Sunday Post: Goals, Motivation, Movies, & My September TBR Poll Winner

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and gives us all a chance to recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. 

What I Am Reading: This weekend I finished reading Catherine McKenzie's thriller Fractured, my second book by the author. It kept me guessing right up to the end. I am about to start reading the winner of my September TBR List poll, which several of you voted in. Thank you for that!

What I Am Watching: I have begun watching The Lizzie Borden Chronicles. It was more on a whim than anything else. It's quite bloody, but quite addicting.  Have you seen it, by chance?

It was a big weekend for movies. My husband and I saw Sully. We both enjoyed it. I am an avid fan of Tom Hanks, and especially enjoyed his performance. We also went out as a family to see Kubo and the Two Strings, which I thought was very well done with a sad but beautiful story. Mouse wanted to see it again right after and was disappointed when we told her maybe another day. Instead, we came home and watched Frozen, which we haven't seen in quite a while. While Mouse loves the music from the movie, she's never really been all that interested in the movie itself. 

New to My Shelves:

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (birthday gift)

What's Going On Off the Blog:  This is always a difficult time of year for me. This weekend brings the anniversary of my grandmother and father's deaths. I always try to fill it with busy-ness and fun activities. And this year was no different. Anjin surprised me by taking Friday off this past week, and so we went to see the movie Sully together. We went out for lunch also, just the two of us. But before that, he took me to the Cellar Door, our local independent bookstore, and let me pick out a book for my birthday. It was a nice date day. We started our Saturday with a soccer game. Mouse got her first goal! We celebrated with a movie and lunch, followed by ice cream at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant. It made for a nice treat.

I am happy to say my husband's cousin is doing much better after his heart attack and surgery. He woke up from the medically induced coma this past Monday and was talking again on Tuesday. He even posted on Facebook about mid-week to let everyone know he was doing better. The family is very relieved, to say the least. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.

As for Mouse and school, drops offs went much better this past week, fortunately. Mouse has even taken to telling her father when they arrive at school, "Okay, Dad. You can go now." She explained to him that if he left early, she wouldn't cry. Smart girl.

My husband packs my daughter a lunch every day and sends it off to school with her. Two days this past week, however, she took advantage of the school's hot lunches, unbeknownst to us. I was surprised she got away with it considering she did not have money or an account set up. I guess there is a two week grace period for getting accounts set up. We've since set up a lunch account and have money in it in case she decides she would rather have a hot lunch instead. I guess the lure of waffle sticks and pizza was too good to pass up.

Mouse and I are settling into a homework routine. She isn't too happy about it, but I try to make it fun for her. Our evenings are even more crowded than they were before. It's an adjustment, but we are adapting as best we can.

• What have you been up to this past week? 
• What are you reading and watching? Is it anything you would recommend?
• If you have children, what do/did you do to motivate your children to do their homework?

Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

When you set a yearly reading goal, do you set it high to force yourself to meet that goal or do you keep it low and normally go over that goal any way? (submitted by Elizabeth)

My reading goals tend to be more along the line of what type of book I will read more of (by genre, or off my own shelves, or catch up on review books, for example) or which challenges I join. These I sometimes do yearly or randomly throughout the year. I don't always put my goals in writing. For the past three years I've set a Goodreads numeric goal just for the fun of it, but I tend to keep it reasonable to low.  Last year my goal was to read six books in a year. This year it's more realistic, less of a challenge and more of what I know I can read. For me, it's not about the numbers so much as it is about the quality of reading, including my enjoyment, and reading what I want to read at my own pace with no pressure. Otherwise, reading becomes a chore. 

Do you set a numeric reading goal? If so, do you set it high or low or in between?

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Thank you for voting in my September TBR List Poll!

My TBR List is a meme hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Sunday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and take a poll as to which you think I should read. I will read the winner that month, and my review will follow. While I will attempt to post my review that same month, I make no promises--it may go up the following month. 

It was not even close this month, not really. 55.9% (19) of you voted for the winner. Murder At the 42nd Street Library by Con Lehane received 26.5% (9) of the votes and 17.6% (6) of the votes went to Wishing Cross Station by February Grace.

The winner is:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman ~ The first in a series featuring a professional spy for the mysterious Library that collects fiction from different realities. Her latest assignment turns up missing before she can retrieve it.

I am excited to read The Invisible Library and will begin reading it shortly. Thank you again to all who voted!

I hope you all have a great week!

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