June 2017 in Review

I can’t believe it’s already July! Like, what the heck, (it feels like) I just got home from school? That being said, I’m really hyped for July because A) hopefully it will stop raining every day here, B) I’m going on vacation soon, and mostly just for C) I’m seeing ED SHEERAN in concert SOOOOON!! But you’ll hear all about those happenings in my July in Review post… With that, let’s take a look at what happened in June (and other relevent happenings from while I was still at school)!

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Life & Everything Else:

I moved back home from school for the summer (and I miss Providence terribly). But it’s nice to be able to relax and enjoy some free time!

I’ve been binge-watching too much a lot of TV. I’m kind of obsessed with HBO shows at the moment. I finished watching the first season of Westworld after I got home (I started it sometime during first semester and didn’t get a chance to watch TV since). It was crazy good and I highly recommend! Then I started on Girls [review here]. Then I moved on to Big Little Lies. I think I watched this in about 4 days and holycow it was crazy and I loved it! I’ve basically been a vegetable: either reading, watching TV, blogging, or designing.

When I did do something other than those glorious activities, I hung out with some friends, went to the movies (I just saw Wonder Woman!!!! SO AMAZING YAY!!), ate lots of good food, and played with my cat more than is healthy.

Speaking of movies, I just have to mention that back in March (AKA back in school life) I carved out a chunk of time and friends and I went to see Beauty and the Beast and it was PERFECTION. That is all. Also, Spider-Man Homecoming is releasing soon and I’m so ready! Tom Holland is a wonderful human and even more wonderful Peter Parker from what I’ve seen of interviews, clips, and trailers so far.

Graduation, B-Fest, and FINALLY a Book Haul!

I don’t even think I should be allowed to call these posts “Week in Review” anymore. Maybe “Some Random Chunk of Time Every Few Months in Review” would be more accurate these days…

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Guys, I graduated! Well, technically the ceremony is in a couple weeks but my last day of school was last Thursday, so I consider it official! Looking back I can’t believe how fast the time has flown, but I definitely ready to move on to my new life at RISD!

To kick off summer I went to Barnes & Noble’s B-Fest that started on Friday, June 10th. I participated in the trivia and won! I picked up lots of other cool freebies like stickers, exclusive excerpts, chapter samples, posters, and bookmarks. My favorite thing that I won had to be a postcard that I mailed in to the publisher that put me on Random House AND Penguin Teen’s ARC mailing list for a YEAR!

Life is still crazy, but about to be crazier!

I’m back for another Week in Review post! Two weeks in a row? Let’s keep this happening!

As you could probably guess by the title of this post, my life is continuing to be crazy. With what, I can’t quite pinpoint. School, art, errands, the normal day to day things I suppose. I had to do a reality check when I realized that I have just over 100 days until I graduate high school, and just over 150 until I move to college. The days are going by so fast!

Anyway, this past Tuesday was the Season 5 finale of Teen Wolf, and I cried, people. Any other Teen Wolf fans want to cry over the wait to Season 6 with me? The ending was just so happy, and it made my heart happy as a result. ❤

I didn’t get as much reading done as I did last week, but I did read 2 books (as of when I’m writing this post Saturday morning). I finished The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead and All the Feels by Danika Stone. I enjoyed both of them, but they weren’t anything special for me. My review for The Glittering Court will be up early next week, and my review for All the Feels will be on Andye’s blog closer to the release date in June!

I’m just starting Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse, which I’m SO excited for. This weekend I’m planning on getting lots of reading done, as I have…wait for it…NO HOMEWORK! I can’t believe I can say that, but it’s true and I’m taking advantage of it! Therefore I’m hoping to read a couple more April releases (I’ve got plenty to choose from): Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan, No Love Allowed by Kate Evangelista, A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry, or Two Summers by Aimee Friedman. Let me know which one you think I should read after I’ve finished Girl in the Blue Coat! There’s a little bit of everything between those four books.

Week in Review: In Which February Leapt to March

It’s been a little over a month since I’ve written one of these posts. What?! But in keeping with my 2016 resolutions, I’m not too worried about it. I said I wouldn’t fault myself for not having a schedule and only posting when I want to, and I’ve kept that so far! Yay for me! I never keep new year’s resolutions, so this is a big deal for me.

Anyway, life has been super busy, as usual. But, unlike usual, I’ve been reading more during the week. Normally I only get around to reading starting Friday afternoon and through the weekend. The past two week’s Wednesdays have been the magic day! Two weeks ago I read In Real Life by Jessica Love in one sitting, and this past week I read Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton in almost one sitting. Crazy! And in between, I managed to read Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor during the weekend. It may not seem like a lot for some, but for a high school senior, that’s a ton. P.S., if you’re looking for reviews of In Real Life and Rebel of the Sands, they’ll be posting soon! March 10th and March 7th, respectively.

I may have mentioned this before, but I’m taking AP Drawing this year, and it’s crunch time. Any of my free time during the day I’ve been spending in the art room. I’m a super slow worker so this is proving to be quite the challenge. To the right is a little sneak peek at what I’m currently working on!

So that’s pretty much been life lately!

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I purged my bookshelves! Finally! It’s been needing to happen for quite some time now, as I just keep acquiring books faster than I can put them on my shelves. I decided to get rid of about 25 books (ARCs and finished copies), to free up some space. They’re all books that I’ve either read and not enjoyed, or books that I don’t plan on ever reading. They’ll probably end up being donated or sold to a used book store. Nothing has happened yet though…

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I’ve accumulated quite a bunch of books courtesy of the lovely publishers, and Andye. I was approved for And I Darken by Kiersten White on NetGalley (Thanks Random House!). I’m so flipping excited for this monster of a book! I’ve read some of Kiersten White’s other books and loved, so this was a must-request. I requested Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton and The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead from Penguin through their First to Read program (Thanks!). As I already mention, I’ve already read Rebel of the Sands, and I’m now currently reading The Glittering Court. I forgot to mention in my last WiR that I got Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan from HMH (Thank you!). I was approached by Dorian Tsukioka to review another of her fairytale retelling novellas, Spell Bound. I read and enjoyed her first, and was intrigued by the synopsis of this one, so many thanks to her!
As physical copies go, I received Two Summers by Aimee Friedman from Scholastic, unsolicited (Thanks!). It looks like a really fun summer read, and I’m excited to get around to it! Andye sent me All the Feels by Danika Stone and A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody (Thank you bunches, as always!). Both of these contemporaries look right up my alley, so I’m very excited!

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The blogosphere has been filled to the brim with incredible posts and events lately, so I thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. Sorry if you’ve seen these already, they’re a bit on the older side now.

• Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic told us “How to Determine if You Live with the Magical Creature Called the Reader.“
• Val @ The Innocent Smiley recapped the WWII event that I participated in, hosted by herself and Ely @ Tea and Titles.
• Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books suggests books for each song from Grease Live!
• Cait @ Paper Fury asks why we love reading painful books.
• Aila @ One Way or An Author talks about 5 popular descriptions of characters in YA.
• Alise @ Readers in Wonderland shared something I know well — reader’s guilt.
• Jolien @ The Fictional Reader talks spoiler disclaimers.

Here at Books & Cleverness I’ve been posting quite a bit too!

• I binge-watched The Fall.
• I shared YA Publisher sites that prove publishers are AH-MAZING.
• I questioned whether novellas are an added bonus or just unneeded.
• I reviewed and loved Blackhearts, Titans, and Into the Dim.

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Wow, this turned out to be a pretty long post! But it’s so nice to be catching up with everyone again. Look for lots more reviews to come soon!

 

Shadowhunters, Snape, and a whole lot of books!

*In all honesty I wrote this post planning to go up on Sunday, but just didn’t get around to taking pictures of the books until today, hence the extreme lateness of this post.*

This is my first Week in Review post of 2016! Well, actually *cough* I haven’t done a WiR post since February 2015 *cough*. But, I’ve been reading responses from my feedback survey and discovered that a lot of you LOVE WiR posts! I love reading other people’s, too. But because of that, I’m making it a point to try and stick to bringing these posts back. These are also some of my favorite posts to write! They also allow me to give you life tidbits (another resolution for 2016), so I think I’ll definitely be keeping this up!