Closing out August with a bang, or at least trying too. I’m hoping to finish my 11th book for the month, which is shocking, since I was in a huge reading slump for the first week or two of the month. Things have started to cool down again in San Antonio with COVID, and we’re feeling a little more back to normal. We spent lots of time at the lake and getting in as much sunshine as possible this month, which I thought was going to put a dent in my reading but ultimately did not! All but one of the books I read this month were August releases or upcoming September releases. While I’m happy to be getting through a lot of my ARCs, my backlist is feeling neglected, but that’s how the cookie crumbles.
With the additional 11 books I read in August, I am now at 87 books read for 2020. Last year I struggled to hit 90 books and this year it’s not even September and I’m already almost past that. Granted I’m not planning a wedding this year, so it’s not a good comparison. At my current reading rate, I may even hit 150 books read for the year! Which would be amazing!
Complete List of Everything I read in August 2020
- The Lions of Fifth Avenue | ★★★★| See my full review HERE!
- Atomic Love |★★★★ | See my full review HERE!
- The Night Swim |★★★★ | See my full review HERE!
- Girls Burn Brighter |★★★★ | See my full review HERE!
- The Monsters We Make |★★★★ |See my full review HERE!
- Hidden (The Texas Murder Files #1) | ★★★★ |See my full review HERE!
- One By One |★★★★|See my full review HERE!
- Ink & Sigil (Ink & Sigil #1) |★★★★ |See my full review HERE!
- Majesty (American Royals #2) | ★★★★ | See my full review HERE!
- Road Out of Winter | ★★★★| See my full review HERE!
- The Last Story of Mina Lee | ★★★★ | Check back tomorrow for my full review!
Favorite book of the month: I honestly cannot decide on my favorite book of the month. It’s a four way tie and I love each of these books for different reasons. Girls Burn Brighter is an amazing tale of survival for two girls and the emotions it sparked in me were insane. Majesty is a quick and fun YA read with romance, monarchies, and so much more. Ink & Sigil is the newest magical series that I find myself enthralled with, it’s also filled with humor. The Monsters We Make reads like a true crime and really makes you wonder exactly who you live next to.
Least Favorite book of the month: Lions of Fifth Avenue and One by One were my least favorite this month. Is it because I expect so much from these authors, since they’re both auto buy authors for me? Most likely. They’re both still entertaining just not my favorite from the author.
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.
- Reading Goal: 87% of my reading goal completed this month.
- I also bought a few books this month. I added 6 from Book of the Month. I did really well though because these were the only books I purchased this month!
- My Netgallery rating is down to 22%, because ya girl has zero shelf control and went on a request binge.
- My Whole 30 was a success! I lost 9lbs during the 30 days and I’m already feeling better. I’m taking a 2 week break and then will hit the ground running on another Whole 30 starting September 14th. It’s actually a Whole45 since I’m aiming to keep going until the day before Halloween.
- For the most part I posted 3x or more a week. Just trying to keep up on my reviews has really helped me to ensure consistency. If you have any ideas for posts or any recommendation lists, please let me know in the comments, and I’d be happy to put something together!
- While I am nowhere near 10,000 followers on Instagram I am sitting at 4.5K+ which is almost a 300+ follower increase for June. I’m hoping to hit 5k by my birthday in September, which is two weeks away but I’m still really happy with my growth so far.
August was another interesting month, as is the rest of 2020. I’m ready to take on September and really get some good reads in!
I hope you enjoyed my September Recap. What other facts and tidbits would you like to know about my reading or even about my month? If you liked this recap please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.