Café Con Monica

Show Us Your Books & Book Goals Update: March

It’s that time again! Linking up with Jana Says & Life According to Steph for Show us your Books!

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But first I want to share my Book Goals update for February!

  • 2/25: Books I didn’t choose for myself
  • 2/12: Non-Fiction Books
  • Posted 9 bookish photos on Instagram & 4 Bookish blog posts
  • #Unreadshelfproject2019 – I didn’t even open the book I chose for February (book that was gifted – Anonymous Girl) I didn’t get rid of it but I borrowed it to a friend in hopes she takes a while to read it.

Now let’s talk about what I read in February…..

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Two Dark Reigns ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really did enjoy this book but I will tell you I would have been happy to have this series end with this book. It felt like they could have wrapped it up and been done. I still gave it for 4 stars though because it is a good read and I am in it to finish it!

Melt for You ⭐⭐⭐ I also read Burn for You and Ache for You. Burn for you was the best of the three but I have a problem and have to end up reading similar books right after each other. I love a good slow burn but for some reason by the time I got to Ache for you I was overit.com.

Next Year in Havana ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I saw some conflicting reviews about this book before I read it and I can see some of what they were saying but I also know quite a few Cubans and their families can attest to a lot of the descriptions of the struggle that they feel in the pull back to Cuba that isn’t the same Cuba they left. I also think this book helps people see the other side. I keep hearing “We have to go to Cuba before it becomes touristy” completely overlooking the fact that the reason they are stuck where they are is because of a terrible communist leader, not because they wanted to be stuck in that life. Anyway, I hope that more people read it and learn a few things that they didn’t know.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I reviewed this one last month, you can see a full review here! Even after seeing some conflicting reviews I thought it was a good read and would recommend it!

American War ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 This one is my Girly Book Club read for the month so I also did a full review here. But for the short and sweet of it, I thought it could be better but I didn’t dislike the book. There were definitely parts that are eerily realistic.

Ash Princess ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ve been reading a lot of YA books with kingdoms and princesses and queens lately so while I did see some parts were not much different there is a darker aspect to this read that I enjoyed. There is a seriously cruel King, some love and betrayal and of course a Princess/Queen.

It was a weirdly light reading month for me. I struggled just to get these 8 books in. Also, I started Becoming and got about 75% through it before seeing Michelle Obama the last week of the month but since I didn’t get to finish the book until March I am counting it for March instead.

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High Five for Friday

Linking up for High Five on Friday!

Weather

While the midwest was getting horrendous double digit negative degree weather I was down here in Austin hanging out outside in a light jacket and feeling the sun on my face. I’m a jerk, I know. That is why I was sending screenshots of the weather report to my family. But honestly. One of the top 5 reasons I wanted to leave Chicago was weather. I suffer from SAD and those winter months are brutal on my mental health. Its even so bad that during that stretch of Oct/Nov that it rained almost daily I started to feel it. We did get a nasty cold front earlier this week though (high of 28, I was not happy)

Cooking

AJS and I have been doing so good with cooking! We try to make a meal or have leftovers Sun-Thurs and for the month of January we did pretty well!! Some of the meals from the past week: Steak sandwiches, honey garlic chicken & rice, apple stuffing with pork chops and potato salad

Book Club

Ive talked all about Girly Book Club and using meetup to make friends. I hosted my first Book Club meetup of 2019 in January (and ever) and we had 15 girls total! How exciting is that? We sat around a firepit since there wasn’t enough space for all of us inside and we hung out, talked about the book “The Wife Between Us” and made new friends. I loved that most of us were in agreement about the book, plus quite a few of us exchanged phone numbers after! Unfortunately, we asked a stranger to get a photo of us so it came out kind of blurry and a mess.

Spring Break

We are only 8 days out till vacation!! And only 5 school days till we get there. Yes!!!

Social Media Growth

I really started focusing on the blog more over the past few months which led me to starting a new instagram. While it is definitely slow going I passed the 300 follower mark this week and I am super excited about that! I’ve been paying attention to the kinds of posts that are causing spikes in followers and also my hashtags and it is paying off!

Favorite Links!

I wanted to show some love to some fellow bloggers that I love this week too!

Don’t forget to check out my new Instagram! Or you can follow me on Twitter,  Pinterest or Bloglovin

What I’m Giving Up for Lent

It’s Ash Wednesday today and the beginning of Lent. If you are unfamiliar you can find some information here.

Some background

I grew up in a Catholic home, later to become less strict Christians. I spent many years giving something up for lent and being very familiar with guilt (Thanks Catholicism). As an adult Ive become less religious and much more educated in all religions rather than simply the one I grew up in. I also now work in a Episcopal school so I attend Chapel services daily Monday-Friday all this to say that while I have my own beliefs i’m still surrounded by it all the time anyway.

Every year I still give something up for Lent because I find it a good time for reflection. We’ve passed the intense gluttony of the holidays, the super sacrifice that comes with January and all the resolutions we make for ourselves and we are coming into a new season and also…not that far from Summer. It’s a good time for me to check myself and also be willing to do look outside myself.

What I am giving up

This year I am giving up Starbucks. Doesn’t seem like much right? But I have a love/hate relationship with Starbucks. It’s expensive, fat & calorie loaded and so convenient. I consistently “give it up” but don’t have the willpower to actually follow through. It’s also a point of laziness for me since I have a kuerig at home that was gifted to me and I have like 6 bags of coffee and all these fun syrups. It’s basically an addiction. I have Starbucks sometimes 6-7 days a week, can you imagine how much that adds up to? So I am giving it up.

What’s next – 40 Acts

A more religious friend of mine actually told me about this great site called 40 Acts the premise is that for Lent (the 40 days) you engage in acts of generosity. They make this whole challenge about it and how much you give of yourself, your time and/or money is really up to you. I thought this would be a great way to treat this time as not just one of sacrifice (suffering through my Starbucks addiction) but also one of kindness.

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