Sunday, May 1, 2016

April Wrap-Up

I am linking up to both the Sunday Post @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer and the Sunday Post @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

This month was a good one. My husband and I went to Florence for a quick weekend. Florence is one of my favorite cities in Italy! It was a good weekend. We took a cooking class and learned how to make homemade pasta and homemade sauce, pizza, gelato and bruschette. It was such a delicious class. We have already made the pasta sauce twice and we will NEVER buy store bought again. Holy crap, that stuff is amazing

When we returned from Florence, our Internet went down for SIX DAYS. Ahhh, I was DYING. But remember last month when I was talking about feeling lazy and unproductive with my blog? I was also feeling a lot of writer's blog. The forced Internet hiatus was kind of great. I couldn't post or respond to comments or read other blogs. On one hand, I felt a little guilty. On the other hand, I had a lot of time to read and watch some television shows that I love. When the Internet came back up, I was feeling refreshed and ready to blog! So yeah, I'm back. 

Next month is going to be a good one too. My birthday is on May 3! As this post goes up, my husband and I are enjoying a long weekend in Amsterdam to celebrate.

Okay, I don't usually mention search terms that led to my blog, mainly because they are rarely very interesting. But I had a couple of interesting ones this month that I wanted to share:

books that make anyone cry - YES! Aren't books that make you cry the absolute BEST?? I did a great Top Ten Tuesday post on best book that will break your heart and leave you sobbing.

i want to read a good insta love book - ummm, WHY?!? I get reading a book that has insta love and you may end up liking it anyway. But why do you want to search for it??

the sister pact sex part on book - I don't even know what to say about this one. Yeah, I reviewed The Sister Pact, but I don't remember the sex scene strongly enough to want to search it out. Weird.

I read 23 books this month.
Favorite book of the month:

There is just no question: the entire Harry Potter series. I know I am late to the game, but I just now read it for the FIRST TIME. I totally get why people reread this series so much. It was amazing. I had a huge book hangover afterwards. I didn't read as many books after that series because my head was just not in the game.
Most disappointing book of the month:
 

Reviews Posted:

Arena by Holly Jennings
Tragedy Girl by Christine Hurley Deriso
Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from my Italian mother-in-law by Katherine Wilson
Klickitat by Peter Rock
The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander
A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry
Anything You Want by Geoff Herbach
Whisper To Me by Nick Lake
Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

Top Ten Tuesday Posts:

Favorite Books on Mental Illness
Favorite Books That Make Me Happy

Other posts:

Discussion: Blogging for free stuff
Discussion: Reading Secrets
Beyond the Books #3 - The one where I eat all the bacon
Beyond the Books #4 - The one where I eat tons of peanut butter by myself
Discussion: It's not you, it's me: a letter to all the books I have DNF'd in the past week

How was your month? What was your favorite book that you read this month?

18 comments :

  1. First of all, happy birthday, Cynthia!!! I hope you're enjoying Amsterdam, and that you and your hub will spend a wonderful weekend there. Wow, you sure read a lot in April! Bravo :)

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    1. Thanks so much Ramona! Amsterdam was amazing. It was a great birthday. :)

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  2. Harry Potter definitely fits into the better late than never category. I'm glad you enjoyed them so much!
    Have a great week and Happy Birthday!!!

    Stacy Renee @ Lazy Day Literature

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    1. Thanks Stacy! I can't believe it took this long to fall in love with Harry Potter but I am so glad I did. Better late than never is right. :)

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  3. Yay for Florence and hope you are having fun in Amsterdam.May I suggest a post where you tell us how to make that sauce :) Lots of great books this month!! Have a great May!

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  4. Happy birthday! And what fun to go to Amsterdam...I've only been in my dreams. Or vicariously through books and movies.

    You read a lot of books! Congrats. Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

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    1. Thanks so much Laurel! Amsterdam is a very beautiful city. :)

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  5. You did awesome! I hope to read a couple of those books myself. Happy May!

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  6. Happy, happy (almost) birthday, Cynthia!! Glad you got to enjoy your internet free week - sometimes a break (even a forced one) is great!!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. Thanks so much Nicole! You are right about breaks being awesome. Mine was just what I needed.

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  7. Sounds liek you had an incredible monthof April and another one for this month of May! I would like to say a late happy belated birthday, I hope you had a great one and enjoyed your trip! 23 books for April is amazing and I'm glad you enjoyed the Harry Potter series, I haven't come across someone who hasn't so far.

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    1. Thanks so much Deb! I am just sorry that it took me so long to read Harry Potter. That is now on my list of ultimate favorites for sure.

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  8. What an amazing month you had! Very late but better late than never - Happy birthday!! I'm so jealour you got to go to Florence, Italy for the weekend ahhh so cool! And you learnt how to make your own pasta sauce!! I've been stuck with the having the crappy store bought ones forever since I can't make a pasta sauce for the life of me but I will learn one day. Also if you're late to the party on reading the Harry Potter series, then I'm the last one to arrive. Even after praise from every corner I sill haven't gotten around to reading the series (I think the length and amount of novels keeps putting me off!)

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    1. Thanks so much Alecia! I appreciate the belated birthday wishes. :) I was always a bit too intimidated to make homemade sauce too. But it's surprisingly easy. The hardest part was just letting it simmer for a few hours. I say hard because the smells were driving me crazy all afternoon! Ha. I think the amount of novels in Harry Potter put me off too. Then I told myself I would just read the first one and then read something else, so I could break it up that way, you know? But yeah, I couldn't do it. The second I finished the first one, I was DYING to read the next one.

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