July Chit Chat

July News

July brought the realities of returning to school back. Seven work days I spent in trainings and doing curriculum writing, and many days working on school work (yearbook contracts, setting up Google Classroom, writing a better syllabus, etc.). Summer is officially over. I am stressing about my yearbook sections, as I wasn’t given a second classroom for them and we do not have any technology. Not sure how a yearbook publication will be worked on without computers. Last year I kept breaking my lanyards, and it was The Year of the Broken Lanyards. This year? I think it’s The Year The Shit Runs Downhill.

For the most part, I laid low in July. Truly, I’ve been bumming all summer as much as I could. It is something completely out of character for me, and the man supported it wholeheartedly.

I also came to a realization about my brothers. Out of those incidents, I have decided I am no longer going to do things for people out of a sense of obligation, especially when I am putting more effort into attending something or doing something for them. I’m just not anymore because I always feel bad after. Reciprocation is important!

July Reads

Average Rating: 4.28
Pages Read: 1,693
Favorite Book: Awkward

Noteworthy Posts

In general, this was a good month. Last week I had a lot of traffic to my WWW Wednesday post, which was a pick-me-up since I’ve fallen into a little slump again.

These are the posts that garnered a lot of attention this month:

• My review of Caught Bread Handed, the fourth book in the Bakeshop Mysteries series by Ellie Alexander.
• My Top Ten Tuesday post about Underdogs (books with less than 10 reviews).
• My recent Thoughts on Thursday post about my Lack of Creativity.

I also had a few posts that I feel were very important for me to share:

• My review of The SockKids Say No to Bullying. This was a short book that is part of The SockKids series. This was the first I’ve heard of them, but I thought this particular book was very powerful.
• My Top Ten Tuesday post celebrating Books Set Outside the U.S. While working on this post, I was a little amazed at how many books fit into this category – most that I couldn’t include because there were just too many. Yes, most of those that I do read are set in Europe (primarily England), but I was still proud that I could share so many books that I’ve read.

 

July Visitors & Search Terms

July brought 1,240 pageviews, which is a decline from last month. I understand since I wasn’t very active in visiting and commenting back in the last two weeks. Overall, it was still a good month. I am noticing more people are commenting, and I truly believe it’s about reciprocating.

Interestingly enough, I had a bunch of unknown search terms and then these four:

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Yes, I loved it! I hope you liked my review. 
• Harry Potter Goblet of Fire – Dude, you were already here. Taking out “and the” didn’t change much.
• Potion for Correct Prediction/Ingredients – Try this: A robin’s egg, three strands of seaweed, and a hair from your teacher’s mole. Mix together until smooth and drink on on the eve of the full moon on the seventh month following the autumnal equinox.
• Harry Potter the making Gobblet of Fire – That would be a movie, and this blog is for books. Perhaps you should take a grammar course.

Challenge Updates

I’ve kinda been paying a little better attention to my challenges. Right now my NetGalley is my focus. I know I’ve said that for half a year now, but I am done with review tour books and I’m slating my TBR Jar until I get a substantial number of galleys read.

• Goodreads – 40/52 completed
• Alphabet Soup – 16/26 completed
• NetGalley – 5/50 completed –> I have GOT to get this together!
• Shelf Love – 13/51+ completed
• TBR – 18/50 completed
• Backlist Books – 13 completed
• Discussion Challenge – 15/24 posts
• Summer BINGO – 14/25 completed
• July BINGO – 16/25 completed
• #COYER Summer Vacation – 10 completed

August Reads

August brings school duties back in full force overdrive. I know my time will be limited so I’m not hanging my hat on reading all of these books, but they are I currently plan to read next.