It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Feb 14

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday. 

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I am hanging out in the eastern part of Massachusetts today, so I might be a bit late in commenting, but I will stop by. 

This last week found temperatures warmer than usual for February. We even hit 57 degrees on Saturday. Sunday, however, brought snow and today it is cold. 

In addition to my Bible plan, I've been doing a bit of reading and also working on editing a manuscript for a client. I have one other manuscript to edit and also a paid writing project to work on. Some days I wish I could work in the publishing world full time, but I love real estate. 

While I am away, I'm reading the following:

My review of this children's book will appear at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection tomorrow.

I need to finish this one.  

I hope these are next.

I will be reviewing this Moonlight Harbor novel in April. 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I decided to behave myself and not order any books this week, since I have so many unread here. I didn't even look at Kindle freebies. 

Hope you have a wonderful week. I am eager to see what you've been reading. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Feb 7

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome to our first dip into the month of February. It looks like this may be a month of drama, and I hate drama. Maybe I should have known last week was going to try my patience when poor Milltown Mel, the groundhog from Milltown, NJ, died right before Groundhog Day. If I believed in such things, I would say that's a bad omen. Let's face it, January was already kind of tough considering Howard Hesseman, Bob Saget, Meatloaf and Louie Anderson died. It's like my childhood is fading away before my eyes. 

I really needed to get my head back in the right space, so I bought some cute Valentine's Day decorations and spent a lot of time in Scripture and singing gospel music. Carrie Underwood's version of "How Great Thou Art" is so moving. 

In addition to my Bible, I was able to read a couple of books. My review of this beautiful book about lost little ones can be found at my children's book blog. 

I also read this great book. This review will appear on my children's book blog on February 15, but it already appears on Goodreads. 

I am reading these next two.

 

I need to review this one for February 24.

I hope these are next.

I will be reviewing this Moonlight Harbor novel in April. 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

In addition to the NetGalley version of Sand Dollar Lane by Sheila Roberts that I downloaded to my shelf, I grabbed these Kindle freebies last week.

That is all for me. I hope you take a second glance at some of the books I featured today. Looking forward to checking out your blogs to see what you are reading. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Jan 3

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome to the first Monday of 2022. How are you doing with your new year's resolutions? As I mentioned in early December, I'm not really a resolutions kind of person. By March, they all go out the window. Funny how that coincides with the spring real estate market. 

This year, I made ten bookish promises to myself. You can find them here if you wish to read them. As for professional/personal promises I am making to myself, here is what the list looks like:

1. Increase my sales volume by one million. This seems like such a puny promise, but considering I have assumed the role of president of my local Realtor association, I need to be realistic. Many people decrease in volume during their year as president. I don't want that to be my story.
2. To create better systems for intaking clients and for following up. Systems does not always mean automation. There are some things you can automate, but connecting with people in a personal way isn't one of them. It's amazing how much I've accomplished in the last 7.5 years, but I want to do more.
3. Spend more time in God's Word. I've done so much better over the years, but you can never spend enough time reading Scripture. I started the "Bible in One Year 2022 with Nicky Gumbel" plan on my Holy Bible app to help with this.
4. Take one "real" vacation this year. I will be traveling more than usual because of my real estate commitments. Summer is usually a busy time for me professionally, and I end up working most of my vacation. I don't care if I plan a long weekend with the husband or if it's going to Greece with the family like we planned in 2020. I need to find some time where work doesn't invade private time.

Now, onto my reading world. My Goodreads Challenge says I read 61 books last year. That is 21 more books than I planned. Yes, children's picture books made up part of that, but considering I've read less than 50 books the last four years and picture books were always in the count, I consider that a win. This year, I am looking to read 70 books. I would like to read fewer than 12 picture books as part of that count. 

Sheila from Book Journey put together The 9th Annual First Book of the Year. I am joining other book bloggers in declaring my first book of the year. We will see if I can keep to it this year. Say a prayer for me. :) 

Though I will be sad to see this series end, I am eager to read The Attic on Queen Street. If you check out this post, you will also see what books other bloggers have chosen. 

My review of 52 Weeks of Writing appeared here on December 31. The gift card giveaway is running for about another 12 days.

I also squeezed in this family devotional that I reviewed on my children's book blog. 

I need to finish this one so I can start my first book before January book reviews are due.

I will review the first chapter of this one on January 25.

My review of this poetry collection will appear on January 26. 

These two don't have a deadline, but I would like to get them read this month. 

After that, I need to review this one at my children's book blog in February.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Though we definitely don't have any white, fluffy stuff on our mailbox right now, I just loved this cute snowman image.

Santa didn't bring me many books this year, so I opted to buy some used books for myself. The first two arrived this week.

Barnes and Noble is running a huge 50% off sale, so the Lil' Diva went shopping. Lucky for me, she didn't realize she already owned this book.

She also picked up a guided book for me.

I also grabbed these Kindle freebies. I have one of Chapman's Pebble Creek books here, so I thought this free short story would be a nice addition.

That's it from my neck of the woods. Hope you will share your resolutions and reading plans with me this week. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Dec 27

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome to the last Monday of 2021. I hope everyone who celebrated Christmas had a nice holiday. We had family over on Christmas Eve and a few friends over on Christmas Day, so I did a lot of cooking--which I love. It would have felt like a normal Christmas if my son and daughter-in-law were here. They are both sick. We hope to see them on New Year's Day. Here are some photos from this weekend.

The girls finally decorated the main tree.

We had a white Christmas thanks to the surprise two inches that fell Christmas Eve.

The Lil' Diva made an amazing pecan pie.

Dwight loved his new toy.

Christmas tuckered out Theo and Travis. 

The other two cats hid while everyone was here. 

I didn't have time for a ton of reading, but I did polish these two off.

Review at my children's book blog.

Review posted here.

My review of 52 Weeks of Writing is scheduled for December 31. 

I am also still reading this one.

Next up are these books, but I might need to sneak in my first book of the year for The 9th Annual First Book Event hosted by Sheila at Book Journey first. Any guesses as to what it will be? It is written by one of my favorite authors. 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

My physical mailbox only had books for people as gifts, but I grabbed this Kindle freebie over the weekend.

I also found this one in my stocking. There is a longer edition of this book that I would love to see come back into print. 

I hope you'll join me in praying for all those affected by the horrible tornadoes across the country. If you purchase a copy of my book, A Christmas Kindness, from 4RV Publishing through December 31, 2021, my proceeds will be donated to the Midwest and Southern Tornado Outbreak Relief Fund. Please visit http://www.4rvpublishing.com/cheryl-c-malandrinos.html to purchase. 

See you again in the new year. Wishing you a safe and happy holiday.