Okay, March literally flew by so fast. I think this month felt the quickest to me so far, which would make sense since it’s been a busy month, but it definitely flew by really quickly.
As always, we’ve got a lot to chat about, so grab your favorite beverage, get cozy, and let me tell you all about this past month.
I think in general, March was another good reading month. I didn’t get to read as many books as I did in January or February, but I still managed to read (number) books, and really, I think anything over 8 is a really successful reading month.
I got through a few ARCs this month, which is always a nice feeling! All of them I rated highly, which is also great, and all of them were some of my anticipated reads for the year. It’s always nice when your anticipated reads end up being enjoyable!
Something that I thought would be fun this month was to challenge myself to only read books that had purple on the cover for my birthday week, and it was actually really enjoyable! If you want to know what books I read over the week and how many pages I read per day, I did a little challenge wrap up post on my Bookstagram at the end of the week.
Obviously, the highlight of the month was reading Sunrise on the Reaping, and let’s be honest, more like sunrise on the WEEPING, am I right? I couldn’t put it down and I absolutely loved it. 1,000,000 stars, it was perfect. Suzanne Collins, you’re brilliant and I’m obsessed with you.
Books read this month:
- I Am Made of Death by Kelly Andrew (ARC, 4 stars)
- Ready or Not by Cara Bastone (4 stars)
- They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (3 stars)
- Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (2.5 stars)
- Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin (ARC 4.5 stars)
- For the Record by Emma Lord (ARC, 5 stars)
- If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens (1 star) (Also, I did not know about the controversy with this author before picking up this book, and had I known I never would have read it. You can read about it here)
- Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (4.5 stars)
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (5 stars)
- First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison (3 stars)
- You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon (3 stars)
- Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (ARC, 4 stars)
Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:
- As always, I loved Helena’s review of For the Record by Emma Lord, and her review made me extra motivated to read my ARC of it this month.
- One of my favorite video series that Kayla does are the ones where she’s trying to guess people’s favorite books and her latest one was so much fun!
My posts this month:
- Lovely Dark and Deep Review
- For the Record Review
- Sunrise on the Reaping Review
- Book Recs for Musical Fans
It definitely has been a busy month! Workwise and personally, there was a lot going on.
This was our last month of rehearsal for the musical, so it’s been busy! The show is coming together really nicely and some of the kids are really stepping up. We’ve got one more week of rehearsals this week and then it’s tech and shows! I can’t believe how quickly the time is passing, but the kids made some vast improvements this month and I’m excited for their friends and families to see the show.
March is my birthday month, so I did a lot of celebrating! The week before my birthday my dad, sister and I did our usual birthday sushi celebration and as always it was delicious! On my birthday I had rehearsal, and the kids were so sweet! One girl made me a basket that she decorated in theme with the show, the whole cast signed a card, some kids made me individual cards and one girl even gave me a Starbucks gift card! They sang happy birthday to me twice, and we had a productive rehearsal, that really was the best gift they could’ve given me.
I did some shopping with my mom and sister over the weekend and got some new clothes and of course books. Then the next day I went to the aquarium with my sister and brother-in-law which was so much fun! I hadn’t been to the aquarium in years, so it was really fun to go again, especially since I loved it so much as a kid. One of my favorite things was seeing the Otters. One of them is named Ivy and she’s my favorite thing in the world.
Since I’ve been so busy I didn’t have as much time to try new recipes, but this month I made the most delicious chicken quesadilla, nachos and a shrimp poke bowl. All of them I definitely want to make again, and am hoping to try some new recipes next month.
My mental health has been SO much better this month and honestly, I think a huge part of that is because I’ve done a lot of cleaning and reorganizing this month. I cleaned out my entire closet (sometimes random 2:00 am thoughts when you can’t sleep are good ones!), bought new storage and organizing things and I decided to do a gallery wall above my tv, so I ordered some new art prints that I’m really excited about. I’m hoping to do the rest of my cleaning/reorganizing/redecorating in April since I’ll be taking a month off of work.
My sports finally came back this month, so I’ve been spending a lot of time watching Giants baseball and the NWSL! I can’t express how happy I am that baseball and women’s soccer are back.
My dad and I watch every Giants game together that we can, and being able to do that is really important to me so I’m really glad to have this time with my dad. The season has just started but the vibe of the Giants already is so much better (that’s what happens when you fire someone who ran your organization into the ground and then make Giants legend Buster Posey the President of Baseball Operations) and I can’t wait to see what happens this season!
I’ve always loved women’s soccer (especially since I played soccer as a kid. I actually had wanted to be a pro soccer player before I started doing theatre) and now that my city has a professional team, I’m even more invested. I’ve been spending all my weekends watching every match that I can and it’s been so much fun. I’ve even convinced my dad to go to a couple games with me this season and I’m really looking forward to it.
I found a new podcast that I’m loving, which is Two Girls, One Ghost. I love most paranormal things and I’ve been totally hooked on this podcast since I found it and am looking forward to continuing to listen to their past episodes.
Music wise, I actually haven’t been listening to too much lately. Of course, I’m obsessed with Chappell Roan’s new single The Giver. Actually, it was really funny, at rehearsal the other day one of the kids ran up to me and was like “CAITLYN! HAVE YOU HEARD CHAPPELL ROAN’S NEW SONG?” and I was like “Girl yes, I was just belting it in the car” and it was a cute moment.
This month Niall Horan released the 5 Year Anniversary edition of Heartbreak Weather, and if you know me then you know that Heartbreak Weather is my favorite Niall album. It’s very special to me; it got me through 2020, and I’m so excited about the anniversary edition. We finally got the two bonus tracks from the Target edition on streaming, Dress and Nothing, so RIP to my local files, but I can finally stream them and I am thrilled. There were also a bunch of live tracks released which I always love. The vinyl for it is gorgeous, so I didn’t hesitate to order it, I’m just bummed I have to wait until August for it to arrive.
As always, here’s my top 50 songs for the month, this month it really is just Niall with the exception of 2 songs because I’ll put my Niall playlist on shuffle when I’m trying to sleep most nights so it just repeats for hours on end 
March was pretty busy, but it was a really good month! I hope that March treated you well and I’d love to know everything! Let me know in the comments.
Until next time 
