I read 23 books last month, shattering my old record by 5. That number is mostly owing to quite a few short kids’ books, which I read to get my Goodreads goal back on track, considering it’s been a rough year for reading so far. Still, my page count for the month is only a few hundred behind my record, so short books or no, I still read a lot (for me).

Here are the books I read in July:

The Novice by Taran Matharu (4 / 5)
Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson (5 / 5)
Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (4 / 5)
The Cat Who Sang for the Birds by Lilian Jackson Braun (5 / 5)
Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary (5 / 5)
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (4 / 5)
Back to the Drawing Board by Bill Myers (5 / 5)
Facing the Enemy by DiAnn Mills (2 / 5)
The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lilian Jackson Braun (3 / 5)
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (4 / 5)
Meet Molly by Valerie Tripp (5 / 5)
Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (5 / 5)
Storm of Lightning by Richard Paul Evans (3 / 5)
Molly Learns a Lesson by Valerie Tripp (5 / 5)
Molly’s Surprise by Valerie Tripp (5 / 5)
Happy Birthday, Molly by Valerie Tripp (5 / 5)
Molly Saves the Day by Valerie Tripp (5 / 5)
Changes for Molly by Valerie Tripp (4 / 5)
Signs of Life by Creston Mapes (3 / 5)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (4.5 / 5)
The Black Circle by Patrick Carman (4.5 / 5)
A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson (4 / 5)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, adapted for younger readers by Eliza Gatewood Warren (4 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 1 re-read. It was really hard to pick one favorite from this many books, but my favorite book from July was Ramona and Her Father. I started 2 series, continued 8 series, and finished 2 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 9 books last month, which would definitely had been more if I hadn’t spent the whole month on one audiobook. But then, June also had my first VBS as director (along with my husband), so that might have taken away some of my reading time too. It’s not a bad number, though, especially considering how this year has gone so far.

Here are the books I read in June:

A Fire to Kindle by Daniel Dydek (3 / 5)
Skate Expectations by Bill Myers (5 / 5)
Hunt for Jade Dragon by Richard Paul Evans (4 / 5)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (5 / 5)
The Cat Who Tailed a Thief by Lilian Jackson Braun (3.5 / 5)
Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn (5 / 5)
Doon by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon (1 / 5)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (5 / 5)
What If Love Is the Point? by Carlos PenaVega & Alexa PenaVega (4 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 1 re-read. My favorite book from June was Catching Fire. I started 1 series, continued 4 series, and finished 0 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 11 books last month, which I’d love to see as a sign that my desire to read has come back in force. However, it probably has as much to do with listening to several audiobooks while I worked to prep various items for VBS at my church, for which my husband and I are first-time directors this year. Still, it’s the first time I’ve been this high since before my mom died at the beginning of February, so whatever the reason, I’ll take it.

Here are the books I read in May:

Evil Genius by Chris Grabenstein (4 / 5)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (5 / 5)
Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans (3.5 / 5)
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, adapted for younger readers by Fern Siegel (4 / 5)
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (4 / 5)
My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (4 / 5)
The Cat Who Said Cheese by Lilian Jackson Braun (4.5 / 5)
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis (3 / 5)
Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary (5 / 5)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (3 / 5)

This list includes 2 ARCs and 1 re-read. My favorite book from May was Ramona the Brave. I started 0 series, continued 7 series, and finished (or caught up on) 1 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 7 books last month, the same amount as March. My reading hasn’t really picked up yet, but at least I’m pretty much caught up on reviews. I wrote a lot of them in April, since I had to write reviews for all of the books I read in March too. I’m very relieved to be caught up. I do hope my reading picks up soon, but I’m not stressing about it.

Here are the books I read in April:

Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary (3.5 / 5)
Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem (4 / 5)
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau (1 / 5)
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (5 / 5)
The Cat Who Blew the Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun (4 / 5)
The Not-So-Great Escape by Bill Myers (review pending)

This list includes 1 ARC. My favorite book from April was The Long Winter. I started 0 series, continued 5 series, and finished 2 series*. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

*This includes a series I didn’t reach the end of, but decided not to continue reading, after being at least 2 books into the series.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 7 books last month and reviewed not a single one of them. This is pretty unusual for me, as I normally don’t like to go more than a week after finishing a book before I review it (less than that is even more preferred).

I know the main reason that I didn’t write any is because I just didn’t feel like it. When I’ve had free time in the last couple of months, I’d rather play games or watch a show. The amount of reading I did was pretty low too. It took me a while to realize and then accept that it’s okay that my mom’s death at the beginning of February has been affecting me in subtle ways, including just not caring about being productive lately. It involves much more than my reading and book reviewing. I feel like I’m just starting to kind of come out of that fog, which is good, but I’m already struggling to remember details about the earlier books from the month. I suppose I’ll need to do some skimming to remember enough to write the reviews. And the further behind I get, the more I don’t want to do it. My reviews will probably be abbreviated for a while.

Here are the books I read in March:

Death Masks by Jim Butcher
One False Note by Gordon Korman
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
The Cat Who Came to Breakfast by Lilian Jackson Braun
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

This list includes 1 re-read. My favorite book from March was One False Note. I started 2 series, continued 4 series, and finished 0 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 8 books last month, which was a kinda low number for me, but it was a rough month. My mom died on the 1st after a recent diagnosis of Lewy Body dementia. There has been a lot of up and down over the last month, and at times reading is a nice distraction, while at other times, I just don’t care (some of the difference there was also caused by how interested I was in the book I was reading, and at least one slowed me waaaaay down because it was a bit plodding). The only reason I even managed to get all of the books I read last month reviewed before posting this is because I didn’t read that many and I wrote the last couple here at the beginning of March.

Here are the books I read in February:

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle (4 / 5)
Saint Patrick the Forgiver by Ned Bustard (5 / 5)
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
The Cat Who Went into the Closet by Lilian Jackson Braun (5 / 5)
A Star In The Breaking by Bill Myers & Ken C. Johnson (4 / 5)
The Office BFFs by Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey (5 / 5)
Olivia & the Gentleman from Outer Space by Moses Yuriyvich Mikheyev (2 / 5)
The Escape Game by Marilyn Turk (2.5 / 5)

This list includes 3 ARCs. My favorite book from February was The Office BFFs. I started 0 series, continued 4 series, and finished 0 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 12 books last month, thanks to me actually remembering to slip some short children’s books in here and there.

Here are the books I read in January:

The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau (4.5 / 5)
The Cat Who Wasn’t There by Lilian Jackson Braun (4.5 / 5)
Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke (4 / 5)
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (3 / 5)
The Lost World by Michael Crichton (4 / 5)
Rise of the Elgen by Richard Paul Evans (4 / 5)
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (5 / 5)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (5 / 5)
Summer Knight by Jim Butcher (4.5 / 5)
The Sound of Light by Sarah Sundin (4.5 / 5)
The Mystery of the Candy Box by Elspeth Campbell Murphy (review pending)
Kidnapping Kevin Kowalski by Mary Jane Auch (review pending)

This list includes 1 ARC and 4 re-reads. My favorite book from January was The Hunger Games. I started 1 series, continued 4 series, and finished 1 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 18 books last month, which beats my old record for books read in a month by 2. I mostly chalk it up to going into the month knowing I needed to read 15 more books to hit my Goodreads goal for the year and then proceeding to read a few short children’s books (which were part of my plan to hit that number anyway, but I hadn’t been getting to them throughout the year like I meant to). More astounding, though, is that I surpassed my previous amount of pages read per month by about 100 pages, so the smaller books do not mean that I didn’t read very much over all. That is most likely due to the speed with which I went through an entire 4-book series of audiobooks during the month. That series was 1500 pages by itself.

I hit my Goodreads goal on December 18th, 10 days earlier than I did last year. That means I read 15 books in the first 2 1/2 weeks of December and then only read 3 books in the last 2 weeks! This makes me laugh, but also makes sense, what with Christmas through New Year often being a busier time.

Here are the books I read in December:

The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal by Lilian Jackson Braun (4.5 / 5)
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (3.5 / 5)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (5 / 5)
The Big Lie by Bill Myers (5 / 5)
Ruth by Ellen Gunderson Traylor (5 / 5)
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (3.5 / 5)
North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (5 / 5)
Cozy Up to Christmas by Colin Conway (2.5 / 5)
Addie McCormick and the Mystery of the Missing Scrapbook by Leanne Lucas (5 / 5)
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)
The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale by Philip Van Doren Stern (3.5 / 5)
The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan (4 / 5)
The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson (5 / 5)
The Cat Who Moved a Mountain by Lilian Jackson Braun (4 / 5)
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (4 / 5)

This list includes 5 re-reads (most of that was listening to the audiobooks of the entire Wingfeather Saga again). My favorite book from December (that wasn’t a re-read) was Ruth. I started 4 series, continued 4 series, and finished 2 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 9 books last month, which, I’ll be honest, was not ideal. Looking back over my monthly reading wrap-up posts from a majority of this year, pretty much every month I mentioned that I was getting behind in my Goodreads reading goal for the year, and that it was at least partly because I set the goal with the intention of reading a decent number of short young-audience books (like, 200 pages or less). I kept putting most of those off, and now I’m down to my last month and find myself needing to read 15 books this month to make my goal. I know it’s just a personal challenge, but it’s very difficult for me to let myself fail something like this, especially when it really is within my power to hit that goal. I just need to make sure to finish a book every 2 days. That may mean I’m reading a lot of kids’ books this month, but so be it.

Here are the books I read in November:

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (3 / 5)
Lightning by Dean Koontz (5 / 5)
The Librarians and the Pot of Gold by Greg Cox (3 / 5)
The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans (4 / 5)
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
Son by Lois Lowry (3 / 5)
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (5 / 5)
The Sisters of Sea View by Julie Klassen (3.5 / 5)
Addie McCormick and the Stranger in the Attic by Leanne Lucas (review pending)

This list includes 1 ARC and 2 re-reads. My favorite book from November was Farmer Boy. I started 3 series, continued 1 series, and finished (or caught up on) 3 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

I read 11 books last month, 1 book higher than my monthly average this year. I’m still a little behind in progress towards my Goodreads goal for the year, due to expecting to read a lot more particularly short children’s books than I’ve gotten to this year. I’ll have to be sure to insert more of those in the next two months.

Here are the books I read in October:

I Want to Punch You in the Face But I Love Jesus by Sherri Lynn (5 / 5)
Storm Front by Jim Butcher (4 / 5)
The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau (3 / 5)
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (5 / 5)
Quest for the King’s Crown by Robert Vernon (4 / 5)
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun (4.5 / 5)
The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase by Greg Cox (4 / 5)
The Captured Bride by Michelle Griep (3 / 5)
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (1 / 5)
The Cat Who Lived High by Lilian Jackson Braun (3.5 / 5)
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis (review pending)

This list includes 1 ARC and 3 re-reads. My favorite book from October was Jurassic Park. I started 2 series, continued 4 series, and finished (or caught up on) 3 series*. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

*This includes a series I didn’t reach the end of, but decided not to continue reading, after being at least 2 books into the series.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.