November 2019 Wrap Up | The most productive month of the year!

It’s the 1st day of December as I’m writing this post. It’s crazy to think that we only have 30 more days before 2019 is over! Where did the year go? I need time to slow down because there are still tons of things I need to do in 2019!

NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

1 – After more than a year of not reading any books in my native tongue, I finally picked up «Every Heart a Doorway» by Seanan McGuire in Russian! I honestly forgot how much easier it is to get into the story, I was watching the events unfold in my head after just a couple of pages, and flew through this (very short) book.

I didn’t actually love it as much as I hoped I would. Not sure why I was expecting a less mature book, but the use of some words and conversations about sexuality really through me off. I’m not saying that it was bad or that it shouldn’t be done, but the fact that it caught me by surprise ruined a bit my enjoyment of this book. I guess I should do my homework in the future BEFORE picking up a book!

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2 – I’m back on Instagram with a slightly different color theme! Even though I still use the same filters and settings to edit my photos (I love the coherent look), the purchase of this new yellow sweater prompted an immediate yellow-inspired photo-shoot and I love how the photos turned out! This is my current feed:

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3 – Zoella blog launch!! I’m so excited. I’ve been a big fan of Zoella for over 4 years now, I even tried one of her books and binge-watched tons of 1h-long Christmas vlogs. Now with the new look and revamp her blog is even better and has that feeling of a very professional on-line magazine about lifestyle, baking, reading and life in general. I love it!

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4 – We watched «Five Feet Apart». I haven’t read this book and to be honest, I wasn’t going to watch the movie either. But one November evening my Boyfriend was in charge of movie selection on that night, and chose «Five Feet Apart». (I don’t think he quite realized what it was exactly about). I was very glad that I haven’t read the book because I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movie was. Basically, long story short – I cried my eyes out.

Once again, it’s one of those movies and books that I don’t really like watching or reading. Understandably so, I’d say, as reading about a serious illness of kids and teens tends to put me in a bad mood, so after reading my fair share of the contemporary novels with illnesses, I gave up and went to fantasy.

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5– We also just finished watching Season 3 of Stranger Things! It was so GOOD! Usually, the first movies and first seasons of TV shows tend to be the best, but with Stranger Things, I honestly think that season 3 is the best so far! Highly recommend!

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6 – There was so many interesting posts this months:

• Sha shared How she Picks Her Next Reads, which I found fascinating and would love to do something similar in the future!
• Shealea brought to our attention different Bookish Awards to pay attention to (besides GoodReads).
• I loved Emma’s post on Top 10 Essential Blogging Tools! Very helpful! and
• Also Holly’s post on Why She Doesn’t Rate Books.
• And I had so much fun reading all about Rafaela’s Weird Reading Habits 😀

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MONTHLY GOALS CHECK-IN

✔	1 – Keep up with the blogging schedule. I was so surprised that I managed to keep up with my blogging schedule with a total of 16 posts! There were a few posts that got pushed forwards as I didn’t have time to prepare them, but overall it’s been an amazing month.
X	2 – Read ARCs and clear the NetGalley queue.  This was my biggest and most important goal of November. And guess what? Ofc, I didn’t do it. I read only 2 ARCs in November, requested even more ARCs from NetGalley and now I’m very behind!
X	3 – Focus on the upcoming exams.  I know… I know… I need to get my *** together.

MONTHLY READING STATS

November was a great month! Very busy, as always, but I actually read 11 books! Some ARCs, some final books in the trilogies I’ve been meaning to read for months. It feels good to finally be done with them!

And I also read «Little Women»! It was the sweetest, most wholesome book that I’ve read in a long time. I’m ready to watch the movie on the day of its release. 🙂

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The biggest disappointment was «Bursts of Fire» by Susan Forest. I received this ARC from NetGalley in the beginning of summer, and kept putting it off, even though the blurb sounded really interesting. I loved the beginning of the book, but I was so disappointed by one of the scenes that I decided to DNF it right there and then.

This is a world where magiels assist the kings and the people of the Kingdoms to cross over to Heaven after they die. Hundreds of years of peace between the Kingdoms were followed by an unpredictable attack. And now all magiels are either dead or hiding in fear for their lives.

I was enjoying this book until I just read a sex scene… I mean… isn’t this supposed to be a YA book?!

I tried reading a bit more but quickly realized that that one scene put me off the entire book, and also I have no intention to read this series. It wasn’t all too bad, and the idea is very cool. I also loved the parts where we followed the three magiel sisters, but it didn’t grab my attention enough for me to continue.

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NOVEMBER TOP TEN TUESDAY POSTS

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NOVEMBER BOOK REVIEWS

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“END OF THE YEAR” SERIES:

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How was your November? What books did you read?
Let me know in the comments below!

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