Bookish Reflections – September and October 2020

A monthly round up of all things bookish at Sammi Loves Books…It’s my attempt at becoming more accountable in my reading and reviewing habits…

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In a nutshell

I’m super late in posting this, and did wonder if it might not just be better holding off for another couple of weeks and then include my November bookish content with it…The problem with that idea was that I’ve been neglecting the blog and so there isn’t any.  Sigh…

I was pretty good at reading and catching up with my reviews in September and early October, and the majority of books I worked my way through were ones that were heading for my “Read, Review, Rehome” pile, so I’ve made a small (read: barely perceptible 😉 ) dent in my To Read List.

November’s review list is slowly growing, thanks to the three spooky short stories by M.R. James which I read for this year’s Halloweens Read.  And next month, with the arrival of the festive season, we have Festive Reads Fortnight. If any there are any authors with Christmas-themes stories out there who would like to see their books reviewed as part of Festive Reads Fortnight, please do get in touch.  You can find all the information regarding Review Requests here. Ignore the “Currently Closed To Review Requests” status; I’m closed to general requests at this time but not Christmas-themed reads.

If any writers / poets / authors / etc, would like to be interviewed as part of Afternoon Tea at Sammi Loves Books check out this page for more information, FAQs and an index of all the previous interviews.  If you’ve any questions, please do get in touch at: sammicoxbooks@gmail.com

To keep up-to-date with what I’m reading and reviewing, find me on Facebook and Goodreads.

Books I’ve reviewed

• Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Hound of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Lights, Camera…by Carolyn Keene
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Death at The Priory by James Ruddock
• Dunstan by Conn Iggulden

Other Book-Related Posts

• None

Favourite read(s) of the month

• The Hound of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Books I’ve bought (or been given)

Now here’s the thing…*cough*… a great big bag full of books found their way into my house in September, the result of a combination of going on holiday for a few days (and while I’m on holiday I have to buy books as I just can’t seem to resist them), and seeing family that we hadn’t seen since March.  I’ll not list them all here because I’d quickly run out of space, but here are a few highlights from the newly acquired volumes:

• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
• The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• The Man in the Green Coat by Carola Dunn

Books I’ve downloaded

• None

What I’ve been reading on Wattpad

• My reading time has been limited to physical books recently rather than ebooks / digital books to help reduce my screen time…

August’s “Read and Review” Goals*

• The Hound of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Forever by Maggie Stiefvatar

* Light blue = review posted | Blue = review not posted | Black = did not read / review

What I’m reading and reviewing in November

• A handful of M.R. James short stories (Halloween Reads 2020)
• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
• The Shakespeare Secret by J.L Carrell

Basic Book Review Challenge 2020

To post (at least) one book review a week, to reach a target of 52 over the course of the year.

Month started at: 33 / 52

Month finished at: 39 / 52

Sammi Loves Books Reading Challenge 2019

I’m revisiting this challenge I started last year, to complete the challenges I missed. I’ve completed the following challenges from the list this month:

• No new challenges have been completed since August 😦

Total challenges completed in 2019: 8 / 20

Total challenges completed in 2020: 7 / 12

Total: 15 / 20

You can find the complete list of challenges here.

A to Z Review Index Challenge

• Complete! Woohoo! With a review posted of “Dunstan” by Conn Iggulden, I now have an author listed under each category of my A to Z Index! Yay!

Challenge status: 2 / 2

Read, Review, Rehome

Goal: 20 | Total so far: 14 / 20

• Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
• Lights, Camera by Carolyn Keene
• Death at The Priory by James Ruddock
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Dunstan by Conn Iggulden

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