July TBR featuring the Reading Rush and TBR Spinner Challenge

Happy July everyone! It is hard to believe we have turned the corner and starting the second half of 2020. I personally cannot wait for it to finish up--this year needs to be put to rest. However, I know that the second half of the year will be even busier than the first half as my daughter transitions to high school, beginning a new school year--hopefully in person after 6 months away from the building for the most part, and all the end of the calendar year tasks.  I start two national committee appointments, one for AASL and another for YALSA, which I will be doing in conjunction with my state association's duties I do. 

During the month, we will also be traveling a bit back to see family in our home states (Michigan and Indiana) along with checking out some colleges for my daughter--she is a rising freshman. Don't worry--we will be safe wearing our masks, practicing social distance to protect family members and ourselves. I am a firm believe in wearing masks--just do it! 

Reading Rush Readathon:

With traveling this month, things are going to be a bit more challenging. I won't be able to participate in Becca's Bookopoly Readathon sadly because we will be traveling that weekend. The one readathon I plan on doing is the Reading Rush hosted on the Reading Rush channel. Here are the books I am looking to fit in that week:

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Here are the Reading Rush Challenges and what I am anticipating trying to use to fit them (right now anyway):

• Cover with my birth stone which is Tanzanite, Turquoise, or Zircon so blue needs to be on my cover: Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson
• Starts with The: The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert
• A book for a movie I've already seen: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
• First book I touched: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijoema Oluo
• Read a book outside or related to being outside: The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
• A book in a genre you've want to read more of: The Girls: An All-American Town, a Predatory Doctor, and the Untold Story of the Gymnasts Who Brought Him Down by Abigail Pesta 
• Set on a different continent: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

They also selected for the group book: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid which you will see I have already been reading this month and am working to finish it up (hopefully this week). 

The Reading Rush takes place June 20-26th, which overlaps by a couple of days when we are traveling. So I know the likelihood of me completely seven different books in one week is slim (especially given the reading slumps I have been fighting through). All of my choices were picked so they can do double duty on the challenges in the hopes that I can complete all seven challenges, without having to read seven different books. However, I am going to pick a book for each challenge knowing that this book may not be able to be finished in a week along with other titles. 

TBR Spin Challenge:

As far as the rest of the month goes, trying to adhere to a TBR Pile has not been going as well for me. I usually pull a stack based on any of the readathons I am doing with multiple choices, but even that did not work in June. I will go into more details in my June Wrap Up coming up after this post (probably on Friday or so). 

With this in mind, I have decided I am going to work on using my TBR Spinner I created--digitally. I am not making a physical one such as Codie does on her channel Codie's Book Corner, check out her TBR Wheel Playlist.  Here is what my Spinner App looks like:

The categories I have at this point are: Start a series, Standalone, TBR Vet, Highest Rated, Genre Jar, Recommended, Diversity, Young Adult, Lowest Rated, YouTube Pick, Middle Grade, Adult, Mood Pick, Newest Book, Library, Review Journal, and Series Next Up. Nothing earth shattering, but a good mix for me to work off each spin. My goal is to essentially spin every time I am looking for my next read. I finished up a book yesterday (June 29) so I am ready to start a fresh book tomorrow. Just to be prepared, I did my first spin:

So first one is a TBR Vet, which fits perfectly into my reading goals. I am hoping to keep reading down my backlist as much as I can this year...while also wanting to read all the new books. Ahh the dilemmas of a book lover and librarian. With this in mind, I turned to my GoodReads and have decided I am going to pick up a young adult contemporary set during summer (seems perfect for the season): Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry. I have not read a Katie McGarry book in years, so it will be interesting to see what I think now. 

I will keep a running list of spins and which book I picked to fulfill the spin. My goal is to get at least six spins completed in July. While that does not seem like that much, I will also be reading some additional books that will not fit in with my spins. First up I will be finishing up the two books I have started in June, but are not finished:

The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women by Hallie Rubenhold is my latest nonfiction read. I am just starting it but I want to finish it up. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is my current audiobook I am listening to. I hope to have both finished up within this week, just not by the end of June. 

Additional Plans:

Next up, I am also going to be hosting a professional book study for my state association. We will be reading Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach to Exploring Race and Racism by Tracey Benson and Sarah Fiarman. I will also be personally working my way through a few more professional reads, but I am going to save that list for another blog post. Along with the professional reads, as I mentioned above we will be driving so there will be plenty of time for audiobooks in the car. Hopefully we can get through at least two or three. I also want to work on finishing up some NetGalley ARCs because I fell below the 80% mark because I have been requesting way too many books and received some from publishers directly, that I have so many I want to read. 

So there we go, that is my sort of noncommittal TBR plans for July. I will start Nowhere But Here tomorrow and I will be finishing up The Five and Such a Fun Age this week hopefully. 

What About You?

What are you planning on reading this month? Are you planning on participating in any readathons such as the Reading Rush? Do you (and your family) have any exciting plans for the month? How are you doing overall--have you been able to stay safe and healthy?