Weekly Wrap-Up #63 – April 17th, 2022

Once again I’ll be linking this up with the Sunday Post (hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer) and with Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Reading Reality).

As I mentioned last weekend, I was at the Missouri Association of School Librarians at the beginning of this week. It was very invigorating at getting me pumped up for things I want to do in my library. But I had some ups and downs with it. Being back in Missouri, I was at the conference with school districts from all over the state. Some I have interviewed with recently, as well as people that got jobs I interviewed for, and I knew it. So at times I was a little depressed about those kind of things, mainly because of how my year has been. But I also got a lot of great ideas that I’m hoping next year things might be more like a normal school year and I’ll be able to jump in with them. I also did a TON of reading my three days down there. I finished a book Saturday, an over 400 page book started Sunday morning and then finished before I went to bed that night. Sunday was so beautiful that I sat outside and read for a long time.

Sunday night there was stormy weather and they had a tree fall and several of the outer cabins in the resort were without power for part of the day on Monday. I went to a lot of good sessions and got rejuvenated throughout the day. Monday evening they had the Readers Awards banquet where they announced the winners of this year’s books. Normally there are authors there accepting their awards from the past year, but with the pandemic, we only had one there, for one of the picture books. I met with one of the other librarians from my district that was attending and we sat together at the banquet. Tuesday was the last day, and it was only one session really and then a general meeting/speaker type of thing. I went to the first session, which was about genrefying, something I hope to do in my library next school year. I also found out I had “won” one of the baskets that I’d purchased a raffle ticket for that went to a good cause. However, when I got down to pick my basket up, they couldn’t find it. I had really only put my tickets in for the baskets that were full of gift cards. They called me back a little later because since they weren’t going to mail any of the baskets, they had to be picked up, there was one that the winner had already left and so they asked if I wanted it. I took it. But probably should have left it, because honestly, there wasn’t anything in it that I’ll use or want. I’ll maybe give the cookbook to my mom, and there is some candy I’ll share with my students, but otherwise it had some plants in it, which I have a black thumb, and some weird lemonade. Honestly I didn’t expect to win, and had bought tickets just to donate to the cause. It’s disappointing that someone took my basket though, I would have so much loved the Sonic and Amazon gift cards among what else was in the basket I was supposed to get. Here is a picture of the basket I took home instead.

Wednesday I was back to school and my library clerk was back too! She’d been able to be there both Monday and Tuesday thank goodness. It was really good getting to see her again and work with her, and just to not be alone. I am looking forward to the new circulation desk next year, because it won’t be so crowded and I’ll feel more like I’m working with her instead of sitting in my office so much. Wednesday night I went to dinner with my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew to celebrate my mom’s birthday.

Thursday felt like a Friday all day because we had Friday off for Good Friday. I got a few things done in the library, but was tired all day. I kept yawning all day.

Friday was a nice relaxing day. I slept till I wanted to get up. Although I had already bought a ticket to go see the new Fantastic Beasts movie at noon. Which I loved! Then I did some fun shopping, wandering through stores like Tuesday Morning, Marshall’s, Hobby Lobby, etc.

Saturday I had to give in and finally mow the lawn for the first time this year. I also spent a lot of time reading and some blogging. And worked on laundry. Especially getting the baskets full of towels and sheets that I just have been leaving sitting in the laundry room after washing, folded and put away.

Books Finished

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Technically I finished the first one last week, but since I already had my post ready to go and it was right before bed that I finished it Saturday night, I didn’t get it added to the post last week. The second one is the over 400 page book that I read on Sunday. The third one was for a blog tour this past week. The 4th one was the audiobook I started on my drive down to the conference. I loved it so much! This author is totally a new favorite of mine. The last one was for the SmartyPants Romance review launch, will post my review here on the 25th.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

Got one from a publisher contact I now have at Little Brown who used to be at a different publishing company. I love that she keeps my info when she switches jobs!

Audiobooks:

None

Bookish Stuff:

Of course being at a library/book conference I had to get new tshirts and some cool stickers! Oh and a little power bank. The blue Love Books t-shirt is actually sparkly too!

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E-galleys:

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So the author put out a form asking for people who might want to be on her ARC team for the first one. I signed up not realizing how quickly I would be added, and got this one this week! Now I’ve only read the first book in the series so far, but since each book is a different couple, I know I can jump into this one. Only I am now scrambling to make sure I can get it read this month with my schedule! The second one I got kind of in two ways. First from the publisher, and second from joining the RockStar Book Tour blog tour. I might be getting it in a physical copy too for that. The third one is also for RockStar Book Tours. I haven’t read Maggie Stiefvater in a while, but always love her books, so was very excited for this one. I might also be getting a physical ARC for this too. The 4th one is part of the SmartyPants Romance, the first historical romance! Can’t wait to read this one, for a review post next month I think? The last one is another author that I signed up for an ARC team, the book just looked really cute. The author is hoping to get reviews in the next 3 weeks, not sure if I can fit it in, but I hope so!

Saturday I had to give in and mow my lawn. While not all the grass is growing back, and it was only in the 50 degree weather, not as warm as I’d like to be outside mowing, it looked bad and my little dogs were getting swallowed up by some of the grassy areas.

Free E-books:

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The first one was from an author’s newsletter. The second and third were free on Amazon. Now I’ve already read several in the last one, but several I haven’t!

Physical Books:

These two I won in giveaways during the conference this past week. The first one was the winner of the Gateway Award books which are voted on by the high school students from the 2020-2021 year. The second book is one of the Gateway Award nominees for this upcoming school year, so they’ll be reading and voting next school year. I might keep the first one for myself to read.

I always want to buy these anthologies, because I don’t like reading them as e-books. They’re really big, but that’s okay!

I won this through Bookish First. The problem with their giveaways these days is that they wait and send the finished copy. Why is that a problem? Well for me, I need to fit these into my blog review schedule, so once it’s published, I usually have that time filled. Oh well. Still going to try to get this one in.

What I’m Watching

Well, the new Fantastic Beasts movie came out this week, so with having Good Friday off school, guess where I went! And honestly, I really liked it! So many good parts. While it started off very dark, even more than the second movie, it had more humor and fun than the second one. But it also had really good emotional parts. The part with Dumbledore and Grindelwald, the angst, so good! I’m not normally attracted to Jude Law, but with the beard, and in that moment, I got a little bit of a longing for him. But then it felt weird because he was Dumbledore. lol Getting a peek into Dumbledore’s past and his family, lots of time spent in this movie with his brother Aberforth, it was so neat!

There was once again a ton of actual creatures, which I loved seeing all the new creatures and how Newt discovered or else even just interacted with them. And Pickett, the bowtruckle, I love him so much! The part in the prison when they had to mimic the little creatures? That was fun. While the second one had some okay parts, and I will rewwatch, this one I kind of already want to go watch again! There was no Nagini, which I went online to read about why not, and I get the reasons why she probably was not there. And Tina, Newt’s love interest/friend, also was really only there through some pictures and then one or two scenes at the end. I still think there is more reason than I could find for that. Johnny Depp’s replacement is okay, the actor will always be creepy to me after he played Hannibal Lector on the tv show. Like I’ve said before, Grindelwald was played by a different actor for most of the first movie too, so it’s not a horrible thing. But I think his hair and stuff were just not done the way they should have been to have him fill the role. Oh, and they spent some time at Hogwarts and I loved the interaction of the students and our favorite Muggle, Jacob Kowalksi.

Of course going down the rabbit hole on why certain people weren’t in the movie led me to things I didn’t know because I haven’t actually read the Fantastic Beasts original book. Did you know that Luna Lovegood is supposed to marry Newt’s grandson? Yay, but boo since in the movie Neville Longbottom is in love with her. Anyway, I know a lot of people have issues with JK Rowling. But I choose to separate art from artists. Especially if the art itself isn’t the bad things or hurting people the way the artist may have. And in this case, sorry, more people are going to continue loving this already well loved and wide-stretching series of books and movies than the number of people who might boycott it.

Giveaways to Enter

• The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: March 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in April
• Book Blitz With Giveaway: First Comes Love by Rachael Brownell

Final Thoughts

How was your week? Did you read or watch anything good? Get any good books? If you celebrate Easter, what are you doing today?