May’s Moments of the Month: December // Stressful Midterms, a Lot of Books, and a Pretty Okay End to the Year!!

December was… interesting.

There were a lot of things that happened last month, and a majority of them were fortunately good! Overall I feel like it was just crammed with A Lot: midterms, winter break, rushing to finish my Goodreads challenge, dance.

And it wasn’t a bad way to end the year either! Even though I finished like three books in the last hour of the year, and still had breakdowns, it was definitely not the worst way 2018 could have ended, and for that I’m thankful.

I am so proud of myself for how much I read in December, because I read 16 books, aka the number I needed to finish my 100 books Goodreads reading challenge! To be fair, only 5/16 were actual books of prose, but I’M STILL IMMENSELY PROUD!!

This month I also got 8 books for the holidays, and I’m so happy about them all! I didn’t realize until a week after that they were all queer and honestly? I should have seen that coming. Half of them I’ve already read but I loved them so much I wanted to own them!

       

         

       

• The Prince and the Dressmaker Jen Wang // so cute! the art is beautiful ★★★★☆
• Spinning Tillie Walden // art is stunning but I didn’t connect to it ★★★☆☆ [2.5]
• Shoot Around (season #1) Suspu // so amazingly diverse! the characters are all so cute and I love them and I love their found family ★★★★☆
• The Fever King Victoria Lee // AMAZING I LOVE IT SO MUCH?? the ending makes me want to die but the characters and the romance is so good (best slowburn ever) ★★★★★
• The Lightning Thief (graphic novel) Robert Venditti // why do the characters look so ugly and why is everything so choppy? ★★☆☆☆
• Shoot Around (season #2) Suspu // even funnier than #1 and I love the ending ★★★★★ [4.5]
• The Sea of Monsters (GN) Robert Venditti // better than #1 but nothing special ★★★☆☆
• Flowerpot Leehama // didn’t know it was on hiatus so I’m sad? but the art is really nice and everything is so cute! ★★★★☆
• Six of Crows Leigh Bardugo // my third reread! I hate it so much! why do I keep being self-destructive and rereading it! ★★★★★
• Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare // look at me reading Cassie who am I?? I surprisingly liked this and I’m intrigued about the next books (even though I’ve spoiled myself) ★★★★☆
• The Titan’s Curse (GN) Robert Venditti // definitely better than the first two but -1 star for not including the dam scene ★★★☆☆
• In Real Life Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang // didn’t get it at all and was very confused ★★☆☆☆
• Crooked Kingdom Leigh Bardugo // third reread! why do I do this to myself! I hate it with my whole heart! ★★★★★
• sunfish Shelby Eileen // better than her debut but still couldn’t connect as much ★★★☆☆
• For Every One Jason Reynolds // my first Jason Reynolds book and I liked it! love his metaphors so much ★★★★☆
• The Brightsiders Jen Wilde // I liked this a lot more than I expected even though it was kinda cringy? it made me happy and I was really engaged! ★★★★☆

book haul?

This month was the month of holidays, so I got a lot of books!

Thank you to Ilsa @ A Whisper Of Ink for The Foxhole Court and Summer of Salt, I love them both so very much! And thank you to my family for the other 6 books, they know me so well!! (Just kidding I sent them a wishlist comprised of those 6 books.)

favorite book?

The Fever King was absolutely AMAZING and I literally cannot wait for the rest of the world to be able to read it. I’m in love with the characters, the writing, the romance, and it was just so so good. (Even though the ending made me want to shoot myself!)

disappointment?

I wasn’t sorely disappointed by anything in December, thankfully. I guess I thought I would enjoy In Real Life more but it wasn’t like a huge crushing disappointment??

updates?

• Even though I had half my winter break, I still sucked at interacting! But it’s the new year and I am DETERMINED to do better. I’m hoping to return to replying comments and commenting on others’ blogs on time again!
• I definitely feel like December put me in a blogging mood, though, with all the end-year wrap-up posts. (They’re some of my favorites to write and I got so excited to sit down at my computer to type them up!)

top posts?

   

favorite post?

My favorite post was probably the post I wrote about all the books I cried/teared up over in 2018 (linked above!). It was a lot of fun to think back on those emotion-destroying books, and I liked giving those books more exposure to destroy other people’s feelings too!!

• I wrote a poem for my English class as part of my midterm and that was pretty much all the writing I did this month!
• (But I’m really proud of it and going over my writing made me really nostalgic for when I wrote a lot.)

• So there was a LOT going on in December. First of all, I had midterms, and of the 4/7 grades I have received, I did really well on them!! They were all very stressful, art most of all (I didn’t even finish painting my sculpture on time), but I survived. Mostly.
• There was also a lovely winter break, which I’m thankfully still on! Christmas passed, and like I’ve said before, I do all the “traditions” of putting up a tree and decorating, and opening gifts on Christmas day, but not as a Christian.
• Then my family and I took an impromptu trip to Dallas, where I got new earbuds and lost them a day later! It was cold but we got to visit some cool places, like a museum and Reunion Tower.

view from the tower!

• I started watching just the tiniest bit of The Good Place on the road trip, but I did get to watch Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse, which was so good! I loved it and the characters a lot, and I’ve had one song from the soundtrack stuck constantly in my head.
• There was also a pretty big thing that happened near Christmas and it’s made me really happy! I’m not entirely comfortable talking about it here, but if you follow me on Twitter then you probably know what I’m talking about.
• My mental health was kind of all over the place. Definitely was not the best month, but the good days outnumbered the bad, luckily! I would say it was from school stress, but it really wasn’t confined to just that. (Prepared for my mental health to plummet when I go back to school though!)
• Oh! I almost forgot: At the very beginning of the month, I had a dance convention/competition. It was my first time in the most advanced room and it was a lot of fun! I can tell I’ve improved a lot more in dance, since I picked up choreography quickly and actually understood what was being taught!!!

hm I wonder why being on a break from school means I actually accomplish things

• read 16 books ✓ (YES I DID! I would not have let myself read any less because I’m so competitive)
• read more webcomics ✓ (I did!! it was more graphic novel month than webcomic month but still!)
• write & upload ARC reviews! ㄨ (oh my god I have two unread overdue ARCs oh jesus)
• take a break from writing! ✓ (I only wrote because I had to and I feel a lot better and more inspired for writing in 2019!)
• reply to comments from June to December? ㄨ (yeah. sure)
• do not go to sleep past 1:30 during the break ✓ (I actually did this! I’m so surprised?? usually I stayed up till 11:30-12:30 and not later!)
• make plans to hang out with friends! ✓ (yes!! I love my friends a lot)

• read 9 books (reading 8-9 books a month will keep me on track for reading 100 books this year instead of rushing to finish like I did in 2018)
• read my overdue ARCs!!! (this is like. really important lmao)
• write some reviews! (I’m feeling in the mood to write reviews so hopefully?)
• start up poetry again? (this is one of my 2019 goals and I want to get an early start!)
• start plotting my WIP again (my WIP has such a bad plot. aka no plot)
• stretch (I want to improve my flexibility but I also haven’t stretched in over a week so it’s going to be painful)
• practice! self! care! (meaning: drink water! get enough sleep! take care of my face! don’t procrastinate!)

Going back to school. I am really not looking forward to returning for my second semester, especially since when I did this in 2018, I got into a depressive phase that lasted five months. Really hoping I can manage my time and stress better this sem but who knows with me!

Lots of blogging! At least, I hope so? I really want to get back into the habit of commenting on blogs daily and replying to my own comments ON TIME, instead of just, you know, posting things and leaving it at that. Also, my 2-year blogiversary is this month (the 22nd) and I’m already feeling nostalgic!!

Things going “back to normal”. Aka, I won’t be rushing to finish my Goodreads challenge so I can read the regular prose YA novels. And I’ll be going back to dance and Saturday rehearsals early in the morning. And I’ll hopefully start writing again and reviewing again and just DOING THINGS.

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how was December for you? did you get any exciting gifts?? how did you do on your reading challenge? what books did you read? looking forward for 2019?? tell me everything!!!