Hello, lovelies. It’s the end of January and I’m only managing to put this post out now. I genuinely considered skipping it, but I like keeping a record of the books I read. I’m planning on changing the format in 2020 because I originally started doing this back when I would only read three or four books a month, but the quantity of reviews I’ve needed to write has become overwhelming. That has made my book descriptions and reviews a lot more concise than I want them to be, so I’m trying to think of a way to reformat it this year. I don’t want to be a book blogger in the sense of critically analyzing books, but I would like to talk more in-depth and have spoiler sections to rant to those who have read those books already.
Anyway, I would’ve skipped this post entirely since it’s so late, but I didn’t want to put out my Top 10 Books of 2019 post before writing this, so expect that blog post next. I hope you enjoy!
//Books
Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell, Faith Erin Hicks – I was in a reading slump at the beginning of November, and this book got me out of it. I read this graphic novel at my university’s bookstore over the course of two days in between classes. It’s a fun graphic novel. The art was beautiful and the story was cute. It’s about two high school seniors and their last year working at the pumpkin patch they’ve worked at every fall and making the most of their last day there. It was a fun quick read that I can totally see myself reading again next fall because it just gets you in the spirit for it.
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen – I’ll be honest, I thought I’d enjoy this book more than I did. I love historical fiction and it’s so hard to find good historical fiction that isn’t depressing, just a romance or takes place in World War II, which is why I don’t pick a lot of it up. I need to be in the mood for it. Water For Elephants is such a critically acclaimed movie that I decided to read the book it’s based on. The story is about a vet student, Jacob, at Cornell University during the 1930s. After a tragic turn of events, he ends up boarding onto a circus train and becoming the veterinarian for all the animals. The rest of the novel is about day-to-day life and how things worked in the circus back then. Things like animal abuse, how the circus dealt with the Great Depression, and the social hierarchy of things. The main plot is about how Jacob falls in love with a married woman in an abusive relationship. I got sucked in at the beginning, but the book lagged in the middle. I almost put it down, then plot picked up in the last third of the book.
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen – I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. It was a nice story, but I think I’ll enjoy it more when I reread it in a few years because then I can enjoy the little interactions of other characters between the ones where Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy fall in love. I’ll be able to notice more about how those character interactions impacted the main romance.
Book Love by Debbie Tung – This was a graphic novel full of comics about reading and book lovers. Everything in it was true and relatable.
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – This is a very short non-fiction book. Adichie’s friend had just had a daughter and emailed her about how to raise her as a feminist in Nigeria (where they are both from). Adichie responded with a long email, which turned into this book. It’s basically what the title says. It’s fifteen suggestions on how to be a feminist. I read the entire thing in one sitting and felt so inspired by it. One part I loved was how she talked about holding onto and teaching the beautiful parts of your culture while letting go of the sexist/racist parts because so many people forget that they’re not mutually exclusive.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I had been hearing about this book for about a year before I finally read it, and I can see what the hype was about. It was so good. It’s about a Hollywood starlet who had seven husbands in her lifetime. In her old age, she agrees to do an interview telling her life story now that everyone in it is dead. It goes through all the things she had to do to make it in Hollywood as we learn who the actual love of her life was. Throughout the book, she felt like a real person. I wanted to look her up and watch her movies. I highly recommend this novel. I read it in three days during finals week. I couldn’t put it down. Both the audiobook and the physical book are fantastic.
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz – I read this book for my social psychology course, and it was my favorite non-fiction book from last year. This guy basically analyzes Google and Pornhub’s search data and discusses what that says about us as a society. It’s really interesting and is told in a very engaging way. Best “textbook” ever!
The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – I have found a new least favorite book. I’ve been saying my least favorite book is Treasure Island since elementary school, but this book changed that. It’s written by the same author, so I don’t know what I was expecting, but the premise was such a cool concept and I’ve heard people rave about it for years. I don’t get the hype! If the book was actually in Jekyll and Hyde’s point of view, I’d have loved it. It would have been awesome if it had been written in the same way Frankenstein was, but it wasn’t. Nearly the entire book is told in hindsight and we learn the majority of the important information in the last quarter of the book. And it’s told to the point of view character point-blank! This novel did not follow the rule of showing instead of telling. My problem with it was that it could’ve been so much better than it was. I wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t a short audiobook and I had a long drive. All the relevant information was told to me in the last 25 minutes.
Supernova by Marissa Meyer – This is the third and final book in the Renegades Trilogy. It came out in November and I read it soon after it came out. The first two books were good, but the finale was my favorite. It is very rare that I like the last book more than the first two, so this book pleasantly surprised me. I definitely enjoyed the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer more, but she did a good job with this final book. I didn’t realize how invested I was in the characters until I read this one. The Renegades Trilogy is a series about a society where there are superheroes and human beings become too reliant on them. The “villains” in this series are called “anarchists” because they don’t want people with powers (including them) to hold so much power and control the government. There’s a plot, but I really like the “slice of life” aspect of the book where you see the characters’ every day lives instead of action being thrown at you frequently. I’m glad the third book was still able to keep that with all the action and many plot twists along the way.
Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur – I don’t read a lot of poetry, but this one was good. The poems were all either a hit or a miss for me, but the ones that were a hit made me feel very strong emotions, which I guess was the point. This poetry collection is about things like sexual abuse, healing, etc.
Animal Farm by George Orwell – This was the last classic I read last year and it was really good. The message throughout the story was clear and understandable and the ending packed a punch. It’s about a farm where the animals rebel against the farmer and take over the farm. They then establish their own society and laws. The novel shows how power dynamics and governments change over time.
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler – I finished this book really quickly. Well, I read 32 pages then didn’t pick it up for a while, then read the last 200+ pages in one sitting. It’s about a girl who is the only overweight person in her “perfect” family. Trigger warning for eating disorders and rape. The main character, Virginia, navigates a lot throughout the book and her (very toxic) family. I can’t even say the book was that good now that I’ve read the second book (in January), which is much better, but the writing style makes it such a quick and easy book to get through and I got invested in it very quickly.
Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon – This book was fine. I had heard good things about it and how it was very inspiring, but it wasn’t super inspiring to me. I guess it’s because I’m not in a creative field. The book gives tips about sharing your creativity and putting your work out there in the world. It was informative to read about, but I didn’t personally find it very inspiring.
Aristotle & Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz – I really enjoyed this book. I believe the genre is a bildungsroman, which is basically a story that shows the protagonist growing up. This novel is in Ari’s point of view. It takes place in the 1970s or ’80s after the Vietnam War. It follows Ari’s struggle making friends, discovering things about his family, loneliness, etc. He reminded me a lot of a friend of mine. I don’t really have much to say about this book other than that I felt sad around the time I read it and it made me feel better. It’s a charming story without a lot of plot, but that’s mainly due to the genre.
Rebel by Marie Lu – I was super wary about this book when I first heard about it. The Legend Trilogy wrapped up when I was in high school and the idea of adding a fourth book felt unnecessary. I don’t feel that way anymore. This book deals with the aftermath of the third book, but it doesn’t take place in the same country. At the end of third book, some of the surviving characters moved to another country and this fourth book takes place ten years later. It’s about how their previous experiences in a dystopian country helped them tackle the problem in the new one before it escalated. There’s honestly not much I can say without spoiling the first three books. I’m just glad this book wasn’t just a romance like many addons to other series are. It added a lot to the plot of the original books book. I kind of wish she had stretched the plot out to a fifth book since it was so interesting, but I get why she did it this way. The point was that they learned from their past mistakes, but I think she left enough open-ended for it to be realistic. The romance was also really good. All the communication and angst I signed up for after the way the third book ended. The first books I read in 2019 were this trilogy, so it was cool that the fourth book was the last book I read.
//Movies
I’m not gonna lie. I can’t remember most of the movies I watched in November and December. It was too long ago and those two months were a blur. It was mostly Disney+ movies. I watched the live-action Lady & the Tramp, A Goofy Movie, Captain Marvel…, and so much more, but I’ll just talk about one movie on it that I really loved.
Going To The Mat – This was a Disney Channel movie that I had never heard of before. It’s about a blind high school student who joins his new school’s wrestling team and the discrimination he receives because of that. I’m surprised that I had never heard of it before because it was so good. I want to watch it again and recommend it to everyone I know!
Frozen II – I watched this on the day of my actual birthday with my brothers and cousins. I’m gonna be honest, I think it peaked during the first half. I was loving the beginning. The music was amazing and the plot was going in a great direction, but the payoff was too rushed and the songs in the second half weren’t nearly as good. I know some people will disagree with my points, but the first movie was better.
//T.V. Shows
Anne With An E – This show came out in the U.S. in January, but I had been watching season 3 every week since it premiered in Canada. This show is the newest adaption of the classic series Anne of Green Gables (one of my favorite book series) and this adaptation is AMAZING. Season 3 was my favorite season so far and I really hope they end up picking up a fourth season after all the support post-cancellation because the next season would’ve gone into the plot of the third book, which is my favorite one in the series. (Plus the series creator planned out five seasons, and there were a million renewal retweets within 24 hours before the show was even released to the rest of the world.) Season 3 takes place after Anne turns sixteen and is preparing to go to college.
Younger – This was the show I chose to binge-watch over winter break, and even then, it took me a week to finish it because I can’t binge-watch shows anymore. I’ve lost the ability, which is probably a good thing. This show is about a 40-year-old divorcee, who is going back into the workforce after her daughter goes to college. She has trouble finding a job as a middle-aged woman with actual experience on her resume. She looks younger than she is and ends up getting a job at an esteemed publishing house posing as a 26-year-old. The show follows her living out that lie. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for season 7. The entire show is on Hulu and there are only 12 episodes per season. The episodes are pretty short too (the standard 23 minutes), so you can get through it pretty quickly.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – I decided I’d put my two-cents into this show. It was fine. I had really low expectations, so they exceeded them enough to where I kept watching. I wasn’t really invested in the main couple who play Troy and Gabriella until episode eight (out of ten) in the series, which is saying something. I enjoyed the music (both the covers and original songs) and I’ll watch the second season when it comes out. I don’t think I’d have gotten through it if they had posted all ten episodes at once. The fact that I could watch it thirty minutes at a time when it came out weekly made it easier to watch. It was more of something to pass the time when I wanted something to than something I was really invested in. That makes it sound worse than it is. It’s a good show and I like the creative spin they took on it. I just don’t like the characters as much as I could have from the beginning. I started liking them near the end.
Forky Asks A Question – This was a mini-series I wasn’t super excited about but watched since my friend loves it and they’re a few minutes long. The only reason it made it onto this list is that in the “What is a Friend?” episode, Forky becomes friends with a mug and the mug breaks! How can you not expect me to have emotions over that!? That’s pretty much what kept me watching every week.
Kim Possible – This had pretty much been my background noise show along with How I Met Your Mother whenever I was doing work around the house while my mom was away. I’ve seen episodes of both shows enough where I know what’s going on when I see a clip in passing, so it worked when I was busy with more mindless tasks like cleaning or cooking.
//Music
- Harry Potter Instrumental Study Music (It was finals season)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender Instrumental Study Music
- Into The Unknown from Frozen II
- All Is Found from Frozen II – This was my favorite song from the movie
- Night and Day by Craig Reeves ft. Christine Smith
- Fearless (Acoustic) by Taylor Swift
- Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi
//Priceless
I Turned 22 – Cue the infamous song!
I Did Well On Finals – This was honestly a miracle. I was so stressed out those last three weeks of the semester since my mom went to Bangladesh again. Even though I was more prepared for it after August, it was a lot harder this time since school was busier, I was working (I took off work in August), and I cooked more (we got take-out more often last time, but it was easier to just eat food at home instead of going out since I could study while I cooked). I genuinely don’t know how I did it, but my grades turned out pretty well. They could’ve been better, but I didn’t have any fucks to give anymore.
I Went On A Cruise To Mexico With My Extended Family – Going on a cruise has been on my bucket list for years since so many murder mystery novels take place on them. I went with a bunch of my cousins, which made the trip ten times more fun. My family and I went to Tulum, which is a Mayan Ruin in Mexico. The trip was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to write about it. (I just don’t know what type of post to frame it as).
Well, that’s it for now! I’ll see you all next time for my Top 10 books of the year!
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What was your favorite book from the last few months? Have you watched any good movies or shows recently?