March Wrap-Up

March Overview

What happened in March? A lot of stuff. First, my grad school program approved my critical thesis. It’s done! It was interesting to see so many years of reading and research come together. At the beginning of the month, I woke up to this email from my school:

Dear AJ,  

On behalf of the directors and faculty of the Spalding MFA in Writing Program, I am very pleased to approve and accept “The Concealed Art: The Use of Nonlinear Narrative Structure in Holes by Louis Sachar and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: An Extended Critical Essay.” Congratulations to you and your mentor for successfully fulfilling this requirement of your degree.

If you’ve never written a critical thesis before, the process looks like this:

Then, in the middle of the month, it was my birthday. I got a new camera from my parents because I accidentally murdered my old one when I hiked through a sandstorm with it last November. Then it was Easter, which I spent with my family. I got to test out my new camera when my mom made the world’s creepiest eggs. No one would eat them, so she turned them into the world’s creepiest egg salad the next morning.

Books I Read

I had planned on reading three series in March. I wanted to read the Time quintet by Madeleine L’Engle, the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, and the Unwind dystology by Neal Shusterman. That didn’t happen because I ended up quitting the first two series and not even starting Unwind. Oops.

Despite my problems with the series, I managed to read ten books in March. (Plus one DNF.)

Mistborn – Brandon Sanderson (DNF)

Illuminae – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

I Am the Cheese – Robert Cormier

Ordinary People – Judith Guest

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle

Black Like Me – John Howard Griffin

A Wind in the Door – Madeleine L’Engle

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

A Swiftly Tilting Planet – Madeleine L’Engle

White Dog Fell From the Sky – Eleanor Morse

I made some progress on my challenges. Click here to see them.

Best Books of March

It was really hard to pick favorites. I guess these are my top three, but I read a lot of awesome books this month.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird –Harper Lee

2. Ordinary People – Judith Guest

3. Illuminae – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Most Viewed Reviews

1. Illuminae – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

2. The Gracekeepers – Kirsty Logan

3. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

Most Viewed Non-Reviews

1. Discussion: I Review Books, Not People

2. The “I Have No Self-Control” Book Haul (Part 1)

3. FF Friday: To All The Horror Books I’ve Loved Before

Tentative April TBR

I’m going to read the Unwind dystology by Neal Shusterman. I also want to read these:

Vampires in the Lemon Grove – Karen Russell

A Guide to Being Born – Ramona Ausubel

Attachments – Rainbow Rowell

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving

All The Things

All The Things (AKA my TBR pile) = 41 books.

I’m currently reading Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell.