WED- NESS- DAY

How I always had to say the word out loud to learn to spell it correctly (and I probably still whisper it in my head as I type it...)

Wed

Nes- Day


It's been awhile... How have you gals/(guys?!) been?!

It's still officially spring (first day of summer is June 21st and exactly TWO WEEKS AWAY!) and it's back to cool weather here (60s and lots of rain).

Boo - because I need to wear my fabulous new shoes I just scored at the thrift store last night! (hemp/cork platform wedges. so cute. but so summery)

I also scored some great whimsical dresses and hope to be able to try my hand at altering kind of like these awesome pinspirations:

I've got an old plain white (maternity) tank that the hem has come undone, it's been waiting by my sewing machine...
I also got a cute ready-to-wear dress (it's a shift on me. too short for work lol but would totally look cute with leggings and knee-high boots come winter!) that I'm wearing to work today...

Also.
that whole Reading challenge? I'm still reading (a TON) - but I just cannot keep up with what category, and when it was finished, and what I read next - I'm getting emails daily from BookBub that have cheap ($0.99-$2.99) as well as FREE e-books, I probably add 3-5 books a week to my nook.
So just ignore the categories, as of today I've read 41 books (and I'd created a challenge on goodreads (check out my challenge profile here!) to read 50, so I'm "20 books ahead of schedule." LMAO
(I'm also currently reading two books... " 'S' is for Stranger" by Louise Stone and "Return of the Soldier" by Rebecca West (check it out here on this awesome e-library!)
((yes, I'm still writing my book - 'TINCAN'... the pace has slowed a bit... hopefully I can get some done today... while at work... lmao))




The craziness that has been BuggyListLife the last few weeks:

week of May 7th - E was in SanFrancisco from M-Thursday.  I survived the week...


week of May 14th - Mother's Day (big sha-bang out with entire IL family followed by desserts and coffee at IL's house)
Wednesay - my parents arrived from Texas (Uber got them from Newark airport to my empty house around noon... I tried to haul ass out of work but didn't leave until 2:30/3pm...)
next two days (Thurs-Fri) I battled non-working computers, dentist appointments, and last minute work to try and get home and hang with my parents. enjoyed the weekend with them - got them set up with projects to do the following week... because....


week of May 21st - Monday morning E and I boarded a flight to TURKS & CAICOS.  Three Whole NIGHTS - KID FREE! We drank mostly all day (mimosas at breakfast, then pina coladas by the pool/beach, champagne in the room while getting ready for dinner, then (2/3 nights) sake with sushi and harder drinks with dinner...
Thursday afternoon, we showered and got ready to go at the departure lounge.  Got to T&C airport with more than 2 hours to spare (-_-) and flew to Ft Lauderdale, FL with no issue to catch a connecting flight to Newark 2.5 hours later. Except, before we'd even taxied to the gate in FL, E learned our next flight had been delayed 3 additional hours - so, ok - we can do this - a 4.5-5 hr layover... we weren't picking up the kids until Friday morning anyways.
Except THEN the flight was CANCELLED 45 minutes before scheduled departure. Waited in line at Jet Blue desk... E got on phone and rebooked a flight on United from a DIFFERENT airport (West Palm Beach - 45 minutes away)
Nearing midnight - we got to the desk, ultimately got a refund for the cancelled leg of our journey, and booked an  Uber ("Mike" - formerly of Brooklyn - was our driver!) and arrived at WPB Airport around 1:45am - for a 6am flight.  Why bother getting a hotel, right?
Snoozed outside ticketing/security for a few hours until they opened - fought with them about a checked bag (United now has something called "basic economy" where you don't even get to bring on a CARRY-ON besides your teeny tiny purse?!
arrived in Newark.  Finally got former-carry-on-Rollerboard-Suitcase from t he baggage claim, took the AirTran to the right terminal where my parents had left our car the previous day when THEY flew out - only to discover, as we approached the revoling doors - that E had left my suitcase on the Airtrain.

An unattended bag.
in an airport.

Thankfully, we caught the agent at the AirTran stop just in time - they radioed, found the bag - let it ride the train around. (They had been "this close" to SHUTTING DOWN THE ENTIRE AIRTRAN.)

Finally, almost 21 hours after catching the airport shuttle in Turks & Caicos, we pulled up to our house. took an hour a half - showered, mostly left our bags packed - just refreshed underwear, etc - packed for the kids, grabbed the dogs, grabbed the kids from MIL's house - and we took off for 2 nights in the Poconos....


Yup. you read that right.
#JetSetterLife

Enjoyed two days there of chilly weather, but an indoor water park at the nearby lodge helped (as did the hottub and pool table on the vrbo property!)




week of MAY 28th - we drove back home on Sunday, during which E text a few friends and scheduled an impromptu BBQ for the next day, Memorial Day.
(yes. again, you read that right. we're a bit masochistic socially...)

had a BBQ which turned into an indoor thang b/c of the cold weather - so too many people crammed into the living room/kitchen (thankfully my ILs just like to turn on the TV at social gatherings (-_-) and so they parked on the couch, out of the way.... lol)

We spent last week getting back to our regular programming and the weekend was our usual "low-key" - playdate on Saturday, our divorced friend (Mr. PotatoHead) came and spent Saturday night, and then we went to my SIL's yoga-teacher-certification graduation on Sunday followed by dessert and drinks at a local restaraunt.

you know.

low-key...



upcoming - Mom's (over)Night Out! going DTS this Saturday with two friends - sans ANY children (or any responsibilities!) and I CANNOT FREAKING WAIT!

(also. PICTURE DUMP to follow later!)

Challenge check-In

We left off with being in the middle of reading book number 17 this year...

Here's the new tally as of today! (not counting A Mother's Reckoning as read yet - got a few pages left, lol)

#17. The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer         Cat: 36/40: book by someone you admire           fin. Mar. 23rd
So - especially now that I am writing my own book, as a full-time working mom, I can totally respect the work that goes into it and can't believe how Ms. Twilight got out that whole series... AND THEN SOME! (of course - I don't think she worked - but just as hard to be a SAHM writing!!)
So - The Chemist was, I feel, totally different than her past more YA-ish works (Twilight, The Host) and it was pretty good! about a woman who worked for the government - basically as someone who assisted in "interrogations" with her chemical concoctions... and she's on the run. liked this book a lot!

#18. Sia by Josh Grayson           Cat: N/A               fin. Mar. 25th
It happened - I read a book (some books, by now) that just do NOT fit into any category...
And I think this will happen a lot this year - as I download more and more free books based on BookBub deals. (but not all of them good - I started one, and thought - bleh - stopped reading it and archived it...)
anyways - this was a nice fluff read about a girl who had lost her memory, found herself homeless - but then a week later was "discovered" by a classmate volunteering at a soup kitchen - she was in fact the daughter of a very wealthy couple in Beverly Hills (or something like that)
was good for light reading

#19. Revelation by Carter Wilson          Cat: N/A         fin. Mar. 26th
another free read recommended by bookbub...
This was actually a pretty cool book... here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

When Harden Campbell wakes cold and beaten in a dirt-floor cell, he finds only three other things in the room with him: the mutilated body of his good friend, an ancient typewriter, and a stack of blank paper, the top sheet of which has a single, typed sentence.

"Tell me a story."

He is locked away by a "friend" named Coyote, who created a "religion" as an experiment. Pretty cool psychological story...


#20. Beyond Grace's Rainbow by Carmel Harrington          Cat: by an author from a country you've never visited            fin. Mar. 29th
(The author was born in Wexford, Ireland and the story is set there - which is fun to read after becoming a little familiar with it from reading Outlander)
This book.
Not written phenomenally, but a good story - a single mother (she estranged her baby daddy because he was an alcoholic) is diagnosed with cancer; she goes through treatment while also trying to track down her biological mother (she was adopted at birth) so she can possibly pursue finding a bone-marrow match. (slight Spoiler Alert) at one point in the book toward the end, there was a bit of a twist that as I read it, I thought - WELL FUCK YOU BOOK! for doing that, and then literally set my nook down on the counter, and walked away saying out loud, "I NEED A MINUTE before we can continue..." (LOL good thing E isn't home when I do this... he'd call the white coats!)
So, and then the "epilogue" ended and I was still like, DAFUQ.
so did I like it? hate it?
I feel like if it was written more eloquently, I would have hated to love it, due to the ending, but - it was moderately good writing so - meh...


#21. Waiting for You by Catherine Miller        Cat: N/A                 fin. Apr. 1st
a lighter read (not that the TOPIC was light - a woman who is facing secondary infertility, and whose husband seems to have checked out - spending more and more time in his office/apartment in London where he spends the work week, who is also hiding SOMETHING HUGE) but it was a quick read with language and writing easy to pick back up after reading in spurts at bedtime and during lunchtime at work.



Currently Reading :
finishing up A Mother's Reckoning

and reading Ssh! by Stacey Nash (a free bookbub read... I am starting to feel the need, after The Chemist, and Outlander and the heavy Sue Klebold book, to get back into something deep - Jodi Picoult may be up next - but at the same time, am trying to keep focus on "TinCan" so we'll see...)

Reading & Writing (and 'rithmetic?!)

(I've been trying to focus writing time - even while at work LOL - onto The Next Great American Novel (or going forward, TNGAN - or even better/easier to remember and write - "TinCan!") 
ok start over - so I've been trying to focus my writing time on TinCan, so the blog may suffer a bit... but here's a post I started writing while in the throes of highlighting...)
(ALSO - reading update to immediately follow this)




somewhere, today someone's world -as they know it- is ending.

There is someone who has just received that phone call about their spouse's fatal car accident.

There is someone who is sitting at their parent's bedside, listening to them take their last breath.

There is someone who has just lost a child.

There is someone whose whole axis has just shifted - been totally knocked off kilter - from fresh tragedy.



And yet.

The world continues to turn.

And yet - "How can that guy be cutting his grass?? DOESN'T HE KNOW MOM IS IN HERE DYING?!"


"How can they blithely waltz into the office, smiling - DON'T THEY KNOW WE WERE JUST TOLD THE WORST NEWS EVER??"




I recently sat out on my back porch - beer, monitor (Mack was napping), book, highlighter and pen (this book.. needs notes and highlighted sections. you'll see...) and enjoyed the first warmish (55 degrees!) sunny day in a long time...

Another "first" in a while, I am reading a paperback.  I pointedly ordered this one from Amazon - proceeds from the purchase will go directly to charities dedicated to helping the mentally ill.

Why, this book of all books, did I order archaically in paperback? (And natch, pay for it! (I can download most books for free........ #sorryNotSorry) )


Because 33 years ago this year, my grandmother's world shifted terribly - her son, with a fresh baby and wife, died by suicide.

Because 20 years ago this year, my uncle's world - as he knew it - ended when his teenage daughter (my cousin) died by suicide. (On her LAST DAY of a second stay in a treatment facility...)

Because over 4 years ago, E's father received a call from her sister - her world had come tumbling down when her husband (E's uncle) died by suicide.


The woman who wrote A Mother's Reckoning lost her son - seventeen years old - to suicide.

The book I'm reading is also about another very difficult topic - school shootings.

A Mother's Reckoning is written by Sue Klebold, mother to Dylan Klebold - one of two shooters from the Columbine massacre in 1999.


I read a fabulous review/discussion of this book, here.


This story, written by a mother who discovers she didn't know who her child was, touches on just that - the fear that I know I have as a parent: that one day, they'll become someone you don't recognize.

As Button develops friends at daycare, and falls on the playground - as he wrestles on the lawn with the neighborhood boy who is only 6 months older but about 6 inches and what seems like 60 lbs - you realize they will become independent at some point, that they will develop into a separate entity.

I hope and pray we are doing right as their parents to create an open communication - for good stories, for bad times when they need help...






((that's all I wrote on that. still wrapping up reading the book, as I'm in the last chapter of "aftermath" years later - I spent a lot of Monday at work reading about the massacre, and the victims, and the police reports - and at the end of day fell down a rabbit hole that led me from - at the time- the deadliest school shooting in US history, to the wiki page on the Virginia Tech shooting, which with its occurrence, became the deadliest school shooting - and then farther down the hole to the Orlando nightclub tragedy.
After the recent scary false-alarm at our local mall, I just keep praying that the violence does not encroach on our lives - not the daycare, not our work places, not our neighborhood))

all I blog about any more... Reading Challenge

Seriously.

I have nothing better to blog about than what I've been reading?


It's more like there's no time... I get to work just 2-3 (and sometimes 15...) minutes late, and then leave right at (or shortly after) five o'clock to make my way to my little guys at daycare. (The last week or so, right around 4:45 I get a big yearning to see them... and usually 5 minutes after we get home, I'm ready for a glass of wine. LOL)

Anyways... at least I can say I'm committed to this:

#12. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern       Cat: 33/40: book set in two different time periods       fin Mar 13th
So I easily could have applied probably any of the Outlander series to this category (I mean, I'm 5 books in and - if I remember correctly - each novel has at least snippets in the current modern day before jumping back 200 years!)
This was a really neat novel, about a challenge amongst two circus performers - unaware, at first, who each other is... And the circus is not your ordinary RedBlueYellow CottonCandy-CaramelApples circus...
(You can read this great article to check out the book - and the two different time periods - a bit more!)


#13. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks        Cat: 15/40: book with a subtitle         fin Mar. 15th
Of course, I came across a telling of this story first via the fabulous Brad Pitt and the movie that came out in 2013...
The movie was very loosely based on the book - i.e. besides the fact there's zombies, the two don't really have any similarities...
But the book was very neat - different "first hand accounts," done in a series of interviews, of "the war" and how it broke out and how they found safety, and how the country and world recovered.
Very neat in how it was written!


#14. Knocked Up by the Bad Boy by Vanessa Waltz            Cat: 31/40: main character is a different ethnicity than you          fin. Mar. 16th
This was - well, I expected it to be a quick/easy read, with a mid-range level of writing, and some good hot sex scenes...
It was 2 of those 3 - but it was surprisingly well-written! It was fun to read points of view both from a Latina female (daughter of Latina crime boss) and an "Italian stallion" - son of former Italian don, and current Mafia KingPin - they have a hot one-night stand, she gets knocked up, and - HAHA ok so maybe it wasn't that well-written, I do remember the ending as a little abrupt... oh well.
Fun read, and one that I'll keep on my nook for when a little inspiration/warm up is needed ;)


#15. Maggie Dove's Detective Agency by Susan Breen        Cat: 10/40: book with a cat on the cover       fin. Mar. 18th
So funny, this category - after finding a goodreads list of "books with cats on cover" (and finding only horrible 1970s-1980s sci-fi) I settled on queuing up a book called Beasts by John Crowley...

looks good, right?! lol So - a friend suggested that bookbub newsletter so I get daily book recommendations and deals and end up downloading 2-3 free books and am trying to cut down on the $0.99 and $1.99 books... all that to say, I came upon this one!

and the description seemed good, too! A woman in her mid 60's lost her daughter (a freak car-accident) and then her husband years later - she begins a detective agency in her hometown!
Overall, it was a fun read, and it so conveniently crossed this category off the list!


#16. Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank Abagnale & Stan Redding      Cat: 12/40: from a genre you don't normally read         fin. Mar. 20th
I don't normally (i.e. ever) read non-fiction, but this was written  like fiction - and I've seen the movie a bunch of times (so fun to watch!) so it was easy/great to bring the story to life in my mind, with good 'ole Leo!
But it was fun to read the true story and be able to see how Hollywood transformed the story into the movie for cinematic flair and theatrics - and there was a Q&A with Frank Abagnale about the movie and what he thought of it...


Currently Reading:
It's that chick, who wrote Twilight and The Host! (hope she keeps them coming, she's a good author!)
currently reading The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer...

Rockin' and Reading....

2017 Reading Challenge update (I was going to try my best to post weekly, to avoid monolithic posts having to catch up, but then I realized it's already been two weeks since my last reading check-in... ack!)

#8. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (#5 in Outlander Series)       Cat: 24/40: book set in the wilderness           fin. Mar. 1st
1,443 pages you guys... these books are E.P.I.C... it took me 10 days to read this book... that's 140 pages a day, between work lunches and before bed...
I can't say enough about these books... except - they're so gargantuan, I feel like I need a break after every one! (plus it helps to remember what happened in each book, as opposed to them all running together if I were to read them back to back to back.... lol)

#9. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson      Cat: 29/40: book with an unreliable narrator        fin. Mar. 3rd
I feel like this book could have had a better OMG WAIT WHAT?! moment, kind of a la Shutter Island (spoiler?? lol) but it was still pretty neat...
A single woman in her late 30's (the unreliable narrator!) begins to dream of an alternate life - marriage with 3 children and the house and station wagon to go with it...
...but then the dreams overcome her real life - and she begins to lose hold of which world is real! (pretty cool story line!)

#10. The Grown-Up by Gillian Flynn       (BONUS) Cat: 47/52: book with an eccentric character       fin Mar. 3rd
As you can see by the finish dates of the previous book and this one, I read this short story in a single day (didn't realize it was a short story until after I'd paid for it and downloaded. ugh) but I love Gillian Flynn and so sped through this book about a scam artist / hooker (hand jobs only!) who tries to bilk a woman out of money to "cleanse" her haunted house... reading this reminded why I don't like short stories - I want more to it! What happens next?!

#11. Zoo #2 by James Patterson, Max DiLallo         Cat: 8/40: book with multiple authors            fin Mar. 4th
Just as I was about to write this off for being able to apply a Reading Challenge category, I noticed the two authors!
A sequel to Zoo (which I read last year): it's a continuation (and it appears, with the cliffhanger ending, that there's a third coming at some point?) of the HumanAnimalConflict (or HAC) - where short wave signals (or cell phone signals or something like that) are short-wiring the pheromones received by animals, turning them into feral & ferocious attacking beasts (everything from mice to polar bears to domestic animals!)
it's pretty short at 145 pages, but a fun read...)

As for my currently reading:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern


And I've just recently been turned onto BookBub which sends emails and highlights e-book sales going on that week, and I went a little crazy... I just went to my Nook (B&N) library and saw "15 NEW!"
(speaking of - I just got today's email, and added another four..... aiy aiy aiy)

oops...   hope they all fit into categories!

"Weading" Wednesdays are back!!

Ok - now for the first 2017 Reading Challenge Post!

I haven't kept dates of when I finished each book (so far) so I'll just go in chronological order:

#1. Wish List by Fern Michaels          Cat. 23/40: Book with a red spine
So this was actually a random book I picked up to read myself to sleep while at my parents' house over Christmas... meh. not fabulously written (maybe one of Michaels' first books?? she's got a LOT! 259 results in a GoodReads search?!)
And honestly - it conveniently worked to fulfill a category (red spine):

#2. Beautiful Stormby Barbara Freethy      Cat. 14/40: book involving travel
This was well written - a nook-book download during a lunch when I needed something to read... (I think my mom has used the word VORACIOUS when she describes my reading habits... I ALWAYS need to be reading...)
It starts with a woman whose pilot father disappeared during a lightning storm years prior (assumed dead, never found) and she's become obsessed with lightening - frequently traveling (hi category!) to capture electrical storms with her camera...
During a storm, she catches a glimpse of an arguing couple during a flash of light.  She learns shortly after that the woman she saw is a woman who was reported missing more than a month ago... The tale follows her (and a love interest, of COURSE) as they travel from FL to TX, trying to track down where the missing woman has gone!

#3. The Dreamer by May McGoldrick          Cat. 39/40: first book in a series you haven't read before
This cheap nookbook was a download based on my Outlander obsession - a love story also set in the Highlands with lairds, bonnie lasses and braw warriors (LOL) but it was the first in a series, The Highland Treasure, a story about three sisters who, after their father died, helped hide a Scottish treasure with their mother from the greedy English (lol). It was decently written, but Diana Gabaldon it was NOT, and I had no compulsion to download the next in the series...

#4. Adam by Chris Keniston          Cat. 27/40: book with a title that's a character's name
A download based on cheap price and fair rating on B&N (4.5 stars!) it was well written - a woman shows up in a close-knit mid-west town - in a wedding gown and a red convertible that's registered to her EX-Fiance... of course, romance with the town veterinarian (lusted after bachelor) and mystery of the woman's backstory make it a decent book! (Of course - the town vet is the title of the book: Adam.)

#5. The Proposition by Katie Ashley         Cat: 32/40: book about an interesting woman
So maybe this category was referring more to women like Susan B. Anthony or Helen Keller... but the main character in this book is definitely interesting in my book: her fiance (husband? can't remember) dies in a car accident, and she dreams of being a mother. so she propositions her hot sexy boss (or he propositioned her.. again, can't remember LOL) to be the sperm donor - except he'll be PERSONALLY making the "donation" directly to her each time... =P
Again, first in a series that totally en\ded in a cliff hanger, but totally wasn't THAT good enough to make the next book a must-read...

#6.  Snow Angel by Melanie Shawn             Cat: 6/40: book with one of four seasons in the title
Ok so this is reaching just a little bit for the category - I'm allowing "Snow" for "Winter" so I can cross off a category in the challenge!
This was decent - very similar to #4 above (Adam) there's a girl with a mysterious past (she's in fact in WITSEC - witness protection program) and the local police chief is enamored by the New Girl...

#7 Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (#4 in Outlander Series)      (BONUS) Cat: 48/52: book more than 800 pages
At 1,030 pages - this totally knocks this category out of the park... (in fact, I think all of the Outlander novels reach or surpass the 1,000-page-mark...
I felt like I had fallen totally into the books after reading the first three books (3,000+ pages!!!!) and so took a break after reading Voyager in fall of 2016.
Well after watching the Starz series (seasons 1-2 line up with book 1-2) I was ready to dive back in...
I can't praise the writing of Diana Gabaldon enough... and as another fellow fan/reader said recently, I have to be careful not to jump and skip ahead and skim over paragraphs, eager just to see what happens next! there are details in every sentence that you don't want to miss!
GO START THE SERIES!!! (you'll thank me in 4 years - the time it'll take to read almost 10,000 pages of book!
((there's 8 books... a whole bunch of novellas... a historical companion novel... whew))



As for my currently reading:
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
(can't get enough of this Outlander series!! Also highly anticipated - Season 3 on Stars, coming this September!!!)

Book Battle being waged...

So I found, while perusing Pinterest, another Reading Challenge... (before I got too far, I realized it was for 2016 - not that it really matters, but then I found one for 2017, and I'm all for maintaining accuracy and integrity...)

But - there's a problem...

I've had "Outlander Series" on my To-Read list for the LONGEST TIME EVER. I finally read the first one, titled "Outlander," way back in fall(ish) of 2016... (I'm actually not sure exactly when I found it, but it's 16 books from the end of 2016 on my Books Read in 2016 list.... LOL)

((speaking of - so we don't skip over an entire year's worth of reading, because Lord knows I read. err' damn day... here's a list of books I read in 2016 (I don't think any were re-reads....))
1. We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
2. Open House - by Elizabeth Berg
3. Pull of the Moon - Elizabeth Berg
4. Home Safe - Elizabeth Berg
5. Noah's Compass - by AnneTyler
6. Trade Me by Courtney Milan
7. Zoo - James Patterson
8. Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler
9. Vertical Run by Joseph R. Garber
10. Ladder of years by Anne Tyler
11. Once upon a prince by Rachael Hauck
12. The Nameless Dead by Brian McGilloway
13. Her Back-Up Boyfriend by Ashlee Mallory
14. Harry Potter and the Cursed child (ScreenPlay) by J.K. Rowling (also by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne)
15. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
16. How to Win at High School by Owen Matthews
17. Paperweight by Meg Haston
18. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (#1 in Series)
19. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (#2 in series)
20. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (#3 in series)
21. Gone by Michael Grant (Gone Series #1)
22. Hunger by Michael Grant (Gone series #2)
23. Lies by Michael Grant (Gone series #3)
24. The Guest book by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
25. Matched by Ally Condie (Matched Series #1)
26. Crossed by Ally Condie (Matched Series #2)
27. The Substitute by Denise Grover Swank
28. Nobody's Angel by Sarah Hegger
29. Damaged by Pamela Callow
30. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
31. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
32. The Passage* by Justin Cronin (Passage #1) *re-read
33. The Twelve by Justin Cronin (Passage #2)


Hey, 33 books in 12 months - not bad, considering I had a NEWBORN at the beginning of that period! (It IS slightly under my average (based on the 2015 Reading Challenge which I last updated in OCTOBER, having read over 70 books at that point!!))

Ok - so I just signed up for GoodReads, which should replace my nerdy-ass excel spreadsheet where I track my books and my challenges... LOL

And I'm ready for the 2017 Reading Challenge!


Ok so anyways, back to the Book Battle and my newest obsession... I'm in the middle of reading Book Number FIVE in the Outlander series (you'll see I read the first three in 2016 (numbers 18-20 in the above list)).

They're EPIC novels, at like a thousand pages per book, so they take a bit more time than my usual novels... AndPlusAlso - it's a Starz series, they're in the process of filming season three (which is book three: Voyager) and I've been re-watching Season One (just finished two nights ago) and now Season Two...

Because I'm OBSESSED.

I'll show you why:

That would be "JAMMF" as per the huge FanPage I'm a member of on TheFBook...
James. Alexander. Malcom. McKenzie. Fraser.


mmmmmmmm....





So - it's February 20th, and I've only read 7 books so far in 2017...

If I keep up with that rate, I'll hit exactly 50 books this year (which was the challenge I set for myself in Goodreads...)

let's see if I can make those 50 books all part of the 2017 Reading Challenge!
~First Challenge Post to follow~