The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2021 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April

Posted April 1, 2021 by Lisa Mandina in End of the month post, giveaway / 29 Comments

The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2021 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April

So right after the shortest month of the year we have one of the longest ones. And while at times it felt really, really long, it also went by really fast. I had my spring break, where nothing happened and I didn’t go anywhere. All teachers in our district came back to work in the building right after spring break. And the students, those who chose to come back in person, came back on the last day of the month.

However, I did have something really exciting happen, and if you read my weekly wrap-up posts, you’ll see that I got a new library job for next school year! It’s not that I don’t like where I am now, but I live in the state next to where I work, and so I have to pay two states’ taxes. Plus the new school district pays better. If they gave me all of my 25 years of experience, it would pay a lot better, but I found out I can only bring over 15 of those years. So it’s still better, just not quite as much as I was really hoping. The crazy thing is that even though my new school is in the same state where I live, it is actually about 10 miles farther away from my house than my current school. But my hours look to be a little shorter, so that is nice. I will not have a co-librarian anymore, but will have an aide, so I will have to learn how to manage someone who is working for me. In a way I’m happy that it will be more like “my” library, like I was used to having “my” classroom. But I’m not sure how I’ll do with being in charge of someone.

Last month I talked about my dog Argyle having surgery. This month my other dog, Dora, had to have some teeth pulled because they were just rotten and infected. Poor little girl hardly has any teeth left on the top of her mouth. But she is doing well!

Oh yeah! This past week I won a prize from the WB. It was the contest for the Zack Snyder’s Justice League show I guess. The top prizes, the reason I entered, were either like $5000 or maybe a big new tv. I didn’t win either of those. I won something off the very bottom of the prize list I guess, it was a free week trial of HBO Max. Supposedly a $3.50 value. Oh well. I used it to finally watch a movie I hadn’t found anywhere else for free yet, Ma with Octavia Spencer, and got started on the series Westworld. The series with Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish started too, Men in Kilts, and I’ve been enjoying that and dreaming about when I can go visit my sister in Scotland finally! I also subscribed to Paramount Plus for a week trial to watch the new version of The Stand, and ended up not finishing it in a week, so I’m subscribed to that now for the month as well.

My reading was a little more than last month, again probably because of having more days to the month. I tried to read a book a day during spring break, and I didn’t quite make it. I should have finished 20 books this month, possibly 21 if I finish the ebook I thought sounded funny and downloaded this last week of March.

March Reviews:

As always some of the reviews were probably books I read last month or earlier based on when I was scheduled for a blog tour.

Challenges:

You can see my sign up post for this challenge HERE. And here is the image with all the books I thought would be read.

I didn’t get any more done from my list that I wanted to get done. But I did finish Day Zero, so I can say at least I got one more towards my overall goal.

I think I did a pretty good job this month with commenting on other blogs.

So, I didn’t mention this so far this year, but I think it is something I want to keep track of. Last year I was doing the posts about Cleaning Up My TBR. I quit doing the posts by the end of the year, and was just going through Goodreads and clearing out books. Since I haven’t mentioned it so far this year, let’s just say that at the beginning of January, the number on my Goodreads TBR was 2,477 books. As of today, I am at 2,237 books. So I’ve crossed out over 200 books, and that’s even with adding books as I find more I want to read.

What to expect in April:

So April is Camp NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stand for National Novel Writing Month if you’re not familiar with it. That is November and the goal is to write 50,000 words. But in April they’ve started doing Camp NaNoWriMo, where you can set whatever goal you want. However many words you want or if you want to work on editing, whatever! My goal is to write 20,000 words and hopefully finish one of the stories I started other years in November that need to be finished! I’d love to get one of my other stories done and self-publish it by the end of this year.

Here is my proposed April TBR based on blog tours and ARCs that I have:

  1. The Cost of Knowing You by Brittney Morris for a review on April 5th
  2. The Sin of Kissing You by Maya Hughes for a review on April 6th
  3. Uncork My Love by Rich Amooi for a blog tour review on April 8th
  4. Crave Thy Neighbor by Teagan Hunter for a blog tour review on April 8th
  5. Damsel by Elana K. Arnold – an ARC that I’m hoping to read as part of my Tackle My TBR challenge and review on April 10th?
  6. Replay by Amy Daws for a review either on April 7th or 11th
  7. The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky for a blog tour review on April 12th
  8. The Freshman by Monica Murphy maybe for a review on April 14th
  9. Falling Out of Hate With You by Lauren Rowe for a blog tour review on April 15th
  10. Earn Your Extra Credit by Meghan Quinn for a blog tour review on April 16th
  11. Must Love Wieners by Casey Griffin – hoping to read for my Tackle My TBR challenge, I started this back in October, but didn’t get far. Hoping to read and review on April 17th
  12. Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal for an author request review on April 19th
  13. Quit Bein’ Ugly by Lani Lynn Vale for a blog tour review on April 20th
  14. Falling Into Love with You by Lauren Rowe for a blog tour review on April 22nd
  15. Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein – an ARC that I got and I hope to read and do a review for on April 25th
  16. Wild Dreams by Mari Carr for a blog tour review on April 28th
  17. The Screw Ball by Samantha Lind for a blog tour review on April 29th
  18. The Introvert’s Guide to Online Dating by Emma Hart for an author request review on April 30th
  19. Foes and Cons by Carrie Aarons for a blog tour review on April 30th.
  20. Stripped by Tarrah Anders – the audiobook I’m listening to right now
  21. Random Acts of Trust by Julia Kent – the other audiobook I started in March and need to finish.

Whew! I have a feeling a few of those for my challenge might not get read.

Reviews that are overdue and should be possibly posted in April:

  1. Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish – audiobook – it was due last month too!
  2. Love, Lacey Donovan by Jill Brashear – audiobook that is supposed to be part of a blog tour review first week in April
  3. Random Acts of Crazy by Julia Kent – audiobook
  4. Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst – just finished Tuesday, plan to post the review next Monday I think.
  5. Day Zero by Kresley Cole

Bookstagram:

I want to win the special edition Peeps flavored Pepsi so bad! Since I can’t buy it, had to at least try one photo to win.

Still rolling right along with the weekly wrap-up posts:

And my Lisa’s Looking Forward To Wednesday posts, including a special author interview:

I also had a discussion post this month: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together or Series I Probably Won’t Finish

How was your March?

Giveaway:

Below are ARCs I’ve finished and also a couple of finished copies, the winner will get to pick out 3 books from the list. There may even be a few more choices by the end of the month! I will make the giveaway international in that you can pick a book for under $10 if The Book Depository ships to you. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below the picture.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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29 responses to “The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2021 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yep, had to do state taxes for Missouri because I live there, and Kansas because I work there. Too many books, but I want to read them all! Thanks for stopping by!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m ready to start the new job, even if I will miss the people I work with now, and am a bit nervous about a new place too! I hope we do both love it! Thanks for visiting!

  1. Wow that is quite the list you have here. I’m so impressed! I don’t know how you find the time!! Hope being back to work in person hasn’t been to stressful ?

    • Lisa Mandina

      I don’t always find the time, but I try! Having students back has been nice, but also I’ve learned how much time it actually takes having them here compared to all the stuff I can get done when they’re not.

  2. Danielle Hammelef

    My March turned out to be a great month–I read Firekeeper’s Daughter, which is now one of my all-time favorite books. I also read and enjoyed We Are Inevitable, set in a book store and on the west coast. I also got vaccinated on March 31 and cried when my husband and I were able to secure appointments at the same time. April promises to be a good month as the weather is getting warmer, sunnier, and the colors are popping everywhere.

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m so glad you were able to get vaccinated! I had to go buy a copy of The Firekeeper’s Daughter because of all the awesome reviews! Yep, loving the warmer weather. Thanks for visiting!

  3. shooting

    Congrats again on the new job. Sorry you weren’t able to transfer your full years of experience, but hopefully you’re getting paid a bit better!! Being in charge of someone would be a big strange, but hopefully it’ll go well.

    -Lauren

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, it’s still more than I make, and I won’t have to deal with the two state thing for taxes. Thanks for stopping by!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I love the idea of readathons, but my reading schedule is so set based on the review tours I sign up for that I can barely get to the books I bought!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’ve always used Turbo Tax. But yeah, it’s not fun having to do two states. Can’t wait to be done with that! Thanks for visiting!

  4. John Smith

    “How was your March or what are you looking forward to in April?” My March was OK, and I am looking forward to enjoying some sci-fi adventure books with post-apocalyptic creatures!

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