March 2019 Reading Wrap-Up

Image by Oliver Johnson

Do you see that girl in the image? Do you see that confidence? That sass? That's how I'm feeling after this month of reading. I'm officially back to reading regularly. No more reading slump baby!

This past month I've had such a stressful month. I've stressed myself out too much unnecessarily just focusing on the amount of work and not tackling it as much as I should have right away. It's a habit I still haven't shaken but one I have to work on. However, it calmed down a lot at the end of this month. It also came with a bit of a surprise. I unwittingly achieved a goal of mine earlier than expected. I got a promotion. I'm a bit terrified. I don't feel like I'm ready. I worry I have become complacent in my previous job. I felt like I learned all of what I "needed" to learn but I could have learned a lot more about policies and how to format programs, etc. Now this is sure to be all covered through training as well as I'm sure I will have to seek information on my own to do my job efficiently. Although, I want to do extraordinarily well like I want to be amazing at this job. I want to challenge myself but I do worry about being complacent once I know the inner workings of the job. I want to keep being my best self. So that's where my head is at. Oh, I'm going to be a Librarian Intern. Such a huge difference from a library page. Wish me luck!

Inside Out & Back Again was a book I had to read for a class. This class is exposing me to so many amazing books that make me so thankful to be able to take the course. This is a book I've seen before but the cover has never interested me. My father is an immigrant. It's strange that I've never read an immigrant's story but I needed to. It's a perspective I can second-hand relate to and it's a book award winner for a reason.

Comics Will Break Your Heart is by a favorite graphic novelist and illustrator of mine. The concept is Romeo and Juliet but in the comic book world. I did not love it... I'm very surprised knowing who the author is but I just didn't love it. I'm planning on writing a review next month on this with my full thoughts on what the story lacked.

A Week in the Woods was a reread for the rereadathon. I wrote my thoughts on rereading this childhood favorite here. Basically, it reinvigorated something inside me that I had when I first read it.

I had to read a bunch of picture books in order to create a read aloud. I chose the theme counting so that's why all of the picture books are about counting. I want to review them all in one post though but I will give a bit of an overview what I thought of them here. Mouse Went Out to Get a Snack was a fun concept although it could have ended a little differently. Counting Crows had great rhyming but it was a bit long. One Two That's My Shoe is perfect for very small kids since it is a fast read but on the other hand it's a little too fast for my taste.

Roar! A Noisy Counting Book was fantastic since it not only had counting but it also had colors integrated into the story. 1-2-3 Peas had counting by tens which I thought was smart. Guinea Pig Party had such great imagery and rhyming as well as it's perfect to help kids start counting backwards (essential for learning how to subtract). Ten Hungry Pigs is a silly story lots of kids would laugh at but I didn't enjoy the font choice (nitpicky, I know).

American Panda was a TBR choice last December. I wanted to read it so badly that I decided to pick it up. It was my first audiobook in a while. Let's say everyone voted for the right choice for my January read. 

Esperanza Rising was a class read as well. Another meaningful book about changing circumstances which was honestly perfect at the moment. I was listening a lot to David Goggins and him going from a weak state to embracing suffering. The book was well done.

Nowhere But Here was a reread for the rereadathon which I discussed in March. You can read what I ended up feeling after giving it a second chance (technically its third chance) on my post. 

I participated in a blog tour of In Another Life. I thought it was an okay read overall. I think teens would like it more. I really enjoyed the concept but wish the romance wasn't as prominent.

I finally read You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)! It was the TBR pick everyone chose for February that I started a while back but never finished. I went from not thinking I would like it to giving it five stars! You all are very good at picking great reads for me.

The March TBR choice was The Trouble With Twins. I didn't rate this one five stars but I really enjoyed it. The narration, pacing of the story, how everything came together - it was all wonderful. It is also a debut read which is highly impressive. If you read a snippet of the story you would know what I meant. 

You might be wondering why I didn't have a Choose My TBR Read for April. Well, like I said before March was a bit stressful. I only really got the majority of my reads in the last half of the month. I also got news about my new job. I was too busy at the time thinking of other things to plan a post in time so I'll continue the TBR choices for May. I'm hoping I can manage my classes and job to the best of my ability.

After a stressful month I was still able to read 9 books and 7 picture books. I feel like I'm back into reading. I started commenting finally again. I just need to get into a groove and continue. It has been nice visiting blogs again since I feel like I've missed so much. 

What did you read in March? Were you surprised in a positive or negative way with some of the books you read?