Thursday, April 7, 2016

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)
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.






Most Viewed Reviews







Most Viewed Non-Reviews





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.









24 comments:

  1. Yay! Attachments. I love that book! Enjoy.

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  2. Congrats on finishing your thesis!

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  3. Congrats on you thesis! Happy birthday and yay for a new camera!! I hope you love Attachments and have a great April!

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  4. I don't understand how people can read books so fast. One in three days - sure. But ten consecutive books at that pace?

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    1. I guess I have a very consistent reading speed. According to my statistics last year, I read a little over 100 pages a day. I’m such a nerd that I keep track of that stuff.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. What did you think of White Dog Fell from the Sky? I read it in May 2014 and thought, at the time anyway, that it was the most powerful book I read that month.

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    1. I really liked it. I was looking for a good book set in Africa, and I was not disappointed with that one.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. Sounds like March was a great month! I totally would have ate the creepy eggs. I love deviled eggs...even creepy ones. Congrats on the essay! Happy birthday! You got a lot of books read. Have a great April!


    Carole @ Carole's Random Life

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    1. Lol, I love deviled eggs, too. Those ones just freaked me out a little.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. #pinterestfail #nailedit Those eggs do look slightly creepy. Congrats on finishing your critical thesis!

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  8. First, HUGE congratulations on your thesis! That is amazing, and such an accomplishment!! Second, happy belated birthday! Glad you had such a nice time! Also, I love deviled eggs and I would eat them even if they looked kind of weird ;) (Which, incidentally, I think you didn't do a bad job on! I have seen those on Pinterest, and yours look like them!) But the egg salad thing has me cracking up!

    And SO glad that you loved Illuminae! And don't scare a girl by putting "DNF" and "Unwind" into the same paragraph ;) I hope you LOVE it and are then immediately unsure of what it says about you as a human being that you loved it :D

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    1. Lol, don’t worry, I loved Unwind. I kinda knew I would. That book is my brand of gruesome.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. Congrats on your thesis being accepted! I have a friend working on hers now. Your topic sounds really interesting though, and I love those two books. haha

    I'm doing a giveaway right now for a signed/personalized copy of Illuminae if you're interested. I really loved it too. I can't WAIT for the sequel this fall. I'm glad it's only about a year in between the two.

    I've only read A Wrinkle in Time out of that series, but I really liked it!

    -lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks! It was the hardest essay I’ve ever written, and I’ve written A LOT of essays.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. Congratulations on the acceptance of your thesis! Sorry about the creepy eggs. Don't think i'd be able to eat those either!

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  11. I feel so geeky for wanting to read your thesis.

    I LOVE the Unwind series. Hope it's up your alley as well.

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    1. I love the series so far, but I’ve only read the first two books.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  12. Wow, sounds like March was quite the exciting month for you! I actually thought those eggs look kind of cute haha, though it would make eating them kind of weird. Congratulations on having your thesis approved - that's such a massive accomplishment, and happy belated birthday too!

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    1. Thanks! A lot of stuff happened in March. I’m kinda glad it’s over because I’m exhausted.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  13. Awesome month by the sounds of it! Congrats on completing your critical thesis and getting approved, well done!! Also a late happy b-day, hope you had a good one! I can't believe no one ate those eggs, they aren't all that creepy haha. Great lot of books you read as well. I can't wait to get started on Illuminae as it's definitely got the hype surrounding it!

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  14. Sounds like a fabulous month you've had! Congratulations on your thesis being approved - such a huge accomplishment and you should be really proud of yourself, girl! A late happy birthday to you too! Hope you had only the best of time!! Love all your March reads as well <3

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  15. Fantastic job with your thesis! Congratulations and I hope the next steps go well, whatever they may be.

    I read with interest your thoughts on A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door. Even though I loved them as a child, I can now see their flaws and have trouble reading them without discomfort....yet I'm still grateful for the gifts they gave me. I don't know of any other books quite like that. Well, hopefully this month (April) has been better for you in terms of meeting your reading goals.

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