Updates

March 2013 Recap

And just like that March is over. If possible it went by even faster than February. Part of this comes from how ridiculously busy I was this month, but I think part of it came from the fact that spring looks like it might’ve finally arrived in Boston (but I’m not holding my breath just yet.) From realizing that I’ve been at my job for almost 6 months, to starting CrossFit (I’ll write more about this later) and having a social life for the first time in ages, I’ve been crazy busy.

2013 03-25 Messy Desk at WorkOutside of reading and books, things have been great if hectic, I realized a couple of days ago that on April 15th I will have been at my job for six months and that’s just crazy! I’m still loving it and can’t wait to see what happens over the next six months. My desk is to the right, because no post is complete without pictures. It pretty much will look like that for the next two weeks (if not longer) because I’m right in the middle of a busy period as I’m running phone-a-thon, but I love it because I work with students and they’re hilarious. And things are only going to get busier as we have a lot of events between now and mid-June and my sister graduates from her MA program in May so that just adds to my business.

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ARC, Books

Book 190: Frat Boy and Toppy (Theta Alpha Gamma #1) – Anne Tenino

This is an example of a novel that could’ve been even better if they used a better copy editor, and this has nothing to do with the poor formatting of Amazon’s conversion process from the publisher provided copy. This is my honest response and I received no compensation.

Overall the story and characters were engaging I thought Brad and Sebastian were great and I really hope Colin, Ashley and Kyle make an appearance in another novel in the series, but it doesn’t look like it. There were moments where I laughed out loud and there were even a few moments where my breath caught in my chest, but in the long run I was let down by the editing and a vital choice the author made early on in the novel. I definitely wanted to know more about the characters, but I felt I really got to know who Brad was and who he was becoming in the short 170 pages of this novel.

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2013 Challenges

Mount TBR: Climbing Pike’s Peak (Checkpoint 1)

2013 Mount TBR Reading ChallengeBev of My Reader’s Block has called for the first check-in for the 2013 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m quite pleased with my progress so far. For this challenge I have read 3 of 12 books which I committed to PLUS an additional FIVE books from my TBR shelf. To see my full list click here.

If I were actually climbing Pike’s Peak I would be 3,528.5ft (1075.5m) up the mountain in committed books, but with the extra five books I would be just under half way up the mountain (saying I read 8 of 17) which would be approximately 6,633.6ft (2,021.9m) up the mountain.

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2013 Challenges, Books

Book 189: Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it was beautifully written, it didn’t really leave me with much of an opinion. It’s hard to say whether this is because of the writing or the very succinct writing of the plot and story. Many times the books that leave me wanting more are the books that I desperately cling to because I don’t know the happily ever after.

In this book you get everything and it’s great, but the author wrapped the story up in a perfect finite package with only a hint of a what’s next, which was great at the end, but not enough to leave me wowed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad I read it and can’t believe it took me this long to jump on the band wagon and I would recommend it to everyone, I’m just sort of lackadaisical about it. There were two great things that stood out for me, the minor characters (and animals) and the juxtaposition of the old Jacob and the young Jacob.

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ARC, Books

Book 188: Never a Hero (Tucker Springs #5) – Marie Sexton

I’m so relieved to say this book was not at all what I thought it would be. And what I thought it would be was actually mentioned somewhat tongue-in-cheek at one point in the novel. So I’m going to take this moment to applaud Sexton for this! In addition I’m going to reiterate that there does not need to be a lot of sex in a novel for it to be a great novel! I’m pretty sure sex didn’t appear in this novel until after the half way point and it was worth the wait.

As I mentioned earlier in the week in the Covet Thy Neighbor response, I can’t stop reading this series and that’s both good and bad. I read both books in a 24 hour (probably closer to 12 hours, I’ve got a long commute and read fast) period and thoroughly enjoyed them. As with the last, I received a copy from the publisher and received no compensation for my honest response.

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