Hello friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well and had a good month! I have to say, my month has been pretty low-key, which is ok after my busy summer, but let’s jump into my monthly recap!

Currently Reading:

Pet Sematary by: Stephen King. Things are definitely getting spooky and I’m really intrigued to see where this goes. I also kinda like that their neighbour seems to know more than he’s letting on so it’s giving the book an extra sense of creepiness. I also like the Shining reference we get; we’re starting to move away from how similar the two are, which is great. I’ve got 7 more weeks to go!

Wide Sargasso Sea by: Jean Rhys: My next classic read! I’m not very far, but it’s also not a very long book so I have a feeling it won’t take me long to get through. I read this is a prequel to Jane Eyre, which I haven’t read (yet!) so we’ll see how I do with this. I’m hoping I can enjoy this as a standalone, we shall see!

What I’ve Read:

91/100

You Should See Me In a Crown by: Leah Johnson. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Starting the month strong! This book was just so sweet and enduring, I enjoyed reading this – plus it was super fast-paced.

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by: Mackenzi Lee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 I finally got around to reading the second novel in this trilogy. I liked Felicity’s story… but this felt unnecessarily long.

We Were Dreamers by: Simu Liu. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed reading his memoir of his life up to now. I feel like he could probably write another one later in life. But it was funny, emotional, important and it felt like it could have been cathartic for him to write.

Grist Mill Road by: Christopher J. Yates. ⭐️⭐️.5 I thought this was more confusing than it was mysterious or suspenseful, plus I didn’t really care for the characters.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by: Benjamin Alire Sáenz. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 I liked this and thought it was cute, but I wasn’t blown away by it.

Anne of Ingleside by: L.M. Montgomery. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 This is the first Anne book that I didn’t completely love… I still liked it, but this had less Anne and I didn’t like that.

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by: Mackenzi Lee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I actually really enjoyed the last novel in this trilogy. Adrian’s point of view was nice to read and I liked that we ended on his story.

In Cold Blood by: Truman Capote. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’m not mad I read this, but it also wasn’t for me. This was a real life true crime novel that really got both sides of the story.

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by: Benjamin Alire Sáenz. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was so much better than the first novel, I enjoyed the writing, the characters and the overall life lessons.

Rainbow Valley by: L.M. Montgomery. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I don’t even know what to think about this novel, it has veered so far off course for this series that I’m still trying to process. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Sam @Spines in a Line had a few posts about the bookstores she went to in Toronto & Winnipeg

Kristin @Kristin Kraves Books gives a guide on how to build the ultimate fall TBR

Lucy @Elsie LMC posted about the food she’s made recently

Krysta @Pages Unbound talked about why she loves middle-grade books

I have to say, I spent a lot of weekends doing nothing really this month, which is okay. I feel like I got a lot of reading and watching done, which isn’t a bad thing. I thought I’d do more, but that’s life. This month went by so quickly too, and I don’t even know how that happened, but it did.

Highlights:

✨Went to the beach with my best friends! The perfect way to send off summer.

✨Also spent some time in a pool to cool off on those last hot days of summer!

✨When I went to that pool, I went with 1 book, left with 3 😂

✨Went to dessert with a friend and had yummy ice cream, good times with good company

What I’ve watched:

Star Trek: Voyager; season 1. This season was quite short, 15 epiosdes, and I’m still trying to get my bearings with this new crew of characters. I think this show is still trying to find its legs because this season was just ok. Most episodes I just kinda watched for the sake of continuing on with my Star Trek journey. I’m not really jelling with any of the characters and I don’t like that they haven’t formed any partnerships, where in previous series there were always a pair or two, who were a lot of fun to watch – this one doesn’t have that yet. I really hope moving forward things get a little more interesting. I guess time will tell.

The Simpsons; season 9. After hating on Homer in the first half of the season, I feel like he mellowed out by the second half and he wasn’t as annoying. I don’t know what it was, it felt like the writers wanted to go in a different, more dumb, direction with his character to see how far they could take it and it just felt off and I didn’t like it. The episode that sticks out the most to me is probably when Lisa goes to take the bus alone for the first time and she ends up in the middle of nowhere and it’s Homer that goes looking for her. I don’t know why that sticks out to me but it does.

Riverdale; season 7. I did it! I finished Riverdale and you know what, I didn’t hate it. This season had less supernatural and outlandish plots and it felt like they went really heavy on the social justice plots a lot more, which actually made the show easier to watch. Not in the sense that in the 50s life was better, because gosh knows it wasn’t, especially for minorities, but the show was actually talking about issues that affected people and they could relate to them. It took until the very last episode to really realize why we had to go back to 1955 because the entire time I was like we’re still fighting these issues now, why did we have to go back into the past to rehash it, but it was so they could end the show the way they did… which again I didn’t completely hate. I’m glad this show has finally been laid to rest.

Prison Break; season 5. I don’t think we needed this extra 9-episode season. What it did well though, was it told a really gripping story in a short amount of time. I feel like with the past seasons of this show they really tried to milk the plots by stretching them out, this was just the right length to tell a really good story. I could probably watch a bunch of short seasons where Michael has to solve a mystery, make that the spin off! But back to this, I didn’t like that Michael was really alive after all this time, the way season 4 ended I was happy because it felt like we resolved everything. Now that Michael is (shocking!) alive, we had to explain a lot, so some episodes felt very exposition heavy. As we were nearing the end I got nervous thinking maybe this season got cut short and I wouldn’t have an ending, but I was pleasantly surprised to know this had an ending, and one I could live with. I didn’t get the whole plot with Teddy, the son thing was weird to me; it came out of left field, but what I did like was how it ended, I had to say I laughed because it felt very full circle. I will miss this cast of characters though because they were so entertaining to watch on-screen. Lastly, you can’t tell me there was a whole ship for Michael and Sucre, there was mad love there!

List of Movies:

• Disney Movies:
  • The Misadventures of Merlin Jones – this had an absent-minded professor vibe, it was kooky and entertaining.
  • The Tiger Walks – I almost thought my project was done with this movie because it was so hard to find; it turned out to be an entertaining movie about kids saving a tiger.
  • The Moon-Spinners – this wasn’t a bad movie, but it was soooo long.
  • Mary Poppins – this was a rewatch and I enjoyed watching it again!
  • Emil and the Detectives – this was a fun, goofy movie about child detectives.
  • Those Calloways – this was all about saving the geese, which was alright, not my fave.
  • The Monkey’s Uncle – this was a sequel to Merlin Jones and boy did I not like this, it was just so unhinged and not goofy in a good way.
  • The Darn Cat! – another fun movie about a cat who helps the FBI. I also really loved Hayley Mills in this!
  • The Ugly Dachshund – this was not my favourite, there were so many elements that weren’t funny and it was more cringy than anything else.
  • Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N. – between the name of this and the plot it was all terrible.
  • The Fighting Prince of Donegal – I didn’t like nor hate this film, it exists and that’s all I really think of it.
  • Follow Me, Boys! – this was actually a really sweet and endearing movie!
  • Monkeys, Go Home! – this was a really silly movie that centred around chimps again.
  • The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin – I thought my Western days were behind me… nope, although I didn’t hate this, it was entertaining in some ways.

What I’m watching:

Star Trek: Voyager; season 2. The show is starting to find its legs, but I’m still not 100% into it. I’m halfway through the season, so there’s still time for it to get better. I’m still not connecting with the characters yet, but there’s still time.

Boy Meets World; season 2. I’m still plugging away at this, I’m very close to the end of the season, but in short, the weirdness from the start of season is starting to mellow out and we’re getting back to the heart of the show.

The Simpsons; season 10. I’m halfway through this season and I’m enjoying it. The stories are hilarious so it’s nice to see and feel that the show is getting a bit of a refresher.

Sex Education; season 4. I’m sad that this is the last season so I’m going to savour this. I can’t get over how good this show is, also you can’t tell me Eric is not the star of the show because he totally is!

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

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