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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Month in Review: December 2020

 
Y'all! It kind of feels really good to be typing up our December wrap-up for this year because that means we made it! 2020 is over and we survived! It was a weird and crazy year and we're thankful for all of you who still stop by to read what we've been up to. This month we've been posting our Best of 2020 lists to wrap up the year. Between that and the holidays, it was a busy month.

Here's what the Weres were up to in December:



Wednesday, December 30, 2020

The Big Book Haul Post: December 2020

Woo! It's been a year. We survived the crazy though! We're glad to be kicking 2020 out the door but before we do we want to share with you our Christmas book hauls! It was a good month for adding some quality books to our libraries.

Here's what we added to our TBR piles in December:

As always, keep in mind that books we got for free earlier in the month may not still be free, so look before you click.

Gretl

Physical Book Haul

Added to My Kindle
ARCs
Big Bad Wolf by Suleika Snyder

Purchased 
Venom in the Veins by Jennifer Estep

Freebies
The Marriage Code by Brooke Burroughs
Marcus by Anna Hackett
Ancient Protector by Katie Reus
Fooled Around and Spelled in Love by Michelle M Pillow
Better Haunts and Garden Gnomes by Michelle M Pillow
In the Devil's Nebula by Anna Hackett
Time Thief by Anna Hackett
Egomaniac by Vi Keeland

Night Owl by Rachel Grant
Do You Really Want to Haunt Me by Mandy M Roth
When She Was Naughty by Tessa Dare
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
 

Rose Red

Physical Book Haul

Added to My Kindle
ARCs
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette De Bodard
One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

Purchased
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Stop Kidding Around (Magical Mates #2) by Macy Blake
Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2) by Jeaniene Frost

Only When It's Us (Bergman Brothers #1) by Chloe Liese
Always Only You (Bergman Brothers #2) by Chloe Liese
The Empire of Gold (The Daevabad Trilogy #3) by S.A. Chakraborty

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 1 by Kintetsu Yamada
Sweat and Soap, Vol. 2 by Kintetsu Yamada
Sweat and Soap, Vol. 3 by Kintetsu Yamada
 
Leo (Vigilance #3) by Silvia Violet
Best Laid Plaids (Kilty Pleasures #1) by Ella Stainton

Freebies

I'll Be Home For Christmas (I Wish You All the Best #1.5) by Mason Deaver
Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) by Seanan McGuire
Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5) by Seanan McGuire

What books did you get this month?
 
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2021 Reading Challenges


 
It's that time again. The year is ending so everyone's planning and making resolutions for this next year. We don't know about you but we're pretty excited to send 2020 packing. Hopefully 2021 is a little less weird and crazy. As for the Weres, a new year means it's time to talk about the Reading Challenges we will be participating in in 2021. If you've been following us the last couple of years, some of these may look a bit familiar.

Beat the Backlist 2021

Beat the Backlist is hosted by Novel Knight. It encourages participants to read backlist books (ones released in previous years.) This is a great challenge for bloggers because we tend to get hyper-focused on ARCs.

Gretl

This will be my fourth year doing Beat the Backlist. I love the bingo card and also track all my backlist reads with a Goodreads shelf.  I'm thinking of trying this checklist format this year instead of the bingo card, or maybe in addition to. I like that you can still see the prompt after you've competed it. 

Rose Red 

I love doing the Beat the Backlist challenge every year! I can't believe this is our fourth year participating! One of the many things I love about this challenge is that it makes me not feel as guilty about not reading all the books I bought this year because they'll all be backlist titles for 2021. I'm going to attempt to fill up the small BTB Bingo Card again this year which will make my goal for the year 24 books but I might also use the prompt list because I will still be able to see the prompts. Honestly, I'll probably use both. I think that two books a month will be totally doable for this challenge.

Library Love Challenge 

The Library Love Challenge is hosted by Angel's Guilty Pleasures and Books of My Heart. It encourages participants to read more library books. 2021 will be my third year doing this challenge. 
There are five different goal levels, giveaways and a monthly review link up.

Levels:
Dewey Decimal: Read 12 books
Thrifty Reader: Read 24 books
Overdrive Junkie: Read 36 books
Library Addict: Read 48 books
Library Card on Fire: Read 60+ books 

This year my goal was Overdrive Junkie and I wound up reading over 100 books so I'm just going to go for Library Card on Fire next time. I'm also going to try to be better about writing reviews and linking them.

Goodreads

Gretl
Does anyone use Goodreads and not do the reading challenge? I'm still thinking about my reading goal for 2021. This year was the most I read since I joined Goodreads in 2012, but this was not a normal year. And I'm still a little bit traumatized by The Great Reading Slump of 2018 -- what if I set my goal at too high and fail spectacularly?! I think the safest thing might be to make it the same as my 2020 goal (150) and then adjust midyear if needed.

 Rose Red
 The one reading challenge I participate in without fail is the Goodreads Reading Challenge. This year I read so many more books than I anticipated! Part of that was because I was in lock down for the pandemic but it gives me hope that I can read just as much in a "normal" year. So instead of my normal goal of 52 books, I'm going to be ambitious and set my goal for 104 books. That is roughly two books a week which I think is doable with my teaching schedule. If I get more than that like I did this year, I will be ecstatic.
 
2021 Tackle My TBR
 
I had so much fun this last year participating in the Tackle My TBR Challenge hosted by Kim from KimberlyFaye Reads that I'm going to do it again this year. I'm so excited! This last year I had to keep upping my goal so I ended up completing the First Down Challenge (25-36 books) not my original Safety challenge of 12. 


I'm going to set my goal for 25 books which falls into the First Down category of the challenge. That's at least two books a month which I can do. One thing I loved this last year is the theme each month for your TBR book and I'm looking forward to doing each of them again. They're really fun prompts! Plus, I adore the whole football theme of the whole challenge. Watch out TBR pile, I'm coming for you again in 2021.

What reading challenges are you thinking of participating in?
 
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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

We Love Lists: Books We Meant to Read in 2020



Every year when we’re making our lists for the Best of Whatever, we’re forced to confront the ones that might have been. These are the books that could have been on our Best of 2020 lists if only we’d actually read them. We’ll be sure to add them to our 2021 TBRs.

Gretl 
Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

Daring and the Duke by Sarah Maclean

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine
 
American Demon by Kim Harrison

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Rose Red
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk

The Brown Sisters by Talia Hibbert

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

The Boyfriend Project by Farah Rochon
 
Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie

The Worst of all Possible Worlds by Alex White

The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean


The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
 
What books did you mean to read this year?
 
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