Monthly Wrap-Up for March 2022

Monthly Wrap-Up at Introverted Reader

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Monthly Wrap-Up at Introverted Reader

Welcome to my monthly wrap-up for March 2022!

My posting fell off a lot in March because we had several visitors and we fit in a long weekend out of town. But it was nice to see so many friends and family members!

Travels/Exploration:

If you’re new here, you should know that my husband is a traveling healthcare professional and we travel the country in our RV. He works three months or more at one hospital and we have fun exploring the area on his days off. Our permanent home is in Asheville, NC. My husband is currently working in Charleston, SC. Here are the places we visited this month.

Sullivan’s Island Beach–I love walking on this beach. You can see pictures from my Weekly Update for March 6.

Charleston’s Hidden Alleys and Passages walking tour when my aunt and uncle visited us. We’ve done several walking tours in Charleston and this one is probably our favorite. You can see pictures from our tour in my Weekly Update for March 13.

Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in Columbia, SC–It was a cool, cloudy day when we visited so the animals were pretty active.

Congaree National Park near Columbia, SC–Not my favorite national park by any means but it’s easily accessible and it was cool to explore such a swampy location–in the spring, before the mosquitos and gnats get too bad. You can see pictures from our visit in my Weekly Update for March 20.

Sesquicentennial State Park in Columbia, SC–I wouldn’t drive out of my way to visit this state park but it was a nice place stop while we were in the area. There was a nice walking path around a beautiful lake, where you can rent canoes and kayaks. There also seemed to be a nice playground and splash area.

Summerville, SC–We spent a pleasant afternoon walking around this pretty little downtown area. There were lots of spring blooms everywhere, showing us why the town is nicknamed “Flowertown.” I even found their independent bookstore, Main Street Reads, where I bought The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd.

Kiawah Beachwalker Park–Kiawah is essentially a gated island but there is one public beach just before the gates. We spent a cool but sunny afternoon on the beach. Our goal was to see dolphins strand feeding but we weren’t lucky enough. We did see a couple of them just swimming around in the Kiawah River though.

My husband’s parents visited for a few days. They’ve never visited Charleston before so we kept them busy with a culinary walking tour, a harbor cruise, a visit to see the majestic Angel Oak tree, and a historic horsedrawn carriage tour. You can see my pictures of the Angel Oak and a bowl of grits from our culinary tour in my Weekly Update for March 27.

Reviews Posted:

4.5 Stars

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

4 Stars

The Preservationist by David Maine

Bookish Posts:

Ten Books with Adjectives in the Title

Ten Books with an Adjective in the Title

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. 

I’m going to choose a fiction, audio, and nonfiction title for this section.

5 Stars

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

4 Stars

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, read by Adjoa Andoh

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Other Books Read:

Everything was a 4-star or higher book for me this month so I’m happy!

4 Stars

Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Sanditon by Jane Austen

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach

The River of Silver (Daevabad #3.5) by S. A. Chakraborty, read by Soneela Nankani

Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the World by Ian Wright

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, read by Romy Nordlinger

The Princess Beard (The Tales of Pell #3) by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, read by Luke Daniels

Beach Music by Pat Conroy, read by Jonathan Marosz

Reading Challenge Update:

2022 Reading Challenge Buttons

Challenge title links go to my personal progress page and host links go to the relevant sign-up page.

Watched:

4 Stars

Seinfeld Season 3 on Netflix–My husband somehow never watched much Seinfeld back when it was airing on NBC but I did. That never happens! He’s filling in this gaping hole in his pop culture knowledge now. It’s aged surprisingly well. There are a couple of things that aren’t entirely appropriate today (the shock at a “lesbian wedding” and one of Jerry’s bits about failed suicide attempts come to mind) but for the most part it’s still just as funny as I remember.

3.5 Stars

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 on Amazon Prime–Midge and company still crack me up but there wasn’t much forward motion in the storyline in this season. I wanted to shake Midge sometimes! It’s worth watching for Luke Kirby’s acting in practically the final scene of the final episode alone though. Holy cow, he gave me goosebumps.

3 Stars

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 from the library–It’s still not my favorite of the Star Trek series I’ve watched but it’s good enough to keep us interested. The plot started in one place and went somewhere completely different. I’ve seen comments from faithful Trekkies that they wish Discovery focused less on Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and more on the ensemble and I have to agree with that. Martin-Green is the reason we started watching but it would be nice to have an episode where she didn’t save the day. Anson Mount makes an extended appearance as Captain Pike (remember that character from the very first pilot that never aired on television?) and he did an amazing job. I was excited to learn that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will feature him.

Weekend Cooking

Mushroom Pasta with Goat Cheese (Recipe from A Couple Cooks) There’s too much of one of the spices and I can’t place which one it is. Otherwise, this is good and I’ve made it a few times.

Cauliflower, Cashew, Pea and Coconut Curry (Recipe from Ten More Bites) This is surprisingly easy to make, given how long the ingredient list is, but it packs a lot of flavor. We both like this dish a lot.


The Monthly Wrap-Up is hosted by Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at It Starts at Midnight. Best of the Bunch is hosted by Jessica at A Cocoon of Books. Weekend Cooking is hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader and Baker. Link your post each month!


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10 Comments

  1. You are so good about getting out and really seeing the place you two are living; it’s fantastic. It gives me travel ideas. And what a wonderful month of reading! You’ve got a couple of my favorites in there: Eleanor Oliphant and The Girl with the Louding Voice.

  2. This sounds like you had a great month! Strand fishing is a really fascinating concept. It boggles the mind how that turns out to be an effective way for dolphins to catch fish, but there you go. Nature is weird sometimes.

  3. I would love to visit Charleston sometime.

    I enjoyed reading Girl with the Louding Voice last year. It’s not an easy read, but one that needs to be told.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!

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