December 2021 Wrap-up

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and wishing you a very happy new year!

Today I am sharing my final wrap-up for the year 2021. After a couple of months with very little progress, I am very pleased with the amount of reading I accomplished this month. I even surpassed my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal!

Total Books Read in December: 6
Total Books Read in 2021: 54/52

Reading My Favourite Authors

I started this TBR back in October and I am very pleased to say that I finally completed it this month. Although these books are from authors that I have loved in the past, unfortunately none of them earned 5 star ratings.

Favourite Authors Read: 3/3

The Lake House
By: Kate Morton
Genre: Dual Timeline, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Rating: 4/5

The Notebook
By: Nicholas Sparks
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
Rating: 2/5

Seasonal Reads

Two of the books I read in December were set near Christmas or were Christmas themed. The other book, features a winter sport.

He Sees You When You’re Sleeping
By: Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 3/5

Ice Magic (Silver Blades 16)
By: Melissa Lowell
Genre: Middle Grade, Series
Rating: 3/5

The Holiday Swap
By: Maggie Knox
Genre: Romance, Contemporary Fiction, ARC
Rating: 3.5/5
NOTE: I was sent a copy of Maggie Knox’s The Holiday Swap, from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Additional Book Completed

From Cradle to Stage
By: Virginia Hanlon Grohl
Genre: Non-fiction, Audio Book, Biography, Memoir, Music
Rating: 4/5

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 6
Total Number of Fiction: 5
Total Number of Non-Fiction: 1
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 5
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read

Physical Books: 4
eBooks: 1
Audio Books: 1

Currently Reading

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2021 Wrap-up: Goal Check-in

As I wrap up my posts for the year 2021, I decided to look back on my goals for the past twelve months and see how much progress I made.

At the end of 2020, I posted the following image of the books I was looking forward to reading during the upcoming year.

Here is how I did on this TBR

Number of TBR books read in 2021: 3/6

• A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness, 2) by Rhys Bowen
  Rating: 4/5
• Trouble and Strife by Johanne Levesque
  Rating: 2/5
• The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom
  Rating: 4/5

While I am still looking forward to reading Things You Save in the Fire by Katherine Center and A Winter’s Tale by Cassie Brown, I think that I have lost interest in reading Waiting for Summer’s Return by Kim Vogel Sawyer.

My First Little Free Library Hunt

The following post is shared from my Instagram page: @melissaleesredhousereviews .

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A post shared by Melissa Lee Spurrell (@melissaleesredhousereviews)

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A post shared by Melissa Lee Spurrell (@melissaleesredhousereviews)

Reading Wrap-up: September 2020

Unfortunately over the past few months, I haven’t been up for blogging, or reading much for that matter. Over the summer, my life was turned upside down and I’ve been taking some time away to regroup and get back on my feet again. Now that I have been feeling better mentally, I’ve slowly gotten back into reading. My son and I are all settled into our new life and I feel ready to return back to doing things, I love and this blog is one of those things.

From July to August, I didn’t complete any books, however during the month of September, I began to make progress with my yearly reading challenge.

Total Books Read in September: 2
Total Books Read in 2020: 35

A Study in Scarlet Women
(Lady Sherlock, 1)
By: Sherry Thomas
Genre: Historical Fiction, Series, Mystery
Rating: 3/5

Hit and Run
(Mike & Riel, 1)
By: Norah McClintock
Genre: Middle Grade, YA Fiction, Mystery, Series
Rating: 3/5

I’m looking forward to getting caught up with my posts, emails and my fellow bloggers.

Monthly Wrap-up: April 2020

Another month has gone by and we are still social distancing. We had a very quiet and sparse Easter this year. It was the first holiday we spent at home. Instead of turkey, I did a small roast for the three of us.The Easter Bunny left some treats and an egg hunt for my son Charlie. April is also the month in which my family has many birthdays to celebrate; both my parents, my niece and several cousins. Charlie celebrated his birthday in April too. My little guy is now 3 years old!

I didn’t feel as motivated to read this past month, as I did in March. I read my first ever graphic novel, which I borrowed from my local library in eBook format. I also read a short story. Both of these I have included in my monthly total.

Total Books Read in April: 5
Total Books Read in 2020: 23

Bundle of Trouble (Maternal Instincts Mystery, 1)
By: Diana Orgain
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Series
Rating: 2.5/5

The Beatles in Comics!
By: Michels Mabel and Various Artists
Genre: Graphic Novel, Biography, Non-fiction
Rating: 2.5/5

The Heiresses
By: Sara Shepard
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Suspense
Rating: 3/5

The Engagement Party
By: Kimberly Freeman
Genre: Historical Fiction, short story, ebook
Rating: 2.5/5

The Unexpected Everything
By: Morgan Matson
Genre: Contemporary fiction, YA Lit, Audiobook, Audible
Rating: 4/5

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 5
Total Number of Fiction: 4
Total Number of Non-Fiction: 1
Total Books Sent for Review: 0
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 3
Total Library Books Read: 2

Formats Read

Physical Books: 1
eBooks: 3
Audio Books: 1

Currently Reading

May TBR

Bout of Books 28 begins on May 11. I’m going to sort through my collection for books to read during this week long challenge.

My possible read-a-thon TBR includes:

And that’s all for this wrap-up. Wishing you all a safe and healthy May.

NOTE: Please excuse the unaligned images. Once again I am having trouble formatting my post. Has anyone else had this issue with WordPress?

Monthly Wrap-up: March 2020

What do you say about a month that has brought about so much fear, sadness and unease? I’m not sad to see March end as the pass of time will hopefully bring us closer to better days. Here in Ontario Canada, our government is tightening its reins, in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19. We have been “Social Distancing” for over 2 weeks now. As someone with serious heart problems, I have been taking the warnings very seriously. Unfortunately many people still aren’t listening and so the number of cases continue to grow. Its hard on everyone, especially children. It breaks my heart that families are being kept apart. My son is so upset that he cannot see his Nanny and Poppy and he is too young to really understand why. However it is important that we all do our part.

I’d like to send a shout out to all the front line medical and retail workers for all they are doing to fight this deadly outbreak. We will be forever grateful.

I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy.

As you will see by my total of books, I made great progress on my reading challenge for the year. This is due in part to the two reading challenges I participated in. Charlie and I read some of these books together, along with MANY MANY more of his current favourites, haha.

Total Books Read in March: 9
Total Books Read in 2020: 18

Check out my Charlie’s Corner wrap up for more information on the middle grade fiction, I read in March.

Total Middle Grade Read: 5

• A Study in Scarlet (The Sherlock Holmes Children’s Collection, 1) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Adapted by: Stephanie Baudet
• Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons by Ashli St. Armant, Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
• The Canary Caper (A to Z Mysteries, 3) by Ron Roy
• The Deadly Dungeon (A to Z Mysteries, 4) by Ron Roy
• The Empty Envelope (A to Z Mysteries, 5) by Ron Roy
  

The following books are those I read for March Mystery Madness.

Total Mysteries Read: 3

Death of a Rhinestone Cowboy
By: Jenna Brown
Rating: 3/5

Decked (Regan Reilly Mystery, 1)
By: Carol Higgins Clark
Rating: 3/5

The Mystery of the Blue Train
(Hercule Poirot, 6)
By: Agatha Christie
Rating: 3/5

Additional Book Read:

The Number of Love
(The Codebreakers, 1)
By: Roseanna M. White
Rating: 3.5/5
NOTE: I was sent a copy of The Number of Love by Roseanna M. White, from the publisher, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 9
Total Number of Fiction: 9
Total Number of Non-Fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 3
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 6
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read

Physical Books: 6
eBooks: 2
Audio Books: 1

Currently Reading

April TBR

As of this time, I don’t know of any read-a-thons to participate in, but if I do see any that catch my interest, I will make a post about it.

2 of the books I hope to read in April include:

Charlie’s Corner: Kiwi Box Subscription

Welcome to Charlie’s Corner, named after my little boy. Here I will share baby/children’s product and book reviews.

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Santa brought my little guy a subscription to @kiwico_inc! Each subscription is tailored to your child's age group. Our first koala box was under the sea themed. We were very pleased with the amount and quality of the items sent. It included: a fishing activity that teaches colours, sizes and shapes, a board book, a turtle craft and instructional booklets for parents/guardians with other activities to do with the items. There are so many learning opportunities for the little ones to discover. We look forward to seeing what our second box will bring. #toddlermom #boymom #subscriptionbox #kiwibox #koalabox #activitiesforkids

A post shared by Melissa Lee Spurrell (@melissaleesredhousereviews) on Jan 14, 2020 at 7:50am PST

For more information on Kiwi (and Koala) box, visit their website.

Monthly Wrap-up: January 2020

NOTE: I apologize that the formatting for this post is off. I was having technical difficulties, but wanted to get my wrap up posted anyway.

Every year I try to take a set approach to my reading. For example in 2019, I focused on reading at least 1 new release and 1 book from my TBR Jar each month. Unfortunately because I was so strict with keeping to those goals, I missed out on reading a lot of books that had caught my eye. I also found myself stuck reading some books that I wasn’t as interested in, because I wanted to get through them. So for 2020, I decided to throw the schedule out the window and read what I want. I plan to pick up books as they interest me and if I find them lagging, then I will DNF it. As you can see from my wrap-up below, it is going well so far. Here is my reading progress for the first month of the year.

Total Books Read in January: 4
Total Books Read in 2020: 4

Then Came You (A Bradford Sisters Romance 0.5)
By: Becky Wade
Genre: Novella, Christian Fiction, Romance
Rating: 1/5

The Mother-In-Law
By: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
Rating: 3.5/5

Daisy Jones & the Six
By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Audible
Rating: 5/5

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 4
Total Number of Fiction: 4
Total Number of Non-Fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 0
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 3
Total Library Books Read: (1 book borrowed from my mom)

Formats Read

Physical Books: 2
eBooks: 1
Audio Books: 1

Currently Reading

2019 in Review

Welcome to my 2019 Year in Review, where I will look back on my reading progress and the posts I’ve made over the past 12 months. But first I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who followed my blog. I really appreciate your support, whether you left me a comment or just popped on to read a post. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and wishing you a very happy new year.

Reflecting on My Blogging in 2019

I took a bit of a different approach to my posts, this past year, as I have had less time and found myself dealing with major writers block. I was becoming very frustrated by my lack of content ideas and I even considered giving it all up. I felt so stuck and uninspired. However I talked myself into pushing through and decided on focusing on making a minimum of 1 post a week. This took a lot of the self-inflicted stress off my shoulders and in time I began to enjoy blogging again. This allowed me to be more consistent and then add additional posts as they came to my mind.

Reflecting on my Reading by Month

As you can see from my chart below, I started off the year well, reading 4 books per month. This is a pace I hoped to keep up, unfortunately that didn’t happen. Over the summer my reading slowed down, due in part to some books that I was less than interested in. I should have given those books up and moved on, but I did struggle through as long as I could. This put me in such a reading slump. Thankfully for the last few months of 2019 I got back on track and averaged 3 books per month.

Reflecting on Audiobooks

I listened to more audiobooks this year, especially since I signed up for Audible. It has introduced me to books that I wouldn’t have heard about otherwise.

Total Audiobooks listened to in 2019: 9

Reflecting on Total of Books Read

My Goodreads goal for the year was to read 40 books. At the time I thought that this was a reasonable number. Unfortunately I couldn’t predict how things would go, nor did I expect to have such sluggish summer. Although I didn’t quite make my goal, I did come close reading 37 books.

Reflecting on Formats Read

One of my main goals for 2019 was to make a dent on the books I owned. Many of these have been sitting on my shelves for years. After totaling up the different formats read, I was surprised by how many eBooks I read throughout the year. I thought that my physical books read would have been much higher.

Reflecting on the Sources of Books Read

This chart shows better the amount of books I read from my own shelves. I am also pleased by the amount of library books I read. We are big fans of our local library and I love being able to support them as much as I can.

Reflecting on re-reading Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
(Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, #1)
By: Louise Rennison

Published: May 2000
Published by: HarperTeen
Format Read: Trade Paperback
Genre: Young Adult

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

There are six things very wrong with my life:

1. I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years.

2. It is on my nose

3. I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.

4. In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic teachers.

5. I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home.

6. I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.


In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones’s Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it’s “Fabbity fab fab!”

My Thoughts

With such a large and ever expanding TBR, it isn’t very often that I take the time to re-read an older book from my collection. However for one of my last books in 2018 I decided to pick up the first book in Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series.

I first read Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging back in high school, about 15 years ago. I had never read a book quite like this before and found it very entertaining. It was hilarious and I thought the addition of the glossary in the back was brilliant. The following 3 books books in the series were equally entertaining.

Unfortunately my current reading experience was quite different than the first time, all those years ago. I found myself feeling slightly less amused by the story. Perhaps the correct word I should use is cynical. Parts that I once thought to be quirky, now seemed annoying.

I began to think that perhaps I was too old to enjoy Georgia and her musing, after all this time. Then I started to think of this story moreso as a parody of an overly dramatic pre-teen. And once I began to see my reading experience from a different perspective, I began to enjoy it a bit more.

I don’t have any immediate plans to re-read and continue on with this series. Although I will at some time in the future.