Readers Imbibing Peril 13 - Book Recs so Far

Usually in the Fall my reading turns in a more focused way to thrillers and horror. I actually read them all year around. I also wear skulls and raven jewelry all year around, too, but it just becomes more concentrated in September with a slight fading by January. 

Anyway, this year I learned of something called Readers Imbibing Peril from my good reading buddy Sarah Says Read and figured I’d sign up. I love signing up for things that I already planned to do!  

I've read six books so far that I'm going to count, with two in the works. Here’re a couple of good ones I’ve read so far, not counting A Study in Scarlet Women, which I talked about in my last summary post and really enjoyed.

Bout of Books 21 - Running Post

Bout of Books is hosted here.

This is my 3^rd or 4^th bout. Typically, I update strong at first and then fall down the rabiit hole by Wednesday, so here's hoping I stay up on the challenge all week! Whoot!! I will mostly be updating on twitter. Check me out over there!

Reader Harder 2018 - The Beginnings

It’s actually almost like failing the Book Riot Read Harder challenge is becoming a tradition! Well. Here's the list. I'm already ahead of the game. So, I should totally win this time!! Right! Just lie to me, yall. 

Here's the list and how Sarah and I broke down the 24 categories.

Clear A Shelf - October 2017

This is the third time I’m doing a month – long challenge to focus on books that I already own.

Here’s the wrap up post from last time, which shows my meager success and includes how the others did, as well. 

I have decided to do it all again for October!

This time I am determined to not check out any additional books from the library through this month in order to be in a good place for the challenge.

I have changed no rules. 

Bout of Books 20: Challenge - Synopsis Rewrite

Interesting challenge, technically for yesterday but I forgot to check: Rewrite a book synapses from a different characters POV #synopsisrewritebob20

I’ll do The Girls, which I just finished.

The book is originally told from the point of view of Evie, a girl from a dairy town in California whose grandmother was a semi-famous actress. Her life is mostly boring and she’s ready to shake things up. When she falls in love with a young woman, Suzanne, who is already in the upper echelon of a "cult," Evie is sucked into a whole different life. She's not used to attention or having her own needs met in any thoughtful way. 

RocTBF2017 - Running Post

It’s an absolute travesty that I have yet to post about the 2017 Rochester Teen Book Festival. What is my life, yall?

RocTBF is an annual event focused on… yes… young adult literature. It’s grown into a massive event with over 2000 teens and 300 volunteers. This will be my fifth year volunteering I think.

So, for the last couple of years, I’ve tasked myself with having read at least one book by each author who will be there by the day of the festival. This can include books that I previously read. Ya know, the beauty of giving yourself a challenge is that you can basically change the rules when you realize that you were over- ambitious!

I’ve never actually met the goal completely,  though 2015 was NOT MY FAULT!!

 

So, this year, there are 28 (AAAHH) authors scheduled to attend. For the last couple of years, at least one or 2 authors have to cancel at that the last minute but you can’t predict who it’ll be! So... here's the running list/ progress (updated 5/13):

Read Harder - ROC: A Book about War

Last week was the first meeting for the Read Harder Rochester book group! We had four whole people show up! Whoott!!

The group is new and each month we plan to get together to talk about two tasks from the challenge. This month’s categories up for discussion were: A Book about War and A LGBTQ Romance. This post is about the former.

Clear A Shelf Wrapup and December Outbox

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y’ALL!!

It’s hard to believe that it is 2017. My guess is that it feels a lot like 2016. Here’s hoping that we aren’t embarking on the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. I will be honest, though. If the dystopian future is about to happen, I am definitely going to be part of the over- controlled (but possibly rebellious) group within the walls who have electricity and central heating. I ain’t gonna lie. I don’t like temporary camping. I definitely wouldn’t survive as a member of the Resistance holed up in the woods.

Anywhoo…

We all know that outbox posts are harder if they cover the whole month. And, yet, of all the posts I did in December, none of them were outbox posts. Welp. And because I don’t want to do a separate post for the Clear A Shelf challenge, I’m smooshing that in here, too!

Here are the highlights for the month.

Challenge- Cheater Recap: TBRs and FairyTale Retelling 2016

I signed up for both the 2016 TBR Pile (#2016TBRPile) and the ROck My TBR Challenges (#RockMyTBR). Both of these challenges were supposed to be focused on reading books that I already own. However, I cheated. I don’t buy a lot of books (heh, only kind of true) but I really wanted to use these challenges to get books off my TBR list regardless of whether I owned them or not. Basically, I counted any book for this challenge that I read this year that was already on my Goodreads TBR shelf before 2016. This makes a little overlap with my I Love Libraries challenge but not much. That recap posted yesterday. It's almost like I check out a bunch of stuff that's not even related to what I've said I want to read. Crazy! 

Challenge Recap: I Love Libraries 2016

The I Love Libraries Reading Challenge (#ILoveLibraries2016) was hosted by Bea’s Book Nook. The hashtag wasn’t getting much play on Twitter, so either it kind of fizzled out or most people were posting on the -gram or the -Tube. I didn’t really set a goal because most of my books I read come from the library. 

For this challenge I did not include any of the audiobooks that I listened to through Overdrive but only physical books checked out from the library. I'm also not counting any books that I checked out but then had to return before I could read them. 

This post is basically a testament to the awesomeness that is the Monroe County Library System. 

Here are a couple of favorites: 

  

And The Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner 

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brenden Kiely 

Challenge Status

Goal: meh

Completed: 53 (when I wrote this)

Below, in picture blocks, are the Goodreads cover photos for all the books I read from the library this year with highlights and regrets.

As Told by Tina - Why I’m Not Doing the Goodreads Challenge In 2017 (Guest Post)

Hi! My name is Tina and I blog over at As Told By Tina. First, I would like to thank Kenya for having me on her blog today.

Today, I am going to talk to you about why I’m not doing the goodreads challenge for 2017 and how I plan on tracking my reading in 2017.

I’ve thought hard and long about what my goal should be for 2017 when it comes to the goodreads challenge. For the past two years my goal has been 150 and both years I didn’t make it. I was reading really short books in order to attempt to make my goal and most of the time this lead to me being in a reading slump. It also made me feel like a lot of pressure to meet my number. It was taking time away from my family because I was so focused on trying to reach this reading goal I set for myself.

Clear A Shelf Challenge Two: Sign Up Post

In August, I challenged myself to read books that I already owned. I called the challenge ClearAShelf (ingenious, right?) and invited tweeps to join me.

Here’s the wrap up post from last time, which shows my meager success and includes how the others did, as well. 

I have decided to do it all again for December! Actually… Lorryn asked me if I was planning to do it again and said she was interested and why the hell not!

What the Hell is a Food Memoir? #ReadHarder 2016

Yesterday at Book Riot Live, I went to the Read Harder IRL panel to talk about the books that people are reading for their challenges. Here’s the link to the challenge if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, I never officially do Read Harder because, really, let’s be honest. I don’t like to read things that I don’t want to read and each year there are two or three categories that I am just WAY not into (here's my post about 2015, if you don't believe me).

There are also a few categories that I push myself into and really enjoy. But, it is time to figure out how many categories I have read already and see if I’m willing to let myself complete the challenge this year.

What the hell is a food memoir?

And, I'm perfectly embarrassed to admit this, but I'm not totally sure where SouthEast Asia is, either. I know. I'm an asshole. But the whole point of the challenge is to read beyond your usual and learn a few things. 

So, overwhelmingly, a common theme for the categories that give me "trouble" is non-fiction, my arch- nemesis. I'm going to spend a little time with this and see how it goes... 

Update! I just found out that The Jungle Book won an Audie. BOOM!! (So did Furiously Happy!)

Thanksto Michelle on in the Goodreads group for making an editable form!

August Recap and ClearAShelf Results (Pathetic)

So, August was dubbed (by me) to be focused on clearing out some of my TBR books, especially those that I already owned at the time. I made a post and invited other people to join on this, a noble quest. 

  

2016 Book Challenges - June Update

 I can't believe that we are already halfway through 2016. That is crazy! Here's how my reading challenges are going so far. I'll post an update about blog challenges separately. Can you tell I'm trying to reach a goal for posts before the end of the month? 

May 2016 - Recap Post

How many days past the beginning of the month is a “last month’s wrap up post” considered late?

Total Books Read: 22 (More than usual because of the reading challenges)

Total Blog Posts: 16

My favorite was the one I posted for Mental Health Awareness month. 

Bout of Books 16 - Recap Post

I used my first Bout of Books readathon challenge to support my Teen Book Festival Challenge goal. While I did not end up reading each author that was at the Rochester TBF (I WAS SHORT BY THREE PEOPLE, DAG- NABBIT!!), I did read a butt ton and got pretty close.

Bout of Books Update, Midweek!

This week is all about binge reading all the books to complete my RocTBF2016 Challenge. I’ve joined the bout of books readathon for the first time mostly to support the goal. It’s super fun. The other people participating are nice and run some great blogs. Follow the hashtag #boutofbooks on twitter if you don’t believe me. I'm sure you can follow it on other platforms, but I'll leave that all up to you to figure out!

Since Monday I've:

• 972 actual pages 
• Listened to about 8.5 hours of audiobook
• Finished 4 books (completing one that was already started before the challenge started).
• Participated in 1 twitter chat (monday)
• Been tweeting encouragement to other #boutofbooks tweeps

Currently reading:

  

Up Next:

Bout of Books Challenge

May 11: Bout of Books Challenge today is “Five Favorites”

So… My Five Blog Posts (Don't judge me for being overly self- focused! I needed something quick!! Plus, it is *my* blog!)

1.    My post about the Unofficial Book Riot Book Crawl last year.

2.    A post about what I do in my "spare time."

3.    This post about my favorite Bookish people in the 'verse.

4.    This one from when I got my Little Free Library posted!

5.    My post after Broadway con in January.

Bout of Books 16 - Master Post

 What do I need to push through the last week before TBF? A reading challenge! Yes!! Enter: Bout of Books 16. This will be my first one.

Official Blurb:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Reading Goal:

My goal is to read the 10 books I need to complete my TBF reading challenge goal!! Of course, there's work to deal with.

Challenges/Giveaways

Monday 5/9
Introduce Yourself #insixwords
My post: Kenya, here! Bookish, nosy YA enthusiast.

Tuesday 5/10
Show Off Your Shelves Photo Challenge #shelfie4boutofbooks

My post: Here's an old #shelfie #shelfie4boutofbooks. Hey!

I'm wearing those headphones I lost!

Wednesday 5/11
5 Favorites - Update post

Thursday 5/12
If you like this, try this...

My Posts:

#boutofbooks challenge: If you like @cw_spn #Supernatural, try Anna Dressed in Blood by @KendareBlake #YaLit

#boutofbooks: If you liked American Boys by @KielyBrendan and @JasonReynolds83 then try Lies We Tell Ourselves by @robin_talley #RocTBF2016

Friday 5/13
Freaky Friday Photo Challenge #freakyboutofbooks
 

My Post: The most horrifying picture on the Internet: my coffee cup is... EMPTY!! #boutofbooks #freakyboutofbooks 

Saturday 5/14
Share your favorite Bout of Books moment - Fail! I just shared and RTed other people's moments!

Sunday 5/15
FREE DAY!

Recap Post

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