Manic Monday

Just getting home from a glorious vacation followed up by an annual work weekend that is more fun than work!! :)  School starts for me today though (I'm teaching two summer school classes left on the schedule by a retiree) so I've got to get back in the swing of things and back on schedule!

Reading: 

Over the long 4th of July weekend I read Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Sizzling Sixteen, Smokin' Seventeen and Elisa Lorello's Faking It - I decided not to review Fifteen and Sixteen since I 'literally plowed through them to get to Smokin' Seventeen...I was not disappointed in any of them.. Before getting started, I read some reviews that were not so positive of Finger Lickin' Fifteen, but I really enjoyed it...Lula's character really begins to take more shape (ha) at this point in the series and I've really enjoyed getting to know her even better. 

Reviewing:

I've made notes on Smokin' Seventeen and Faking It for later reviews, and scheduled all of my reviews...I decided to actually put a date on each of them...in the order that they were finished.  I may bump some up depending on time, etc. but it helps me to plan on getting my backlog up in a timely but also quality fashion.  I am behind on Wicked Lovely this week because of time off so I'll bump it in this week somewhere. 

New Books:

Amazon and Barnes and Noble offer free Kindle and Nook reads here and there...some books are free all the time, but at various times, both stores will offer certain ebooks free for a limited amount of time.  I usually find out about these in one of three ways: emails from Frugal Girls, Freebie Blogger, and/or Friday's Free Books on Lena Sledge's Blog.  I've got four freebies ebooks waiting on me...This Fine Life, Solitary, Boys, Bears and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots and In the Belly of Jonah.

Solitary and In the Belly of Jonah are both firsts in a series so I chose This Fine Life and Boys, Bears etc. to read first.
I also found a sequel to Faking It but actually decided NOT to read it...unless somebody can convince me otherwise...I'm actually ok with Faking It ending just as it did...more on that in my review later.

There were tons of giveaways in the last couple of weeks and I entered quite a few.  I wanted to enter others, but the bloggers required a "follow."  Usually to follow someone, all I have to do is click FOLLOW and GFC knows me and asks me if I want to follow.  I said yes, and it's a done deal.  However, I'm now having problems with my Google Friend Connect ...when I click to follow someone's blog, GFC acts like it doesn't know me and won't let me sign in???  Anybody have any idea why that's happening? 

I actually won two books this week!!!

The Bird Sisters from Kathy @ BermudaOnion.

and Jerusalem Maiden from Audra @ Unabridged Chick
NOTHING is more exciting than receiving books for FREE!!! I can't wait to get started on these!!!

Posting Schedule

Tuesday:  Top Ten Authors I Would Die to Meet

Wednesday - Book Review of Wicked Lovely instead of the usual Wordless Wednesday

Thursday - Book Review - Water for Elephants

Furry Friday - Beneigt and Uh-Oh

Saturday - Saturday Snapshot

Sunday - Weekend Cooking - Hungry Girl experiment #1

Menu

I don't have a menu plan yet this week...tonight we'll be having a easy family favorite, Shepherd's Pie and maybe I can figure out the rest between classes today and Show Choir meetings tonight :(

Manic Monday - June 27

Reading/Reviewing Progress

I spent most of my reading time this week on Hit List...and I'm so glad I did. I was beginning to think Laurell K. Hamilton was losing her steam...actual storyline steam anyway...but I'm happy to report that the story has been revived...:)

Next up for me is the 17th installment of the Stephanie Plum series, which Amazon shipped to me automatically on the 21st when it was published.  Unfortunately for me I forgot I haven't read 15 or 16 yet :/  How in the world I managed to stop at 14 and wait on 17, I'll never know.  The good news is that Stephanie Plum's are usually fast reads so I hope I finish all three this week.

FedEx arrived this morning with 3 distractions...Season 1 of The Dog Whisperer, Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Milan and The Art of Raising a Puppy by The Monks of New Skete. I like distractions like these though :)

The review backlog still exists but I've started taking notes again in my little journal about the books I'm currently reading so I won't feel like I can't keep reading while I'm working on reviews.  Does that make sense?  The United States of Arugula review is finally going up this week; it originally was scheduled for last week but that was before I started Furry Friday, which I'm still very excited about :)

This Week's Posting Schedule

Monday - Manic Monday

Tuesday - Top Ten Bookish Websites

Wednesday - Almost Wordless Wednesday

Thursday - Book Review -The United States of Arugula

Friday - Furry Friday - "Hermione's story"

Saturday - Saturday Snapshots - "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

Sunday - Weekend Cooking- one of the recipes listed in this week's menu :)

Since I'll be gone for a few days, for the first time I'm gonna try the delayed posting thingie on Blogger...I won't have internet access where I'm going so I won't know if it works until I get back...keeping my fingers crossed :)

Menu

Monday - PW's spaghetti and meatballs

Tuesday - PW's Dr. Pepper pork

Wednesday - steak and chicken kabobs, fruit salad and red velvet cupcakes (Youth Supper at our house)

Thursday - Hungry Girl night hosted by my middle daughter

Friday, Saturday, Sunday - I'm going to the beach!! Seafood!

Since I hummed this all day last Monday and am already humming this morning as I type this post, here's a blast from the past. :)

Manic Monday...or I'm gonna try this schedule thing again...

 I'm not a freaky schedule person...but I do appreciate a schedule...when it works out, that is.  I don't always stick to the plans I make, and that's ok...but I've really been flopping around here lately.  That's the nature of the end of school and all...and I've given myself time to just languish.  But, my brain is needing a little more structure so that it doesn't turn into a jelly doughnut before August :/  I've also been missing out on some photography and cooking memes that I love bc I forget about them until it's too late.  Hopefully that won't happen this week.

Reading/Reviewing Progress

 Last week I spent my time devouring dog books...I finished The Monks of New Skete How To Be Your Dog's Best Friend and am almost finished with How to Raise the Perfect Dog by Cesar Millan.  The Monks also published a book just on puppies and Cesar Millan has one on being the leader of the pack that I have up next.  While I'm waiting for those to arrive from Amazon, however, I'm going to give myself permission to visit with Anita Blake and Jean Claude in Laurell K. Hamilton's Hit List.  Stephanie Plum #17 will also be here later this week...fun reading!!
I've also peeked into Sworn into Silence on my Nook and was hooked from the first page.  All those should be fast reads.

I've got several reviews on tap...my backlog is creating a little anxiety for me so I really need to get some of those posted. I'm scheduling two reviews for this week...although I really don't know which ones they'll be...I'm guessing for Thursday and Friday.  I don't sit and write a review all at once; I jump around, write a while, go write on something else, read other bloggers and then go back and write again.  So, right now I've got almost 10 reviews, somewhere between just begun to almost finished. 

Posting Schedule for this Week

Tuesday: Top Ten Reasons I Enjoy Being a Book Blogger/Bookish Person 

Wednesday: Wordless Wednesday

Thursday: Review - HT Be Your Dog's Best Friend

Friday: Review - The United States of Arugula

Saturday: Saturday Snapshot

Sunday: Weekend Cooking

Monday: Manic Monday


 I'm going to get a menu back up by next Monday as well.  I love to cook but I absolutely detest deciding what's for dinner every night...I have no explanation for this weirdness...but if it helps to put together a menu for the week to cut down on any worrying, so be it.