Every three months I give a quick update on my life and work from the previous season. Enjoy the Seasonal Rewind!

Through the Lens

January through March was full of illness, life-changing decisions, and just trying to get through each day. I celebrated my birthday and the appearance of final editions of Don’t Date Rosa Santos, pushed through sinus infections and a bum knee, and decided to take control of my health by attending Orange Theory (and getting my butt kicked) and kickstarting running every Saturday morning plus doing an ab workout (with Lindsey!) every day.

Life Highlights

Well, everything from my If We Were Having Coffee post, if you’d like to click through and see. I also had an auction for my client Chloe Gong and you can add her book on Goodreads! Oh, and I tried on my wedding dress! It fit like a glove, so all we’ll need to do in alterations is raise the hemline a couple inches so I don’t trip over it. And last week I finally saw Mumford & Sons live! For years I’d joke that I’d marry the man who took me to a Mumford concert––and look, I’m marrying him! Haha. And, gosh, one more wedding thing, we have registries now. My mother was clearly so excited about it that she already purchased something on it. I had to tell her to stop because we didn’t have the right quantities or colors yet (scanned lots of things to look at again in a week or so). Apparently she had to then tell the rest of the family OOPS it’s not really ready yet! Oh, mothers.

Bookmarked in the Community

Since I’m spending more time on IG than I am on blog posts, I’m going to include some discussion topics I really liked while scrolling through the feed.

1. “Addicted to Audiobooks” @ So Obsessed With — Hannah offers great recommendations for books on audio. Audio is seeing a resurgence in popularity in recent years, and loads of books are available for you to listen to while working, cleaning, driving…
2. “What a Reading Year So Far” @ Bookmark Lit — Lauren shares some of her favorite books so far this year, plus the ways she thinks her reading habits have changed in order to read more books she’s drawn to.
3. How do you cure a book hangover? @greadsbooks — Sometimes you read a different genre, sometimes you don’t read a book for a week or so, sometimes you watch TV…Ginger has a great discussion on all the ways we get over book hangovers.
4. What was the last book you re-read that felt new to you? @soobsessedblog — Hannah spent the entire month of February re-reading old favorites. Some of them were books she hadn’t touched since the first time she read them!
5. Which big books intimidate you but you want to read? @idlewildreads — There’s something about door-stopping fiction that gives many readers pause. Why? And which books do that for you? Have you read them, and if so, what did you think?
6. Reading goals, big books, and motivations, @justagirlwithabook— Jessica brings up an excellent topic that I feel deeply, especially when I made my own reading goals for this year: reading for a goal number and reading for pleasure (which tends to be a lot of big books not meant for racing).
7. What are some of the things you’ve realized about your reading habits or preferences since joining bookstagram? @eviebookish — Change “bookstagram” to really any social media platform and you’re in for a great discussion! For me, I think the biggest change of all is that I purchased books I intended to read the second I came home from the store. Now I have whole bookcases dedicated to books I was excited about but haven’t gotten to yet.

Popular Posts on Scribbles

1. Deal Announcement: Chloe Gong, YA Fantasy — How could this not be popular? You’re in for a treat, friends.
2. If We Were Having Coffee — This is likely because I hadn’t posted in a while, but I wanted to be real with readers.
3. Over on IG, Are you reading for quality or quantity?, inspired by this article which really resonated with me.
4. Also over on IG, You are more than your number, inspired by all the discussions and stories lamenting over follower count, popularity, and how toxic social media can sometimes be.

Cherished Reads

She dropped the stone into a pan. “Stop turning into a statue, and you won’t have to deal with this.” She briefly paused to glare at him. “This is the third time I’ve had to treat you . . . people are not meant to shift into rocks!”

He looked a little ashamed. “It’s very peaceful.”

––The Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty ★★★★★

“Where did you get all these from? Mr. Blezard in Padiham?”

“Women I know,” she said.

“Wise women?”

“Most women are wise.”

––The Familiars by Stacey Halls ★★★★

“It is very nice how many books there are, indeed; and on so many subjects.”

––His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik ★★★★ (coming soon!)

Reading Goals

In order to keep track of my 2019 resolutions, I’m keeping an updated roundup here each season of my progress.

Required Reading: 4/15

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close || A Gentleman in Moscow
An American Marriage || Is It All In Your Head?

Library Books (For Fun): 3/10

The Light Over London || When You Read This || The Familiars

Marillier & Gabaldon: 0/2

TBR Pile: 2/10

The Kingdom of Copper || A Curious Beginning

Genre Fiction: 6

MYSTERY || A Curious Beginning
HISTORICAL || The Light Over London, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Familiars
FANTASY || The Kingdom of Copper, His Majesty’s Dragon

Overall Challenge: 12/45

On the Radar . . .

Netflix / TV / Film: It’s been a long season of loads of Netflix and Redbox: Planet Earth II, Christopher Robin, Tidying Up, Grace & Frankie, One Day at a Time, Bohemian Rhapsody, Queer Eye season 3…And two rounds of binge-watching The Office. My favorite was Grace & Frankie though, and I’m looking forward to the next season already!

Shopping Bag: In an effort to stick to my word, I’ve become a Fabletics member and now am the proud and excited owner of some excellent workout clothing! Throwing down the money for some proper clothing really is my own motivator. I wouldn’t want to let them go to waste!

Miscellaneous: Marie Kondo’s Kon Mari method impacted my household, too. Our closets are leaner, our drawers folded nicely, the books examined and evaluated (I donated ~150 books from my TBR cases!), and once it properly warms up for spring we’re going to air out the apartment and really deep clean and extreme tidy the closets and remaining storage spaces.

Looking Ahead . . .

April through June is going to be packed. I think I’m subconsciously trying to preemptively make up for the rest-of-life-slow-down August through October in favor of all things wedding, which meant saying yes to lots of things in the spring. April, May, and June I’m traveling to writing conferences, April and May I’m participating in WisRWA, I’m working extra weekends at the library, and then there’s all the meetings pertaining to the wedding planning happening as well. Let’s hope I survive all of this…

~

What have you been up to this season / this month? Any new obsessions or good reads or great music? Share some of your favorites here, and let me know if I should check out any great blog posts!