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May Recap 2015

2015 05-28 NPR ThanksI cannot get over how fast this month went. I say that every month, but I honestly have no idea how I have kept myself together in May! From being the midroll on Pop Culture Happy Hour early in the month (direct link) to planning for my rapidly approaching trip to Spain I’m just sort of sitting here looking back and I’m a bit overwhelmed.

I did make a decision on what I’ll be reading this summer and I’ve been inspired by Simon over at Savidge Reads, and my friend from undergrad Carlie who sent me the book section of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I think I may do a cull late in the summer before I move to another place in Boston. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but that’s definitely a potential possibility.

For non-book related things, I got to take a tour of Fenway Park as part of what I do for work and it was actually really cool! I have been to a game before, but it was a completely different experience being there without thousands of people around you.

I’m not sure what the coolest part was, but I would probably say getting to go in the press box (top photo bottom left) and having the boy be able to join me for a bit of my workday too. The red seat in the bottom photo, top left, is the furthest home run hit inside of a park and it was a neat story.

Books and Bookish
2015 05-26 BOTNS Summer BingoI mentioned above that I’ve made plans for summer reading and those plans are to participate in Books on the Night Stand Summer Bingo (link to their site and the photo to the right). I’m already four blocks in, including the free space and will probably complete the card before the end of the summer!

The second goal is try to make a dent in the books that have been sitting on my shelf the longest (2010-2011) from the first few years when I moved to Boston. I pulled a few of those out recently and have plans to read them in the near future. We’ll see how that goes.

As for what I read this month, I’m pretty sure this was a record-breaking month. I read TEN books this month! I don’t usually read that many, but I read quite a few lightweight rom-com type books and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I read the entire Bridget Jones series, the entire Jane Fairfax (Vampire Jane Austen Series) and I finally read some Maya Angelou. It was definitely an Austen month, too bad it’s not August right? But don’t worry I still have PLENTY of Austen inspired novels to go 😀 The list is below in alphabetical order. A few aren’t live yet as they will be posted first few weeks of June as I’m building a back log of posts for when I’m in Spain!

  1. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
  2. Persuasion – Jane Austen
  3. Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones #1) – Helen Fielding
  4. The Edge of Reason (Bridget Jones #2) – Helen Fielding
  5. Mad About the Boy (Bridget Jones #3) – Helen Fielding
  6. Jane Bites Back (Jane Fairfax #1) – Michael Thomas Ford
  7. Jane Goes Batty (Jane Fairfax #2) – Michael Thomas Ford
  8. Jane Vows Vengeance (Jane Fairfax #3) – Michael Thomas Ford
  9. Jane Austen Cover to Cover – Margaret C. Sullivan
  10. In Youth is Pleasure & I Left My Grandfather’s House – Denton Welch

2015 05-27 Hello, Typo, Old FriendClearly it was a busy month for reading! I have shockingly almost caught up on my arbitrary Goodreads goal, but I’m sure I will fall behind while I’m busy gallivanting around Europe.

It was another month of random typos, but honestly I didn’t mint as much having read this great piece over at Through the Pages about typos. Although I don’t agree with all of the sentiments, I totally understand them because I’ve sent out mailings with typos in them and it stinks. That typo was in Jane Bites Back and it was one of those where I was convinced I read a typo but I wasn’t quite sure so I had to read the line three or four times before my eye stopped glossing over the missing “L”!

Recent Acquisitions
Considering how much I read this month I think I did a great job. I did end up purchasing a book and a graphic novel, but I also received three books I pre-ordered months-and-months ago with left over birthday money, and I got the summer reading from work.

If I am completely honest, I am probably most excited about the Pride & Prejudice (Marvel Illustrated) graphic novel adaptation I bought from a local comic book store where I also randomly found The Jane Austen Marriage Manual by Kim Izzo for $2, but the rest should be great too! I pre-ordered the paperback copies of Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Laline Paul’s The Bees, and to finish off the gift card Deborah Harkness’ Shadow of Night with the last of my birthday money sometime in the first quarter of the year. And last but not least, I received a copy of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from the office. And on top of that it was the local library’s book sale this month:

2015 05-15 FSPL Book SaleNow before you call the authorities, I want everyone to know that is not another copy of Wuthering Heights, it’s a postcard. (Although, I’ve always got my eye out and fully plan on coming back with a Spanish copy.) I’m proud the only other books I got from the sale are on my Classics Club list: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

What’s Next?
By time this posts on the first, I will have recorded episode six (WHAT!?) of Come Read With Me and I will be madly trying to edit it in the week before Spain because as soon as I’m back I’ve got a wedding to attend. I’m going to try to squeeze two shorter novels in before I head off, again beefing up the pre-schedules 😀 and then spend most of my time abroad reading Don Quixote (Part 1 & Part 2) and maybe some of those older ones I mentioned.

I hope everyone had a great month! Do you have any summer plans?

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