Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. This was another hard month to this not great year, but let’s get into some of the good things that happened!

Currently Reading:

Cujo by: Stephen King. I’m getting closer to finishing this (will be done next month) and the tension has been well drawn out (or possibly it’s also the way I’m reading this, a chapter per week) but I like how stretched it’s felt because it’s upped the stakes. I’m very interested to see how this will end, and I’m really hoping I won’t be disappointed.

Goodbye, Vitamin by: Rachel Khong. I’m hoping to finish this tonight; but this has hit harder than I expected. For some reason I thought this was non-fiction… when it clearly states “A Novel” on the cover 🙄 but this deals with the main character going through a big break up while her father degenerates to Alzheimer’s. It’s been really fast-paced and I find myself flying through it.

What I’ve Read:

Lucky in Love by: Kasie West. This book didn’t hit the mark for me. I didn’t care for the plot of this one or how the characters really acted. This wasn’t as much of a cute romcom that I thought it would be.

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by: Roseanne A. Brown. This was the sequel to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin which I read last year and enjoyed… this one I wanted to enjoy but this book the plot felt like it dragged and it felt like there was a lot of dead space; the characters were good though.

Reading With Patrick by: Michelle Kuo. I get why people would say this is a must read, but I honestly didn’t really care for it. A teacher who goes above and beyond for her student, which creates a life-long friendship was interesting and the research put into this was important, but I just thought this was more of a starting point for some of the topics addressed here.

The Fearsome Firebird by: Lauren Oliver. This was the final book in the curiosity house trilogy and I actually enjoyed the way this ended. At first I wasn’t sure, but this had a really good conclusion.

Leah on the Offbeat by: Becky Albertalli. I did not like this. There were a few redeeming qualities to this, seeing Simon again, but gosh Leah was such an unlikeable character to read from, it really made it hard for me to read this. I’m glad it was short.

Given to the Sea by: Mindy McGinnis. If I’m being really honest, I don’t know what I read; there was so much going on in this book between the confusing plot, the lack of explanation to the world and all these characters, it just didn’t work for me.

Final Girls by: Riley Sager. The pacing was off in this; I didn’t really care for the characters and the way this ended just left me feeling disappointed. The slow lead up was good and the red herrings were good, but it felt like it didn’t lead up to a very good ending.

Life in the City of Dirty Water by: Clayton Thomas-Müller. This was nominated for Canada Reads 2022 and this was a definite must read. This was so much more than this author’s memoir; this dug deep into the environment and how it affects Indigenous lands, it was such an eye opening and important read.

Blood Like Magic by: Liselle Sambury. For the most part I really liked this; the magic system was fun, it was set in Toronto, which was a bonus fun (for me), the family relationships and love was beautiful but the pacing was suuper slow in this and it made it hard to keep me in the story.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

I’ve been bad this month, but I did really enjoy:

The Orangutan Librarian posted about standing up for “real fans” – I thought this was a great take

I’ve given up saying that I hope I have a better month than the previous one because I think I keep jinxing it and every month seems to prove to me it can in fact be worse than the month before. So I’m just looking for life to look up. At least, the silver lining for me in September is I already know it’s going to be a hard month so at least I’m prepared. But now onto the good things that happened in August.

Highlights of the month:

✨ After covid wrecking havoc in my house again, we are covid free 👍🏼

✨ I went downtown Toronto with my mum for the day, walking the waterfront and taking a boat tour, so relaxing!

✨ This sounds so small, but it gave me great joy – Second Cup’s iced vanilla bean latte SO GOOD!

✨ Went downtown Toronto again for a second time(!) to have dinner at Eataly with a good friend; great company and amazing food

✨ In relation to the above highlight; we met up with another friend after and went out for dessert, yum!

✨ I made it to an 1000 day streak on Duolingo, which is a goal of mine, so proud!

✨ Hung out with my brother for the first time in a long while, drinking and listening to music 🎶

✨ Went into the office one day near the end of the month and it was so good to reconnect with my coworker again.

✨Went to dinner with friends and then we tried a new dessert place called Mr. Puffs, which was super yummy! Fried pastry dough, so light and airy!

What I’ve watched:

Riverdale; season 6. I don’t know what to make of this season… first off why was it 22 episodes long? Why did they feel the need to add not only superpowers to be part of a ‘multiverse’ but they also felt the need to bring in witches and witch craft? They canceled the good witch show, Sabrina… just so we could have her guest star here? Nope. I mean in terms of entertaining, it was that, but this show keeps getting further and further from the main plot… and maybe the show runners realized that because the way this season ended takes us back to 1959… so is there going to be a season 7?

Superstore; season 4. Ok, wow, I wasn’t expecting season 4 to end the way that it did. Like when did this show go so hard? It’s been building up since the first season that Mateo is undocumented, but if I’m being honest, I didn’t think they were going to go anywhere with that plot, but then BAM we end the season with ICE on the hunt for him… like WHAT?! I actually felt so emotional watching that. This has definitely been a turning point for the show from being a show about a store to a show about workers rights and focusing on fighting corporations and upper management. I’m very curious to see where this will go.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer; season 1. After years and years of having this show on my list, I saw it was free with (my brother’s 😅) Prime subscription, I thought why not. I was looking for a older teen show to watch and this has been hitting the mark for me. It’s cheesy, but it’s also what I was looking for. The main characters are interesting and they don’t annoy me. I also like that each episode of this season gave us a taste of the different creatures this show is going to have in it; some are weirder than others but it’s definitely been very entertaining.

Love on the Spectrum (US); season 1. I didn’t realize until afterwards that there is a US and UK version to this show. I ended up adding the US one to my list, but I will be watching the UK one. This was so cute, there were moments that were definitely awkward and some people I liked watching more than others, which I feel is natural (I don’t watch a lot of reality tv) but for the most part it was enjoyable to watch. I’ve been going through a lot this month so every episode I watched made me cry; watching people try to find love did feel inspiring.

Star Trek: The Next Generation; season 1. It took a little bit of time for me to get into, but for the most part I’m enjoying it. The plots are just as crazy as any of the previous versions of Star Trek, some feel even crazier. I really like this room they have on the ship that transports them to any place and time and I like how frequent they used it in season one. The characters have been interesting and I like them; I think my favourite right now is Wesley. There just seems to be something that I haven’t been able to put my finger on where I’m not immediately loving it like other the other series, but I do plan to continue.

In terms of movies I watched Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl with my mum. I knew pretty much everything that was talked about in this, since I did a project on her when I was elementary school, but it was still entertaining to watch, especially if you’re a fan.

What I’m watching:

Superstore; season 5. So we’re really getting to see Amy as manager and how it’s conflicting with her feelings for workers’ rights. It’s so interesting to see her in this position because you never know what she’s going to do. Mateo is also back, I’m wondering if this is going to lead to him becoming a citizen.

Star Trek: The Next Generation; season 2. I’m not very far into this season, but Woopi Goldburghas shown up (which I’ve been waiting for since I knew she joined the cast at one point) and I’ve liked her addition so far. All she’s done is given advice but she’s so calming and I like it. I like when she helps Data to understand laughing and telling jokes, that was a fun episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer; season 2. Continuing with my watch of this… this leaves Prime sadly so I’m going to have to find an alternative way to watch this (I think the library has the DVDs), but I hate when shows leave a streaming platform before you can get to the end. Anyways, I’ve been enjoying this season so far. I like that we’re getting more background on Angel because he’s been such a mystery. The character dynamics are slightly changing but I like it. I find it interesting that Chrissy just casually knows about vampires and it’s no big deal; that makes me laugh.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your August? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know!