December 2019 What Are You Reading?

Happy Boxing Day everyone!  I hope your holidays have been great. 😀

I actually did quite a bit of reading this month (mostly while on vacation in Florida).  As you can see, I spent my time catching up on some fiction (those Matt Forbeck books were part of his 12 for ’12, which I actually backed in 2012 – I’m still behind on them though as there are two more trilogies to read!!!)

Nonfiction books:

• Stress Less, Accomplish More by Emily Fletcher

Fiction books:

• Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans.
• Hard Times in Dragon City by Matt Forbeck
• Bad Times in Dragon City by Matt Forbeck
• End Times in Dragon City by Matt Forbeck
• “The Mooncalfe” by David Farland
• “Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages” by Dean Koontz

I also read a Women’s World, Prevention, Yoga Journal, Modern Cat, and Uncanny Magazine while on vacation, too!

My favourite was definitely Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans.  I read the volume 1 graphic novel and absolutely loved it.  I originally got it from the library, but I purchased a copy for myself because I loved it so much. 🙂

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

#WriteTuesday – Back from Vacation!

Last week I was on vacation in Florida. 🙂  My parents and I decided to go as our Christmas present to one another.  We had a lot of fun at Madeira Beach (we stayed in the same condo as when we went three years ago).  I took a ton of pictures (I brought both my Pentax and Nikon; I filled up two SD cards with the Nikon!)  I’ll be working on getting them all uploaded to Flickr over the next week; so far I’ve uploaded my favourites from the first two days to Flickr; check them out here:

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This album will be updated as I upload more pictures this week, too! 🙂

I even brought some minifigures with me to Florida (and bought a few new ones – I didn’t realize there was a new series of Collectible Minifigures out!)  I haven’t taken any Lego pictures in almost a year; it was a lot of fun to bring them back out.  Next time I’m at a beach or pool I’ll have to make sure I have some Lego lounge chairs and wine glasses to get some really fun pics!

Over the course of the week, I didn’t do a whole lot of writing.  But I did a whole bunch of reading.  I read three short novels, some short stories (some were in a copy of Uncanny Magazine that I had on my Kindle; the others were standalone shorts), and a bunch of magazines.  It felt really good to read some fiction again!  I ended my vacation by starting a nonfiction book I’ve been wanting to read (Stress Less, Accomplish More by Emily Fletcher), which I’ll hopefully be finished soon, too!

So how’s your week been?  Have you done anything exciting? 🙂

November 2019 What Are You Reading?

Unexpectedly, November was another personal finance book month!

Nonfiction books:

• The Wealthy Renter: How to Choose Housing That Will Make You Rich by Alex Avery
• Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying by David Bach

Fiction books:

• We Stand On Guard by Brian K. Vaughan and Steve Skroce

I also reread a bunch of comics when I was sick a few weekends ago (some Garfield, my three Sarah’s Scribbles, and Liz Climo I think).

I didn’t really have a favourite out of the new books that I read this month.  Go Green, Live Rich was similar to some other books I’ve read, and I was rather disappointed with The Wealthy Renter (most of the book was just trying to convince you not to buy a house).  Oh, I also started another David Bach book, but decided to stop reading it because it wasn’t grabbing me; maybe I’ll get it again in the future.  And while I thought We Stand On Guard had an interesting premise, I didn’t really care for the story.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

October 2019 What Are You Reading?

Oh my gosh, it’s the end of October already! I’ve been really busy with book editing all month, so I haven’t had much time to read.

Nonfiction books:

• None

Fiction books:

• The Electric State by Simon Stalenhag

I also read five Maclean’s Magazines (Sept 2018, Oct 2018, November 2018,  Jan 2019, Feb 2019, and March 2019 – I’m not sure what happened to the Dec 2018 issue). I was over a year behind and was hoping to get caught up by the federal election that happened this month. While that didn’t happen, I’m now only six months behind! So that’s definitely progress. 🙂

I didn’t have a favourite per se, but I quite enjoyed the articles in their February 2019 Maclean’s issue (that was the “What’s Wrong with the Right/Left?” issue). And while I didn’t finish reading it, I also quite liked the articles on the election in their November 2019 issue, which I was able to flip through at work.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

September 2019 What Are You Reading?

I haven’t had much time for reading this month (and that’s most likely going to continue for the rest of the year now). But here’s what I did read:

Nonfiction books:

• The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate by David Bach
• New Minimalism: Decluttering and Design for Sustainable, Intentional Living by Cary Telander Fortin and Kyle Louise Quilici

Fiction books:

• Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

I’m not sure which book was my favourite between The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner and Into the Drowning Deep (especially since it’s hard to compare fiction to nonfiction in many cases). The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner was an interesting financial book (and I like reading financial books). Into the Drowning Deep was interesting (and I totally bought the idea of mermaids from the Mariana Trench with the exception of how they lived in the deeps but were totally fine out of water for a bit), but I found the start a bit slow and the end a bit too abrupt.

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

August 2019 What Are You Reading?

This month I beat my Goodreads Reading Challenge! For 2019 I once again decided to read 25 books. In other years I’ve pledged to read more, but I found that got stressful, and I often found myself reading random shorter books to beat the challenge. Pledging to read only 25 books has really taken the pressure off!

So here’s what I read this month:

Nonfiction books:

• Happy Go Money: Spend Smart, Save Right and Enjoy Life by Melissa Leong
• “Writing” chapter in The Radio Drama Handbook by Richard J. Hand and Mary Traynor
• How to Make a Plant Love You: Cultivate Green Space in Your Home and Heart by Summer Rayne Oakes
• The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach (Canadian Edition) – I actually snuck this one onto the list, finishing it at 1:30am last night!

Fiction books:

• Unquiet Land by Sharon Shinn

I also read 5 copies of The Walleye that I had sitting around. It was good to finally go through them. 🙂

My favourite book was Sharon Shinn‘s Unquiet Land. I really enjoyed her Elemental Blessings series and am rather sad that this was the last one. 😦 I’ll have to give one of her other series a try!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, book 25 was Unquiet Land. 😉

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?

July 2019 What Are You Reading?

I was super excited: I finally got a hold of Sharon Shinn’s Jeweled Fire!  I tried ordering it as a paperback like three years ago online.  I had the first two books in the series as paperbacks, and was hoping to get all of them in the same format.  But a bit after I ordered it, Amazon changed the publication date to really, really far in the future.  They finally cancelled my order back in June, saying that it wasn’t being published in paperback. 😦

So I ended up looking to the library, who was able to get a copy in for me through interlibrary loan.  Of course, the book came way faster than I expected, so I had to rush through the second book, Royal Airs, first! (I read the first book, Troubled Waters, years ago now; I wanted to the other books together, so I held off on reading Royal Airs to the point where I forgot a lot of what happened in the first book).  It took me a bit to get my bearings in Royal Airs, but Shinn did a great job of bringing me back up to speed with the series.

Fiction books:

• Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn
• Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn

Nonfiction books:

• none.

My favourite of the two was Jeweled Fire.  If you haven’t read Sharon Shinn’s Elemental Blessings series, I do recommend you give it a go!  I absolutely love the world, and I thought the first book was absolutely fantastic back when I read it. 🙂

So what have you read over the last month?  What was your favourite book?