Happy end of January / start of February!!! After a pretty tough December, I had such an amazing month of January and as I write this now, I’m in a great mood (which you’ll probably be able to tell when you read this). Who knows if the optimism will last, but might as well make the most of it and dive right into this post while I have the momentum!

Books I Read

I finished my first book of the year (Daisy Jones & the Six) on January 1st. It was so incredible that I flew right through it, and that momentum kept me going for the rest of the month. Most of these were audiobooks, which certainly helped because I can just listen to it the entire time I cook, do dishes, or just generally go about my day. Actually sitting down and reading takes way longer for me.

kristen arnett With Teeth

I normally schedule reviews way in advance, which means you’ll see reviews for all of those books in the months to come. If you’re looking to read some reviews right at this very second, this month I reviewed:

TV I Watched

This month was a subpar month for television, if we’re being honest. I just didn’t watch all that much TV because there didn’t seem to be the time- but what I did watch was INCREDIBLE. Yellowjackets blew my freaking mind. I cannot get over how much I loved it. Sense8 was great. And Just Like That is horrible but in just the way we all expected. In terms of movies, sorry folks I just wasn’t in the mood this month!

Shows

Movies

  • Amanda Knox (3 Stars)
  • Untold: Malice at the Palace (4 Stars)
  • Intrusion (4 Stars)

Shorts

  • I went to the Women In Film festival, and you can read about all the great shorts I saw here

Posts I Wrote That You Loved

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty surprised by how this top 5 post roundup turned out. It’s not that I don’t like these posts (far from it) it’s just that if I were taking bets on which posts you guys would love, these ones weren’t necessarily it. Still, I’m super happy at how diverse this list is because it’s a sign that y’all are liking what I’m doing with the blog! If your favorite posts aren’t on here, make sure you let me know in the comments so I know what to keep putting effort into.

  1. Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Additions to My Bookshelf
  2. And Just Like That recaps (all of these made it to the list so I’m grouping them together)
  3. Authors I Discovered in 2021
  4. My 2022 Hopes Dreams and Goals
  5. A Personal History of My Goodreads Reading Challenge + 2022 Goal Announcement

My Bookshelf

This month I really tried not to buy any books, because I wasn’t even properly getting around to reading the books that I already own. The month just felt so busy, and anytime I sat down to read I’d end up getting distracted and not doing it. I did buy one book though, because I signed up for this book club and I needed to buy the book to participate, but then I ended up not going to book club because like I said, I was busy.

book cover for she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan

I wrote about this book for my first Words Wednesday when I was just 5 chapters in, and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint! I am off and on about reading YA, especially dystopian-esque YA about wars and battles and heroes, but this book through me full force into the genre and reminded me of why I used to love it.

Link Round Up: Articles I Adore

The link round up is halfway a new part of this monthly summary that I’m trying out, and halfway me bringing back a feature that was always in my monthly roundups that I forgot about last month. Essentially, I want to link some posts that I really enjoyed reading, because why not! The difference is that now rather than just linking other blogger’s posts, I will link other bloggers and just random articles that I read that I think everyone should read about.

  1. I’ve been absolutely OBSESSED with the show Yellowjackets this month, and you can read my (no spoiler) review here. If you’re looking for episode by episode recaps, I HIGHLY recommend you head over to Autostraddle, where Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya published a series of recaps that comforted me after an hour of teen horror
  2. All I want in life is for the WNBA to expand. I love the league and there’s so many great players who aren’t getting their chance! Erica L. Ayala wrote about how the league is refusing to expand for the New York Times.
  3. If you haven’t seen the M&Ms controversy this month, you are blessedly offline and I’m lucky you’re even reading this blog. But just in case, here’s a Vox article by Melinda Fakuada that I think summed it up nicely.
  4. Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole wrote a super interesting post about rereading books!! I’m not a re-reader AT ALL but I think it’s always fun to look at other people’s habits and see how they differ from my own, so I had a fun time reading this one. Go check out her blog!

Challenge Updates

Elsewhere on the Internet

Coming out of a strong vlogmas season, I ended up dropping the ball a bit on vlogging. That was really unfortunate because I got a new ring light and microphone for Christmas and was very excited to put them to good use! Unfortunately I had Covid during my winter break, so I ended up coughing too much to film anything, and then my first week back on the job I was wayyyy too busy. Eventually I did end up recapping the end of my vlogmas (because I’d filmed it but didn’t post), but that was all. Wishing myself better luck next month for sure!

Off the Internet

This month has been pretty great from a real life perspective. I started off the month at home, finally out of quarantine (more info on how I ended up there in the video above), and got to spend some time with my family. Then I went back to my apartment and spent some time there. Two weeks later I went home again for the weekend, and then right after that I went to visit my girlfriend for a week! That was chaotically busy but still so fun that we got to hang out.

Unfortunately, due to a Covid spike in Boston, our office was fully remote for a while, so I was doing all of my work from home. I somehow thrived like this though?? Like- I got more work done than I ever have, I’ve started finally figuring out what’s going on, and I’m starting to feel good about it, finally, 5 months in. Yay!

So yeah, overall it was such a good month and I’m really looking forward to the next one!

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