March 2017 Month in Review

Posted 3 April 2017 in month in review /17 Comments

March Month in Review banner

This post is linked up at the Monthly Round-Up Wrap-Up @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

March was a much more consistent month for me than February. Although I still ended up travelling for four days! I snagged some last minute work up north during spring break (when there’s no work for an EA). The most exciting bit of March is that piece of news I shared above 🙂 I will be attending the University of British Columbia in the fall. This means moving to Vancouver from the prairies. I am so excited about living out west, but less excited about finding a place to live (let alone an affordable one, hah…). Reading wise, I had better success than in February. I still haven’t quite caught up to my Goodreads goal. I didn’t read as much middle grade as I thought I might have, so I plan to remedy that during the 24 hour read-a-thon towards the end of April.

Books Finished

  • Minds of Winter by Ed O’Loughlin
  • Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • A Secret Vice by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Mad Richard by Leslye Krueger
  • Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist by Sunil Yapa
  • The Plants of Middle-Earth by Dinah Hazell

Books Reviewed

  • Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
  • Middle Grade feat. Some Personal Favourites (from the 2016 Cybils middle-grade fiction nominees):
    • Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand
    • Allie, First at Last by Angela Cervantes
    • Just Like Me by Nancy J. Cavanaugh
    • Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  • The Girl Who Beat ISIS by Farida Khalaf
  • Neverhome by Laird Hunt
  • The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
  • Minds of Winter by Ed O’Loughlin
  • Middle Grade feat. Historical Fiction (from the 2016 Cybils middle-grade fiction nominees):
    • Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
    • Ruby Lee and Me by Shannon Hitchcock
    • Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
    • Finding Fortune by Delia Ray
    • Aim by Joyce Meyer Hostetter
    • Some Kind of Courage by Dan Geimenhart
    • Nine, Ten by Nora Raleigh Bashkin
  • Tolkien in Translation edited by Thomas Honegger (guest post at Pages Unbound)

Words and Pictures

  • A Silent Voice Vol. 2 and Vol. 3  by Yoshitoki Ooima  – I ranked vol. 3 higher than vol. 2 on GoodReads because the main issue I was concerned about (Nishimiya not being depicted as having any agency) is starting to be addressed. I think the point of vol. 2 and 3 were to demonstrate how self-centered Shoya was being in his desire to make things right with Nishimiya. His actions and therefore the story was about him instead of her. Kind of a ‘manic pixie dream girl’ thing going on, though Shoya is clearly depicted as being in the wrong. Towards the end of vol. 3, Nishimiya starts taking visible action for herself, so I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing more of her character in the next volumes.  (Not sure about where the ‘cliffhanger’ is going, though…) The inclusion of more old classmates from grade six added new perspectives to the story. I was so glad when Shoya realized how awful one of his classmates still is.
  • Will I See? by David Alexander Robertson, GMB Chomichuk and Iskwe – I started writing about this graphic novel about missing and murdered Indigenous women, but I have now decided it deserves its own post.
  • Triangle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen – TriangleAnother excellent release from this duo. I had the pleasure of first encountering this book through a reading Klassen did. I would love to find more picture books with this kind of humour.
  • What Do You Say, Dear? by Seslye Joslin and Maurice Sendak – I read this book and the next when I checked out an exhibition of the Perry Nodelman Maurice Sendak collection at my alma mater (on until April 10 at the University of Winnipeg, if you’re in the area!). Originally published in the 1950s, this cute book introduces polite phrases in creative ways (ex. “What do you say when you bump into a crocodile on a crowded city street?”)
  • Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak – See above. This book inspired the film Labyrinth (which I was wondering about when I read it, haha – “Was this published before or after Labyrinth?”, I thought.)

outside over there

Features

Shared on Twitter

Upcoming in April

Borne by Jeff VandermeerSputnik's Childrengutenberg's fingerprintMusic of the Ghosts

  • 11 Apr – Publication of Sputnik’s Children by Terri Favro (woman writes a Cold War-era inspired comic book featuring a heroine based on herself in an alternate reality – I’m currently reading this and it’s actually pretty cool, more so than I can briefly sum up here), Gutenberg’s Fingerprint by Merilyn Simonds (memoir about the “past, present, and evolving future of the book”), and Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner (woman returns to Cambodia from America for the first time since fleeing as a child refugee)
  • 24 Apr – Elizabeth Goudge Reading Day hosted by Emerald City Book Review
  • 25 Apr – Publication of Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (How do you sum up a VanderMeeer novel? New weird scifi release from author of The Southern Reach trilogy)
  • 29 Apr – Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon

What new releases or bookish events are you looking forward to in April?

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17 responses to “March 2017 Month in Review”

  2. AJ Sterkel

    Congrats on the university acceptance! I’m looking forward to reading The Hate U Give. I’m on a waiting list for it, but the list is insane. Everybody wants to read that book. Happy April!

    Reply
  3. Aneta

    Congrats on the acceptance to UBC. I never visited the campus, but I went to Vancouver last summer and it was amazing. You are going to have so much fun.
    Congrats on a good reading month, hopefully next month is even better for you 🙂

    Reply
  5. Kate Scott

    I’ll be curious to read your thoughts on Music of the Ghosts. It’s on my extended TBR for spring–i.e. I probably won’t have time to read it but if I get lucky…

    Reply
  6. Cilla

    Congratulations on the university acceptance! That’s so exciting, and I hope the move goes well. 😀 It looks like you have an awesome reading month too! I don’t have any bookish events or new releases I’m looking forward to, though I’m hoping to finish reading The Illuminae after four months of slogging through it. Hope you have a wonderful April!

    Reply
  8. Danielle Hammelef

    I want to read The Hate You Give and Full of Beans. I’ve already had these on my list too long. I’ll add my congrats on your university acceptance! British Columbia has many awesome places including Vancouver.

    Reply
    • Jenna @ Falling Letters

      Those are both excellent reads! I think you’d blaze through them once you start 🙂 Thanks for the congrats ^^ I’m really looking forward to exploring the area, and being close to mountains again.

      Reply

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