To start the April season off, I read Winter of Artifice by Anais Nin which is a collection of three novellas including "Stella," "Winter of Artifice," and "The Voice." I got my copy at a used bookstore back in the fall and have been picking it up whenever I don't know what else to read. Finally, I have actually read it in its full entirety. I have been meaning to read more Anais Nin even though I still really enjoy her diaries so far more than the actual stories. May have to give each type of writing a reread.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion has been one of my big reads this past month. Mostly because it took me much longer than the usual book to finish even though that is not unusual for within the school year.

It was overall really good, the writing even more so. I can see why Joan Didion has become such a well-known writer. Her phrasing captures attention as she tells the story of the year after her husband died, going through love, loss, and most of all the ongoing of life.

For class, I was assigned the poetry book, The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded by Molly McCully Brown. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would with it being assigned reading which for some reason always rubs me the wrong way.

Brown's poetry has such a strong sense of voice and place throughout as it describes the well researched State Colony hospital that she connects to possibly being a part of had been born in another time.

Blossoming in Provence by Kristin Espinasse was another book I ended up reading mostly for class though it was more welcomed since I have been trying to get into the France travel mood. It is in the form of blog posts in a sense with a glossary of french words she used in each chapter which was very helpful, as well as conversationally entertaining. Her blog is French Word a Day.

Hunger by Roxane Gay was my first books I took out of the school library that I haven't been using as well I should have been all year it appears. In case you didn't know, they have actually GOOD books at the library. Shocker, right?

I have never read anything by Roxane Gay even though I have been meaning to. This chronicles her life involving food and what drives her hunger both physical and creatively metaphorical. She is not one to hide harsh truths of her life which is sobering as well as amazing to read.


Currently I have started to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert that I got within my recent mindful book haul. Though it has not completely captured me yet, I am hoping to fall into the story soon.

I am writing this with a possibly jammed pointer finger, so readers, appreciate my reading wrap up for March 2018, even if really I am not sure what I am going say since to be honest, all my reads were pretty good. I am hoping that April will be even better as I commence my nightly reading before bed. Reading after all, is one of my top ten things I am trying to do more of or better in attempt to change my life this year.



In a stop at Barnes and Nobel while on a crepe and ballet adventure, two books ended up in my hands and taken up to the pinched faced cashier who looked at my first read of the month with a questionable stare. I smiled and paid for Slutever by Karley Sciortino, trying not to let my anxiety get the best of me.

If I had, I would not have been able to read the funny and interesting memoir that takes place throughout Karley's life as an eighteen year old who moved out to London on her own. Through squatting adventures and sexual encounters in the many years to come, I got further into her life than I had read on her blog (also entitled, Slutever) and in the end yes, did actually feel quite empowered to embrace whatever slutty endevours life may put before me. Live and all that.

The other book I took up to the counter with me got less of a once over than Slutever. If only the cashier knew about Tiffany Reisz's fabulous novels up to The Lucky Ones- A book which per usual did not disappoint.

Though I will admit that I have a strong relationship with the Original Sinners series which will make some of those books among my favorite Tiffany Reisz (and in general) books of all time, The Lucky Ones was a strong and interesting novel that continues to stretch Tiffany's genre bounds for the better. This time, in a suspense novel with a slight gothic feel to it that created an eerie and intriguing atmosphere that kept me reading until late at night.

I couldn't go to sleep after all not knowing what happened.



While I was also home on spring break, I tried to make it my mission to read. Along with The Lucky Ones, I also read on recommendation from my dude guy, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I think I remember this being on a reading list in high school which is probably why I never read it before. Hitchhiker's Guide was definitely not my usual reading, but I enjoyed the change of pace none the less with its strong irony and strangeness overall.

After reading it, I changed genre once more and went to a light contemporary, Luck Love & Lemon Pie by Amy E. Reichert. Though I can never dislike Amy's books, they are light and quick, but that is it. Though enjoyable, they leave me wanting more from the characters or story. In this case, it was the character which at the end made me even a little angry for thinking all the problems that began in the very beginning with her marriage were entirely her fault...I don't know...just me, I guess- but hey, here I am still thinking about it so that has to account for something.

My last book I read in March 2018 was a books that has been sitting on my TBR for way longer than it should have when I got the ARC at Book Expo back in June.  Her Body and other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, a collection of short stories, was absolutely fantastic. It was strong and haunting in a very odd way that makes me feel like she would be great at writing a richly plotted horror novel.

I have never really read a collection of short stories on my own, but I am so glad that I did and I definitely will be reading more in the future by Carmen and others. Another section of genre I may even try to put my own foot into when trying to write in the future perhaps. Though I doubt any of my writing will be as otherworldly.

Within the month of March by the looks of it, I read about five new books. Some good, some great.

My next read to start off April strong is going to be The Chateau by Tiffany Reisz. Sexy Kingsley in France with a cult of women who's holy book is the Story of O?

Count me in. Avec plaisir.

UPDATE: I have finished The Chateau early and it is still March. It was amazing. I LOVED it and Kingsley and everything about it...an actual review will be to come along with many random talks until it is released in June for all of you to rant and enjoy this lovely beauty of a book with me.


Any great reads come your way that this?

Since beginning my small press class, I feel like perhaps I have finally found the opportunity that I fit into within the publishing world instead of just the hopeful writer one. My graduation date approaches and my publication date continues to be pushed back along with the idea of ever being able to finish this draft of my novel, and so maybe these facts have also given me an insentient into looking at actual job prospects.

I would still like to hide in the keys of my laptop rather than not being argued with after I proclaim during class that I "think I talk to much."



Which is probably true. Everyone else doesn't talk so then I get awkward and proclaim how I enjoyed the prostitute piece the most so far in the 2018 Pushcart.

I have strange tastes.

Entertaining tastes?

Taste.

This month though with my bounty of classes and trying to keep up with the blog while not freaking out, my reading habits have been on the decline. A decline that while I continue to embark on the outlook of optimism, I tell myself I can't let happen. Even though I did. Do. I am trying okay? I hate to think that I actually have to try when it comes to reading these days, but I do, and that is the best I can do.

That best, if I am being honest however, means I only read one book this month while working on another. I have, on the other hand, read six literary magazines either online or in print. Though I will never say that I prefer them over a good fat novel, I think I found a good solution for that reading in, or between classes situation I have been missing since high school.

But onward to the real reads. In February, the first thing I read was The Glass Eye by Jeannie Vanasco. In case you didn't already hear or read my response? review? book talk? I LOVED it. I read it until there was no more to read and I am pretty sure that sooner rather than later I am going to read it again so that it can either inspire or cause me to fully doubt myself as writer from admiration.

The Glass Eye started February off right, and it is definitely on my favorite books of all time. I don't know if it hit me in the right moment or what, but the writing was as absolutely gorgeous as the story Jeannie had to tell, both for her father, and herself. I cannot wait to read more from her.

After that wonderful debut memoir though comes the lit mags. All the journals! Ready?

I started the month with New England Review from 2017. I won't deny , like many of these journals, this was for class. It was however, one of the first ever real like print literary magazines that I have owned. I tried to cherish it accordingly even though it was for class and I was stressing about my annotations/response to the magazine as a whole being late.

This is a main reason for why I normally think that the average required novel reading in classes are slightly unrealistic. No matter what the novel- it could be the best in the world -I will at least not like it or enjoy it in the slightest with the responsibility each chapter reading weighing on my back. Each second I am not trying to think about what the author must have "meant" by making the curtains blue I am worried I am somehow reading wrong which is absolutely ridiculous.

But enough of my issues with education's reading curriculum.

After reading the pushcart and doing a little more digging, I found as well that I had a love for stories that were published in The Paris Review. On eBay I found a few of the previous issues and bought them. Three coming in the mail like little presents to me from me as the semester hit that winter droning point. So far out the three, I have read Issue 202. If that doesn't ring a bell, I remember them by cover. So, the purple one with the whimsical flower design from 2012.

Around the time of getting this magazine, my boyfriend had attempted to implement a hour before bed reading time so that homework wouldn't cause burn out. Having that hour for the few days that it lasted got me a good dent into the magazine and only confirmed my admiration for the publication.

We really need to reinstate reading time.

The last two print magazines that I read included Ploughshares Spring 2017 issue  in one night before deadline. I sat in the dusty chair in the physics lab while my dude guy played with the fancy new #D printer. I just sort of read and took notes and suffered a bit on the inside. The second of the last print mags was Ecotone's 10th Anniversary edition from last year-- AKA. the one with the gorgeous, not to mention that kind of matte soft you just want to hold all day, cover.

Online wise, I read an older edition of PANK for class- the 10.5 issue.

To round out the month, for class I also read a good portion of the 2017 publications in Little Fiction Big Truths online. I actually found myself able to enjoy this publication completely after figuring out the website, both because I wasn't doing the assignment for it the night before due date, and the stories were entertaining- a quality I find more and more necessary in a piece of writing rather it being literary with a capital L.

And what am I reading now, you ask? Well remember it is February and that means that two of my books I was so hyped about are now available! Both of them are also in my hands right now...or on my desk if we are being literal. So, get ready for some talk about Slutever by Karley Sciortino because it is sure to be coming in all the best ways.

I am sure that coming up Tiffany Reisz's The Lucky Ones won't disappoint either.


Happy last day of the shortest month, everyone. Now we just have to hope there are no surprises before spring arrives.