state of the arc #7

State of the ARC is a monthly meme hosted by Avalinah's Books. It's a way to track your reading progress and see how fellow book bloggers are doing as well.

The rules for State of the ARC are quite simple; I couldn't put them any better than Evelina already has:

• Mention that you’re linking up with State of the ARC @ AvalinahsBooks, which is a fun way to share our ARC progress, challenges, wins, woes and mishaps.
• Include the link to this post, or the current State of the ARC post. You can use my State of the ARC image too.
• Don’t forget to visit all the other people in the link-up and comment.
• And most importantly – have fun!

ARC STATS

July was another good reading month! I even managed to get ahead of my goals a little bit, which allowed me to take a short break and focus on things other than reading in my free time towards the end of the month. A small breather felt good, and I'm hoping it will go a long way to preventing burnout.

I finally read more than I hauled, so my overall number of ARCs has gone down while the ratio of books read and reviewed continues to rise. After another of month of very few requests and approvals, my NetGalley ratio is almost at that magical number—78%! Even if some fall approvals come my way, I should finish enough on my pending shelf to reach the coveted 80+% feedback ratio this month.

November onward remains quite thin on review copies, so it may not be long before I've completely caught up. While that might be cause for celebration for some, instead I'm hoping that ARCs from publishers' Winter catalogs start making their way into the wild soon!

SYMBOLS DECODED

I've posted six ARC reviews since the last check-in:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
Sanctuary by Caryn Lix
Contagion by Erin Bowman
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

I also have 15 ARC reviews written and queued for posting! (There are only so many alethiometers I can fit on a page, so we'll stop at a dozen!) In August I'll have reviews for Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart, Seafire by Natalie C. Parker, Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood, Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, Mirage by Somaiya Daud, and Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer. Later in the fall I'll have reviews for Small Spaces by Katherine Arden, The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White, Sadie by Courtney Summers, Rule by Ellen Goodlett, Damsel by Elana K. Arnold, Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, Wildcard by Marie Lu, and Enchantée by Gita Trelease!

ARC BINGO

I nearly forgot—last month, Evelina replaced monthly themes for her ARC reading group with a bingo board! This month I could actually fill in a couple more squares, but instead I want to see how much progress I can make over time. Unfortunately, I already spy a couple of squares that are probably doomed to remain blank, but we'll see what surprises lie in store!

ON THE HORIZON

I have all but a couple of ARCs finished through September; I still need to read and review City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab and House of One Thousand Eyes by Michelle Barker. Then I can turn my attention to end-of-year releases, including beauties like The Boneless Mercies, Grim Lovelies, Melmoth, and Empress of All Seasons! I actually have very few review copies with November and December release dates at the moment, so my attention may shift to backlist titles and re-reads at the end of the year.

Will we be covering any of the same ARCs this month? Let me know which review you're most looking forward to in the comments below!