Saturday, April 14, 2018

Books Read in March

Yes, this is what March looked like here this year!
Oh, yeah, look at me! Summarizing last month, and it's only the 13th! Woohoo! Don't worry - I will get behind again soon when I go on vacation for a week. For now, I will bask in the glow of accomplishment.

March was an excellent reading month for me, with a bunch of review books and the beginning of my reading for Booktopia Vermont 2018 - just a few weeks to go! Here's what I finished reading in March:
  • We Own the Sky by Luke Allnut (UK) - adult fiction, reviewed for Shelf Awareness
  • Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Canada) - adult historical fiction
  • Freakling by Lana Krumweide - middle-grade/teen fiction on audio

  • The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel (CO) - adult fiction, reviewed for Shelf Awareness
  • Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (MS) - teen/YA fiction on audio
  • My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley (MA) - adult fiction, reviewed for Shelf Awareness


I finished seven books in all in March, all fiction, but a nice mix of ages and genres and types. I finished two audio books (my listening had been kind of slow this year before this). Notice that three of the books I read are for review for Shelf Awareness - that's unusual. I normally just review one book a month for them, but The Optimistic Decade and My Ex-Life were special add-ons because I also interviewed the authors and will be meeting them both in person at Booktopia next month! I will link to my reviews and the author interviews when they are published on Shelf Awareness. Alas, that is probably the real reason why I was ready for my monthly summary so much earlier than usual - fewer blog posts to write! I enjoyed all of these books - some very much - but Ramona Blue really stole my heart. I fell in love with the novel and with its protagonist.

Progress in 2018 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges, though I didn't make much progress this month. With all those review books, I read only 1 book from my own shelves for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge, bringing my first quarter total to only 8. Since my annual goal this year is 36, I have a long way to go! For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, March was Travel the World, so Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood fit, with both a Canadian setting and author. Nothing new for the Back to the Classics Challenge or the 2018 Badass Books Challenge (not very badass of me)I added Canada and another UK for my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge. For my 2018 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added three new states - CO, MA, and MS.
 
Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month. I filled in 19 squares in March: 





Spaces filled in:
We Own the Sky - pastel colors on the cover, luck - good or bad, wedding, made you cry
Alias Grace - dual POV, historical, shelf love (TBR), woman on the cover
Freakling - in a series, audio book
The Optimistic Decade - read a physical book
Ramona Blue - LGBTQ, bad weather, young adult, empowered female
My Ex-Life - free book, secrets
Graveyard Shakes - magic

Free Space

What was your favorite book read in March?    

4 comments:

  1. March was a good month! I haven't been great on my challenges; I need to pay more attention to if books qualify.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I mostly ignore my challenges until the end of the month when I see how I did! ha ha I am often reading for other reasons - reviews, book groups, etc.

      Delete
  2. Good job with 19 bingo squares!

    ReplyDelete