May Check-in, Day 31

EDIT: I lied... I finished another one before the day ended, so my final totals were 20 books, ~7,800 pages!!!

So it's the final day of May, and here's my final update.  It was a crazy month!  I finished 19 books, a personal record!!! The month isn't over until the end of the day, but as of this moment, I've read over 7,500 pages!  Also a personal record!

All in all, a very productive and enjoyable month of reading.  Now, onto June and making more headway into this giant pile of unread books just waiting for me to read them!

Remaining on list:

Started/In Progress:
Cast in Faefire by S.M. Reine

Finished so far:
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Cold Reign by Faith Hunter
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child (ARC)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
Broken by Kelley Armstrong
No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor
Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine
Cast in Angelfire by S.M. Reine
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Sixty Five Hours by N.R. Walker
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Cast in Hellfire by S.M. Reine
The Encore Effect by Mark Sanborn
No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong
Red Dirt Heart by N.R. Walker
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 

Didn't read/DNFed: 
MOVING TO JUNE:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux
Redemption Song by Craig Schaefer
Lies, Damned Lies, and History by Jodi Taylor
A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (ARC)

Review: The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do

The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Anecdotes, platitudes, and inspirational quotes are nice and all, but this was far too long for what it provides. Mostly common sense. Meh.

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Review: Cast in Hellfire

Cast in Hellfire by S.M. Reine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Decent story. Marion is still hard to put up with, though I don't entirely hate her... I do want to smack her a few times and see if that helps. Konig on the other hand... #skeeze. Entertaining enough that I'll continue... 3.5 stars

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Review: The Hero of Ages

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm at a loss for words. Even knowing some of the details in advance thanks to some spoilery people, I thought I was prepared. I wasn't. I sobbed like a baby for half an hour at least. Now I have a headache and am struggling at work... I shouldn't have finished this in the morning before heading into the office.

Thank you Sanderson, for yet again toying with my emotions.

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May Check-in, Day 22

I've moved a few things around and bumped some to June... some of which I might actually get to this month, but we will have to see. :)  My plan isn't set in stone... but I am doing REALLY awesome thing month!  13 books finished already!!!

Remaining on list:
Cast in Hellfire by S.M. Reine
Cast in Faefire by S.M. Reine
A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (ARC)
something in physical form at the beach at the end of the month

Started/In Progress:
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong
The Encore Effect by Mark Sanborn

Finished so far:
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Cold Reign by Faith Hunter
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child (ARC)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
Broken by Kelley Armstrong
No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor
Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine
Cast in Angelfire by S.M. Reine
Indexing by Seanan McGuire 

Didn't read/DNFed: 
MOVING TO JUNE:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux
Redemption Song by Craig Schaefer
Lies, Damned Lies, and History by Jodi Taylor

Review: Cast in Angelfire

Cast in Angelfire by S.M. Reine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While that twist was pretty damned obvious the whole time, I like the story that Reine is setting up with so many players from her larger world making appearances.

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Review: The Well of Ascension

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think I'll settle on 3.5 stars for this one.

I love most of Sanderson's work, and I really enjoyed the first Mistborn novel. I'm not surprised by the fact that the last 20% was the most entertaining -- that's a typical Sanderson thing. But so much of this one felt like "lather rinse repeat" before anything got done. Vin goes out into the mist, meets Watcher, talks to kandra, returns to Keep Venture. Elend and team discuss the future of the city, and deal with two armies/siege. Vin goes out into the mist... you get the idea.

The end did make me excited to read the next one, which is good, because when I started this one the first time, I barely made a dent before I put it down and then couldn't bring myself to come back to it. I think book three will be easier to pick up and finish the first time.

Those middle-of-a-trilogy books tend to be this way. :)

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May Check-in, Day 11

Making some excellent progress this month so far!  Tower Teams challenge has started, so I'm in banshee reading mode and trying to tear through as many as I can.  I'm also doing a much better job of reading what I'm in the mood for at the moment, even if it doesn't stick to my plan or with what I "have" to read, which is making the books fly by even faster!

Remaining on list:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (ARC)
Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux
Cast in Angelfire by S.M. Reine

Started/In Progress:
No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

Finished so far:
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Cold Reign by Faith Hunter
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child (ARC)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
Broken by Kelley Armstrong

Didn't read/DNFed:

Review: Broken

Broken by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I totally would have given this 4.5 stars instead of 3.5 if the protagonists had spotted the VERY obvious villain right away, like I did. ;)

Fun entry into the series, and a welcome revisit to Elena's POV.

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Review: Every Heart a Doorway

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My complaint would be that it was too short, and that, while the ending was satisfying, it left me way too desperate for more. So, in short, it was typical Seanan McGuire.

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Review: Catch a Tiger by the Tail

Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meh. It was entertaining, and nice to see Ethan and Calvin's story... but this series has started to feel forced.

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Review: Full Wolf Moon

Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

For those who didn't know, I'm a huge Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child fan. Their Pendergast series is one of my top favorites, an instant preorder, and one of the series I've reread most entries multiple times. Each of those authors also writes their own books on a solo basis, and while I've read many of those, my favorites of their solo works definitely goes to Lincoln Child's Jeremy Logan series. I've got some catching up to do - I haven't read the first two in the series, not realizing they were part of a series until The Third Gate, book three, was released and I had read it already. They work very well as standalones, and it wasn't clear that it was the third in a series.

Anywho, long story short, I've been keeping up with the new releases in the series about this intelligent, compassionate, enigmologist empath, and enjoying the hell out of them. I read this one in under 24 hours -- sneak reading at work because I couldn't put it down!

I subtracted a star just because by the end, it was obvious to me the path the book was going to take, and I had predicted it much earlier in the novel... but it didn't sap any of my enjoyment out of reading this excellent entry, as evidenced by my complete inability to put it down!

Take a chance on this series. I'm sure you'll be entertained. :)

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May Check-in, Day 8

I've also read quite a few shorties while waiting for Tower Teams to start on May 4th at 11AM EST, but I won't list all those here. :)

Remaining on list:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (ARC)
Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine
Broken by Kelley Armstrong
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
War Hawk by James Rollins
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux
Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
Cast in Angelfire by S.M. Reine

Started/In Progress:
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child (ARC)

Finished so far:
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Cold Reign by Faith Hunter

Didn't read/DNFed: