Books and Backpacks

Alone With You in the Ether: A lyrical and beautifully crafted love story. Happy belated Valentines day, book friends. While I have recently discovered that I'm not really a big romance girlie anymore, there are a few romances that stick out in my mind — especially during this time of the year. One of those romances is Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake . Olivie Blake is a name I only really knew for their quick rise to popularity after the release of  The Atlas Six  back in 2020. I had bought that book back when it was released, but never really had a strong desire to read it— mostly, I just really liked the matte black cover. I have a vague memory of hearing about  Alone With You in the Ether  a while after  The Atlas Six , but it was more of a general awareness that a lot people active in online book communities tend to have.  So when I was scrolling through Libby trying to find a short-ish audiobook to listen to whilst I was runni...

Everything I read, watched, played and did in January.  Anyone that knows me knows that I don't really do much — I'm very much a homebody and I'm more than happy with that. But even as an introvert, there are still a handful of things I like to do. Many of those things are just done at home. My partner and I are both pretty sentimental people.I blame both of us being eldest children for that. We have a little storage box that we keep mementos from all of our dates in. In a kind of similar way, I was thinking about how it could be interesting to keep a kind of virtual diary where I can keep track of all our important (and some non-important) life events and look back to see what we were doing at this time in our life. An in-depth wrap up that focuses on not just what I'm reading, but also what I'm playing, watching, and doing each month. I think doing this monthly wrap ups will help me both to post on my blog more and to keep track of what I'm doing at different ...

Books, shows, and movies all to help you fully actualize the perfect fall.  In my humble opinion, halloween is a mindset-- one that I try to maintain for a majority of the year. So if Christmas-lovers get to start decorating on the first of November, I don't see why us halloween-lovers can't start Halloween in September. To help you start your halloween right this moment, I've decided to put together some spooky suggestions to have a particularly spooky girl summer. Horror novels written by Women:  To start off my spooky recs, I wanted to highlight what I had originally aimed to do with this piece-- talk about the underrepresented women who write horror. I realize that a majority of horror lists on GoodReads are dominated by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Grady Hendrix, so for the first section of my spooky recs, we'll look at horror novels penned by women.   1. Near the Bone- Christina Henry                    ...

       In August, I aimed to read 5 books, but ended up reading 19. I actually ended up having to make a second page for the books I read in my reading journal. The other thing I did differently in my reading journal this month was I started writing down the quotes I liked from each book. I had 4 books on my tbr this month and I read 2 of them, DNF-ed one, and gave up on the last. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how much I read this month and what I read.  Pillow Thoughts- Courtney Peppernell  ... your name runs through my veins...  Honestly, this one was kind of forgettable, but pretty good based on my initial rating.  4/5 You are the sun, the moon, and all the stars. Shatter Me; Unravel Me; Reveal Me - Tahereh Mafi  I'm not afraid of you, my dear... I'm absolutely enchanted -Shatter Me These are the first three books of the Shatter me series that I re-read this month. Honestly, all I remembered from my first reading last year was Aaron War...

 May:  1.  Book of Night - Holly Black:                                                                  ⭐⭐.5 I don't fully understand why Black would ever leave her beloved world of fae, but I wish she hadn't. Although eventually, if this series continues (which I think it is), I'm confident she'll find a way to loop it in.  2. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen:                                                      ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fitzwilliam Darcy fucks. End of story.  3. You've Lost a lot of Blood - Eric Larocca:                           ...

I have gone through the reading slump of my life last month-- as in I didn't pick up a single book for the entire month of june. Because of that slump, it felt weird to write about what I'd read when I wasn't actively reading anything. Since the end of June, I've gotten a bit out of my reading slump, but I still don't feel my usual constant desire for people to leave me alone so that I can get back to my books.  I also, finally have a couple months off of school. So, in the time I'm not working, I'm pretty much not doing anything right now. You may see where this is going.  I will now attempt to vanquish-- once and for all-- my reading slump by finding a new favourite novel. In order to achieve this goal I will be reading 14 books over 14 days. Or trying to, at least. I have already made my list of what I'd like to read, but I am open to making all the changes my little mood-reader-heart desires over the course of the next two weeks.  Going into it, I am...