Sunday Post with Berls | February 5th 2023

Posted February 5, 2023 by Berls in The Sunday Post / 6 Comments

BerlsSundayPost

February 5th 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

You know how I’ve been complaining about how long January was taking? Well it went out with epic slowness that bled into February this week. DFW (and Texas as a whole) got hit with a winter storm. Nothing like a couple years ago where we lost power and water for days, thank goodness. But Dante was stuck at home Tuesday – Thursday and it made for a rough week. I just kept taking the day “off” officially because I don’t want to set a precedent with this job that I’ll work when Dante is home. He’s home, I’m not trying to attend meetings and shit. I don’t need that stress. But I do have an obligated work load – I can work as much or as little as required to get what I commit to every sprint (2 weeks Wednesday PM – Wednesday AM) completed. And to get my commitments done, I was working in the evenings – my normal me time. And with the exception of one afternoon venture outside, Dante didn’t get out because it was just cold and either snowing or sleeting. So the apartment got messier and messier and he got more and more fussy. We told him Thursday night that he got to go back to school tomorrow and Friday morning he woke up and immediately put on his boots lol!

So it was a stressful week – and not the week I needed when I’m leaving for Austin tomorrow evening. It means I got to the weekend SO BEHIND. I’m sitting here Saturday afternoon typing this out because I need a cleaning, errand running break, but also stressing out because I have a massive to-do list before I leave Monday evening. And to top it off, Friday night I stayed up until about 2 am trying to catch up on some things I’d neglected over the week (budget/bills mostly) and then Dante woke up and tossed and turned from like 4-5:30. So I got a grand total of 3 hours and some change sleep Friday night. And my body wants to make sure I know I’m old because somehow in that problematic sleep I pulled my back. yep, while sleeping. I went to bed and it was fine, woke up and it was not. So I’m doing the tylenol, motrin, heating pad, walk weird method and praying it’s better tomorrow (Sunday).

And we won’t even talk about how stressed I am about this trip – leaving Dante for the first time, a 3 hour car ride with coworkers (STRESSFUL for this introvert and I really hope they let me just read), and this conference where I really hope I don’t seem as green as I feel. Wish me luck…

Blog News

I fell behind on blogging this week, big time. I haven’t had time for reading, blogging, review writing… although I did manage to finally go through my emails from Tantor since September (yikes!) and submit my requests for like 30 books lol.

Before I forget (because I did initially forget) can you please help Michelle and I out by voting for our TBR List? You can see book descriptions on our post yesterday and then vote. Or if you already know the books and just want to vote (or your a cover voter lol) here’s the poll

Oh and I think I’ve officially decided to switch to StoryGraph (follow me). Goodreads annoys me with all their ads (I can’t count the number of times I’ve clicked too fast and the page wasn’t done loading the massive ad at the top so now I’ve clicked on it and diverted… ggr). And while I definitely shop Amazon (how can you not?) I don’t love that Goodreads is owned by them and using our data there to continue taking over the world. And finally, I really hate the new pages! So all that combined, when Stephanie and Lillian told me how much they were loving StoryGraph I decided to give it a go. It took a little adjusting but I feel acclimated enough to know that yes, it really can work for me. And the best part? Great graphs. Check out my January stats! It was a good month 🙂

Last week on Because Reading

Challenge update

This week I finished:

I’m participating in 8 Challenges, plus my goal of 150 books (on track!), this year. Here’s how I’m doing.

  1. COYER Upside Down Chapter 1 – 15 books
  2. Finishing the Series – my goal is 5-8 series.
    • Series In Progress
      1. Well Met – I read book 2 & 3 so far this year. I need to read book 4
      2. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell – I read book 4 this year, still need to read 5 & 6
      3. Ice Planet Barbarians – I read book 6 this year, still need to read 7 – 22 (may not finish this year….)
    • Completed Series:
      1. Transplanted Tales – I read book 4 this year, which is all that is published so far (but I do think more are coming, so this is probably going to end up back in progress)
      2. Spoiler Alert – book 3 was the only book I hadn’t read, so that series now caught up!
  3. Library Love – 5/60 books
  4. Thrifty Thursday – my goal is 1 book each month:
    1. January – Just Folking Around by Penny Reid
    2. February – Marking Time (read in January, review to come in February)
  5. 2023 Audiobook Challenge – 9/100 books
  6. Backlist Reader Challenge – 9/50 books
  7. Bookish Resolutions  – here are my goals:
    1. Review all books on goodreads within 1 week of reading them. Nope totally behind here and I have a feeling I won’t be caught up until next weekend.
    2. Keep up with My TBR List each month! well the posts are good, but I’m a little behind on reading this time.
    3. Complete all my COYER tasks on time. Yes! This I am keeping up with thanks to our Trello board!
    4. Sunday Post at least once each month. First for Februar!
    5. Set aside minimum 1 hour each week for blogging. 
  8. 12 books from 12 friends – I shared the graphic in my first Sunday Post of the year but here are the books my friends have picked for me: (I haven’t read any yet)
    1. Filthy Rich Vampire by Geneva Lee Albin Read in January
    2. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
    3. Morning Star by Pierce Brown
    4. Slay by Brittney Morris
    5. Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne
    6. Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby
    7. A Psalm for the WIld-Built by Becky Chambers
    8. Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday
    9. The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky
    10. What Angels Fear by CS Harris
    11. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
    12. The Darkening by Sunya Mara

#FitReaders2023

Felicia the Geeky Blogger and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About co-host this fitness-oriented group and I’m glad to be part of it for another year.

Goals for 2023:

This year I’m just focusing on habits that make me feel good and may/may not lead to weight loss. And rather than over-arching year long goals, I’ll be updating my goals on a week-by-week basis.

This week: Was a complete and total wash. I chugged soda, ate cookies, didn’t drink water, slept poorly and was trapped inside not getting many steps…. yep, good thing my word for the year is patience. Because at this rate I’m going to have to be VERY patient with myself lol

Next week: It’s going to be a stressful week, so I’m not putting a lot of pressure on myself. Sleep and water – that’s going to be only goal!

How was your week? What are you Reading?

About Berls

Michelle adopted me as part of her blog when I decided to close down my blog, Fantasy is More Fun. The blog was dying, but my love of reading and the blogosphere was still strong as ever - so I found my new home here at Because Reading!

I'm not just a book lover, but a one time author (that hopes to be more in the future), wife, mom to the cutest, happiest, best 2 year old and step-mom to the craziest, sweetest 22 year old on the planet. My family mean everything to me and they appear frequently in the Sunday Post with Berls. So grab a glass of wine and chat books, blogging, and family with me!

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6 responses to “Sunday Post with Berls | February 5th 2023

  1. Sounds like the weather really threw off your schedules. Too funny that by Friday Dante was up and getting himself ready to go. He wanted back on his schedule, too! lol Fingers crossed that the business trip goes well. Thank goodness for things like Facetime so you can see Dante while you’re gone.

    Tanya @Girl Plus Books recently posted: The Sunday Post #324 | February 5, 2023
  2. I also do that stupid click the ad thing in GR! I don’t love GR, but I’m not ready to jump ship. I did that when that other site came along – what was it? Booklikes maybe? Anyhow, I invested a lot of time into making it work and it went away. So I’ll stick with GR as a place to keep track of my reading and share reviews. For now.

    Good luck on your trip this week. I”ll be sending lots of love and positive vibes to you.

  3. Ah I’ll be sad to see so many people go from Goodreads as I’ve finally got things set up the way I want and I can add books as a librarian. But I suppose I should take a look at Storygraph if that’s where things are going. It’s like the same way I feel about Twitter. It’s broken and doesn’t work as well anymore but my apps and habits are all set up there.

    Sorry it was such a rough week. Good luck for your conference.

    Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post