The Sunday Post #3: Getting My Blogging Mojo Back

 

Hey, y’all! How’s last week so far? I’m back with another Sunday Post and Sunday Salon. The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. In this post, I share with you some updates with regards to my personal life-from books, movies, music, games, and many more.

Last week, I’ve told you the tale of my procrastination. And as you all know, the saga continues. I’m almost finished with the first draft of my paper. I still have to revise it and do another paper. Thank god, my Physics professor extended the deadline for my Physics paper. So I just need to pass two papers, one for my Self and Society class, and one for my Science, Technology, and Society class. I’m hoping to be finished with the first drafts for the two papers by Wednesday. Then revise it until next week.

Health-wise, I’m feeling okay. I’m getting back my blogging mojo. Thank god! Hopefully, it improves in the following weeks to come.

Book I’m Currently Reading

📖 Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (20%)
I’m actually enjoying the book even it has only a few dialogues. I remember this book in my TBR waaaaay back in 2016. I just picked it up due to a buddy read. So far, this reminds me of The Selection by Kiera Cass with all the selection of concubine happening.  The only difference is that it’s just more diverse than that. Hoping to finish it by the end of the day.

Books I’ve Read Last Week

 

📕 Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff 
Rating: 4/5
Review: Listened to the audiobook while reading the book. It was awesome. The only problem I had with it is I feel disconnected with the characters due to the format.

📕 The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park
Rating: 3/5
Review: There were lots of promising the book has to offer-from zombie contests, bratty prep kids, and absentee CEO father. However, I feel that it was all over the place.

📕 All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
Rating: 3.5/5 
Review: Comparing it with other romance books, this one is very different since it talks about infertility and how there’s a stigma attached to it. Infertility aside, there were times I felt that some parts were repetitive. 

Books I’m Planning to Read Next Week

       

📚 Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
📚 The Bethrothed by Kiera Cass
📚 House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess
📚 Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevado
📚 Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Last Week’s Posts

I only posted two blog posts last week. I forgot to post one for Top 10 Tuesday. Again, I’m still getting my blogging mojo back. Here are the posts for last week in case you missed it. Posts are linked to the image.

Want to know my first five-stars read this 2020? It’s none other than Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This book is a sequel to Aurora Rising, a book I also highly enjoyed. Read my review to know the reasons why I highly love this book. Or you know, chat me so we can fangirl together ’bout this book.

I’m afraid of big books, and I shall not lie. I’m feeling you all people who’re afraid to start big books because I feel that way too. That’s why I created this post because, man, size really matters when we’re literary speaking.

Future Plans

Next week, I’m hoping to post at least 3 blog posts, and maybe do more review posts since I’ve read many books, but haven’t reviewed them on my blog.  My planned schedule:

Tuesday:  Top Ten Tuesday – Reasons why I love Science Fiction 
Wednesday:  Book Review – The Bromance Book Club by Lissa Kay Adams
Friday:  Book Discussion – What is the right way to read? 
Saturday: Book Review –  Anna K. by Jenny Lee

I am also planning to post my April Monthly Wrap Up and April Book Haul someday this week. So stay tuned for those!

Favorite Posts Last Week

This week I share with you some of my favorite blog posts that I’ve read around the blogosphere. Featured images are lifted from the original creators, so be sure to check out their posts and give all the love they deserve!

The tarot recommendations of Robin from Paperbacks and Planners are something I’ve been looking following for a while now. This week I picked the middle card which is The Fool card. And for that, I’ve got Manhattan (Becker Brothers #3) by Kandi Steiner and Hearstopper by Alice Osman. Tbh, Heartstopper is one of the books in my TBR. Maybe it’s the way of the universe telling me to read it soon.

This post from Way Too Fantasy talks about obligations book blogger usually faces. Since starting this blog, there are lots of times that I feel I’m obligated to read more books like other bloggers out there, thus, I was stressing about balancing my academics, blog, and reading books. So I totally can relate to this post.

Most of us track our reading progress via Goodreads. But when was the last time have you checked your personalized Goodreads’ book recommendations? This post of Sarah from The Little Contemporary Corner reminds that we need to check it out from time to time. Though there’s a huge chance that we won’t be interested in some books, you never know when you’ll find a nice, rare gem!

How was last week for you? Read any good books? Let me know!

 

The Sunday Post #2: A Week in Hospital + Reading 9 Books

Hey, y’all! How’s last week so far? This post is again late. Ugh. I should just change my domain name with the likes of ‘late book blog’ or something. But at least this time, I had a good excuse. Or is it? Read on to my Sunday Post, little grasshopper!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Content warning: Mention of the bipolar disorder, pandemic, and depression. Day 6 gifs and lots of fangirling. 

I was sick for the past two weeks; I had trouble breathing. Thank god, it’s not COVID-19, my results came back as negative. I was nervous about getting the virus. I thought I wasn’t scared of dying; it turns out, I am. Man, COVID-19 tests and hospital bills are as expensive as hell. I was tired most days. Spend most of the time in the hospital and was just going through my TBR. I was discharged yesterday and just getting my blogging mojo back. Girl, I don’t even have a blogging mojo from the start.

On getting my mojo back.

Right now, I’m just worried about over-exhausting myself. I just have a few weeks left to write three papers for uni. I haven’t started on two of those and just started my first draft on the other. These are my top priorities right now since the deadline is at the end of the month and these are my grades’ only saving graces (See: Redemption).  I don’t know if I’ll afford to read books the following weeks, but hopefully, I do.

I was reading lots of books to pass the time in the hospital. It was either eat, read, watch, or sleep the entire time I was there. With that said, I’ve read enough books last week (nine books, all in all). In fact, I’m five books ahead of my schedule for the 2020 Goodreads  Challenge. And I’ve reviewed every single thing of that. And I’ve found some good reads the past weeks.

‘Congratulations’ is a sad song. But man, congratulations to myself.
Just finding excuses to post Day6 gifs.

Currently Reading

The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park
I’m buddy reading this with some people on Goodreads. I haven’t started reading this. I might start after writing this blog post. Instead of writing my paper, I’ll be procrastinating by reading this book. Ugh. I hate myself.  I’m not sure if I’m gonna like this book since a lot of my friends do not really like this book.

What I’ve Read The Previous Week

All ratings included here are my initial ratings. I’ve posted my mini-reviews for each of this book in Goodreads, I will link them too.

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
🐝🐝🐝.5
This book explores the idea of what’s next after fighting off a villain. The first part of the book was very boring and slow for my taste which is WAAAAAY opposite of the second part of the book.  Man, I completely see the second part coming at all.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

 

The Dragon Egg Princess by Ellen Oh
🐝🐝🐝.5
This book is somewhat based on Japanese/Korean folklore, if I’m not mistaken. I enjoyed the world-building of Nackwon. I just felt that some parts were anti-climatic. I don’t know if it’s because it is a middle-grade book or that’s just how Ellen writes. There’s so much potential in this book.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
🐝🐝🐝🐝
Historical fiction is not my thing, but Marie Lu’s books are.  This book is about the Nannerl, the sister of Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart, and Mozart himself as they explore the Kingdom of Back. It also explored the problem of gender inequality during the old days.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
🐝🐝🐝🐝.5
I heavily recommend this to anyone since this book is an eye-opener on what’s happening in our society. It delves deeper into the topic of racism and explores the fucked-up system that makes oppressed people more oppressed.  However, the writing style is sometimes an issue for me.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
This book got me all kinds of feelings. The chemistry of Squad 312 is better than ever. I enjoyed Saedii’s character. I hope we see more of her. I mean, who doesn’t love a psycho-bitch??!! And have you seen that cover, Kal is so good-looking?!?!  Another fictional boyfriend!
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
🐝🐝🐝
It can be one of those trashy YA romance that we can all love. The story was a little bit unrealistic. Like, if a big fast-food restaurant chain plagiarizes a recipe from another restaurant, I’m sure we’re talking about a lawsuit. I really hated the Twitter part of the book. But overall, kinda okay.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

Killing November by Adriana Mather
🐝🐝🐝🐝
A fast-paced spy fiction that shows the “adventures” of November while she’s in an elite assassin boarding school. November is sometimes irritating and the italicized info dumps are sometimes too much.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

 

Hunting November by Adriana Mather
🐝🐝🐝.5
This is the sequel to Killing November. I did not enjoy the second installment of the series. I was a little bit disappointed since it is more like Bourne Identity kind of thing. November is not as irritating as before but then there are still info dumps. What I really like is November & Ash scenes. I ship them!
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

 

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
🐝🐝🐝🐝.5
After I read some books with a heavy plot, this book is, indeed, a very refreshing read. The idea behind the plot was very unique: a bookclub full of men reading romance books to help them save their marriages or relationships. Gavin was so helplessly cute; Thea, not so much.
Link to my review || Add the book on Goodreads!

Browsing on Other’s Blogs

Since I don’t have any post the past week, I’d just share some of my favorite blog posts from amazing book bloggers that I’ve enjoyed while in a hospital bed. Links are on the blog post featured images. Featured images are lifted from their original blog posts.

Kirstie from Upside Down Books shares us some of the upcoming releases this month that are worth buying. After reading this blog post, guess what, I ordered at least all of the books in the list. Some of the books might be up your alley so check the list out!

I’ve been meaning to incorporate a reading journal in my bullet journal. This post of Emma from Never Judge a Book by Its Cover motivated me more in having a reading journal. Having a reading journal would be helpful in the long run, fellow bookworms.

This post of Beth from Me and Ink was lots of fun—If Hufflepuffs rules the world what would it look like? As someone with Ravenclaw sun and Slytherin rising, I was curious about what would the world be like if Ravenclaw and/or Slytherin ruled the world.

Day6 just released their new album and a music video of Zombie!!! As a person with depression and bipolar disorder, Zombie really resonated with me.  I’ve listened to the album non-stop. Just go listen to the album and/or watch Zombie on Youtube. I feel so sad and soft listening to it. And another serving of sadness since Day6 can’t promote due to Sungjin and Jae’s anxiety. I just wanna hug all of them.

I feel like I became a zombieeeee

How was last week so far? Read some pretty good books?
Drop it on the comments below!

 

The Sunday Post #1

Hey, y’all! How’s last week so far? In my case, last week was not how I planned it to be. But you know what, every day’s a new day. I hope this week is going to turn up pretty well and go according to the plan.  So without further ado, here’s a Sunday Post (and a Sunday Salon post) to recap on what is happening to my life, what books I’m reading, what music I’m listening and all other things.

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Content warning: Mention of the pandemic and panic attack. Lee Min Ho and reading slumps

This week was sad. S-A-D. To be fair, I didn’t think I would have a panic attack despite the COVID-19 issue we are experiencing right now. So much for putting a lot of trust in myself. Well, in my defense, I thought I was not going to have a panic attack because the school’s out until the end of April due to the community quarantine. And since I’m home and no school works yadda yadda.

I thought school’s out, but guess what?! Nope.

But then, originally, my semester in the university would end on that same day. With that, the board of regents decided to defer its students until the pandemic is done. This totally sucks and is way too privileged because some of its students do not have enough funds to send them back to school. Then some professors decided to get our grades from what we have accomplished before the quarantine. HOW CAN I REDEEM MYSELF FOR THE PAST EXAMS? Ugh. There is no even chance for academic redemption. It sucks.

And we all know, life keeps on getting better. WELL, NO. I don’t think so. Aside from the panic attack, I’m stuck in a semi reading slump. A semi reading slump is when you’re reading books at a much slower pace as compared before. A week has passed and I think I just read 4 books (a graphic novel included). My page count is way lower than the previous week. Anyway, here is what I’m reading! Cover links to Goodreads.

This is me. I’m a sloth.

Currently Reading

Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
I’m around 150 pages in the book. I started reading this book early in the morning. I just paused to eat and write a quick Sunday Post. It has this Gossip Girl and Crazy Rich Asians kind of vibe. This book is a retelling of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and the only regret I have in reading this book is I don’t have any background in the book it was based on. With how I’m liking this book, this would probably be my first five-stars read this 2020!

What I’ve Read The Previous Week

All ratings included here are my initial ratings and as a lazy girl, full reviews to come!

The Thing with Feathers by McCall Hoyle
🐝🐝🐝
This book showcases an epileptic main character. I was expecting to know and learn more about epilepsy. I should probably read a non-fiction book or a textbook about it and not a fiction book. I don’t have any feelings about this book. It was meh and forgettable. I felt that the characters were MG.

 

 

The Not So Secret Society by Matthew Daley
🐝🐝.5
This would be perfect for elementary kids. But not for me. What I like in this book is that the main characters were diverse. And the art style is really cute. But I don’t think I enjoyed the plot of the book. And some of the characters felt flat to me. There are no monsters, dragons, unicorns, mermaids or princesses.

 

 

Wicked Saints by Emily Duncan
🐝🐝🐝🐝
If you’re a fan of the Grishaverse trilogy, I suggest you read this. It has the same vibes. I kind of liked that part and the cliche tropes in this book. But then, I had an issue with its pacing, it was slow at the start and I cannot feel the characters. It’s probably due to the okay?? type of character descriptions and world-building.

 

 

Ruthless Gods by Emily Duncan
🐝🐝🐝
Wicked Saints left me all hanging so I immediately read its sequel. I thought I had issues with the pacing of the first book. But man, the pacing on this book is on another level. It was dragging around the middle. There were also some characters I didn’t like. And giving them POV’s made the book slow to the point I was skipping pages.

Monthly Readathon Updates

OWLS Readathon Update
I’ve taken the path of the Healer for this readathon. With that, I need to take 7 OWLs (Muggle term: Read 7 books that fit the prompts). I just need to take my Charms OWL Exam (Muggle term: Read a book with a white cover). I decided to put The Stranger back to the shelf and postpone reading it. I was not in the mood to read it yet. Instead, I’ve read The Not So Secret Society for Potions.

TBR and Beyond April Readathon Update
Guess, who decided to start this readathon in the middle of the month? That’s right. It’s me. Anyway, I don’t have a TBR list for this because I’m channeling my inner “mood reader” self and just read what book I want. The only extra challenge for myself is to read a new release book except for one prompt which requires reading a backlist. Anna K. is one of the books I need to read to fill in some prompts for this readathon. Since I started this readathon late this month, I’m rushing my reading. I want to double up my speed and read 8 more books before the month finishes.

Future Plans

This week I plan to have at least 4 posts, excluding, The Sunday Post. This includes Wicked Saints and Ruthless Gods book reviews, a Top 10 Tuesday post, and a book discussion. In the next month, I plan to introduce a new blog series that focuses on reading books that fit a certain theme so watch out for those!

Last Week’s Posts

Last week, I’ve posted three times. However, the goal for this month was to post at least 4 times a week consistently.  I’m still working on that. Without further ado, here are my posts last week. Images are linked to the posts!

Last week’s prompt to Top 10 Tuesday was Books I Enjoyed But Rarely Talked About. My take on this prompt was to curate a list with books I enjoyed but was rarely talked about the book community a.k.a. underrated books. Books listed here deserve lots of love from amazing people, like you, so go check out the list.

I’ve recently read Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. I gave this book 3.5 stars if I remember it correctly. There are a lot of things I did not like in the book, such as bi-erasure,  but still enjoyed it, hence, it is a guilty pleasure.

I’m All Booked Up for YA is my recent blog series wherein we discuss issues and topics related to the book community. This book series is similar to a bookish talk and other book discussion series.  I’m planning to host this discussion series every Friday, so stay tuned! Last week, I’ve posted how I review my book and how I rate them. If you’re interested in my rating system, this post could help you out!

I recently started Lee Min Ho’s new K-drama series, The King: Eternal Monarch. So far, I’m really enjoying it. If you want to watch something about the parallel universe and royalty, you might want to watch this too. It’s on Netflix, btw. And Lee Min Ho is just so handsome so extra points for that. I’m also watching the new season of Haikyu and Shokugeki no Soma.

Lee Min Ho is so handsome even in a low-quality gif!

While blogging, I decided to listen to some new tracks. Some of my favorites were Gimme Love by Joji (Ok. We all know that I’m a Joji trash) and  Sometimes by Kodaline. Recently, I’ve listened to these songs while I was drawing some fan arts. I’m trying to still work on my drawings, especially when it comes to colors and eyes.

Do you have any book/K-drama/music to recommend?
Or any topic you want to discuss? Drop it on the comments below!