Reading Reflection: 2022

 

With the end of the year only a few days away, I wanted to make sure to set aside some time to reflect on how my reading went in 2022. This ended up being a bit of a strange year for me. I started off extremely strong, reading at least 100 pages a day for most of the year. Once September hit, however, I started graduate school and my reading time cratered. Luckily, my reading throughout the first part of the year was enough to carry my through all of my reading goals.  I finished everything I wanted to do and read the most books I've ever read in a year. However, I'm definitely exiting the year on a whimper instead of a bang.  

This is okay though! I still had a great year. Here's the breakdown of what I accomplished.

My goal was to read 100 books and I ended up reading 101. This is the most books I have ever read in a year, so this was definitely a success for me. I can't help but wonder what number I would have ended up with had I been able to continue reading regularly throughout the end of the year, but hey, I can always try this again once grad school is done with. You can view my year in reading here.

Another challenge I set for myself in 2022 was to read 22 books that I had been meaning to get to for awhile. I did end up reading them all and finishing this challenge. You can view my results here.

Another goal I set for myself was to finish reading some of the series I had sitting on my shelves. I set myself a goal of finishing seven different series, and I ended up finishing nine. This was a total of 34 books. Not too shabby! You can view my results here.

My last challenge was to make myself more knowledgeable about middle grades fiction by reading at least 24 middle grades books this year. I ended up reading 33, and several of them ended up being favorites for the year for me. I was definitely sleeping on this genre and I plan to continue reading from it in the future. You can view my results here.

So that's about it for 2022! It was a successful year, but a bit sad too as this will certainly be the most I'll be able to read in a year for a good long while. I'm going to be in graduate school throughout all of 2023, so my posts here on the blog, and my reading goals, will be greatly reduced. I'll post as much as I can though, and I will certainly be back once it's all over.

October Wrap Up

 

October has been my least productive reading month of the year by far. I only finished two books, one of them being a quick graphic novel that I read in a few days. Part of this was definitely due to being in grad school, and part of it was due to The Little Friend being an interminably long read. 

Here are links to my reviews:

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

It seems a bit pointless to pick a best and worst read of the month with so few books completed, but Nimona was the best and The Little Friend was the worst.

I will be donating both of these books to my classroom, so a total of two books will be leaving my shelves. I did not purchase any new books this month.

I'm not going to make a TBR for November because my main goal will just be to read a handful of short books. My only goal left to achieve this year is to finish 100 novels, and at 91 finished, I'm close enough to be able to get this done despite grad school.

As far as other crafts go, I finished two things this month. The first is my diamond painting. I definitely dragged my feet on this one, but I got it done in the end:

The  other thing I finished was this 500 piece puzzle from Cloudberries called "Wilderness." It was pretty quick to put together after I got done sorting the pieces into the separate little images.

So that's about all for October. I'm ready to move into November and continue to work on my school and my reading goals.

September Wrap Up

 

September went by in a total blur for me. I haven't been so busy in years. My new position as a reading specialist at my school started, and so did my graduate courses. Between those two things, my reading time has basically been decimated. As you can probably tell from the very few and extremely short reviews I posted here on the blog, I've had to swap my novels for textbooks and my writing time for studying time. I haven't stopped reading altogether, but I'm definitely going to be reading a lot less for the foreseeable future. So basically, things will be quieter here, but I'm not going to stop posting. I'm really happy too, which feels weird to me because I haven't felt this way in a very long time. I think I'm finally on the right track. I'm busy, but it's a good busy.

I read a total of five books in the month of September, for a total of 1,805 pages. As I suspected, I had to break my 100 pages a day streak, but that's okay because it's for a good reason. I liked everything I read too. Here's the breakdown:

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (5 stars)

Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert (4 stars)

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (4 stars)

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes (3 stars)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was On a Sunbeam, a really heartfelt and beautiful sci-fi graphic novel. The art was beautiful and the story was quite moving. My least favorite of the month was Paradise on Fire, which was perfectly fine, but not the best I've read from that author.

I only purchased one book this month, Stephen King's new novel, Fairy Tale. I bought this one on my Kindle, because I'm trying to clear some shelf space. I donated Black Birds in the Sky and Paradise on Fire, so a total of two books left my shelves.

My plan for September is to read the last book from my 22 in 2022 Challenge so I can wrap that up. It's a long one, so with my reduced reading time, I will be spending most of the month on that. With the time that's left, I'm going to focus on some shorter reads. I'm only ten books away from getting to 100 novels this year and completing my Goodreads Challenge, so I want to make sure I can finish that up. Here's my plan:

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Frankie and Bug by Gayle Forman

Ink by Alive Broadway

Book Love by Debbie Tung

In between all the studying this month, I did manage to finish two puzzles and make significant progress on my diamond painting. The diamond painting is not done yet, so I'll wait to share pictures until I finish it. Here are the puzzles:

The first was a quick 100 piece puzzle called "Drunk in Love" from Pezel Puzzles. It was very cute and fun to put together. It even included the cocktail recipe for the drink in the picture on the back of the box. I didn't try it though. It's one of those ones that has egg whites in it, which grosses me out.

The next puzzle was a 500 piece puzzle called "Flourished Merriment" from Pomegranate Puzzles. This has to be one of my favorite puzzles of the year. Look at the face on that tiger! So cute! The sections in it were distinct enough to sort and put together easily. I really liked this one.

The other thing I became obsessed with this month is a new game - Disney Dreamlight Valley. It's basically Animal Crossing, but with Disney characters, and it's fantastic. I can't stop playing it! 

So that was my September. It was the first month of some really big changes for me. I went into it quite anxious and unsure, but I ended up really liking all the changes! I hope this continues into October, and that I can find a way to squeeze some more reading and craft time in.

August Wrap Up

 

As the last month of summer vacation always does, August went by quickly. I spend the month trying to prepare for going back to school in my new role and for becoming a graduate student. I cleaned out and moved my classroom, attended a whole bunch of meetings, and bought an armful of pricy textbooks. I also took a vacation to Niagara Falls with my family. There were some good moments, but it was also a bit stressful thinking about all the tough stuff that's about to start. I kept up with my reading, but didn't get much else done.

I continued reading 100 pages a day throughout the month. It's probably going to be my last month doing that, as I have to build more time for studying into my schedule now, but it was cool to make it to the end of another month.  I read a total of 10 books and 3,287 pages. I ended up really liking a good amount of what I read. Here's everything I finished:

Year One by Nora Roberts (1 star)

Sadie by Courtney Summers (5 stars)

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir (5 stars)

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos (5 stars)

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (5 stars)

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake (4 stars)

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake (4 stars)

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake (3 stars)

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (5 stars)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (5 stars)

My favorite read of the month was The Underground Railroad, which was both brutal and beautiful. My least favorite was definitely Year One, which I found to be a very disorganized and boring fantasy. That book has the distinction of being my one one-star read this year so far.

I didn't purchase any new books this month, which is good. I think I'm finally getting that impulse under control and reading what I have. It's only taken me 36 years to get to this point! I ended up donating Year One, Sadie, Three Dark Crowns, One Dark Throne, Two Dark Reigns, and Five Dark Fates. A total of six books left my shelves.

My plan for September is to pull back a little bit on my TBR list to allow more time for studying. I'm going to focus on some of the shorter reads on my shelves so I will still get to finish some things too. Here's my list: 

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi  

Frankie and Bug by Gayle Forman

Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert

Sadly, I didn't make any puzzles or complete any other craft projects this month. I was too busy prepping for work. I'm hoping to sneak some of that back in throughout September, but I have a feeling that it's going to be tough on that front for a little while. All the sacrifice will be worth it in the end though. I hope.

July Wrap Up

Illustration by Nicc Balce

 

July is already over and summer is slipping by way too fast. This was a pretty busy month for me. I've been doing a lot of work in preparation for the new school year, and my new position means that I'm suddenly on so many different projects that my head is spinning. It's meeting after meeting and assignment after assignment. I'm getting paid though, so at least I'm making a little extra money! I was also officially accepted into my master's degree program, so registering for classes and taking care of things like medical forms and ID cards is taking up my time too. I've got so many changes just on the horizon and I'm feeling a lot of emotions. There's a desire to prove myself, but there's also a lot of anxiety. I just have to remember to stay organized and take things one step at a time.

I was still able to keep up with my reading, and my 100-pages-a-day streak has stayed alive! I read a total of nine books and totaled 3,119 pages. My feelings on this bunch were more mixed than usual. I didn't love everything. I did find one new all-time favorite though, so I was excited about that. Here's what I finished:

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling (4 stars)

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsal Faizal (3 stars)

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (2 stars)

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (3 stars)

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan (5 stars)

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (3 stars)

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (4 stars)

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel (3 stars)

Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was definitely Tales from the Inner City, a collections of illustrated short stories and poems about interactions between humans and animals. The stories were weird and the illustrations were beautiful. I loved every page of it. 

My least favorite of the month was We Free the Stars, the second and final book in a YA fantasy duology. I found the pacing to be awful and a lot of the dialogue to be too cheesy. It's a shame too, because I found the first book in the duology to be fairly entertaining. 

I also finished my Middle Grades Mission challenge this month! Over the course of the year so far, I have read a total of 24 recently published middle grades novels. Honestly, these books have been among my favorites of what I have been reading, so I definitely plan to continue adding books to this challenge and see how many I can get to by the end of the year.

I ended up hauling just one book this month - Lore Olympus Vol. 2. I'm doing pretty well limiting how many books I acquire lately, although the amount of everything else I've been buying is still not great. I really enjoyed the first Lore Olympus volume back in December of last year, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the story continues. 

My mixed reactions to a lot of what I read this month meant that I ended up putting several books on the donate pile. I'm letting go of Across the Desert, We Hunt the Flame, We Free the Stars, When You Trap a Tiger, Such a Fun Age, Clap When You Land, The Test, and Dry. A total of eight books will leave my shelves.

Once again, I did not keep up with my physical reading journal beyond just listing what I read. I love the idea of it, but I think I have to face up to the idea that I just don't have the time to devote to it right now. I still want to keep some pieces of it though - maybe I can incorporate challenge pages and book logs into my regular planner. I'll have to think about it.

My TBR for August is below. The plan is to just keep trucking along and powering through my stacks. I want to read a few more middle grades books and cross a few more titles off my 22 in 2022 Challenge list. Here's the plan:

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake

Sadie by Courtney Summers

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I worked on ton of puzzles this month. First up was a set of four 500 piece puzzles based on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney. I love the ride and I loved the art on these, but the quality of these puzzles was just not good. There were many false fits and one of the puzzles had a missing piece (it was a corner one too!). They were still fairly fun to work on though, so I can't complain too much.

I also finished my first every wooden jigsaw, this 192 piece Betta Angel puzzle. I really enjoyed how these pieces felt to put together. It was a unique challenge and I definitely want to try another one sometime.

After that I completed a 750 piece shaped puzzle called Blooming Books. The crazy shape was a little bit challenging to put together, but it wasn't too bad. What was the most difficult was the flowers part. All the pieces looked the same to me, so it was a lot of trial and error. I figured it out in the end and it made for quite an impressive finished piece.

Next up was this little 300 piece image from Blanc Puzzles. I still absolutely love this brand. This was a very pretty picture and it was very calming and satisfying to put together.

I was on a roll with smaller puzzles, so I worked on this crazy fantasy one from Buffalo Games next. It was also just 300 pieces and it was very quick to solve. This is part of their Vivid Collection, and the colors actually were really bright and pretty. My puzzle aesthetic is really over-the-top cheesy images, so this one was perfect for me.

The last puzzle I completed was this 1,000 piece Little Mermaid puzzle from Ravensburger. I have a whole bunch of these Disney movie puzzles with the little film strip running across the bottom. I finished the Lion King one last year sometime and enjoyed it. This one was fun too, but all the blue pieces were tough to figure out. Between the water and the background there were a lot of very similar looking pieces! I actually made the frame last on this one, as almost all of those pieces looked exactly the same. It was faster to build the middle first then guess and check with the edge pieces.

I continued practicing my uke too this month. I picked up a nice new blue one on a Prime Day sale, and I really like the sound of it. I got pretty good at You're So Vain by Carly Simon and started working on Dream by Johnny Mercer. I always feel so good when I'm playing. I wish I had gotten into music earlier in my life.

That about sums up my July. It was busy, but I got a chance to relax too. August will be my last bit of calm before the storm of my new job and my return to college. I have a ton of work to get done, but I still plan to spend some time relaxing and getting myself into a good routine before the craziness begins. I'm very curious as to whether I will still be able to keep up my reading pace once all this starts. I really hope so, but I have a feeling it might take a bit of a hit in the coming months. 

June Wrap Up

Illustration by Andrea De Santis

 I predicted last month that my life would be drastically changing if I ended up being made the official reading consultant at my school. Well, it was made official and my life has already started changing. June was a busy month in general - I finished out the school year, had my birthday, took a long road trip home to Florida for a week, drove all the way back, and interviewed (and was recommended for) my graduate school program. I am suddenly filling up my calendar with summer planning meetings and working a lot on curriculum. It's been a lot, and it feels a little intimidating already, but I think I'm finally on the path I'm meant to be on. It's going to be tough for the next few years as I learn how to do this job and make my way through grad school, but it will be worth it in the end.

Happily, even with everything going on, I ended up reading a lot. I kept up my 100+ pages of reading each day and finished a total of 15 books. That number is deceptive, because seven of those were novellas and two were graphic novels, but I still read quite a bit. I totaled 3,574 pages, which is about average for me this year. I liked everything I read too--it was a bit challenging to pick a favorite this time. Here's the complete list:

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (3 stars)

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (4 stars)

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (4 stars)

Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee (4 stars)

The Aquanaut by Dan Santat (4 stars)

Too Bright To See by Kyle Lukoff (4 stars)

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (4 stars)

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden and Breanna Thummler (4 stars)

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu (5 stars)

My favorite read this month was The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, which was a smart middle grades fantasy novel with a complex message. I also really enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway and A Wizard's Defensive Guide to Baking, which were also both very engaging fantasies. Troubled Girls ultimately won out because of its symbolic inclusion of real world issues.

My least favorite of the month was Disappearing Earth, which was not as cohesive or focused as I was expecting. It was still a beautifully written story, but I just didn't vibe with the narrative strategy and found a lot of it to be boring.

In other happy reading news, I completed my Finally in 2020 Challenge this month! I finished all seven series I set out to read. I'm going to continue the challenge by reading more series from my shelves and see how many I can get up to by the end of the year.

I did not haul any books this month. That's great for my overstuffed shelves, but I still wouldn't say I was good about purchases in general this month. Between my birthday, random purchases, and vacation shopping, I acquired an obscene amount of puzzles. 

Anyway, I did end up donating quite a few books. I chose to let go of Disappearing Earth, Elatsoe, Violets are Blue, The Aquanaut, Too Bright to See, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic novel. A total of seven books left my shelves.

In July, I plan to continue working on my challenges, like usual. Here's my TBR:

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsal Faizal

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

My physical reading journal was, once again, a failure. I'm still writing down everything I read in it, but I haven't been in the mood to get artistic. Maybe now that it's summer and I will be feeling more relaxed I can give the fancier layouts another shot. I did get some letter stamps for my birthday, so that should help motivate me to experiment a little.

I worked on some other hobbies during the month too. The most notable thing I accomplished was FINALLY finishing the diamond painting I was working on. For some reason, I was never excited to make progress on this, but now that it's done, I love the way it looks.

I started another, smaller diamond painting with round diamonds, so hopefully that one won't take me as long to finish.

I also finished a handful of puzzles, starting with Strawberry Affair by Piecework Puzzles. This was one of my favorite puzzles to work on so far because I loved the image so much. It was so sweet and not too difficult.

I also completed this 500 piece Spiderman puzzle from Buffalo Games. I got it for $5 during a sale on their website and I really enjoyed the vivid colors.

I did also complete three more 500 piece puzzles, but they are part of a set and I haven't completed the fourth one yet. I'm waiting until they are all done to take some pictures, so I'll write about those in my July post.

During my road trip, I actually finished a knitting project too! I made a very simple infinity scarf. It's been a while since I knit something and it felt really good to get back to it. I've got to make more of an effort to work on these again. I still need to wash and block the scarf before I can take pictures, so I'll discuss it in my July post as well.

I didn't have quite as much time to play my ukulele as I'd like due to my vacation, but I did learn Your Song by Elton John and Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. I also started playing around with Hotel California by the Eagles and You're So Vain by Carly Simon, but those are in their beginning stages still.

So, that about sums up my busy month of June. In July, I'm hoping to enjoy some rest and relaxation, but I do have a lot to do for school that I have to work on. I'm going to try my best to keep everything in balance though. Summer is supposed to be for fun, after all!

May Wrap Up

Illustration by Ana de Lima

 

May was a month with some surprises for me. My principal asked me to apply for an instructional coach position at my school, and after an interview in which many things went wrong, I actually got the job. This would be a promotion for me. I wouldn't have students anymore, I'd be leading teachers and writing curriculum instead. The tough part is that I don't have the education that is technically required for the job. My principal had to get special permission for me to be appointed to the position with the promise that I would complete a master's degree in remedial reading and language arts over the course of the next two years. It's not completely set in stone yet, but it looks like this is really happening. It it all goes to plan, my life would drastically change in the next few months. I would have to start juggling graduate school with performing a completely new job with a lot of responsibilities. The scary thing is that I think I am up for the challenge. I haven't had a lot to work towards lately and I've felt a bit aimless. This would certainly change that and put me on a track to make a lot more money eventually. It could be big for me, if it becomes official. So, needless to say, I've had a lot to think about this May.

Despite all the excitement though, my reading stayed consistent. I continued my 100-pages-a-day streak and finished nine books, totaling 3,588 pages. I enjoyed most things I read, but unlike last month where I found several new favorites, this month had one book that clearly stood out from the rest. Here is everything I read: 

Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos (4 stars)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (4 stars)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (4 stars)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (5 stars)

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was definitely The Ogress and the Orphans, which was an incredibly sweet and goodhearted story. I loved the themes of kindness and neighborliness, and I loved how the magic of reading was a big part of the story. It made my all-time favorites list. 

My least favorite reads of the month were the Raven Cycle books, a young adult urban fantasy series that I just couldn't get into. I read all four books, and had to combine them all into one review because they just flowed together in my head and I couldn't remember enough details to differentiate between them. They were well-written and everything, I just didn't find them all that interesting.

I only hauled one book this month, which is an amazing show of restraint for me. I saw that Kelly Barnhill had an adult book coming out, and I loved The Ogress and the Orphans so much that I had to pick it up.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (fantasy, physical book)

I donated quite a few books this month: Miracle Creek, The Grace Year, The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, The Raven King, and The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. A total of seven books left my shelves.

I need to be more strategic about my reading list for June than usual. I would dearly love to continue my 100-pages-a-day reading streak, but I have a lot going on this month. I have a school fieldtrip, my birthday, and a week-long trip home to Florida. I have to pick some books that are easy to read and will be good to travel with. Here's what I'm going to attempt:

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

This is more books than usual, but the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire are all novellas and should only take one or two days each to read. The rest of the books on there are either on the short side, middle grades, or young adult fiction, which I usually am able to move through quickly. On a positive note, if I finish all the Wayward Children books, I will have officially finished my Finally in 2022 Challenge a full six months early.

I did still work on my physical reading journal this month, but not as much as I would have wanted to again. I'm still working on the timing on that one. I doubt I'm going to improve on this much during June, since I have a lot happening then, but maybe July will be better.

For my non-reading activities, things have been going well. I have just three sections left on the diamond painting that I have been working on for several months now. I was more into my jigsaw puzzles this month, so I slowed down on it. I will finish that in June.

The first puzzle I finished in May was the 1000 piece "Coffee Talk" from Piecework Puzzles. This puzzles was a lot of fun to put together. It had these thick, velvety pieces that I mentioned loving last month, and the image was cute and relatively easy to put together. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that it was missing a piece up in the top left corner. I contacted Piecework about getting a replacement piece, and they said they don't do that. They did, however, send me a whole other puzzle for free, which was amazing customer service. 

My next puzzle was the Jane Austen-themed "Pride and Puzzlement" from Potter Puzzles. This one was 1000 pieces and came together quickly because it had so many distinct sections. The floral border, however, did take a little while.

Next, I completed the 500 piece "Cool as a Cucumber" from Pezel Puzzles, a new company that I am really exited about. Their first collection features all these cute, pun types of images. I couldn't help myself when I saw them and bought the whole launch collection, so I'll be making several more of these in the future. They have the velvety pieces too, and the pieces come in a cloth zippered bag, which I love.   

The last puzzle I finished was a 1000 piece image from Blanc Puzzles. This was relatively easy to put together and the image was striking. The only tough part was the dark sky at the top. There is some color variation up there to help, but when the pieces were separate in the box, they all looked very similar to me. I had to separate by piece type and just guess and check to make it through. It all came together in the end though.

As usual, I watched a whole lot of movies and TV shows throughout the month. We rewatched Clue, which is one of my husband's favorite movies, so that's always a good time. We also saw the new Dr. Strange movie, which was pretty entertaining, and Top Gun Maverick, which was surprisingly good. Of course, before we saw that, my husband made me watch the original Top Gun movie, which I had never seen. I thought it was pretty terrible, so I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the new one. As for series, we finally finished the first season of Yellow Jackets, which I thought was good, but very slow. We also watched Season 43 of Survivor, which I really enjoyed because I loved the winner.

I've been making steady progress on my ukulele too. I learned Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, and finally mastered a few older songs I've been playing around with for a while - Dream a Little Dream of Me and Ain't Misbehavin'. I've been continuing to work on a bunch of Disney songs too, because I can't help myself. In particular, Cruella DeVil has become a new favorite to play. I'm finally getting to a place where I'm mastering some of the chords I've been struggling with, so I feel like I'm actually making some progress with my playing. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm getting there.

The other activity that took up some time this month was applying for grad school. I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and get my masters whether this new job works out or not, so I applied to the program at the school where my husband teaches. I had to call around to my past colleges to order transcripts, no small thing due to my intense and nonsensical phone anxiety, and I also had to write an essay. I'm just waiting on transcripts to arrive there now before the process can move forward.

So that's pretty much everything I did in May. My June will be busy, but hopefully fun too. Summer break will finally start and I'll be going home to visit, which should bring some much needed relaxation into my life. All I have to do now is make it to the end of school. The last day here is literally on my birthday, which is terrible, but also a great gift when you think about it. We'll see how it all goes.  

April Wrap Up

Image by oprisco photography

 

It feels like time has moved both slowly and quickly this April. Looking back now, it seems like it flew by (especially the portion of it that contained my spring break). However, the past few weeks felt interminably long while I was actually experiencing them. I'm in that terrible stretch now that is the last few months of school, and time tends to stand still throughout those weeks. I did manage to get quite a bit done though, for both my work life and personal life, so I was relatively happy.  

As far as my reading goes, I managed to continue my streak of 100 pages a day. I read a total of 3,897 pages and finished ten books. I had a crazy amount of four and five star reads mixed in there too - it was pretty lucky. I picked a lot of winners. Here's everything I finished:

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (5 stars)

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (5 stars)

The Hideaway by Pam Smy (5 stars)

Alone by Megan E. Freeman (4 stars)

Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire (5 stars)

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston (3 stars)

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (4 stars)

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos (5 stars)

The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos (4 stars)

The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos (5 stars)

My favorite read of the month is really difficult to determine. I think Strange the Dreamer takes the top spot this time around, but I was really torn between that one and Cress Watercress. Those were two very different books, but both were clever and full of heart. 

My least favorite read was Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a young adult contemporary novel about sexual assault. I appreciated its sensitivity towards its difficult subject matter, but several things about the writing irked me.

I didn't end up hauling that many books this month, which is a very good thing because I bought way too many in February and March. I only ended up adding two to my shelves:

An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan (young adult, fantasy, physical book)

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (literary fiction, physical book)

I decided to donate Alone, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation, meaning that three books left my shelves.

Next month, I plan to stay the course with all my challenges. I'll read another series, some books from my 22 in 2022 list, and more middle grades fiction. My plans are:

Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan

I continued to work on my physical reading journal this month, but I didn't do as much with it as I wanted to again. I need to settle into a better routine with it, but I have to figure out the timing. 

I did pretty well with my non-reading activities too. I made a lot of progress on my diamond painting over spring break. I only have six sections left to go on it. I'm really looking forward to finishing it so I can start in on some other projects that I'm more interested in. I should be able to get it done in May.

I also finished a handful of jigsaw puzzles. The first was an image of a whole lot of flamingoes from Blanc Puzzles. This was my first time trying this brand out and I really loved it. I was surprised by the quality, because this was just a cheap buy from Target. The pieces inside came in a resealable bag (which is not common, but should be), and they fit together very nicely. They kind of "clicked" together when I placed them, which was extremely satisfying. This was 500 pieces, so it didn't take too long to finish.

I made another 500 piece puzzle from Blanc as well, this time of a snowy lantern scene. It was similarly satisfying.

I think my favorite puzzle of the month though was Lazy Sundae from Piecework Puzzles. This was 500 pieces too, and everything about it screamed quality. The pieces were thick and heavy and they had a velvety feel. I found myself constantly running my fingers over them - the texture was that good. The only downside was that the image made me crave ice cream big time.

I watched a bunch of movies and TV shows throughout the month too. In the theaters, I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once, which was amazing and probably one of the best movies I've ever seen in my entire life, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which was unusual but a lot of fun. I finally saw Black Widow on Disney Plus too, and wasn't super-impressed. For series, I binged my way through Inventing Anna on Netflix, which started off really promising and then got stupid at the end. I finished two documentaries as well - Bad Vegan, which was about a con man that messed up the life of a notable restaurant owner and White Hot, which was about the rise and fall of Abercrombie and Fitch. Both were very good.

I did pretty well on my ukulele throughout the month. I learned Chim Chim Cheree from Mary Poppins and You've Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story. I'm still working on Once Upon a Dream and Surface Pressure, and playing around with A Whole New World and Bare Necessities. It was a very Disney kind of month, obviously. I am also starting to learn Baby One More Time by Britney Spears.

Next month is going to be tough. The kids' behaviors at school are really ramping up. Things always deteriorate as summer break approaches, but this year was more difficult than usual to begin with, so it's really bad now. I'm going to have to focus a lot on self care and be very organized to get through it. I just have to keep reminding myself that before long I'll be on my break and have lot of time to read and do whatever else I want. 

March Wrap Up

 

Illustration by Jungho Lee

After a pretty rough February, I was determined to get myself back on track in March. I definitely had a better time with my emotions and self care, but I struggled quite a bit with exhaustion. I couldn't bring myself to get back into exercising and I was falling asleep quite a bit. I'm not sure why, because I was getting a normal amount of sleep and everything, but I was just tired. Hopefully I can rally in April.

Aside from the sleepiness though, I had a good month. I have kept my 100-pages-a-day streak alive and finished nine books totaling 3,800 pages. This was one book less than I read in February, but I finished the very long Mistborn trilogy this month, and with each book being around 700 pages, that limited how many other books I could finish. My overall ratings were pretty good, with most things I picked up being four or five stars. 

Here's everything I finished:

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (5 stars)

Northwind by Gary Paulson (2 stars)

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (4 stars)

The Art of Running Away by Sabrina Kleckner (3 stars)

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (5 stars)

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (3 stars)

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (5 stars)

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (3 stars)

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was The Magic Fish, a beautiful middle grades graphic novel about love, family, and the power of stories passed down through time. I also really enjoyed The Great Alone and When Stars Are Scattered. All three of those books made my favorites list. This is How You Lose the Time War was also a very pretty and memorable read.

I had a few notable disappointments this month too. Northwind by Gary Paulson was definitely not as good as I was expecting it to be. I wanted another Hatchet, but this story was aimless and repetitive. I also didn't love the Mistborn series. I gave the first one four stars and the others three stars. Not terrible ratings, but also not what I was expecting based on the hype around those books. 

I hauled a handful of books this month. There were a few coming out from some of my favorite authors that I was looking forward to, so I picked those up. along with a few others. I ended up getting some teacher books too, to plan for next year. Here's what I ended up with:

Alone by Megan E. Freeman (middle grades, adventure/survival, dystopia, physical book)

The Aquanaut by Dan Santat (middle grades, graphic novel, fantasy, physical book)

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (middle grades, fantasy, physical book)

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden (middle grades, graphic novel, physical book)

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellano (middle grades, graphic novel, historical fiction, physical book)

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (literary fiction, physical book)

Gallant by V.E. Schwab (young adult, fantasy, physical book)

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir and Myisha Haynes (middle grades, graphic novel, physical book)

Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire (middle grades, fantasy, physical book)

Breathing New Life into Book Clubs by Sonja Cherry Paul and Dana Johansen (education, physical book)

Teaching Writing in Small Groups by Jennifer Serravallo (education, physical book)

The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (education, physical book)

I added a total of 12 books to my collection.  

I decided to donate Northwind, Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, The Art of Running Away, and This Is How you Lose the Time War, so six books left my shelves.

Next month, I want to continue working more on my challenges, especially my Middle Grades Mission. I've picked up a lot of interesting-looking books lately and I want to give them a try. Here are my tentative plans:

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire

The Hideaway by Pam Smy

Alone by Megan E. Freeman

I continued to work on my physical reading journal this month too, but I didn't create individual entries for all the different books I read. I wanted to, but I was so tired all month that I couldn't get it together enough to keep up with it. I did create a TBR page and maintained a page listing all the books I read. I aim to do more with this in April.

As far as my non-reading activities went, I did manage to complete a few projects throughout the month. I worked a little bit more on my diamond painting, and I also finally bought a portfolio to store the diamond paintings I have already completed. It was nice to clear off the space on my table that they were taking up! 

I also completed a few jigsaw puzzles. My first was the Ravensburger Krypt Gradient. It was 631 pieces and it was really fun. The cut on it was really unique and the pieces were all kinds of different shapes. I really like gradient puzzles. They are much easier to put together than you might think.

After that, I finished a 500 piece Tangled puzzle. This is part of a set that came with four puzzles. This is the third one I have completed, so I have one left to go before to finish them all. This was a fun one to do because there was enough clear variation in the different parts of the image that I could sort the pieces easily into piles and complete it section by section.

The last project I completed was a wooden Ferris Wheel puzzle that I found on Etsy. This actually winds up and plays a song and rotates around. It wasn't too difficult to assemble, but I had to be very careful not to snap any of the skinny wooden pieces as I was slotting them together. I did end up breaking a few, but luckily, the kit included a few extras of the more delicate parts, so it was okay. The only bad part of the project was that it was pretty rough on the hands. You had to push quite hard to get some of the pieces together and the wood was a little splintery. Overall, I really enjoyed it though, and I would definitely build another one.

My goal for April is to make significant progress on the diamond painting I'm currently working on. It's looking good so far, but for some reason, I'm finding it more boring to work on than the other ones I have completed. I think the issue is that it uses square diamonds, which are slowly and more finicky. I'm learning that I definitely prefer round diamonds overall.

As far as movies and TV shows go, I finished Maid on Netflix this month, and I really liked it. It was so emotional and moving! I also saw The Batman and The Lost City in the theaters. Both were really great, but with totally different vibes. I especially liked The Lost City because I love a romance/adventure, and you don't see a whole lot of those these days. I also saw Turning Red on Disney Plus and thought it was adorable and so relateable. I also watched a few old favorites with my husband this month - The Dark Knight and The Voyage Home. Both were just as good as I remembered. I adore old Star Trek. 

I tried out one new game as well - Aquarium Designer on Steam. It's basically a game where you build fish tanks. It was relaxing and very low stress. I continued to practice my ukulele as well. I'm much better at Surface Pressure now and I'm working on perfecting Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty. That will be my first song that uses finger picking. It's surprisingly tough to master. I'm still looking for a way to get more practice time in. I do have my spring break coming up in April, so hopefully I can get some extra practice time in then.

So overall, March was a fairly successful month for me. I managed to finish more than I did in February and I felt better doing it. In April, I want to continue to work on my hobbies a bit more and keep focusing on self care. I also want to try and get back to exercising in the gym, which I'm really struggling with right now. I wish I was one of those people that love exercise. It would make things a lot easier! That will never be me though, so I'm going to have to just keep trying. Hopefully April will be my month.