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Welcome to my weekly update for December 13, 2020!
I believe I finished my Christmas shopping last week! Yay! Now I just hope everything gets delivered on time.
Posted:
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia–4 Stars
Read:
I’ve been trying to focus exclusively on A Promised Land (see below) but I mentally had to take a break and read a few of the graphic novels I checked out from the library.
Goldie Vance by Hope Larson, illustrated by Brittney Williams
Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley
Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer, illustrated by Douglas Holgate and Stephen Gilpin
Currently Reading:
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (54% complete as I write this on Friday)
Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy, read by Val Toomey, George Newbern, Marin Ireland, and Joel Froomkin
Reading Challenges I Host:
I announced 2021 sign ups for several challenges I hosted prior to my long blogging break. I hope you’ll join me!
2021 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
2021 Southern Literature Reading Challenge
2021 New (To You) Narrator Reading Challenge (which dovetails nicely with Caffeinated Book Reviewer‘s yearly Audiobook Challenge)
Speaking of reading challenges, I used to follow A Novel Challenge to find my yearly reading challenges. Since it looks like that site is on hold, Susan at Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books started a new aggregator for reading challenges called Ready for a Reading Challenge? Head over to share a challenge you’re hosting or find a challenge to participate in!
Watching:
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays. Yes, we discovered the joy of this show that we’ve heard so much about and we’ve been binging the holiday episodes.
Up Next:
I will be very surprised if I finish either of the books I’m currently reading. I will probably take another brief break from A Promised Land and read a few more graphic novels though. I’ve already checked out the sequels to Goldie Vance and Wires and Nerve. My library doesn’t own sequels to Kim Reaper.
What did your week look like?
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.
45 Comments
Congrats on the Christmas shopping! Feels good. I still need to get some groceries and a couple of stocking stuffers next week but other than that we are done and all packages were sent out last week. I hope you enjoy your week and find some quiet time to read those graphic novels. I have two I’m picking up this week as well. They’re nice to have when you need a break. I know it’ll take me awhile to get through Obama’s book!
I think I finished my online shopping yesterday. I’ll be glad when the packages stop coming, but I hope they all come on time, too!
I listened to Mexican Gothic on audio and thought it was excellent! I haven’t found a good new Christmas story to read, but I listen to A Christmas Carol on audio every year and found an audio download of Christmas stories to listen to some others, as well. I swore off reading challenges after several years of miserable failures, where it seemed as soon as I set myself a challenge I read everything but the books on the list, but your New-to-You Narrators is seriously tempting me. This year, everything is different, right? It might be a good time to get more organized about blogging.
I ordered so much online, I can’t even remember everything I need to track! And then with family members texting me about packages that should be arriving on any given day… I’ve just thrown up my hands and I’m treating every day as a mystery.
Reading challenges actually work well to push me out of my comfort zone. I’m a list-maker and -checker, so I push myself to complete the ones I sign up for.
I loved Mexican Gothic- so good!! And awesome that you finished your shopping – yay!!!
I am having a hard time reading Christmas books this year, and they are usually my favorite genre to indulge in! I am chalking it up to being 2020. 🙁
2020 has wreaked havoc on my normal reading preferences. I hope you manage to get at least one Christmas book in!
I am in the same boat as you–everything has been ordered, but we hope it arrives. We are expecting a huge storm this week, so that will only delay things. Thankfully, we have no little ones, so even if there is a delay it will be all right.
Love all your Christmas books you posted about. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a fun story. I haven’t read a graphic novel in a while. I’m overdue.
Hope you have a great week.
http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2020/12/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-dec-14.html
I keep checking my tracking numbers to see what has arrived. It’s a bit nerve-wracking! I hope the storm doesn’t delay things too much!
I am also done with my shopping, and just waiting for a few last things to arrive in the mail. Other than that, though, everything is all wrapped and ready to go!
I have a hard time keeping just one book on the go at a time, so I don’t blame you for breaking up A Promised Land with graphic novels. That sounds like the perfect way to do it, actually. It lets you have variety without (hopefully) being too distracting.
I just finished wrapping everything I have on hand this afternoon! I’m usually a procrastinator so it feels nice to be as done as I can be already!
I used to only read one book at a time but it’s been years since I did that. But I have to get A Promised Land finished and it can easily take me 6 weeks to finish a book this long if I let other books distract me. The graphic novels were a perfect palate cleanser when I needed a break.
Yup, I think when I eventually get to A Promised Land I will need to focus on it if I don’t want it to take a full year’s worth of off & on reading.
I’ve had A Promised Land sat in my Audible library since it came out. I really want to get to it. Maybe over Christmas.
I think I might sign up to your Translation challenge. I haven’t read nearly enough translated fiction. 🙂
I was tempted to listen to A Promised Land but I knew I’d never finish it before I had to return it to the library. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
I like the variety of books my Translation challenge exposes me to. There are a lot of great ones out there!
I think I’ll be spacing out my listen to A Promised Land too. I haven’t started it yet though. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
A Promised Land is so long, it practically demands that you either read it in small doses or at least take a break.
Congrats on getting your Christmas shopping done! I mailed my gifts last week, and they were supposed to get there on Saturday, but they didn’t. The post office is so slow right now!
Ugh! It’s so frustrating! I mailed my package yesterday and it’s supposed to arrive Friday. Fingers crossed! I ordered everything else and sent it directly to my family and friends so those are out of my control. Yikes!
Yes A Promised Land is long! I intend listening to it, and I thought in 2021 I might do that one, plus another at the same time so as to break it up a bit. Nice to have the Christmas shopping done.
I really wanted to listen to A Promised Land as well but I knew that I would never finish it before my time was up at the library. I’m a much slower listener than reader.
I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. Only a few more things to get and then I am all set. It might just be me, but I feel like Christmas came so fast this time. It could be because I am not longer a student but maybe it is because of this whole quarantine thing too? Not sure!
I also enjoy watching the Great British Baking Show!
Hope you have a wonderful week!
2020 has been such a long year but at the same time, Christmas did arrive quickly! Good luck finishing your shopping!
I never really plan shopping anymore now it’s just me and my daughter. I just stash things away for the last half of the year and that’s what she gets. Her birthday is in June so the stashing from the first half of the year is for it. She introduced me to the Great British Bake-Off so I’ve seen a couple of episodes.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I wish I were a planner like that but I’m generally more of a procrastinator.
The Great British Bake Off is fantastic, this last season was just the tonic we needed for tough times, it always makes me smile. I shall check out the challenges!
I recommended The Great British Bake-Off to my mom too. I told her it gets a little stressful when they’re still decorating or plating down to the wire but otherwise everyone just seems happy to be in the tent and helping each other when they can. It’s nice to see people being nice and happy and laughing together!
I think we will be hearing a lot about Obama’s new book in the next few months. After years of not participating in any challenges I finally have the bug to do it again. I think we need challenges to make it through the next year!
I was looking back through my reading over past years. I tend to be in a rut if I don’t have a book club or reading challenge to push me out of my comfort zone. I’ll probably end up signing up for way too many challenges but even if I only read one or two books I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, it will be worth it.
No shopping done from my side. I think everyone will just get some home-baked cookies this year. Don’t know when I’ll get to the shops at all!
I rather just stay at home reading.
There are so many reading challenges doing the rounds. I don’t know if I should even open them! Way too tempting. I do plan on doing my own challenge – Around the world in eighty books. If I can link that up here and there, I’ll see.
Hope you will have a good week ahead!
Elza Reads
Around the World in Eighty Books sounds like a fun challenge!
Fortunately, I was able to order pretty much all my Christmas gifts online and have them sent directly to my friends and family. That made everything a lot easier, especially this year. One of my friends used to bring me homemade cookies pretty regularly, and definitely at Christmas, so I’ll be missing those this year. Her mom baked them for her to share and they were all amazing!
I watched the GBBS Holiday episodes last night, always such fun!
I think I’ll sign up for the Translation challenge next year.
Wishing you a great reading week
We inhaled all the holiday episodes (I think there were 6 on Netflix) and now we regret watching them so fast. I did find mince pies (neither of us had ever tried them before) at an international sort of store so we ate those as we watched the last couple of episodes. That was a lot of fun! But now we feel like we need more mince pies to get us through the holidays!
My family doesn’t really exchange gifts anymore so I didn’t have to buy anything. I just started a new book blog so I am just getting started again. I had a book blog before for many years. If you are interested I have a post on my blog. I hope you have a great week reading!
I resurrected my blog in June after a 4-year blogging break too! Thanks for stopping by!
I love the choice of graphic novels. And Mexican Gothic has been on my TBR for a while. I am glad your shopping is all done and you are ready for teh festivities. Stay safe!
Mexican Gothic was really good!
Congrats on the Christmas shopping progress! Enjoy your books. I loved Goodnight Beautiful, and A Promised Land is sitting on my nightstand. I will read it a bit at a time.
Here are my WEEKLY UPDATES
My review of Goodnight Beautiful is already scheduled for this week. Wow! What a ride that was!
I recommend reading A Promised Land a bit at a time. I’m trying to power through but I wish I could take my time with it.
I know not everyone is like us, but I, like you, enjoy breaking up longer reads with shorter ones. I am eager to hear what you think about the Obama memoir. It will be forever before I finally get to that one, as the line is long for it at my library.
Thank you for the reminder to sign up for the Books in Translation challenge. I think I need to organize my challenges with a tab at the top of my blog. It can be tricky for me to keep up with these.
We are doing a 25 Days of Holiday Movies here, and I think I will add The Great British Baking Show: Holidays to my list.
I don’t know if I’ve ever taken a break from a long book before but it really helped. I think I need to make a habit of it. I just start to lose motivation after 400-500 pages and I start creeping along.
I hope you enjoy The Great British Breaking Show! Everyone is so nice and funny, it feels like a visit with friends.
I only have one more present to buy for Christmas and I’ll be done ! And I’m adding Mexican gothic to my TBR. Have a great week 😉
Woohoo! I hope you’re finished with that one more gift by now! I’m normally a huge procrastinator so it’s nice to be done with time to spare.
No I haven’t, I’m lazy like that, lol !! 😉
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Mexican Gothic!! I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks!
Oh I’m jealous haha- I’ve barely STARTED my shopping. 🙂 But actually I got a little done so far this weekend, so there’s that.
I’ve got Mexican Gothic on my list to read, can’t wait for that one.
I spent an entire day last week just ordering everything and got pretty much all my shopping knocked out. I spent one more day getting stocking stuffers from local stores and called it done. It’s nice to be done so early (early for me, anyway)!