April Wrap Up (a happy month!)

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planed to read 7 books, and I read 5 with one in progress still because it’s really long. The one I skipped was my own additional, funny enough. The recommendations I got from everyone got read though, and WHEW WERE THEY GOOD RECOMMENDATIONS! 🥰 I read 13 in total though, as my usual mood-reader-ness whims kicked in during the month as well.

The Plan:

My plan was mostly recommendations from y’all, and they were fabulous.

The Result:

Not only did I post twice about books I gave up on this year, I added another to the list shortly after with Undercover Bromance. I still can’t believe how immediately I hated that one. My responses aren’t typically so aggressively bad, but dang did this just rub me the wrong way (not ideal for a romance novel 😏).

BUT, with that out of the way, the rest of my reading was so so good! The recommendations I got from y’all were fabulous, and I enjoyed all of them quite a lot! I really should post some reviews of Head Full Of Ghosts and Legendborn because I certainly have a lot to say about them. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a book I feel like I want to talk to people about to discuss interpretations and ideas. There’s so much more waiting for me in it, but I need others in order to get it.

I also took a shot on an Emily Henry book in BOTM with People We Meet on Vacation. I wasn’t expecting much from a romance novel, but I totally ate my words with that because I quickly devoured Henry’s words in the book! It was so good y’all!! That one comes out on May 11th if you’re interested, because apparently it was an early option with BOTM.

I did read some more poetry this month, as my kick was still going strong and April was poetry month, after all! I picked up Citizen Illegal by Jose Oliveraz and loved his collection of insight and reflection on how being Mexican-American-Mexican impacted every facet of his life. I even took a whack at making my own poem inspired by it and the titles of other recent reads.

Dune is still in progress because it’s a lengthy read, but I’m quite enjoying it and fully expect to keep working my through. American Dirt was a surprise addition when I ran past a local Little Free Library and grabbed it, so I’m hoping to wrap that up in May as well.

~life

A lot of good happened this month, y’all! (For me anyway 🤞) I got promoted and I get to give a new kind of role a shot. I’ll be good at it, but we’ll see how much I like it. It’s further from the technical side and more like service for the team, but at the worst I’ll get some good experience before looking to head back to the tech stuff. I also got a call from one of the company founders to thank and congratulate me for an idea I had pitched to the company, and to let me know I was getting a bonus for it as well as assistance in making the idea happen. 🤩 This is so radically different from my previous workplace that I am just riding high!

I also somehow found time to balance reading, blogging, working, and gaming. I don’t know when, and I’m sure something else suffered, but clearly I haven’t noticed it so much so I guess I’ll live. xD

My friends got married, and I’m so grateful I was able to attend despite the COVID attendance restrictions. It was a gorgeous day for them, and they were both absolutely radiating happiness! It was also the first time I’ve seen friends pretty much since last year when we started staying home. It was so wonderful.

PLUS, I got a new bed. It took a while to get here, and the waiting wasn’t great, but after two nights on it, I’m pretty delighted. Hopefully it remains this comfy!

The weather is getting nicer, the sun is out longer… it’s really pretty on brand that April is my first happy month of the year. ^.^ Usually I would celebrate with a trip somewhere, but alas, that’s on hold for a little longer.

~blog

In more good (still baffling) news, blog views were up about 50% this month from my previous all time high. No idea why, especially since I feel like I was once again a little lazy with the quality of content (although definitely way more consistent) but I’m super grateful for it y’all. ^.^ It’s not all about the numbers, but they definitely do still feel good, you know? Someone besides myself is reading this stuff. 🥰

Here are some of my favorite posts I worked on this month, in case you missed them!

And here are some of my favorite posts by other bloggers!

The Geography of Middle-earth: How Isolated Is Everyone? by Briana @ Pages Unbound (some really fab points about how Hobbits aren’t the only ones who don’t bother with other people!)
Top 5 Saturday: The Longest Books I’ve Read by Dinipanda @ Dinipanda reads (on hiatus for a little while, but leaving us with goodies to hold us over ☺)
World Book Day April 23, 2021 – #WorldBookDay2021 by Fictionophile (I’m always looking for more books from around the world!)