First Lines Fridays (71) – June 2, 2023

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!
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Monthly TBR – June 2023

Hello, everyone! Happy Pride month! My TBR, and my reading in general, is usually super gay anyway, but this month will be EXTRA SUPER GAY. 😁🌈 It is so gay, in fact, that it cannot be contained in one post. lol. I’m being super ambitious this month and choosing 15 books to read. You’ll find the first 10 down below, and the last five will be revealed in next week’s Top 5 Tuesday post. So, stay tuned.

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Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2023

May was an awesome month for me. I went on vacation for the first time in forever. My wife and I traveled to Massachusetts and visited Boston, Salem, and Plymouth. I’d never been to New England before, and it was a great experience. I’d definitely love to go back because there was so much to do, and we didn’t have enough time to get to it all. I loved the Museum of Fine Arts so much, and we spent almost an entire day there. Other highlights included visiting Harvard, the Boston Public Library (I could seriously live in there), the U.S.S. Constitution, the Mayflower replica, and the house of the seven gables. Of course, I had to visit some bookstores too. I shopped at Brattle Book Shop and The Harvard Book Store, which was so much fun. I bought so many books there and at all the gift shops that I almost had to buy more luggage to get them home. So, this month’s book haul, which I’ll get posted eventually, was my largest ever. Now that we’re on the topic of books, let’s get on with wrapping up my reading month. It was a bit less than usual because of everything else going on, but I still read plenty of great books.

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Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 books I want to re-read

Hello everyone! Today’s prompt is a freebie, and I chose top 5 books I want to re-read. I cannot remember if I’ve done this topic in the past, and I’m too lazy to look. lol. Regardless, I’ve been giving re-reads a lot of thought recently because it is one of my goals this year to re-read at least six books. We’re almost to the middle of the year, and I’ve re-read NONE. So, I’m hoping this post will help motivate me to pick up at least one of these books soon. The covers all link to the book’s Goodreads page, and I’ve included the official covers and synopsis when available. Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted at Meeghan Reads!

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Most Anticipated June 2023 Book Releases

The last few months have been absolutely stacked full of awesome book releases. June seems to be a bit quieter, at least in titles that interest me. My wallet and bookshelves are thankful for the change in pace. lol. There are still a few books I’m excited to pick up in June, though, and you can find out all about them below. All of the covers link to the book’s Goodreads page. So, it is easy to add something to your TBR if it catches your eye! You’re welcome. 🙂

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Temporary Hiatus

Hello, everyone! By the time you are reading this, I will be on an airplane headed off on vacation. 🙂 I’ll be taking a bit of a hiatus from the blog and social media to disconnect and recharge. I plan to go back to posting regularly on Monday, May 29, 2023. You’ll likely see a few reviews pop up between now and then, though, because I’ve made commitments I intend to honor. All of those are in the latter part of May. So, I’ll be pretty quiet for the next couple weeks while I’m off on my trip. I hope you all have a fantastic month, and I look forward to being back with you soon!

In case you were wondering, here’s the books I’m stuffing into my bag…

Of course, I’ll also be bringing my Kindle Scribe with me, which isn’t shocking because it goes pretty much everywhere. I hope to get to at least some of these ebooks as well…

Until we meet again…

Monthly Wrap-Up: April 2023

April has been a pretty great month. There were tons of awesome new book releases, and I managed to complete everything for the Magical Readathon. The weather is finally a bit nicer, and everything in my neighborhood is in bloom, which is really beautiful. I spent a small fortune on landscaping this month, and now our flower beds look so much better. I know this is going to make me sound old, but I’m also excited we have a new grocery store close to my house. lol. It opened up right across from my neighborhood, and I love the convenience of being able to go right down the street to pick up what I need. Those are pretty much the major highlights. So, let’s jump into my reading progress for April.

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Monthly TBR – May 2023

Hello, everyone! April is almost behind us, which means it is time to look forward to what I hope to read in May. I’ve decided to prioritize eight books this month and just stick with a regular TBR. Typically, I participate in the May the Force Read with You Readathon in May, but I’m honestly feeling a bit burnt out on readathons after Tropeical Readathon in March and Magical Readathon in April. Hopefully, I’ll also get some mood reading done in addition to the eight books I’m prioritizing. We’ll see, though, because I’m headed out for vacation in a couple of days. So, I’m not sure how much reading I’ll be getting done over the next couple of weeks. Here are the eight books I’ve chosen for this month:

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Book Haul – April 2023

I was really hoping to slow down on getting new books this month. I was actually doing pretty good until I became obsessed with The Raven Boys and ordered the entire series and an associated trilogy. Then things really went off the rails with two B&N visits within the last week in addition to ordering several special editions online. I was so close to making it until the end of the month. I went over 20 DAYS without going into a bookshop. Unfortunately, it only seems to have made the rebound even worse. lol. I did check fewer things out from the library, though, and only bought a few ebooks/audiobooks that were on sale or could be purchased with credits. ARCs weren’t totally out of control either, but I did get a few more than last month. All in all, I’m happy with what I’ve got. I just wish I’d managed a little more self control, which is the story of my life when it comes to books. 🙂

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First Lines Fridays (70) – April 28, 2023

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!
Read More »