General Life Stuff and Around the Book World

Is it that I'm so slow or that the months go too fast anymore? 2017 was a blue and January showed that 2018 is starting the same way by speeding by. Geez, it's already February 6th??

January was a busy month for me reading wise. It's always the first month of the year that I'm throwing up the yearly goals I worked on in December to put up, start the year fresh. I joined an Instagram bookish challenge for January and February - I'm not the type to put up a book photo every day, I'm lucky if I get half the month, but it's a fun extra thing to mess around with.

Besides working and such I didn't get a whole lot of fun stuff done. My car needed an expensive repair - ugh - but on the plus side I FINALLY heard back from FEMA. I had given up on my appeal since I filed it at the beginning of November. I had one roofer estimate last week but the others haven't responded to come out. Hmmm. It looks like I need a new roof from the damage and something about ducts or whatever up there. If I won the lottery, this wouldn't be an issue!

A group of friends and I decided to form an offline book club that focuses on mystery, suspense, true crime and horror. We are called The Grim Readers - a play off the Grim Reaper obviously. I already designed and ordered my T-Shirt, mug and a button. There was a snazzle with Zazzle about my mug that was annoying, so I have to make and re-order another one. We will be meeting at our local coffee shop the first or second Tuesday every month at the Black N' Brew - our first date is Feb. 13. I'm excited!

Non-personal wise, looks like David Bowie's son is starting an online book club to go over the books his father loved and recommended. Check out the Rolling Stone article announcing this.

George R.R. Martin is again doing something other than writing, but at least he sticks to the fun stuff --- “The Great American Read,” an eight-part PBS television competition that celebrates books, will be joined by Martin and other popular authors as they battle down the books until there is a final celebrated winner. Will be a nice change on voting for the Great American novel? The two-hour premiere special will take place May 22, so be there or be square.

I had a lot of fun opening the year with another round of Bout of Books - a fun and long-lasting week long read-a-thon that keeps getting more popular every year it continues. Also, Seasons of Reading hosting a month-long read-thon for the month of January that was a refreshing treat to help close the Winter Season and start the new year. Okay sure, not close the Winter season everywhere but in Florida it's hard to be a good judge of this.

New Bookish Buys (Formerly Mailbox Monday)

Two of these books above were gifts - my generous and incredibly awesome friend from Canada, Carolyn, gifted me a beautiful Christmas greeting card and this intriguing looking gothic, Mystery of the Golden Horn. Check out her website and she is again running some new challenges this year - she runs themed challenges every year that simply rock.

I was taken by surprise when randomly approached by a Goodreads member who saw I hadn't read the Jane Yellowrock series yet - she requested my email and bought and sent the Kindle .mobi of the first book to me. How sweet and unexpected!

Three of these were received from Netgalley, which I'd taken a break from for a few months. Lord of the Pies is the second in the Kensington Palace series, but I knew right away that I wanted to read the first before digging into the ARC, which is how I ended up reading both of them in the month of February. Better Off Read is the debut mystery series and novel of Nora Page, who chose the perfect penname (or is this actually her real name?) to head off a cozy mystery book series. Dipped to Death may be book 8 in a series I haven't read before, but it looked promising so I sent in the request.

Regular E-Book purchases included Defending Jacob, which looks fascinating by its synopsis; Stillwater Lake which has been running the rounds of popularity since its release and has me curious; Gone with the Twins, And Then There Were Nuns and The Legend of Sleepy Harlow are sequels to a recent cozy mystery I adored. I've been wanting to check out the ghost-inhabited bookshop series penned by Alice Kimberly (of Coffeeshop Series fame) for over a year now, and who can resist such a cute cozy as Night of the Living Deed?

I'm sure you're noticing a mystery theme here. I had to collect several of them to get ready for the Fairy Tale five month theme at AMMP Group on Goodreads finally starting February first. The month's genre was - you guessed it, Mystery. I'm definitely not complaining.

I actually got box sets for Christmas thanks to my mom actually paying attention to the Amazon wishlist! Although I still haven't read the original Dunes (I know, shame on me), I did get this sequel box set. Following up my love of Percy Jackson, I couldn't resist The Heroes of Olympus box set. Isn't the snowman adorable?? I hate having to pack that away for the winter. I already owned the black cover for the Kindle Paperwhite, but I had to Burgundy on my wishlist. Finally my second generation Fire has a brand new cover in blue.

Anne of Green Gables box set because it's awesome. I finally lucked out with book stuff this Christmas <3

This wasn't technically a gift - I was too excited from the box sets so picked up another in the Rick Riordan groups I wanted with a gift card to Amazon, Kane Chronicles.

Last Month's Reading Recap

What I'm Watching and Listening to (Formerly Tune-In Tuesdays)

You Make Me A Believer from JCFantasy23 on 8tracks Radio.

Starting with Hurricane 2.0 (feat. Kanye) by 30 Seconds to Mars - which is one of the best songs ever, Believer by Imagine Dragons, Bring Me to Life by Evanescence, and so on, this is my favorite hyper Rock music mix. As someone said, a good one to exercise to.