Monthly Reading Wrap Up -- March 2019

I'm going to forgo the 'It's Monday!' weekly meme this week again in favor of my regularly scheduled Monthly Wrap Up--there's no reason to repeat myself so many times. And also, I've been too sick to really care about posting anything extra. Here's hoping that I kick this cold to the curb before the weekend... otherwise, it's going to be a long one, and I don't imagine any one of my coworkers are keen on covering my two twelve-hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday.

I had thought the little sniffles from the weekend were worked out of my system, but apparently they were just a teaser to the storm to come. The truth is, I should have called in sick yesterday, but I didn't think I was feeling all that bad. But then the nose started dripping like crazy, the sneezes came one after another, and then the coughing started up; and now my upper lip and nose are red and raw, my throat is sore, and the coughing hasn't stopped.

At least the dripping nose has gotten a hold of itself, though, the stuffiness remains.

Before I left work yesterday, my boss told me that I better just stay home today because she didn't want me getting everyone else sick. I think I agree with her, though calling in sick is something I've ever only done once in my life, having grown up with parents who think that there's no reason to call in sick unless you can't walk. Even last evening my dad muttered something about, "just take some medicine and you'll be fine to work tomorrow morning." I ignored that. As my younger brother had to school me a couple years ago when I ended up with bronchitis due to lack of proper rest from being this sick with a cold: Calling in sick isn't just for you and your own health, it's also for the health of the people you work with. They may mutter about being short staffed for a day, but at least they'll thank you for not passing on whatever you have to everyone else.

Anyway... Moving along...

I managed to just slide in the last of my Reading Assignment books to reach the monthly goal, mere hours before midnight rolled around on the 31st of March. I'm quite happy about that, although that also meant I had to set aside Furry Logic in favor of finishing up the other books. This is fine by me since nonfiction books tend to take me more time to finish than other books anyway--I'm a little behind, but I plan on putting more focus on the Flat Book Society read in the next two weeks and try to have it finished before the next buddy read (Indigo by Beverly Jenkins) starts on April 15.

Meanwhile... I just had two books on my e-book library wait list ping me for availability... two books I'd been waiting to get my hands on since they were announced, so I will definitely be jumping on those two books as soon as I can.

March was a slower reading month than I would have liked, especially after having been so excited about getting a lot of specific books read, but overall, I ended up with at least one book I really loved, and a bunch of books that were quite enjoyable, in general. I've even started myself a few new series I'm interested in continuing as well as new-to-me authors I'm keeping on my radar. And this is what reading games are great for: finding new authors, series, and books that weren't originally on the top of that TBR to begin with, but ended up being moved up for reasons.

March Reads

Books Dropped/Put On Hold

None this month! Yay!

Currently Reading

March Reading Stats

Total works read: 9

8 print/e-book novels
1 audio books

Average rating: 3.33 Stars

Highest Rated: 2 books // 4.0 Stars
- (1) Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
- (2) Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz
Lowest Rated: 5 books // 3.0 Stars
- (1) Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart
- (2) Slightly Shady by Amanda Quick
- (3) The Dragon and the Pearl by Jeannie Lin
- (4) A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray
- (5) Don't Look Back by Amanda Quick

Series I started reading:

Finishing School by Gail Carriger
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Lake & March by Amanda Quick
Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson
Emmeline Truelove by Juliana Gray

Series I completed:

Cutter, Sutler & Salinas by Jayne Ann Krentz

Series I have made progress on:

Tang Dynasty by Jeannie Lin

Favorite reads: I'd say that my favorite read this month is a tie between Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz, or Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger. Normally, Jayne Ann Krentz is a tried and true author anyway, but I still find JAK's contemporary work much more satisfying than her historical work as Amanda Quick. And I hadn't really known what to expect with Gail Carriger's young adult steampunk novel, so found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Disappointing reads: The truth is, my average rating for the month of March never strayed below 3.0 stars, so there wasn't a book I read this month that I found too disappointing. Maybe I had hoped that I'd like The Dragon and the Pearl a bit more considering how much I've loved previous books I've read by Jeannie Lin, but it was still a rather enjoyable read.

Reviews & Notable Posts

Reviews Written

Memes

Coming Up In April

Tentative TBR

Other Stuff

I'm still working my way up the Snakes and Ladders board, and recently hit my second snake, so we're about two rows back down from where I HAD been after reading the most recent book for the game. So there will be more update posts as I continue to move back up, and hopefully will find my way to the top soon.

I don't know what the rest of my blogging plans will be for April, as it's going to be a rather busy month for me in my non-bookish life, but I DO have a couple reviews pending, and also will hopefully have the Lake & March series review out sometime mid-April when I finish the last book in the series. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to finish The Scarlet Pimpernel pretty soon, since it's not an overly long book, so there will be a review for that, as well as for A Dangerous Collaboration and Wild Country--reviews not quite scheduled, but they'll happen.

I've got one review ready to be posted for A Most Extraordinary Pursuit, after I give it another read though. But since I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I think one post today will be it for me. Then it's back to bed, and maybe read for a bit, pending my mood before sleeping the rest of the day away.