Thursday, May 4, 2017

April Wrap-Up



April Overview


1. If I die at my desk, please put pants on my corpse before the coroner arrives. Thanks. Can blogging kill you? I spent all of April trying to find out. I did the Blogging From A To Z Challenge and blogged every day. I don’t know how daily bloggers do it. The challenge involved a lot of late nights, early mornings, half-cooked ideas, and minor existential crises. It was worth it, though. No regrets. I’m already thinking of themes for next year’s challenge. If you’re one of the people who read every post I wrote, you deserve chocolate and a session with a good therapist. Thank you! We survived, and I have the badge to prove it. There will (hopefully) be a challenge reflections post on May 8.








2. It’s not marijuana, I swear. If you live in Colorado, and you have grow lights in your basement, there’s a chance you’re up to something naughty. I swear I’m not. The grow lights in my basement are completely innocent. I’m growing sunflowers. They’re supposed to get 12 feet tall, so they can’t live in the basement forever. They’ll go in the garden as soon as the snow melts.






3. Sometimes you’re the bird; sometimes you’re the window. April started off with a literal bang. A huge bird crashed into my house during a windstorm. It sounded like a bomb going off. I thought the bird was dead, but it wasn’t! It just chilled on the deck for a while and then flew away. Bird: 1, Window: 0.

Does anyone know what kind of bird it is?






4. Foods that left me confused and disappointed. I ate a Twinkie! I’ve never had one before because they always looked so unappetizing. Turns out, they look unappetizing because they are unappetizing. I’m still tempted to try a deep-fried Twinkie. Everything tastes better fried, right?

I also tried gravy-flavored potato chips. They did taste like gravy, but I’m not sure why they exist. Is there a market for crunchy, portable gravy? Are all the cool kids eating their gravy crunchy now? What’s wrong with potato-flavored potato chips? I am so confused.








5. Advice from me (in Tweet form):











6. Thundersnow? I experienced thundersnow for the first time ever in April. What is thundersnow? It’s thunder during a blizzard. Why should you care? Because it’s a rare weather phenomenon. I was more impressed with the weather than I was with Twinkies.








7. Twitter tomfoolery and half-followed directions. April 29 was Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-thon. This was my first time participating. I read 3 books in 24 hours and had too much fun with the mini challenges. I didn’t win any of the challenges because I’m terrible at following directions, but I enjoyed failing at them.



























Books I Read


I read 12 books in April.



Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Neuvel
The Optician of Lampedusa – Emma-Jane Kirby
The Hero with A Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (Reread)
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm – Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm
Smoke – Dan Vyleta
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War – Steve Sheinkin
Underground Airlines – Ben H. Winters
Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow – Ted Hughes
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories – Lucia Berlin
Native Guard: Poems – Natasha Trethewey (Reread)
Rhyolite: The Boom Years – Alan H. Patera






Best Books Of April




1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (Reread)
2. Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War – Steve Sheinkin
3. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm – Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm






Most-Viewed April Posts










All The Things!


All The Things! (AKA number of unread books on my TBR shelf) = 33 books.

I’m currently reading The Library At Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson.





What did you do in April?











28 comments:

  1. I LOVED your blogging A to Z. They were such fun posts!! Twinkies are gross. Deep frying them would help. The snow pics make me glad I have sunshine though thundersnow sounds bad ass. Great job on the readathon!!

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    1. Thanks! I’m totally going to eat a deep fried Twinkie. #YOLO

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  2. Thanks for linking up with Best of the Bunch! Please make sure you include a link back to the linkup in your post. Thanks!

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  3. I read them all. Commenting - not so much. You did better than me though.

    So who's the neighbor? A single, good-looking bibliophile? Should I be encouraging you to introduce yourself?

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    1. Haha! The neighbors are a huge Russian family. I think only the little kids speak English. There are a lot of people living in that house, so the odds are good that one of them is a single, good-looking bibliophile.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I enjoyed your A-Z posts...they were fun! If I remember I might join in with the challenge next year or maybe do my own thing this summer. The bird kind of looks like the sparrowhawks we get in our garden-I don't know if you get them where you live. I'm not an expert though! I actually love Twinkies! I was munching them last night as I watched the early results coming in for the local elections. April was a decent month for reading and a great one for blogging so I have high hopes for May!

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    1. Thanks! I’m glad you had a good April. I hope May goes well for you!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. I know! People on social media need to calm down and be reasonable.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. Haha! My husband also tried a twinkie for the first time not too long ago and was very unimpressed. I think nostalgia makes them better than they are, to be honest. I'm so in awe of you for completing the A-Z challenge! I probably wouldn't ever attempt it because I'm 100% certain I'd fail miserably. The Lottery is one of my favorites from college! I love that story SO MUCH! Have a great May! :D

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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    1. I love The Lottery, too. It’s one of my favorite short stories ever. Since I love it so much, I thought I should read the rest of Shirley Jackson’s work. I’m slowly working my way through all her stuff.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. I didn't read all your post, but most of them, so maybe I can avoid the therapist. I am curious about your interest in Rhyolite--I haven't read that book but have read a lot of books about Nevada, and Nevada mining camps (and even written a dissertation about it)

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    1. I just really like ghost towns and abandoned buildings. I’m not sure why. I guess because they’re beautifully creepy. I picked up that book from the gift shop when I was hiking in Death Valley. I went to Rhyolite and wanted to know more about the buildings I crawled through.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. I loved your A-Z challenge. Maybe I will try again next year. Maybe pigs will fly. Who knows? I think if I didn't do the Slice of Life Challenge in March, it would be possible. But I really like the SOL community of teacher-writers.

    This site http://www.pbase.com/rhopper/hawks leads me to believe it may have been a ferruginous or Harris's hawk that survived your door.

    And regarding your awesome tweets, I once had a student look out the classroom window at a group of fifth year seniors taking a smoke break and say "Like my grandpa always says, you can't fix stupid. But you can stun it with a 2 x 4."

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    1. Lol, that kid is my hero. I think the bird might be a ferruginous hawk. I know we have those around here. They eat the prairie dogs.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. I really enjoyed your Blogging from A to Z posts in April. You did a lot of blogging and still read 12 books - that is awesome! You can send all of your twinkies my way. I think that look good and taste good (and I haven't had one in like forever!). I hope you have a wonderful May!

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    1. I’d totally send you my Twinkies, but my sister ate them all. :) Happy May!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. Living in England we don't thankfully have twinkles though I did experience them living in the states and, like you, never again. A-Z and the readathon sound like fun challenges. I am tempted by the readathon if only to do once. April for me thankfully brought no snow and more sun than expected. Plus lots of crime fiction (though you could say that every month).

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  11. Glad you got through the A to Z blogging challenge! I personally can't blog everyday since I'm busy most of the time, but glad you got through the challenge! Lots of great books you've read! I really need to reread the Harry Potter series soon!

    Here’s my April Monthly Wrap Up!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog

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  12. I need to go back and read all of your A to Z posts because I know I missed most of them, and I also know I'm totally missing out!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  13. Visiting from Coach Daddy. Based upon "pizza for breakfast" and your wise advice on Twitter I can see you are my kind of gal. I'm so glad that Eli introduced me to you!

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  14. Hi AJ - I've come over from Coach Daddy Eli's blog ... and will clock-in in future .. glad you got through the snow storm, that the bird recovered - some form of hunter ... what I've no idea (sadly). Congratulations on so many books to read ... Buddy knows what's best ... cheers and see you around - Hilary

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  15. Awwww., that bird! It's so sweet. Great wrap up!
    Megan @ http://wanderingsofabookbird.blogspot.co.uk/

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  16. Sounds like you had a lot of great experiencces in April. I would love to experience thundersnow! Glad to hear you had a good time during the readathon; it's one of my favourite reading/blogging events of the year :)

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  17. Go you for completing the A To Z challenge!! I can't even blog once a week, I have lots of admiration for you for posting every day. I've read a couple of your posts which I enjoyed, and I intend on going back and reading more of them. Have a great May!

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  18. I'm not a fan Twinkies so even though ALMOST everything tastes better fried I think Twinkies would be the exception LOL!

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  19. Twinkies have always been gross to me. I joke about them having an eternal shelf-life. We have thundersnow at least once a year here and it's really weird, but also fascinating. I think the bird is a falcon of some sort, at least a bird of prey. Glad it didn't die and that your window didn't break either. I find your sense of humor excellent!

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  20. Yessssss, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is one of my favorites in the series! Glad you enjoyed!

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