10/29/2015

Wrap-up & favorites (+ I'm back!) || September 2015

*taps the mic* is this thing on?

So, I’ve been missing in action for about two months or so (probably more). Honestly it wasn’t something I planned to do, but life went in that direction, and so here we are. It turned out that I needed to take the summer, and more, off – mostly to actually think about whether I wanted to continue this blog. In the end I decided that I do want to continue. I can’t promise that I will post regularly or anything, but I will try to get at least one post out a week – hopefully more.

So what have I been doing since you last heard from me? The answer is not that much. Okay, I have done some things. I spend 5 days in London with my family, and I had such a great time. I want to go back there some day and explore even more. Basically I want to see more than just the outside of Wembley Stadium. I mean, it’s a beautiful stadium, but it gets old pretty quick. But besides that, I haven't really been doing that much, other than relaxing a whole lot. School has started again in the beginning of September, and I'm currently not technically in school, but out teaching, which is tough, but I'm loving it.

I haven’t really read anything all that much while I’ve been away from the blog either. I wouldn’t call it a reading slump exactly, but yeah, it pretty much was a reading slump. Most of the time I wasn’t in the mood to read anything, and when I finally was in the mood, I ended up reading a shit ton of Teen Wolf fan fiction. Oh well, at least I was reading.

But without further ado, here are my September wrap-up and favorites. (I'm not posting a wrap-up + favorites for October, because honestly, I haven't really done/read anything)

|| BOOKS READ ||
I read 2 books, 1 graphic novel, and 4 short stories/novellas in September. It may not seem like all that much, but I think it was a pretty decent reading month. I have reviews for some of these coming up sometime in the near future.


Lonely Hearts by Heidi Cullinan ★★★★
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang ★★★
Wonderboy by Angel T Kirkegaard ★★★
Fawn by Nash Summers ★★★★★
Waiting For Clark by Annabeth Albert 
The Best Man by Olley White 
Tonight by Karen Stivali 

|| BOOKS ACQUIRED ||
I bought way too many books in the month of September (I know, I'm sorry), but they are all ebooks, so I don’t feel that bad about it. It didn’t put too big of a dent in my budget. I want to try and spend less money on books, because quite frankly, I have too many right now that I need to read, and I can't really make room for book buying in my budget anymore. So, September is hopefully going to be the last month in a while where I buy a shit ton of book. Nevertheless, here are the 16 books, yikes, that I bought in September.
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Him by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen
Crossroads by Riley Hart
Your Voice Is All I Hear – Leah Scheier
Good Omens – Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Magonia – Maria Dahvana Headley
Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon
Charm & Strange – Stephanie Kuehn
Sex & Violence – Carrie Mesrobian
Two Boys Kissing – David Levithan
Ketchup Clouds – Annabel Pitcher
Nick and Charlie – Alice Oseman
Afterworlds – Scott Westerfeld

|| MOVIE & TV FAVORITES ||
Most of September was spend with re-watching Castle, and Queer As Folk. I haven’t watched season four of Castle in a very long time, so it was lovely to revisit the series again - same thing with Queer As Folk (just.. the entire series). I also went to the cinema with my younger brother to watch Straight Outta Compton. I really enjoyed the movie, but I think it got even better because I watched it with my brother. He does know a little more about the music than I do. I do have a couple of problems with the movie, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

|| MUSIC FAVORITES ||
As a result of watching Straight Outta Compton, I spend the rest of the month listening to a shit ton of Ice Cube and N.W.A. I put it on when I’m on my way to school, and it wakes me up pretty great. Besides that, the past months or so, I’ve finally started listening to Halsey, and I absolutely love her music. It has taken over my playlists, and I’m not mad about it at all.

|| LIFE FAVORITES ||
September was a whirlwind of a month. I started school again, and within the first two weeks felt the stress and the pressure. Luckily there were things in September that made some of that stress go away for a little while. One Saturday in September I went out with my cousin, and we danced the whole night. It's been such a long time since I've done that, and we had such a fun time. Another thing is the fact, that I finally decided that, yes, I do want to continue blogging. And though it may not be consistent for the first month or two, I really want to stick with it this time around.

10/27/2015

Top Ten Tuesday || Books On My Halloween Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week is a Halloween freebie, and I decided to list some books that I would love to read this Halloween - not that I think I will.


Okay, truth time, I don’t actually have a Halloween reading list. I don’t even really celebrate Halloween at all. I mean, I do read a scary book (read: try to), watch a scary movie with my dad, and then stuff my face with Halloween chocolate, but that’s about it. Nonetheless, I do love reading creepy books, even though I don’t do it that often – that needs to change (perhaps a 2016 bookish resolution?). These books are not necessarily all horror books, but they are books that I think/I've heard are going to be creepy reads. All of them are books that I, in a perfect reading world, would love to read around Halloween time (not all the books at once, but maybe one or two). Steam, I'm definitely going to read this Halloween, but I still want to try and read one of the others as well.


Bonus - two Halloween-esque movies I'll probably watch this year + one I wish I was watching:
Before I was a reader, I used to spend all my money on DVD's. Honestly, if it wasn't for Netflix, I probably still would.  So as a tiny bonus to this Halloween Top Ten Tuesday, I'm going to list some movies perfect for Halloween.

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: One of my favorite movies of all time. I mean, not it's not a scary movie, but do Halloween movies really need to be that? I don't think so, and I'm definitely going to watch this a little closer to Halloween.

2. Sleepy Hollow: This is a creepy movie. It's a Tim Burton movie, so it's kind of a given. Again, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, and I'm happy to re-watch it once more.

3. It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: I feel like this is such a Halloween classic. I remember watching this on TV as a child, and absolutely loving it. I don't own it, so I can't actually watch it, but I definitely would if I could.

So this was my top ten tuesday for this week. What are some of your favorite movies for Halloween? And what are some of your favorite creepy reads?