August Wrap-Up and September TBR

Hey all, Dani here.

Another month of 2019 has come and gone. It was a pretty decent month overall, though I still feel like I was a little slumped in the reading area for the month, which is silly, I know. I still did read a good number of books, but I just feel like I could have done more.

I can absolutely say that I’m looking forward to September though. I have some big plans, but I’m very excited about all of the possibilities those plans bring. Of course, I’m going to try and work ahead on some of my posts just a bit, because I don’t know how much weekend blog time I’ll have towards the end of the month when we’re at Cincinnati Comic Expo. It’ll mean scheduling my after-work time a little better, but I think I can do it. Only time will tell, right.

All right, as I’ve been doing all year, let’s start by checking in on my progress for some of my yearly goals. I think it’s just about typical for me to be doing well in a couple areas but feel a little behind in the others. Okay, let’s get started.

• Reading: Another 17 books added to my overall reading total for the year…and I’m pretty sure with the books I’ve read over the past couple of days that I have surpassed my Goodreads goal…again. I have to update my books read/reviews on there to have a for sure count, but I think I’m at 150, which was my updated goal. And okay, yes, once again I will say that it looks like I read a lot of books this month (17), but I think 2/3 of those were comics and manga, so they read super super quick for me. Oh, and I did participate in the NEWTs Magical Readathon. I ended up having to almost completely change my TBR because my mood reading brain took over, but I think I still managed to complete what I needed to? I’ll have to check to be sure, so I’ll do a NEWTs wrap-up tomorrow in my weekly wrap-up post.
• Blogging: We put out 35 posts in the 31 days of August, and once again beat our record for most views in a month. I’m really happy with some of the content I’m putting out now, which is great. Especially my new blog series, Weekend Writer. I am putting in so, so much time preparing these posts. Because I’m taking notes while I’m reading, I think it’s taking me about an hour or so to read each chapter of Wonderbook, and then I have to then translate my notes over into a blog post, which takes at least another hour. It is the most effort I’ve put into a post, and I hope that it shows. I also hope that these writing craft posts help some of you out as well.
• Writing: I have done a lot of writing craft study this month, thanks to my new blog series. Also, with posting pretty much every single day on the blog, I am writing a decent number of words each month. But, I’m still not really making much progress with my own creative writing projects. I’m still working towards that changing, so I’m hopeful that September will have some actual progress in this goal area.
• Conventions: Well, we started August by attending Gen Con, and you can find our daily wrap-up posts on the blog (Day One, Day Two, Day Three, and Day Four). That was it for conventions for August, but we also did more planning for Cincinnati Comic Expo in September. That’s in just a few more weeks and we are super excited about it.

Okay, now onto the wrap-up portion of the post. As always, if I have a review posted already, I will include the link just in case you’re new or you missed it and want to check it out.

Ms Marvel Vol 7: Damage Per Second by G. Willow Wilson, Mirka Andolfo, and Takeshi Miyazawa — 4 stars

The Mighty Thor Vol 1: Thunder in Her Veins by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman — 4 stars

Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol 1: Archer Points by Kelly Thompson, Michael Walsh, Leonardo Romero, and Jordie Bellaire — 4 stars

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang — 5 stars

Assassination Classroom Vol 1 by Yusei Matsui — 3.5 stars

Assassination Classroom Vol 2 by Yusei Matsui — 3.5 stars

There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool — 5 stars

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins II #2 by Matthew Mercer, Olivia Samson, Jody Hauser, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Thor: The Goddess of Thunder by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Jorge Molina, and Matthew Wilson — 4 stars

Thor: Who Holds the Hammer? by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Matthew Wilson — 4 stars

Shuri Vol 1: The Search for Black Panther by Nnedi Okorafor, Leonardo Romero, and Jordie Bellaire — 4 stars

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan — 5 stars

Fan the Fame by Anna Priemaza — 4 stars

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow — 4.5 stars

My Hero Academia Vol 20 by Kohei Horikoshi — 4.5 stars

My Hero Academia Smash! Vol 1 by Hirofumi Neda — 4 stars

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo — 4 stars

Okay, next up is the book haul portion. Yes, I included the Gen Con book haul in this post, even though I already hauled them all in my Gen Con posts. But, I think I did pretty good overall with my book purchases. Damian and I got some new RPG books, we picked up a few graphic novels and of course several more manga. But I also picked up quite a few books on the writing craft, and I’m excited to work my way through them and then share my notes and thoughts in my Weekend Writer posts.

Oh, and then at the very end of the month, I took the last box of extra books and DVDs that have been packed up since the move and we made a trip to Half-Price Books, so the Geektastic, An Affinity for Steel, Claymore, Vampire Bund, Dawn of the Arcana, Spider-Man, and Legend of Drizzt books were all picked up while we were there…so we walked out with all of those books plus enough money to fill up the car and have a nice dinner. Before last year I had never sold my book unhauls, but I have to say that it is quite nice to be able to use the old books to buy new ones.

Oh, and the OwlCrate Unboxing. Damian was very excited about the lantern and the pencil box, so I’m glad that he can find some use for these items as well. I love all the goodies I get with the books, but oftentimes I end up not using them, and then I feel bad for them just sitting around and taking up space. I will say that I’m excited to try the bath salts though. That seems like a relaxing time.

Finally, let’s talk about September’s TBR. I think I’m of course in the mood for some great action-type fantasy books, so I’ve picked several of those…but I’m also thinking I might want to read a few more contemporary romance, so I might add to this TBR. And obviously I’m not including my manga reads on here, because I’m not sure what ones I’m going to pick up just yet.

All righty then, I do believe that is all for today. Did you have a good reading month in August? What was your favorite and/or least favorite read of the month? Let’s talk books in the comments and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.