February 2018 Month in Review

March 1, 2018

Newsworthy

March is in like a lion in Wisconsin; the temperatures were in the sunny 50s and recently dropped back down into cold and rainy 30s. Snow to come? I’m sure. But that’s part of living practically in Canada. 😉

This past month one of my favorite things in the world happened: The Olympics! I adore both the summer and winter Olympics. The stories about the athletes, the emotion tied into each event, and learning fun new details about all sorts of sports I don’t see often brings such joy to my life. I also always host an Opening Ceremonies party! Friends are requested to come representing a country walking in the Parade of Nations and to bring a food or beverage to share representing that country. As host of the party, I always represent the host country. It was a TON of fun and I am certainly suffering Olympic withdrawal.

You might have noticed I’ve not been doing a ton of blog hopping or posting lately. Why is that? As of today, we are in the month I will be getting married!! I cannot believe the time has flown by so quickly. Weddings are quite complicated to plan! There are lots of moving parts. This past month, I had my amazing bachelorette, went home to finalize details, did my hair trial, and started dancing lessons with David. There is still so much yet to do! March will be filled with finalizing a million little details. March 25th cannot come soon enough. I am super excited!

To take a break from all the wedding craziness I went on a date with one of my besties to see An American in Paris: The New Musical. It’s a BEAUTIFUL show. The film is one of my all-time favorites. I truly believe this musical took that film to the next level. If you enjoy ballet, well-designed sets and costumes, or the music of the Gershwin brothers I HIGHLY recommend it.

Finally, I just wanted to state that I will be continuing my demi-hiatus through this month. With the wedding coming up I barely have time for self-care, let alone prioritizing my blog. I continue to focus on my goal of making blogging a source of solace and joy. When I can, I’ll blog hop and visit you all. When I can, physically and emotionally, put together the mental space to write posts, I will. But blogging is just something I do for fun. I’ll be back in April fully focused again. Be patient with me!

 

List of Reads

February contained quite a bit more reading than I expected. I don’t have the mental focus for much beyond wedding work. However, when I’m not planning the wedding, I am spending my downtime reading (for the most part) light, uplifting books. I have really enjoyed the breadth of genre and writing style I’ve explored this month. There are a ton of amazing books here. I hope I can keep up my streak of awesome books through the rest of 2018!

February Books:

Read 11 total books

 

MUST READ this month:

Good Omens Good Omens was a re-read for me. The second time through was perhaps even better than the first! This time I listened to the audiobook. Martin Jarvis does an incredible job bringing the story to life. Plus, with the upcoming mini-series, I kept trying to see the selected actors in place of these characters. Let me tell you, no one other than David Tennent can play Crowley. That role is perfect for him.

Meh. I wasn’t into it this month:

The Buried Giant   Don’t get me wrong, I know that this book is considered masterful. I really loved the writing style and (most of the time) the slow pacing. However, overall this was a bit strange and peculiar to me. I only found one character relatable, and their character arc was small indeed. There is so much intelligence and beauty in these pages, I just wished that I had connected more to the characters and the story. I’m sad that this is my first time reading Ishiguro.

February TBR:

  • Our Shared Shelf  – Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  • Kids LitStarfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman
  • West Side StoriesInto Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
  • Brunch Books – TBD
  • VACB Book Club – TBD
  • Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Great Newbery ChallengeThe View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

2018 Reading Goal Updates: 

  • Overall 2018 Reading Challenge: 22/80 (27% complete)
  • State of the ARC Reading Challenge: 3/12 (25%)
  • Total Non-Fiction Books Read: 1 (4%/5% of overall reading challenge)
  • 2018 Great Newbery Challenge: 3/20 (15% complete)
  • Read Along Participation 0/1

I was able to read two Newbery award winners this month, as well as two ARCs, keeping me on track for my 2018 goals! Woohoo! I’m making short work of my reading challenge, however, as I find that reading is the only thing I want to do when there is downtime lately. After all the stress of wedding planning, I love getting lost in a book. I also picked up my first non-fiction read of the year The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hahn. As I am about to marry a Buddhist I am trying to learn as much as I can to better understand where he is coming from. Expect many Buddhist non-fiction books this year.

You can follow The Great Newbery Challenge over the years here.

 

Tsundoku Life

It wouldn’t be tsundoku if I didn’t have a gigantic pile of books and bookish things going on in my life!

On the Blog:

As I’ve mentioned already, the blog has felt a bit silent lately. Unfortunately, I have not been prioritizing self-care in my life nor blogging. I am greatly looking forward to March 27th and the start of our honeymoon so I can catch up on taking care of myself. Yet, my blog still remains a source of joy in my life. By not sticking to a schedule, by not trying to force in time for reviewing books or blog hopping, I find it’s easier to look lovingly upon my blog. I appreciate how patient you’ve all been with me. Expect more of the same this month with a gradual build up back into the usual Jackie-blogging come April.

Book Reviews

Death by Tsundoku Series Posts

Top Ten Tuesday

Other Posts

Blog Goal Updates:

  • 1/3 of blog posts are reviews each month: 1/12 (8%)
  • New sets of discussion questions: 2/12 (16%)
  • Total series posts: 5/36 (11%)

Despite general silence from my corner of the world, I still managed to make two of my three monthly goals! I don’t know how I did that… but, magically, it happened. One-third of my posts this month are book reviews! This is the hardest of the three goals, surprisingly. I require a lot of mental effort and focus to write a review I feel comfortable posting. I just haven’t had the brain space for it lately. That said, the radio silence has been good for my soul. I’m still blogging, I’m just not connecting as much.

Blog Projects

No projects this month! Unless you count getting married. Or picking books for the honeymoon. Because, well, those are the only projects I have time for now.

!!!! 24 days and counting!

 

I miss you all very much. I hope that your blogging adventures are going WONDERFULLY. I cannot wait to see what I’ve missed once April rolls around. Have an amazing month; March had best be an amazing month for everyone with books. Wishing you all the best reads for March!

Happy Reading,

Jackie B.

Jackie B Forman


What do you think?

  • What amazing things happened to you in February? What reads would you recommend?
  • What is your favorite Winter Olympic sport? Why?
  • Have you ever read a book by an acclaimed author and had it fall short for you? What book? Why did it fall short?
  • What are your favorite fun reads you pick up when you’re mentally exhausted and just want something fun?

11 Comments

  • Laila@BigReadingLife March 1, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    Wishing you all the best in your wedding month!! It’s always good to see a post from you, but of course you’ve got a lot going on now and we all understand that you’re not able to post or blog-hop as usual. Continue taking good care of yourself! Alsok, you’re doing really well on your reading goals! I’m glad reading is serving as a stress-breaker for you right now.

  • Ann Marie March 1, 2018 at 4:48 pm

    Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! So happy for you. And don’t worry – your TBR will still be there. Lol. xx

  • Annemieke March 2, 2018 at 1:25 am

    Ah yeay wedding month. I hope the month and the wedding will be amazing. 😀 Lots of love.<3

  • Grab the Lapels March 2, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    This last week has been really awful, and the spring semester in general has been very hard, so I’m behind on all of my reading goals. I did write a post about getting rid of the “like” button, which drew a lot of attention. I saw you have Into Thin Air on your list. I’ve read that one and enjoyed it much more than the movie version. The book covers the culture around the privilege that allows a person to choose homelessness and wander, and also the risk-taking attitude that Americans admire (even if it kills us). Krakauer himself is/was a daredevil of sorts, which he discusses. It’s journalism/memoir/news.

  • (Danielle) Books, Vertigo and Tea March 2, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    I don’t even care what you read haha! All I can think about is wedding date I am so excited for you. Seems crazy it is practically here. But who am I to tell you that haha?
    I love your Olympic party. I sadly, did not get into them as I normally would. But I blame health and other issues for making my attention soan very limited and stretched.
    The musical sounds lovely. I was treated to the ballet premiere of Alice in Wonderland here with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and it was amazing
    Will be nice to have you back, but so happy life is being good to you – xx

  • Helen Murdoch March 2, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    Have a wonderful wedding month! It’s amazing how much planning goes into one day 🙂 I also love the Olympics, both winter and summer. I love that I learn new information about random sports, can incorporate new lingo in to my vocabulary, and the personal stories get me every time.

  • Shouni March 5, 2018 at 11:14 am

    I hope you have an amazing wedding Jackie! I’m going to give you the same advice you gave me and say, self-care is more important than blogging schedule so do what’s best for you. We’ll all still be here <3 I loved The View from Saturday growing up, I hope you like it! (Also I'm sending you hugs).

  • Jamie March 5, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    Congratulations on the wedding, that is so exciting that the date is coming up so soon!! That’s awesome that you had a good reading month for February, and so happy to see you gave 4 stars to The Bear! 🙂 Hopefully this month will be full of more happy books and lots of wedding joy!

  • Amanda @Cover2CoverMom March 10, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    I cannot believe you managed to read so much while planning a wedding! You are a machine my friend. I am so happy for you that your big day is almost here. I do hope you’ll post a wedding picture for us! I’m happy to see you enjoyed The Bear and the Nightingale! I look forward to your review if you write one. I finished Good Omens today and I have to admit I struggled with it a big. I just don’t get it. I thought the plot was clever and unique. I loved the characters. Why did I have the hardest time staying focused on the story? I’ve never read a Terry Pratchett book before… does he tend to go off on tangents in his writing? Aspects of this book felt like Neil Gaiman, but the random tangents did not. I listened to the audiobook, which I think was wonderfully narrated, BUT also allowed my mind to wander. I think I’ll give it another go in print form.

    • Jackie B March 12, 2018 at 4:39 pm

      Yes! I am with you! I definitely leaned on my books to help me get through some stressful times. Sadly, I’ve run into a bit of a book rut, so I haven’t been making the same dent in books this month. Oh well– there is a wedding coming up, right? Right.

      The random tangents in Good Omens are 100% Pratchett writing. He likes to ramble a bit to get to something witty or silly. I personally love the book, but I can understand how people would find that it drags. The humor is perfectly up my alley. I’m glad you pushed through! Perhaps the Discworld series won’t be for you… that said, you might enjoy his MG book Wee Free Men which is set in the same universe. These are books you can just pick up whenever; no need to understand the series.

      I will certainly have an upcoming review of The Bear and the Nightingale just wait for my blog to love me again.

      And don’t you fret, there will certainly be wedding pictures. Depending on how giddy I feel, you might just get a whole wedding- related blog post. Mwahaha! It’s my blog and I can brag if I want. 😉

  • Pathologically Literate March 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

    Congrats on the wedding – how exciting!! On another note, I must know – did you love Moxie?

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