April in Review

Is it really May already? What happened to April? Where did it go? The hole month seemed to pass by me pretty quickly. Now let’s see what the heck I was up to that made that month seem to go by so quickly for me… oh jeez, 16 highlight post events for one. And then there’s the other exciting stuff that I’ve been up to in April. OK, I’ll try to make this post quick for you all, but it will obviously be a lot of stuff.

400 Followers and counting

I reached 400 followers to my blog in April. I’m super thrilled about that and happy that the number is still growing. I would like to thank those that have been visiting and following my blog. I started blogging back in October 2015 with little expectations. This blog has started off with me reviewing books and posting up some older reviews. But since I also like watching movies and such, the blog has expanded to other things of my interests. So it really means a lot to me that I’ve had such positive feedback with likes, follows, and most of all comments (even though it takes me a day or so to catch up with those).

It’s also been fun looking through the other bloggers around social media. And I have now finally set up my instagram, pinterest, and twitter accounts, which will have stuff from my blog along with other things that I like.

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What I read in April

OK, first up is to look at the books I’ve read and got around to finally reviewing in April. It wasn’t a whole lot of books that I read in April, but I do think that I’ve gotten over my reading slump. The only problem is trying not to get overwhelmed again with all the books that I want to read.

The books I read read are:

• Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth 4 stars out of 5. This was supposed to be a quick read. I found this author back in March when I was looking for a Irish Author to read for St. Patrick’s Day. I also was hoping to read this for a Begorrathon blogging event in March (hosted by Niall at The Fluff is Raging and Cathy at 746 Books). Reading the editor’s introduction made this book seem like a lot longer than it was. So I skipped past that and just read Maria’s story.
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen re-read 5 stars out of 5. It’s been a while since I read this book. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen the various movies. Elizabeth Bennett is one of my favorite characters still. Here’s an older review.

Last year I was able to read about 5 books a year, but this year has been a little difficult. But I am happy that I was able to finish off those two books.

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid

And I did get around to reviewing a book that I read back in March or so. A Jane Austen modern retelling by Val McDermid. The beginning was a bit slow and I’m not sure why Val focused on an art festival instead of referring to the Gothic books like Austen did for Northanger Abbey. Here’s my review.

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Because of Harry Potter

A part of getting out of my reading slump I decided to start re-reading the Harry Potter series. In doing so I started my first blog read along event. I’m not sure how many people participated as I didn’t get too many replies. I did have some good topic questions that people did comment on. The posts were fun to do and I’m still working on re-reading the first book in the series. I’ll then do a comparing post for Book vs Movie.

I did learn something from hosting this read-along. My next read-along I will announce it weeks in advance compared to the few days that I announced the Harry Potter Read-Along. And I will organize it better so that I can find out who will be participating the read-along with me.

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Because of other people’s blogs

Lately I’ve been more involved with other blogger events. There was a lot of events that I liked in April. Also I was able to work on some posts that bloggers tagged me to. So here’s some of those posts.

• Friday 56. Freda over at Freda’s Voice hosts a book event every Friday where we post an excerpt from the book that we are currently reading. Here is my first Friday post.
• The Classics Club Challenge. This is a group site where members work on reading 50 or more books within 5 years or so. Here is my 50 book list.
• Brooding About Bronte’s. Girl with her head in a book hosted an event that was dedicated to the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Ann, and Jane Bronte. Here are my posts.
• Back to the Future Tag. I was tagged for this by Getting Through Anxiety. It was a fun post and it was a reference towards a movie that I do like. Here’s my post.
• The Book Courtship Tag. I was tagged for this by Alice @ A Book and Two Cups of Tea. This was another fun tag. Here’s my post.
• Sunshine Blogger Award. I was tagged by two lovely bloggers. Thanks again to Eve Messenger and Read It or Not Reviews. Here’s my post.
• Beyond the Cover Blogathon. I reviewed the movie Wizard of Oz for this fun event hosted by Liz @ Now Voyaging and Kristina @ Speakeasy. Wizard of Oz was a re-watch movie and a favorite. Here’s my review.

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Movies I watched in April

I watched quite a lot of movies on cable this month. I was also able to review some of those movies. Here they are:

• Godzilla 1998 movie I rated 5 out of 10 “Eye Rolls” stars. Here’s my review.
• Mothra vs Godzilla 1964 movie I rated 6.5 out of 10 stars. Here’s my review.
• Re-watching Wizard of Oz. Still a favorite. Here’s my review.
• Re-watching Blazing Saddles and 3 Days & 3 Quotes tag. Here’s the post.

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Because of Man Crushes

Last week I worked on posting about my favorite Man Crushes. There is a theme on Mondays called Man Crush Mondays. The ABC Family channel (now Freeform) aired two movies a night with male actors that are popular. Here are my 5 or so favorite male actors and the roles that they played: Man Crush Movie Week. My favorite was from the 4th post for Best Screen Kiss. So here’s Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant in the movie Catch and Release (love that movie!).