Let’s Rewind: January 2019

For the past year, I’ve been trying to think up a name/theme for my monthly review posts. I did my monthly reviews as part of the What’s on Your Nightstand meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month. But shortly after partaking of that meme, I skewed to the left of it and started doing my own thing. Instead of only listing what I’ve read for the month, what I’m currently reading, and what I plan to read next, I also included articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month. I decided that I needed something suited to me and finally, I’ve created it!

I call it Let’s Rewind. It took all of 2 minutes to think up and a long-ass time to design a logo for it (I’m proud of my lil iPod-looking thing), but finally I have something. This Let’s Rewind feature will be exactly like my What’s on Your Nightstand posts (except I’ll no longer feel bad for going against the instructions, haha!). These posts will be published at the end of month and will be a review of what I watched, read, visited, and/or listened to as well as anything else I’d like to mention. So, let’s jump right in!

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What’s on Your Nightstand: November & December 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.


Whew! Those two months flew by quickly and were filled with many ups and downs, which have already gotten me started on my New Year resolutions. November went by so fast that I can hardly remember what I did. Thanksgiving popped up and was a fun time spent with family before a headlong spin to Christmas, which wasn’t as magical as it usually is. (I even forgot to celebrate it on my blog. 😦 ) I didn’t feel the spirit of Christmas this year. Instead, it was just another regular day and not even a great one at that. I spent it exhausted and a little aggravated. Now I’m just ready for the new year to begin.

Anyway, on a positive note, I should be back to my regular unplanned and unscheduled but pretty consistent blogging. I’ve succumbed to using a schedule since I anticipate 2019 being similar to these 2 months, so I need to schedule stuff to get them done. I hope what I have in mind works.

I didn’t get much reading done and I failed the readathon I decided to enter, but here are the few books I managed to complete:

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What’s on Your Nightstand: October 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.


What happened in October? I can’t remember exactly, so I’ll just wrap up stuff up to this moment, November 11. I ended September having regained my confidence after a trying August, but I messed up my phone in the process when I dropped it on concrete and cracked the screen. But good news: I was able to get it fixed after spending a whole week without it, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be (in retrospect), and lucky timing because stuff got super busy right after.

October was crazy and I barely had enough time to read, but I managed to complete two books. I squeezed them in between the many things I had to do as I prepped for a huge meeting, a work trip, and starting a part-time job at a bookstore. Of course, that last bit is the only awesome thing in the previous sentence. I was so excited when I got the bookstore position. I told everyone I knew. None of them were surprised, but they were all happy for me because FINALLY, I got my dream job. 😀

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What’s on Your Nightstand: September 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.

September was a much better month than August, probably because I didn’t do much in it. But this was good for me. I wasn’t as stressed, and I was able to relax and find confidence again in things I’m great at. So September was a great month for regaining my footing, my balance — though it ended with me fucking up my phone. GAH!!!


Books read:

I kicked off September with a series of quick, one-sitting reads, the first of which was Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell. It’s a humorous book of anecdotes recounted by booksellers around the world. The conversations overheard and scenarios witnessed were sometimes too comical for me to believe.

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What’s on Your Nightstand: August 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.

Things started to take a turn for the better in August after a stressful July. I won a copy of Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò in an IG giveaway that I was happy for and that set my month on a positive tone. I went to my first baseball game this month and was super excited about it though I didn’t understand shit about what was happening. The only thing I know is home run and that didn’t happen until after I left the game 😦 . But I’m glad to have participated in this quintessential American experience of attending a ball game and eating a hotdog there.

I also attended the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., but it wasn’t as great as I expected. I was glad to see Roxane Gay speak, though I haven’t read any of her books yet; and I really enjoyed Leigh Bardugo’s session. She was very funny and made me want to immediately start reading her books (I’ve only read Shadow & Bone so far). I wanted to stick around to see Celeste Ng, but I was hungry and disappointed with the festival, so I left.

Reading-wise, it was a good month. I read six books, which I think shows how stressed I still was from July. I didn’t want to deal with the world, so I dunked my head in books to avoid it. I didn’t read as many articles as I wanted to though, but I’m slowly getting back into them. It’s been a weird summer overall and I hope that my year will get better and end on a positive note. So, reading is good but life is…unpredictable as always.

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What’s on Your Nightstand: June 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.

June. It had its ups and downs, but it wasn’t too bad overall. I was busy for a good bit of it and did some travelling for work, but I was also able to read a bunch of books (though not as many articles, unfortunately) and see a couple movies/TV shows. So far, summer seems to be hectic for me and I guess that will be my summer schedule for a while. But I’m hoping a week will come along that’ll be unhurried. Just a laid-back, totally chill week where I can take my time relishing the delights of all the things I love. That’s what I look forward to every summer and I need something like that before my favorite season ends.


Books read:

The beginning of June marked my completion of Robin Hobb’s Tawney Man trilogy with Fool’s Fate. Emily of Embuhlee liest and I blazed through this book. We were eager to see how the story would end and what would become of our beloved characters. I enjoyed the story and can’t wait to jump into the next series of this story. I just hope that I’ll be able to read from my favorite character’s perspective again because the end of this book made me think that probably won’t happen.

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What’s on Your Nightstand: May 2018

What’s on Your Nightstand is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next. For my posts, I also include articles, music, art, TV shows, and whatever else I did in the month.

I’m so late with this post. May was a busy month and some of that busyness bled over into June. I attended a variety of events, like Free Comic Book Day (see my haul post here) and an embassy open-house event held in Washington, D.C., annually (it was great!), and did a bit of traveling with family, which was more exhausting than I expected. I also found a pop-up used bookstore that I’ve fallen in love with because it had a few books in stock that I didn’t expect to see, like old editions of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series and T.A. Barron’s Merlin series. I was tempted to get the Tamora Pierce books, but was reminded that I don’t have any space for them at home. 😦

Though the month was hectic, I managed to complete a few books, but found it hard to catch up on articles and such, and there were some really good pieces this month. But here’s what I got to:

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