Monthly Recap | January 2016

So…January was a little bit of a disaster?!  I have a lot of things going on right now, and I haven’t had a chance even get started with my New Years Resolutions yet.  This week was my first week of Trimester 2 finals, and next week is the conclusion week.  Hopefully a fresh trimester can bring me some peace and excitement for new projects!  January dragged on and yet somehow also went a little quickly?  All of that aside, I’m very aside for 2016 to officially start (well, my own official beginning).  Oooo I forgot I also started an online Creative Writing course this month—so far it’s amazing! I can’t wait to keep you all updated.

I read five books in January, which actually is quite impressive considering the enormous amount of things I had going on and the little time I had for reading.  Now granted, two of those books were for school but I loved them both.  I expect that lots of you have read “Hamlet” (which yes, is technically a play–also amazing on stage) but we also read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.  For my own personal pleasure I continued by endeavor to re-read The Lunar Chronicles before finally delving into Winter (which I btw still haven’t had a chance to really read?¿) My favorite novel of the month, however, was Trouble by Non Pratt.  If you remember this was Lara’s January Epic Recs pick for me, and my gosh I am so glad that she picked it!  Trouble was something that I most certainly wouldn’t have picked up on my own (especially with my own personal movement away from contemporary) but I LOVED it.  For February I hope to finally get to Winter, and to also tackle some ARCs that I recently snagged copies of.

January wan’t exactly the most musical month for me, but I certainly joined the Hamilton bandwagon and have been devouring the entire soundtrack.  (Haven’t heard of Hamilton?! Check it out!) I also had the pleasure to perform at an event at my school–we raised money for charity! 😀  I also remembered that my character in my play this spring sings….several songs.  Oops totally forgot that.  Well, that’ll be a blast.  In other news I started working with my voice/piano teacher on “7 Years” by Lukas Graham.  (Their lyric video for the song is here, and it’s really cool).  Also I FINALLY got a working AUX chord for my car; no more commercial filled radio stations! :)))

My posts this month were a little all over the place– I began with the über fun 2015 End of Year Book Survey before continuing with the festivities and sharing my 2016 Blogging and Bookish Life Resolutions.  Next I reviewed and participated in a blog tour for Zero Day.  I finished off the month with recaps of December/January Epic Recs.  My Zero Day review was also posted on Lit Up Review, so check it over there too!

I didn’t really have a set time to sit and read the blogs of my lovely peers, so everything I share is going to be a little sporadic! Amber had a really interesting post about covers changing mid series (if you’re curious, I agree with her)!  // The Quiet People shared a lovely re-read review of The Raven Boys.  Sometimes people’s second takes are even more fascinating their their first opinions. // Cait’s posts (as always) made the list.  I particularly loved her discussions about Book Hype & Coming to Terms with an Enormous TBR.  // I loved Willa’s super informational post about What It’s Like to Work in a Bookstore.  // Bella shared her favorite Pinterest Accounts, which was exactly what I needed in my aesthetic life right now. //  My favorite post this month by far was Alexandra’s defense of negative reviews.  People don’t really talk about this, but I think that it’s really important (I might even right a response post about it someday).

This month my mom surprised me with a subscription to The New Yorker! I’m so stoked to get to delve into their works every month. I also read a lot about the Challenger Disaster 30th anniversary because I’m making a documentary project about it in history. I also sort of (okay entirely) became obsessed with Buzzfeed this month.  I downloaded the app onto my phone originally to just do the quizzes but now I read almost every article they post.  lol.  I also printed out this article by my idol Rowan Blanchard and taped the entire thing into my journal with full color annotations.  I really meant a lot to me.

I’m already digging February, so I hope that it is going to be a good month.  I have two more finals (and that documentary) standing between me and the end of T2 but I think that I can do it!  I’m also very excited to get started with all of my resolutions, including what that means for my blog.  Hopefully I’ll have lots of time to read and write in February, especially with my new online class.  My spring play is also going to start picking up, so February is going to be full of line memorizing. 😀

 

I hope that you all had a lovely January, and that your February is even better! xx