The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: January 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in February

Posted February 1, 2023 by Lisa Mandina in End of the month post, giveaway / 20 Comments

Did January go by fast? Yes and no. It always feels like forever, but it does feel like I can’t believe it is already February. January was an interesting month. We had some successes for my Kansas City Chiefs. I started planning my Scotland trip for this summer.

My reading was nice in that I didn’t have a ton of review books, but still got a lot read. One more read than last month, so I ended up at 17. I’m caught up on all reviews up until now with making sure to set up and fill out my L-L-L review posts at the beginning of the month, as well as my DNF posts just in case. My January L-L-L post was yesterday. My DNF post was this past weekend.

  • # of pages read: 4531
  • Amount of time spent listening to audiobooks – Some of the time on one of these was last month technically, but I don’t count them till I finish. So my time spent was 32 hours for 3 audiobooks.

January Reviews

Challenge Wrap-Up

Started out kind of strong with this one since I didn’t have a bunch of reviews scheduled. I set my goal where I always do, one a month, so 12 total. I already got the first 4 done! All of them were reviewed in my L-L-L post yesterday.

  1. The Hunger Between Us by Marina Scott
  2. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
  3. Lord of the Fly Fest by Goldy Moldavy
  4. Always Jane by Jenn Bennett

And I always like to do this challenge as well.

  • Blogging:
    • 1. Keep my Netgalley percentage up to 80%. I started the year at 80%. Then just one day later I dropped to 79% when I got another book on NG. Later that week I reviewed one of the books and went back up to 80%. When I got another book halfway through the month it dropped to 79% again. But a week after that I reviewed one and I’m still at 80% as of now.
    • 2. Discussion Challenge: None posted in January
  • Reading:
    • 1. As always is my Goodreads goal of 200 books. I am right on track, maybe one ahead, but I’m not worrying about it.
    • 2. My TBR Challenge above.
  • Writing – I didn’t get anything done this month, although I did have a bit of an epiphany about one of my stories. I hope I wrote it down somewhere because I’m not remembering it at the moment.
  • Book Buying Ban – My goal was $20 a month. I did spend $46.27 because my Book of the Month renews at the end of the month, even though I didn’t pick any of their choices this time. Which means I can pick a book at the end of next month and it will have already been paid for. I’m still mostly happy with that because I overlooked or kept myself from buying a lot of times! Now, I may have to maybe change my $20 goal to $30/40 if I keep up with my Audible and Book of the Month anyway.

What to Expect in February

So I’ve got a lot going on in this short month. We have parent conferences the second week in, which will end up giving us a 4 day weekend over President’s Day weekend. I had started thinking about a Las Vegas trip over that weekend, but prices weren’t what I’d hoped, still expensive to fly, even just to Vegas, so I gave up. And that last year is when I started thinking about my Scotland trip.

Here is my proposed TBR for February:

I might have cut back on some actual review tours, but I have a lot of review books that I ended up signing up for. ARCs and e-galleys. Let’s see how bad it is!

  1. This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang – I got the ARC of this one from the publisher and should be posting a review on the 4th
  2. Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi – another ARC I got from a publisher, hoping to get read and post my review on the 6th
  3. In a Jam by Kate Canterbary – I’m listening to the audiobook and supposed to be done by the 7th I think for a review! Not sure if I’ll make it, wish me luck!
  4. Whiskey On Our Shoes by Tonya Preece – for a blog tour review on the 8th or 9th.
  5. Nobody Puts Romcoms in the Corner by Kathryn Freeman – for a blog tour review on the 11th
  6. The Scarlet Circus by Jane Yolen – reading this one, an ARC from the publisher,hoping to post a review on the 13th
  7. End of Story by Kylie Scott – now this one had the blog tour cancelled with one PR group that seems to be kind of disappearing suddenly and was moved to another. I signed up with the new one, so hope to get a copy in time to read and post my review on the pub date, the 14th
  8. Only You by Samantha Young – I am on this author’s review team, and so I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading and reviewing this one on the 21st.
  9. Glove Save by Teagan Hunter – I signed up to read this and post a review for a blog tour on the 23rd
  10. Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury – I love this author’s books so far and was so excited to get an ARC of this one. I plan to post my review of this on the 27th.
  11. Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper – one of the Gateway books I just started.
  12. Spicy Pickle by J.J. Knight – I started this last month, and it is from my TBR pile.
  13. Any other audiobooks I happen to listen to.
  14. Any other books for the Gateway list that I get through, and hopefully more for my TBR challenge!
  15. Possibly any books I have for authors coming to the Flirty in Kansas City convention this month.

Final Thoughts

So how was your January? If it is winter where you live, did you get much snow? How are you doing on your reading/blogging/personal goals for 2023 so far? What are you looking forward to in February? I’m hoping for some more snow and snow days!

Giveaway

Below are ARCs I’ve finished and also a couple of finished copies, the winner will get to pick out 3 books from the list. There may even be a few more choices by the end of the month as I go through and clean out some more bookshelves of ARCs I know I might not ever get to! I will make the giveaway international in that you can pick a book for under $10 if The Book Depository ships to you. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below the picture. December I didn’t quite make it to 100, only 44 entries, so only one winner for my last drawing. But this past one got over 300 entries, so I picked three winners! All we have to do is make it over 100 and I pick more than just one winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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20 responses to “The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: January 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in February

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m trying hard to not take ARCs or e-galleys other than things I know I want to read because of the author or maybe YA since I am a school librarian. And even then I’m pretty picky! Thanks for visiting!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m so ready for a four day weekend, and I will need it after conferences. Not that I do much at conferences, although I do get a lot of things done around my library if they let me. I have loved what the author of Delicious Monsters has written so far, so I’m guessing I’ll love this one too!

  1. Danielle Hammelef

    My January was wrapped up with being sick for the first time since before all the COVID protocols–with schools back full steam and no masks, etc. my daughter got sick and brought home an illness that she shared with the rest of us (not COVID, thankfully). But, we are all back on the mend so much better now. Other than that, January flew by and I so enjoyed the warmer than usual weather here. I thought of you when the Chiefs won–I know you’re a fan.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Oh no! So sorry you’ve been sick! That’s my library clerk right now too! Yes, very excited about my Chiefs!

  2. Wow! That’s some great reading. I just prepped my month-end post (will go up on Saturday), and I discovered that I only read nine books (I did have one DNF). Our winter so far has been warmer than normal and very little snow (we had one storm where we got about 4″ and it was all gone two days later). I like on the coast, so we don’t get as much snow as they do inland, but it’s been slow going for the past couple years. Now I have a cold and I just want to sleep.

    • Lisa Mandina

      We’ve kind of had the same weather here. And there’s no snow on the horizon right now either. But I like my winter for a few months at least. So sorry you’re feeling bad. I hope you get better quickly!

  3. Candice G

    My January wasn’t great. At the beginning of the month, I got a cold and at the end of the month I slipped on ice, hurting my ankle. Not the best way to start the year. The positive is that I had more down time to read. Delicious Monsters is also on my to-read list, looks very intriguing.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Ugh! That’s no fun! Hope your ankle is doing better now and that March will be better! I’m getting ready to post my review of Delicious Monsters tonight.

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