Updates

Q1 & Q2 Recap 2024

Barnaby's Best Day EverI had every intention of doing a real update this month reflecting on the first two quarters of 2024, but life got in the way, and this wasn’t even published last week like it should’ve been. I’m back dating it though. So, this is the short update that you get which includes:

  • The adorably hilarious photo of Barnaby from January when we were on vacation in the Caribbean. Because he’s a doodle, we generally have him in boots and a jacket/snowsuit so that his hair doesn’t get super matted, so seeing the excitement and freedom of him running in the snow was just such a heartwarming thing for us on vacation.
  • A screen shot of some lovely feedback on a piece of writing from a course I took wrapping up my degree. I graduated in May, and we then went on a two week cruise in Scandinavia, which was fantastic and I loved it and bought so much yarn. But this feedback on a piece gave me the life I needed to get through February-May and graduation!
  • And list of books that I’ve read since my last monthly update. I am VERY slowly making my way through these responses. I was on track to catch up but had to demonetize the blog because WordPress/Jetpack got super greedy and wanted to charge for stats access and the cost of that was significantly more than any kickback I got from being an affiliate. As well as even more ARC’s I should never have said yes to.

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Updates

Guess whose back!? Well, kind of . . .

Tim and Barnaby enjoying the backyard of the cabin we rented with friends for a week in Upstate New York in late August.

So, it’s been a little over SEVEN MONTHS since I last posted. That break wasn’t planned, but it was necessary. Between finishing my first year of my two-year program, a lot of travel, work travel and taking on additional responsibilities, and a puppy turning one year old at about the same time as I last posted, it’s been a busy year. In all that busyness non-school reading actually took a back seat. Also, in that busyness this blog celebrated its 13th blog-iversery—so maybe it’s fitting I took most of this year off 😀

I got quite a bit of reading done on our April/May vacation, but then didn’t read anything for leisure again until almost October when there was another brief spurt that has started to trail off again, which is good because I need to catch up on posts. I’m not guaranteeing I’ll be back on a regular basis, but I’m going to try and get back in the habit of posting reviews. I thought about going Goodreads only and then back-posting here, but it didn’t feel right to me. Since I disappeared way back in May, I’ve read 14 books and will probably read a few more before my next recap post.

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Books

Book 984: Two for Trust – Elle Brownlee

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this review, you can check out my May 2020 response, when I read it twice back-to-back. I decided to re-read this to see if it held up for me and it really did.

More “issues” arose this time around with some stilted dialogue and weird time jumps, but those didn’t detract from my sheer joy at reading it. It’s a tame and totally adorable romance with a little bit of external drama to really make Finch and Benedict get their shit together.

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ARC, Updates

November & December Recap 2022

Close up of nametag that has Whoops! I didn’t mean for November to just disappear, but with working the polls for elections, a road trip to NC with the puppy, my first set of final papers in grad school while working full time, and my general November/December busyness it just disappeared in a poof.

So, when I finally sat down to write my recap post sometime around the 15th or 16th I just thought “Nah, I’ll combine November and December and give myself a reprieve.” Now, in early January, I’m not sure that was the best idea—thanks past-Geoff, thanks a lot.

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ARC, Books

Book 979: Heartbreak Boys – Simon James Green

I snagged a copy of this book from NetGalley way back in April, but of course, my schedule went off the rails and I ended up missing the review deadline by a few weeks.* I’m glad I kept my copy and finally got around to it though, it was great!

Heartbreak Boys is the story of Jack and Nate. It starts with a coming out, two horrible breakups, cheating, a lot of sass, an Instagram rivalry, and an embarrassingly awkward forced-road trip together. If that doesn’t convince you to read it, the former best-friends patch up and grow closer should!

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