My Goings On in September:
- I started teaching my homeschool co-op classes: Acting, Musical Theater and 5th/6th Grade Writing.
- Along with the school year comes activities – my daughter continues gymnastics (four days a week for three hours each time!) and my boys start swimming twice a week. Plus, we’re doing obedience classes with our two dogs – they’re actually doing really well with it (surprise, surprise). Throw in random doctor appointments (and eye doctor, etc), my bi-weekly Bible study small group, which starts meeting again in the fall, and my teaching the K-1 class at church (which I do year-round, but just one Saturday/Sunday per month or so), and you have a very full month. Fall is always so busy, busy!!
- I did a first edit of Alyssa’s Redemption by Karly Morgan and a minor edit/proofread of Resounding Desolation by Kate Thomas.
- I binge watched on Netflix:
- The last few seasons of Switched at Birth (I love that ASL is used so extensively in this show!)
- The entire series (so far) of The Fosters – This show is a total guilty pleasure. It makes me crazy and the characters often make decisions that urge me to throw large objects at the TV, but I’m still totally hooked.
- The first two seasons of The Walking Dead – This is my new obsession. Plus the hubby’s watching it with me, which is a big bonus (we don’t have many shows that we both like).
Most Popular Posts:
Since I’ve been so busy this month, I haven’t posted as much and I haven’t had much of a chance to make my rounds around the blogosphere, and it’s worked the other way too – my numbers were way down this whole month. It makes me sad to look at them, but I just need to face the fact that sometimes we all have slow (or, rather, busy!) months and just let it go. Numbers aren’t everything!
Anyway, here were my most popular posts in September:
What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler – ANOTHER All-Time Favorite
August Wrap-Up Round Up Giveaway (Yay! Make sure you check out the round-up giveaway for September, which will be posted on The Emerald City Book Review on the 6th)
Is It Ever Okay to Judge – Let’s Discuss
Other Features & Discussions:
Top Ten Series I’ve Failed to Finish
Book Sniffing: It’s a Real Thing!
From the Editor – Words and Their Stories
Top Ten Books You Should Try If You Love The Hunger Games
My Favorite September Discussions/Features on Other Blogs:
- Jen at TheBookAvid asks Do We Need Books About Mental Illness By Neurotypical People?
- Renae at Respiring Thoughts writes about Cyberbullying: what it is, and what it isn’t.
- Karen over at Kissin’ Blue Karen talks about the Worst Reasons for Reading and The Worst Reasons I Ever Bought/Read a Book (a fun, gif-filled post!).
- Cynthia at Bingeing on Books has a thought-provoking post on self-censorship!
My 2015 Reading Progress:
Here’s my reading for 2015 so far. As I’ve mentioned before, the books that are unrated are books I’ve edited, so I don’t rate them.
September 2015 Reviews
September was a very slow month for reading/reviewing, but THREE of these books fall into the All-Time Favorites category. How does that happen?! Here’s what I reviewed this month:
- Truest by Jackie Lea Sommers | Review | Rating: 5/5 ALL-TIME FAVORITE!
- The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand | Review | Rating: 4/5
- I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler | Review | Rating: 5/5 ALL-TIME FAVORITE!
- Transformed by E.V. Fairfall | Review | Rating: 4/5
- Undivided by Neal Shusterman | Review | Rating: 5/5 ALL-TIME FAVORITE!
My Favorite September Reads:
I could not possibly pick a favorite since there were three all-time faves this month! I don’t think this has ever happened before!! I loved all three of these books for very different reasons, but they all wormed their way into my heart. Click on the pics to read my reviews of these books!
Jackie Lea Sommers has generously offered to give away a copy of her book to someone in the US. Of course, I jumped at the chance to share this amazing book with you!! Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter below to enter!
Wrap-Up Round-Up!
Don’t forget to link your September wrap-up posts up to the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up! And watch for the giveaway, which will be posted on The Emerald City Book Review on the 6th!
Wow, you ARE really busy! That can be a good thing sometimes though. I like the Fall because there are usually a lot of events going on and those are exciting. It’s my favorite time of the year. Yay for October too – totally my favorite month.
I really want to read What We Saw, so I’m glad that topped your September reading!
What We Saw was amazing and I highly recommend it! I agree that being busy can sometimes be a good thing – especially if we’re busy with things we enjoy. A breather now and again is nice too, though! 🙂
So glad you found such great books to love this month! I hope things will calm down for you so you can spend more time in the blogosphere, but life happens. We all have to do what we can manage and not worry about what we can’t.
Yes, this month has been pretty unmanageable, but I know it’s no worse than last year – so I just have to get back into a rhythm that works for me. 🙂
Looks like some great reads on the September list.
Yes! I love that, while I didn’t manage to get a LOT of reading done, at least it was really good reading!!
Looks like a good busy month!!! You definitely have a lot going on with kids! I am just getting used to the start of activities and such. I can see it will just get worse as they get older! Your reading month looks awesome – Three all time favorites! Crazy! Thanks for the giveaway and have a great October!
Yes, each phase of parenthood has its own busyness. When they’re younger, you’re chasing them around and when they get a bit older, you’re driving them around! 🙂
You had a busy September….. looks like some great reads
Busy definitely sums it up!!
Very productive month! Happy October!
Yes – very productive, but not as productive on the blog as usual. That’s okay, though!
I’m impressed that you can read so many books and get all that other stuff done. When do you sleep? 🙂
Sleep? Sleep is for wimps. Actually, I often suffer from insomnia so I end up reading (way too late). It’s a curse that I put to good use! 🙂
Sounds like you’re really busy! I love the discussion posts, wish I had more time to read them all. Thanks for doing the wrap-up links. Have a great month!
I love discussions too, which is why I started the Discussion Challenge – it’s been super successful, but I do admit that sometimes I feel overwhelmed with reading them all! Still, it’s totally worth it!
looks like you have had a good luck with books so far this year 🙂 and oh my, busy month of Sept, it sounds exciting with all going on 🙂
Yes, busy about sums it up! So I’m really glad that I had some great reads to go along with a hectic month!
I typically don’t pay attention to my numbers because I did so much at first and was frustrated and felt like I was failing even though I was a baby blog and was learning. I’m still learning, but I’ve recently started looking at my numbers more. We all have busy and slow months. It’s just the nature of the game of life. 🙂
Wow, sounds like you have been very, very busy. I love Walking Dead so much!! I am glad you are enjoying it. Thanks so much for the giveaway.
Hey girl! So, I totally loved what you said: “numbers aren’t everything” because THEY’RE NOT! It’s cool that you said that because I too felt down about but just now came to the realization that it really doesn’t matter. Take time for yourself girl! You’re a hardworking mom! I hope October is bettet for you. ♡♡
I confess that there are times where I feel a bit sad and let down that I can’t read as many books as others, but you are so right Nichole, numbers are not everything. I think I’ve finally come to resolve that this is how life is for me right now and I can’t really complain – I get to read four books in a month!
On another note, there is nothing like binge watching a television series with the hubby – I love it!
Holy cow….your month blows my mind! Your awesome! I cannot wait to see all of October 🙂
Wow, you’re very busy. I’m run off my feet at the moment trying to keep everything under control sometimes the blog and reading just has to wait for you. Have a lovely week.
Truest sounds great! I would enjoy reading this book. Thank you
All of your favorite September reads look good. I am looking forward to reading them. Thanks for having the giveaway.
I recently started to watch Switched at Birth and I’m really loving it! When I was younger I was already interested in ASL but never got further than learning the alphabet. The show is definitely encouraging me to learn more words as well, I’m watching youtube videos about it like crazy!
This book looks so good! Thanks for the giveaway!
So happy to hear you are enjoying The Walking Dead. It gets so much better! Looks like you are really busy now. I hope you remember to take sometime for yourself. Thanks for mentioning my posts here. I love you for that.