February 2020 Wrap Up

“Okay, Allie. I see you keeping on top of your 2020 reading goals.” -Sadie recognizing my accomplishments.

The shortest month of the year is wrapping up today and I’m finishing up my February reading with my ninth book of the month. Yes NINE books for the shortest month of the year! I am up to 19 read books for 2020 which puts me 1-2 books ahead of schedule so far this year.

February was a mess of a month for us. For being the shortest month of the year we sure had a ton of travel. I was not home a single weekend during the month of February. We started the month heading down to the Valley (South Texas) for visit with my husband’s family. I spent the majority of the second week of February in Miami for a bachelorette party, no complaints there! The third weekend of the month was spent in Dallas and the last weekend was spent in Houston for a wedding. In addition to all that personal travel, I also had a business trip for this past week in Ames, Iowa. Phew, a solid 5 trips in less than 30 days. Even with all of that I still managed to get my reading in, everyone please be proud of me.

Complete list of everything I read in February 2020

Bringing Down the Duke : Evie Dunmore | ★★★★★ | Full Review HERE
Dreamland: Nancy Bilyeau | ★★★★★ | Full Review HERE
The Animals at Lockwood Manor : Jane Healy | ★★★ | Full Review HERE
Long Bright River : Liz Moore | ★★★★★ | Full Review HERE
Saint X : Alexis Schaitkin | ★★★★ | Full Review HERE
In Five Years : Rebecca Serle | ★★★★★ | Full Review HERE
The Return : Rachel Harrison | ★★★★★ | Full Review coming soon
The Unexpected Spy : Tracy Walder|★★★★★|Full Review coming
Anna K : Jenny Lee | ★★★★ | Full Review coming soon

I did have on ‘slump’ week during the third week of February. Mainly because I was exhausted and was binging watching the show Lucifer. Outside of the slump though each book I picked up I loved, for the most part. I only have one book that was ★★★, two ★★★★, and SIX, yes SIX ★★★★★. Whoa baby!

Another tie for my favorite book of the month. This time it’s between a thriller The Return and suprsing a non-fiction The Unexpected Spy!

However, I loved pretty much everything I read this month.

Goal Updates

For 2020 I am attempting at keeping myself more accountable for the goals I set myself. You can see a full list of my 2020 goals HERE. Below I have highlighted some of my progress towards these goals. This is just a snapshot, but I believe that sharing it with you, my reader, helps me to stay motivated which leaves me more likely to reach them. Like I said February was a crazy month, but I did make some progress on my main goals.

Reading Goal: 19% of my reading goal completed this month.
I have not bought any books in the month of January or February, except for my Book of the Month boxes which I have listed as an exclusion. I’m dying to get at least two new releases in March, but I’m going to be strong.
My Netgallery percentage is up back down to 9%. Still nowhere near 80% but I’m getting there. Dang the ability to keep requesting books.
Ran my fastest 5K at 30 minutes even. This puts me at a 9:40 pace. Though my goal is to get my half marathon pace down to 2 hours and 10 minutes. If I can hold this pace that would put my half marathon at 2 hours and 6 minutes! I didn’t train to much in February except for going to Orange Theory. However, I’m finding that my endurance is getting better, which is a big thing for running long distance.
In the month of January I posted 14 blog posts in the month of February. One less than January however this put me over 3 blog posts per week.
While I am nowhere near 10,000 followers on Instagram I am at 2.8K which is almost a 100 follower increase for February. Once again less than January.
I’m going to just reiterate what I was in January for my health goal. February was another hard month for me workout wise. I started strong but ended the month in a funk. I lost no weight and ate terribly. I blame the weather and working from home. The hardest part of working from home can sometimes be to just stay motivated. I did go to Orange Theory 3-4 times every week but really did not focus running, which if I plan to run a half marathon at the end of April, I really need to get to it.

February is always the most difficult month for me. I tend to get really depressed or get the ‘winter blues’ during it. With the lack of watching what I eat and the amount of train I did, my back was acting up which in turn just makes things hard for me to accomplish. People don’t realize but invisible pain tends to mess with your mental capacity more than anything. I need to plan beach holidays mid-February to avoid my emotional, mental, and physical slumps that happen.

I hope you enjoyed my February Recap. What other facts and tidbits would you like to know about my reading? If you liked this recap please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.