May Wrap-Up

Wow, May was… May was something. I barely blogged, I read some books, I got obsessed with webcomics… Honestly I mostly just read books, read webcomics, and listened to music.

Still, it was a good month. Webcomics and books and music are fun. And if I got absolutely nothing productive done? Well that’s nothing new, is it?

Also my blogiversary is coming up soon, and if you have any questions you want me to answer in my Q&A, you can submit them here. (Please please please? I don’t have enough questions yet! Thank you!)

I read nineteen books in May, which is awesome, and… A lot of them were awesome, although a lot of them were actually quite disappointing or meh too, sadly.

(Ratings link to my review (when there’s a review to link to that is :D))

The Gentelman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee – Um, WHY did I wait so long to read this?! It actually took me quite a while to get into, but once I did… OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!! It SO deserves all the hype! SO GOOD!!! MONTY! PERCY! FELICITY!!!! – 5 stars!!

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith – This was cute light fluff… I had a few issues with it, but it was enjoyable enough. And reading about acting while in the green room waiting to go on stage was sort of amazing. – 3.5 stars.

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner – This book was SO disappointing! After having loved the first book, I was super excited to get to this one, especially after having heard how much better it was. Yeah no. The plot was all over the place, and the ‘romance’ was so poorly developed that I hesitate to even call it romance. Ughhhh. – 2.5 stars.

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway – I absolutely loved this! It kept me up waayyyyy too late, and it was super emotional, and I was just sitting there at two in the morning bawling my eyes out over this book. Highly recommend! – 5 stars!

Cast Long Shadows by Cassandra Clare –  Okay so technically this is a short story, but it was amazing, and it had the emotional damage of a full length book, sooo… It counts. AND OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!! I fell absolutely in love with Matthew Fairchild, and HOW does a story so short hurt so MUCH?! – 5 stars!!!!!

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalo – This was dark and murdery and so much better than the first one! – 4 stars.

Nemesis by Anna Banks – This was REALLY good, except for a rather possessive love interest… Which was romanticized, which was just not cool. – 3.5 stars.

And I Darken by Kiersten White – This was stabby and enjoyable, and Radu was precious and Lada was… Stabby. And awesome and badass. It was just… sort of boring as well. – 4 stars.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth – Wow, this was actually decent. Shocking. I mean, it’s certainly not a piece of great literature, and I do NOT understand why this got so much hype, but… It was decent. I still hate Tris though. – 3.5 stars.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth – This was the best in the series in my opinion. Probably mostly because I love getting chapters from Four’s perspective, but the plot was actually pretty interesting too. And well, that big controversial thing? I really liked it. In fact I was practically gleeful. Oops. – 3.5 stars.

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor – This was super disappointing. I loved the first one, and thought the second was very good, but this one… just completely lost me. Don’t get me wrong, it was objectively speaking a very good book, I just… couldn’t connect to it. I was bored. Also the pacing was sort of off… Honestly the only real saving grace for this book was Zuzana and Mik. – 3.5 stars.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo – This was Leigh Bardugo. Obviously it was good! It was so amazing, and empowering, and hilarious, and emotional, all at once! What a gem. – 4.5 stars.

Ally by Anna Banks – As with Nemesis, this book was REALLY good. Except for the creepy possessive romance. I have very mixed feelings about this book, (especially as I somehow shipped it anyways). I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t recommend it at all. – 3 stars.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab – THIS BOOK!! 😍😍😍 Perfection. Utter perfection. It was so heartfelt and emotional, as well as deliciously creepy, and I LOVED IT!!! How is Victoria Schwab blessed with such skill?! Whatever, I’m very grateful that she is, because she’s brought so man amazing books into the world because of it! – 5 stars!!!!!!!!!

Four: A Divergent Story Collection by Veronica Roth – Look, maybe I didn’t love Divergent all that much, but I wanted more Four, okay? And it was sitting around the house… There wasn’t much to this, but it was enjoyable enough. – 3 stars.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust – What a wonderful book! It was full of emotions, and the relationships between the characters were all just so amazing! What a beautiful book! – 4 stars.

Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes – WHY am I even still reading this?! This series is so unoriginal and meh. Oh yeah, I know why. It’s because of that one (1) character I liked who is now dead, and those stupid cliffhangers! I swear, I wouldn’t have any motivation to pick up the next one, except that stupid cliffhanger is making it impossinle to stop! – 3 stars.*

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu – This was feminist and fantastic, but the romance played a much bigger role than I would have liked (more girls being badass and amazing and less kissing please!), and I still say The Nowhere Girls did it better. Go read it instead. – 4 stars.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black – This was rich and gorgeous and amazing! I was absolutely sucked into the story, and I couldn’t put this book down for the life of me! Can I have The Wicked King NOW please?! – 4 stars.

*Barely

 
A small haul, but hey, I found Clockwork Prince in near perfect condition for cheap (I’ll need to try and peel that sticker off, but I actually don’t mind stickers too much), and I realized that The Mortal Instruments actually DO have covers that are not only not hideous, but actually downright gorgeous! Now I just need to figure out where I can get the rest of the series to match! Thank you used bookstores! (Also whoops, I was totally not just supposed to be shopping for a friend…)

Plus I got an ebook of Cast Long Shadows, because I obviously needed that.

I did stuff in May. Yeah… Ummm… I think?

• I read a LOT of webcomics, as I already mentioned.
• Webcomics are amazing. I’m a bit obsessed.
• Ohhhh yeah, I was in a play.
• Honestly I’m just glad to be done with it…
• Like, I love acting, but I like it more when I have enough lines to actually feel I know my character…
• Also half the cast was in the 8-10 age range. Soooo… I’m REALLY glad to be out of there!
• I stupidly forgot to bring a book to dress rehearsal, and as I’m onstage for about ten minutes tops, and my costume takes me maybe five minutes to change into I was sooooo bored for most of that FOUR. HOUR. LONG. Rehearsal. Yay me.
• I remembered to bring a book to all the shows thank goodness!
• Because due to the age range, and my complete ineptitude at talking to the few people who were my age, I didn’t exactly have anyone I could talk to.
• So instead I just wrote book quotes and character names onto the large piece of paper they had spread out for kids to draw on.
• And wrote a (very bad) haiku about books.
• But yeah, we had four shows the first weekend, and they went well I think.
• Although I got sick on the last day. Yay for projecting my lines with a sore throat… Ugh.
• And then the next weekend we had one outdoor show. That was… quite something.
• There wasn’t really a backstage, so we were all just sitting awkwardly behind the sets, and the audience could completely see us… And I can imagine some of the less mature kids were pretty distracting, as certainly not everyone was sitting quietly like we were told to do. Lovely. We came across as SO professional I’m suuurre.
• Then we had our cast party…
• We got posters for the show, and had everybody sign them, which will be a nice memento.
• After that everyone disappeared.
• Also the venue smelled like puke.
• And I was still sick.
• So I left early… I think it was a very wise move.
• I had my public speaking year end public presentation, which was lovely.
• But honestly they’re twice a year, and this was my fourth year, sooo… It really wasn’t that notable to me. It’s just like, whatever, I got up in front of a bunch of parents and gave a speech. For the eighth time. It was exciting at first, but it’s just not anymore.
• I went over to my friend’s house and reorganized all her books.
• I asked first… sort of.
• Er, well, not first exactly, but before I got too far…
• So now my friend has rainbow organized books 😂😂

Yep, that was pretty much my May.

So… seeing as these didn’t go up up til the fifteenth (oops), and since if I count them for the first half of the month I’ve epically failed all of them, I’m just going to count the second half of the month.

This Month’s Goals

• POST TWICE A WEEK! ✅ Er, sort of…? Close enough anyways!
• Stay caught up on RTC’s! ❌✅ I’m not currently quite caught up, but I’m close…
• Get a decent sleeping schedule. ❌❌ No. Just no.
• GET OUT OF THE HOUSE MORE! ❌❌Yeah, no.
• Keep journaling. ✅❌ Err… Not really. But like, I’ve been doing it sometimes…?
• READ SOME OF THE BOOKS I BORROWED FROM MY COUSIN!!!! ✅✅ I organized them all into piles of which ones had been read, and which ones hadn’t, and I read three out of fifteen unread ones. So yes, finally!
• Keep my bookshelf organized. ✅✅✅ YES!!! I just love it so much that I can’t bring myself not to keep it perfectly organized!!!
• FINISH ORGANIZING MY ROOM!!! ❌✅ I put up all my posters, which was part of my goal. I didn’t actually organize anything.
  
• Find ways to entertain myself now that things are wrapping up, that aren’t on the computer. ❌✅ Umm… I’ve still been spending way too much time on the computer, but I’ve been doing some beading in the last few days, and organized a book club(!!) that will start up on Monday.

Next Month’s Goals

• POST TWICE A WEEK! I always fail at this, but… I can hope.
• Stay on top of RTC’s… Hopefully?
• Get in a decent sleeping schedule. I’ve been staying up super late, and then sleeping in way more than I mean to… Ugh.
• Get out of the house more. Seriously, I need this so bad.
• Read more of the books I borrowed from my cousin! At least five maybe?
• Keep my bookshelf organized. This one is super easy, but it’s nice to complete some goals, okay?
• FINISH ORGANIZING MY ROOM!! It is SUCH a mess right now.
• Bead for the flea market I’m going to sell my stuff at! This shouldn’t be hard… But it will be.

How was your May? What are your goals for June? Do you like book clubs? What did you read this month? Do you like webcomics?