If I say that April flew fast, it is not an exaggeration. It just seems like it was just yesterday that I was planning for my birthday and it is already one month past the D-day. But April did bring in some fun and yes it is time for the April’19 Wrap up already.
I live in the middle east, if you didn’t already know, and we are getting ready for the holy season of Ramadan, which would be starting tomorrow.
During the month, most people here fast through the day. Most of the shops, stores, and eateries will have a different timing than usual, and some may be open all through the night. Even for outsiders like me this season is a big deal, especially since the normal working hours is reduced to six per day and there are lots of night bazaars and discount sales.
So there is more to look forward this month.
Quick April 19 updates
I celebrated my birthday on a cruise and though the food was nothing to write about, the view was amazing. And the highlight was that it started drizzling when we were out in the sea.
It was equally hilarious and exasperating because it rarely rains here, and when it does it is only to spoil my plans. Anyway, it was fun.
One of the highlights this month would be attending my first book club meet and it was so much fun. Read more about the meet up here.
I am surprisingly still continuing my evening runs, even if it is not daily. The rising temperature is not helping the matters and I kinda have to wait for it to turn dark before I could venture out.
What I read this month:
I did fairly well this month, even when I didn’t read much during the first two weeks of April. Four is not a bad number based on my past track records.
Bell Jar, The by Sylvia Plath
Truth or Beard by Penny Reid
Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The by Agatha Christie
Persuasion by Jane Austen
My monthly top picks
Working from home has a huge advantage when it comes to binging on Netflix. I know I sometimes abuse that freedom but hey as long as the work gets done, even if it is just at the nick of the time right?
So here is a list of my top pick of movies and TV series I watched in April’19
Avengers – Endgame
Avengers – Infinity war (rewatched before the epic finale)
Meteor Garden – Chinese drama
Boys over Flowers – Korean drama
Cuckoo Season 4
Lucifer – Season 2 (kinda giving up on it!)
On my blog
Here is a quick look on what I posted this week on my blog
Luana from Bookstorm Girl never fails to make me laugh with her hilarious posts, like the recent on using predictive texts for writing reviews. You should read it.
Marie from Drizzle and hurricane books posted on Finding your blogging voice. I loved it so much and think you would too.
This week turned out quite interesting. I attended my first book club meeting in person on Tuesday. We spoke a lot about reading habits and obviously books we loved and hated.
You know the usual bookworm scenes. And then we conveniently forgot to discuss about the BOTM for March, The Woman in the Window.
What I read this week
Would you all judge me if I say I have been stuck up with a book for about 3 months now?
Yes, it is Persuasion by Jane Austen. In my defense, I promised myself that I will be hearing only the audio version and that is not definitely not my cup of tea. But I will finally complete it this week, just about 45 min or so pending.
Also I have been reading 1984 by George Orwell, another banned book which I hope to complete in a day or two.
What I watched this week
On Wednesday we caught up on the Avengers: Infinity War again to find out clues for the Avengers: Endgame on last time, before we watched the movie on Thursday. And needless to say, I loved the movie and felt it was worth all the hype and the wait.
And today I finally took the bait and started watching Game of Thrones. I know I am about eight years late but at least I don’t have to wait for each season like others had to. I can binge on it like I usually do. I think I like this way better.
I am addicted to exclamation points to the extent that I am not sure if I am even using them at the right places. Nicole opened up a discussion on her blog and needless to say that we are everywhere!!
So that is it for this week. Let me hear what are your plans for your weekend. What have you been reading? What did you watch? How did you like the Endgame movie? Let us talk.
I kinda took a break, unplanned of course, last week as I didn’t feel inspired to blog. I know taking such an unplanned break is a strict no no for most of us bloggers, but I have made peace with it. I just couldn’t get myself to switch on my laptop at all.
But it is a good thing because I found the mojo back and I am talking to you only because I want to, not because my schedule says so. I used this week to laze around the house particularly doing nothing, not talking to friends or family and got some reading done. I can say it was quite the quality ME time I was craving for.
What I read this week
And yes, but now I am back to be the chatter box that I usually am. After not reading for about the first two weeks in April, I had a great reading week finally. I read three books in a week and I liked them all. Isn’t that great?
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Truth or Beard by Penny Reid
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
What I watched this week
Boys over Flowers!
Meteor Garden!
Tell me all you Kdrama freaks how come none of you recommended me about this series. I am so completely obsessed that I can’t even talk about it. I LOVED THEM BOTH. I will speak about them more once I have calmed the heck down.
I finally watched Shazam last week and I loved it. But again I can’t wait for the Avengers Endgame this week.
Around the blogosphere
I know I have not visited many blogs recently but hey, I will make it up alright? I will be around dropping in with a comment very soon. But here are some of my picks from the last week for now.
Do you have enough books on your TBR? You have to take a look at this list of April’s new releases by Karla on her blog.
Looking for some tips on Instagram themes? You need to take a look at this post on How to Stand Out on Instagram in a Sea of Sameness by From Bee with Love and you will love it as I did.
Do you take such unplanned breaks and then feel guilty about it? If you are good at planning holidays, oh please let us know how you do it. Let us talk.
I love April and I am not sure if it had something to do with being my birthday month or the summer holidays we used to have when we were younger. Either way, I look forward to April right from January.
And this year I had huge plans for my birthday (this Friday April 12th) and the month as well but they feel through, thanks to the weird place am at with most of my relationships and friendships. Still, I am okay now and you guys (yes, you my online friends) have played a large part in that. Otherwise I would be too depressed to get out off bed.
But now I have posts to be written, books to be reviewed and DMs to be replied to. I guess keeping busy gets me through. For now. So let us get on with a quick recap on what happened in my life last month on the March’19 wrap up, shall we?
March 2019 started with a bang with Emirates Literature Festival where I got to volunteer for two weekends. I met so many cool authors like Sandhya Menon, Pierce Brown, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black et al, and got books signed up from them.
I met so many like minded readers in the form of other volunteers and attendees. And just seeing younger bookworms with their books just makes me feel all warm and gooey.
I found and joined a local book club called Bookworms of UAE, which is surprisingly active!
Speaking of the weather, Dubai, the desert city, had two full days of rain out of nowhere just as we returned from the beach. And to put all your questions to rest, we are back to the warm spring weather this week.
What I read this month:
I read five books last month, bringing a total of 15 books for the year as of now. And I suppose I should be thanking all the book club choices because let us face it, otherwise I would not be reading as fast at all.
So here are the ones I read this month on the March’19 wrap up , and remind me to update the A-Z 2019 page soon!
My monthly top picks from the movie world Why not make a list based on the entertainment value now that I have spent hours watching these series and movie right? So here they are on the March’19 wrap up!
The Umbrella Academy
Green book
Queer eye Season 3
Us
The Punisher Season 3 (now why would they cancel it!)
Captain Marvel
A star is born ( left me a sobbing mess)
Sorry couldn’t stop with five!
On my blog
Here is a quick recap in case you missed my blog post last week.
Let us talk about posts I loved from the blogging community last week now.
Being a multilingual myself, I resonated so much with Cat from Pages and Plots on her post on why she doesn’t read much in her own native language. Who else is with me on this one?
Dani’s post on Instagramming without being discouraged is a lifesaver, especially if you do not have a huge following yet, like me. Take a looksie!
Speaking about social media pressures, Sam from WLABB posted an awesome discussion post how she battles the social media game, which I seemingly have lost already.
If you know Shruti then you have been warned enough. Read this hilarious post on the things that JK Rowling said about the Potterverse on her blog.
The Orangutan Librarian posted this how to (not) read review guide and I wish every author read it, just to save the world from all the drama and personal attacks.
Pin me!
Let us chat
How many books did you read last month? Did you watch any of these series and movies mentioned? What are your favorite posts of the week? Let us talk.
Hello people, I am writing from the warm Dubai and the weather is still being weird here. We took off to Marjan Islands, in Ras Al Khaimah which is another Emirate (State?) in the UAE to enjoy the short Spring.
For those of you all interested, Marjan Islands is a man made archipelago in the Persian Gulf and is about less than 2 hours drive from where I live. It was just a two nights stay and was fun being in the beach for a change.
Pic: Google
But didn’t I say the weather was weird? The sun kept playing hide and seek all through the day and then the rain poured down as we drove back home.
And then IT RAINED FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS! In DUBAI. Yes that literally has never happened in the whole time I have been here.
Anyway here are some pictures from the trip for you all.
What I read this week
I read The Woman in the Window by Finn A.J for our all female book club called the bookworms of UAE.
And I am currently reading the Curious incident of the dog in the night for the Classics N’ Christie club, which I hope to complete tonight, before the end of March.
Don’t you hate it when you schedule a post and it just won’t get published on time? Well that happened quite a number of times this week for me. My Friday post never got published and I hate that it is still on my draft and is waiting impatiently for its time.
