July Wrap Up and August TBR

July Wrap Up

Wow did July fly by. The best way to see what I was up to in July is to read my I'm back from college post. I had a busy month which means that reading got pushed on to the back burned. I actually only finished 3 books in July. This is very sad to me, but I know my reading pace will pick back up. I just didn't have time in July. Of the three books I read I really enjoyed both of them so in my mind it was well worth it. 

1. Fly Away by Kristin Hannah took me most of the month to read. It is a large book and I was only reading around 10 pages per day. Once I finished Fly Away I wanted to pick it up in read it all over again. It was that good. My review will be up soon. 

2. 5-B Poppy Lane was the short book I needed to get back in the reading spirit. This was around a 100 pages and only took me a couple days to read. This book is 5.5 in the Cedar Cove Series. Although I had some issues with this being part of the Cedar Cove Series I still thought it was a wonderful Debbie Macomber book.  My review will be up soon. 

The Cedar Cove TV show comes on Saturdays on Hallmark at 7 central time, 8 eastern time. It has been on for two weeks so far and I think they are doing an amazing job and not straying too far from the books.

3. I finished Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen on the last day of July. I admit that I went into this book expected to wholeheartedly love it, but it was a bit slow. The ending was amazing and I ended up really enjoying this Robin Hood retelling. My review for Scarlet will be up in September during Classics Retold. For now just know I totally recommend this book.

August TBR

I have a lot of reading I want to get done before I got back to university so I made a specific post called 3 week until I go back to college reading list. That list will give you a good idea of what I will be reading in August. Book reviews will be lacking in August as they were this month as I plan to read a lot for Classics retold in September. I want to do a few posts about getting ready for college. 

Beat the Heat Readathon Progress

Hosted by Antie Spinelli Reads and Phantasmic Reads

Day 1 July 29th

pg 111 to pg 122 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Books Read: 0 

Total Pages Read: 11 

Day 2 July 30th

pg 122 to pg 192

Total Books Read: 0

Total Pages Read: 81

Day 3 July 31st

pg 192 to pg 292

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 181

Day 4 August 1st

pg 11 to pg 42 in All I Need by Susane Colasanti

I made a mid week library trip to return some books and pick up a couple more. This one was overdue along with Sarah Dessen's book. I thought the library opened at 2 so I came at 2:30 only to realize they didn't open until three. I sat in the car and read as much of All I Need as I could before the library opened. Unfortunately I had to return it, but hope I will get it back soon. 

pg 0 to pg 22 in City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Third book in the mortal instruments series. Hoping to get all 5 read before seeing the movie. 

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 234

Day 5 August 2nd

pg 22 to pg 53

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 265

Day 6 August 3rd

pg 53 to pg 82

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 294

Day 7 August 4th

pg 82 to pg 123

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 335

Day 8 August 5th

pg 123 to pg 134

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 346

Day 9 August 6th

pg 134 to pg 181 in City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 393

Day 10 August 7th

pg 181 to pg 221

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 433

Day 11 Aug 8th

pg 221 to pg 270 in City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 482

Day 12 Aug 9th

pg 270 to pg 310

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 522

Day 13 Aug 10th

pg 310 to pg 420 

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 632

Day 14 Aug 11th

pg 420 to pg 466

Total Books Read: 1

Total Pages Read: 678

Day 15 Aug 12th

pg 466 to pg 541 in City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (finished)

Total Books Read: 2

Total Pages Read: 753

Day 16 Aug 13th

pg 42 to pg 108 in All I Need by Susane Colasanti

Total Books Read: 2

Total Pages Read: 819

Day 17 Aug 14th

pg 108 to pg 212 in All I Need by Susane Colasanti

Total Books Read: 3

Total Pages Read: 923

Day 18 Aug 15

pg 0 to pg 65 in The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Total Books Read: 3

Total Pages Read: 988

Day 19 Aug 16

pg 65 to pg 124

Total Books Read: 3

Total Pages Read: 1047

Day 20 Aug 17

pg 124 to pg 228

Total Books Read: 3

Total Pages Read: 1151

Day 21 Aug 18

pg 228 to pg 243

Total Books Read: 3

Total Pages Read: 1166

Beat the Heat Readathon Starting Line

Hosted by Antie Spinelli Reads and Phantasmic Reads

Since this is a two week readathon I have big goals. I will be out of town from August 9th through August 12th so I expect to get little to know reading done those fours days as I was swimming in a pool most of the day. 

Goals:

Finish Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen starting this readathon at pg 111, finished All I Need by Susane Colasanti starting this readathon at pg 11, start and finish City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, and start The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin Mckinley. 

Wish my luck

Rachael

July Read-A-Thon Wrap Ups

Long time blog followers have probably noticed that this months read-a-thon's stats were a bit different. I never did a wrap up post for any read-a-thon I did in July. Wow! I'm here to wrap up all my read-a-thons for July in one post. July has been my lowest reading month of the whole year. I have read less books and less pages in July thanks to attending college. July also ended up being the month I participated in the most week long readathons. Almost every week of July was filled up with a read-a-thons. Without further to do here are my readathons stats.




I read 79 pages in 7 days which is about 11 pages per day during my first week of college. 
Books Started: 

Fly Away by Kristin Hannah

Hosted by Pure Imagination

I read a total of 48 pages in 3 days which is about 16 pages per day. Thankfully once I got to unit 2 of College Algebra things started to get a little easier so I had a little more time to read. This was the easier week for speech also because we did not have to give a speech this week. 

Books Started:

Fly Away by Kristin Hannah

This read-a-thon is hosted Patrick @ The Bookshelves and Jen @ YA Romantics.

I read a total of 274 pages in 7 days which is about 39 pages per day. Don't be fooled this was one of my harder weeks of college as I had to give two speeches this week and I was still busy cruising through math. Fly Away was hitting a point where I really wanted to find out the ending so I stayed up late many nights to read as much as possible. I had a boring Friday night where my friends didn't want to do anything so I sat and read 5B Poppy Lane by Debbie Macomber. I was able to start Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen on Saturday. 

Books Finished: 

I finished my goals for this readathon and finished Fly Away by Kristin Hannah and started and finished 5-B Poppy Lane by Debbie Macomber

Book Started:

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

The Hot Summer Readathon was my most successful readathon of this month. 

I read 100 pages in 7 days which is about 14 pages per day. I think this is good considering I had a lot I needed to get done plus this was the last week I had with my college friends. 

Books Started:

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen and All I Need by Susane Colasanti

I read 501 pages in July for readathons. I think that is a sad number, but I'm glad I was still reading. Overall I'm glad to be done with school for a little while and I hope to get a lot of reading done in August. 

Thanks to all the hosting and all my followers for your continued support

Rachael

High Summer Readathon Progress

I realize I never really announced my participation in this read-a-thon. I meant to get that post up all week, but I was super busy with college. I did happen to track my page numbers and in my mind I was participating although nobody else knew. Here is my progress for the High Summer Read-a-thon. This is hosted by Michelle @ True Book Addict.

Day 1 July 22nd

pg 22 to pg 27 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 5

Day 2 July 23rd

pg 27 to pg 47 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 25

Day 3 July 24th

pg 47 to pg 50 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 28

Day 4 July 25th

pg 50 to pg 58 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 36

Day 5 July 26th

pg 58 to pg 68 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 46

Day 6 July 27th

pg 68 to pg 82 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Total Pages: 60

Day 7 July 28th

pg 82 to pg 111 in Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

pg 0 to pg 11 in All I Need by Susane Colasanti

Total Pages: 100

3 Weeks Until I go Back to College Reading List

As I stated in my earlier post I'm really glad to have three weeks off from college. I know this time is going to go fast. Bear with me through this next month as I try to catch up on blogging just to get behind again in September. Oh the joys of being a busy college student. 

In these next three weeks my plan is to read, read, read. I want to get as much reading done as possible. I also want to get prepared for Classics Retold in September where I will be featuring Robin Hood. I have to warn you in advance that most of the books I read in August will not get review that month. 

Here's my List:

The Books:

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen (I have already started, but it has been slow moving)

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

All I Need by Susane Colasanti

City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (to prepare for City of Bones coming out at the end of August)

The Movies:

Robin Hood and the Prince of Thieves

Robin Hood (2003)

Robin Hood (2010)

All of these movies will be reviewed in September for Classics retold. Wish me luck as I set off to read a lot in August. 

Thanks

Rachael

I'm back from college July 2013 Recap

July was a new adventure for me. This month I set off to university to take 7 credits in four weeks. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The two main classes were College Algebra and Speech. Day 1 of this program I spent 3 hours doing 1 math homework assignment. I thought there was no way I would get math 102 done. There were four units and once I got past Unit 1 of College Algebra I flew through it and finished in 23 days. Speech was frustrating because with all this math homework we didn't have a lot of time for speech. I managed to get my speeches done and although I didn't do the reading I managed to pass all the quizzes and the final thanks to them being online and open book. I just finally started reading my speech book within this last week to pass the final. The third class was leadership and that was an easy one credit class that none of us put much effort into. 

Through it all I did manage to have some fun and make some friends that I truly care about. 

My Dorm Room for the Summer

Desk area

Closet 

Kitchen

Living Room 

Bathroom

I know what you are thinking through all these pictures. There is no way that is a dorm room. We stayed in the nicer dorms at my university this summer. They are apartment style living dorms. I shared this room with one other girl. We each had our own bedroom and just had to share the living room/kitchen and the bathroom. I really learned a lot about living with a roommate that isn't family over this month and I learned that a lot of people don't go to bed as early as I do. 

During this program I never slept good at night. I would wake up to the fridge or the air conditioner turning on. I went to bed around 11 to midnight every night and I would be up every morning at 5:30 am. I thought I would get sleep deprived pretty quickly, but for the most part I was able to keep going. I discovered that I'm most likely going to like naps in college because I began taking naps. 

About two weeks into the program I began to take advantage of early pool hours. I learned that the indoor pool opened at 5:30 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I would head down to the pool and swim for an hour, get ready, and go have breakfast. 

Every day had about the same routine.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper. Also the building
I'm going to be living in for the next year

Then we would head across from The Commons to Math Emporium where we spent countless hours doing math. I spent 62 hours doing homework, quizzes, and tests this month. That doesn't even count all the time I spent watching math videos. 

Then it was off to the school of Business where we took Speech on the 3rd Floor. 

After that we had lunch back at the Commons. Then we had free time in the afternoon followed by Leadership at 4:30 Monday and Fridays. Supper was at 5 to 5:30. That completed our day except for the extra time we went and spent in the math emporium. 

I learned a lot about college life during this 4 week program. I found my way around campus and could tell you where basically any building is at. This program made me even more excited for the fall semester because I understand how much easier fall semester is going to be. I will not be doing this much homework every day in the fall. Sad as this may seem I'm looking forward to moving into my room in the regular dorms in the fall and getting to know even more people. 

All in all I enjoyed my first month of college and I am even more excited to go back for my first real semester of college. For now I got 7 college credits and I'm excited to start my future at this university. 

Thanks 

Rachael