Can I say how glad I am that April is over? My reading started out well, but slowed down a bit the last (2) weeks when I got hooked on Scrabble for my iPhone. Another reason I am glad April is through is because the last (2) days of the month I was on a bad luck streak (28 hours and 3 bad things). Seriously, I cannot recall (3) bad things happening in just over 24 hours.
- My bad luck began at noon of Thursday when I decided to make popcorn for lunch in the library microwave. The mini bag said 1-3 minutes, I set it for (2) and the popcorn never popped but the bad started smoking, and it set off the fire alarm, evacuating a class and about 100 students and staff, leaving us all to stand out in the rain for 20 minutes until we were cleared to go back inside!
- Then at noon of Friday, I took my lunch up to the quiet floor of the library like I always do, so I could sit and read for an hour. I witnessed a suspicious individual lurking around, going in cubicles etc, and then (10) minutes later learned there had been a theft of a laptop. I had to complete a police report, a description etc.
- Then as I was driving home from work that very same day (yesterday), I got a flat tire, and had to call AAAs. Today, was spent purchasing (2) new tires as there was a huge screw in one tire, and I ruined the sidewall driving on it trying to get to a good place to pull over. I really wanted to stay home under the covers, but ventured out after the tire purchase to do a little shopping with my daughter. Hello May!
- World and Town; Gish Jen - 4/5 (review)
- The Little Stranger; Sarah Waters - 4/5 (eBook)
- Women Food and God; Geneen Roth - 4.5/5 (review)
- Blue Chameleon; Emily Gravett - 4/5 (library)
- The Night Season; Chelsea Cain - 2/5 (audio book)
- Creating Great iPhone Photos; Allan Hoffman - 5/5 (review)
- The Bird Sisters; Rebecca Rasmussen - 5/5 (review)
- Except If; Jim Averbeck - 4/5 (library)
- Square Cat; Elizabeth Schoonmaker - 5/5 (library)
- The Lake; Banana Yoshimoto - 4/5 (review)
- The Easter Parade; Richard Yates - 4.5/5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Favorite Fiction Book - The Bird Sisters; Rebecca Rasmussen - 5/5 (review)
- Favorite Childrens Book - Square Cat; Elizabeth Schoonmaker - 5/5 (library)
- Favorite Audio Book - n/a
- New authors - 8/11 - YTD - 34/49
- Review Books - 5/11 - YTD - 19/49
- 5 star books - 3/11 - YTD - 15/49
- 4 star books - 7/11 - YTD - 30/49
- 3 star books - 0/11 - YTD - 2/49
- 2 star books - 1/11- YTD - 2/49
~~~~~ Challenge Progress ~~~~~
- 100+ Reading Challenge - 49/100
- Reading From My Shelves Project - 20/50
- Audio Book Challenge - 12/20
- eBook Challenge - 5/20
- Prepare to Be Shocked (Books Purchased /Cost 2011) - 18 books - $203.28
May Reading Plans
- Finish Stephen King audiobook, Full Dark No Stars
(it's really good)
- Finish Until Tuesday
; Three Junes
and Disturbing the Peace
- Read: Dreams of Joy
; A Father's Love
and some Persephone selection.
Hope you had a great month in books!
I am so looking forward to reading Dreams of Joy! And I am sorry to hear about your totally cruddy week, that all just sounds so icky. I caught a boy printing out a soft porn story in the library this week. Not fun.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a mess of bad luck! Hope May will be the end of it!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow - I would say good bye to April too :) Heres to May! "May" it be all you dream! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, bad luck is not a good thing but I'd say you did pretty well reading wise!!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the way April ended! Things seem to happen in 3s. At least you read some good books this month! May is sure to get off to a great start.
ReplyDeleteOh my! You did have a bad streak. My mum always says bad things happen in threes, so thank god you are done now!
ReplyDeleteI am pleased to see you liked The Little Stranger too.
I hope May is a much better month for you :)
ReplyDeleteEleven books in a month is a lot (at least to me). I only managed 8!
Oh dear, what a rotten month for you.
ReplyDeleteDid you manage to keep others from realising it was your popcorn that caused the alarm?
New tyres are always an expense that hit us hard.
We were going away for the weekend last Sept when the exhaust started blowing (had a hole in middle box). Not only did it cost an exhaust part but 2 tyres as well!
Here's hoping May is a better month all round.
Hearing a lot about The Bird Sisters at the moment.
carol
Well here's to a better May with no firey popcorn!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! It sounds like you had a crazy couple of days...yuck. It looks like you managed to have a good month of reading though and hopefully May will be the same way :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that was some bad luck. My son and a friend did that mini popcorn thing at a hotel when they were younger and were at the hotel alone while I was at a swim meet. The entire hotel smelled like burnt popcorn the rest of the weekend. Surprised we didn't get kicked out.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about your bad luck day, that is horrid!! Some interesting books here though, so I hope that semi made up for it. I hope your May is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHopefully your bad luck days are done for awhile. Your popcorn snafu happened at my school recently as well. What a mess. You still managed to get in quite a lot of reading.
ReplyDeleteOh, no, those are seriously unlucky events! Hope you're done now...threes and all.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me that I need to get some new tires before I'm stranded somewhere! Knock wood.
I loved The Easter Parade, and hope to read The Bird Sisters soon (it's on my Kindle)...I have read two of Chelsea Cain's series, so I need to catch up!
Have a great week!
Here's my wrap-up in MY SUNDAY SALON POST
I'm with you - I'm very glad that April is over! Here's to a better, brighter, and much luckier May!
ReplyDeleteAt least bad things happen in 3's. so you should be past the spell.
ReplyDeleteHappy May reading!
http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-monthly-news.html
I can't imagine May going to be as bad as April for you, so welcome to May and let the good luck begin!
ReplyDeleteOh my god - those were some terrible things to happen at a stretch! I can relate to the car trouble! Mine wouldn't start up one day last week and I was so flustered because I was already late to work.
ReplyDeleteThat is a massive list!!!
ReplyDeleteI hope today with the start of a new month is also the end to your bad luck - I think & hope it was just one of those awful couple of days. The thief you saw was a strange situation!
ReplyDeleteYou have some great books on your April list that I am definitely putting on my list and hope to read sooner rather than later - The Bird Sisters, Little Stranger and Square Cat especially.
OMG you have had some HORRIBLE luck! I got scared wondering if the person you had to report to the police was the one who put the screws to your tires????
ReplyDeleteYou had to be sooooooo embarrassed about causing a fire in the microwave too....you poor thing!
Did you ever hear about bad luck in 3's? Well, you should officially be over for the year of bad luck!!! Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteI think you had a great month of reading and thanks to you I downloaded Scrabble to my iTouch. The big problem..I stink at it!! I hope to get better and then play an online game with you in the near future!!!
Oh my! It does sound like you had a really big run of bad luck! I hope that May is better for you, and that all those little catastrophes stay away!
ReplyDeleteI can understand why you were ready to say goodbye to April. Hopefully May will bring an equal number of wonderful happenings.
ReplyDeleteWell here's to a happy May! Glad you enjoyed The Easter Parade - it's my favorite of the year, so far. I'm loving the Yates bio, too... slowly making my way through.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your bad luck last week. I hope May is better for everyone, me included. April was actually fine, just alot of stuff going on that I would prefer didn't :).
ReplyDeleteHave a great week and happy reading!
Buying tires - ouch! They are so expensive. On a brighter note, I loved The Little Stranger. I think it was one of my favorite books last year.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to forgive me for chuckling a little bit. That was a terrible stretch of luck! Your reading looks good though.
ReplyDeleteMy son's teacher did that with microwave popcorn the other day and my son said all the kids were at the windows trying to wave the smoke out with their jackets so that they didn't set off the school's fire alarms. :)
Oh goodness you had some crazy moments there to wrap up the month didn't you! Here's to a very good May ahead.
ReplyDeleteHope you read some wonderful stuff this month.
Wow, that really was a streak of bad luck! Fortunately, none of it was really serious.
ReplyDeleteI think you had a good reading week - most of your books you rated 4 or 5 stars!
I'm a bit behind after spring break - will have to catch up on reviews.
Sue
That is a run of bad luck. Hope that is it for the year!
ReplyDeleteI thought these things come in pairs, but three?? So sorry and hope May will be a good month for you, well the weather will be better for sure.
ReplyDeleteStill, a good reading month in my book!
Sorry April had some glitches for you-I am really looking forward to The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto-I still have on hand her Sleep to read soon-
ReplyDelete