April ramblings: April was a pretty good reading month for my Reading Challenge. Of course, I had to make a few changes. And due to these changes, I already started formulating which books I might have to swap out at mid-year. I'm a little saddened by it, but I've been having a rather rough reading year so far and have decided that I'm not quite feeling the YA reads. In that case, I'm going to specifically remove a few of them from my 2016 Assignment list and maybe swap them out for books in another genre I might be more inclined to read.
May ramblings: With May came a readathon that was crucial in my reading progress. I'm not sure if I would have spent as much time on reading books if I didn't have a clear goal... but then again, I DID have a couple of extra PTO days and chose to use them wisely. The books I chose to read for this month's Reading Assignment weren't the best of the bunch--I'm a little disappointed by that. Aside from Written In Red, I had some trouble with the other three books even if I DID manage to finish them in the end. Again, I'm sorely contemplating swapping some books out at midyear.
June ramblings: June felt like a hard month, if only because there might have been too many things going on in RL. Mainly, I caught a cold and didn't feel like doing a lot of things, sometimes even reading--I was more interested in sleeping. I also had to make some rearrangements in my reading list that I wasn't happy about. These changes are explained in the summary below and also affected which books I finally decided to swap out for new ones at midyear.
Second Quarter: COMPLETED -- 6/27/2016
My Grade: I Made an A!
Second Quarterly Report Card link up @ Fantasy is more fun
- In April:
- Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn -- 4/4/2016
- Where Angels Rest by Kate Brady -- 4/6/2016
- The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner -- 4/13/2016
- Where Evil Waits by Kate Brady -- 4/17/2016
- In May:
- Written In Red by Anne Bishop -- 5/4/2016
- Prince Joe by Suzanne Brockmann -- 5/10/2016
- Forever Blue by Suzanne Brockmann -- 5/11/2016
- These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner -- 5/18/2016
- In June:
- Second Sight by Amanda Quick -- 6/4/2016
- Hanover House by Brenda Novak -- 6/14/2016
- Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff -- 6/20/2016
- Maddy's Floor by Dale Mayer -- 6/27/2016
See Also: My TBR List for June 2016 Voting // Winning Book
A Summary
I thought I'd be able to power through all the books I had chosen this year without utilizing the mid-year swap, but to be honest, I'm glad that it exists in this year's reading assignment. As my reading life moves on, I've found that I'm not very prone to pick up young adult books very much anymore, and actually find them quite tedious.
With busy days and lots of work, I find that I want to read more of what I want to read. And what I want to read doesn't seem to involve a lot of the same things I used to want to read... if that makes any sense. My reading tastes have, indeed, changed over time, and as you can see, even though I had a wide variety of books on my initial Reading Assignment list, only two of the books I read in the past three months were from the young adult target.
I'm not saying that I won't read any more young adult books--there are several on my TBR for this year that I'm dying to get my hands on (Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, Heartless by Marissa Meyer, Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn & Grim trilogy, anything written by Maggie Stiefvater, and so on). But there are just some times when reading young adult will have to be a mood read. If I don't swap out some of the young adult books from my list, I'm a little concerned that the rest of my Reading Assignment year will be kind of rocky.
I initially wanted to go ahead and swap out Endsinger by Jay Kristoff since Kinslayer didn't quite work for me. But being a bit stubborn, I know that if I put that book on hold, I will probably never finish reading the trilogy. Instead, Endsinger will be shuffled into a later month so that I can have some distance between the two books before finishing it.
But as you all can see, all the books I'm swapping out will be young adult books. The books I'm swapping in, of course, will be more in the crime thriller and romantic suspense area... except for one.
The Mid-Year Swap
The following are the four books (Reading Level 4) I would like to swap out for the last half of this year.
Mindwalker by A.J. Steiger
Unhinged by A.G. Howard
Ensnared by A.G. Howard
Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen
The following are the four books I'd like to replace my swap-out selections with:
My Lady, My Lord by Katharine Ashe
Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
Confessions by Cynthia Eden
Sleep With the Lights On by Maggie Shayne
Two books on this list have been on my TBR for a long time already. The other two books were recent additions, but equally as enticing. I've always wanted to read a book by Sandra Brown since she's sort of touted as a "Must Read" in romantic suspense. And since I have read many other "Queen of Romantic Suspense" authors, I don't see why I haven't read anything by Sandra Brown yet. Sleep With the Lights On sounds like The Eye and so I'm quite curious about it.
At some point in the future, I might get back to picking up the four young adult books I've chosen to swap out. For now, I'm not so sure when I'll read them, or if I'll just read them as leisurely non-challenge books this year.
A Forecast
Two more quarters to go and another jumble of books sort of chosen for the Third Quarter. There is a possibility some things may change though, so I'm only listing a few books--specifically the ones I wanted to swap in.
Kalahari by Jessica Khoury
Veil of Night by Linda Howard
Far Gone by Laura Griffin
Sleep with the Lights On by Maggie Shayne
Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
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