June 2019 Month in Review

July 5, 2019

Newsworthy

WE BOUGHT A FARM!!!!

That’s right, June has come and gone and the farm move has begun! For those of you who don’t know, my husband is a farmer who primarily raises free-range chickens for meat. He aspires to expand his business into eggs, fruits, and vegetables. However, he’s been renting land for his work for the last few years and that’s limited him quite a bit. Not only because it limits what he can grow/raise, but also because he has a 45-minute commute to and from. So, we made the decision to leave the nice, clean, neat suburbs and move out to the country! Our farm is only 8 acres (a farmette by someone’s definition in real estate) but boasts 397 blueberry plants, a workshop, a 100+-year-old barn in fairly good shape, a hoop house (think a greenhouse on dirt, so less temperature regulation, but still good for hardier hothouse plants), and 3 acres of pasture. It’s in a beautiful town with a great school district. We couldn’t be happier with the prospect of our future.

David and I closed on our little dream on June 7th and moved 90% of what we own to the new farmhouse on June 9th. It was quite a whirlwind! We moved the ol’ fashioned way by renting a truck and asking friends to help out. I am quite thankful for my best friend and her boyfriend coming by the night before the move and helping us figure out the logistics of getting everything into the truck. It helped a ton! For example, we own 8 chest freezers for the chickens, 3 of which were already full of chickens from this year. We loaded the empty chest freezers into the truck, formed a chicken “bucket line” to move all the frozen chickens from their current freezers into the ones on the truck, then moved the now empty chest freezers onto the truck. It took us 8 hours of hard work to get things moved. I owe all of these people SO MUCH.

Now that the move is done, we’re getting our old house ready for sale. Plus unpacking. Because the problem with a 100-year-old home is that, despite modernization and updates, has no built-in storage. So, we keep finding new furniture we need to buy in order to Tetris our home together. The work is never done, it feels. It’s time-consuming and complex, but exciting. Here’s to many happy years at Smallfolk Farm!

 

List of Reads

With a 30 minute commute to work every day, I’m suddenly getting a ton of audiobook time in. Yay; I’m almost back up to my typical book consumption a month! While interaction with eBooks and physical books is down overall for me, I have quite a few book club books which only come in a physical format. I look forward to carving out time for reading at home again soon.

May Books:

Read total books

MUST READ this month:

Circe by Madeline Miller – Our June selection for the West Side Stories book club did NOT disappoint! This is the first audiobook I started listening to on my commutes once we moved and it really got my new farm-life off to a good start. Perdita Weeks’ narration is incredible. Narrating the story of Circe, from the goddess’s perspective, Weeks’ tone is aloof and melancholic, just as Miller’s writing implies. I was deeply engrossed in Circe’s plight of not fitting in with the gods nor with the mortals. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) agrees with me that this audiobook is incredible, as it won the 2019 ABA’s Indies Choice Awards for Audiobook of the Year.

Meh. I wasn’t into it this month:

The Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller –  Don’t get me wrong, I read Levenseller’s debut novel in two days. It’s a fun, popcorn read. I have no significant issues with this book — just a lot of lingering, “This could have been a lot better if…” moments. Why did I select this book over my other 3 star books? Because I can clearly recall the characters and plot of Winds of Fury and The Wind in the Willows at this moment. But I cannot recall much about The Daughter of the Pirate King. Um. Red-headed pirate daughter intentionally gets kidnapped to steal a map piece? Yeah. That’s all I’ve got.

 

July TBR:

  • Kids Lit Book Club – And I Darken by Kiersten White
  • West Side Stories – Before We Were Yours by Lisa Windgate
  • Brunch Books – How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
  • VACB Book Club – Less by Andrew Sean Greer
  • Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  • The Great Newbery Challenge – The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli and Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
  • #ReadingValdemar – Storm Warning by Mercedes Lackey

 

2019 Reading Goal Updates:

  • Overall 2019 Reading Challenge: 61/80 (76%)
  • Outstanding Book Reviews: 19
  • Outstanding Incomplete Series to Read: 2/10 (20% complete)
  • 2019 Great Newbery Challenge: 6/20 (30% complete)
    • You can follow The Great Newbery Challenge over the years here.

My goals for 2019 barely moved this past month. With three straight months of little-to-no progress, I might be approaching a point-of-no-return on some of these goals. I have faith that I can still accomplish my overall reading goal. But the Newbery challenge and the Incomplete series goal are both at 25% completion or lower. I might have to rethink these overall.

If you’re curious why I chose the goals I did for 2019, you can see my reading and blogging goal post here.

 

Tsundoku Life

It wouldn’t be tsundoku if I didn’t have a gigantic pile of books and bookish things going on in my life!

On the Blog:

My goal in June was one post a week due to the move. While I didn’t post anything the week of June 16th, I did get two posts in the last week! Totally counts, right? My goal is to ramp up the posting back to two a week in July. While I never took an official hiatus, I did lose my better blogging habits the last few months. With this goal, I know I am going to slowly get back into more consistent blogging.

Book Reviews

#ReadingValdemar

Top Ten Tuesday

Other Posts

 

Blog Projects and News

#ReadingValdemar is still going strong! It was amazing getting to see Melanie and have our #ReadingValdemar discussion conversation together in person this month! I know I’m blessed to have such a wonderful partner and friend in Melanie. She and her husband drove the hour north to see me when I was visiting friends in Michigan without my own car. Incredible. We had a wonderful discussion (which you can read about here) and had delicious coffee. Our discussions are my favorite part of #ReadingValdemar. We have such different perspectives on what we’re reading! I learn a ton each time we interact. I look forward to the back half of the year as #ReadingValdemar continues.

July is for getting back on the horse, so to speak. As I mentioned above, through April and May I lost a lot of my great blog habits. Buying our farm was a farce in many ways and I spent most of my free hours on the phone trying to get things to fall in place so we could buy it! Add packing and scheduling the move in there, and, well, there wasn’t a lot of time for reading or blogging. But now that we’ve turned a corner, I’m ready to make blogging a solid habit again. Baby steps this month as I aim to publish two posts a week.

 

June 2019 marked the start of a new era for me. This city mouse doesn’t know if she’s ready for the country yet, but is excited to try something new! Things have been mad at work and at home since April and it’s high time we get a new normal in place. I look forward to evenings and weekends at home reading, blogging, and connecting with my favorite community again. Here’s to new beginnings! I wish your July to be filled with books, relaxation, time outside, and other wonderful adventures.

Happy Reading,

Jackie B.

Jackie B Forman

 


What do you think?

  • Have you read any of the books I mentioned above? What are your thoughts?
  • Did you discover any amazing new reads in May? What are your recommendations?
  • What awesome stuff did you get up to in May? I’m curious about your life outside of books!

11 Comments

  • Jaclyn July 5, 2019 at 6:18 pm

    I’m so excited for when the Book Nook in your new house will be functional!!!

  • Kim @ Traveling in Books July 5, 2019 at 10:28 pm

    That barn looks amazing! It sounds like you have a great spread to start your new farm out with. Will you grow any flowers?

    I think you’ll get used to the country life faster than you think. Think of how quiet it’s going to be!

  • Grab the Lapels July 6, 2019 at 2:01 pm

    I’m really enjoying Storm Warning. I have no idea what’s coming next, but I love the characters and exciting plot. I’ll be finishing today and then writing my review tomorrow in time for Monday. Whew! Cutting it a teensy bit close. I love that you’re reading Oryx and Crake. I taught that novel several years ago, and the students (all duel-enrolled high schoolers) enjoyed the book and final project involved. I ended up reading the rest of the trilogy, but it’s absolutely not necessary and feels like it goes off in a different direction (Oryx and Crake is science fiction, whereas the other two feel more like fantasy because it’s about a religion).

    I noticed you’re writing all these wonderful mini reviews and publishing them on Goodreads. Why not bundle 2-3 of those and share them as a post? They really are good reviews! I didn’t even realize that when you said you hadn’t written a review, you still had written quite a bit.

  • Anna @MyBookishDream July 6, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    Congrats on buying a farm! 😀 It must have been such an exiting decision. I’m glad that you had help with the move, as even with help it sounded stressful. I hope both you and your husband had time to recuperate. 🙂
    I really want to read Circe! I have heard so many amazing things about it and I’m glad to see that you loved it as well. I hope that you will have an amazing July!

  • Isabelle @ BookwyrmBites July 6, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    the farm looks like a dream, congrats on the move! Circe was definitely a fantastic read, but I might just have to try the audiobook too. I hope you manage to get back into that blogging groove and find some awesome reads in July!

  • Laila@BigReadingLife July 8, 2019 at 3:20 pm

    Congratulations on buying the farm. It looks lovely.

    Today I read another good review of Less from a blogger I trust so I will have to add that to my TBR list.

    Good luck with all the unpacking/organizing!

  • Annemieke July 9, 2019 at 7:05 am

    You always think that you are done around the house when you finish that one thing and then, you’re not haha.

  • PerfectlyTolerable July 9, 2019 at 1:15 pm

    Congratulations on your farm!!!! That is super exciting 😀 and your chicken bucket line sounds exhausting, but it is super awesome that you had friends that were willing to help <3

  • whatthelog July 10, 2019 at 12:51 pm

    Congratulations!!!! The farm looks lovely! Hope you settle in 100% soon. I also moved in June – we still don’t have any wi-fi, but I’m close to London and my friends so I’m very happy 🙂

    What did you think of Roll of Thunder? I read it when I was in middle grade and hated it. I wonder why?

  • anhdara13 July 14, 2019 at 3:05 am

    Congratulations on the farm! And I wish you all the best with this new venture and your future!

  • Amanda @Cover2CoverMom July 18, 2019 at 11:12 am

    Ahhhh Jackie I am super excited for this new chapter in your life! I just know you’ll get used to country living and acclimate to “simpler living” lol I have full confidence that things will slow down this fall and you’ll be able to get your blogging groove back again. I miss you 🙂

    That’s awesome you’re able to listen to so many audiobooks now that you have a commute… always looking at the positive side!

    I KNEW you’d love Circe! I can’t remember, have you read Song of Achilles? I don’t believe you have… so you need to read via audiobook ASAP 🙂

    I’m very interested in seeing what you think of Before We Were Yours. It truly is a horrifying story based off real life. I still think about it.

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