Hey y’all! I haven’t been as active on here as I was hoping this month (and will probably continue this way until December), but I am back with a monthly wrap up! this totally isn’t my favourite post to write every month

I’ve been a little bit swamped this month, and I honestly can’t believe October is almost over. I swear it’s still March. The fact that nano is in like four days (as of writing this) is ridiculous and I refuse to believe it.

Anyways now that we’ve established that as usual I’m in denial of the passage of time, onto the wrap up!

• so school has been a thing
• too much school, I don’t approve
• I did get to work on some public speaking/TED Talk themed stuff though, and I’m a nerd so I loved that
• also am working on a novel study and again I’m a nerd so I love that
• yes hi I’m a nerd
• we had some confusion on whether I was registered properly lmaoooo, but! I am! thankfully!
• I’ve been conditionally accepted into the program I want to take for college next year! I’m very excited!!!
• anyways so too much of my life has been school (even if it hasn’t been all bad!) but what else did I do??
• I,,,, went to the dentist twice. it was hell. I need to go three more times. more hell. anyways we don’t speak of this
• I’ve been rewatching Julie and the Phantoms, with my family this time, and am pleased to report that my obsession with it has not died down
• mostly I’ve been prepping for nano, writing, doing school, or procrastinating those three things
• I baked puff pastry again! last month I made soggy salty puff pastry, but this time I made puff pastry that actually resembled right!!

• they aren’t exactly pretty (and a few of them didn’t puff as well as hoped) but like,,,,,,, they aren’t soggy and they’re delicious, so it’s a win
• I also baked cinnamon rolls!! they were very tasty and we ate them all too fast :((

• aaaaand I also baked pretzel’s stuffed with cookie dough! which again, were delicious.
• this has just turned into my showing y’all pictures of food, but,,,,, I had fun!!

• so yeah uh. I baked a lot!!
• I literally think that was it?? I baked and read and wrote and did school
• oh! I went to a couple online sessions with a local writers festival! that was really cool
• I also visited my old homeschool group over zoom to talk about writing so that was??? super cool???!

I wrote . . . more than I intended to this month! My goal was 15K, and I ended up hitting 24298 words. I’m doing a year-long challenge, and for that I’m counting schoolwork and blog words as well, so counting those my total is 38782. I’m really happy with the progress I made!

I didn’t quite finish my book like I was hoping to, but I made some good progress!! I also got some plotting work done, and chipped away a tiny bit at other projects as well. It was definitely a good writing month, and I’m pleased I made this much progress without burning myself out before nano!

spreadsheets made by my friend ❤

I don’t have a whole lot to say about writing since most of my writing brainpower went into prepping for nano, which I’ve already talked about on here a bit, and will be talking more about during November. I was happy with my writing month though!

I was hoping to read 12 books this month, and only ended up hitting 10 (and very few of them the ones I was actually planning for), but I did read mostly good books, and overall was okay with my reading this month. I also hit my goodreads challenge this month! admittedly it was pretty low (80 books), but I’m sort of hoping I’ll actually hit 100 books by the end of the year after all (which was my original goal before covid came and destroyed my motivation), which would be nice!!

Rick by Alex Gino – this was just so cute!! like I enjoyed myself so much, and I really loved the characters, and it was so adorable and queer and !! I love queer middle grade so much, it makes me so happy 🥺 I would have liked a bit more nuance on a few things, but I do recognize that I’m just not the target audience, and much more nuance might be overwhelming – 4 stars

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan – I really enjoyed this reread!! I do think it’s my least favourite in the series (and it maybe dragged a bit, at times) but overall it was incredibly enjoyable, and I just really love this series!! – 4 stars

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon – this book was beyond spectacular. I genuinely do not have the words to explain how good it was. I just . . . wow. the layers this book had. I’m speechless. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a new *favourite* from a personal perspective, but I truly think this is one of the best books I’ve read this year, if not all time – 5 stars

Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn E. O’Connacht – I had such high hopes for this one and I was. . . more than a little bit disappointed? it wasn’t bad by any means, but . . . I don’t know. maybe the fact that it was written in verse for me, maybe it was this specific style, but I found the writing really grating. I did warm up to it a bit more in the second half, but . . . it was only ever fine. –3 stars

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson – look this book was just SO much fun. like omg I enjoyed myself so much. I’m not sure I would say it was mind-blowing or groundbreaking, but I loved every second of it! I was also sooo impressed with the way the texts were handled, and the fact that the author managed to pull it off so well! it’s no mean feat to tell a story entirely in texts, but it was so perfectly done and I just !! am in awe rn. also 10/10 recommend the audiobook, it was delightful – 4.5 stars

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf – y’all y’all y’all this book was SO GOOD. I think this is probably going to make it into my top three books of the year, I loved it so much! it was just . . . so beautifully written, and the characters were so real and I just . . . wow. it’s definitely not an easy read, and it’s not the sort of book that would usually be a favourite for me, but it was just . . . wow. The Weight of Our Sky blew me away, and I just . . . I don’t even have words. it’s been a really long time since I found a historical fiction book I loved, but wowwww – 5 stars

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power – I don’t think I liked this one quiiite as much as Wilder Girls (which is a shame, because unlike wilder girls I thought this one had a perfect ending), but I still really liked it! it was so subtle creepy, and the characters were very good, and the family themes and ahhhhh!! I can’t say much without giving things away, but I definitely recommend this for spooky season! – 4 stars

I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch – this was a huge let down :((( I did like the last 40% or so a lot better than the beginning, but . . . I don’t know. this was enemies to lovers, but I feel like it sort of missed the *to* part, and just sorta. flipped a switch from really-toxic-enemies-who-try-to-destroy-each-other to okay-actually-romance, and I just . . . hhh I wanted more from it :(( it wasn’t bad, but for one of my most anticipated releases, with such a god tier premise . . . I am sad – 3 stars

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston – this needed 1000% less harry potter references (like this was released in 2020, come on), but other than that was very fun!! I loved the nerdiness and the casual queer rep, and the romance was very good and !! I really enjoyed myself reading this, and I couldn’t put it down, and it was sort of nice to just lose myself in a romcom for a while – 3 stars

American Royals by Katherine McGee – this was, without a doubt, one of the worst quality books I’ve ever read. like pure trash. but . . . I enjoyed it? the characters were all horrible, the lack of communication put other YA books to shame, and it really needed to get 1000% more political (it’s a book about politics! and it tried to stay relatively apolitical?? like come on), but . . . I enjoyed it? it was absolute trash, but it was engaging trash, and I am unfairly invested in this trash story – 2 stars

• Read 12 books – lmaooooooo ten :\\
• Write 15k – well I certainly surpassed this one lmaooooo
• Keep blogging at least semi-consistently – hm this is debatable, but I posted four times which is . . . not horrible?
• Plot for nano – I did this!!!!!!!!! I mean as much as I ever plot at least lol
• Focus on one writing project – I . . . didn’t quite finish my one project, but aside from plotting work and a few sidetracks for workshops and stuff, I think I did this!!
• Stay on track with my schoolwork – hm I’m on track, but I was hoping to be farther ahead lmaooo, but oh well! I’ll just have to do more schoolwork than is ideal during nano

• Read 5 books – this is very few, but well . . . nano
• Write 50k – tis nano. many words. I’m excited!!
• Post at least once about something other than nano – I definitely am going to do some nano posts (I think maybe just progress updates 👀) but I should post at least once about like,,, books lmao. since this is a book blog
• Stay on track with school – I really don’t have a lot of option but to do this sooo,,, lmao
• Actually get outside – lmaooo with winter + covid + nano my motivation to get outside (safely of course) is just,,,, gone.

How was your October?

Read anything good??

Are you doing nano??