Top Ten Tuesday - Books On My Fall 2020 TBR

 It has been a long time since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday and it has been even longer since my heart has been in it. Typically these TBRs are a bust for me because I am a mood reader through and through. However, I'm really excited about all of these books and I hope I can read them all before the end of the year.

One thing I realized when I was making this TBR is so many of the covers have a dark color scheme. I guess fantasy has covers with darker color schemes, but my fall TBR is very appropriate.

  

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Check out That Artsy Girl for future Top Ten Tuesday Topics. 

Wrapping Up Last Week: September 13th

For month's I've thought about talking about the books and media I consume each week in some kind of wrap up post. I love to talk about books as well as other media. I'm honestly not sure what will get included in these each week so I'd love some suggestions. 

We'll start with the obvious. Since this is a primarily a book blog, I'll start with the books I finished this past week. 

Books: 

The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger - (#SpaceOperaSeptember Read) 

This was a good. For some reason I didn't expect it to be as sexy as it was which is totally my fault because Carriger warned us it would be sexy. However, her San Andres series is sexy, but it also has a complex plot. There was plot here but there wasn't a lot of nuance to it and the book was mostly about our characters. Overall I gave this four stars and would definitely read more in this universe. 

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce - (Fantasy, #3 The Circle Reforged)

One of the worst things is to be disappointed by a book written by a favorite author. I adore Tamora Pierce, but this book just didn't do it for me. Because this is the third in a loosely connected series of books, I had a good idea what would happen in this book. I knew we were getting back story to some stories Briar, Rosethorn and Evvy talk about in the other two books. However, the execution left a lot to be desired. Pierce took on a lot of mature topics like war, torture and PTSD, but a lot of it felt glossed over. There were also several plot points that weren't well developed or resulted in plot holes. 

Currently Reading: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson 

Podcasts:

Mansplain Baseball Elsewhere:

Recently I found this podcast about baseball and hosted by three ladies. Though the hosts are all Braves fans and I am a Yankees fan, I love listening to their commentary on baseball and they do interviews with women in the baseball world. I cannot wait until I can listen to more. 

Movies/Television 

The Good Witch (Movie and Show) - 

Earlier this month I started The Good Witch show on Netflix and I really enjoyed it. However, I felt like I was missing a LOT of context. I found out there are several movies on Hallmark about Cassie and her history in this town. So I watched the original movie and enjoyed that too. The story has a modern witchy vibe that reminds me of Practical Magic, but it is a little lighter and has less murder. 

I hope you all have a good week. If you've enjoyed any of these, I'd love to chat about it. Hopefully 

Some 2020 Favorites

As promised, today I bring you my favorites. Though 2020 has been a heck of a year, there have been a few things that have been bright spots. I hope you are all doing well in this year and I hope you have a few things that have brought you joy. 

Cold Brew - I've loved iced coffee for years, but this year I've been obsessed with cold brew. I've even tried making it myself a few times since we were in quarantine and I was trying to avoid going out to coffee shops to get a cup. 

Painting My Nails - This year my job has changed a little bit so I'm not destroying my nails by opening boxes and packing up textbooks as often. Therefore I've been painting them more often and trying really hard to grow them out. I've always been a nail bitter especially when I'm anxious so having longish nails and healthy cuticles is a big accomplishment for me. I've really enjoyed doing different combinations of nail colors and trying to match them to my books lately. 

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Jedi: Fallen Order - Earlier this year I devoured this video game. It was enough of a challenge that I never got bored, but I didn't get overly frustrated either. (Rage quit is real with video games my friends) This game totally absorbed me for a few weeks and I definitely want to replay it at some point so I can attempt to find more hidden things now that I know what I'm doing. Our hero is fantastic and the game itself is beautiful. The graphics are *chef kiss* 

 

Tik Tok- If you told me last year I would spend more time on social media, I would be appalled. Somehow I don't care with Tik Tok. I learn things, I get book recommendations and most importantly I laugh. There is so much comedy on this app that isn't offensive or gross. I love the creators I follow and how creative they are. I've spent a lot of screen hours on Tik Tok and it doesn't seem like I'll stop anytime soon. 

My Kindle/Reading on my Phone - Over the past year I have been reading quite a few ebooks which has really helped my reading. It has been really interesting to discover ebook reading on my phone which I didn't do very much until the end of last year. I haven't looked back since I started doing this. Since I have a Kindle that isn't backlit, reading on my phone has been something I can do no matter what the lighting. Why didn't I do this before? The only issue has been I feel like I'm reading fewer of the physical books I've purchased. 

These are a few of my favorite things in the year of 2020. I think I'll wait to talk about any of my favorite books until the end of the year since we are well over half way through the year at this point. We'll see if I'm still around the blog at the end of the year. 

What are your favorite things from this year? What's been helping you through 2020? 

Hey look! A Blog Post

Hello? *Knock Knock* Is this thing still on? 

It has almost been a year since I posted anything on this blog. I've thought about posting before, but this is the first time I've actually opened the post and started writing anything out. 2020 has been the trash fire of all trash fires for everyone of course, and it has been hard to find motivation to maintain anything beyond what is happening in real life. 

If you'd like to see something I have been keeping up with, mostly, you can check out my Youtube channel. I've been posting at least weekly over there. I adore the community on Booktube and I've found that I can find new channels easier than I can find new blogs. 

So, you may be asking, what has been happening and what is the point of this post? 

Unsurprisingly in this time of quarantine and social distancing, I have been reading. My reading has looked different this year and I've had peaks as well as valleys. My next post (gasp) is going to be about my favorite things of the year so far. I think this is the best way to catch you up on where I'm at in this year and what I've been consuming. 

Mostly this post is practice for me and to wet my toes for blog posts again. For a while I was really calling it in on this blog and I don't want to do that. My plan is to post when the fancy takes me and when I have something to say. If 2020 has shown me anything, it has been I need to give myself grace which I haven't been good at in the past. 

Anyway, I hope you are well and I'd love to hear what you are reading or doing in 2020.