Sunday Post August 7, 2022/It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday August 8, 2022

I am linking with Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? now at The Book Date (at Wordpress)

What Are You Reading? is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

I have had a lovely week with family and very limited work and computer time.
My d-i-l had another cancer bump removed on Tuesday. Because of the nature of the sarcoma she won't have pathology results for two weeks. I have been glad to help with a few meals and keeping the children occupied.
One night I made chicken breast Parmesan with the help of all three children. Another night I made the smokies in a blanket. Both meals were a hit.

I continue with my previous prayer lists.

The temps here in Illinois have been as warm as (if not warmer than) home in Florida panhandle. I have spent a couple afternoons in the pool with the kids. Other afternoons we are inside playing card and board games.

I have been busy with my audios with added children's books. I finished seven audios over two weeks. I put out few posts the first week due to travel time, then a few more this past week. I posted four reviews, and some of my memes.

I didn't visit any blogs in the past 12 days.
No Shout Out today.

Audible offerings for free children's titles ended June 30, 2021.
Audiobooks.com is still sharing some free listens for children.

These were the posts over the past two weeks:

• Sunday Post July 24, 2022/It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday July 25, 2022.

• Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway July 29, 2022. Open Worldwide. Ending 8/4/2022.

• ATBR: Audible Book Review: Christmas Every Day by Beth Moran; Genre: Action and Adventure, Historical Fiction; My Rating: 4.75 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.75; Narration 4.75.

• 8/3/2022 Limited Posting Due to Travel, Vacation, and time with Grandchildren!

• ATBR: Audible Book Review: Forget Nothing by Jason Anspach and Michelle C. Meyers; Genre: Action, Fantasy, Science Fiction; My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 4.5.

• ATBR: Audible Book Review: Audible Book Review: After It Happened Books 5 and 6 by Devon C. Ford; Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic; My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.25; Narration 4.5.

• ATBR: Audible Book Review: Sidekick, Raptors, Book 1 by Jaime Castel and C.J. Valin; Genre: Action and Adventure, Comic, Teen and Young Adult; My Rating: 3.75 of 5.0 Overall; Story 3.75; Narration 4.25.

• Sunday Words of Encouragement August 7, 2022 - Waiting for the Lord.
  

Finished Reading:
July 25 - July 31, 2022:

1. Audible Smartphone (ATBR)

Sidekick
Raptors, Book 1
By: Jaime Castle, C.J. Valin
Narrated by: Jack Meloche
Series: Raptors, Book 1
Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
I found this to be a hero, comic book type story.
Source: 6/10/2021 3 books in the series Free from Audible Plus Catalog.
Click on book title for full description.

2. Chirp Smartphone (ATBR)

Tattered Loyalties
Written by Carrie Ann Ryan
Narrated by Gregory Salinas
Run Time 7h 13min
I enjoyed the shifter story but the romance is a bit spicier than I like.
Source: January 2021 Chirp Purchase $0.99.
Click on book title for full description.

3. Audible Smartphone (ATBR)

Nomad
The Nomad Trilogy 1
By: Matthew Mather
Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
Series: The Nomad Series, Book 1
Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
I slipped this in as an apocalyptic, action story.
I will be reading more in the series.
Source: June 2021 Audible Plus Catalog.
Publisher's Summary
Something big is coming...big enough to destroy the entire solar system...and it's heading straight for Earth. That's what Dr. Ben Rollins, head of Harvard's exoplanet research team, is told by NASA after being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. His first instinct is to call his daughter and wife, who are vacationing in Italy: Something is coming, he tells them, a hundred times the mass of our sun. We can't see it, we don't know what it is, but it's there. They're calling it Nomad, and it's coming fast. In just a few months, the Earth may be destroyed.
The world erupts into chaos as the end approaches - and Ben discovers that his wife and daughter are trapped in Italy. The key to humanity's survival may rest in the final answers he pieces together in the midst of his frantic scramble to find his family before Nomad swallows the planet.
©2015 Matthew Mather (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

4. Audible Smartphone (ATBR)

The Dead Cat Bounce
By: Sarah Graves
Narrated by: Lindsay Ellison
Series: Home Repair is Homicide, Book 1
Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
This started slowly but I enjoyed the full story.
Source: 11/6/2021 Audible Plus Catalog.
Click on book title for full description.

Week August 1 - 7, 2022:

1. Audible Smartphone(ATBR)

The Breaking: The End Time Saga, Book 2
By: Daniel Greene
Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
Series: The End Time Saga, Book 2
Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
This seemed like a long 12 (almost 13) hours with a lot of brutality. I will read the next in the series but I won't be rushing to it.
Source: October 2020 Audible Plus Catalog.
Publisher's Summary
The hunt is on to find Patient Zero...
Both the East and the West Coasts of the United States have collapsed, and the US military is in full retreat. All their attempts to stem the tide of the dead have failed.
Former counter-terrorism agent Mark Steele and his fellow survivors have been bushwhacked in the West Virginia hills. The fringe West Virginians are teaching him a valuable lesson in the new rules of the apocalypse. The mountain folk are as resilient as they are ruthless, and Steele must find a way out to save his people.
In a desperate gamble to stop the virus, retired Air Force Colonel Michael Kinnick has been entrusted with finding Dr. Joseph Jackowski, who's gone missing in West Virginia. Kinnick's depleted unit of Special Forces soldiers have reached the breaking point as the dead assault them at every step.
Outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Joseph Jackowski's quest to find Patient Zero has stalled. Unwillingly conscripted into the National Guard, he has been enlisted into Colonel Jackson's rapidly depleting force. As the military quarantine disintegrates around Pittsburgh, death marches closer, and time is running out.
Steele is forced to go further than he ever imagined in order to save his loved ones, but when he is done, will anyone still recognize him? Will he recognize them? And will he recognize himself?
In this thrilling sequel to End Time, Daniel Greene continues his fast-paced and gripping apocalyptic saga. The Breaking transports us to a near future composed of death, honor, destruction, and hope as the United States falls and lives crumble before a devastating zombie virus.
©2018 Daniel Greene (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

2. Audio Chirp App Smartphone (ATBR)

The Accidental Guardian
Written by Mary Connealy
Narrated by Morgan Hallett
Run time: 8 hours and 17 minutes
I chose a break from action to listen to this lovely historical romance.
Source: 5/3/2020 Chirp $4.99.
Publisher Description
Trace Riley has been self-appointed guardian of the trail ever since his own wagon was attacked. When he finds the ruins of a wagon train, he offers shelter to survivor Deborah Harkness and the children she saved. Trace and Deborah grow close working to bring justice to the trail, but what will happen when the attackers return to silence the only witness?
When Trace Riley finds the smoldering ruins of a small wagon train, he recognizes the hand behind the attack as the same group who left him as sole survivor years ago. Living off the wilderness since then, he’d finally carved out a home and started a herd—while serving as a self-appointed guardian of the trail, driving off dangerous men. He’d hoped those days were over, but the latest attack shows he was wrong.
Deborah Harkness saved her younger sister and two toddlers during the attack and now finds herself at the mercy of her rescuer. Trace offers the only shelter for miles around and agrees to take them in until she can safely continue. His simple bachelor existence never anticipated kids and women in the picture, and their arrival is unsettling—yet enticing. Working to survive the winter and finally bring justice to the trail, Trace and Deborah find themselves drawn together—yet every day approaches the moment she’ll leave forever.

READ WITH THE CHILDREN:

God Gave Us Heaven
By Lisa Tawn Bergren

May I Please Have a Cookie?
By Jennifer E. Morris

That's Not My Giraffe
By Fiona Watt

Ear Worm!
By Jo Knowles

3. Audible Smartphone (ATBR)

What's Left of My World
By: C.A. Rudolph
Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
Series: What's Left of My World, Book 1 (7 books)
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
I like this post-apocalyptic, character driven story.
I will be getting more in the series.
(Also a "W" title.)
Source: 7/18/2021 Audible $5.00 sale on Sci Fi and Fantasy titles.
Publisher's Summary
Lauren Russell often wondered why her father had been so adamant about teaching her skills that most other fathers wouldn't even consider teaching their daughters. Ever since she was little, she had been taught how to live and survive outdoors, and how to use firearms to protect herself and those around her. Some of the training had been a bit extreme. Or had it been?
Many of her questions were answered the day the world as she knew it ended. Now, the skills she had been taught serve an essential purpose. They keep her and those she cares about alive. Even in the sparsely-populated mountains of West Virginia, where she and her family have been forced to relocate for their safety after the collapse, peril lurks around every corner. Normal life has taken on a whole new meaning for Lauren, her family, and the community they have become a part of. In this different world, the new status quo is self-preservation. There is no more middle ground. People either live, or they die.
Lauren's father didn't make it home on the day the world changed forever, and she misses him more than anything. Now, in What's Left of My World, she and her family must learn to endure life's horrors - without him.
©2016 C.A.Rudolph (P)2017 C.A.Rudolph

Currently Reading:
1. Audio Chirp App Smartphone (ATBR)

Elemental Thief
Written by Rachel Morgan
Narrated by Arielle Delisle
Run Time: 7hrs 46
I decided on a fantasy for a change of pace.
Source: 10/10/19 Chirp $.99 purchase.
Publisher Description
She’s a thief with forbidden magic. He’s the guy she just stole from. Now they’ll have to work together.
In a city where magic is outlawed, teenage thief Ridley uses her special powers to steal from the rich and give to those in need—until the night someone follows her home after a heist and ends up murdered outside her apartment. When her best friend is accused of the crime, Ridley is determined to prove his innocence.
But things get messy when the artifact Ridley stole turns out to contain secrets that could endanger many lives. Forced to team up with wealthy Archer—the guy she stole from—Ridley must hunt down the artifact before it winds up in deadly hands.
Which means following a trail into the hidden parts of the city …
… and hopefully not winding up dead.

2. Audible Smartphone (ATBR)

The Accidental Alchemist
By: Gigi Pandian
Narrated by: Julia Motyka
Series: Accidental Alchemist Mysteries, Book 1
Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
This title will only be available until 9/4 so I am going to listen to this one.
Source: February 2021 Audible Plus Catalog.
Publisher's Summary
From USA Today best-selling author Gigi Pandian comes a modern tale of ancient intrigue.
Unpacking her belongings in her new hometown of Portland, Oregon, herbalist and reformed alchemist Zoe Faust can't help but notice she's picked up a stowaway. Dorian Robert-Houdin is a living, breathing three-and-half-foot gargoyle - not to mention a master of French cuisine - and he needs Zoe's expertise to decipher a centuries-old text. Zoe, who's trying to put her old life behind her, isn't so sure she wants to reopen her alchemical past... until the dead man on her porch leaves her no choice.
Includes recipes!
Download the accompanying reference guide.
©2015 Gigi Pandian (P)2014 Audible Inc.

I will probably pick a longer book to listen to on my return drive home. I just haven't decided what title yet.


August 7, 2022 - I am on track and continue to enjoy the informative videos in The Bible Reading Plan is: BibleProject | One Story that Leads to Jesus. I am enjoying keeping up with my reading each day.
No new study this week.

I had three reviews to do before I left for vacation. I added 7 books read in two weeks, plus 4 children's books. I have only posted 4 reviews so I will need to catch up.

NETGALLEY STATUS-- My NG shelf is back to the three old ebook titles. I will probably end up letting A Place Called Armageddon go as DNF.
I don't have any author reviews in my queue right now.
(Plus a few that I received from Facebook links and newsletter sign-ups, not specific review requests.)
Still many titles through InstaFreebie and many new author requests I haven't replied to.

Welcome to Mailbox Monday.

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This Meme started with Marcia at A Girl and Her Books (fka The Printed Page) and after a tour of hosts has returned to its permanent home at Mailbox Monday. Thanks to the ladies sharing hosting duties: Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, me and new to the team, Velvet at vvb32reads. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
No new review or NetGalley titles this week.
I selected my two July Audible Credits.
One free Kindle title this week.
Are your mailbox and TBR piles blooming?

Review Titles

NONE

Won

NONE

Purchased

7/31/2022 Two July Audible Credits used (to gain a $5.00 credit). Both continue series I like.

Renegades
Expeditionary Force, Book 7
By: Craig Alanson
Narrated by: R.C. Bray
Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
Release date: 03-26-19

To Serve and Protect
Onset, Book 1
By: Glynn Stewart
Narrated by: Ray Porter
Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
Release date: 10-24-17

Free

In Search of Love and Affection: An Inspirational Historical Western Romance Book
Lilah Rivers

One title added to Kindle library. Free titles often found at Bookbub, Bookfun, Book Adrenaline, Ereader News Today, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink or Kindle ebooks.