March 2016 Rewind

18:30 Cilla 13 Comments

Much like February, March has been a month of adaptation. I'm still adjusting to being a student again. It's an odd kind of studentship too; there's still the writing-essays-doing-readings component to it, but the focus has shifted to practical, you're-considered-young-professionals-now type of things. It's a challenging course, but honestly it's also really exciting. While I often feel like I'm flailing about in a sea of information, the teaching staff is so good about looking out for us. I'm slowly learning how to swim, to keep going with that metaphor.

I'm also slowly figuring out my time management. I still find myself having little energy or time to be involved in the blogging community, and I fall short of my reading and writing goals in general. I've accepted that something's got to give while I settle in though, but I'm hoping I'll only get more organised from here!

New to My Shelves

Purchased

I bought Frankie at the YA Squad 2016 event, and I got to briefly chat to Shivaun. She's a sweetheart, and I'm excited to read a book that's set in Melbourne! Yellow was bought at the same event. Meg talked about the importance of having quiet characters in novels, something I feel quite strongly about. There's one in Yellow apparently, so I really look forward to that. And I wasn't about to pass on Stars Above.

Status of my 2016 book budget: $90. Geez, I'm most definitely not allowed to buy anything else if I want to stick to my $100 annual budget.

Borrowed

I popped into the library just before Easter break started and went a little crazy. I didn't actually think I was going to have time, but I've finished These Broken Stars and Risk.

For Review

Reviews

Other Things on the Blog

I discussed how human can a furry narrator be in adult contemporary novels.
Cam and I launched a new feature! What would happen if you take a character from a book and throw them into a different universe, one from television or movie? This month, we're mashing up characters from The Princess Diaries with the world of Star City and Central City!

Challenges Progress

Goodreads challenge: 12/30 books
Discussion challenge: 3/24 discussion posts
Diverse Reads challenge: 6 books
#RockMyTBR challenge: 5 books
Backlist Books challenge: 5 books
Around the World challenge: Check out my map here.
Commenting 365 challenge: 28/365 comments

Around the Blogosphere

As mentioned before, I'm not very active in the blogosphere at the moment, but here are a couple of posts that have caught my eye in March:

Catherine wants to know why there aren't more female friendships in books.
Cait talks about possible reasons for why you aren't getting more comments on your blog.
Lynette confesses to being a book sizest and wonders what is intimidating about large books.
Nicole talks taking time off from blogging.
Cor lets you in on the chaos life can be and dealing with writing-related fears.

Non-bookish loves

A colleague lend me copies of BBC's adaptations of classics, including Emma, North and South, Pride and Prejudice, and Cranford. I spent several Saturdays engrossed in them, and let me just say - all I want is for Richard Armitage to look at me like this:

I bawled my eyes out at this performance by Kelly Clarkson.

Also, I can't believe American Idol is almost over! I haven't watched it in the last few years, but I remember waking up at 6am to watch the David Cook/David Archuleta finale - that was how much I loved it. I saw most of this season though, and I love the judges; I actually think they're the best set of judges Idol has had.

In Store for Next Month

Go Set A Watchman review -- I swear this is coming
More discussion posts
My first blogoversary is coming up! I would have to look up when this is XD but I'm excited for it!
A buddy review for Queen of the Tearling
Second installment of Plucked

How was March for you? What was the best book you read last month?

Are you looking forward to April?

13 comments:

Aj @ Read All The Things!4 April 2016 at 21:16
I’m in grad school, so I understand the difficulties of being a student and running a book blog. Sometimes the amount of reading and writing gets overwhelming. I hope April is easier for you.

Aj @ Read All The Things!
Catherine5 April 2016 at 02:34
Richard Armitage in North and South is so lovely!! Good luck with your course, I found it dead weird going back to student life too (although I'm only part time so it feels more like night school or something.) Thanks for the mention!
Zoe N.5 April 2016 at 06:13
THESE BROKEN STARS. YESSSS! It is absolutely amazing and I hope you end up liking it as much as I did Cilla! :) And Under a Painted Sky and Stars Above are great too. Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous recap! ♥
Unknown5 April 2016 at 08:32
Sigh, Richard Armitage--best part of that whole mini-series if you ask me :P

Though I stopped watching American Idol a long time ago, I definitely agree that Keith, Jennifer and Harry are my favourite judging combo of all the past seasons.

Good luck with school and all that balancing! It gets easier!

Lauren @ SERIESous Book Reviews #Commenting365
Shooting Stars Mag6 April 2016 at 07:45
Gah, I love Career of Evil. Hope you can read it soon! And I'm so jealous you have a review copy of Jerkbait; it sounds great! And the author is fantastic.

-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
Unknown10 April 2016 at 02:25
I was listening to KASE 101 the other morning, and they were talking about American Idol. One of their big points is that it is no longer like "winning the Super Bowl" when you win American Idol, that the wow factor has greatly decreased. I have enjoyed many of Kelly Clarkson's songs!
Alecia 23 April 2016 at 10:08
I feel you on the student thing! After finishing high school and having my Christmas break, to return to full time study is difficult to say the least! I love your Oz books for this month and I'm so excited to read Frankie after hearing the rave reviews!