April 2016 Wrap Up

Thank goodness April is over!! What an awful month that was. I had a major reading slump and dealt with a ridiculous amount of work stress and drama. I am so glad that May is here and hopefully it will be a kind of fresh start.

I hit a serious reading roadblock this month. There was a whole week where I read nothing (except some stuff for school). I just had no motivation to read. I somehow managed to get through 4 books which I probably only got to because I participated in the read-a-thon. I'm at 19 books out of 52 for the year and according to goodreads, I'm ahead so I guess it's not all bad. The class I'm taking ends next week so I'm hoping for a better reading month in May.

I don't normally do this but I am setting monthly reading/non-reading goals for the month to help me focus a little bit.

1.) Read one non-fiction book
2.) Read a book I own
3.) Spend less money
4.) Exercise regularly
5.) Clean my house (!)

Here is what I read in April:

1.) The Virgin's Spy by Laura Andersen
2.) The Dark Lady's Mask by Mary Sharratt
3.) Promised to the Crown by Aimie K. Runyan
4.) The Virgin's War by Laura Andersen

My April stats were:

-4 books read

-0 non-fiction

-4 historical fiction

-3 review books

-1 library books

-0 books I own
-4 ebooks

I hope May is a wonderful month for you all!

Comments

Review: "Oleanna" by Julie K. Rose

Synopsis: Set during the separation of Norway from Sweden in 1905, this richly detailed novel of love and loss was inspired by the life of the author's great-great-aunts. Oleanna and her sister Elisabeth are the last of their family working their farm deep in the western fjordland. A new century has begun, and the world outside is changing, but in the Sunnfjord their world is as small and secluded as the verdant banks of a high mountain lake. The arrival of Anders, a cotter living just across the farm's border, unsettles Oleanna 's peaceful but isolated existence. Sharing a common bond of loneliness and grief, Anders stirs within her the wildness and wanderlust she has worked so hard to tame. When she is confronted with another crippling loss, Oleanna must decide once and for all how to face her past, claim her future, and find her place in a wide new world. My Thoughts: I was very surprised by what an absolutely beautiful story Oleanna is. The ...

Review and Giveaway: "Distant Signs" by Anne Richter

Synopsis: Distant Signs is an intimate portrait of two families spanning three generations amidst turbulent political change, behind and beyond the Berlin Wall. In 1960s East Germany, Margret, a professor’s daughter from the city, meets and marries Hans, from a small village in Thuringia. The couple struggle to contend with their different backgrounds, and the emotional scars they bear from childhood in the aftermath of war. As East German history gradually unravels, with collision of the personal and political, their two families’ hidden truths are quietly revealed. An exquisitely written novel with strongly etched characters that stay with you long after the book is finished and an authentic portrayal of family life behind the iron curtain based on personal experience of the author who is East German and was 16 years old at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do families repeat destructive patterns of behaviour across generations? Should the personal take precedence over...

Mailbox Monday (49)

It's time for another Mailbox Monday post! Once again I could not resist the cheap ebooks that Amazon and Barnes and Noble were promoting this week. I really need to stop! I already have more than I can read. I also was able to spend a little time browsing at the library and I came home with a nice stack of books. These days, I hardly ever get to spend time at the library by myself for more than a minute or two so it was wonderful to have time to just wander and see what I could find. Purchased (for kindle): The Color of Secrets by Lindsay Ashford The One I Was by Eliza Graham House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty Purchased (for nook): One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore Becoming Queen Victoria by Kate Williams From the Library: The Messenger by Daniel Silva The Ripper's Wife by Brandy Purdy Hotel Moscow by Talia Carner Brazen by Katherine Longshore What books did you get...

So Many Books, So Little Time

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