February Wrap Up

Ahhh February! I've decided the only way to keep up with my goals, particularly the indie one, is to go back to doing monthly wrap ups, and this month has been pretty eventful! Here's what's happened:

Books Read:
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Wicked and the Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen
Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez
The People of Forever Are not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
They Were Sisters  by Dorothy Whipple
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

and ones I'm still reading
The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
Geek Girl: All That Glitters by Holly Smale

So when I tell people I'm an eclectic reader and read anything besides horror, I'm clearly not lying. Of these only three were published by independents (They Were Sisters and The Making of a Marchioness by Persephone and The Wicked and the Divine by Image).

Favourite Books of the month -  So much great stuff this month! My favourite was Captain Marvel until it was The People of Forever Are Not Afraid which was usurped by They Were Sisters which remains tied with Station Eleven. All the awesome.

Books Acquired:
This month was the month of epic awesome that was the London Bookshop Crawl, which I have posted about. From that I hauled fourteen books for myself, and as a result of it I have also acquired Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M Delafield from the lovely Lauren who bought it from Persephone on the bookshop crawl and passed it on to me when she was finished.

So far this year I've bought nineteen books of which fifteen have been either published by or bought from independent publishers or bookshops. Not bad going so far!

 Projects:

Parcels of Joy

I started this project around a month ago, mostly as a way to get rid of excess baked goods and not have them sitting round the house tempting me! So far I've sent out four parcels - peppermint creams to Tracy, a book and bookmarks to Sarah, They Were Sisters and a box of brownies to Laura and another that I won't talk about as it hasn't arrived yet and I don't want to ruin the surprise! There are also about 20 other people who signed up and want to send stuff too, so it's turning into a nice little random acts of kindness project which I love! If you want to get involved all the details are here, just fill in the form and I'll be in touch!



Make Mine an Indie

Despite the Bookshop Crawl madness February has been pretty good for Make Mine an Indie posts. I've discovered the wonderful world of independent graphic novels with Self Made Hero, the 'strokeability test' of Bluemoose Books, and some brilliant sounding translated fiction from Pushkin Press.

I've also been compiling an all - indie wishlist on Wordery, which I'm going to link to on my wishlist page when I remember...

#Readmyowndamnbooks

Of the books I've started this month, eight out of ten were books I already owned or bought during the month. Only The Painted Drum and Geek Girl are library books, so that's waaaaay better than January! I've also passed on three to other people!

Other Events

Sign up for the Valentine's Ninja Book Swap opened and closed this month and we're all in the throes of getting parcels together and figuring out all the little technical hitches which undoubtedly occur every swap! I'm really enjoying chatting to people on twitter though and loving that so many bookshop crawlers are taking part for the first time! As ever, if you missed the swap but want a reminder for when sign up opens for the next one email ninjabookswap(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll add you to the list!

In light of so many of us now loving and adoring Persephone after our visit on the bookshop crawl, I'm thinking of bringing back the mini book swap that I did in replacement of the Summer Ninja Swap last year, but making it a Persephone swap. Let me know if that sounds fun to you!

In other bookshop crawl related news, I'm taking it on the road over the summer and am in the early stages of planning the Bath Bookshop Crawl! Dates and itinerary have yet to be decided, but if you'd be potentially interested in joining us do let me know here or on twitter.

Finally, the Re-Readathon is back! In case you missed the two I hosted last year the Re-Readathon is exactly what it sounds like - 10 days dedicated to re-reading favourites, old and new. There will be mini challenges, giveaways, possibly a twitter chat if people are up for that, and it will be hugely fun! Check out the announcement post for sign up details.

I'd like to give a big massive shout out to Evie Seo and her shops on Society 6 and Redbubble which have taken all my money this month! Evie's designs are absolutely beautiful (like, seriously stunning) and all book related. I bought the Alice in Wonderland mug for Rhys and then caved and bought the Peter Pan mug for me just today because the Alice one is so gorgeous! I also ordered a load of notebooks and stickers from her Redbubble shop today for Ninja Book Swap. The Society 6 links are affiliate which means I'll get a teeny amount if you use them but I promise you won't regret it!

And that's my February! Lots of fun stuff going on in March, all being well, including a trip to meet up with Katie and Laura (I got your text Katie, I'm going to reply to it, I'm just horrible at remembering to!) and a couple of days in Cambridge with Rhys while my mum babysits the boys! Also Rhys has most of the month off as he hadn't taken any holiday, so that will be brilliant. That said, I'm a teeeeeeny bit worried that Ben might be getting some kind of horrible illness, so I'm keeping a very close eye on him and hoping it'll be cured by a good night's sleep (ha!). Keep your fingers crossed for us!

What have you been reading and doing this month? If you were on the bookshop crawl, have you read any of the books you bought yet?