Happy reading in March! This is my March 2019 page to write about what I’m reading. So far I’ve finished 11 books for the 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge. I’ve read a few other books too, as some don’t fit on the PopSugar list.
Rushing straightaway into March 2019 I will not lose my reading speed [I hope]. I’m making progress, so why stop now? So, how are you this month? Are you reading books that make you happy? Leave a comment if you want to talk about books.
At Goodreads: Books I’ve read so far in 2019
Right now I’m reading Kindred, by Olivia E. Butler, and I’m mesmerized. What a great concept for a novel, and how wonderfully it is written! A 26-year-old black woman living in Los Angeles in the 1970’s (when the book was written) is mysteriously transported through space and time to a slave plantation in antebellum Maryland, c.1815. Repeatedly. I’m really loving this novel.
Here’s a video interview with the author, Octavia E. Butler.
I have a few other books that are carry-overs from February. All is explained below.
On these monthly reading reports I’m leaving room at the bottom of the page for a “reading diary” of sorts – just a place to add notes about my reading progress as the month advances. I’m having fun doing this. I don’t know if anyone else reads this stuff, but I love having a record of my reading activities.
It has occurred to me that I’ve never seen anything quite like this on anyone else’s blog, and that’s okay. I like doing my own unique thing on my blog. I’ve had this blog for years – I think I started it around 2001 on a different platform. Back then in the earlier days of the Internet blogs were called “weblogs” meaning “web logs” and were intended as a place for techies (or whoever) to record their Internet activities and discoveries. I liked the concept then, and still do.
Anyhow, welcome to my March “living document” page where I’m leaving multiple notes about my reading activities during March 2019. When the month is over, the page will be finished.
My Word of the Month
Expansion (thinking of creative expansion)
My Haiku of the Month
Snow drifting today
Falling profusely toward earth
Promise of new life
Bible Verse of the Month
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever . . . ” (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Books I plan to read during March, 2019…
☆ – I own a copy of the book
★★ – I own a copy and am currently reading the book
✓ – Finished
PSRC = 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge
CONTINUED FROM FEBRUARY
★★ Nonfiction: Jesus the King, by Timothy Keller – PSRC #18. A book about someone with a superpower
✓ Art: The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity, by Nancy Hillis – PSRC #26. A book that’s published in 2019
✓ Recent Fiction: Kindred, by Octavia Butler
✓ Recent Fiction: Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple – [PSRC #16. A book with a question in the title] – As soon as I finish reading Kindred I’ll start this book. I’ve made a promise to myself – only ONE novel at a time. I can still have multiple nonfiction books in progress, but only one novel. I’m putting this book first after Kindred because it is the book chosen by the crowd over at the Ultimate PopSugar Reading Challenge group at Goodreads. They had a poll for a book with a question in the title, and this novel won. From the page at Amazon I glean that it is a humorous women’s novel about an agoraphobic housewife who disappears. How strange, both this book and the next one (Woman in the Window) feature agoraphobic women, and today I turned down an opportunity to attend a Ladies Tea, because of a snowstorm, but I have to admit my social phobias were being challenged as well. I usually still can fight those off long enough to socialize a little.
✓ Recent Fiction: The Woman in the Window, by A. J. Finn – [PSRC #1. A book becoming a movie in 2019] – I don’t know much about this book other than that it is popular right now, it features an agoraphobic woman who witnesses a crime through her window, and it is written by a man. I picked it off a list of books that are destined to become movies in 2019. According to the Amazon description it is a “Hitchcockian Thriller” and Stephen King referred to it as “Unputdownable.” I will probably read this early in the month after finishing Kindred and Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to it.
✓ Recent Fiction: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford – [PSRC #22. A book with a title that contains “salty,” “sweet,” “bitter,” or “spicy”] – Here’s another highly rated debut novel. This is about a man who apparently fell in love with a Japanese girl in Seattle right before she was put into an internment camp during World War II. From what I read at the Amazon page it seems the novel is contemporary with flashbacks to his friendship with the Japanese girl. He’s searching through the hotel’s secret stash of items taken from the Japanese families who had to leave Seattle. So, that’s all I know. I’ll know more once I read it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3esjkTiu8mI
✓ Nonfiction: Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann – [PSRC #33. A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title] – The prompt is to read a book with a zodiac sign or astrology term… and I’ve sworn off astrology ever since becoming a Christian. I decided to find a book with an astronomical name. Of course, that could have been the name of any of the constellations, but I found this one with the word, “moon,” and it is a recent, popular nonfiction about the murders of Osage Native Americans in Oklahoma after their tribe was blessed with great wealth due to the oil industry there. No words can express my outrage at whoever it was who harmed them. I guess reading the book will give me more perspective on this terrible, hidden episode in American history.
✓ YA: The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery – [PSRC #7. A reread of a favorite book] – I rarely reread books, so, looking at this prompt, I almost refused, and then thought, why not read something short, something I love, something worth reading twice? Then I knew I should reread The Little Prince. I’ve read it before, several times. It never fails to amaze. The following short documentary is about the life of the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I say it is worth watching.
★★ Art: The New Artist’s Manual, by Simon Jennings – I’m not reading this for the PopSugar Reading Challenge. I’m reading it because I want to read at least one art book monthly. I’ve had this book for a long time. My Amazon account shows that I bought it on March 1, 2010 – nine years ago! I’ve looked through the book, as a reference, many times, but I’ve never read it cover to cover. I plan to do that in March. Maybe I’ll learn something. The video is of me, showing a collection of my art books on my Booktube channel.
☆ Christian: Lord, Is It Warfare?, by Kay Arthur – I started reading this book way back around 2015, with my women’s Bible study group. Great book, but we never finished it. We were distracted. Twice. I’m doing something I call spiritual warfare studies because I’m interested in deliverance ministry – not that I’m planning to try doing exorcisms, but I’d like to know more about it because… well, there’s a problem in the world, and I’d like to help the suffering. Anyhow, I need to finish reading this book. The video is of me talking about spiritual warfare books I want to read.
☆ Bible: Continuing with the Gospels of Matthew and Mark – I’m reading these concurrently. I didn’t mean to do that but here’s what happened. I started reading the Gospel of Matthew. Then I started reading Jesus the King, a book I had planned for my February reading. Well, as it turns out, that book is a study on the Gospel of Mark, so I had to read Mark to get through the workbook for Jesus the King. Anyhow, I’m going so slowly on all three books, I’m still reading them to this day. I think I’ve finished chapter 20 of Matthew, and I’m up to chapter 4 of Mark. It is like that. At this rate, I’ll be done with Jesus the King in mid-July, or maybe sooner.
I look forward to all these books in March. Meanwhile, as I write, it is February 27 and I’m in a dead heat to finish God’s Chosen Fast ✓ and You Were Born For This ✓ (two Christian books) before the 1st. If I finish them, I’ll try to finish Kindred, but that’s unlikely… it is a thick book with small print. Great novel, though!
My March Reading Diary
March 1 – Well, I made it to March. You did too. When is Jesus coming back? Until then, I read . . . Today I read 40 pages in Kindred by Octavia Butler. I went to a meeting at the church in the evening… I’m home again now, and I filmed a February wrap-up video. Time to go edit it.
March 2 – I was at a meeting at the church this morning and this afternoon I did laundry and worked on my February wrap-up Booktube video. Not much reading is getting done. Oh well . . . before I sleep, I’ll read more of Kindred. I’m loving that book!
It is so cold out there …
My February wrap-up video:
March 5 – I just finished reading Kindred, which I started reading at the end of February… and today I reviewed it on Goodreads. Five stars, and I wish I could give it more. I’ve started reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I started with an audiobook version, but didn’t love it and nearly DNF’ed the book, but I decided to switch to a Kindle version and now I’m LOVING it. It is an epistolary novel so a printed copy is necessary. I love epistolary novels. I filmed and uploaded my March TBR video…
March 7 – I’m still reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette and still loving it. Also I’m reading The New Artist’s Manual, chapter one, about supports (canvases and other things to paint on). I did some math and discovered that to get through that book by the end of the month I’ll have to read 14 or 15 pages daily. It is a thick, intense art book. Thankfully, there are lots of illustrations. Well, back to the book!
March 8 – I finished reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette and wrote a review at Goodreads. I started the audiobook version of The Woman in the Window. I’m nearing the end of chapter one in The New Artist’s Manual. These pages are about supports (canvases, preparing canvases, sizing, paper choices, etc.) . . . I hope I can read the other chapters faster!!
March 10 – I finished reading The Woman in the Window at about 3:30 am… totally lost track of time. As Stephen King said, this book is “unputdownable.” Here’s my Goodreads review. Next – I’ll be reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and The Little Prince.
March 12 – I published my first episode of “Book Lady’s Random Book News” on YouTube:
March 13 – How about a reading update? I had to ditch my Kindle copy of The Little Prince because it was translated into English by a Russian woman whose primary language was not English, and that showed. It should have been edited by a native English speaker. I was three days too late to get a refund (it must be done within the first month after purchase) so I ended up feeling ripped off, and I spent time researching translations and finally ordered a hardcover version translated by Katherine Woods. It should be coming with my mail, today. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying my audiobook copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a nice story about an elderly Chinese man in Seattle who had a Japanese friend (they were still children, about age 10 at the time) during World War II. The book goes back and forth between the 1940’s and 1986, which for the purposes of the book, is “the present time.” I finished chapter three last night; currently reading chapter 4. There are 9 chapters and in the audio version, each one is just over an hour long. I’m also still reading the Gospel of Matthew – and am nearly to the end, in chapter 27 now. There are 28 chapters in that book. Also I started reading a new-to-me thirty day devotional, The Art of Listening Prayer.
March 14 – If you listen to audiobooks, do you have the problem of falling asleep while you’re reading them, and then they play for hours while you’re sleeping, and you completely lose your place? Well, that’s been happening to me with Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I should have remembered. Audiobooks are not good for bedtime books . . . though my new Kindle does have a timer on it, so the book will play only a certain number of minutes if you remember to set it to shut off. That’s cool. But I’ve decided to go ahead and start my nonfiction book, which is a Kindle book. It is Killers of the Flower Moon. It also is not great for a bedtime book because it is a true crime story about murders of the Osage Native Americans back in the 1920’s. Very disturbing, and sad. The author offers graphic details. So, I need a third book and have started reading The Little Prince.
March 18 – I have three more chapters to read in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and I’m making a lot of progress in Killers of the Flower Moon (fascinating history of Oklahoma crimes during the 1920’s).
March 19 – I finished Killers of the Flower Moon . . . it was unputdownable! my Goodreads review
March 21 – Here’s my Goodreads review of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. My next novel is the Pulitzer prize winning A Death in the Family, by James Agee.
March 22 – Oh my, what a surprise – that book, A Death in the Family, is morbid but very well written! It won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1958 when I was a mere 6 years old. I have an audiobook version from Audible.com – I sat here and listened to the first 11+1/2 chapters last night. Great narration! Then I needed to sleep and thought it was too morbid for bedtime reading, so I went back to chapter 6 in The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity, which is a leftover art book from last month, which I’m reading on Kindle. No hurry on that… but still it is an interesting book written by a psychiatrist who works with artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are no pictures – it is more psychological than examples (of art). I’m about half way through that book.
March 23 – I finished listening to my audiobook version of A Death in the Family. Here’s my Goodreads review. I gave it five stars.
March 27 – I’ve been sick! Seriously ill, and in bed without strength, energy or desire to read (!) for three days. Feeling better now but not 100% healthy. Really glad to be up and around again. Before I got sick I finished my fiction planned for the month except for The Little Prince. I have a hardcover copy here on my desk and I’m about to start chapter 10. I’ve also been reading a book I had planned for next month, on my Kindle: The Eagle Tree, by Ned Hayes. I’m 25% into that now.
March 29 – I’m going to stop reading The Eagle Tree until next month… I’m over 30% into it now. That will give me this last three days to finish up some of my unfinished February and March books. I finished reading The Gospel of Matthew this morning.
March 30 – Today I read the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. I’ve also been reading The Artist’s Journey.
March 31 – I’ve worked yesterday and today on my April 2019 page, and am ready for it to be published. Meanwhile, I have 2 books to finish this evening. [Later] I finished reading The Artist’s Journey … and am close to the end of The Little Prince.
Image credits: The castle/moon photo and the goth girl art came from Pixabay.com. I added quotes and the frame using Paint Shop Pro. The book covers come from Amazon.com. All the videos are from YouTube.
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