What I'm Into: April 2013

Is it really the end of April already? I'm not sure why I'm asking that, actually; it seems like it's been April forever. News events-wise, April really was the cruelest month, wasn't it? And it's been alternating a few days of hot and sunny with a week of cold and rainy all month: strange weather. Tired weather.

Here's what I've been up to:


Read and Reading

I've made the goal for the year to read at least one non-fiction and one fiction book each month, because it's too easy to just get sucked in to blog-hopping on my smartphone and never actually read anything of substance (not that blogs can't be substantive, but the brain reacts differently to words on a page versus a screen). I met that goal this month.


I blew through another bunch of the Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs. I wouldn't say these are stellar detective stories, but they're interesting because Reichs focuses each one on a topic so that it's almost like reading a short non-fiction book on Nascar or the Joint POW/MIA Action Command or diamond mining in Canada as well as a murder mystery. Quick reads, anyway.

I also read The Kingmaker's Daughter  by Philippa Gregory, but it was depressing, because everyone dies. Also: flashbacks to interminable college classes covering the literature of the War of the Roses.

For non-fiction, I slammed through Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber. And by slammed, I mean, I'm not sure it took me an entire twenty-four hours to finish it. I've never read a conversion memoir before, but I found this one compelling, if a bit overwritten (it's clear Weber is an academic. She can't help herself). Good stuff to chew on.

TV

It seems like most of our shows took hiatuses for most of April. Plus, I'm really not into TV these days. I spend too much time staring at screens. It continues to be the DDH's favorite activity, though, so there's that.



Movies

We saw and enjoyed Oblivion (I love weird science fiction movies) and Django Unchained, which was surprisingly funny. I know people are love 'im or hate 'im about Quentin Tarantino. Let's put it this way: both Django and Lincoln are set in roughly the same time period, and I know which one I would rather watch. I don't care if that makes me hopelessly prol; it's true.

Food

My CSA started up a couple weeks ago, and I'm having fun using up the different veggies we get. Also: does anyone know of anything interesting to do with pecans? So far I have about a pound and a half of local ones. The DDH and I don't really like them, but I hate to waste them.

May

T-Rex will be six months in May. This means I can finally go get my eyes tested and get new glasses. Also, that my baby is getting impossibly huge. Sniff.
 

What were you up to in April? What are you looking forward to in May?