March Catch Up
Hi, guys. Well it’s been a crazy month in my life. I am officially moved now. It’s wasn’t a huge move, distance-wise, but I find moving quite traumatic usually and it’s taken me a while to really settle into the new place. I am still not all the way there but I am working on it. It helps that I have my bookshelves set up (thanks to my friend’s help). I got rid of a hundred books or more before the move. They were mainly books I hadn’t gotten around to even though I’ve had them for years. I was kind of bummed to let them go but I figured I could always get them from the library if I need to. And it felt really good to get rid of so much stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a ton of books to read, but it’s a little more manageable now. I also donated them to a friend who works in education so she’ll be able to find them good homes. But because of the move and how stressed I was, I haven’t been doing much reading lately. I found that reading too up too much emotional energy and concentration that I just didn’t have at the time. However, I am getting back into the swing of things and hope to tackle my TBR pile soon. In the meantime, here’s a little bit of what I have been up to in the last month.
As previously mentioned, I moved house recently. Above is a pic of my partially organized bookshelves. My friend A came out and helped me alphabetize all of my young adult books, which is what you’re seeing here. My books haven’t been this organized in a very long time. I am hoping that knowing where everything is will help me get through some of these books, some of which I’ve had for years. Everything is so neat and tidy now and it makes me really happy to see my shelves so organized.
I read an early e-ARC of Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop a couple of months ago. I haven’t had time to write my review but I loved this book. This is part of a series so you should read them in order, starting with Written in Red. This is one of the best series I’ve read in a long time. If you like Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs and the like, you should read this series. You won’t be disappointed.
I’ve been doing a lot of knitting lately. I usually split most of my free time between knitting and reading with reading usually getting the majority of it. However, since my reading mojo has been low, I’ve been getting a ton of knitting done. I recently went to northern California for Stitches West, which is basically a big knitting and fiber event. It was super fun and I got really inspired by everything I saw and the people I met. I also bought lots of new yarn. :) Above is a shawl I am currently working on called Find Your Fade. I also started reading God Save the Queen by Kate Locke, which has been on my to-read list for years. This is an ARC I received at ALA maybe 5 years ago. I am having a lot of fun with it am glad that I finally picked it up.
I went to the LA Zoo for the first time. I am not sure how I managed to live here for this long and not go to the zoo, but I finally made it. I was with a lot of people (including 7 children) so I didn’t really get to explore the zoo as much as I would have liked, but it was still pretty cool and I plan to go back.
This isn’t new at all but I just discovered the podcast My Favorite Murder. I’ve always been interested in true crime and serial killers and this podcast is what I think it would sound like if my girlfriends and I got together to talk murder. I am still at the beginning of the podcast since I started from episode 1. I only listen to a few episodes a week though so I don’t freak myself out too much with murder.
That’s what I have been up to lately. Let me know if there are any amazing books, movies, podcasts, etc. that I should be checking out. I’m going to try to get back into reviewing some books soon as I am so behind on it. Until then, happy reading!
