Bloggiesta Sept 17-20 @Bloggiesta #Bloggiesta

It's September and for most people it means cleaning their homes and for a few book bloggers it means cleaning up their blogs.  And it also means a time for catching on things that have been neglected over the summer and for me that means a number of things.

So here is my to-do list:

• Catch-up on book reviews as much as possible and post them on my blog
• Update my currently reading list
• Update what I have read for my challenges
• Update my pinterest board for 2015 reads
• Clean up my tags

I realize that my list is short but with catching up on reviews and my book club meeting and a breakfast I am attending, I think that the shorter the better.  Happy blogging.

Sunday Salon - Right Now

Time 12:09 pm

Place My living room

Listening to… podcasts (specifically Marek vs. Wyshynski)

Eating...  Nothing at the moment, but I am feeling a bit hungry

Watching...  the morning show from a local station in Vancouver

Reading... I will hopefully finish up Tell the Wolves I'm Home, start Shoeless Joe and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Planning... Nothing at the moment, just what I might want to eat so I don't starve this afternoon. Probably start to plan what I need to do for Bloggiesta, which starts this coming Thursday.

Feeling... Relaxed and a tad tired due to an early morning today

Loving... the fact that its a fairly nice day, but not too hot.

Wanting... the hockey season to start; as much as I like the stretch drive in baseball and the start of the NFL season, I want some NHL hockey

Thinking... how much I would like a nap and how not to fall asleep at my computer

Looking forward to... the kickoff at church this afternoon, the Ladies Bible Study group I am attending this coming year on Monday evenings and an author reading at a library in a nearby town this coming Wednesday.

I also signed up for a fall reading challenge that is being hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm.  It's a fairly easy reading challenge and am not putting too much pressure on myself to get everything done. Hope you have a relaxing Sunday and happy reading :)

Fall Reading 2015

As I look out my living room window, the sun is shining and the air feels like a pleasant mid-summer day.  Except that I also see the leaves starting to turn (I think a large part of them turning is due to the lack of rain the southwest region of BC has had since May; the largest dump of rain was the last few days of August and there wasn't much during the winter or early spring as well).

But it also means that, at least here in Canada, that Thanksgiving is just right around the corner (its about 4 weeks until we eat the festive bird and everything that goes with a Thanksgiving meal) and that general federal election is finally nearing its end (yay!) and means that there will be a change in who lives at 24 Sussex Drive (that is where the Prime Minister of Canada lives, for those that don't live in Canada).

And it means that I start up my jobs again and settle into reading for the fall season, even though I know that Fall (or Autumn) doesn't start in the Northern Hemisphere for a few more weeks.

So here are the selections that I hope to read this coming fall:

• Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• Tell the Wolves I am Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
• Peace Shall Destroy Many by Rudy Wiebe
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
• When Courage Calls by Janette Oke & Laurel Oke Logan
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews
• Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

I realize that this is a big list and there is one reason this is the case: this event runs from September 10 until December 10, I have a lot of time to read these books, or at least I think I do.  Some of these will be quicker reads than others, but hopefully I will get most done.  If you wish to find out more information, you can hop on to A Daily Rhythm, where Jenn has more information than I have provided.  Happy reading!

Mailbox Monday (Sept. 7)

Image from the Mailbox Monday site

Mailbox Monday is a place for readers to share the books that came into their homes during the past week.  After being hosted at a number of blogs over the past few years, it has gone back to its home base, the aptly named, Mailbox Monday.

Here is what I got in my mailbox this past week:

• In the Language of Miracles by Rajia Hassib

• A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute (bookclub read)

Happy reading!

Sunday Salon - 20 Books of Summer wrap up and other things #20booksofsummer

Finally it seems that the summer storm of 2015 in Southwestern BC (which also affected the Seattle area) is being left behind and moving on to more typical late summer weather and I intend on taking advantage of it and going to a local park and parking my chair and reading for a bit outside.

For those that don't know, there was a major wind storm that came through last weekend that downed power lines and trees (and some pretty big trees were uprooted, one I heard was about 200 years old, due to the dry summer we had in the Pacific Northwest; had no significant rain until this week since about late April/early May) and left over 500,000 BC Hydro customers in the dark at some point during the storm and some didn't have power for several days.  Fortunately, I only had my power out for about 5 hours, but still I was worried that my power would go out again during Saturday (wind gusts were over 90km/hr in Abbotsford; that's over 56 miles/hr) as there are several large trees near where I live and could have potentially come down on power lines or apartment buildings.

As for my reading this week, it was pretty good.  Got Letters to the Lost completed and have made a lot of progress with The Odyssey, especially last night.  I am hoping to finish it by tomorrow, as I am hoping to use it for a square for BOTNS Bingo.

But 20 Books of Summer was a bit of a bust for me.  I had scheduled these books and only read three of the books.  I thought I had put TKAM and Go Set, but unfortunately I didn't.  Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

This week I also signed up for R.I.P X, hoping to get at least one book done for the challenge.

Am hoping to blog a little more this coming week.  Happy reading and have a good week.

WWW Wednesdays (Sept. 2)

Formerly hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, who now blogs at A Daily Rhythm, the meme has been picked up by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The three W's are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next? 

I haven't done this for a few days, so I will do my best to recall what I have finished in that time.

Currently reading: I am currently reading Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey (a nice escapy romance) and The Odyssey by Home (book club read)

Recently finished: Like I said earlier, there were a number of books I finished that I finished during the time inbetween posts.  Here is what I finished: To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee and I also finished Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson.

Reading Next:  A bunch of books for tours that I am participating in the coming month and half. They Yellow-billed Magpie by Nancy Schoellkopf and Birds of Passage by Joseph Giordano.  I have gotten another one called Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich, but not sure whether I am doing a book tour on that book (my guess is I am, but I haven't gotten a date for that book yet).

Happy reading!

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril X

I did this year and massively failed, so I am going to be a little less ambitious and not do as much, as I have other reads that don't fulfill this particular category.

Welcome to the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril X (RIP-X) reading event hosted by The Estella Society. It runs from September 1st through October 31st and involves reading books and watching movies and TV shows from the following categories: mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, and supernatural. The rules are simple…

1. Have fun reading (and watching).
2. Share that fun with others.

There are several reading levels called Perils involved in this event. Check out themaster post for full details. My chosen Peril is below.

I don't know what book I am going to choose, but I think it will either be The Book of Life or The Woman in White.