Ani's Book Abyss: Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- July 2016

Monday, August 1, 2016

Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- July 2016

Work life was crazy and busy this month with a higher hospital census than the past few months. On top of that, we've been preparing for our laboratory inspection, so life has been hectic. Because of this, my days have been filled with trying to snatch time to read just to wind down when possible, and trying to make time to write reviews and participate in readathons... etc. A lot of times, I get home from work and just crash because I'm so tired.

So while I had planned on having a lot more reading accomplished this month, I feel like I've been pretty productive in light of all the work-related things that have been going on.

And also, YouTube has been a bit tempting. I recently picked up an obsession with watching some Chinese based music programs. Specifically, I just finished doing a marathon watch of the entire I Am a Singer season four, produced by Hunan TV. Basically, well-known and well-established singers and artists are invited to compete with each other, and they are judged by 500 audience votes.

Lots of great music from some of my old favorites.

Anyway, back to bookish news...

COYER Summer Vacation 2016 is still ongoing and everyone is having fun. As of the end of this month, all participants have contributed over 500+ reviews to the challenge, and there is still one more month to go!

I always hope that the next month will be better, but at this point in the year, we'll just hope for more free time to do some leisure reading. At this point, I'll just be happy to make good progress on my reading challenges, since it's entirely possible my Bookish Resolution challenge will be a flop.

Happy Reading everyone!

July Reads

Books Dropped/Put On Hold

Currently Reading

July Reading Stats

Total works read: 12

12 full length novels

Average rating: 3.42 Stars

Highest Rated: 3 books // 4.0 Stars

(1) Kalahari by Jessica Khoury
(2) Wife for Hire by Christine Bell
(3) The River Knows by Amanda Quick

Lowest Rated: Icebound by Dean Koontz // 2.5 Stars

Series I started reading:

Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries by Ashley Gardner
For Hire by Christine Bell

Series I completed:

Corpus by Jessica Khoury
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Series I have made progress on:

Arcane Society by Amanda Quick / Jayne Ann Krentz
Harmony by Jayne Castle

Favorite reads: There were a lot of really good reads this month, including all of Jayne Ann Krentz's work (whether as Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, or Jayne Castle). Of all of these books, the one I enjoyed the most is also one of the books I remember little about, The River Knows. Thus is a JAK book, I suppose.

Disappointing reads: My biggest disappointment really was the lowest rated book, Dean Koontz's Icebound. I have always been a fan of Dean Koontz, but Icebound just wasn't one of his best.

Reviews & Notable Posts

Reviews Written

Memes

Coming Up In August

Tentative TBR

Other Stuff

In the month of August, I'm dropping the need to read books just because I need to read them. Of course, this being said, yes, I am still going to read my assigned reading for the Reading Assignment Challenge and I am going to read the series I chose to read for Can You Read a Series in a Month? Challenge. But otherwise, I'm going to try to read more books where my mood dictates.

And so my reading list for August is only as tentative as the Brown and de Luca series, because I honestly don't know what I'm in the mood to read. Even my Reading Assignment books for this month are still up in the air, but I'm hoping that the My TBR List poll will help with that. In the meantime, I will busy myself with the above mentioned series, of which I am already very much enjoying the first book.

With that, there really isn't anything else to mention.

Ani's Book Abyss

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