Yes, I am horribly behind on everything (I still have two Guides to write!) but I'm slowly catching up. That involves doing these two wrap-ups squished into one!
January and February have actually been a dream. I've been rereading waaaay more than I should be but on the whole, I'm reading a good number of books and keeping the momentum going. I do need to be reading more R&R books but I'm hoping to remedy that ASAP! Anyway, more about it at the bottom. For now, STATISTICS!! (aka my life force)
Statistics:
Pages Read: 10,246
Total Books Read: 31
Rereads: 12
(there's a preview of my March progress too!) (I always do this graphic for my yearly wrap-ups but I didn't think to do it for monthly ones until I saw it on Di's blog and I thought 'oh my goodness why haven't I been doing that, it's brilliant!' So here you go)
Reviews Posted: 18
Distribution of Ratings:
(all those five stars are from the many rereads I did these two months!)
Number of Authors Read: 19
Number of Series Books: 22
Number of Standalones: 9
The Books:
Read:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - J.K. Rowling (Hogwarts Library) (5 stars) (Review to come)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika L. Sanchez (4.5 stars) (Review to come)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie (5 stars) (Review to come)
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (5 stars) (Review to come)
Vietnamerica - G.B Tran (4 stars) (Review to come)
The Sun is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon (4.5 stars) (Review to come)
Reflections:
As you could probably tell, these past two months (January especially) have been excellent Agatha Christie reading months. I posted a LOT of reviews in Agatha Christie roundups. And, bonus, I haven't had that many low-rated books! (seriously, only a couple with 3 stars)
Rereads:
Cinder - Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #1) (5 stars) (Review to come)
Winter - Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #4) (5 stars) (Review to come)
(2) Touched - Corrine Jackson (Sense Thieves #1) (5 stars) (Review to come)
A Long, Long Sleep - Anna Sheehan (Unicorp #1) (5 stars) (Review to come)
Reflections:
This was also a great few months for rereads! I reread some old favorites and I rerated several of them (most notably I upgraded Cress from 3.5 to 5 stars) and I'll be doing a 'Changing Attitudes post on those in the next month or so. And yes, I read Touched twice! I'm not sure what it is about that book, but it's strangely addicting for me. Do you ever have those books that feel like they know you or something and you get really attached to them? That's me with Touched.
Currently Reading:
Fairytale Confessions - Anthology
Reflections:
This is a book a bought a while ago and I'm slowly working my way through reading each story and writing a teeny tiny mini review on each. I'm about 60% through and I'm mostly enjoying it. I'm thinking the average star rating will end up being around 3.75.
Movies:
Reflections:
I had quite a few rewatches (The Proposal, Day After Tomorrow, Signs, Ella Enchanted, Doctor Strange, London Has Fallen, Men In Black, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Moana, National Treasure, and Apollo 13) but I also had a good amount of new-to-me movies! Favorites include Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Baby Driver, and Loving Vincent. I saw The Shape of Water and while I did like it at the end, I definitely should have read what it was about before going to see it (and there is a serious plot hole with the main character's vocal chords!). It is beautiful on a big screen, though. Geostorm was good, but as a biology major, I had some science issues with it (where is all the random water coming from that the satellites just shower over everything??? How does that even work?). Baby Driver was seriously SO good! I loved how they timed everything to the music. It really emphasized the atmosphere and theme. Dunkirk was just all right. I think it's really interesting if you're familiar with the situation to start with but I came into it cold which was the wrong decision. Bring it On is just ridiculous. Definitely don't watch it. Armageddon was ridiculously sexist and I wasn't expecting it because it was made in 1998! It gets good near the end, but I don't recommend it.
TV:
Reflections:
It's been a really good few months for TV too! I had stalled on Grey's Anatomy for a while because I was dreading a character death (I just finished season 11 and I'm so glad I got it over and done with because it was so heart wrenching). I'm trying to stretch Sherlock out for as long as I can because I know that when I get to the end of the 4th season, I'm going to be inconsolable for weeks (I just finished season 3). And it always takes them FOREVER to film new seasons! I finally finished all the seasons of Criminal Minds on Netflix (12) and I was not ready for it to end. Luckily, they're still filming new seasons so a new season should be up on Netflix within the next year (and in the meantime, I'll rewatch them all obsessively). The Great British Baking Show is just my go-to show when I really don't want to deal with the emotions and stress of regular series TV shows. It's just so lovely and wholesome and funny and I recommend it if you haven't seen it already! There are currently 4 seasons on Netflix! I spent a lot of my winter break sewing and crocheting (I finally finished a full size crocheted blanket!!!) and in the background, I always like to watch either Forensic Files, or Mysteries at the Museum. They're just good shows that you don't have to pay complete attention to and you don't have to constantly watch the visuals to get the gist.
On the Blog:
Reviews:
50/50 Fridays:
Wrap-Ups:
Miscellaneous:
Life Update:
Whew this is getting to be a long post! Now I remember why I try to always do wrap-ups once a month instead of two months in one...
Like I said above, I spent January mostly sewing and crocheting because I wasn't working. I actually finally crocheted an entire blanket which I've never had the patience for before!! I also finished sewing a black velvet dress (which I adore but I somehow made the waist too small so I'm going to put in some darts and alter it a bit) and a blue and gold poofy off the shoulder dress! I don't currently have a picture of the black velvet dress so I put the pattern below on the left (what the model is wearing is what I made in black). I did take a picture of the blue and gold dress I made (to be completely honest, I picked the colors because they reminded me of Rhysand...) and I put that on the right below (this was also right before I donated 12 inches of my hair so you can see how long it is!)!
As I mentioned above, I donated 12 inches of my hair in January. It's becoming a sort of tradition every 2.5 years or so to donate my hair (last time I donated to Wigs for Kids and this year it was Children with Hair Loss). Their missions are very similar in that they give free wigs to kids with any type of disease that leaves them unable to grow their own hair. So now, I have lovely short hair that falls right above my shoulders (which means no more headaches!).
A new semester at uni has begun (I started at the very end of January) and it's going pretty well so far! I switched my major plan so now I'm double majoring in English Creative Writing and Biology which definitely fits my career aspirations a little better (and, who am I kidding, it also has a nice contingency plan built in). I'm taking this course called Perspectives in Popular Texts for my English degree and we basically read a bunch of #ownvoices YA books which is so awesome! I'm thinking of doing round-ups for all those reviews like I did last semester.
I've also recently been obsessed with ALL the soundtracks including The Greatest Showman, Hamilton, Moana, Les Mis, and Phantom of the Opera! I'm either going to do a Music of the Month post soon or a whole bunch of Music Monday's!
Spring break is coming up soon (in the next few weeks) and I'm really excited to get away from school for a while! My family (with the exception of my brother) are going to be going on a cruise to the Bahamas so that'll be fun. I'm not sure how much reading I'll get done (probably mostly rereading as I won't be taking my laptop to write reviews!) but it'll be nice to relax.
My blogoversary is also coming up in a week or so and I'm really excited! I've actually been planning a giveaway for a while (this one will be US exclusive but I'm planning an international one to take place either during the summer or the early fall too!) so that's exciting.
I'm very, VERY behind on all things relating to the blog (I'm behind two Guide's, my R&R pile has yet to substantially dip below 35, and I'm constantly playing catch up with 50/50 Friday's) but I'm hoping to remedy that within the next few weeks. After spring break things should really calm down a bit (midterms and scholarship applications are really concentrated on the two weeks preceding and proceeding spring break).
Unfortunately, I ended up being really busy when the Olympics were going on and I didn't get to watch a single performance! Not even the opening and closing ceremonies! Every time the Olympics are on, I at least get to watch some of it, but this year was just not having it. I'm hoping to watch whatever was recorded though (especially the ice skating routines!!).
Whew! That's all for now! How have the first two months of your year been? Are you keeping up with your challenge goals? Do you agree with me that baking and crime shows are the cream of the TV crop? What's your favorite winter Olympic sport (ice skating, say ICE SKATING because it is THE BEST)?
Ok. These wrap up posts are frustrating for me too. ;) I have so much I want to comment on. Here goes.
ReplyDeleteI love how much rereading you do. Now I’m interested in Touched. I’ll be looking it up
I read A Monster Calls for the first time this week and cried like a baby. It was so good.
I don’t think The Shape of Water should have one the Oscar. It was OK but not that great. Baby Driver was so fun!
Everyone talks about The Great British Baking show. I’m thinking I need to try it.
Those dresses are adorable and I’d love pics of the finished products.
Have fun on your cruise!
Phew! I think I mentioned everything I wanted to.
Haha my rereading is actually somewhat of a problem for me because I get so sucked into old favorites, that I get a little dependent on them and don't want to read new books (which is terrible because then how will I find new favorites???) but I enjoy it while it's happening :) Just be aware that Touched isn't the best book in the world; it's one of my weird obsessions from the beginning of YA :) I'm really interested to hear your opinion on it, though!
DeleteRIGHT??? I can't read that book with anyone else in the room because I cry so much at the end...
I feel the same! Like, it was interesting, but I don't think that the story really held up. Maybe they were going for an extended metaphor, but it just felt strange to me.
YOU MUST!! I was pushed to try it by one of my offline friends and I'm so glad that I decided to give in :)
I'll try to get pictures soon! It helps that daylight savings time ended so I actually have some natural light available by the time I'm home.
Thank you! I'm hoping it'll be a nice relaxing break away from everything.
Well you certainly had a productive few months! I watched a lot of the oscar nominated movies but I didn’t watch the Shape of Water because idk something about it just seems so weird to me. But as a history lover, I thought Dunkirk was phenomenal!
ReplyDeleteHaha you can say that again! Yeah, I don't regret going to see it, but I definitely won't be rewatching it ever. It's just very strange. Beautiful in a way, but strange. I do need to read up on the history of Dunkirk! If I had some background knowledge, I think the movie would have been a little more impactful for me (we probably learned about it in school but I've always been terrible with dates and such...). Thanks for stopping by, Emily!
DeleteWow, you have read so much! I'm jealous! Love the graphs and glad mine inspired you! 😄
ReplyDeleteI'm also so behind still. I travelled at the end of last year and put myself a good couple of months behind and then I never got to catch up and now I'm travelling again! 😆 Hopefully I won't let myself lapse quite so badly. At least I'm visiting a couple of blogs here and there! But reading .... Little bit slow..
Hope you are having a wonderful March!! Catch up properly soon.
Thanks :)
DeleteUgh I completely understand! It's like once you get behind, there's no going back. I'm crossing my fingers that you'll be able to claw your way back to normalcy soon! It's awesome that you're able to travel places, though!
You as well!!
I am so jealous, you are superwoman! Not only did you read a TON of books but you also sew?! (I'm so jealous!) Also the fact that you have a class that you get to read #ownvoices YA in is AMAZING (I would have loved to been assigned ANY YA in any of my college courses!)
ReplyDeleteHaha I try! I'm mostly doing great in everything that I don't HAVE to do which isn't great but I do get a lot of reading done.
DeleteI've always wanted to be one of those people who goes thrifting and repurposes old clothes and makes then into something new (the YouTube channel coolirpa is my lifeforce) so I'm thinking I'll get really really comfortable with patterns first and then graduate to trying that.
Right?? After my major change, it actually doesn't count for anything significant but I didn't have the heart to drop it; it's such a great class and I'm getting to read a lot of the books I've been meaning to read FOREVER (like Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda this week!!). Thanks for stopping by, Cristina!
Wow, you've certainly had a few super productive months! A lot of Agatha Christie and a lot of rereads, I see! I wish I could make time to reread a few old faves too, but I'm barely reading as it is so nope. No rereads for me right now :(( It's great that you've made a tradition of donating your hair and oh, that's one pretty dress you sewed!!! I'm sure the black velvet one looks amazing too! <33 Here's hoping the rest of the year is as eventful and productive!
ReplyDeleteI have! And then March comes around and I faceplant into the melting snow. :)
DeleteI kind of have the opposite problem. Whenever I'm in a reading slump, it's not that I can't read, but that I can only reread which gets kind of irritating after a while even if it is really nostalgic and lovely.
Thank you! I love it too! It's a little formal for wearing every day (mehh!!!) but I'll be wearing it during every fancy occasion I can find.
That's for sure! I hope you get your reading mojo back soon, Ruz!