March Wrap-up

I'm linking up with The Book Date and Feed Your Fiction Addiction for this monthly review! 

Hello and welcome to my March monthly wrap-up! This one will be short and sweet, seeing how I didn't get too much reading done this past month.  

Favorite March memory : This happened at the very end of March but I'm still counting it. I was able to go home for Easter (first time since starting grad school) and the weather was unbelievable and spring-y and I came back to snow. I'm still waiting for spring to hit here! 

March was not my best reading month-- I managed to get through two books and one audiobook. This year has been busier than last year but hey, I'm averaging three books a month and that's not too bad. 

Total Books Read: 3 

1 Cozy Mystery 

1 Historical fiction

1 General fiction 

               

Click on the covers to go to Goodreads! 

I hate admit-- none of the books I read in March really wowed me. Austenland (review to come!) was fun, for sure, As Death Draws Near is part of a long running series I like, and Pies and Prejudice was pretty bad (review to come!). 

It feels like it has been some time since a book really made me fall in love with it. 

Let me know, did you read an amazing book this last month? If so what was it?? 

Monthly Wrap-up: January + February

I'm linking up with The Book Date, Feed Your Fiction Addiction, and Cocoon of Books for this monthly review! 

It has been a startingly long time since I did a wrap-up but I'm going to just jump right back in with the past two months!



Favorite January memory: Right before I headed back to school I had the chance to drive down and see two of my college friends who I hadn't seen in years and it was so lovely to be with them again.




Favorite February memory: I went to a physics conference and professionally speaking the conference was the best it could ever be! I made some valuable contacts that might help me get a job in a year or so when I graduate. Even though I didn't enjoy the city (read more here!) the conference was very productive.

What with my demanding class (graduate level biochem anyone?) and my two jobs I have plenty of excuses as to why my reading pace as slowed down from last year. I don't mind-- sure it would be nice to read a bit more-- but I'm enjoying the books I am able to read.

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

I just adored this one-- read more here!

The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer

This book was not horrible, it just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

Finding time to go to the real life library has been very difficult these past two months, which makes me immensely grateful for my kindle which can download a library book AT ANY TIME (isn't technology just marvelous?).

I joined a nonfiction reading challenge and I have to say, I did not foresee it going this well! Thus far it has not been a huge struggle to find a nonfiction book I don't hate reading.

((click on the photo to go to the review! look at me, doing some coding...))

 


Whew! That's it for me! Here's to hoping that in these next months, I scrounge up some more time for reading. Let me know-- what was your favorite book in January/February? 

October + November Recap

I'm linking up with The Book Date  and Feed Your Fiction Addiction for this monthly review!

This monthly review is sorely late, so let's jump right into it!

My favorite October memory: My parents happen to visit me the weekend of my choir concert! This is the first official choir I've sung in, so it was cool that they got a chance to hear us.

My favorite November memory: Seeing my nephew (1 1/2 years old) at Thanksgiving. It had been nearly a year since I last saw him and man babies change a lot in a year.

These past two months have not been good reading months for me. Sadly I was swamped with work and life and somehow only managed to read two books in two months! I mean I expected that to happen in November, when all my free time was thrown at the crazy endeavour of writing a novel but still, they are sad numbers to look at. Here's to hoping that December is better! I'm really looking forward to Christmas break and alllll the reading that will happen then. Theoretically.

The Raven Boys by Maggie S

Vigil by Angela Slatter

This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber

The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas 

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-garcia

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater 

I know it's odd to pick a favorite and a least favorite out of a pool of two. However, I felt very strongly about each book! The Raven Boys was amazing and I really was disappointed by Vigil.

Whew; that's it! And the award for the latest monthly wrap up goes to...me!

What I Read: September

I'm linking up with The Book Date, Feed Your Fiction Addiction, and Cocoon of Books for this monthly review! 

isn't this natural bridge/cave so gorgeous?? I actually took this picture a couple months ago when my friends were visiting and we hiked here. 

It's that time again! That time when we all scratch our heads in confusion that somehow time keeps chugging along and yet another month has passed.

I can't say I was too surprised to see my calendar flip to October-- I was looking forwards to the (hopefully) autumn weather and September was kind of dragging along.

October is also exciting because it means that NaNoWriMo is only one month away! Ever since I decided (like two weeks ago) to do NaNo this year I've been super pumped.

Not that this has caused me to plan or plot or do anything vaguely resembling helpful activity. Of course not.

Anyway! Before I delve into the books I read during the month of September, I thought I would start a new monthly feature-- my favorite moment/event from the month.

My favorite event during September was a gospel choir reunion picnic/concert extravaganza. Last year my friend introduced me to a gospel community choir that gets together once a year, bringing in people from gospel backgrounds and people from traditional choral backgrounds. After a couple weeks of practice there is a huge concert and it's so much fun! I'm from a fairly traditional church (swaying is only allowed on certain Sundays and no one is allowed to clap) so it is a blast for me to sing gospel songs that have so much soul! Since once a year is not very often, we had a mini community choir reunion in September where we ate a bunch of food, sang some songs, and generally had a great time.

Now onto the books!

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas

  

The Medievalist by Anne-Marie Lacy
A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn
This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains  by Isabella Bird

Best of Bunch is a new feature I'm trying out! This was a tough month but I want to say that The Oyster Catcher was perhaps my favorite-- but the ending of The Beautiful Ones helped redeem a mostly boring storyline (more thoughts/rants to come) so I was torn.

For the most disappointing read this month I had to sadly go with This Side of Murder. Like I wrote in my review, this isn't a bad book per se, I just had higher expectations for this particular author. 

Whew! Is this the longest post I've ever written? It feels like it. If you have made it to the end then congrats, I appreciate you so much :) Let me know in the comments below what your favorite read in September was! Biggest disappointment? 

What I Read: August

I'm linking up with The book date and Feed your fiction addiction for this monthly review! 

As you may or may not have noticed, I'm trying a slightly different format for my monthly review. I've become proficient at using Adobe Illustrator through my job, oddly enough, so I thought I would create a layout for the books I read this month! 

Where Two Seas Meet by the Morris people

This is the first book of the second series about the two main characters. The books are always enjoyable; they're like comfort food. If I ever want a nice book to read, I return to this series. 

A Twist in Time by Julie McElwain

This is book two in a time slip murder mystery series that I enjoy. I might get around to writing a review for it one of these days....

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Easily hands down my favorite book this month. Click on the title to read more of my fangirling on this second book in the Wayfarers series. 

The Woolly Hat Knitting Club by Poppy Dolan

This was my first ARC (advanced reader copy)! It was an enjoyable lighthearted romance that quickly became my second favorite read of the month. 

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

My review for this novel will be up in a week or so, so stay tuned! In a nutshell, this was an introspective novel that, while more towards literary fiction than I normally read, I enjoyed nonetheless. 

The Secret by Julie Garwood

Annndd for my least favorite book of the month. To be fair, this book was not a bad book; there were parts of it that I definitely enjoyed reading. The characters were cute and the romance was light and fluffy. It was just too difficult to correlate feminist characters (who convince men to give women more rights) and fluffy romances with 12th century Scottish wildlands. 

That about sums it up! I'm pretty happy with my total for the month of August-- not my busiest month but definitely not my slowest month. How was your month? What was your favorite read that I should check out? 

What I Read: July Edition

I'm linking up with The book date for this monthly review! 

That little graphic pretty much sums it up. I only read four book this past month-- it's  almost like I had a move to carry out and a family reunion to attend! Luckily I'm still on track for my Goodreads yearly challenge.

Genre Breakdown:

Non-fiction

Historical fiction

Fantasy/paranormal

Fiction

Ebooks: 4

That's right folks! I went from not owning an e-reader to exclusively finishing only ebooks this month! My how things change. 

Books I Reviewed

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Eventually all of these books will have reviews up, but as for now, only two have been published.

Biggest Disappointment

Come back this Thursday to find out why! 

Best Book I read in July

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black 

I'll have a review up on this book next week, but suffice it to say, I really enjoyed reading it. 

That about does it for the shortest monthly review ever! I don't know how August will turn out-- it probably won't be much better, what with school starting. I'll go from doing research full time to researching, and teaching, and taking a class. Ah, grad school. How little I will miss thee. ((of course I say that now, just wait a couple years and then I'll be pinning for basement labs and juggling three different jobs, and okay I really will miss the flexible hours that are sure to disappear when I get a real-adult-full-time job))

How was your July?? Did the holidays mean you caught up on reading or fell behind?

What I read: June

I'm linking up with The book date for this monthly review! 

Total Books Read: 10 (okay, technically more like 9.5 but hey, still more than May! not that this is a competition...)

Genre Breakdown

(it is actually not trivial to assign genres! I mean what if a murder mystery is set in the past? Does that automatically make it a historical fiction book as well? inquiring minds want to know)

Historical Fiction: 6

Murder Mystery: 4

Paranormal: 1

Sci-fic: 1

Anthology: 0.5 [[that's the one I gave up on]]

Audiobooks: 2

Ebooks: 0

Real honest to goodness paper books: 8

Island of the Innocent and Driven with the Wind by the Morris people




I finished the Cheney Duvall, M.D. series! Quite possibly the longest series I've read at eight books long. Luckily there's a follow-up series I just started.

                       

Dead in the Water and Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn

As always the Daisy Dalrymple cozy murder mystery series made up my audiobook contribution this month! I'm trying to catch up on some of my podcasts, but soon I'll have to download the next audiobook in the series. 

When Breaks the Dawn (Canadian Wilderness #3) by Janette Oke

A Study in Death (Lady Darby #4) by Anna Lee Huber

Books I've Reviewed

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

I'll Eat when I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland 

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Check out my reviews on these books I read last month! 

Biggest Disappointment

Reader, I Married Him edited by Tracy Chevalier

I don't read many short stories, so that's always something I'm looking to improve. When I heard of this anthology populated by short stories inspired by Jane Eyre I was intrigued ((even if I don't remember actually ever reading Jane Eyre)). I didn't make it through the whole anthology-- I stopped because I wasn't liking any of the stories. 

Best Book I Read in June

Easy, hands down, no questions asked. 

That's it! All the books I read last month. This month is not looking so good as far as numbers go-- the move and vacation have meant that I actually haven't finished a book yet ((thus why there hasn't been a new review!)). I learned that I prefer to write reviews for books I just finished so hopefully by next week I'll have one up.

What about you? How was your June reading? Did you give up on any books?