Monthly Wrapups

What I’ve been up to in February 🌷 We’re in the (Thesis) Endgame feat. #WHM TBR

Caro @ bookcheshirecat

February Wrapup

Hello fellow bookworms 🌷 Yet another month has escaped us and I can’t believe how far I have come with my thesis by now. 11 weeks seemed like SO much, now only 3 1/2 weeks remain 😱 Part of me is glad that I’ll be able to finish this project soon and then take some time off to read some more and probably binge Netflix shows I’ve wanted to get to for ages 😄 On that note, I’ll be taking a small semi-hiatus until I hand in my thesis, because I also have to move and do a bunch of adultingTM, so I don’t want to put lots of pressure on me. I’m planning on lowering my posts to once a week (starting with this week) and might be a bit slower with blog hopping and answering comments, depending on how I’m feeling. Can’t wait to see you all on the other side 🥰

P.S. Also HAPPY LEAP YEAR friends 😄

How I’m currently feeling

Let's Talk (2)

whatiread

🔄 = Reread 💌 = Library Books 🌈 = Here and Queerathon

🐯 = #YARC2020 ⭐ = #StartOnYourShelfathon  ⌛ = Digital Arc

February was another great reading month. I ended up reading 14 books and also managed to participate very lowkey in the #TomeTopple Readathon that took place! With my luck, the Readathon always takes place when I’m busy but I at least managed to read a tome this time 📚 Apart from that I loved reading as much as I could for the #Pondathon and the lovely sidequests it really boosted my motivation to get to all the books and might be why I’ve been reading so much 🥰 I also tackled some of my priority Arcs,  so I don’t have many left to read in March when things might get intense for the last phase of my thesis. Nevertheless, I plan to read as many library books as I can before I have to move and I had absolutely no self-control this month when I went to the library 😂 Luckily, I have a big backpack so lots of them fit in there 😄

OC Update

I had another really great reading month when it comes to getting outside of my comfort zone. I have to admit that it’s actually so much fun to be trying out different books and mix up some genres – it definitely keeps me motivated to read.  I’ve also read so much nonfiction this year, it’s currently my most-read genre. 😂 To be honest, I’ll be reading less of it as the year goes on (I don’t have that many nonfiction books on my ZBR), but it was still a great experience. In February I read 7 books outside of my comfort zone, reaching my second badge for reading 10+ books in total 🎉 I read 2 nonfiction, 2 sci-fi, 2 mystery books, and one historical fiction book! (Wilder Girls even had a horror element).

OOCZ_ February

1. The Map (William Ritter) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐

2. This Mortal Coil (Emily Suvada) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3. These Broken Stars (Rory Power) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

4. I Am Malala (Matt Haig) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌  🐯

5. Becoming (Michelle Obama) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

6. Salt to the Sea (Ruta Sepetys) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

7. Wilder Girls (Rory Power) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌 🌈

L2_ Traveler L_ Tome

Other Books

8. How to Make Friends with the Dark (Kathleen Glasgow)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌

9. Of Curses and Kisses (Neal & Jarrod Shusterman) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 ⌛ 🐯

10. The Electric Heir (Victoria Lee) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 ⌛🌈

11. The Fever King (Webtoon) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌈

12. Zelda: Twilight Princess Vol 4 (Akira Himekawa) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌 🐯

13. Zelda: Twilight Princess Vol 5 (Akira Himekawa) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌 🐯

 

14. Nimona (Noelle Stevenson) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌈

Average Rating ⭐ 4.1

Favorite Book 💕

Let's Talk (2)

whatiposted

🌷 Review: Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig ⭐ Self-Help and Essays on Anxiety 🌷 Out of My Comfort Zone Book Tag 💗

🌷 Blog Tour: If You Only Knew by Prerna Pickett ❣ Forbidden Romance 🌷 My Favorite Romance Tropes 💕 feat. bookish couples

🌷 Arc Review: Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon 🌹 A great Beauty & the Beast Retelling 🌷 Books by Black Authors 📚 #BlackHistoryMonth

faveposts

For this section of my wrapup I’m linking up with the Favorite Blog Posts of the Month Meme that has been created by Kristin @ kristinkravesbooks to showcase our favorite blogs of the month!

Let's Talk (2)

life stuff

Thesis Writing and Data Analysis. Nothing terribly exciting, because my days were structured by working on my thesis and endless to-do lists that I religiously make for every week. The good news is that my professor was super helpful with the data analysis of my study, so it wasn’t as horrible as I had imagined it to be. Statistics are still complicated but I appreciated her help so much and now I’m on my own to finish this up. I’ve finished my draft completely now and am deep in revising to make my thesis the best it can be. My deadline is at the end of March, but so far I’m ahead of my time plan, though my inner perfectionist is coming out and obsessed over how good my thesis actually is. Nevertheless, I’m ready to finish this up!

Things that made me happy 😊 As not much else happened in my life (I’m too absorbed in my thesis right now, to do anything super exciting 😂), I wanted to pay attention to the little things that made me happy and provided a bit of relaxation in between working on my data analysis and writing!

  • Watching shows with my friend Sandra 💖It’s always nice to be able to do something besides writing and reading, so relaxing with an episode of one of our shows is great! In February we watched: {CAOS: Part 3, TATBILB: P.S. I Still Love You as well as Locke & Key. I also watched Deadpool 2}. It’s also always nice to be chatting with my friends Sandra and Swetlana, it makes me feel at ease after a stressful day 💕
  • Participating in the Pondathon 🌷 I absolutely loved getting involved in the Readathon, making my updates on Twitter, reading what everyone else is doing and participating in all the lovely sidequests! Some of the sidequests also involved reading with people to reach a certain number of pages and it was so nice to be reading with Noémie @ tempestofbooks and Kate @ yourtitakate.
  • Buddy reading with Caitlin @ caitlinalthea! We read Wilder Girls together and it was such a nice experience to read the same book and chat about all our thoughts 💗 It made me feel so happy to be discussing books and have such a great reading buddy 🥰
  • SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! On the 27th of February, it finally snowed where I live, the first time this winter! I love snow so this made me SO SO SO SO happy 😭❄
  • FOOD! In times of stress, I always appreciate treating myself with some yummy food after getting a lot of work done. It’s the little things that make me happy, like making pancakes from scratch, eating homemade pizza or getting some yummy donut/cinnamon bun  🤤

looking ahead

March will be full of change but also brings closure. I’ll be handing in my thesis at the end of the month and awaiting my grade, which will probably take a couple of weeks 😰 Because this is my last semester I’ll also be moving right after I hand in my thesis, as I have a 6-month break between my Bachelor and Master studies. It’ll be a lot to take in, but I’ll probably talk more about it in my next Wrapup, so I’ll see you on the other side I guess.

Reading-wise I’ll be aiming to DEVOUR all the books, which should be possible as I did the majority of my thesis work until now, so I won’t be as busy as at the beginning of the year. That’s also strange as I spend weeks with long to-do lists and hours of studying, writing and data collecting. I’m still aiming to read all the library books, as I’ll be leaving behind the physical shelves of my library at the end of March (hurts me more than leaving my university, which says a lot 😅) and I want to make the most of what books I desperately want to read!

A Possible #WHM TBR

WHM TBR

In really exciting news, the Women’s History Month Readathon – hosted by the lovely Margaret @ weirdzeal – is back and I hope to read a lot of books for the amazing bingo card! I read a lot of books written by women, but I love the reading challenges as they encourage me to pick up a variety of books 💗 I’m aiming to read some of the books on this TBR, but I probably won’t get around to reading them all due to mood changes, the sheer number of books or some of them simply becoming unavailable at the library.  (I tried to find a book for as many prompts as possible and give myself a lot of options, but there’s no way I’ll read all the books😂) Nevertheless, I’m VERY excited about my TBR and will hopefully be able to do two themed posts 💖

  • In Order to Live (Yeonmi Park) 📚 Set outside your home country, Biography/Memoir, Woman of color on the cover
  • This Shattered World (Kaufman, Spooner) 📚 two or more female authors, pink cover
  • Before I Fall (Lauren Oliver) 📚 has a movie adaptation, debut
  • The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross) 📚 Set over 100 years ago, Girl/Woman in the title
  • The Scapegracers (Hannah Abigail Clarke) 📚 Less than 1K ratings on Goodreads
  • Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) 📚 Published before you were born, has a show adaption
  • Under Rose-Tainted Skies (Louise Gornall) 📚 reread an old favorite
  • Heartless (Marissa Meyer) 📚 female villain, retelling (Alice in Wonderland)

Other Books on my March TBR

 

  • The Bird and the Sword (Amy Harmon) 💌 💗
  • The Naturals (Jennifer Lynn Barnes) 💌 💗
  • This Cruel Design (Emily Suvada) 💌 💗

Let's Talk (1)What were you up to in February? What was your favorite book this month? 🌷

Published by Caro @ bookcheshirecat

24 thoughts on “What I’ve been up to in February 🌷 We’re in the (Thesis) Endgame feat. #WHM TBR”

  1. I totally get the semi-hiatus for the end of your thesis. Take time to work on it and polish it, but also take the time to do all the things you mentioned, such as read all the books and binge all the Netflix stuff haha But from the looks of it, you had a really great reading month. I think the “worst” rating I could spy was a 3.5 and that’s still pretty awesome.
    I am glad the month had a couple highlighst and that your advisor helped with the thesis more than you initially thought. Good luck for the remainder of it and really bask in the 6 months between the bachelor and master studies 🙂 Adult life rarely gives you breaks like that anymore ❤

    Also, thanks for sharing my posts again 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I’m finally back from the Thesis Work now and it has been a relief to do a lot of fun things again without feeling guilty for not doing anything university-related. Still haven’t watched all the shows that I have been meaning to though 😅 I did have a great reading month in February 🥰

      Thank you! I hope to make the most of the time I have now 💕

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. Wow Caro you’re really closing on the end of your Bachelor studies! 👍🏻🙌🏻👍🏻 And you still read so many books. The Map sounds intriguing I’ll have to look it up. And I’ve always wanted to read The Bird and the Sword. It’s one I’ve been eyeing on my TBR. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I hope everything goes well with turning in your thesis and moving. Thanks so much for sharing my post. ♥️

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The Map is a short story of Jackaby, so I recommend you read that book first, it’s amazing 🥰 I had The Bird and the Stone on my TBR for ages, so I’m happy to be hopefully picking it up soon 📚 Thank you so much, Dani! I hope you’re having a great March 💕🌷

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. I’m so happy you’re progressing so well – ahead of time, woo!! – with your thesis. 🙂 I hope (and I’m sure!!) you’ll be able to keep that up in March. I think you’re the first person I know who lives in a place where it can/does snow and yet loves snow, haha. I hate it so much, and I’m happy we only had a bit of snow towards the beginning of winter here.

    Did you enjoy Locke & Key? I’ve been thinking of watching it, but I’m unsure. 🙂 Also, I’m really happy you enjoyed These Broken Stars, I love that book!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, I hope everything turns out well! 💕 It sadly doesn’t snow around here often anymore, but sometimes we do get snow days and I always treasure those 🥰⛄ But I totally get that not everyone is a big snow fan 😄

      I never read the graphic novels, but I did like the show, it especially picked up speed towards the end of the season and has got a great concept 😊 These Broken Stars was honestly sooo good, looking forward to reading the sequel 📚

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. I’m so amazed by the amount of books you got through despite being busy with your thesis and everything, wow! I hope that you’ll finish your thesis well and I wish you all the very best for it all, Caro! ❤ ❤
    I'm so glad you ended up enjoying This Mortal Coil, this book surprised me a whole lot, I loved it so much and can't wait to read its sequels 🙂 and is that Under Rose Tainted Skies and Before I Fall I'm spotting in your potential TBR??? I hope you'll read these, I love them very much 😀
    Thank you so, so much for sharing my posts! ❤ I hope you'll have a beautiful March ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Marie! 💕 I seem to be able to balance reading with everything else going on and I’m happy that I have gotten into a solid reading habit – reading a lot of amazing books definitely helps to keep me motivated 😄

      I liked This Mortal Coil as I’m all here for more post-apocalyptic stories, that are lowkey dystopian and I’m glad that these types of stories are coming back 📚 Under Rose-Tainted Skies was a reread as I love this book so much and rereading it was a delight 🥰
      Thank you! 💛

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. That’s a lot of different genres! I’ve been trying to get into memoirs as well lately. And I’m glad to hear you liked The Electric Heir, it’s one of my most anticipated sequels.
    Good luck with your thesis, and thanks for linking my post!

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    Reply

  7. WOW, I am impressed that you were able to read so much in February on top of busy life stuff! WELL DONE. And so many good books, too! I’m glad you liked Nimona – I love that graphic novel 😀

    GOOD LUCK WITH FINISHING YOUR THESIS. You’ve totally got this, and I know you’re going to do an incredible job. I hope you’ll still have the chance to read some great books along the way 🙂

    And your WHM TBR looks amazing!! Happy reading, happy March, and thanks so much for linking to my posts ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Margaret! 🥰 Nimona was such a fantastic graphic novel, it was funny but also heartbreaking and reminded me how much I love hero/villain stories 😄

      Thank you! I’m finally free of my thesis, so now it’s back to reading all the things 😊 Thank you! I had such a fun time reading for the WHM Readathon! 💛

      Like

      Reply
  9. Pingback: Women's History Month Readathon ~ My (March) TBR list – Love for Words

  10. It was great to read your thoughts. It must be nice to see an end in sight for your thesis and all your work is coming together. I wish you the best for March and I hope you have something to treat yourself with when you hand in it.
    The progress for your out of your comfort zone challenge is amazing and great that you have been able to find some books that you enjoyed. I brought The Fever King this month and I hope to get to it soon but I’m glad you enjoyed the sequel.
    Your TBR for the women’s month is wonderful and I hope you find lots of books that you love.
    Yay to getting snow and eating because food makes everything better.
    Have an awesome March!! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Sophie! 🥰 I’m relieved that my thesis is all done now and I can treat myself to a bit of peace with lots of reading and relaxing 🌸😊

      I honestly love doing this challenge so much, it pushes me to read more broadly and it’s always so much fun to discover new books to love 🥰 I hope that you enjoy The Fever King, I definitely loved the unique take on the magic system 😄

      Thank you so much! I hope March was good for you and that you’re doing okay with everything going on 🌸

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  11. ahh, Caro, thank you so much for featuring my post!! And for mentioning our buddy read as one of your highlights because it was definitely a highlight for me too! (honestly, one of the only good parts of my month 🥺) You are seriously such a GREAT buddy reader, and everyone else who buddy reads should take notes!
    Also, YOU’RE KILLING IT!! How are you writing an amazing thesis, yet also reading more than ten books a month and completing a bunch of reading challenges and readathons?? (Haha, wow I cannot relate….)
    Anyways, I’m sorry I’m not interacting with you as much as I should!! I really don’t deserve your friendship 🥺🥺🥺 But I can’t wait to reply to your comments and messages, and I hope you have a wonderful March and rest of your year!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I’m so happy to hear that you loved our buddy reading as well, I’m so looking forward to reading Vengeful together, let’s hope we both love the book 🥰💕 Awww thank you so much, I’m blushing 😭

      Thank you so much!!! 💕💗 (Let’s hope my thesis is actually amazing, I honestly have no idea how long it’ll take for me to hear back from my professors, especially everything going on 😱) Oh no!! Please don’t feel guilty I’m always here if you like to chat 💛 (not to be corny but you deserve so much 💗)

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  12. Pingback: February Wrap-up // celebrating TWO birthdays (mine + my blog's) & unexpectedly getting appendicitis – Caitlin Althea
  13. Pingback: Women’s History Book Tag (ORIGINAL) – Weird Zeal

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