Fiction Friday, March Recap

I read 11 books in March, mostly Joanne Fluke, I'm not gonna lie. I read some serious books in between, and I tried to start Les Mis. Y'all, it legit made me want to die.

 I have read some pretty serious books inb my time, but this one. It was supposed to be my new Chunkster Challenge, having finished the Stand. A Chunkster is a book that has roughly 1000 pages or more, meant to be read in chunks, not all at once. I read the Stand for one hour every time I finished another book. When I started Les Mis, I could not even read it for 30 minutes at a time. After several tries, I put it back on the shelf and picked up the Fireman by Joe Hill. I didn't realize it was another plague book, but I am loving it anyway.

Other thought on my March books:

I did not care for Hidden Figures. I still want to watch the movie. The book was slow at parts and didn't flow at all.

Dear Edward was for a book club that never met because of the virus. I adored it, could not put it down!

The Origin was really good. I just love this series of books. They are not something I would normally read, and I am glad that I gave that first one a try.

Before We Were Yours was suggested by a friend, and I really enjoyed it. There was truth to it and a mystery throughout, and the characters were amazing. 

Okay, let's look at challenge progress! 

Pop Sugar spans too many pages, so I will just say that I have read 21 of the books so far! I am determined to finish the entire challenge this year, including the advanced prompts!

I was able to add one more to the Modern Mrs Darcy challenge in March (and one more so far in April). If I don't hit on those last 4 by November, I will go looking for book to fill those prompts. 

Booked 2020 officially ended in March, but I finished back in January. I am already halfway through the Spring prompts.

I have 36 out of 52 books read for the 52 in 52 challenge. Some of these will take a little work to finish, but I am hoping to be done before November.

ohhhh this was a last minute challenge I did last week on Litsy. I finished with 27 hours and 2 minutes. Whew! I found out on Sunday, and it started the previous Friday. Luckily, Bookly keeps me on the ball with time spent reading. I hadn't read at all on Saturday (my birthday) so I had to make up that time. It was a fun challenge that kept me away from the TV all week.

Mount TBR. The biggest challenge there is. Read books that have been sitting on the shelf for at least a week. I finally hit Pike's Peak and I am halfway to Mount Blanc. Being on Stay at Home orders has been super helpful with this. I am not at the used bookstore every Tuesday and I haven't randomly passed any Little Free Libraries. I have one Stephen King new release coming for April and that's it! 

A to Z Challenge: This is getting harder! It goes by the author's first or last initial. I still need J, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z. should be interesting once I get to October or November and have to start choosing books by the author's name!

USA Challenge. This one is harder than it seems. It is amazing how many books take place in California or New York! The ones in colors are erasable ink, because the book takes place in multiple states. The Chunkster is New Hampshire, so I will have1 more checked off soon. 

These are my April Bookspin books, another Litsy challenge. You choose 20 books from your TBR shelf and the host chooses 2 numbers at random. the first is your bookspin (Goldfinch). The second is your optional Double Bookspin (Bazaar of Bad Dreams). In April, with everyone being stuck at home, she added a Triple Bookspin (little House, which I may have read already!)

The Hogwarts Challenge!I have completed Beauxbatons and I am one away from Ilvermorny. It takes three schools completed to be a Tri Wizard Champion, all 8 makes you a Supreme Mugwump. I am aiming for Tri Wizard, and then we will see about Mugwump! That would be 56 prompts. 

My April book goals. I am halfway through, at least. This does not count the Bookspin books.

Book BINGO. I have two bingos so far, and will have 3 when I finish Goldfinch. 

The Color Coded Challenge. I actually think I finished this already. hmmmmm please hold.....

YUP! A Joanne Fluke book that I read in January has yellow on the cover! I completed this challenge on April 8th! Woohoo! 

I have 2 new challenges coming up. Bookly is hosting a #StayAtHomeReadathon next week. You can choose to either read 3.5 hours per day or 25 hours for the week, which is what I chose.

April 24-26 is #24B4Monday, where you try to read for 24 hours in 3 days. I have never managed this, but I am going for a record! My best time is 17 hours and 3 minutes. Hopefully I can beat that!  It's easier when everyone else is off doling their own thing, but now that they are all here almost all the time, it is a bit harder. 

Any book suggestions or fun challenges to share? 

Staying Comfy in Nabee Socks

I received these adorable Nabee Compression Socks as part of being a BibRave Pro. (ambassador). Check out BibRave.com to find and write race reviews. As always, all opinions are my own!

When I was given the chance to try out Nabee Socks, I scrolled through the choices and saw these Shamrocks and knew I had to have them. I had the Shamrock 8k coming up in Virginia Beach, and UI would be spectating the half and full marathoners the next day. These would be perfect. 

By the time the socks arrived, the race weekend was cancelled and I knew that I still needed to wear them for the review. Problem was, I was injured and my doc wouldn't even let me ride my bike with the runners, let alone run with them! But I could support them. So I put together my most St Patrick's Day Weekend running club clothes and prepared to spectate the long run.

I got to our usual meeting spot. At the time, we were allowed to meet up in groups of 10 or less, as long as stayed 6 feet apart. If you look close enough, you can see people across the lot in front of CVS. That's another group of runners keeping their distance! I waited for my group to arrive and then led them in their dynamic stretches. 

Let's take some time out now to talk about the fit. I am a chubby runner and I have always had big calves. These socks fit so well over my calves, giving the compression that I needed, without squeezing my feet to tight. Have you ever had socks that just made your feet ache? Not fun!

After I led their stretches and sent them on their way, I hopped back in the car and headed over to the parking lot where the runners would pass me... twice. I left some inspirational messages using sidewalk chalk and also dubbed the training run as the Social Distancing Ten Miler. They all loved it, and lots of groups stopped to take awkward group selfies. Awkward because they had to stand so far apart!

I have to say, sitting in my car all morning could have been way worse. It is super hard on your legs to sit like that for hours! Those socks are so comfy!

I may have even read for a bit. Off in the distance you can almost make out the blue water jug. I took that back to the store after everyone ran by and my morning was done. 

Let's talk specifics now! They have some seriously cute patterns. If I hadn't zeroed in on these shamrocks, I would have had a hard decision ahead of me! They are super easy to pull on. I have had some issues with other socks in the past, but these pulled on easily and even fit well over my capris. 

They have a stay up cuff. It holds those socks in place without cutting off your circulation!

SEAMLESS TOE!!

This is so key! No blisters when you use them, because there is no seam to try and get just right when you put them on!

Increased cushion throughout the whole foot, especially the achilles and heel. They are so soft and comfortable. I know I am using that word a lot, but on those long runs and races, comfort is the difference between crying and smiling at the finish!

These are designed and approved by nurses! If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will. Nurses are super heroes, and they are on their feet all day!

Let me know which pattern(s) you choose and use BIBRAVE20 when you shop for 20% off!

Happy Birthday to Me?

I know I’m not alone when it comes to canceling plans right now! I’ve been trying to plan something fun for my birthday weekend and it went something like this:
Spartan for my birthday!!! Nope. Injured.
Ok, I can work with this.
Let’s do a fun woodworking night!
Nope, too spendy!
Let’s paint pottery and then have apps afterwards!
Yessssss
Noooooo, Social distancing has hit the Carolinas
Let’s have a fire pit in my backyard! We will order pizza and have s’mores.
Nope, SC limits group sizes to 3.
That’s ok, the hubs and I will go to the drive through Safari at that zoo in NC.
Nope. NC issued a Stay at Home order.
No bigs, we will go for a hike at the Greenway in SC.
Nope, they closed down the Greenway just this morning and the hike was to be tomorrow.
Ok

No birthday! It’s all good.
So I paid the bills.
Read a book. And now I’m gonna watch TV and then do yoga. I did get a few surprises though:

The hubs got me some scratch offs (I won $10!) 

Made me breakfast

Took me to the Panera drive through for lunch where I got a free birthday croissant.

What are you all doing instead of your original plans for special events?

Wordless Wednesday

Achievement Board Update

I am so glad to finally have something to write about. I am in no way qualified to write about Corona Virus things so I have basically been avoiding my blog! Ugh!

Today is the last day of March, however, and it’s time for a 3 month update on my Achievement

board. I have managed to color in a few squares so let’s talk about them.

3500 Insta followers. I’ve been working on this for awhile, and a did a happy dance when I reached this goal. Next stop, 3750!

4000 Twitter followers. I swear to you that I reached that goal, but I think I was the victim of a few fishers. They follow you, and then after you follow them back, they unfollow you. Whatever! Peace out, crazy peeps! I will hit 4000 again soon and then reach  for 4250! 

Two goals that I have no pics for are from Aaptiv. I reached a 50 day workout streak and also 25 gold stars! I delete the app, because I am not allowed to workout right now and I don’t like paying for things that I cannot use! 

I am halfway to my 75 book goal! I will talk more about this, probably on Friday, where I will talk about all of my reading goals and how much progress I have made.

How are your goals coming along?

Wordless Wednesday