Best of Summer: Four Months in Review

Wow, has it really been five months since I posted a monthly review? Although, to be fair, I've posted less than 15 times total since then, so I guess there hasn't been much to review on the blog. ;) As far as life goes, though, oh boy! Lots has been happening around my real life lately, as you may already know. Currently, that includes lots of homework, writing wedding thank you notes, and taking care of some last-minute preparations for our honeymoon next week (eek!). I know I have a lot of wedding sharing to do here, and after I get back from our honeymoon, I know I'm going to want to post a million pictures, so I thought I should catch up on the summer (June through September) quickly before moving on to the very exciting months of October and November. Without further ado ... this summer in review!

Most Popular on Instagram & Notable Events

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Considering my obsession with Instagram, there was no way I could boil four months of photos down into just four picks! :) So today, you get to see the nine most popular photos from my summer feed! (To be fair, this photo was tied for 9th place, but the triathlon bib got more comments.) As you can see, my summer mostly consisted of wedding planning (including my bachelorette party in Vegas—woohoo!) and drinking coffee, but I managed to throw a triathlon in there, as well, and a trip to Seattle for my grad school orientation. By the way, I noticed that once again any photos with my fiance husband in them automatically get more likes. ;)

Most Popular on the Blog

The most-viewed posts on my blog over the summer were all from past book challenges; none were actually from this year! Because of this, I'm going to share the five most popular posts from this summer only, excluding challenge check-in posts (as those almost always get the most views):

5. Banned Books Week 2014: A Semi-Charmed Photo Challenge (September 18)
4. The Top 10 Books on my Fall TBR List (September 24)
3. New Book on the Shelf! (June 20)
2. Change on the horizon ... (September 9)
1. Change is here! (September 12)

Also Posted in June, July, August & September

>> Words of Wisdom from Norton Juster (June 19)
>> Weekly Wishes: Back-to-Blogging Edition (September 22)
>> Friday Funny: Word Crimes (July 25)
>> Best of April & May: Two Months in Review (June 8)
>> And, of course, all the #SCSBC14 check-in posts and scoreboards.

photo via @mcstroup

On My Bookshelf

This Song Will Save Your Life, Leila Sales // The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
 The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards // Golden Boy, Abigail Tarttelin
Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein // The Monuments Men, Robert M. Edsel
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline // Rooms, Lauren Oliver // Inferno, Dan Brown
Me Before You & The Girl You Left Behind, Jojo Moyes
A Game of Thrones & A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin

I realize that is a lot of books, so let me break it down for you:

Read: Code Name Verity, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Girl You Left Behind and the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Don't read: The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Booooooring.

How was your summer? Was the most exciting thing you did all season?

Linking up with Nicole for Treat Yo' Self Thursday.

Linking up for the 2014 Review Extravaganza.