October Wrap-Up

 October Wrap-Up

Movies and TV

Let me tell you, Lovecraft Country is so freaking good! If you are a fan of Lovecraft, Fantasy, the Strange and the Mysterious, then this is the show for you. It is weird and creepy in all the best ways. 10/10 recommend. I will say though, I have not read the book so I have no idea if its anything like the book or if HBO took a lot of liberties. 

Also, the season finale for The Boys was earlier this month and oh my goodness, what? I need to know what happens next. I don't know if I can say the finale was a cliff hanger but it was definitely not what I was expecting. Also, I feel like the series is veering pretty far away from the comics for any of those who have read them. 

I have also started watching the new season of the Great British Baking show and Emily in Paris. I think the only knew movie I have seen this month is that new American Pie movie, Girls Rule. Let me tell you, I am not like a crazy fan of the other American Pie movies but this one seemed a little forced to be related to them, in general it was just an alright movie. Sorry, I don't have any good movie recommendations. 

Music

We are getting pretty close to nothing but Christmas music everywhere, prepare yourselves. This moth however, I have been listening to a lot of OneRepublic and some of my old playlists from like 2015, I don't know why, but I was feeling kind of nostalgic this month. 

If you have any good TV, movies or music recommendations, please let me know, I am in kind of a slump. 

End of the Year To Be Read

 Because I have no idea what the holidays are gonna look like for me this year both in regards to work and my personal life I figured I would just compile my TBR for the rest of the year, the final quarter, the beginning of the fiscal year, the holiday season....whatever you want to call it. So I present to you my TBR, I tried not to be too ambitious.

1. The Way of the Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson

2. Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir

3. The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

4. The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

5. Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles #1) by Jay Kristoff

6. Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling

7. Ready Player Two (Ready Player One #2) by Ernist Cline

T5W: Spoopy Times

I usually say I am not one for spooky reads of any kind, no horror or anything like that but while going through all the books I have read I realized that I have been really into more than I realized. It was really hard for me to condense my favorite into only 5 books so I decided to choose my top 5 spooky reads that I feel like are severely underrated. 

1. The Dark Days Club

London, 1812, demons are trying to infiltrate society at every level. While this book is part of a series I felt pretty content having had only read book one, thus far. There is a lot of dark and creepy things and a girl coming into her own as she realizes demons actually exist and you can't even tell them apart from the rest of us. Let the war begin. 

2. The Man in the Picture

Most people know Susan Hill as the renowned author of the Woman in Black, but I know her more for this wonderful gem. It's a very short read, I believe less than 200 pages, but for something so short it has the same spooky aspects as her other horror stories. This is all about a man with an eerie painting of the Venice Carnival that has the ability to entrap life. 

3. Crane

This is an Ichabad Crane retelling that takes place from the perspectives of both him and his ancestor Ireland Crane and their fight with the curse of the Horseman. I mean, to me, that's enough said, this is a series that also brings in retellings of other old horror tales and creatures.

4. The Girl with all the Gifts 

A story of a young zombie girl who has intelligence seeking out the answers to this apocalyptic outbreak. 10/10 recommend. Also, there is a movie based on this book that is on Netflix though I have no idea if it is any good or even anything like the book itself. 

5. All the Beautiful People

Another zombie tail. This one is a classic about a pharmaceutical company releasing a drug to help bring those with depression's inner self into the light and instead causes them to become uber violent, blood thirsty creature. This was one of those random books I got for super cheap on my kindle and I don't regret it for an instance. This is one of those random, not well know stories that I fell like more people need to give a chance. 

If you participate in T5W or just have some spoopy reads, or show, suggestions please let me know! I am trying to broaden my horizons. 

T5W: Books that Took the Longest to Finish

 Sometimes books take forever because of the length, sometimes it is because you hit a reading slump and in many occasions, at least for me, it is because I am forcing myself to stick out a book that I am just not that into. I really, REALLY do not like writing negative reviews about books, I know that everyone has their own drastically different tastes and that authors put a lot of work into what they put out there but no book can ever cater to the tastes of every person that reads it. Because of this, some books, many of which are parts of series I actually enjoyed, are just a chore to get through for me. So here, I present to you some of said books. I tried to list books that I don't often or have ever talked about here.

1. A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)

This book felt like it went on forever. I really enjoyed book three so I am happy that a forced myself to finish the second one in the series but it was so hard to get through since some of the perspectives annoyed the crap out of me to read, though that is mostly because I didn't enjoy reading from the pov of characters that I really didn't like. 

2. The Ghosts of Heaven

"Four linked stories boldly chronicle madness, obsession and creation though the ages."* Sounds like it would be a pretty awesome set of stories right?  Unfortunately they bored the living daylights out of me. I continued to read it because every story I came across, if I didn't like it, I figured I could power through and the next one would be better. Sadly, that didn't happen, but I spent MANY a nights trudging through it.

3. Life As We Knew It

Life as we knew it....I just....maybe I don't get it? From what I have seen this book (and the whole series?) is actually pretty popular but man, I felt like their search for normalcy dragged on into the mundane and after the initial few chapters it just got too tedious to enjoy. I read this book years and years ago but I remember it taking me well over a month to read because it took so much for me to finish it. 

4. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2)

For an author I enjoy and a story line that brought me a lot of joy, book two in the Percy series was a fine example of "the boring second book". I mean, is it just me or the second book in a lot of series the worst one? I know its usually because the book is meant to be a filler book to add detail to the story and the world but man....killin' me. 

5. Way of Shadows

Okay, lets be a bit more positive when it comes to long books. This book took me over a month to read, and its not even that long. I tried reading about two years ago and couldn't get passed like the first thirty pages. This year I restarted it and actually finished it but it was like trying to walk through a tar pit, a tar pit that I enjoyed but tar nonetheless. I have no idea what it was about this book but no matter how much I enjoyed parts of this story it was just really rough to finish and for that reason alone I do not intend on ever finishing the series. 

If you have participated in T5W for this topic or have strong opinions about any of these book please leave them down below!

*Goodreads synopsis

T5W: Fairly Local

 I don't live in a big city like NY or Paris, and a lot of what I read is fantasy that takes place in make believe land so I tried to pull some choices that drew from different genres and places across the US. Enjoy. 

1. Geekerella

Taking place in Charleston, SC, Elle lives with her Stepmother and Stepsisters. Geekerella is definitely not the most unique or anything but it was such an adorable read and I loved all the nods to so many fandoms intertwined into the one the story revolves around.

2. My Calamity Jane

This book will draw you into 1876 America with gunslingers and the wild wild west, oh, and garou. This is a an old timey, old fashioned werewolf hunt with a real life hero-eene as the lead character. Such a fun read. 

3. Ready Player One

Taking place in a few places within 2044 America and the VR world the OASIS. This is another fun read full of fandoms and action, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has nerdy adventurous side.

4. Dread Nation

Taking place in Baltimore around the time of the Civil War. But the war between the states is derailed when the dead start rising from the battlefields from which they died. I am usually not the biggest fan of Zombie stories but I have to admit that this was a one of the best Zombie stories I have ever read. 

5. Where the Crawdads Sing

Taking place on the North Carolina coast, this story follows the life of the "Marsh Girl". To be completely honest, I am not really in love with this book, other than the end, but I know that it is loved by so many others so I am going to throw it in here. While I won't straight up suggest the book I will encourage those that are interested in it to to give it a chance. 

T5W: TL:DR

 Don't lie, there is a movie or show adaption of a book that you have watched but not read. We all want to denial this blasphemes act buttttt I am as guilty as anybody to having had done this. In fact, for one of my all time favorite book trilogies, LOTR, I watched the movies countless times before I finally picked up the books. But for the sake of staying on topic, lets talk about all those adaptions I have seen but have yet to even pick up the book. 

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Okay okay, hear me out. I watched these movies back when they were being released and, to be honest, I wasn't really a reader back in those days. and now that I have read every other book in the series I can bring myself to finish the series. I know I will cry my eyes out for so much of it and I have yet to mentally brace myself for it. 

2. It

I am honestly too freaked out by the movie to read the book, also, its sooooooo long.

3. Jurassic Park

This on is actually a book I want to read! I picked up a Michael Crichton book for the first time last year and ever since I have actually wanted to read this one as well but just haven't picked it up yet. 

4. Eragon

I have watched this movie more times than I care to admit and I have probably been told the same amount if not more times how much better the book is than the movie. The reason I have yet to pick this one up is because for some reason everytime I go to the book store and pick it up I just can't bring myself to buy it. Maybe once I burn through the last few physically unread books on my bookshelf I will pick this up and love the whole series. Side note, I am really digging both the book cover and the movie poster for this one.

5. The Princess Bride

This is one of my favorite cult classic movies, I still quote it to this day. In fact, when I was younger and got my tonsils taken out instead of a bear my mom bought my a stuffed giant rat from the movie. Maybe one day I will pick the book up but as of right now I actually have no interest in reading the book. Let me know if you thing it is really worth the read though. 

There are obviously a fair few more adaptions I have yet to read the book for but these are probably the ones that have the biggest followings. Comment below if there are any adaptions that you have seen but have yet to read the book for or if there are some the the book isn't even worth the time!

September 2020 Wrap-Up and October TBR

 It has been a really weird year, for everyone. I know I haven't really posted at all in the last few years but I have missed this platform and I want to slowly dip my toes back into the water. With that being said, I present to you my September wrap-up. 

Books Read

1. The Seven and a half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (4.5/5) 

2. Gideon The Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir (5/5) 

3. Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark by Stephanie K. Smith (3.5/5)

4. Ark (Forward Collection) by Veronica Roth (3.5/5)

5. Stiletto (The Checquy Files #2) by Daniel O'Malley (5/5) - Review

I have only been back into the swing of things for a week or so now which means I have little else to post but I hope that next month I will have so much more to share with you from my music faves to TV faves and more! 

Also, if you want me to write a review about any of the books I have read this month please let me know. :)

October TBR