Tag: TBR

State of the ARC #13: Productive Procrastination?

This month’s State of the ARC will be more about the state of my TBR. I didn’t read any ARCs, though I did publish two reviews. Unfortunately, I also requested more ARCs so I’m right back to the same number I began with. I’m not mad though, because I managed to grab Leila Aboulela’s Elsewhere Home. Soooo excited to read it. I also nabbed Instructions for a Funeral (David Means), The Library Book (Susan Orlean) and Lies that Bind (Kwame Anthony Appiah). I had some crazy good luck this month.

 

Lies that Bind is already overdude (I requested it super late) but I’ll try to read and review it during September. The Library Book comes out October 16th, so keep an eye out for that one in a couple months. Most of my new acquisitions are going to be published until next year, so I will dedicate the rest of this year mostly to TBR and overdue books.

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I wrote four reviews (click the image to see the review). How to Love a Jamaican earned three stars and was altogether underwhelming. I gave The Namesake five stars and I recommend it to everyone (seriously, read it). The Newcomers was another three-star read for me. The review is on Goodreads for now, but I might actually post it here as well. I finished Persepolis in July, but published the review this month. It was also only a three-star read for me. July was an underwhelming reading month, making August an underwhelming State of the ARC month. September should be much better. The weird layout of the covers is purely accidental, but it looks better than the weirdness I had when trying to get them in a line. I think I really need to learn how to format things on WordPress.

 


the namesake cover

Now for the part I’m most proud of: I read ten whole books this month! I’ll simply list them, because this post is already image heavy. The links lead to Goodreads.

 

Out of these, the only one I loved was The Namesake, but there were a few others on the list that I at least liked and there were two that I absolutely hated. Keep an eye out for reviews here and on Goodreads to find out which ones. I’m definitely reviewing Her Body, The Road, Regiment of Women and Home and Exile here, but I’m not sure about the rest yet.

 

Just looking at that list makes me happy.

 

The last thing I’d like to share today is my State of the ARC BINGO. I’m making progress! I really want to put Song of Blood and Stone  in the “ARC with your favorite color cover” spot, but this is a 2nd-half-the-year BINGO, so I’ll have to find another. SOMEONE GIVE ME PURPLE ARCS PLEASE (or indigo or forest green or spring green).

 

State of the ARC BINGO

 

That’s it for now. If you want to join the meme/ see what it’s about/ read the other State of the ARC posts, stop by Avalinah’s Books!

ARCiverssary: State of the ARC #12

This isn’t actually the first time I’ve decided to try the State of the ARC meme, but it’s the first time I’ve organized my ARCs in enough time to write the post. The way it works:

 

My ARCs are spread across three main platforms, and I occasionally receive ARCs in my inbox. NetGalley is by far my preferred platform. Edelweiss basically requires you to write a blog post just to request the ARC and LibraryThing ARCs are usually PDFs, which are more difficult for me to read and manage than a MOBI (kindle) file.

 

Here’s a complete picture of my ARC collection:

 

 

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I’ll get around to the Edelweiss, LibraryThing and Author ARCs eventually, but clearly NetGalley needs the most attention. Fortunately, I’ve already read two of them: The Newcomers  and How to Love a Jamaican. The reviews should be coming out this Thursday and next Thursday. That means by the next State of the ARC, my list should be at least two books shorter. 😀

Other than those two, August might be a slow ARC reading month. I’d like to read some of the physical books on my shelf instead. I rarely stick to my reading plan though, so we’ll see what happens.

As part of the State of the ARC meme, I’m also participating in the ARC Bingo!

State-of-the-ARC-bingo-sheet

Evelina says we can add the books to the BINGO as soon as we finish reading them, but I know I’ll forget to review them if I do that. Instead, I won’t add to the BINGO until after I’ve published my review. The goal is to get BINGO before the end of the year. We’re coming up on August, which leaves 4 months. I think I can do this. I’ve already crossed off two categories, once they’re reviewed I’ll put em up. This game is actually useful for helping me decide which ARCS so read next. Thanks, Evelina, for your genius, lol.

Look out for a book review on Thursday and a tea tasting next Tuesday! 🙂 If you want to join the meme or see who else is in, head over to Avalinah’s Books.

February Stats

I’m out of my slump for an undetermined amount of time, so I might as well make the most of it. It’s been a productive month and if the momentum continues, March will be productive as well.

 

I haven’t been keeping track of Instagram and Twitter followers just yet, but based on my notifications I gained quite a few. I seem to receive a notification every couple of days. Several appeared to be spam accounts/ follow-for-follow accounts, so I’m not sure how many of those followers will stick around.

 

Last month, I published published three posts (click the image to read ’em):

Snow Flower Secret Fan Buddy Read thumbnail   Tea Haul Thumbail   image of the post header

 

Sadly, I only managed to taste one tea in Feb but my tasting notes should be out on the 8th. I’ve been trying to recover from this weird evolving flu-mixed-with-food-poisoning. My stomach can’t tolerate caffeine at the moment. 😦 I’ll try again soon; life without tea is boring, haha.

 

Though I told myself I wouldn’t request any  books in February, I couldn’t resist these Black History Month titles:

The respective publishers approved me for all three but I have no idea when I’ll get around to actually reading them. Thankfully, two of them don’t have archive dates set. However, a couple of the pub dates are about a month away so I might pause my China readings and read these instead. I’ll finally be ahead of the curve! I’m a little scared of Denmark Vesey’s Garden though, because it’s nearly 500 pages. It’ll take me at least two weeks of dedicated reading to get through it.

 

I also requested Song of Blood and Stone, which is an afro-futurist novel. I didn’t include it with the Black History Month titles because those are all political, but this one definitely deserves a mention because afro-futurist novels tend to be pretty good. I think I’m most excited to read this one.

 

I’m almost finished reading Imperial Woman (Pearl S. Buck), so that review should be out soon (the 12th?) anyway, but do you think I should continue with my original plan or do the Black History Month reading first? Alternating is also an option, but I like themes.

General Reading Stats

Books Finished: 3

Read but Unreviewed Arcs: 5

Unread Arcs: 15 from Netgalley, 5 from Library Thing

I promised myself I wouldn’t sign up for Edelweiss until I cleared my NetGalley and Library Thing ARCs. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.

 

 

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