Weekly Update Aug 5th-11th

General Update

Hey everyone!

Time for my weekly check in of what I’ve been doing books- and blog-wise.

This week I hit another landmark on my blog and now have a little over 300 followers!!!!!!!!

I am beyond shook!!!!!!!!!!!

And I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to follow me and for taking the time to read, like and comment on my posts. I feel so welcomed by this blogging community in these last seven and a bit weeks since I set up my own blog. I love chatting books to you all so much and am so pleased that this week I got to do a lot more blog-hopping and chatted to a bunch of both new and my regular blogging friends.

What I read

I read a little less this week than my average but it was still a great reading week as I read 2 books and 1 novella, and am also 59% through my current read.

First up this week I read Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. This is a book that I have owned for a while that two of my best Goodreads friends had highly recommended to me but sadly I could not quite connect with the story as much as they had. But the book was still interesting and worth a read. You can read my full review here.

I followed that up with Before Ever After which is the first book written by one of my favourite authors Samantha Sotto. And true to form this book was a magical read which made me feel all the feels. I will post my review of that this coming week.

And I rounded out the week with the new novella from Becky Chambers; To Be Taught If Fortunate. THIS WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh I loved it so much. It is official. Becky Chambers has made it on to my auto-buy authors list. She writes the most amazing speculative fiction EVER! I will post my review of To Be Taught If Fortunate this coming week also.

Last night I started one of my 2 outstanding NetGalley eARCs. This one is called Lost in the Spanish Quarter and is written by Heddi Goodrich. And so far I have quite mixed feelings about it. I do like the storyline (it’s about a heady sort of love between two university students in Naples) but it feels too drawn out. Definitely suffering from some pacing issues but it’s still an interesting book. I will hopefully finish it up tonight.

What I am reading next

I have two books on my TBR for this coming week. I know I don’t normally like to have a TBR but one is an eARC from NetGalley, The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde, that I want to get read well in advance of its publication.

After I have read that I will have a 100% review ratio on NetGalley whoop! (Until I go on my next ARC requesting spree lol!!!)

And the other book I want to read this week is my book group’s monthly read, A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Bridget Kemmerer.

Wish me luck with both!

Book reviews

The following are the other book reviews that I posted to my blog this week:

• Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
• The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo
• The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody
• In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearne
• Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
• The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar
• Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
• Looking for Alaska by John Green

Book tags and memes

Goodreads Monday this week was all about Illusionarium by Heather Dixon-Wallwork.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday post focused on cover redesigns that I either loved or hated.

I took part in Thursday Discussions for the first time this week. The topic was favourite books by female authors and it somehow turned into one big Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appreciation post. I really do adore her writing. Check that out here.

And I finally got around to taking part in the Ultimate Book Tag that my friend Sam @A Book Haven tagged me to do a number of weeks ago. I do love book tags and have a bunch of tags and awards that blogging friends have tagged me to do that I am really excited to get to! Tag me in all the tags LOL!! :)))

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And that’s my reading wrap up done for another week!!

How was your week? Let’s chat in the comments below and if you’ve done a weekly wrap up yourself please feel free to link to it in the comments so I can come check it out.

Here’s to a great reading week!

xo Emer