt
16. Lost Heart (Robin D. Owens) – 1 pt
17. Hearts and Stones (Robin D. Owens) – reading; 1 pt
18. Claws and Contrivances (Stephanie Burgis) – ARC; reading; 3 pts
19. Indexing Specialties: Cookbooks (Nickerson, et al.) – reading; 1 pt

Audiobooks

I’m continuing with the Iron Druid Chronicles, and enjoying them very much.

1. Trapped (Kevin Hearne) – 1 pt (reviewed 7/17/2023)
2. Hunted (Kevin Hearne) – listening; 1 pt

Challenges

These are the books I read for various challenges, but I have not written or posted all the reviews yet, so some will not show up on my 2023 Challenges tracking page. All title links go to my reviews.

Goodreads Challenge 2023: 17 books read in July (all titles above.) 108 books read so far this year, toward my year-end goal of 175 books. (Titles listed above.) I am 22 books ahead of schedule.

#23in2023: I didn’t read or review any of my #23in2023 books in July. For the year, I have read 6 books read and reviewed 1 so far, toward my year-end goal of 23 books… which means I’m failing this challenge very badly.

Audiobook Challenge 2023: 1 book completed and reviewed in July (Trapped.) plus I posted a review posted for an audiobook I finished in June (Tricked.) For the year, 10 books completed and 5 books reviewed so far, toward my goal of 6 books. I’m definitely on track to meet my goal.

The Backlist Reader Challenge 2023: 2 books read or listened to (Trapped; Lost Heart) and 1 book reviewed in July (Trapped.) I also posted one review for a book I finished in June (Tricked.) For the year, 15 books read and 4 books reviewed so far, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 16 books. I’m doing well with the reading, but not well with reviewing.

Library Love 2023: My library reading was sadly nonexistent this month. For the year, I have read 2 books read and reviewed 1, toward my year-end goal of 12 books. I am in deep trouble with this challenge. Between ARCs and reading or rereading the books I already own, I don’t seem to have time for library books, even when I (infrequently) check them out!

NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2023: This is embarrrassing, but I didn’t read a single ARC in July. I’m in the middle of one, but it won’t count toward the challenge because I got it directly from the author. For the year, 18 ARCs read and only 5 ARCs reviewed so far, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 15 books. Current NetGalley percentage: an absolutely dismal 52%. [sigh]

Read Christie 2023: I didn’t finish June’s #ReadChristie book, and I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for rereading them. I didn’t read July’s book (Evil Under the Sun) at all. For the year, I’ve reread 5 Christie novels, but not reviewed any of them. The goal is one per month, or 12 by the end of the year.

COYER Upside Down Chapter 2: 17 books read in July (all titles above); I reviewed 1 of those (Trapped). I also reviewed Tricked, which I had finished in June. The “Chapter 2” challenge began on May 1, and so far, I have read a total of 44 books and reviewed 6 of them. My 4-month challenge goal is to read and review 10 books by Aug 31, so I’m a little behind on the reviews, but way ahead on the reading. (All books read this month count toward the challenge, though they are assigned different points.)

Assessment of other goals

I don’t know why I’m embarrassed to have reread an entire series this month. (Almost an entire series; I temporarily DNF’d one book.) I think the embarrassment stems from not reading any new books (except one in that series), or any of my ARCs, or working on any of my challenges. Well, it was a stressful month work-wise, which usually drives me to reread…so I guess I should cut myself some slack? Also, bingeing an entire series quickly was common for me before I became a blogger, and I still do it now and then.

Reviewing more: Um…

Diversity: Ummm…

Book-buying: In July, I bought 1 print book, 10 Kindlebooks, and 4 audiobooks (only 15 books in all), but I spend about $74. A third of that was for the print book, a hardcover new release by an author I’ve collected for 40 years. Almost everything else was on sale. I was pretty good about only buying books I really want to own, and bypassed some Kindle deals that are available through the library. (I also bought one book for my own professional development, but I’m not counting that one in the total, since it’s for my business.) Compared to last month, I bought 4 fewer books, but spent about $24 more… which equals the price of that hardcover.

Reading my own books: Well, I do own all of the books I reread this month, so… yes? But I only read one of my owned-but-unread books, which is what this goal is really about.

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