April

Reading

It’s been a stellar reading month. I don’t know how I’ve done it. Actually, I do know. It’s because I’ve shirked responsibility and curled up with a book at every moment possible.

It was easy to fly through a book when it was so addictive. Desire or Defense by Leah Brunner was one of my pre-orders expected in May. But – lucky me! – it came early! I love a grumpy x sunshine combo and Mitch “The Machine” Anderson was a great grump, full of angst and hurt, but making great development throughout the book.

Because I loved Desire and Defense so much, I also binged Passion or Penalty, which I’ve had sitting in my Kindle for a while. These are the first hockey romances I’ve ever read and I’m now a fan. I can’t wait for the rest of the D.C. Eagles series.

Obviously I’m on a Leah Brunner roll because I also read Cabin Mate, which was funny and sweet. I love a sibling series, and I’ve already decided that Brooks and Molly will be my next read – after I finish all the other books in my Kindle!

I also read The Bodyguard by Katherine Centre. I’d been on the waiting list at the library for so long when I finally got the notification that this book was ready. I saw so many good reviews of it on Instagram and found it funny and enjoyable, but with so many other good books that I’ve read this year, it’s not going to make my top list.

Now, having finished that many books in such a short amount of time, I feel that I need to take a break from reading and I can’t be bothered to start a new book – which is a shame since Happy Place by Emily Henry just arrived and Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams will

Listening

If you think my reading month was done with those four, think again! I also finished off two audiobooks since I’ve added walking back into my routine.

Dear Dolly by Dolly Alderton was very eye-opening in the issues that people face. It was also very interesting to hear Dolly’s reasoning behind the advice she was giving. Some advice I vehemently disagreed with, while other times I wholeheartedly agreed. Some advice she gave I disagreed with the reasoning but agreed with the advice and vice versa. It’s interesting to hear the points of view of other people and the ‘why’ behind that.

And as if there’s not enough pain in real life, I also listened to A Caravan Like A Canary by Sasha Wasley. I love quintessentially Australian books – and this one was just that. The story of Tara Button and her family, who had been through so much loss and heartache, was incredible. A great book. But I also felt like there was too much real life in there for me when I usually read to escape.

Watching

I’m late to the party with this one. So, so late. But this month my husband and I have been bingeing Yellowstone. At any chance we get, we’re curled up with our laptops pretending to get things done but actually just being totally engulfed by the cowboy mafia that’s happening on our screen. It’s so good! How did we wait so long to watch it!

We’ve made it to season 4 in one month, which is no small feat considering our schedules and children. We’ve been sacrificing sleep to watch this show. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when we make it to the end of season 5. Comment any shows you think are good enough to follow this up.

Life

April has been jam-packed with public holidays that provide a bit of relief from the grind. We’ve been able to spend a lot of time with family and relax in the mild autumn weather and eat a heck of a lot of rabbit-shaped chocolate. Now that our stash has finally run out, I have no idea what to snack on.

An interesting exercise of the month was completing my DiSC profile. The DiSC assessment is a personal assessment to help improve teamwork, communication and productivity in the work place. I have done an assessment before and while my main profile still sits in the S quadrant, I had shading into D and C that wasn’t there before.

I love profiles like personality and behaviour types. If you’ve also done the DiSC, let me know which quadrant you sit in and how accurate you think it was.

My editing has been at a hard stall this month, though I have printed out my draft manuscript so that I can read it through without needing my computer. That has helped my first chapter and I’m hoping to get through more this month.

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