april round up

My book blog has been active for about a month which means I’m officially able to post my very first monthly roundup! Despite the fact that this is first month that the blog has really been active, I’ve got a ton of backlogged reviews of books (11 to be exact) read earlier this year that will be uploaded as I acquire more time to finally write the reviews (you can see sneak peeks of the reviews by checking out my GoodReads account). My goal is to read 52 books in 52 weeks and to eventually have a full 52 reviews posted by December 31, 2015. Thank you for joining me as I document my journey!

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 April’s Book Reviews

 

Check out my reviews for the above books by clicking the book covers or by clicking the book titles here: Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan, Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri, and the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to post reviews for all of the books I finished in April. In addition to the above books, I finished We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and those reviews will be coming in May!

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April’s Book Haul

These are the books that I received during the month of April and may or may not be books that I was able to actively read during April. Books that are from the library have an increased likelihood of being read sooner due to the limited time that I have access to them.

 

 

 

 

1. Local Girls by Caroline Zancan; Advance Reader Copy ebook from Penguin First to Read
2. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker; paperback from my friend Katherine when she came to visit me from Chicago in April
3. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam; hardcover from my work
4. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket; hardcover from my partner when I saw him at a wedding in Dallas last weekend
5. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides; audiobook from Brooklyn Public Library; currently reading
6. Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan; audiobook from Brooklyn Public Library
7. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie; audiobook from Brooklyn Public Library
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; audiobook from Brooklyn Public Library

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As I move forward with posting my book reviews, I’m hoping to balance adding a backlogged book review for every new book review that’s posted. I’m aiming to post the following January + February reads during the month of May.

 

 

 

 

1. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

& that’s it for my very first reading round up! Thank you for reading! If you have any tips for making my round ups more interesting to you, please share in the comments! If you feel inclined, check out my very new Instagram account and follow me on Twitter.

dad is fat by jim gaffigan

Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

This past weekend, I flew from New York to Dallas to visit my family for my cousin’s wedding. I love going home to visit family, but I do not love the fact that my flights home, without fail, always end up delayed. When I’m not traveling anywhere but home, I don’t mind getting delayed because it means I get more listening and crafting time as I’ll usually listen to a podcast or audiobook while knitting. However, when I’m going home to see family, every hour taken away from me stings. All of this is a lengthy way of saying, I got delayed while traveling this weekend and subsequently was able to listen to all of Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan while knitting a baby blanket for my soon-to-be-born niece in one sitting.

The fact that I was knitting a project for the impending arrival of a new edition to my family while listening to this audiobook was perfect. While I assumed that some of the essays within this memoir would cover parenting based on the title, I didn’t realize that literally every essay contained within Dad is Fat would cover the author’s relationship with and perspective on children.

The author is stand-up comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan, who, at the time of the memoir’s publication (2013), is a proud father of five. I had no prior knowledge of Gaffigan’s previous endeavors, which include comedy albums and specials (two are currently on Netflix) and television appearances, but the lack of Gaffigan background didn’t prevent me from enjoying any of his stories. Usually, I only read memoirs by famous people if I’m already a fan of them or if they’re not famous and their story intrigues me, but I received this recommendation from a friend who works with children frequently and decided to trust her on it. Thank goodness I did!

I definitely would have enjoyed his memoir even more if I had been a parent, but since I interact with children frequently, I found most of the essays and jokes to be extremely on-point and humorous. That said, if you find children annoying (Jim does too!) and can’t bear to stand to hear about them (Jim finds humor in their annoyingness!), this book is definitely not for you.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and think it’s probably better to be heard in audiobook format since the author/narrator is a comedian and is clearly skilled in delivery and comedic timing. The essays are fairly short and I feel like I might have gotten annoyed by that if I was physically reading the book, but in audiobook format, all of the essays flow together seamlessly.

There will be a TV show based on his family life coming to TV Land this summer… which funnily enough I saw a promo for while sitting in a cab on my way back to my apartment from the airport. You can watch some promos of the show here.

Publication Date: 7 May 2013 by Crown Publishing Group. Format: Digital Audiobook from Random House Audio.

Author & Narrator: Jim Gaffigan web/@twitter/facebook/tour dates/youtube