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February Recap 2016

2016 02-15 Cold FebruaryGoodbye and good riddance February! I don’t generally hate months, but February this year really got to me which is saying something when last year we had snow storm after snow storm. I think the lack of light took its toll.

Usually it doesn’t get to me, but I think because I’ve been sick for more than half of the month I’m just done with February. Thankfully, the days are getting longer and the weather is allegedly looking warmer. There have been a couple of days where I’ve been able to get out and go for a walk. I’ll even say (for now) I’m ready to deal with the allergies over the cold I’ve had this month. BLAH!

As much as February got me down there were still some great things that happened this month. I went and saw a lot of movies, including the 2016 Oscar nominated animated and live shorts, went skiing in Vermont with my sister, went to a concert and taught myself how to “purl.” I already had the knit part down and am now practicing before I actually do something that has a pattern.

Books and Bookish Things
I’ve somehow managed to keep up my streak of reading books from my shelf. I read six books that have been on my shelf for a long time, one professional development book (The Generosity Factor), one library book (The Magicians) and one galley (Smarter Faster Better). I’m also continuing to read series left and right. I’m not sure if it’s just what I’m feeling or if I know those will go by faster and clear space on my shelf.

  1. A Knight of the Word (Word & Void #2) – Terry Brooks
  2. Angel Fire East (Word & Void #3) – Terry Brooks
  3. Imaginary Friends (Word & Void #0.5) – Terry Brooks
  4. The Generosity Factor – Ken Blanchard and S. Truett Cathy
  5. The Magicians (The Magicians #1) – Lev Grossman
  6. Smarter Faster Better – Charles Duhigg
  7. A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet #1) – Madeleine L’Engle
  8. A Wind in the Door (Time Quintet #2) – Madeleine L’Engle
  9. A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time Quintet #3) – Madeleine L’Engle

I’m now debating on if I will read the O’Keefe Family series (Goodreads link) before I read the final book in the Time Quintet. And that’s problematic because I’ve got other books I want/have to read this month!

A friend shared this on Facebook recently and it translates to: This work is called “The impact of a book” and I find it extraordinary. And it really is! I was like no matter where you moved the book under that wall it would cause that sort of rippling. Truly fascinating.

Recent Acquisitions
I did okay about purchasing books this month, but of course when given the opportunity to purchase used books from a great store I threw it all out the window. When I went up to Vermont to go skiing with my sister and friends, I convinced them to swing by Northshire books where I picked up the Genesis of Shannara trilogy even though I’ve decided to read the new readers recommended order (WTF Geoff?!) and a Brontë fan-fiction piece I’m hesitant about.

I also received a galley of Sittenfield’s Eligible, the fourth book in The Austen Project which I’m super excited to read. I’m trying to hold off until a bit closer to its release (early April) so I can squeeze in a few library books and the remaining L’Engle books I’m reading.

Culture Corner
As I said above we saw A LOT of movies this month. Some were planned, others we decided on last-minute but collectively we saw:

  • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (my book review here)
  • Deadpool
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  • How to Be Single
  • Oscar Nominated Shorts – Animated
  • Oscar Nominated Shorts – Live Action

I think my favorites were the shorts, but man were they depressing! I’m glad that Stutter (all links in this paragraph – Oscar website) won as it was by far my favorite. I was sad Bear Story won for animated (it deserved it), but I actually liked the “honorable mentions” better than most and would’ve liked to see We Can’t Live without Cosmos a different nominee win. I thoroughly enjoyed everything else we saw. The bottom photo is from the same night we saw the Live Action nominees, but I forgot to take a ticket photo. That was a photo of the first “stamp” I’ve gotten from a night out in so long! I’m old and am never out that late.

2016 02-19 Kacey Musgraves Rhinestone RevueWe also saw The Kacey Musgraves Country and Western Rhinestone Revue which was PHENOMENAL.It was my first time at the historic Orpheum in Boston and I learned my lesson about where I can sit. My knees had BRUISES on them because the space between the seats was so tight. Not sure I’ll go back, but if I do I can only sit in like three rows.

Kacey Musgraves is a singer/songwriter who has written some pretty big country hits, but doesn’t get a lot of radio play because of her “politics.” She’s younger and writes with a tongue-in-cheek attitude that I don’t think a lot of people like. I loved her “marriage equality” single Follow Your Arrow, but EVERY song on both of her albums is amazing:

She also has a song called Biscuits (YouTube) with the tag line being “Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.” It’s funny that she gets a lot of crap from country fans because she’s too much of a gimmick, but really I think she’s throwing it way back to before any of these people got on the pop-country bandwagon. Seriously, I just want to tell those people (including a coworker) to educate themselves (RollingStone).

What’s Next?
Who knows? I’m working on a huge project at work and have basically put Bibliophilanthropy on hold until April 1st so that I can put all my efforts into this work project. Thankfully, I still have enough time to read on my commute. The real problem is I get home and I’m just so mentally exhausted I can’t think anymore. Hopefully, March will fly by and I’ll be ready to seriously get at the rest of 2016 and make it what I know it can be!

On the reading front, I’m still debating on L’Engle and where to go from there. I’ve a nonfiction music-bio coming up for book group that I’m sort of “meh” about, but I’m open-minded so we’ll see how it goes. What are you reading and looking forward to next month?

14 thoughts on “February Recap 2016”

  1. It’s wonderful you managed to keep your reading up when you’ve been unwell. I know when I’m not well I am tempted to take the easier option of watching more television, as it is easier on the mind. Seeing you read so many of Terry Brook’s books I am tempted to re-read the couple of Shannara books my father has. I wish you health, happiness and more reading in March 🙂

    1. Thanks! And I think being sick helped with the reading. The series is sort of hit-or-miss, I’m really enjoying the story but not so much the “acting.” The scenes are gorgeous though!

  2. The shorts category is the only part of the Oscars that I pay attention to! Like you, I was rooting for the Kosmonauts, but The Bear Story was very good. I enjoyed Stutterer, but I wanted Everything Will be Okay to win. I thought it showed the complexity of the relationship between the father and the daughter amazingly well.

    1. It really did! And compared to a lot of the others it was down right happy in its ending (definitely thought it was going darker at a few points).

  3. I have no access to the less popular Oscar categories so I just settled for the feature films. We have this annual fantasy game where we guess the winners for each of the categories. I think I didn’t do bad this year. I missed mostly the technical awards.

    1. Yeah – it’s odd I’ve only really paid attention to the shorts when I moved to a bigger city and they’ve done screenings. Usually the only films I’ve seen are the animated features and the ones that are usually nominated for sound/costume (super hero, sci fi, etc)

  4. Hope you’re feeling better now. Nice book haul! I like that shop’s bag design.

    How was Deadpool? I hear great things, but I haven’t made it out to the theatres unfortunately.

  5. I got my hands on a galley copy of Eligible too, and I enjoyed it so much that I read it in four days. As an Austen fan, it was fun to see how Curtis Sittenfeld transposed the plot of P&P into a modern-day setting. I hope you enjoy it!

    1. Oh I’m excited. People have trashed the other ones but I’m not sure they understood them. I’ve only read Northanger so far and I thought she did a great job of making fun of the vampire genre.

      1. I was sceptical when I first heard about them, but I think they’re meant to be read in a light-hearted spirit.

        I’ve read Joanna Trollope’s version of S&S and Alexander McCall Smith’s Emma, but I haven’t read the NA one. I think Eligible is the one that I enjoyed most.

        1. Nice and yeah I think they definitely were meant to be light hearted. But with the amount of bad fan-fiction out there these are pretty good regardless!

  6. Yeah I’m with you-good riddance to February! It was a rough month and I’d rather not repeat it any time soon! You did have a solid reading month though, so that’s a positive 🙂 You also have some interesting sounding books lined up for March, good luck with your work project and your reading goals!

    1. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! March is definitely off to a great start even if it’s mostly library books and not books from my shelf. 🙂

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