I feel like this month was one of milestones. My husband and I have been working from home for a year. It’s been a year since we’ve seen any of our family or friends. But the great news is that we got our first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this weekend! Arms were a bit sore but that was about it. Now we wait for the second dose.
Believe me, even once we are fully vaccinated we are still planning to wear our masks, stay in our bubble and just continue to practice CDC recommendations. We just now feel a bit more hopeful that one day we’ll get to see our loved ones and be able to go on trips.
Now let’s talk about the books! March was Women’s History month and in honor of that I read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I read this as a teen and to read it now was really special. I’ll try to do a little recap of this soon.
I also read Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell, The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner and The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson (the last two I still need to recap).
Some of these books counted towards reading challenges and I did finish the Japanese Literature Challenge. One book but still, I can mark it as complete! I do enjoy a lot of Japanese literature and hope that I’ll have an opportunity to read at least another book this year. Thank you again, to Dolce Bellezza for hosting this challenge.
Speaking of reading challenges. I am making progress in all of my challenges. I think I’m most surprised by my progress on the Classics Reading challenge because I’ve read three of my goal of six classics for the year.
The long list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced earlier in the month. You can find it here. I’ve actually read one book from the list, Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi which unfortunately was not a winner for me. I do have a couple of the nominated books on my TBR stacks so maybe I’ll get a chance to read those before the short list is announced towards the end of April.
Looking forward to April of course we have National Poetry Month which is a great reminder to read more poetry.
Stay safe friends and hope you have a great reading month ahead. Let me know how March turned out for you and if you are participating in reading challenges, how are you doing on those?
I finished my second dose, but I still wear a mask. I don’t want others to get me sick. And in case that I catch the Covid, I don’t want to infect others. I don’t know when I will be able to stop wearing a mask. My state is about to open up more, but I won’t be eating inside any crowded restaurant. If I see a very crowded store or outdoor space, I will exit quickly.
“… even once we are fully vaccinated we are still planning to wear our masks, stay in our bubble and just continue to practice CDC recommendations.” Yep, that’s how it should be, given all the new strains that are coming up.
And I’m looking forward to getting some poetry recs from you! Thanks for telling me about it. ~Lex
Yay for getting your first dose of the vaccine! I’ve gotten both of my shots, but I’m still masking it and avoiding large gatherings, and trying to still stay safe, too. 🙂
March was full of milestones wasn’t it? When the lockdown started, it was supposed to be a few weeks, then a few months and here we are, a full year later, finally vaccinated or almost there.
Great reading in your month – I love that you’ve made some progress with your challenges as well.
I’m so glad you were able to get your first shots. We’ll get our second jabs on Friday! Yippee!
I’ve been thinking a lot about what was going on last March and started to compose a blog post about all those “firsts,” but lost my enthusiasm to keep writing. It will be interesting, though, to look back on those notes in my draft folder in the years to come.
I’ve been reading a couple of poems every morning and evening (from Mary Oliver’s books) and will post about my favorites at the end of the month. It’s nice to have National Poetry Month to motivate me to read more poetry.
Isabel – I’m so glad you and your parents have gotten the vaccine. I just feel like if people could wait a bit longer and let’s keep watching the number of cases fall before opening up the states. I haven’t been to a restaurant since Feb. 2020! I miss everything we used to do but I just want to continue doing my part to keep safe.
Lex @ Lexlingua – I hear you. It is concerning about the strains and I just hope all who can get vaccinated do. It’s so important though that we also make sure the world has access to vaccines so that we can end this pandemic.
Lark – Yay, for getting fully vaccinated! And, good for you for also continuing to practice all the CDC recommendations. I get the feeling that a lot of people think that just because vaccines are available they can return to normal but it’s still going to take a while!
Athira – I know, I think that’s what was so hard at the beginning of the pandemic. The unknown of how long this was going to last. I really think some people thought it would be 30 days but there has been so much resistance to doing the right thing that it’s no wonder we are still in this. But hopefully we are getting closer to seeing major change!
Les in OR – Yay, for getting your second shots! Yes, save that draft. Who knows, you may use it when we finally end the pandemic! And, yay for Mary Oliver poems. I love her poetry and can wait to read a lot more poems in April. I would love to discover another poet in the same vein as Mary Oliver.
We’ve received notifications that we could book an appointment for the shots so my husband and I would be doing so in the upcoming weeks. And yes, I think we should all continue to practise safety measures by wearing masks and avoid crowded places. Always good to play safe than sorry later.
I felt that way about March too–it was the month of milestones. Schools closing, the start of working from home, mask wearing requirements, sheltering in place. I am glad you got your first vaccination shot! My husband will be getting his first dose tomorrow. It sounds like you had a good reading month in March. Here’s hoping April is a great one too!