Monthly Recap | March 2016

I don’t think that I can accurately recap March without acknowledging that 2016 has gotten a bit off track for me.  My schools trimester system threw me for a bit of the loop this past winter kept me busy with new classes in this first month of Spring.  I’ve started rehearsing for my school play more seriously (which takes up a ton of time) and generally just haven’t found balance in my life yet (don’t worry, I’m working on it).  Luckily, I got to spend the past two weeks on Spring Break which has certainly been a rejuvenator.  I actually got a lot of reading done (which is really exciting) and I can’t wait to share all of it with you all.  So, without further ado, let’s recap March.

March was full of further adjustments to my stuffed T3 schedule, but I luckily managed to squeeze in a whomping six reads!  A lot of that was due to my lovely Spring Break (okay almost all of it) but nonetheless I can consider it a semi productive month?¿  In the beginning of the month I devoured Lauren Oliver’s latest YA: Vanishing Girls.  If you aren’t familiar, I didn’t fare too well with Oliver’s second most recent YA (Panic) so I was glad to have a bit more fun with this one!  Next, I was sent a copy of A Drop of Night to read and review as part of its blog tour, which was (as always) incredibly exciting!  I love participating in tours because you get to interact with a series of different blogs.  A Drop of Night was certainly an interesting read, and the bottom line of my review was that no matter what I thought personally, you should most certainly give this one a try.  The third book I read in March I ate right up, well not literally (of course).  Butter by Erin Jade Lange was on of the the March picks for the teen book club I run for my local independent bookstore.  I’ll admit that I was a little iffy initially, but I ended up really enjoying the story.  My fourth read this month was technically a re-read!  I’m going to talk more in-depth about this later, but let’s just say that @novelchat renewed my (semi-forgotten) love for the book Unearthly by Cynthia Hand.  On a lovely sail boat ride this Spring Break I sped through Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s We Should All Be Feminists.  Upon finishing not only do I plan to pass the book around to my friends, but I also realized that I watched Adichie’s Ted Talk this month about the danger of a single story.  (I recommend the Ted Talk for readers and writers alike).  I finished off March with the lovely magical realism gem A Fierce and Subtle Poison which comes out on April 12th.  Happy to say this is a new favorite.

I had a mellow music month in March! (Wow a lot of M’s Mary…hahahaha).  Anyway, yes, I wasn’t particularly in the music mood this month.  I did, however, discover this amazing piano song called Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and I highly recommend it.  I’ll openly admit to listening to it on repeat… a lot.  My school also just put on a lovely rendition of The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee so I’ve been listening to that sound track too (I saw the performance three times)!

March wasn’t exactly my most productive post month, but I did have a lot of fun!  I started the month off strong with my (stellar) review of Dangerous Girls (hand picked for me by the lovely Lara).  // Following that I featured Heartless by Marissa Meyer on my Waiting on Wednesday post.//  Next I FINALLY completed the TBR Tag that I was tagged in back in December (sheesh).// Lastly, I closed the month off with my tour stop of the A Drop of Night tour.

I did something this month that I haven’t really done in a long time, which was set aside an afternoon and visit my fave blogs.  Not only that but I commented (!!!) and stopped by some others that I don’t visit as often.  Overall, the experience was so invigorating and motivated me to not only keep blogging, but to continue to interact with other bloggers (BEA2016 anyone?)  So without further ado, here are some of my favorite posts from March. // Jamie shared a really marvelous post about library appreciation (which thus made me go visit and appreciate my library). // Amber wrote a really important post this month about why she’s stopped using the term ‘strong female character’ in her reviews. (Which I then went and shared on Twitter). //  I’m a strong believer that reading and writing have strong connections, but this The Quiet People’s post really put it into words. // I have such a passion for my favorite books, sometimes to the point that I yes, don’t want to recommend them.  Read Cait (Paper Fury)’s thoughts here. (BTW she also shared this glorious post about the ~realisticness~ of books). // I always love Grace’s “A Day in the Life” posts (and am thinking of starting something similar?¿ I don’t know…) but this one was just particularly fun to read. //  Bella shared a post about 8 inspiring women (which of course then inspired ME…)

This month was (as always) jam packed with Buzzfeed articles.  I also have been reading The New Yorker subscription that my mom surprised me with earlier this year.  My (by far) favorite new ~media~ of 2016 was the AMAZING FANTASTIC YA podcast started by the lovely Emily, Willa, and Aneeqah (read about it here).  I most certainly encourage you all to tune in every Monday (like I do on my morning and afternoon commutes to school.

Even though I don’t have a lot planned for April ~persay~, knowing my crazy life it will explode with activities, reading, commitments, and a myriad of other obligations.  I’m really excited to dive more into my school play (we start character building and going off book in a couple of weeks)!!! I also can’t wait to dive more into the book clubs I’ve been running, as well as planning for BEA2016.

I hope that you all have a tremendously productive and lovely April. xoxo