Oh boyo, am I glad it’s Friday! I only have a few plans this weekend, so I am hoping to relax for a bit. Maybe. Hopefully. Maybe get some gaming in. That would be nice.

Reading progress this week was slow, but it’s also just been a weird week in general. Still, progress is progress. As of yesterday, I have:

• Read the last chapters of Kushiel’s Dart, chapters 81-96.
• Read the first 16 chapters of Kushiel’s Chosen.
• Started Heir of Fire and read the first 25 chapters (that’s actually more than I expected.
• Read the first 6 chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Overall, that’s not bad. I had forgotten how far I got into Heir of Fire before I looked it up. I’ve been keeping a daily reading log to see how far I get each day. For some reason, that has been the main thing that has kept me from falling into another reading slump. I like jotting down that I read two chapters here, five chapters there. It keeps me focused.

Blogging has been going really well. I am very excited about starting up my Chapter-A-Long posts with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I haven’t done that in a really long time and, while it is not the fastest way to read a book, it is kind of fun to really dig into the little pieces that you enjoy instead of just remembering the larger, overall plot lines. I’m going to try to do this with all the #PotterheadReadAlong19 books this year, which will go into July. Might have to do more than one chapter at a time, or just multiple blog posts each day for it, since the later books are much, much longer. I’ll have to think about it.

I’ve also started blogging a bit more, not too much, on my personal blog, My Crooked Little Path. It’s a lot of venting and complaining right now (or screaming into the void, as I like to call it), but it’s helping me work through some stuff. I actually have some followers over there now, which is nice.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will probably be back tomorrow with another Chapter-A-Long post (and of course, another one today in a little while), but other than that, I will see you all on Monday! Cheers!

Ugh, this week has not been the best for me. Personal reasons, not blog or reading reasons. My daughter is going through a fairly serious issue right now and, of course, I am worried about her, but also proud of how she is bearing up. She drives me absolutely crazy (goes with being a teenager, I guess), but she is such a good kid.

Because of all this, I missed posting a WWW Wednesday post, so I’ll go ahead and do it now as part of my wrap-up for this week.

Currently reading:

• Still plugging away at Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I’m through chapter 80 now, so making good progress (that makes 23 chapters read this week – some of them are short chapters, but still). I’m trying to make this one more of a priority, while still working on the Throne of Glass series.
• Just started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling for the #PotterheadReadAlong19 hosted by The Perks of Being Noura. This one will be a slow read, as I really want to focus on other things, but she has a schedule for the month, which I will most likely adhere to.

Recently Finished:

• I finished Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham, and you can find my review here. This was my other NetGalley ARC, so I was really excited to finish it. A really good read.
• I also finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling for the #PotterheadReadAlong19. Had to rush through that one since I joined the ReadAlong late, but luckily it’s one of the shorter books in the series.
• Also finished Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas, which was really, really good. I am enjoying this series so much!

Also, as a side note, since this is the beginning of a new month, I am happy to say that last month, I completed 5 books towards my GoodReads challenge, which puts me 1 book ahead of schedule! This might not seem like a lot – many of you have read dozens by now – but for me, coming out of that awful reading slump last year, this feels major!

Reading Next:

• I should start Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas later today or tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that one. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

So all-in-all, a very productive reading week for me. Also managed four blog posts (including this one), which makes me happy. Also worked on my blog layout a bit, although I don’t know if I’m happy with it yet.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! See you on Monday!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Not gonna lie, this has been a rough week for me. I’m getting read to go into a very emotional time of the year for me, and all of my depression triggers are attacking full force. I’ll get through it, as always. Trying to stay focused on the positive. Like my kitties:

So how are things going at the blog? Well, I am actually quite pleased by how well this month has been going. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try and rejuvenate my little corner of the Internet here, and I think that has gone pretty well. I’ve posted nearly every weekday this month, which is a vast improvement over posting once every three weeks or so, like I was doing. Plus, I plan to revive an old feature I used to do on Monday, so that will be something to look forward to.

I’m also glad that I seem to have made my way out of my reading slump, at least for now. Here’s what I’ve read so far in the last week:

• I got approved for another ARC from NetGalley, Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham, and so far have read the first 17 chapters. Hoping to finish that one up to review it next week.
• I finished Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. This was technically a re-read for me, since GoodReads says I read it back in 2016 (I have no memory of this, but GoodReads doesn’t lie), but it looks like I never actually reviewed it here. I’ll get that done after the Crow Flight review.
• Since I finished Throne of Glass, I have moved on to Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas and have read the first 7 chapters.
• Made really good progress on Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I’ve now read up to chapter 62 (there are 80-something chapters, I think – this book is a behemoth). Hoping to get that one finished maybe next week.
• Last but not least, because I don’t have anything else to read (hahaha), I have joined the #PotterHeadReadAlong19 over at The Perks of Being Noura. They read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the month of January and, since January is almost over, I figured maybe it would be a good idea to jump in February with Chamber of Secrets. Nope! Started reading Sorcerer’s Stone and have read the first 4 chapters. It’s the shortest of the books, so I should be able to finish it before the month is out. Besides, it’s been a few years since I’ve read the series, so this will be fun. And stretching an entire book over an entire month will still give me plenty of time to read other things.

So that is pretty good progress right there! I feel really good about it!

In other news, my daughter and I have also joined a gym. We went for the first time this week to exercise and it was actually pretty fun. Maybe getting some regular exercise will help with the depression bit. I sure hope so.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and I will see you again on Monday!

Happy Friday, everyone! It has been an interesting week, to be sure. It has been unusually busy for me at work – not in a bad way, in a good way – but I have been trying to keep up with my blogging goals as much as possible. Here are some highlights from the week:

• Blogged on this site each weekday (including this one).
• Got my NetGalley review up (yesterday’s review of Terrestrial Magic)
• Got accepted for another NetGalley ARC – Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter.
• Went ahead and registered my domain for the site (welcome to lifewithnoplot.com!)
• Finished not one, but two books this week.

That’s actually a lot for me. I haven’t kept up with other blogs this week as much as I’d like to (due to the busy-ness at work), but I am very much enjoying communicating and connecting with so many wonderful book bloggers. You are lovely and make my day a little brighter each time I see you.

I get to have a three-day weekend this week (thank’s to our office being closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), and I will definitely enjoy the extra time. I am on the verge of getting sick (after my daughter has been sick for the past several days) and want to try and avoid that if at all possible.

In any case, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will be back on Monday or Tuesday! Take care!

Greetings all! Hope you lovelies had a wonderful week. Here’s how mine went.

Health Goals:

• Still drinking lots of water. I think my body is finally adjusting to it, and I’m even starting to crave water more than soda, which is awesome (and a little weird).
• I am holding off with the exercise and the yoga for now. I was trying to keep up with everything, but I think it was too much. It was making me feel very tense, which is the opposite of what I want right now. I am going to focus on fixing my diet, eating better, and getting that part of V-Shred solid, and then I’ll add the workouts back in.

Blogging Goals:

• This is my fifth post this week. Here’s a wrap-up of my other posts:
  • Wake-Up, It’s Monday
  • Teasers and Top Tens
  • WWW Wednesday
  • Book Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened
• I have also been continuously blogging over at My Crooked Little Path. I haven’t missed a day over there since 12/31. Again, that one is a little more personal, meditations on my life using Tarot.
• I have also been trying to participate more in the blogging community, commenting on other blogs that I follow and responding to comments on mine. It has been great to connect (or re-connect) with so many of you!

Reading Progress:

• Kushiel’s Dart: read chapters 9-13. Those chapters are pretty dense, and I’m also reading this one at night before bed, so progress will probably be slower than other books. This thing is over 800 pages long!
• Throne of Glass: read chapters 1-26. These chapters are much, much shorter! I think I am about half way through?
• Terrestrial Magic: read chapters 1-5. Can I tell you how excited I am to be reading for NetGalley again! This book is pretty good so far, and the author is now following my blog! Hi Marina!

Signing off for the week! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and I’ll see y’all on Monday!

 

That’s right, you get two posts from me today! I was originally just going to do this post, but had to give that Flashback Friday a try. It looked like too much fun!

I’m going to start doing a weekly wrap-up on Fridays, mostly just to see how I am doing keeping up with various goals and projects that I am working on.

Health Goals:

• Drinking water: I really needed to get off drinking soda and drink more water. I started tracking it last weekend and have had eight 8 oz. servings of water every day (not quite yet today, but I’m halfway there and it’s almost noon, so I should easily make it). I am down to one can of soda in the morning (need my Diet Coke in the morning), but that’s it.
• Exercise: I joined VShred to help with my fitness goals. It has been challenging, but I’ve been successful so far. I started the diet part on Sunday and the workouts on Monday and haven’t missed a day yet. It’s only been a few days, so hopefully I can keep up with this.
• Yoga: I had decided before I found Vshred that I wanted to do more yoga. Several months ago, I had found a YouTube channel called Yoga With Adriene and absolutely loved it, but didn’t do much with it. For January, she is doing a 30 day program called Dedicate, so I decided to give it a go. I’ve only done two so far (there was no yoga on January 1st, but I did the ones on the 2nd and 3rd), and it has been hard. It’s a lot harder than it used to be! The best part about it is there is a great community around Adriene and all of it is free.

Blogging Goals:

• Posting: I definitely wanted to start posting more. I really enjoy it, but sometimes life gets in the way and makes it harder to do it. This week I have posted six posts, including this one, which might be a record? My goal is five per week, on the weekdays. So we’ll see how that goes.
• Comments: This was a big one. I am terrible about keeping up with comments on my blog. I am trying to respond to all of them. I’m also trying to do better about commenting on other people’s blogs, especially when they take the time to visit mine. It’s only fair and it’s the best way to build the book blogging community.
• New Blog: This one is a bit more personal, but I have another blog that I started this month called My Crooked Little Path. I’ve had it for a while, originally intending to keep it as more of a personal journal. Now I am using it to help with my morning meditations. I am using a tarot deck to help me sort out my thoughts (the Shadowscapes Tarot, which is GORGEOUS). This is probably going to be close to an everyday thing, but the posts are pretty short.

Reading Progress:

• Damn you, reading slumps! I think I’m falling into another one. I’ve only managed to read one chapter of City of Blaze by H.O. Charles this week. Hoping to do better this weekend, maybe even finish it. It’s not that it’s not good. I just can’t wrap my head around it right now.

Hope everyone has had a good week, this first week of 2019. See you next week for more shenanigans!