February Reading in Review (+search terms and stats)

This month my goal was to continue to chip away at the review pile and to read at least one more book in the 1% Well Read Challenge (from the 1001 Books to Read before you die list).

Nearly all the books I read (with the exception of Wake and Speak) were sent for review, so that went well.

But I failed the 1% Well Read Challenge miserably, only reading 2 of the 10 books I set out to read. I did start a third, Carol Sheilds' The Stone Diaries, but after reading the first two chapters, I realized that it would take me at least a week to read if I wanted to really appreciate it. So, I'm setting aside for now. I am going to try the challenge again this year though, so wish me luck!

Books

I read 5 YA novels:
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
The Poison Apples by Lily Archer
Wake by Lisa McMann
Fade by Lisa McMann

2 middle grade novels:
Tell Me Who by Jessica Wollman
Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne

1 general fiction novel:
This One is Mine by Maria Semple

2 non-fiction books:
The Customer is Always Wrong ed. by Jeff Martin
Where am I Wearing? by Kelsey Timmerman

And I abandoned 2 books after 50 pages that I just wasn't into...

Search terms

Bikini model Lenore. Sorry wrong blog!

Stalin statue. I can give you that yes. Right here.

Hair bands. I assume you are probably looking for glam rockers like Whitesnake or Poison. I am just talking about Emmy's favorite toys.

Who is Lenore? How do we know? I did do a couple of mini-interview posts here and here. As for how you know, you'll just have to trust me.

Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies. I had to mention this because it was by far the most searched for book this month and I thought that was pretty interesting!

Speak up about Speak. We'd be happy to! Steph and I put together this feature to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. You could also win one of 20 copies of the 10th anniversary edition here.

Stats

I posted 36 times in February. Not a record, but still very prolific for me.

Most commented post was my bookshelves post. Probably because Alea, Serena and I got into a hilarious discussion about IKEA bookshelves. I read the thread to Daniel and we were ROTFL.

I had 5,500 visits in February, my most ever!

I also just reached the 200 follower milestone. Thanks everyone!

Thanks for voting on where my next book should take me. I have 18 votes for 13 Little Blue Envelopes and a tie for second place between Feathered and Elsewhere (15 each).