2016 Challenges – 3rd Quarter Check-in

At the beginning of the year I set some challenges for myself. Now it’s time to check-in and see how I’m doing.

ONE. Limit my bookish spending. Pre-order no more than 12 books (average 1 per month). Spend no more than $60 on used / bargain books (average $5 per month).

I pre-ordered 2 books this quarter:

1. Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
2. Paddington Takes the Test by Michael Bond

I bought:

• Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster
•  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie
• A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
• The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World by Margaret C. Sullivan
• Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School by Louis Sacher
• More Arithmetic from Wayside School by Louis Sacher
• Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
• Iron Thunder: The Battle Between the Monitor & the Merrimac by Avi
• The Family Fortune by Laurie Horowitz
• Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme
• That Summer by Sarah Dessen
• Poems of Fun and Fancy by David Stanford Burr
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Clocks by Agatha Christie
• Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
• Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
• Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie
• Crooked House by Agatha Christie
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
• The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton
• Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, & a Very Strange Adventure by Lissa Evans

I received as gifts:

• Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell
• Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
• Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
•  A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
• The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert
• Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie
• Endless Night by Agatha Christie
• Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
• Pride & Prejudice : A BabyLit Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver
• Goodnight Mr. Darcy: A BabyLit® Parody Picture Book by Kate Coombs and Alli Arnold
• Cozy Classics: Pride and Prejudice by Jack Wang and Holman Wang
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Blossom and the Thorn by Theodora Goss
• Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick
• Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery
• Mistress Pat by L. M.  Montgomery
• The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
• The Once and Future King by T. H. White
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab
• The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

Umm, I’ve gone WAY over the $5 per month mark, but I have been much more choosy about which books I buy, so I’m good with it.

TWO. Post more book reviews. Write monthly Look Reviews (full book reviews with an accompanying outfit) and post my micro mini Goodreads reviews on the blog.

I ditched the Look Reviews but wrote Mini Review posts, as well as some Austen in August book reviews.

THREE. Read at least 200 books.

Achieved!

FOUR. Read these 11 Poirot novels, plus 1 short story:

Achieved!

1. Four and Twenty Blackbirds (short story) Completed 1/1/2016
2. Sad Cypress Completed 2/11/2016
   
3. One, Two Buckle my Shoe Completed 3/11/2016
   
4. Evil Under the Sun Completed 4/21/2016
   
5. Five Little Pigs Completed 4/30/2016
   
6. The Hollow Completed 5/10/2016
   
7. Taken at the Flood Completed 6/13/2016
   
8. Mrs McGinty’s Dead Completed 6/23/2016
9. After the Funeral Completed 6/25/2016
10. Hickory Dickory Dock Completed 7/4/2016
    
11. Dead Man’s Folly Completed 8/2/2016
    
12. Cat Among the Pigeons Completed 8/25/2016
    

FIVE. Read 26 books for a personal Alphabet Challenge.

Achieved!

1. After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. Because if Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
3. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert
   
4. Dark Shimmer by Donna Jo Napoli
   
5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
   
6. Flunked by Jen Calonita
7. Goodnight June by Sarah Jio
8. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
   
9. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
   
10. The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
    
11. The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
    
12. Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins
    
13. Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
    
14. A Night in with Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday
15. Once Was a Time by Leila Sayles
    
16. Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
    
17. Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan
18. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
    
19. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
    
20. Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies
    
21. The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
22. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
    
23. Wildflowers by Robin Jones Gunn
    
24. Nanny X Returns by Madelyn Rosenberg
25. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
    
26. The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
    

SIX. Participate in Cruisin’ thru the Cozies with Yvonne @ Socrates Book Review. I’m entering at Level 4 – Sleuth Extraordinaire – Read 21 or more books.

Achieved! See full list here.

SEVEN. Read at least 12 selections from my personal Classics Challenge list.

Achieved! See full list here.

EIGHT. Once again, cut WAY back on my wardrobe. I want to go minimalist. I’m still working on the details. This includes my kids’ wardrobes too. They have so many clothes they rarely wear!

Early in the quarter, I had to buy some new shorts for Pumpkin Pie because, at almost 11, he’s finally outgrown his 4T and 5T sized shorts! More recently, I had to buy him a few long sleeve shirts because his wrist were showing .

I also replaced my beloved boyfriend jeans after they basically fell apart.

NINE. The obligatory fitness resolution. 😆 But seriously, after my epic year of reading, I really need to get my butt in gear and be more active.

🙄

TEN. Participate in TTT every week.

So far, so good.