Month in Review for April 2016: Four Books and a Critique

Some months just don't go the way you want them to! With my left arm and hand revolting and being a serious pain whenever I typed for about half of the month, I abandoned my blog for most of the time it took to recover. Because I have the worst luck with health problems (they tend to snowball whenever I push myself too hard), I wasn't going to risk my right hand/wrist giving out when I really like having it functional. Thus, by the end of April, I noticed I'd only read four books, and written one critique. It's definitely been an unusual month for me.

Statistics:
 Total Posts: 8
  Total Critiques: 1
  Genres:
    Fantasy: 1
    Part of a Series: 1

Most Popular Posts of April:
Victorian Soul Critiques Turns Two!
Fortnightly Update #8: The Curse of the Zombie Arm
SFF: The 5 Mistakes You Made With Your Blog You Wish You'd Never Done in the First Place
SFF: The 5 Books that Make Profound Statements in 300 Pages or Less
How to Break a Book Blogger: In 3 Easy Steps!

Flashback Post (From April of a Previous Year):
"The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1)" by Soman Chainani

Pageviews for the Month: 1555
Comments: 27!

Reading Challenges Updates:

Travel the World in Books Challenge

Applicable Books:
The Sword Dancer (Tang Dynasty #4) by Jeannie Lin

Total for 2016 So Far: 7 of 15 Books, 4 of 5 Countries

Reading Stats:

Books read this Month: 4

Book Stats:
Has a Diverse Main Character: 1
Doesn't Have a Diverse MC: 3
Female Main Character: 3
Male Main Character: 0
Pair and/or Group of Female/Male Main Characters: 1
Genre:
 Fantasy: 1
 Historical Romance: 3
Published in 2016: 0
Published in 2000-2015: 3
Published in 1980-1999: 1
Self-Published, Small Press, or Other: 0
Traditionally Published: 4
Series Books: 4
Standalones: 0
Ebook Version: 3
Paper Version: 1
Favorite of the Month: Ship of Magic
Least Favorite of the Month: Much Ado About You (Essex Sisters #1) by Eloisa James- just too long (and the hero and heroine weren't my faves).
Most Interesting of the Month (or Book I Learned the Most From): The Sword Dancer (Tang Dynasty #4) by Jeannie Lin- whenever I read her historical romances, I always feel like my perception of China widens. You tend to think of countries in a one-note mindset, when every country has a rich and varied history.
From the-pile: 1
From the-invisible-pile: 1
Recently acquired: 2
Added to the-invisible-pile: 3
Books bought: 8
Pages Read in 2016 Thus Far (according to Goodreads): 11,786 pages

Ratings:
5 Stars: 0
4-4.5 Stars: 1
3-3.5 Stars: 2
2-2.5 Stars: 1

Author Stats (1 = 1 book read by x author):
Male: 0
Female: 4
Male/Female Team: 0
Diverse: 1
Not-so-Diverse: 3
Living: 4
Deceased: 0

Planning to Read in May:

A book set in Russia: for April, the TTWIB folks have chosen to all read a book set in Russia and/or by a Russian author. I have a thriller I've had on my shelf forever (and a day), so I intend to dust that off for this challenge (The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry). Full disclosure: I usually loathe thrillers, but I do love the Romanovs/old school royalty conspiracies.

Upcoming Posts:

I don't have any planned/fully written, but I definitely have intentions of writing more than one review this month!

Happy Reading!