THIS IS HALLOWEEN, THIS IS HALLOWEEN!
Now I can actually sing that.
The month of October was a pretty good one, and I feel like it’s going to be a good end of the year, too. I mean, not a whole lot went on, but it’s my second vacation week now, so I’m pretty pumped about that. Plus, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow and I’m really excited to keep working on my novel!
I’m trying out a new format this month for the wrap up because I feel like it’s too boring, honestly, and I want to share more and do more things with it. I’ve been getting inspired by other’s wrap ups, so here we go!
Books I’ve Read
Click on the cover to be taken to its respective review!
- A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir – I loved this book so much! It was such an amazing sequel. 5/5 stars
- Siege & Storm by Leigh Bardugo – I thought this was a fun, strong sequel with plenty of darkness and turmoil. 4/5 stars
Books I’ve Gotten
Click on the cover to be taken to each respective Goodreads page!
Other Blog Posts
- Criticism vs. Cruelty – I talk about the differences between criticism in reviews versus being cruel/mean in them and why we should really notice the differences.
- Relating to Characters – Do you ever feel like you relate to certain types of characters, like you’re just drawn the them? Yeah, me too.
- Hobby Corner: October VIDEO GAMES Edition – My monthly little corner where I talk about my hobbies other than reading and this month I introduced some of my favorite video game franchises.
Writing Related
- Beautiful Books 2016| Introducing the Novel – A super cool meme hosted by super cool people and where I talk about the novel I’ll be working on for NaNoWriMo this year. Speaking of which:
- NaNoWriMo 2016 – I’m participating in NaNoWriMo! I talk a little bit about my plans, about my story, and what I hope to achieve in November.
Fun Things
- Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Movie Villains – Because book villains are too hard to think about, I decided to talk about some of my favorite movie ones! Lots of Disney in this post.
- Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Name My Dog After – This is what I would name my fur babies after… IF I HAD ONE. (I have a feather baby named Yoshi, so he doesn’t count for this one.)
- Fairytales IRL Book Tag – All the fairytale tropes! This tag was actually more challenging than I thought, so you guys should try this one, too!
- Top Ten Tuesday: Costumes Characters Would Wear on Halloween – As this was a Halloween freebie, I figured I’d talk about costumes I think some of my fave book characters would wear. Featuring some fanart I drew!
I’ve officially met my goal of 30 fantasy books read for the year! It’s incredible how well I’ve been doing so far this year. I’m having a great time and I know I’ll be reading more fantasy books as the end of the year draws close, so I’ll still keep everyone updated on the amount! Right now I’m at 31/30.
I’ve also have been doing a buddy read with the lovely Erica @ novelink_erica on Twitter and we’ve been reading Stalking Jack the Ripper. It’s really interesting so far and we’ve got a lot of speculation going as to who did what and what we think will happen. Expect a review up soon!
I’ve read 40 books this year! It’s crazy to think that I’ve read more books in the last two years that I have in my whole life. And I absolutely love it. ❤
So if you didn’t know, I do have an Instagram where I focus on books 99% of the time. I’ve been participating in two challenges this month and I haven’t missed a day, so there’s lots of photos to check out! I feel like I’ve been greatly improving, which really makes me happy, and I’ve been having a lot of fun doing it. Here’s some of my photos I’ve posted this month:
Around the Internet
This is a feature I’ve seen in several other blogger’s wrap ups and I think it’s a fun way to show what else I’ve been reading/seeing around the internets!
- Cait @ Paper Fury talks about how hard names are to pronounce. #truth
- Angie Thomas is releasing a debut novel, The Hate U Give, that’s about the Black Lives Matter movement and the first two chapters of the book are INTENSE. I need this book in my life, thanks. (Set to release Feb 28, 2017.)
- Filming for the film adaptation of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon just wrapped up this month and the author posted a cute picture of the two main actors.
- Mental Illness Awarness Week was from October 2-8 and Emma @ emmmabooks did a whole week of videos around this week! I loved all of her videos for the week, so I’m just going to recommend all of them.
- Maggie Stiefvater went around while she toured and dropped off her books with a note to random places and it was so cool to see her doing that! (You can view more on her Twitter page.)
- The Hamilton documentary from PBS happened and it was beautiful and I cried. You can watch the stream for a limited time, so join me in my fangirling!
Life Updates
- I’ve been getting more into Instagram, as I stated above, and have learned that the Dollar Store is my friend. Book photo supplies are expensive, yo.
- I’ve been thinking more and more about getting some tattoos that I really, really want but I’m waiting because reasons (and money), and also because I haven’t completely laid out a design yet for one of them. In case you’re wondering, one’s a quote from ACOMAF, the other is a bit of lyrics from Hamilton. I mean, is anyone really surprised? No? I didn’t think so.
- I went to my workplace’s charity event to raise money and awareness for kids and young adults with mental illnesses, and it went really well! I couldn’t hear/understand the guest speaker the whole time he was talking, but there was a lot of inspirational moments and a lot of people there.
- I’m on vacation this week! Which I’m glad for considering it’s the first week of NaNo. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a lot of writing done.
Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦
How was your month of October? Did you do anything fun or go to any Halloween parties? How do we like the new layout of the wrap ups? I’m kind of really digging it! Tell me all the things!
Reader Rayna 