Posted in Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: November 1-7, 2021

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you all well.

It’s been a good start to November, I’d say. My reading week was a little slow, but I got some promising books from the library, so I’m confident that it’ll pick up soon.

The most important thing about this week, though, is the start of NaNoWriMo! I’m still in the Young Writer’s program right now, but this’ll be my last year…[sniffles] I’m shooting for 45,000 words this year, and somehow, I’ve managed to get in my 1,500+ words in every day this week! Knock on wood that I’ll be able to keep up the pace for the whole month…[aggressively knocks on the table]

Kermit Typing GIF - Kermit Typing Frog - Discover & Share GIFs

It’s also been a fantastic week for music, if I do say so myself! First off, we got a new Spiritualized single, and he confirmed that a new album is on the way!! For me, it’s the best music he’s released in years, and I’m so excited to hear everything else!! We got new Snail Mail and some reissued Radiohead BOTH on Friday, and both of them are fantastic! I’m especially happy about Snail Mail—expect an album review soonish! (If Nano lets me…)

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing, watching a few more episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender (very slow progress, oops…), finishing and puzzling over season 3 of What We Do in the Shadows (I’m sorry WHAT were those last two episodes??), seeing Soccer Mommy live (she was amazing! The crowd…wasn’t.), and eating leftover Halloween candy. Also, I’m seeing Last Night in SoHo this afternoon, and I’m excited for it! My brother said it was even better than Baby Driver, which is really saying something…

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Girls Are Never Gone – Sarah Glenn Marsh (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh: 9781984836151 |  PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Dream Country – Ashaye Brown (⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Dream Country: 9781916042988: Brown, Ashaye: Books

Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin – Nadia Shammas and Nabi H. Ali (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Ms. Marvel: Stretched Thin (Original Graphic Novel) by Nadia Shammas, Nabi  H. Ali, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

5 Great Horror Books for Teens and Why to Read Them

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry – C.M. Waggoner

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry: Waggoner, C. M.: 9781984805867:  Amazon.com: Books

The Soul Keepers – Devon Taylor

The Soul Keepers (The Soul Keepers, #1) by Devon Taylor

The Way You Make Me Feel – Maurene Goo

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

Trouble the Saints – Alaya Dawn Johnson

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Today’s song:

finally got the chance to listen to all of Amnesiac with the reissue yesterday, great stuff!

That’s it for this week in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Posted in Monthly Wrap-Ups

February 2021 Wrap-Up 🧤

(the mittens emoji looks so dismal here…the apple version looks so much cuter…)

Hi again, bibliophiles!

Here’s another monthly wrap-up of an interesting reading month…

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

thor coffee gif - AllEars.Net
me drinking way too much hot chocolate over the long weekend

February was just…freezing here in Colorado. I suppose I should say “more freezing than usual” because it’s usually pretty chilly, but it rarely gets into the negatives in February, which it happened to do over the long President’s Day weekend. So, yes, lots of hot chocolate was consumed, a few episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender were watched (yes I finally started it), and many pairs of fuzzy socks were worn.

My workload’s been manageable and I’ve managed to keep my grades in a place where I like them, for the most part. I’ve been steadily working away at the outline for my sci-fi WIP, and I probably would have finished were it not for the writing contest that my mom found. So now I’m working away at my short story, and I’m so excited to be really writing again!

I haven’t listened to a whole lot of new stuff, but I’ve been dabbling a bit of instrumental scores, some new Danny Elfman, a bit of Spacemen 3, and of course more Julien Baker as of this Friday. I rewatched half of Fargo and I’m now caught up on WandaVision, and I can’t wait to see how the latter ends!

Also, I somehow managed to get a lot of new followers this month? I’m almost at 400 now, so thanks to all of you lovely people for sticking around 🥺

i *somehow* made this in under 10 minutes lol

READING AND BLOGGING:

I managed to read 22 books this February! That’s two more than January, and certainly a better batch too. (A lot less reads in the 2 star range and none in the 1 star range, I’m glad to say.) So here’s everything…

2 – 2.75 stars:

Amazon.com: The Kinder Poison eBook: Mae, Natalie: Kindle Store
The Kinder Poison

3 – 3.75 stars:

Hellboy: Odder Jobs by Christopher Golden
Hellboy: Odder Jobs

4 – 4.75 stars:

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin | Hachette Book Group
The City We Became

5 stars:

The Punch by Noah Hawley | Grand Central Publishing
The Punch

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Before the Fall5 stars

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

SOME POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

POSTS I ENJOYED FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE:

DID I ACTUALLY FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY FEBRUARY GOALS?

Awkward Uh Oh GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Find & Share on  GIPHY

Let’s see…

  • Read more books by Black authors for Black History Month, and make a post about it: did that! I made an effort to read a lot of books from #OwnVoices Black authors, and I found so many great reads and new-to-me authors that I want to continue reading from. Of course, it’s crucial to read books from marginalized voices 24/7/365, but I figured that it was especially important for Black History Month.
  • Listen to & review Little Oblivions (Julien Baker) when it comes out: uh…
Well Yes, But Actually No | Know Your Meme

Listen to it? I’ve done that a lot. Reviewed it? Well, it came out two days ago, so…maybe next week. We’ll see.

  • Read at least 20 books: did that! 22 books in February 🙂
  • Finish my initial outline for my sci-fi WIP: nope. I might’ve been able to pull it off, but like I said, short story.

GOALS FOR MARCH:

We Got This GIFs | Tenor
  • Finish my short story for the writing contest (since the deadline is early April…)!
  • ACTUALLY review Little Oblivions
  • Read at least 20 books
  • Review all of the eARCs sitting on my Kindle

So that’s it for February, I guess. Here’s to a March that was…[ahem] less eventful than last March. You know what I mean.

Since I’ve already posted today, check out this week’s weekly update for today’s song.

That’s it for my February in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!