Wednesday, July 2, 2014

June Reading Wrap-Up 2014

(I finally uploaded my pictures from Disney on to my computer!  Woohoo!)

The summer months just seem to fly by, don't they?  I feel like I just wrote up my reading wrap-up for May and yet here I am working on the one for June.  June was a month filled with t-ball and baseball games.  I felt like we were on the go all of the time during the week but it has been such a joy to watch my kids play.  My daughter especially has really begun to enjoy playing and hits the ball when her coach pitches to her rather than on the tee.  This is quite the accomplishment in my opinion.  My son continues to pitch which is a nail biting experience.  You just want your kids to have fun while doing well at the same time!  Next year the craziness will really begin as all three kids plan on playing.  Yikes!

I didn't read as many books as I had hoped to this month but I did get lots of quality reading in.  I'm still ahead on my Goodreads goal but only by two books now instead of the five book buffer that I had going.  Maybe in July I will be able to get ahead a bit more!  Here are the books that I managed to finish this past month:
  • Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
  • The Girl Who Disappeared Twice by Andrea Kane
  • The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
  • Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb (reread)
  • Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
My favorite read of this month was a tough decision because I just loved The Mummy Case so much but ended up being:



I just loved this one so much!  Filled with suspense, I found myself skimming ahead just so that I could know that everything would be okay.  Afterwards, I went back and reread so that I didn't miss a single thing.  I am so glad that I finally took the time to read this one.  Mary Stewart will be another one of those authors where I read anything and everything that she has written.

Plans for July are mainly just getting back to working out.  Now that the baseball seasons are starting to wind down, I'm not going to have any valid excuses for not working out.  (I didn't really have any before but....)  I'm hoping to get back into the swing of running, I have a planks challenge that I am participating in, and I would like to get back to the 30 day shred.  No excuses next month.  That should be my motto!

What are your goals for July?  What books did you read in June that just knocked your socks off?  And have you read Mary Stewart as well?  What other books of  hers are not to be missed?

6 comments:

  1. Love the photo, Samantha! The kids look so happy. :-)

    The Mary Stewart book sounds good--it's no wonder you liked it so much. I'll have to look for that one.

    We took a couple months off from soccer and need to see about getting Mouse back into it. She misses it, although I'm sure she will miss being able to sleep in once we start it back up again. Right now she's taking swim lessons and loving it.

    I've gotten back into exercising regularly. I hate having to get up even earlier than I already do, but it's the only time I can fit it in with any consistency. I'm not doing anything as ambitious as you or most everyone else I see posting about exercise online, but I have a long way to go before I reach that point. I'm just happy with what I am able to do--and that I am actually doing it.

    I really want to read The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters this month. Other than that, I have nothing specific I plan to read. I have a lot of NetGalley books that I should be reading though. :-)

    Have a great rest of the week! And a wonderful July!

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  2. What an adorable photo! Nine Coaches Waiting sounds like a great book!

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  3. June did fly by! I love the Amelia Peabody series, she is a fun female lead. I keep meaning to try Mary Stewart because I have heard she is good. Good luck in July!

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  4. Your kids are just the cutest!! Hope you had an amazing time at Disney. June actually felt like a normal month for me but now that it's over I can't believe it's gone. AND WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR OMG. :)

    30 Day Shred, huh? I did it on Friday and am now pretty sure. It's those push-ups. They kill me! Good luck! If I can do it twice in a week it's a miracle.

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  5. Nine Coaches Waiting is wonderful, as are many of Stewart's other romantic-suspense books. Some of her later books are less suspenseful, more novel-ish (I'm thinking Thornyhold and The Stormy Petrel in particular.) What a treat to be discovering Stewart for the first time! She's one of my favorites, ever since I discovered (and devoured) my mother's stack of them in high school.

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  6. Wendy- I haven't tried any of Winter's books but I have been hearing good things about his trilogy. Sounds like I should give them a try and put the first book on hold. I haven't been doing very good with my exercising goals if I am being honest. I just have to take my time and really get back to exercising on a regular basis. It is easier said than done!

    Suko- Nine Coaches Waiting was a really great read! I am super eager to read more by this author now.

    Sarah- I absolutely adore the Amelia Peabody series and I am only three books in. Such fun reads and each one makes me laugh at Amelia's antics. This is fast becoming one of my very favorite mystery series!

    Trish- My kids LOVED Disney! It was lots of fun but by the end I was more than ready to come home. There is just only so much that you can take of crowds and lines before it is too much. I would love to take them back there one more time when they are older but we will see. This was definitely a vacation that I will never forget!!

    Lark- Which of Stewart's books are your favorite? I have been trying to figure out which of her books to try next so any help that you can give me would be welcome :) There are so many older gothic writers out there that I want to try. But it isn't always easy to get my hands on their books since many of them are out of print. Oh well, I can usually find enough at my local used bookstore!

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