Tag Archives: Monthly Wrap-Up

In February I read 6 books. Not a lot, but more than I expected since this has been an incredibly busy month. I have had my first “job” interview, and my first job interview failure, which has been a huge blow and very likely means I will not find a job next year (unless something else miraculously turns up, but with my interests and study-path, that does not seem very likely). I am trying to move on, but concentrating on reading has been a little hard. That is, it is hard to find a way to not drown myself in reading instead of doing the work I have left to do in graduate school.

Anyway, 6 books, 1348 pages, and once again all of them were written by women. I have yet to finish Mill’s essay. I am unsure if I will get to it soon. Instead, I might concentrate on the Feminist Classics selection for March instead, A Doll’s House, and finish Mill later this year.I do have some initial plans for March, I’d like to read more for my NYRB project, as well as one other Bloomsbury Group book, but I know that my plans never work out, so just imagine that I whispered that, instead of saying it out loud. Oh, and during this month, I will probably dream of all the Persephone’s I’d like to read in the future.

The books I read in February are:

1. Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë
2. The Brontës Went to Woolsworth – Rachel Ferguson
3. The Moorland Cottage – Elizabeth Gaskell
4. Janis Joplin – Rise Up Singing – Ann Angel
5. Murder at Mansfield Park – Lynn Shepherd
6. High Wages – Dorothy Whipple

What was not a great month personally, or well, professionally, was a great month for music. I got to see The National live (on a festival that also allowed me to see Efterklang with an orchestra and Owen Pallett). I am still as much in love with The National as I have been these past months. And 2 days later, I got to see Bright Eyes, for the third time. Not his best performance. Not the best crowd (where do all the 16-year-olds who only care about the “sexy” Conor Oberst suddenly come from? Never saw such a crazy teenage crowd at a concert. I’m getting old.) I also bought a pass that allows me to see whatever movie I want for 4 months, for 18 euros a month, last week. Since then, I have seen The King’s Speech and Black Swan. I am not big on thrillers or action movies, but I am still very excited about being able to go see any movie without paying (or well, not paying extra). Just imagine, I could go see the new Jane Eyre 15 times and no one could complain.. *dreams*

Anyway, I hope March will be more bookish for me. And for you too.

I have been away from the book blogging community for a while. These temporary absences might happen more often now that I am in my final year of graduate school and trying really hard to get everything organised so that I will be able to graduate this year. This means that during the last 10 days or so, I haven’t checked any blogs and that I will once again hit the “mark all read” button in my Google Reader.

Anyway, here is what I read in January. I will review most of these books in the upcoming week. Oh, and Amy was kind enough to email me her spreadsheet, so I now have statistics to show you as well. Even if I am not as precise as Amy is.

I read 8 books during January (9, if you count A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Which I did not count because it is published together with A Vindication of the Rights of Men and some of Wollstonecraft’s  thoughts on the French Revolution. I am kind of sorry that I do not get to count the book, but it feels like cheating if I do). The books made up a total of 2040 pages. Other fun facts? All books were written by women, a lot of them were about issues tied to feminism. I read my first GLBT book.

The books I read:

• The Memoirs of Emma Courtney – Mary Hays
• The Last Letter From Your Lover – Jojo Moyes
• The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
• Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
• Anna of Byzantium – Tracy Barrett
• So Long A Letter – Mariama Bâ
• Reading Women: how the great books of feminism changed my life – Stephanie Staal
• Luna – Julie Anne Peters

I have no goals for February, except keeping up with the reading (and all the reviews this time) for A Year of Feminist Classics. And hopefully catching up on all those reviews I still have to write.

Um, and maybe buy a little less. Except that I already failed miserably. I came across a book sale yesterday. The books were so cheap that I bought 24. And tonight, the annual 3-day book sale of the biggest book shop in Groningen starts. Ah, guess I have to procrastinate on restricting my book buying until March.

Despite being very busy with coursework for university, July was a great reading month for me. Twelve books might not be a lot to most bloggers, but for me it is one of the highest number of books I’ve read in a month this year. Of course, 4 of the books I read were Young Adult, which always means I read them a little faster than an average fiction book for adults, but I also did a fair number of “heavier” works like Dante and Swift. I still need to write review for a few of these books and I hope to catch up somewhere in the upcoming weeks.

1. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
2. Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater
3. The Inferno – Dante
4. Marked – P.C. and Kristin Cast
5. Betrayed – P.C. and Kristin Cast
6. Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild
7. Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
8. Wicked Lovely – Melissa Marr
9. Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
10. A Personal Matter – Kenzaburo Oe
11. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
12. Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín

As for August, I cannot say I have much reading planned.  I’m trying to enjoy my spare time, having finally finished my last essays for this school year. I do need to visit the archives for a few days, but at least I do not have the pressure of essay writing anymore. I won’t be able to go on holiday anywhere since I’m bound to my house because of driving lessons all summer. However, I do feel a need to take a break which is why I’m not joining in on any planned reading this month. I might join Allie’s read along of The Tempest, but what I’d really like to do this month is focus on my TBR pile, picking up any book that catches my eye. This probably means a lot of contemporary fiction, since I don’t feel like committing to a classic right now. But who knows, maybe I’ll feel differently by the end of the month?