The Sunday Post: Just Catching Up!

                        The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted at Caffeinated Reviewer.

LISTENING:

I am absolutely head over heels in love with this song:(There's no mv because it's a b-side.)

And the whole album is what I've been playing non stop for a month now. 

And I managed to get tickets to see these guys (TXT) in May! YES!!

WATCHING

I started a really cute, sweet, simple high school kdrama called A Love so Beautiful. 

I'm also watching two competition Kpop music shows: Boys Planet and Peak Time. Both are being pretty intense and quite enjoyable to watch. Rooting for everyone to make it, lol! I haven't found any English things to be interested in for awhile now. Suggestions?

READING:

Just finished up The Last Anniversary for book club and have started the second book from The Ember in the Ashes series called A Torch in the Night. 

I've also started Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, and my plan is to read just a bit every day and finish it by the end of the year... and vlog the journey. Hopefully someone might be interested in that!

WRITING:

I've been quite a bit of time researching how to send queries. Yeah. This is not easy, this part. Writing the book is a cinch compared to this...

But I now have a list of about 30 to start with. That's something!  I don't expect anything to happen, I just want to say I've done it. I've tried. You know?

BLOGGING:

I reviewed my January books

I officially announced my challenges

I listed some new-to-me authors

YOUTUBING:

On the kpop one:

I highlighted my favorite songs in January

I vlogged our concert experience from a few weekends ago!

On the Booktube one:

I started going through every book in my home library. There's currently three parts, all the YA section. Click here for part one to get started! I've posted a bunch of other stuff, so be sure to go take a look!

And that's about all that's been going on around here! I hope you are all doing awesome!

Books I Read in January 2023

Welcome to my new format for "reviewing" books! I'm just going to do the monthly wrap up and report on my books read then, all in one post with mini reviews. Okay? Okay!

Here's what I read in January:

The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle: I really loved this one about a girl with massive ADHD and a boy on the autistic spectrum. They get together in a pretty funny and then connect through their mutual love for a book called The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise. And they use those quotes in their texts to each other and it's adorable. They both have lots of issues to deal with and it seems like there's no way they can figure out how to be together.  It's a really cute and fun story with not your typical characters. 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman: This one we read for book club in January. This author is quickly becoming a book club favorite and ends up on our lists quite often these days! It's a fun story narrated by a nearly 8 year old girl as she watches all the crazy things going on in her apartment building. She is also dealing with the death of her grandma... her crazy grandma who has sent in on a sort of treasure hunt after she's gone. And our girl ends up realizing that all the people in the apartment building have a connection. It's awesome just as all his books are, with amazing character development. He can capture people like no else!

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: This is the book I read from my own stacks this month. A book that has been waiting for me since 2016... because I remember buying it at Powell's bookstore when we were on a trip that year! Anyway, I loved it and it gets to be my first 5 star read of the year! What a story that totally sucks you and keeps you on the edge the whole time! Our girl ends up posing as a sly and spying on the household of the commander of the school that trains soldiers to fight and suppress her people. She needs to get information so she can save her brother from horrendous jail and torture. Our guy is one of these highly trained soldiers and he has just graduated from this school. And he wants to escape. But if he's caught they will kill him. And of course their two desires somehow come together in all the crazy unexpected ways! AHH! It's all so intense!  I immediately got book 2 from the library and I hope to fit it in during February. 

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson: This was a sort of Booktube read along, though I haven't really succeeded in connecting with anyone reading it yet! LOL! It's a great historical fantasy (is that what you call it... magic in the 1800's but not with steampunk sort of devices). Our girl has been raised in a great library with intentions of running that library someday, but an incident happens that sends her off to be questioned by the sorcerers and magic is so very much frowned upon by the librarians. Bad bad stuff. But when she meets a certain sorcerer, she begins to wonder if everything she has been taught is right. Because he... and the demon that gives him his magic... are pretty cool after all. And then after they become friends they have to save the world! Fun stuff, and so beautifully written. 

February Plans:

• Read The Last Anniversary for bookclub
• Read the 2nd Ember in the Ashes book!
• Read Siddhartha, or that Leo Tolstoy short story thing for a challenge
• Read a king/queen book for the British Forced Phase
• That's all I'm thinking of at this point!

2023 Challenges!

 I'm participating in three reading prompt type challenges this year. They are:

Popsugar (find that one here)

This is a popular one through the bookish community. I even found a Facebook group where people give tons of suggestions for all these prompts. So fun to see what people are coming up with!

Pioneer Book (the local used bookstore, you can find that one here)

This is one I've tried in the past, but is quite a difficult one. The thing that makes this one unique is that you have to read something from their various displays in the store. But it's fun to go support the store and find something to buy from these displays. I bought three there the other day. 

Orem Library (the local library)

I've taking all the lists and made a huge spreadsheet so I can easily see which prompts are similar from all the lists. I will use the same book across the three different challenges, but not the same book within one challenge, if that makes sense. Anyway, I'm only 4 books into this year, but doing okay making them all work for a challenge!

I'm also still doing the #ReadWhatYouOwnChallenge, trying to read 15 of my own books before I buy any other books. I've had to fudge a bit on this one, but I'm about half way done now. I will be glad to get the 15 books read, and after that I'll continue to read off my own shelf, but without the no buying restriction!

What fun challenges are you all doing this year?