August Wrap-up

17 books read this month! Woo-hoo!

7 of those were audiobooks, 10 were paper.   That puts me at 87 books for the year, 35 of those audiobooks.  I’m a little behind on reviews, but if I have a review posted, it is linked to the book’s name.

Audio:

• Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas (book club M in September)
• Looking for Alaska by John Green (book club L in August)
• Mercy Street by Mariah Stewart
• An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan (Everything Austen challenge)
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Twitter book Club)
• Slam by Nick Hornby
• Club Dead by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Challenge)

Paper:

• How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist
• Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
• Laced With Magic by Barbara Bretton (Blog Tour)
• Only Milo by Barry Smith
• The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison
• Two Years, No Rain by Shawn Klomparens (Summer reading series)
• Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz (buddy read)
• Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle
• Bundle of Trouble by Diana Orgain
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Book Club M for August)

My favorites were The Gift of an Ordinary Day, Olive Kitteridge, and Looking for Alaska (probably in that order).

Challenges:

First is the Everything Austen challenge at Stephanie’s Written Word.  I’m caught up!  I checked off 2 out of 6 items for it:  My reviews of the audiobook of An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan and the 1972 BBC production of Emma. Unfortunately, neither was a rousing success for me, but I’m still enthusiastic about continuing with the challenge.  (End date 1/1/10)

The next challenge was the  Sookie Stackhouse challenge at Beth Fish Reads.  I’m now done with 3 of the 9 books that I need to read to complete it.  I added Club Dead this month.  I would have added one more, but I discovered that Netlibrary has books 1-3 and 5-9, but not #4.  I went ahead and bought a paper copy, and started reading Dead to the World today.  (Ends July 2010)

Giveaways:

I currently have a giveaway up for The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison, which ends on September 10.  I’ll be posting a giveaway for How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist on Tuesday, and it should run until September 22.  I’ve got a couple of others in the works, so keep your eyes on my sidebar!

Upcoming:

This month, I am committed to reading:

• Babydoll by Allyson Roy (TLC Book tours,  September 10)
• 31 Hours by Masha Hamilton (Unbridled Books, week of September 14)
• A Note From an Old Acquaintance by Bill Walker (Pump Up Your Book blog Tour, September 22)
• Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope (Book Club L, late September)
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Book Club M, October 5)

I’ve got a backlog of review books that I’m trying to work my way through.  Counting the first 4 Betsy-Tacy books as one, my count stands at 18 books that I  have received for review and haven’t read yet.  4 of those have specific dates (tours), the rest I just want to get to in a timely manner (that may be too late for some of them).

I plan on working down my review book backlog (I want to emphasize that everything there is something I want to read), and maybe get to a few other books on my shelf.  I’ll make progress on both challenges. I’ll be downloading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and starting to listen as soon as it is available.

I strongly suspect my reading total will plummet as the fall TV season starts.  I usually like to check out all the shows I used to watch, even occasionally, as well as try any new show that seems to have promise.  We have multiple DVRs hard at work, so I can record a LOT of shows.

I hope you had a good August, and have a better September.