November wasn’t bad! You guys know I’ve been SUPER BUSY ever since we moved into our house back in August and well, now with Christmas and planning a wedding, I only expect things to get busier from there! I guess the good news is that NaNoWriMo is officially over (well, good and bad) so I won’t be stressing out about reaching 50k by the end of the month, BUT the good news is that my WIP DID reach 50k (even though I started writing a couple months before November) so I’ll still be taking some time to keep on writing here and there! Anyway… Time to recap the month!

• Number of Books Read In August: Only nine (and three of those were novellas… Haha!)
• Popular Search Terms:  “book addicts guide” || “sarah dessen new book 2014” || “who is tom mison” (MAJOR WIN!)
• More Amusing Search Terms: “cress arc spoiler” (HEY, no cheating! I also do not give out spoilers :)) || “dorkiest or sexiest moment of my life, and i’m voting for sexy on account of my standing…” (The Sky is Everywhere, for those of you wondering!)|| “the smiths eleanor and park” (another major win!) || “the headless horseman terrorize sleepy hollow because he died during the revolutionary war. what kind of ghost would terrorize a modern sleepy hollow? why?” (Good question? Watch the show!!)
• Most Referrals (Non-Twitter/FB/Wordpress, etc): A Bookish Heart, Alexa Loves Books, Teen Lit Rocks (Thank you, my lovely ladies!)
  
• Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (Non-Goodreads/Internal Links, etc): The Grown-Up YA, Gone Pecan, That Artsy Reader Girl

• I got to interview the Fierce Reads authors for the tour stop in Chicago and had a giveaway of ALL of their fierce titles!
• You guys loved my post for My Latest Bookish Addiction of Swoony Snark!
• I shared with you the Top Ten Things I am thankful for this year and what has inspired me in my blogging life!
• I also shared my Top Ten Suggestions for a male reader on November 19th!

Other Reviews Posted

• I reviewed ALTERED by Gennifer Albin, the second book in the Crewel World trilogy
• ENCLAVE was an interesting start to the Razorlands series by Ann Aguirre
• I listened to the audio of FORGOTTEN by Cat Patrick
• Amy bought me POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil for All Hallow’s Read!
• FORTUNATELY, THE MILK by Neil Gaiman was a quick and fun read!
• The Song of Ice and Fire Read Along continues and I reviewed A FEAST FOR CROWS
• A big anticipated title from BEA, TANDEM by Anna Jarzab was super interesting
• FAULT LINE by Christa Desir was intense, emotional, and eye-opening.

An Updated Look at my Goodreads Reading Progress

Bloggers featured on Book and a Beverage

• 11/7/13: Fiona from The Book Voyage
• 11/14/13: Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl
• 11/21/13: Lauren from Lose Time Reading
• 11/28/13: Inga from Miss Inga Page

Other Features & Discussions

• I loved being able to interview the Fierce Reads ladies! They were such a blast! Check out the post for the tour recap and interview!
• The Selective Collective and I celebrated our one year anniversary!
• November 5th’s Top Ten Tuesday talked about series I cannot wait to read more of!
• We continued on the Just One Year read along and then finally finished the entire Gayle Forman read along with the last post!
• On November 12th, I talked about the covers I wish I could redesign (and even took a stab at a few!)
• The Selective Collective featured LOUD AWAKE AND LOST by Adele Griffin

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR DECEMBER?

• Well, NaNoWriMo is over and… my WIP is over 50k!!! Granted, I started writing before November so in full disclosure, I did not write all 50k during November, BUT I still count that as a major win! It’s the first time I’ve really written anything and a STORY and it’s very exciting! I still have a lot more to write before I get to editing stages so I hope to keep working on it in December!
• ALMOST done buying gifts for all kinds of Secret Santas! I’m doing a friend gift exchange as well as The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa and our annual Selective Collective Secret Santa!
• I don’t have anything special planned for December blog-wise, but I’m excited to do end of year wrap ups! I’m already working on Jamie’s End of Year Book Survey for 2013 (you can do it too!) and maybe a little something of my own.
• Unrelated to my blog, Shane and I have set a date for the wedding! We’ll be getting married on November 8th, 2014 so I will be in wedding planning mode until then! It should be fun and… Interesting haha. I have my sister to help me and I’ve already gotten support from a number of my friends so I’m really excited to actually get to work on the details!

That wraps up November! I still can’t believe it’s already December. The time is just FLYING by and the year is almost over! I still remember New Year’s last year where I had strep and ended up reading three books on January 1st!