Month in Review for August and Upcoming Critiques

We've done pretty well, considering this plot was full of three foot tall weeds last year.

August is finally wrapping up, and it has been a rather rainy August here in Idaho- so much so that most of the farmer's grain crops in the area have been completely ruined. Luckily, my little plot in our backyard has liked the extra moisture... even though the weeds really like it.

As per usual, when I came back from camping, despite both days being mostly cloudy, I got a sunburn. I sometimes forget that without sunscreen, even on cloudy days, I'm essentially a vampire. I burn in the sunlight. There is no such thing as tan in my skin's vocabulary: there is only off-white, pink, or red.

I've been doing some minor improvements on the blog- I made a custom background that took me nine tries to perfect (the file size had to be less than 300k, hence the blur). I also finally managed to coax the LinkWithin into working, something I gave up trying to do for months. This gives me hope that someday I might be able to have Disqus comments, but I won't be attempting that too soon- I don't want to be too ambitious. I also gave my content warning pics a pretty makeover to make them more cohesive. Also, no rating key in the tabs anymore- I put the basic interpretation on each of the star rating pics to save me room (but not on ratings below 2 stars, I trust you know what I think of those).

Statistics:
 Total Posts: 21
  Total Critiques: 12
  Genres:
    Classics: 1
    Fantasy: 3
    Historical: 3
    Paranormal Romance: 3
    Sci-Fi: 1
    Urban Fantasy: 3

The Most Popular Posts of August:
Blog News: Liebster Award #3
I'm Joining in on the Travel the World in Books Readathon!
"Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert
"The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer #2)" by Brent Weeks
Not Quite a Confession: Biweekly Update (#1)
A Montana Book Roundup and Guardians of the Galaxy

Pageviews for the Month: 730+
Comments: 11!

Blog Schedule and Features: Critiques on Tuesdays, Thursdays, sometimes Fridays, and Saturdays. On Sundays, I rotate between the Sunday Fun Five, and Confessions of an Insomniac Book Devourer (or Not Quite a Confession).

Currently Reading:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Reading this for the Travel the World in Books Readathon, and also because it's been recommended to me by one of my BFFs growing up. (MB: I'm finally reading it! It just took me eight years and a lot of gumption.) I like it so far and I'm about halfway through.

The Broken Eye (Lightbringer #3) by Brent Weeks
Is currently on hold until I complete my five books from other countries of this planet for TtWiB. I'm at 39% on my Kindle (thank you Hachette and Amazon), but may be reading surreptitiously from time to time.

Magic Burns (Kate Daniels #2) by Ilona Andrews
Is also on hold until I get my goals accomplished. But I will read swiftly to get back in the urban fantasy zone.

I'm planning to read The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley next, as my book map is curiously bare on that portion of the world.

Upcoming Critiques:

Here's a look at what I've been polishing for the month of September:

A Feast For Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) by George R.R. Martin
All the epicness continues in this book, but I can't readily recall the plot. I know it would be spoilery for the people who haven't read all these yet, so I'd best not synopsize it anyway. I believe this is the book where he splits the world and only tells half of the characters' stories, and fans get angry. But oddly, I do not.
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Horror, Heroes and Heroines I Love

Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren
This is an odd one- I must say that. What you think about the world at the start of this book will change dramatically at the end. The basic plot is a girl leaves home with a group of other girls, to find her calling to either be a teacher or a wife.
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
In keeping with my readathon goals, I'll be critiquing at least two of my readathon books, and since I'm halfway done, this will be the first. This is about a sacred friendship in 17th century China that may or may not stand the test of time. Also- secret women's writing- I didn't know Nüshu existed! I guess that's why it was supposed to be secret...
Genres: Historical, Culture

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
This is a fictional account of the discovery of fossils in England by two women: Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. You may recognize Mary Anning's name, as she was featured in a Google doodle to celebrate the 215th anniversary of her birthday. This is my second favorite book of Tracy Chevalier's probably because I'm a rock hound.
Genres: Historical