Month in Review: January

We all survived the first month of 2023, go us! This month was filled with loads of stress, but also loads of reading. Here's what happened: 

What I Read: 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by: Gabrielle Zevin: 4/5 stars 

Funny You Should Ask by: Elissa Sussman: 4/5 stars 

Slash by: Jeanette Armstrong: 4/5 stars 

Time's Convert by: Deborah Harkness: 4/5 stars 

One Italian Summer by: Rebecca Serle: 3/5 stars 

Bridgerton Series books 1-3: avg. rating: 3.5/5 stars 

I read a lot this month! When I'm stressed, I read, and this month was full of stress reading. I would say my favourite book would be Tomorrow x3 by: Gabrielle Zevin. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, but it was a really poignant character-driven novel that will tug at your heart strings. 

What I Blogged: 

I'm still on top of reviews, which meets one of my New Year's Resolutions. My review on You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty would probably be my favourite review I wrote this month, as it was fun to try to put my complicated feelings towards this book into words. 

Favourite Blog Posts: 

Claire reviews Emily Ratajkowski's "My Body." 

Nicole's releasing her Debut MG Novel in Verse 

Cee says: You Can't Do All of the Things, All of the Time (And That's Ok) 

Life Stuff: 

As I mentioned before, I was a bit stressed this month. Writing the research proposal for my PhD applications (due on February 1st) was a very trying time, as I had a lot of different opinions on how the proposal should go that I just really ended up writing in circles. It's submitted now, and all I can really do is wait. I really don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get in, but I'm trying to tell myself now that I can't predict the future or what the committee's going to think, and that rejection is a part of life. (Even though it really sucks). 

Other than that, I've been working as a teaching assistant at the university I did my degrees at, and it's been fun! I really enjoy leading seminars and grading papers, and it's been a welcome distraction from the chaos. Next week the students start learning about The Marrow Thieves, which as some of you may know, is a book really important to me, and it's going to be really rewarding to share with the students why this book is important to learn from. 

So now we start the waiting game for hopefully some acceptance letters, and just continue going though the motions of life. I do hope all of you guys had a good January. 

Emily @ Paperback Princess