Contentment Reading Challenge 2013: October/November

I just got back not that long ago from seeing Catching Fire at the theater... Oh. My. Goodness. So intense!! While Catching Fire was not my favorite of the books when I read through the series, I think this movie is even better than the first. I'm not sure yet if I'll write a full review - we'll see!

If I was going to accomplish anything more for the Contentment Reading Challenge, re-reading The Hunger Games series would probably be a good idea! As it is, I've re-read five books this year - two more than the first year I hosted and participated in this challenge - putting me firmly at the "Wading" level. It's not as much as I had hoped to accomplish, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless, and it was good revisiting dear "friends" because of it.

I know I have another month to do some more re-reading, but I think I'm going to be doing a different, informal challenge instead: catching up on my review books. Some of the books in my review TBR pile have been there for way too long, and my goal is to try to catch up on my review reading by the end of the year, so that I can start 2014 fresh with a new release or two to review in January.

Here's a list of the books I hope to read and review in the next month-ish:

• Pilgrimage of Promise by Cathy Bryant
• Love's Awakening by Laura Frantz
• Born of Persuasion by Jessica Dotta
• Barefoot Summer by Denise Hunter
• Elusive Hope by MaryLu Tyndall
• Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert
• A Noble Groom by Jody Hedlund
• Burning Sky by Lori Benton
• Dragonwitch by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
• All in Good Time by Maureen Lang
• Mountain Homecoming by Sandra Robbins
• Under a Blackberry Moon by Serena B. Miller
• Welcome to Last Chance by Cathleen Armstrong

My sincere apologies to the authors and publishers who have been waiting a long time for me to review their books. I'm hoping I can get caught up very soon! I think there are some gems hidden in that TBR pile, from what I've heard from other readers and what I know of the authors - so I'm sure I'm in for some good reading. =)

Anyway, here's what you can expect in the next month:

For the blog, besides lots of reviews, Lord willing, you can also expect a cover reveal on Wednesday (for author Jill Stengl, in conjunction with Anne Elisabeth Stengl), the conclusion to the Love's Refuge blog tour next Saturday (have you entered for a chance to win a Kindle yet??), and a Christmas cat-detective story blog tour in December (sign-ups are now open for interested bloggers!). For my time away from the blog, I've got an editing project to finish next week (S/O to wonderful client, Miranda Uyeh!), and I've got to really dig into rewrites for Forget Me Not. I'm thinking the blog tour won't be until the end of January at the earliest, so it will be a little while before bloggers hear from me. Rewriting and editing (with the help of Rachelle Rea) will take some time, but it's important, and I think the process will be good for me - and hopefully for my readers, since the story should be better because of it!

Back to the main topic of this post...what's to come for the Contentment Reading Challenge? Well, I'll probably write one more post in December to conclude everything and give any participants a chance to share how they did overall and what their favorite re-reads were (etc.). But as for 2014, I think I'm retiring the challenge. Perhaps we can just do some unofficial re-reading and sharing about our old favorites off and on, or something...? I know there are some great books I've read that would be nice to re-read someday! And I still have a lot to learn about contentment and continually cultivating it in my life.

If you're participating in this challenge, have you made any progress lately? If not, are you doing any other reading challenges or hoping to play catch-up like me?