August Wrap Up

Posted September 2, 2013 by Lauren in 2013 recaps, wrap up / 13 Comments

 augustwrapupYAYYYY!!! It’s September 🙂 Summer is just about DONE and I cannot be happier! It has never been a secret that the summer is not something I am fond of but I am happy to say that this summer did not drive me crazy like it has in past years. A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that more or less the weather was farely tolerable. It still was quite hot at times but it was nothing compared to the normal unrelenting heat waves Toronto usually sees. Even despite that I am so excited for the Fall and crisp, cool weather. And boots and cider and leaves… ahhh all of it <3

August was a strange month for me! I went through some sort of slump(ish) thing where I didn’t have energy to post, comment, read blogs… nothing. Granted a lot of that probably came from it being the summer, because I normally am more lethargic(Yes… I do believe I am a vampire) with the longer daylight hours and sunlight. Strange, I know. I did get a fair amount read in August though, although not even close to the amount of ARCs I wanted. I got quite sick for several weeks in August as well but I’m on the mend (with this annoying lingering cough still, ARGH!) and I’ve been really getting into Yoga and loving it. See… I was all over the place in August!

Anyhow, onto the wrap up…

Books Read
*Click for review

Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt – 3/5 Stars
What Really Happened In Peru by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan – 3/5 Stars
Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins – 4/5 Stars
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare – 5/5 Stars
The Last Academy by Anne Applegate – 3/5 Stars
The Rules of Disappearing by Ashley Elston – 3/5 Stars
The Distance Between Us by Kasie West – 4/5 Stars
Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne – 3/5 Stars
Nomad by J.L. Bryan – 4/5 Stars
Keeping Her by Cora Carmack – 3/5 Stars
Fire with Fire by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian – 4/5 Stars

August was the month of meh. That is what I will officially call it going forward. SMOKES I read so many book that were just good, not outstanding. I did read 4 wonderful books (4 stars) and one OUTSTANDING (5 stars) book so I think the might have wowed me so much that the others were just “ok”. I also think I was really winding down on the contemporary because I don’t usually read so much and I really went nuts this summer!

Challenges

Goodreads Challenge: I have currently read 98 out of my goal 115 books! It seems that I am 22 books ahead of my goal. This means I am that much closer to reading ALL THE BOOKS 😛

Debut Author’s Challenge: I completed my goal of 16 books 🙂 I still have a few that I hope to read before the end of 2013 but for now I’m going to take a step back and work on my TBR & Review piles. I will still keep updating this though because I’m interested to see how much I surpass this goal.

TBR Pile Challenge: Embarrassing. Again I did not read a single book for this challenge. Spare me! I will really have to focus on this one in September.

Summer of Stand Alones: The Summer of Stand Alones is officially over and I surpassed my goal and read 16 books, with my goal being 15. Yayyy 🙂 Check out my wrap up here.

ARC August: I wanted to read SO many books for ARC August, and I failed miserably. MISERABLY! I read 4. That’s it… argh, the frustrations.

Notable Posts & Events

I only took part in one tour in August which was for Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins. I’m actually hosting the review for Belonging in September as well so stay tuned for that!

I unfortunately didn’t get a lot of reviews up for August but aside from the books I read and reviewed in August, I also posted my review for Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover and Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman.

Jamie from The Perpetual Page-Turner started Friday Fun and I participated in two of the posts, The A to Z Bookish Survey and Bookish Superlatives(EDIT: I had to put this post back into draft mode. It was causing an RSS Error and I’m trying to investigate why 🙁 ) They were a lot of fun to do, especially when I wasn’t feeling up to doing a review or discussion!

I took part in two Top Ten Tuesdays this month which were Top Ten Favorite Books Set in Boarding Schools & Top Ten Things That Make Your Life As A Book Blogger Easier.

I posted my first two guides for my Tips from an Organizer feature which were Organizing Feedly & Organizing Your Email. I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback and responses from it so far so thank you so much to everyone that has commented! I’m glad that people are enjoying it because I’m always really nervous with putting myself out there doing new things.

I also posted my very first discussion for my new discussion feature, Lose Time Chatting. I talked about The Library: When Good Books Go Back and realized I wasn’t alone wit my library obsession!!!

I signed up for Bout of Books and bombed it. I did not read a single freaking book because that was the week I was sick. Fail. I did participate in the Beat the Heat Readathon which went swimmingly though. I read 10 out of my 11 books for the month during that Readathon and I only intended to read 5! Good thing for that readathon or my month would have been a gigantic fail for reading!

I also am participating in The Bookish Games hosted by Asti at A Bookish Heart. I obviously can’t talk about what is going on but it’s a ton of fun, so if it’s something that interests you check out the day-to-day commenting!

And last but certainly least I went to FanExpo! I loved it last year but this year it was seriously the best thing I did all summer! I won’t rehash the event here but if you are interested check out my post (complete with pictures) where I go into detail about the day.

Some Blog Love
Once again my reader was overflowing with wonderful blog posts! Seriously, I couldn’t even keep up with my subscriptions in August, I’m still trying to get everything read! I love that 🙂

I still have a ton of posts from August that I haven’t gotten through so September is going to be chock full!!

How was everyone’s August? Link up your wrap up posts 🙂

Lauren

13 responses to “August Wrap Up

    • Your welcome Anya 🙂 HAHAH.. that’s the bittersweet moment about wrap ups, it’s awesome to have so much to read but where is the TIME lol.

  1. Looks like you had a good August, even if you thought it was a bit meh! 😛 I think the fact you didn’t read any 2 or 1 star books is success! Plus, I love the new features you’ve introduced this past month. 🙂 Thanks for mentioning The Bookish Games up there! I am having so much fun watching it all go down, and I loved seeing you lead discussion this week! Who knows if it’ll be enough though 😉
    Asti (A Bookish Heart) recently posted..Bookish Review: Graceling by Kristin CashoreMy Profile

    • Asti it must be SO fun for you to watch lol. Especially since you know the roles and watching us guess, USUALLY WRONG, it must be hilarious in the background lol. I can’t wait for the winter one, i will definitely be signing up 🙂

  2. Aww, thank you so much for linking two of my posts! 🙂

    I’m happy to see that you loved Clockwork Princess, it was pretty awesome, right? You ended up reading a lot more than me this month..lol I just can’t manage it. I’m so freaking warm all the time (also happy for fall). Being pregnant this summer and the few heat waves we’ve had, has been horrible! I’m a little further east than you (New Brunswick 🙂 ), so it’s not quite as bad as Toronto.

    Sorry to hear you were sick. I am just getting over a 24 hour bug.. blah. I was completely knocked out for a day 🙁

    I hope you have a great September!
    Jenn @ A Glo-Worm Reads recently posted..Review: Antigoddess by Kendare BlakeMy Profile

    • Your welcome Jenn 🙂 Clockwork Princess was AMAZING… I just can’t find anything that is just as good right now lol.

      I know the heat has been awful on the east coast. My parents live in NS and they said it was treacherous for a major part of the summer. I can only imagine being pregnant in those heat waves, your strong lady <3

      Thanks so much for stopping in Jenn, I hope you have an awesome September too!!

    • I’m the same way with recaps Hannah!!! The weekly ones that Asti @ A Bookish Heart are the best… she somehow finds EVERYTHING! I’m series!!!

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