Tag: Monthly Wrap-Up

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: April 2022

Published on by Celeste3 Comments

It’s time for another monthly book blog wrap-up featuring the month of April. I felt busier than I actually was (?), mainly because the past couple of days I’ve been hard at work putting together posts for Wyrd and Wonder. Which has nothing to do with April, but so it goes! I surprised myself in April by posting for five days straight the week of April 4. That’s hardly the norm for me, so don’t get used to it. But keep reading to see what you might have missed this past month.

Book Reviews

I posted four book reviews in April. From earliest to latest, here are my recent book reviews.

Book Memes and Other Posts

I posted the following book memes:

I also participated in the Support Book Bloggers Challenge by writing about three (free!) things you can do to help book bloggers.

Statistics

A few more lovely people followed my blog to bring my total to 65 of my 2022 goal of 100. Thank you to my new blog followers for helping me make my way to that goal!

In April my blog saw more unique visitors than the previous month. I don’t know how or why I’m seeing this upward trend, but I’m super happy and thankful to see it! Please keep visiting!

In April my top five posts were:

#BeatTheBacklog

Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. Two of the books I read in April fall under #BeatTheBacklog: THESE HOLLOW VOWS by Lexi Ryan and TELL ME AN ENDING by Jo Harkin.

Other Bookish Progress

I posted a massive book haul rounding up my purchases in March. It took forever to format, so please do click and admire all things bookish in that post.

I posted my Trope-Ical Readathon March 2022 Wrap-Up detailing the books I finished for that readathon

And I also joined Mythothon Round 6, where I posted by reads for Team Isis. I still need to do a wrap-up post for this…somewhere in between all of the Wyrd and Wonder posts.

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: March 2022

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Even though March was a few days longer than February, it still seemed to pass quickly for me. I think it’s because I signed up for my first readathon (more on that below), so I made an effort to put a dent in that and my backlog of ARCs. I feel I made good progress on both accounts and even boosted my NetGalley ratio back to above 50%. Anyway, keep reading for a recap about what I posted in March!

Book Reviews

I posted five book reviews in March. From earliest to latest, here are my recent book reviews.

Book Memes and Other Posts

I participated in three blog tour spotlights:

And I posted the following book memes:

I also participated in the Support Book Bloggers Challenge by commenting on 10 book blogs. Check the post out to learn more about how you can join and boost other book bloggers!

Statistics

A few more lovely people followed my blog to bring my total to 59 of my 2022 goal of 100. Thank you to my new blog followers for helping me make my way to that goal!

Unlike last month, I didn’t participate in as many blog tours hosted by The Write Reads. But I still managed to squeak out slightly higher numbers despite this.

In March my top five posts were:

#BeatTheBacklog

Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. Three of the five books I finished in March were part of my #BeatTheBacklog: The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney; The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna; and Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman. I haven’t posted my reviews for these books yet, but I will at some point, of course.

Other Bookish Progress

In March I participated in Trope-ical Readathon for the very first time. I was very intimidated because I thought I’d feel super stressed to read all the books. But it felt much more relaxed than I expected. It’s like modifying a work out to suit your needs, only it’s about books not jumping jacks. I ended up finishing five books for this readathon.

Lastly, March 21, 2022 marked one year since I posted my first book review. I celebrated my one year blogiversary by posting a Q&A session here. Check it out if you want to learn a little bit more about the blogger behind the blog. Thank you to those who submitted questions!

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: February 2022

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Hi and bye, February! I don’t know how I found the time, but I feel like I was as productive as ever in February. February was the month of the blog tour for me. I also managed to squeeze in a few pleasure reads for myself. (That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the blog tour books, which I did.) Here’s what I accomplished in February.

Book Reviews

For a short month, I surprised myself by posting six book reviews. I’ll happily take a pat on the back for that. From earliest to latest, here are my recent book reviews.

Book Memes and Other Posts

I posted four book memes.

Though not a book meme in the traditional sense, I also participated in the Support Book Bloggers Challenge. I chose the 10 new-to-me book bloggers prompt. Check it out for some potentially new-to-you book bloggers to follow.

I also posted a list of recommended and TBR books for Black history month.

And I can’t forget about my January monthly wrap-up.

Statistics

I’m now a smidge over half way to my goal of 100 blog followers by the end of 2022. A big thank you to my new blog followers!

Since posting more frequently over the past several months, I’ve noticed an increase in monthly views and unique visitors. The numbers will be small to some, but it’s a steady trend upward nonetheless. Amazingly, more unique visitors checked out my blog in February than in January, which surprised me because February is a shorter month. February also had the highest number of views and unique visitors compared to previous months. This increasing trend makes me happy because it means (I hope) my reviews and my love of books are reaching more people. I think this is mainly a result of signing up from so many blog tours in February. That’s not sustainable for me, though, so I don’t anticipate hitting these numbers every month.

In February, my top five posts were:

  1. 2022 Support Book Bloggers Challenge: 10 Book Bloggers
  2. Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
  3. Blood of the Lost Kingdom by Kristin Ward
  4. The Broken Heart of Arelium by Alex Robins
  5. Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian

#BeatTheBacklog

Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. I only read one book in my backlog in February, The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick, which was in my NetGalley queue. I definitely want to make more progress, but one book is certainly better than none! You can find my progress list here of all of my #BeatTheBacklog reads.

Other Book-ish Progress

I made a little progress on my NetGalley queue (The North Wind), though not as much as in January. As I mentioned earlier, most of my attention was on blog tours this month. I also read A Dance with the Fae Prince by Elise Kova, which was not a NG read.

In March, though, I plan on making more progress on my NG approvals. I was pleasantly surprised that publishers approved me for A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland; The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah; The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh; and Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel. I’m quite behind, but I’ll read everything eventually!

I also won a couple of book giveaways. Thanks to Jill at Myth and Magic Book Club for a copy of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. And thanks to Nick at Out of This World SFF for a copy of Rise of the Mages by Scott Drakeford.

Last, but certainly not least, I created a bookstagram. Please feel free to follow me on Instagram at alitescape!

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: January 2022

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And just like that January 2022 is over. Done. Finished. On to the next month of the year. Sometimes it feels like time passes by so quickly. Which reminds me of a recent episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I recently watched. In it Data times how long it takes for a kettle of water to boil in an effort to understand why his human crew mates feel that time moves slowly or fast. But I digress…on to the monthly recap!

Book Reviews
I posted our book reviews in January. From earliest to latest I reviewed:

Book Memes and Other Posts
I posted five book-related memes:

I also posted a variety of other bookish posts including:

That’s a total of 13 blog posts, which ties January 2022 with December 2021. There must be something about the cold weather that makes me more productive than usual…oh wait, yes, the cold. Which keeps me inside. So far it’s been a cold winter with multiple nights in the teens, sometimes as low as 12 Fahrenheit!

Other Book-ish Progress
I set some lofty goals for myself this month considering I’m not a fast reader. I’m motivated to get through my backlog of NetGalley approvals. I’m happy to say I met all of my goals, which included reading and writing reviews for all of the books listed above. I also set a goal to finally write my review of Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian and finished that on Sunday night.

Unexpectedly, I read and wrote three extra reviews for Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith; To Bleed a Crystal Bloom by Sarah A. Parker; and Castles in their Bones by Laura Sebastian. That brought my total reads in January to six, which is fantastic for me.

I also started reading two books this past weekend. The first is The Broken Heart of Arelium by Alex Robins. This read is for a blog tour I signed up for with The Write Reads. The second book I started is The North Wind by Alexandra Warwick. I looked through my NG account and realized I totally forgot to download this approval before the archive date. This means I missed my opportunity to read and review it on NG. I’m not sure why I missed it, but it is what it is. I felt bad, so I decided to read it on Kindle Unlimited and at least post a review here.

And that’s a wrap!

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: December 2021

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Holy smokes, it’s the end of the year. Despite being homebound for the most part (no thanks to the pandemic), this year flew by. I guess time flies when you bury your nose in a book to ignore the rest of the world? There are certainly worse coping mechanisms. I felt like I didn’t read very much this December, but I ended up publishing a record number of posts this month since starting my blog. Counting this one, December has a total of 13 blog posts. Onward!

Book Reviews
I posted five book reviews in December, which is a little more than average for me. No complaints here. From earliest to latest I reviewed:

Book Memes
In addition to my monthly wrap-up for November, I posted 5 book memes:

I also posted a list of books that I did not finish (DNF) in 2021. Thankfully the list is short. Truthfully, I wanted to DNF a few NetGalley requests, but felt I needed to finish them out of respect for the system; plus, I also wanted to increase my review percentage.

Other Book-ish Progress
I finally finished reading Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian. I absolutely loved it and was a teary-eyed mess at the end. Now I just need to get my butt into action and write my review for it.

I started reading The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney, which is a NetGalley approval. However, I didn’t get very far because 1) I really wanted to finish Prophecy of Love, another NG read; 2) Skin of the Sea arrived at the library for me and there’s a holds list, so I started reading that instead; and 3) I have a few other NG reads with earlier publication dates that I need to prioritize.

I also finished watching season two of The Witcher and loved it. I’ve seen mixed reactions from readers on book Twitter about the books. Even so, I’m thinking about trying to read a few of the books in 2022. But we’ll see. I’m very much a mood reader rather than a planner, so anything goes.