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Sunday, May 6, 2018

March + April Wrap-Up


So this was an interesting few months.  Mostly, I just had zero time for anything (if you thought my January and February were productive, prepare yourself for the utter unproductivity that was March and April).  In any case, it's now May and it's time for another wrap-up! (just ignore the fact that March should be separate from April if I would ever follow my goals)



Statistics:


Pages Read: 8,544



Total Books Read: 24

Rereads: 8



Reviews Posted: 2 (this is awful and I need to remedy it in future months ASAP!)


Average Ratings:




Number of Authors Read: 22
Number of Series Books: 10
Number of Standalones: 14

The Books:
Read:


The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (5 stars) (Review to come!)
Beneath This Mask - Meghan March (Beneath #1) (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #1) (4 stars) (Review)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz (5 stars) (Review to come!)
Trumpet - Jackie Kay (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli (4.5 stars) (Review to come!)
Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang (3 stars) (Review to come!)
You're Welcome, Universe - Whitney Gardner (3 stars) (Review to come!)
By a Charm and a Curse - Jaime Questell (4 stars) (Review)
If I Was Your Girl - Meredith Russo (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson (5 stars) (Review to come!)
His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnet (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Holding Up the Universe - Jennifer Niven (4 stars) (Review to come!)
The Cruel Prince - Holly Black (4.5 stars) (Review)
Everywhere You Want to Be - Christina June (4 stars) (Review)
This One Summer - Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (3 stars) (Review to come!)

Reflections:
Clearly it's been a couple months with plenty of reading and no review writing.  Many of these books I read for university and, luckily, I enjoyed most of them!  I'll be writing round-up reviews in May sometime (hopefully!) so watch out for those.

High points include Aristotle and Dante, Silent Spring, The Cruel Prince, and The Hate U Give!  Low points include You're Welcome, Universe, Story of Your Life, and This One Summer.

Rereads:


Pushed - Corrine Jackson (Sense Thieves #2) (5 stars) (Review)
Geek Girl - Holly Smale (Geek Girl #1) (4 stars) (Review to come!)
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) (5 stars) (Review to come!)
The Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling #1) (5 stars) (Review)
The Invasion of the Tearling - Erika Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling #2) (5 stars) (Review)
The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson (Fire and Thorns #1) (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #1) (5 stars) (Review)
We Were Liars - E. Lockhart (4.5 stars) (Review)

Reflections:
I kept my rereads a bit more under control during these two months as compared to the last two.  Still, I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorites!  I'm doing a buddy reread of the Geek Girl series with Tanya @A Book Paradise and I'm enjoying it so far as well (I've already read Geek Girl once but I remembered absolutely nothing about it) and I haven't read any other books in the series so it's really cool to go through and finally read them!


Currently Reading:

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (page 2/366) (4 stars) (Review to come!)
Q - Luther Blissett (page 492/768) (4 stars) (Review to come!)

Reflections:
So I'm actually in the middle of two rereads right now.  My friend lent me her GORGEOUS copy of The Hobbit (dark green binding with engraved with Dwarfish) and it's such a pleasure to read.  I'm also rereading Q (which I first read a year ago but failed to write a review for) so I can write a review and also so I can digest it a bit more.  It's a pretty dense book with lots of events and subtext to understand and I love digging into it.


Movies (not counting rewatches because we would be here a while!):



Reflections:
It was quite a good few months for movies!  I finally got to see Justice League and I ended up really liking it!  I don't know much about DC (Wonder Woman was my first DC movie) but I thought they did an excellent job with the casting (especially for Flash!!).  I also finally saw Wonder, Coco, and I, Tonya all of which were good.  I was amazed that they found someone to play Tonya in I, Tonya (they have to be able to land all those complicated ice skating jumps).  Wonder was just as heartwarming as I though it would be and Coco was so lovely as well.  I saw Let the Right One In at a screening festival and it was disturbing but also kind of good at the same time.  It's originally a Swedish movie that they adapted English subtitles for in order to release it in the US (where I am).  Philadelphia was so good; I couldn't stop crying at the end.  Definitely watch it if you get the chance!  The rest, Lara Croft, Despicable Me 3, Next, Sahara, Maximum Ride, and Brother Bear 2 were all just okay.  I wouldn't recommend any of them but they weren't bad.  I just kind of went on a random Netflix kick so I ended watching all of them.


TV:


Reflections:
This is a pretty typical line-up for me.  I'll watch Forensic Files if I need something short before bed (there are like a million episodes on Netflix so I can't see myself running out anytime soon!).  I'm almost finished with my rewatch of Pretty Little Liars.  I just entered the last season!  I'm also on the last season of Grey's Anatomy (that's on Netflix; season 12) and let me tell you, it's been a tumultuous few seasons!  I decided to rewatch Criminal Minds because I just couldn't resist!  I absolutely love that show.


On the Blog:
Reviews:

50/50 Fridays:

Wrap-Ups:

Miscellaneous:



Life Update:
Now that I think about it, there hasn't been too much going on these past couple months!

My birthday was at the end of April and I've officially entered my 20s (which is kind of strange to say...).  I got together with some friends and made dinner and watched Les Mis (who else loves that movie????) and it was lovely!

Midterms are over and now finals are less than two weeks away!  So there all that prepping going on so I'm not sure if I'm even going to be able to do my blogoversary giveaway until I'm back home for the summer!  We'll see how things go.  I have been getting more on top of everything lately so maybe it'll work out.

My trip to the Bahamas in March was absolutely lovely and it was exactly the break I needed!  We went to the Princess Cays (a Carnival private island) and Nassau.

I preordered A Court of Frost and Starlight!!!  I never preorder books so this is kind of a big deal for me.  By the time this post goes up, I'll have received it and I'm so excited to get started!!

I registered for my classes in the fall and I'm at 19 credits (the max is 18 but I petitioned the dean of my college to overload) so that should be an interesting semester.  I'll be taking three English classes, three biology classes, and choir so I'm excited!  One of the English classes is a training class that gets you reading to become a paid Writing Assistant which is really cool.  Once I finish the course, I get to help other students and faculty with their papers and such which will be really great experience.


And that's about it!  How was your March and April?  Did you do anything fun?  Are you excited for ACOFAS??  Have you ever taken a cruise?  Have you seen Criminal Minds (and if you have, I need your opinions on Aaron Hotchner because he is a gem)?  Are you more a Marvel or DC fan?  Do you have any gorgeous books that you love reading?  How are your reading goals going?  Let me know and I hope you all have a lovely May!

10 comments:

  1. I know you don’t think you had a productive few months but 24 books seems wonderful to me! Keep it up! I’m glad you enjoyed Ari and Dante!! It’s one of my fave books can I can’t wait for the sequel. I watched I,Tonya a few months ago and was blown away by it! Margot Robbie is such a great actress :D

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    1. Haha I think it was mostly unproductive because I didn't really read any of the review books I have and that list is a mile long. But you're right, I'm actually on top of my GR challenge for once! Wait wait there's going to be a sequel????? I NEED THAT!! I completely agree! I found it so impressive that Robbie was able to learn to do all this skating and such for the role! Thanks for stopping by, Emily!

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  2. So much to say! First of all you’re reading numbers aren’t bad at all. And you liked most of them so that’s good! I love how much retreading you do. I don’t do it nearly enough and it depresses me. There’s so many good books that deserve revisiting. As for your movies, I’m a bigger Marvel fan but I don’t mind the DC movies. I really want to see I Tonya. I’ll have to watch it. Cruises are the great. I’m glad you got to go. Enjoy your summer.

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    1. Thanks, Jenny :) I think I'm mostly frustrated with my inability to get into some review books that I've received. That list is still embarrassingly long. It's such a great way to decompress, actually, because you already know what is going to happen so you can spend more time savoring the journey and all of the foreshadowing (part of the reason I'm rereading Q!). It's the same with me; I feel like I just haven't seen that much of DC so I don't know how I feel about it yet. Marvel is such an empire, you know? I look forward to your opinion of it! I hope you have a lovely summer as well, Jenny!

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  3. Wow, what an amazing reading month! Glad to see you loved Simon, Ari and Dante and The Cruel Prince as they're some of my faves :)

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    1. I'm hoping I can keep it up in May and June but that may be harder than I think what with finals and starting work. We'll see how it goes! They were all so lovely! I'm so glad I didn't end up being a black sheep on those because I'd heard such amazing things about all of them. Thanks for stopping by, Lindsey!

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  4. Wow I'm honestly in awe (and a little jealous) that you find the time to read so many books while you're in school. I've been wanting to read The Cruel Prince for so long now because I love Holly Black, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

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    1. Haha well it does help that I'm an English major so a lot of them (actually, a majority this month) I have to read for classes. Still, it's nice that they're books I was going to read anyway. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it (I SO know the feeling...) and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it! Thanks for stopping by, Erika!

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  5. Wow, well I feel like you're doing AWESOME with all of these books read, I wish I could read as much, you're doing amazing :) I'm sorry that you didn't love You're Welcome, Universe, I've been looking forward to reading that one. But yay for THUG and We Were Liars, I loved both so much :D
    I hope you will have an incredible month! <3 <3

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    1. Haha thank you :) It helps that I have to read most of them for university (I'm an English major which means a LOT of novel reading). Yeah, I think I'm going to be a bit of a black sheep on that one. The diversity is so, so great and amazing but I just couldn't get over Julia's attitude. Hopefully you'll like it better than I did :) Omg right?? They're both so amazing!!! I hope you have a lovely month too, Marie, and thanks for stopping by!

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