Month in Review – March 2019

I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself for reading as much as I did this month, especially with a buddy read going on. I need to start working harder on my physical TBR books though because they are starting to pile up again. The only exceptions I think I will make in that regard will be graphic novels (which I seem to be doing well with in between books) and Bookmarked’s Book Club pick. I did NOT however get around to my backlisted book (Practical Magic) or at least didn’t finish it in time for the end of March, but I am currently reading it now, and plan to have that and this month’s picks read by the end of April.

General Updates

Books Read this Month: 6

Book Reviews: 3

5-star reads:

• Nimona – Noelle Stevenson

2-stars & under:

 

DNF:

Book of the Month Choice(s) (and link):

Back List Pick of the Month

While I may not be participating in other major reading challenges in 2019 such as PopSugar or Book Riot, I will be participating in this one. Beat the Back List is a unique reading challenge in that it does not have prompts that need to be filled or tight deadlines in which to fill them. Instead, it is a year long commitment to reading books that are already on your TBR. The only catch is that you read books with a 2018 or older publication date. You go at your own pace, which makes for a fun and unique reading experience. In order to do a better job of checking these back listed titles off my list, I let my fiance pick one that I have to read based on a few shelves of unread books. Here is his choice for April:

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (2017)

You read that correctly. This is in fact written by THE Tom Hanks. He even does the audiobook for this collection of short stories. I picked it up IMMEDIATELY after it came out. I had to have it, right? I mean it was written by TOM FREAKING HANKS! I even checked the audiobook out at the library thinking it would be more enjoyable that way, and it was, only, I don’t really mesh well with audiobooks. And after a couple weeks of barely getting around to listening to it, I ended up putting it down for something else, and never looked back. Sad day. Well now is my chance to shine! I will finally be completely this collection in the month of April.

Calendar Girls

I participate in the monthly blog event hosted by Katie @ Never Not Reading and Adrienne @ Darque Dreamer Reads which sparks discussions about books that fall under a specific theme. It was originally created by Flavia (Flavia the Bibliophile) and Melanie (MN Bernard Books) but has been taken over by Katie and Adrienne in the last year or so. For more information about this blog event, click here.

The theme for March was:

Women’s History Month: Favorite Book with a Strong Female Character

(click on the theme name for a link to my post)

My favorite book with a strong female character is:

 (Hermione Granger obviously)

Also please note that ANYONE can participate in this event, boys and girls alike! Just review the “rules” for posting and always make sure to tag the hosts (so everyone knows you are participating) and that’s it!

April’s theme is:

April Fools:

Favorite Book with a Surprise Ending

 

Community Highlights:

This is a new feature I want to start implementing in my monthly wrap up posts. I used to do a feature called “Favorite Things” but stopped after a little while because of the volume of great content that was being posted. But I want to (sort of) bring that back! Here, I will provide links to some of my favorite content posted by other people in the bookish community during that month. It could be a blog post, youtube video or something else! Let me know what kind of content you would like to see featured in this section.

Naty’s Bookshelf: Seasonal Posts: Post ideas for book bloggers for all year around

Written Word Worlds: Around the World in 15 Books

Aurora Libralis: The Books We Buy for the Readers We Wish We Were

Mr. Library Dude: Small(er) Academic Libraries: Highlights from the Field

Stories of Storeys: The Book Theif by Markus Zusak (review)

And that’s all she wrote folks! How was your March? Let’s talk about what you read this month :]