August Recap 2017

I’m old, time flies and it’s getting faster. We’re 2/3 of the way done with 2017 and I’m still like but what about 2016. I’m not ready for 2018, but it’s coming at me like a freight train so I may as well get ready for it right?

I finally (five months later) got most of my office at work decorated and of course it was bookish themed, see photo above. I have one last blank wall I’m going to put travel detail photos on but I need to get them printed.

It’s starting to feel like fall in New England (YAY!) with temperatures in the low 60s and 70s (that’s 15-25 for you lot in the Cs). I’m glad the heat is mostly gone, but more so for the humidity being gone. It’s cool enough I got a creepy shot on my morning walk this week that could easily have come from a zombie or vampire movie.

Books
I’m still making a lot of progress on reading this year after such a dismal year last year. I’m enjoying just having extra time to read when I want and to luxuriate over what I’m reading. I picked up a MM romance novel for the first time in a long time and enjoyed quite a bit of Jane Austen fan-fiction this month. I also managed to read a few books off my overflowing TBR shelves/kindle list so that made me feel successful too!

512. Worth Waiting For – Wendy Qualls
513. Start Late, Finish Rich – David Bach
514. The Dashwood Sisters Tell All (Adventures of Jane Austen and her Legacy #3) – Beth Pattillo
515. The Address – Fiona Davis
516. Jane Austen: A Brief Life – Fiona Stafford
517. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet – Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
518. The Atwelle Confession – Joel Gordonson
519. Claudia Must Die – T.B. Markinson
520. The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald

I think the best one this month is a toss-up between Jane Austen: A Brief Life for its practical and easy to understand life of Jane Austen mostly through her writings and The Bookshop which made me want to wrap its writing around me and just bask in its beauty. (I think the post for it is scheduled for sometime in September – I’ve been spacing things out in case of a dry spell when things get busy in the fall.)

Recent Acquisitions
I didn’t go quite as far overboard as last month with new books, but I still got a few. All four are galleys/ARCs I either requested last month or were offered to me this month:

• The Atwelle Confession – Joel Gordonson
• How to Own Your Own Mind – Napoleon Hill
• The Self-Love Experiment – Shannon Kaiser
• Quakeland – Kathryn Miles
• Jane Austen: A Brief Life – Fiona Stafford

Culture Corner
One of the highlights of the month, although I won’t admit it to my hiker roommate or the boyfriend – HA I’m pretty sure neither read the blog, was going up to see the Flume Gorge in New Hampshire. It was a wonderful day trip and even though I nearly died from the hike (I’m so far beyond out of shape this is only slight exaggeration rather than hyperbole) it was absolutely worth it to see the flume. I didn’t take too many photos of it because there were a lot of people but look at all the fun one’s I did take!

If you look at the selfie you can just see the roommate over the BF’s head. We were taking a photo of him standing on the rocks in a stream because he wanted one. Didn’t even think about him in the background when we took our selfie.

What’s Next?
I’m hoping to continue chipping away at my TBR books. I’ll also probably start tapering off on ARC/galleys for the rest of the year. I have a few left to get through but with all the fun fall activities I’m looking forward to I don’t know how much time I’ll have! I really really really want to get up to the sunflower farm in Newburyport, MA to see the sunflower fields. Plus there’s apple picking and pumpkin carving and pumpkin spice stuff. We will also try to squeeze in a few more beach days (YAY beach reads) if it warms up at all.

What are you up to? Any last summer things you want to happen or fall things you’re looking forward to?