Reading Round Up January 1-11

Hello Book Friends! Usually I would do these round up’s for every week but my reading so far in January has been a little slow. Since I only read 1 book the first week I thought I would go ahead and combine it with the following week’s books. Keep reading if you want to see what I have been up to the first 2 weeks of January.

Conviction by Denise Mina – 4 Stars This book was a fun read about a woman whose life is not going as planned and ends up going on a cross country journey with her husband’s mistresses husband ( sounds confusing right?). Together the two of them go on a journey not just about finding out if the murderer talked about in a podcast is innocent but also a journey about they are as people. I really liked both aspects of the story, the mystery surrounding the podcast and the path they take of self discovery.

Meg and Jo by Virgina Kantra – 4 Stars This is a modern retelling of Little Women that focuses mostly on Jo and Meg. In this story Meg is already married and struggling with her role as a wife and mother. Jo is a writer living in New York and is working in a restaurant’s kitchen while she writes her food blog. I loved Jo’s story and kept wanting to skip the chapters not about her. But in the end I loved the way it all came together and I am excited to read the next one.

Wolfhunter River by Rachel Caine – 4 Stars This is the 3rd book in the series about a woman who was married to serial killer and how she and her family deal with that stigma. I really like this series and the path that the main character, Gwen Proctor takes. In this book Gwen, her partner Sam and her two kids head to a rural community when a local woman reached out and asked Gwen for help. By the time they get there a murder has already happened and the local police want nothing to do with Gwen or what she might know. I love Rachel Cain’s writing and am excited to start Bitter Falls soon!

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams – 4 Stars I absolutely loved this book! It isn’t too often that you get a romance book that takes place after the wedding but that’s what this one does. The two main characters have been married for a few years and have 3 year old twin girls. After deciding she was unhappy Thea kicks Gavin out of the house and that’s where our story begins. Gavin is a famous baseball player and his teammates decide to help him win back his wife by bringing him into their bookclub. The club consists of men reading romance novels so that they can make their spouses happy. This entire book is funny and well written and I highly recommend it!

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn – 4 Stars Ever read a book that you were not expecting and kind of slaps you in the face? That was this book for me, I had seen it around the book community was surprised with how much I needed it just then. I had been in a pretty bad book slump before this and this one just sucked me in. Meg is an in demand hand-letter who makes custom planners for her clients, before this she was made hand-lettered wedding invitations. One day a man walks in and asks her how she knew his marriage was doomed before he did. I don’t want t give anything away but if you are looking for a sweet and beautifully written story then look no further.

Until the next post, happy reading!

Struggling

I find myself struggling so hard today as I seemed to have finally caught the crud that has been circling my family for the past few weeks. Hopefully I can get over it soon as I still have tons of stuff to do this week like finally taking down my Christmas decorations.

I have also been struggling with my reading for the past week or so. I have started at least 3 different physical books and none of them can hold my attention for more than 5 pages. I wrote earlier about my reading slumps and it seems I am entering into another one, so I will keep picking up any book that sparks an interest and can hopefully hold my attention. I will add that I am reading on my e-reader Effin Birds: A Field Guide to Identification by Aaron Reynolds. This is a very quick and humorous take on bird identification. I love birding and it is one of the few things I enjoy doing whenever I am going to new places. This book is not your typical field guide in that it won’t help you while you are out enjoying the birds but it just might fill you with some much needed laughter. But be warned this book uses the “F” word quit frequently.

On another note, I have recently been an audio book kick and this seems to be the only way I can finish a book right now. I just binged Jojo Moyes’ The Giver of Stars on Audio in two days. This story just sucked me in and I couldn’t wait to find out more about the girls who were the Baileyville Packhorse Librarians.

Have you read either of these books? If so what was your thoughts? Did you enjoy them or just them think they were ok? Tell me down below in the comments!

Until the next post, happy reading!

Contemporary-A-Thon Round 6

Today it was announced that Round 6 of the contemporary-a-thon will be returning February 10th-16th and I am so excited! This is one of the few readathons a due because I mostly read contemporary. Here is a link to the announcement videos from the hosts; Natasha from MyReadingisodd, Chelsea from Chealseadolling reads and Julie from Pages and pens .

Here are the challenges

  • Read a contemporary book with Green on the cover
  • Read a contemporary from a new to you author
  • Read a diverse contemporary
  • Read a backlist contemporary that has been on your TBR for more than a year
  • Read a dark/hard hitting contemporary
  • Read a contemporary with an illustrated cover
  • Read a contemporary that is beloved by someone in the book community

As I stated in an earlier blog post I am not great with keeping to specific books so my plan is to pick books that can be used for multiple prompts and hope they work. Here a few I have picked out so far.

  • Queenie by Candice Carty Williams
  • The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
  • Eleanor and Pre by Rainbow Rowell
  • Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker

I will put out another post with what I am planning to read closer to the readathon. Do you participate in readathons? Do you plan on doing contemporary-a-thon? Let me know in the comments if you are and what you will be reading!

Until the next post, happy reading!

Reading Slumps

Ahhh the dreaded reading slump. Anyone who has ever been in one (or any kind of slump for that matter) knows how hard it can be to get out of it. Since about November of last year, I keep falling into slumps. I will eventually find a book that I just devour and then can easily pick up a new one and keep going. However that seems to only last for a few books before I am back to the slump.

In November I was trying to force myself to read a bunch of predetermined books I had chosen also known as a TBR (To Be Read) for some reading challenges. I kept finding myself making excuses to do anything but pick up those books, so instead of just picking up something else I just quit reading. In early December I did the same thing, I chose certain books to read but kept finding myself not wanting to read them. Durning the first week of December Nalini Singh came out with her new book which was her first thriller, A Madness of Sunshine. This book did exactly what I needed it too, I dived into it and got lost in the mystery and beauty that was set in New Zealand. I find that her books have a way of bringing me in and making feel like I am a part of the story.

Since then I have learned a little more abut my reading habits and the biggest one is that I can not plan books to read. I am such a mood reader and if I am forcing myself to pick something up that I am not completely invested in then I quit reading altogether. I have also found that re-reading some of my favorites can help me out of a slump. My usual go to books/authors for this are the Pay/Changling series by Nalini Singh specifically Caressed by Ice, Sheild of Winter, Silver Silence and Wolf Rain. Some more of my favorites are Penny Reid’s Neanderthal Seeks Human and Shelly Laurenston’s Honey Badger Chronicles.

How do you get out of a reading slump? Do you have certain books you read or something you do to get out of that head space?

Why my Blog is called BeckyBookstore

When I was first in college I worked in the schools bookstore and our name tags were very basic. They were the generic blue and it read Becky and then underneath it said Bookstore. After I quit there I pinned the name tag to my then boyfriend’s (he is now my husband) car. He had one of those old school fabric covers on his dashboard and my name tag sat there until he got rid of that car. Since then BeckyBookstore has kind of been a running nickname for me because of this and my love of books!

Hello

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Becky and I am a Real Estate Agent/Stay At Home Mom and I live in the beautiful state of Colorado with my husband, two kids, dog and cat. I am an avid reader and read on average 2-3 books a week. I started my blog because I needed a place where I could talk about books and put down my thoughts on all things book related.