Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2015

Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2015

I spent nearly the whole month of March feeling ill. I managed to catch that horrible flu bug which has been doing the rounds, and it really knocked me sideways. Every time I think it’s beginning to shift, it seems to come back with a vengeance. As a result, March has been a bit of a washout reading and blogging-wise. I definitely haven’t been posting as much and I have had a lot of difficulty concentrating on my reading.

You may have noticed that the majority of the posts I have been doing are mainly memes – I had already done a bit of planning for these so they were not too taxing but even so, I haven’t been posting with my usual zest. It’s really frustrating being unable to concentrate on things that usually come pretty naturally. Plus, I am not getting to relish in the fact that it is finally Spring!

Since I have been feeling so crappy, I have been spending a lot to try to cheer myself up so my book collection has expanded quite a fair bit (I think it’s safe to say my book-buying ban is a bogey). I can’t feel too bad about breaking it though since I have acquired a lot of really awesome sounding books. Now I just need to find the energy to read them! 😉

Here are the books I read in March:

   

My Heart and Other Black Holes was a really powerful debut – it really made me think and I really liked the growing relationship between the two main characters. Both were so damaged but finding each other made all the difference.

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda was a fantastic debut (and my first 5 star read of the year!) – the feels were out of this world! I adored Simon so much and the love story was incredibly sweet without being cloying. I loved it!

In Over His Head was an interesting read. I read this short e-book because I picked up the book In Too Deep by the author which follows the same main characters and was inspired by this short story. It was a decent read and I am looking forward to starting In Too Deep.

Princess of Glass was a really lovely retelling of Cinderella (with a twist) and a good follow-on from Princess of the Midnight Ball which I read last month. I really enjoyed it.

I also had my first DNF – Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski. To clarify, I have had many books that I have been unable to finish but I usually just mark them as not-read and that’s that. I really struggled reading this and I thought it was time I set up a DNF shelf on Goodreads. I felt pretty bad about it but I just didn’t click with this book. I will try the author’s other books though as there was no fault to be found with the writing – I just couldn’t connect to the story. I am not sure if I will review any DNF books on my blog but here is the Goodreads link to my review if anyone is interested.

Challenge Update:

My Heart and Other Black Holes and Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda are both debuts so I finally have read something for the Debut Author Challenge. Reviews will be up and linked to the challenge shortly.

As Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda has a gay protagonist it also counts for the LGBT Challenge I have signed up for again this year. It also counts towards the Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge as I was very lucky to be approved an ARC for this awesome book.

Princess of Glass slots into the Flights of Fantasy Challenge and the Fairytale Challenge as it is both fantasy and a fairy tale retelling.

What I watched in March:

I finally jumped on The 100 bandwagon! I am only about two-thirds of the way through the first season but I am really loving it so far. I am kicking myself that I didn’t start watching it earlier (but I suppose it’s great that I can binge-watch seasons 1 and 2).

I have also starting watching Poldark (Aidan Turner cuts a fine figure in this) and am really enjoying it. Oh and Vikings – which looks like a lot of fun!

I have also been watching a lot of true crime stuff. I have a bit of a fascination with crime stories and serial killers (not sure what this says about me!) so I have been watching quite a few documentaries on the subject. I watched one really interesting one called I Survived B.T.K. which was pretty harrowing stuff as it follows a guy called Charlie Otero whose family was murdered by the infamous serial killer. I just cannot imagine what those poor families must have gone through – it doesn’t bear thinking about.

What else I got up to in March:

I was invited to do a guest post on a feature run by fellow blogger Batool @ Batool’s Book Feels about female empowerment and it’s connection to literature. I was very intrigued by the topic and honoured to be asked to take part by Batool whose blog I really admire. Here is my post: A Discussion on History of Females in YA. I had a lot of fun taking part in this (luckily I did this post before falling ill!) and I have really enjoyed reading all the guest posts from other bloggers (you should definitely check them out here). I really want to thank Batool again for asking me to be part of this.

As for my personal life, well not really been up to very much at all. Just working and then falling into bed knackered at the end of the day lol. Seriously though, March hasn’t been the greatest fun what with all the illness and general bad weather – it’s supposed to be Spring – why the hell is it snowing??? 😡

Here are the posts I wrote in March:

• [3 Mar] Top Ten Books From The Last Three Years
• [4 Mar] WWW Wednesday #31
• [4 Mar] Waiting on Wednesday: An Ember…
• [5 Mar] Brin’s Book Buzz: March 2015
• [8 Mar] Stacking the Shelves #58
• [10 Mar] Books For Fairy Tale Retelling Readers
• [13 Mar] Friday the 13th – Movies to Watch
• [14 Mar] Stacking the Shelves #59
• [17 Mar] Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List
• [21 Mar] Stacking the Shelves #60
• [22 Mar] Read Play Blog #9
• [24 Mar] Books From My Teen Years I Must Revisit
• [28 Mar] Stacking the Shelves #61
• [29 Mar] Storm by Brigid Kemmerer ★★★★
• [31 Mar] Books Recently Added To My TBR List

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