Hello friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well. Here we are at the end of month #2! Let’s get into how my month went!

Currently Reading:

Firestarter by: Stephen King. I’m still enjoying this; it’s super fast paced and I’m finding myself wanting to pick it up every week.

Clap When You Land by: Elizabeth Acevedo. This is my third audiobook of the year and I’m loving verse on audio. It’s just so impactful, plus this story is so emotional; it’s been a journey and I’m just about halfway through.

Goodbye Days by: Jeff Zentner. I just started this yesterday but this is also a really hard-hitting novel. We jump right into the aftermath of a tragic accident and from what I’ve read I’m going on the assumption that we’re going to be exploring grief in different forms.

What I’ve Read:

Washington Black by: Esi Edugyan. My first Canada Reads 2022 book went better than last year. I enjoyed this story, even though it was slow paced and there were moments that I couldn’t figure out why they were added, the ending came full circle and I like how poetic it felt.

The Brink of Darkness by: Jeff Giles. Oh, this book just wasn’t for me… be prepared for my ranty review… I honestly think it’s my first real angry review because I just didn’t like this. I had to force myself to finish it and yes I know I could have just DNFed it… but I knew I would have been curious. I hated the characters and the stories and it just didn’t flow well for me.

The Sleep Solution by: W. Christ Winter, MD. For the most part I really enjoyed this and liked learning more about sleep and what sleep is and how it benefits us; it was all really fascinating. This was definitely a starting point if you want to further your knowledge on the topic as this was more of just an overview. It was written well, but there were times when the authors jokes and side stories wouldn’t add to the text and it was used to be funny, but didn’t feel like it was needed.

Witchshadow by: Susan Dennard. This is the fourth novel in this series… and I think it’s a me thing where I have a hard time seeing the world in my head. I want to love this series because the concepts are so good, but I tend to lose focus. What I did really enjoy was the friendship; it’s written so well and the friends will do anything for each other, it’s just so beautiful.

The City We Became by: N.K. Jemisin. This book was wow – those are my thoughts. This was so original and strange and weird, but I loved it.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by: Tamora Pierce. I think this is my favourite Alanna book so far. I read some reviews on Goodreads and a lot of people didn’t like this and I can see why, but I also just really enjoyed seeing how far she progressed and meeting new characters was fun.

Hunger by: Roxane Gay. Wow was this a powerful memoir. I was mesmerized from the first page; this was such a fast paced book and it just held so many important messages. I didn’t expect it to get as dark as it did, but it was still a really important story to tell. I’d highly recommend it.

The Insiders by: Mark Oshiro. I LOVED this book, it was so cute and really inclusive; the importance of friendship in this was just so well done. I can’t recommend this middle grade enough! The plot was so cool and at times heartbreaking but also heartwarming!

Satellite Love by: Genki Ferguson. This is my second Canada Reads book for 2022 and it a was a short, yet interesting story on loneliness and trying to find companionship.

The Untold Story by: Genevieve Cogman. This was the final Invisible Library book and oh man, I’m sad to be leaving this world because it’s been so fun. This got a happy ending and I’m happy about that because it truly felt like these characters deserved and worked for it after everything they’ve been through.

All the Quiet Places by: Brian Thomas Isaac. This was my third Canada Reads book and it was a good depiction of a Native Indian living in Western Canada in the 50s/60s and shed light on some of the realities. I definitely wasn’t prepared for that ending.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Krysta @Pages Unbound posted on the essential services of libraries – as someone who is an avid library-goer I found this an interesting read

Nyx @Drizzle and Hurricane Books posted a list of 10 feminist books that will make you want to smash the patriarchy – I mean, enough said!

Kristin @Kristin Kraves Books posted her list of foodie romance novels – these all look so good; I think this is such a cool sub genre!

Sofia @Bookish Wanderess posted about her challenge of reading 100 pages every day for a week – I love reading, reading updates and as someone who tries to read at least 100 pages every day it was great to see someone else try it!

Kate @Your Tita Kate posted on how to read more this year – I’m always down to find new ways to fit more reading into my life!

I hope you all had a good month! 😊

Highlights of the month:

✨ I reached the diamond league on Duolingo! I’m not really into all the competing but I was pleasantly surprised that I had made it because I was never expecting to. I lasted a week, but I’m still counting this as a victory! I’m still going strong with a 827 day streak!

✨I got to see my friends again!! This was so much fun! We were finally able to go out to a restaurant again. The 5 of us went to The Cheesecake Factory; the food was amazing, the company even better; all around great night! 😄

✨I got to see my two best friends a few times this month as well to hangout – I’ve missed doing that

What I’m watching:

Star Trek: Discovery; season 3. I debated whether I was going to start the original series (as that’s what would come next [chronologically] after season 2 of Discovery, but in the end I started season 3 that takes place 900 years in the future. I’ve only seen one episode but I’m curious to see where Michael ends up, if she’ll find Discovery and everything she’s missed in the 900 year gap!

Jane the Virgin; season 2. I’m so close to finishing this (hoping to tonight!). I’m starting to have a love/hate relationship with this show; some plots are really good and I enjoy them… others I’m like how many secret siblings/twin siblings can we have? I’m still going to be watching to see where it goes.

This Is Us; season 5. I forgot to add this in my wrap up last month because I’ve been watching this as it airs on TV. So far, I’ve been enjoying the final season but I don’t feel how everything is going to wrap up just yet… and I don’t think we have many episodes left.

What I’ve watched:

Atypical; season 1. So the show is starting to grow on me. The characters still frustrate me in the dumb things they do and the lack of communication, but by the time the season ended I was like oh-no… I need to see where they’re going to with this because I’m slightly intrigued.

Star Trek Discovery; season 1 & 2. I am in love with this show. I thought Enterprise was good, well hello there Discovery! This show takes place 1000 years after Enterprise and I just love all the characters so much. I love that this isn’t episodic and that it’s a cohesive story arc throughout the season. I love that we get to really meet the Kilgons and omg Tyler’s story arc, I love him so much so I’m sad about what happened to him… looking forward to his return. Season 2 brought us the intro to Spock and his backstory, how he’s related to Michael. I love how we got to learn so much about Michael this season. The stories took all new highs that I enjoyed. The way this season ended so well, it perfectly set it up that the original series then starts there. I loved it and I can’t wait to watch the Original series very soon.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine; season 8. I did it guys! I finally finished B99! Some epiosdes were better than others; I thought the whole overall arc of the season was good. The final episodes, the heist, could have been so much better than it was. They tried too hard to make it the best heist but also to incorporate all inside jokes into this and it fell flat; it had its moments, but for the most part it really left the ending of the show feeling meh. It had a good run.

I also re-watched Finding Nemo which 100% holds up year later and I re-watched Christopher Robin which is one of my fave movies.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

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