Monthly Wrap-Up + TBR // April 2020

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Happy first of May, friends!

April flew by in the blink of an eye. It was a quick and busy month for me, with piles of homework, lots of shifts at the coffee shop, and lots of writing for Camp NaNoWriMo! Hopefully things slow down a bit more around here! Anway, let’s get right into things. Here is my monthly wrap-up for April!

books:

STANDING BY – Admittedly, this was the ONLY book I finished in April. I picked up a few, but between NaNo and homework, I didn’t have the time or energy to get much reading done. I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. The characters were great, and it had some really nice parts to it, but the story didn’t pull me in. The dialogue felt a bit unnecessary in a lot of places. Plus, the plot felt very slice-of-life, which I would have loved if there was a bit more of an adventurous feel. Overall, it was a nice story. Just not for me. (TWO AND A HALF STARS)

reading progress: 11/50 books…five books behind schedule.

writing:

If you follow me on bookstagram, you know I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal was to edit/write 50k words in my WIP. I was on track for a while, then I had a short-lived burst of inspiration and got ahead on my word count…and then things went downhill and I just didn’t feel like writing.

I barely wrote 500 words for a few days. One day, I only wrote 99. Eventually, I was about 5000 words behind. I was tired and losing motivation. Somehow in the last few days, like a really incredible plot twist, I found it in me to start writing again and I—

Well, let me just show you…

For the first time in my three attempts at NaNo, I won! Just before midnight, I had written 50,085 words in my WIP. It was quite exhilarating…then I got some much-needed sleep!

About halfway through the month, when I had written 30k, I was in need of an incentive to keep writing. So I tweeted this:

Ladies and gentlemen, I just hit 30k words in my WIP. 18 days in, overloaded with stress, and I am still on track. I feel like baking a cake or something.

Okay, at 50k, I will bake a celebratory cake. Let’s go!#campnanowrimo #WritingCommunity

— 🌸 MC Roberts (50,085/50k #CampNaNoWriMo) 🌸 (@disappearinink) April 19, 2020

We are baking that cake, folks!

writing progress: 50,085. Total word count = 65,134.

april bookmail + may tbr:

SEEING VOICES – I couldn’t wait to receive my pre-order in the mail! I was on Olivia’s ARC team for her debut novel, Seeing Voices, and she is the sweetest! In case you missed it, be sure to check out Olivia’s guest post about why stories matter!

KARTEGA – I’ve been following A. N. Sage for a while now. She’s the author of The AetherBorn Saga series, which I’m reading through, so when I won a giveaway for her latest novel, Kartega, I was soooo elated! Major cover love.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU – The moment I read the synopsis for Marisa Kanter’s debut novel, I realized it was just my cup of tea. Right up my alley. All that good stuff. Definitely looking forward to reading it in May!

ALEX, APPROXIMATELY – I’ve seen this book floating around the booksphere multiple times. After it came up as a limited-time free download in a Simon & Schuster email, I decided to check it out. It has a sort of friends to enemies to (possibly?) lovers trope. Whatever you might call that.

EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE – This one is going to be a bit different. I can already tell! It has a curated playlist, and the songs are spread throughout the story, indicating when to play the song that corresponds with a particular scene. It’s also written by an indie author!

outside the bookish world:

As I’ve already said, April was a crazy busy month for me. It’s a bit ironic that May is mental health awareness month – I could use some self care and time to breathe in the midst of all this stress and busyness. However, I did find some little things to help me relax and feel grounded.

I’ve been trying and failing to get my new bedroom all tidied up and arranged the way I want. It looks better than when I first moved in, but I still have stacks and piles of things that need homes. I got a beautiful pink rug to put beside my bed. It is soooo soft and fluffy! I’m thinking I’ll go with an earthy toned color scheme, with pink being the pop of color.

I’ve also found I love ASMR. It’s very much like the sounds I play on my noise machine at night to help me sleep. Baking ASMR is my current favorite. Here are some of my go-to channels for ASMR:

Cooking tree 쿠킹트리
Peaceful Cuisine
ASMR Suna
조꽁드Joconde’s Baking

And here are some other favorite YouTube channels (not ASMR, but ones I’ve been enjoying during quarantine):

해그린달 haegreendal
emmymadeinjapan
Christy Anne Jones
Yoga with Kassandra
A L L I S O N
Nathaniel Drew

Well, that about wraps up my April! What did your April look like? Did you read any good books, watch any good shows, or participate in Camp NaNoWriMo? Looking forward to something in May? Let’s chat in the comments!