November Wrap Up

I’m honestly having a hard time trying to process the fact that it’s DECEMBER. When did this happen?

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about November! This was an incredibly stressful month for me. Probably one of the worst all year. I don’t want to talk about it too much because who wants to hear me whine 😅?

I did go to a wildlife park at the start of the month though and it was so lovely being surrounded by nature. The animals were so beautiful and friendly. I didn’t want to leave the camel or kangaroos. One kangaroo was even hugging me. It was so cute.

But basically I had way too much time on my hands this month and just took Snapchat (add me!) photos of my cat

Also, it’s time for me to release my inner Grinch because Lauren is not a fan of Christmas 🙅🏻🎄🚫🎅🏻

So at the start of the month I splurged and bought the Six of Crows boxset. It was on sale from an Australian bookstore and I’m super impatient when it comes TBD shipping times so I was like “WHY NOT”. It’s so so pretty. Way prettier than my crappy photos can do justice. I PROMISE I’M GONNA READ THIS AS SOON AS I FINISH THE BOOK THIEF.

I also bought Gemina, the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay and Dan and Phil’s new book: Dan and Phil Go Outside! I almost cried when I bought Gemina. The cover for FBaWtFT is so stunning.

This was a really average reading month. I really wanted to knock out a ton of my TBR, but it just didn’t happen. I read Gemina at the start of the month and it RUINED ME. I mostly just read single issues of comics this month. Apparently I was handing out 5 stars to everything though so at least I read a lot of books I loved!!

Covers = Goodreads/My Review

   

Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★) – As I said above this book RUINED ME. It’s literally all I’ve been able to think about. I EVEN LISTENED TO THE AUDIOBOOK ONCE I FINISHED READING THE BOOK. I’ve never listened to an audiobook in my life. THIS IS WHAT THIS BOOK REDUCED ME TO. I’ve been trying to write a review for WEEKS. Basically this was everything I wanted and more and I’m in love with Niklas Malikov.

Dan and Phil Go Outside by Dan Howell & Phil Lester (★★★★★) – This was a photo book of Dan and Phil’s liveshow tour. I’m super sad that I missed it when it came to my city and seeing all the photos did but didn’t help haha. Dan & Phil have been my favourite YouTubers since 2009 and I’m super proud of them. I did prefer their other book, but this was still super fun.

Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (★★★★★) – I enjoyed The Sword of Summer but I LOVED THE HAMMER OF THOR. There was just something about it that Sword of Summer was missing. PLUS THERE’S A GENDER FLUID TRANSGENDER SIDE CHARACTER and they have a pretty important role. The ending also has me SUPER excited for the next book.

Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter (★★★★★) – I said it pretty much all in my review. This book is beautiful. The writing is beautiful. Go listen to Hamilton!!!!!!!!!

  

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (★★★★★) – I finally got around to finishing this during Tome Topple!! AND I’M NOT OKAY. WHAT WAS THAT ENDING? I love Holland so much. I know I shouldn’t, but I just love complex villains okay??? I’m so so so excited for A Conjuring of Light!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling (★★★★★) – Loved the movie. Loved this. Unlike The Cursed Child you could immediately tell that Jo wrote this. I’d love a full length novel.

The Universe of Us by Lang Leav (★★★★) – I randomly decided to read this and despite the fact that the majority of it was love poems it made my cold, dead heart feel a lot of things. I really enjoyed it!

   

Lullabies and Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav (★★★) – I decided to read more of Lang’s work because I enjoyed TUoU so much, but unfortunately I wasn’t as into these ones. Something felt off and the rhyming felt a little forced. I hate critiquing people’s writing because I’m not a writer, but I just couldn’t connect.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer (★★★) – As a huge Wonderland fan I was eagerly anticipating this. I’ve only read Cinder but really enjoyed it and with the focus being the Queen of Hearts I was super intrigued. Unfortunately this fell flat for me. It was too romance heavy and slow. I did enjoy Marissa’s writing style though and her take on Wonderland. I honestly just spent the majority of this book hungry because of all the baked goods.

The Blazing Star by Imani Josey (★★★) – I loved the setting and diversity in this it was so beautiful. I struggled a lot with the slow plot there and there were sooooo many characters I can’t remember them all. Definitely excited to read more from this author in the future though!

You’ve probably seen me mention that I am not a movie person. I normally watch 5 movies a year. However, sometimes I’ll go through a phase where I want to marathon them. That phase was apparently the past week because I ended up watching quite a few.

  
  

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was AMAZING 10/10 A+ DO RECOMMEND. I was super skeptical going into it, but oh man. It totally blew me away. I am in love with Newt. The creatures were so amazing and it was so magical. I loved Queenie & Jacob. I honestly wanna go see it again.

Civil War (#TeamCap Forever) and The Force Awakens were re-watches. The Force Awakens is one of my favourite movies ever. It’s what made me fall in love with Star Wars. I love Rey and Finn so much. I also love Kylo Ren because I’m trash.

Suicide Squad and Ghostbusters were SO GOOD. They’re definitely two new favourites of mine. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about Suicide Squad, but I ended up falling in love with it. Harley Quinn, Deadshot and Diablo were amazing. I don’t get the hate with Ghostbusters. It was hilarious. I loved seeing women get to be badass, intelligent and funny. Ant-Man was okay. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if it wasn’t for Paul Rudd.

I posted my November playlist in more detail the other day, but I added some more songs to it and in case you missed it!! Here it is again!!

I also updated my playlist of all my favourite albums that have been released this year.

Unfortunately, I had another pretty inconsistent blogging month because of all the stress I was dealing with irl. Here’s some of my favourite posts I did this month:

• I started a new feature Music Monday! I’ll just be gushing about all my fave bands ect. I did a post on Bands that Changed My Life and my November Playlist
• I posted about opening my society6 and RedBubble stores and did a giveaway which Fadwa won ♥
• A Guide to Marvel Comics
• Let’s Talk: The ‘F’ Word
• The Diverse Books Tag
• Hamilton Appreciation Post
• Celebrating The Little Things Tag – I really enjoyed seeing everyone participate in this tag. It was super heartwarming.

I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself for next month. December is always crazy in my house because Christmas is pretty hectic when you have a huge family.

How was your November? What was your favourite read?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on anything I mentioned!

I hope you all had a fantastic November and an even better December xx