April 2014 Recap

I couldn’t start two monthly recaps in a row with book typos (don’t worry there is one), but I do apologize in advance, this is another long post!

so instead I thought I would start with one of my #100happydays photos. I took this photo on day three when I went down to sell some of my read books during lunch. Shockingly I only came away with two books (one a present) and ordered a third! Again, you’ll hear more about those later.

Let’s see, what else has happened this month? I had an AWESOME nerdy weekend a few weekends ago and loved every minute of it, even though it was exhausting. I started dating again. I ran a 5k and crossed running a sub-36:00 5k off my 30 x 30 list. As I mentioned last month, I launched a new blog (launch post) with my best friend from growing up called Now Entering Adulthood (actual link) about our last few months of our twenties and the first few of our thirties. Oh AND I created a Tumblr to compile my writings on both blogs and my Instagram pictures together! And well generally I had a great month!

The Books and the Bookish
(I don’t remember who I “borrowed” this from, but thank you!)  For what I read this month I read seven, almost eight, books: two library books, four galleys and two from my TBR pile. I most excited about having finally started (and almost finished) Dracula which will be my return to Classics Club reading after a long hiatus. I also thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of The Handmaid’s Tale and the discussion I had afterward, again as part of my not-so-secret project. But in addition to all of the reading, there were some other cool things:

Starting with the larger picture, I was so impressed with myself for this gift. I bought it for my friend Caitrin’s birthday. After she helped out on my not-so-secret podcast project (yes that’s another hint), I found out how much she loved Jane Austen. So, me being me, I bought her a beautiful copy of Sense and Sensibility and then did that awesome wrapping job! It’s just regular christmas paper turned inside out and a library card from a “personal library” set another friend got me two years ago for my birthday and twine! It just looked so cute I had to take a picture of it and share with everyone.

And if that weren’t exciting enough, TWO authors tweeted at me for my reviews of their books. I only took a photo of the Bruce Holsinger one, above right top, because let’s face it I’m more than a little obsessed with Chaucer at the moment and his A Burnable Book really kindled that love anew. Andrew Grey, author of the M/M romance series I recently reviewed, also thanked me for my review of Love Comes Home and you can check out ALL of the authors who have interacted with me on my “They Like Me, They Really Like Me” page.

And, on the bottom right, as promised, I’ve included a photo of a books typos, that’s my signed 1986 copy of The Handmaid’s Tale with THREE typos on one page. I should do a contest or something, but I’m too lazy.

Recent Acquisitions
Apparently my book buying stinginess at the beginning of the year meant I could just have at it after a few months. I picked up these three

this month and I couldn’t tell you which I’m most excited about! I grabbed The Lavender Menace while at Pax East (nerd weekend), The Sealed Letter is from my book selling at Brookline Booksmith and Sense & Sensibility, part of the Austen Project rewrite, is the book I put on order that day at the Booksmith. In addition I picked up a Jane Austen fan-fiction title The Forgotten Sister by Jennifer Paynter.

What’s Next?
As with last month I keep looking forward to reading recommended books and making a dent in my TBR pile/bookshelf read, but things keep jumping in the way. I snagged a copy of the new Wuthering Heights sequel Solsbury Hill by Susan Wyler from the library so I’ll definitely read that and my therapist gave me a book, An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, to give me some perspective on a personal relationship. So we’ll see.