Monthly Update (27/10/2019)

The last time I wrote a weekly update post (over a year ago), I was very clearly drowning and trying to convince myself that I was JUST FINE. Which I why this time I am dropping review requests and NetGalley entirely. Let's see if this works?

Read This Week (and a bit)

As usual I dived into reading head first and excitedly read everything I could get my hands on! I've had The List, Thanks and Rest Of Us on my TBR forever so it felt good to finally get them read. reviews of those will be on my blog soon.

Anticipated November Releases

I'm going to skip having an October wrap up post, it's so close to the end of it. So here's the November releases I can't wait to arrive in my postbox:

 The Starless Sea has a gorgeous US edition which I sincerely wish I had bought. The UK cover is so ugly (it would be better without the shadow man) and it is A TOME. It's already released in the UK in paperback, I really wasn't expecting it to be so freaking big in height. It will be hard to read this without breaking the spine. Expect to see reviews of these books popping over the next month and I'll leave an update about them too.

Weekly Update (16/06/2018)

So there's this comic by the rather brilliant Catana Comics that sums me up perfectly.

Which is really cute and funny until you end up breaking commitments and not reviewing your NetGalley and just generally end up in a spiral of avoidance where you feel like you'll never achieve anything. I have this thing where I go through phases, so usually I will read 50+ books and then drop the blog for like a year before coming back to it and somehow convincing myself that that's obviously not going to happen again. Which is always does.

This time I've been distracted with cross stitch. I don't do anything by halves, so instead of just picking up a piece and stitching occaisionally I've made a blog and I've started making free patterns, which is something I used to do and I miss it, so I really want to continue with that. But I also don't want to abandon this blog. So I put myself on a 2 week hiatus instead, to see if forcing myself to take a break would be the thing that breaks the cycle.

And I think that it's working? I'm here, on the date I said. I'm actually writing this post on the 10th, because I actually felt like getting up and doing that today. I quite feel like reading again too! So as long as I keep checking on myself and work out what's working, there's a very good chance I can balance everything I need to do.

Obviously, I've not been reading - so here's what I need to catch up on instead:

NetGalley

 Seven isn't actually too bad - some of them are from May but most are from June.

Review Requests

 In total that's just 10 books and I'm a fast reader - as I'm writing this from the 10th that's 20 days to catch up, so one every two days is easy for me.

The Other Blog

 If you're into cross stitch my new blog is Witch Stitch and I'm also on Instagram - it's WIPs, free patterns, wishlist patterns and kits, all that sort of thing. Here's a cloud pattern I made that you can download for free:

I have a Pirate pattern coming up too, I just need to stitch him.

Weekly Wrap Up (02/06/2018)

I don't know where the time has gone this month but now I feel like I'm trying to play catch up and failing. I didn't manage to get a Weekly post last week simply due to being busy and exhausted.

Willow's 3rd birthday went terribly - she ended up with tonsilitus and spent the day in a fluffy blanket with her new doll, we didn't bother trying to give presents or anything, she just wanted to lie on the couch and nap.

We did manage to get out on Sunday though and redid her birthday at Wookey Hole with CAKE. It was pretty amazing there, we slightly went crazy in the gift shop where I bought myself a stuffed owl I've named Gatsby, Willow got a cuddly dinosaur and my partner got cheese, wine and chutney amongst the other things we bought.

(Click for bigger images)

Read This Week

 I finally FINALLY finished re-reading Harry Potter and even squeezed in Cursed Child, which wasn't quite as bad I was expecting. I got Skylarks from NetGalley because gay YA but it was really bogged down with a poverty gap storyline that didn't really work.

Song Of The Week

Yes that is Clay from 13 Reasons Why.

Weekly Update (12/05/2018)

We're nearing the middle of May already! I'm happy to say that I'm no longer stressed about my TBR pile this month, I've already managed to cut my NetGalley pile in half and read some amazing new releases on top. In fact I decided on a whim to re-read this entire Harry Potter series, which I'm enjoying so, so much.

It's been a slow May so far but as of today it's about to speed up - we're going to a Spring Fayre in Bath tomorrow, a place we plan to move close to as soon as possible. Wednesday we need to pick up A CAKE then Thursday we'll be a Longleat, a sort of zoo safari park thing. There's animals. I will be buying stuffed ones. You can't stop me. My life goal is to own a stuffy bumblebee and get a bumblebee tattoo.

It's the MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THE YEAR TODAY, it's EUROVISION NIGHT!!!

 

It's all about the hand choreography this year and I will be madly attempting to mimic every single piece that I see, possibly a little drunk. I think I know who will win but it surprises me every year!

Received This Week On NetGalley

  

See, I said I had a plan to cut down on my NetGalley shelf! I've been getting 5-6 books at a time but my plan to only ahve 4 to read each month is paying off. I'm experimenting with other things I can post on my blog that my readers will also enjoy so I requested this book of origami. Me and Bear sat down last night for a simple origami session that ended up being an hour of us yelling at paper and my sheep turned into an Alsatian. I can't wait to post the review and there will be pictures!

Read This Week

   

   

 A good reason why I might be in such a good mood this week is because all but one of these books gets a 5 star rating from me - Reign The Earth gets 4 stars so I still enjoyed that a lot. Brightly Burning was one of my Big Four releases this month and my second that gets 5 stars, so I'm optimistic about the last two - Furyborn and LIFEL1K3. Also the plan is to finish HP3 before this post is up but if I don't I'll just add it next week too.

On The Blog This Week:

Review of The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (5/5)

Many Covers Monday: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Review of Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St John (3/5)

Discussion: My Year Of Disappointing Sequels

Review of The Company Of Eight by Harriet Whitehorn (4/5)
Review of Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne (5/5)