Music, Books, Miles, and Looks of April

Music:

 

This Isn't Everything You Are by Snow Patrol - I love when a group has such a distinct sound, you can hear a song on the radio and you instantly know it's by a certain band.  That's what happened with this song when I heard it on the radio a couple of weeks ago.  It's a heavier song, but I really like the phase "This Isn't Everything You Are" as I think it's our natural tendency to sort of link our identity or worth with something like a relationship, career, or something big you are working towards (like for me, the CFA).  So it's good to remember:  This Isn't Everything You Are.

Books:

Another big reading month.  77 hours of studying, 5 books finished.  

The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain - I checked this out after Kelly raved about it - and it was a great book.  It's about 2 friends who are dealing with the aftermath of their friend's suicide, and are trying to figure out what brought her to take her life.  It's obviously a heavy subject, but it's an intriguing, fast read.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah - This was the April book for our blogger book club.  It was pretty good.  I am not a big fan of Kristin Hannah's book, but I did like this one.  The main characters kind of annoyed me at certain points, though.  I think it's art to have flawed characters that don't annoy the reader, honestly.

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak - I loved The Book Thief so decided to check out the other book by this author.  I think I would have liked it more had I not read The Book Thief first, as the bar was pretty high.  It was a good read with a good message, though.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks - I haven't read a Nicholas Sparks book in years, but requested this from the library after a friend told me it was a good read.  As usual, it was a fast, easy, sort of mindless read, which is what I needed...

Single State of the Union - This book is a collection of essays written by single women on topics such as  career advancement, child rearing, living alone, and traveling.  I can't say I agreed with the view of all the authors of the various essays, but there were quite a few where I found myself nodding my head in agreement. 

Miles:

This was another strong running month for me.  I finished off with 87 miles.  I increased my long runs up to 10 miles.  My goal is to be at 14 by the time the CFA is behind me, and I know I'll be ready for that kind of distance increase.  I feel good about the base I'll have going into marathon training.

I've also continued to bike - usually 1-2 x's a week on the stationary bike in my condo gym.  And the nice ride bikes are back out, so I bike to/from work, the grocery store, church, birthday parties, you name it!


Looks:

Oh look, another bathroom shot.  I really need to get a full length mirror...  Anywho, this is my favorite outfit of April.  The cardigan is new (another item I bought with my 50% off coupon at BR).  I love that color of pink, and it looks especially good with navy.  I think navy is the new black.