Show Us Your Books- October

First thing's first- for the third(?) year in a row I participated in Erin's Reading Challenge and for the first time ever, I actually finished it! I started off strong, fell into a reading rut, but then pushed through until the end and I'm so glad I did! That being said, I do not believe I'll be participating in the next one. I felt a lot of pressure to read books that I wasn't really feeling just to check a category box and even though I love making lists and we were able to change our book picks throughout the challenge without losing points, the desire to finish gave me anxiety, particularly when I was in my rut. But the next one doesn't start until January, so maybe I'll change my mind by then. Either way, thank you Erin for being a great host! 

Second, I have this awesome list of books being released in 2018 (like you needed more recommendations to add to your list!). Without further ado, here's what I read last month!


East, West- Salman Rushdie: 3 Stars
Read if you like short stories that cross cultures
library hardback

Read this for cardinal direction in the title. I realized that I still don't like short stories, but I preferred the ones that took place East (India) far more than the ones set in the West (America). It was...fine.

The Hate U Give- Angie Thompson: 5 Stars
Read if you like relevant YA and strong characters
library paperback

Lauren had said to keep in mind that this was written for teenagers, and to manage your expectations accordingly. I completely agree and for what it was, it was amazing and so relevant, especially in today's world. I loved how realistic the characters were and the way the story was told. An important read, and one I highly recommend!


The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis: 4 Stars
Read if you like YA Fantasy
library paperback

Read for animal on the cover. I remember my middle school music teacher recommending this book to me for years. I'm not sure why it took me so long to finally read it, but it was just wonderful. Definitely meant for a younger crowd, but I loved the fantasy and magic of it all. 



Currently trying to decide between The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond and Do This For Me by Eliza Kennedy.

What have you been reading lately?

November Goals

October Goals

• Fix screen door- Uh, I got as far as measuring it... *smh*
• Get rid of 50 Items- Check!
• Continue Erin's 7.0 Book Challenge- HELL YEAH! So happy about this one- only took me 3 years to actually complete it! 
• Finish Jenn's Film Challenge- 1 left
• Grocery Challenge (inspired by Steph): 

I'm calling this one a pass. I did clean out the fridge/freezer and pantry by consciously eating from those instead of buying more stuff. I probably spent about $35 on groceries total, but I think it would have been more beneficial to track how much I spent on eating out as well. 

As far as tracking what I ate, I didn't track weekends because I eat at Blue's and/or out every weekend. Monday lunches are always leftovers from Sunday dinner, and Friday dinners are always pizza. Also, I forgot about the last 2 days of October. Here's how the rest of the meals went. Week of...

10/2: Brought in sandwiches from home for lunch, ate out every night due to events

10/9: lunches- (microwave) bean burritos, (salad in a bag) Caesar chicken on a wrap 2x, Popeye's. Dinners- chili over egg noodles, buffalo chicken pasta bake, Wendy's, lighter fettuccine alfredo.

10/16: lunches- leftover broccoli mac n cheese, lunch w/ mom, Compleats, Mexican leftovers. Dinners- leftovers from lunch w/mom, Mexican out 2x, chicken nuggets, stuffing, and corn (yes, that counts as a meal). 

10/23: 2 free lunch @ work, Barilla microwave meal, Cheese-steak n fries (out), Dinners- Chinese and leftovers for 3 days, chicken parm sandwich.

November Goals

• Vote (Check!)
• Fix screen door
• Get rid of 50 Items
• Schedule Veteran pickup
• Schedule dentist, optometrist, and gyno appointments before co-pay increases
• Weatherize windows
• Participate in Alexandra's Live Your Best Life for Less (Holiday Edition) Challenge
• Participate in Jenn's Film Challenge- Bonus Round (ends 11/30)

Bonus Round: Fall Film Challenge
choose films starring actors who have appeared in the following television programs:

one. above suspicion. Ciaran Hinds- Calendar Girls
two. the big bang theory. Kelly Cuoco - The Wedding Ringer
three. the crown. Victoria Hamilton- Scoop
four. downton abbey. Maria Doyle Kennedy- Sing Street
five. elementary. Tom Everett Scott- The Last Word
six. firefly. Summer Glau- Knights of Badassdom
seven. game of thrones. Richard E Grant- Jackie
eight. how i met your mother. Jason Segel- Sex Tape
nine. it's always sunny in philadelphia. Charlie Day- The Hollars
ten. judging amy. Tyne Daly- Spiderman: Homecoming
eleven. knight rider. David Hasselhoff- Baywatch
twelve. lethal weapon. Hilarie Burton- The Secret Life of Bees
thirteen. ally mcbeal. Jane Krakowski- Big Stone Gap
fourteen. ncis. Billy Dee Williams- Lego Batman Movie
fifteen. outlander. Caitriona Balfe- Money Monster
sixteen. parenthood. Dax Shephard - This is Where I Leave You
seventeen. dr. quinn, medicine woman. Jane Seymour- Austenland
eighteen. rizzoli and isles. Matthew Del Negro- Hot Pursuit
nineteen. sex and the city. Kim Catrall- Police Academy
twenty. true detective. Rachel McAdams- Doctor Strange
twenty-one. the unusuals. Adam Goldberg- Once Upon a Time in Venice
twenty-two. veep. Tony Hale- American Ultra
twenty-three. the west wing. Nick Offerman- The Founder
twenty-four. the x-files. Kumail Nanjani- The Big Sick
twenty-five. the young pope. Jude Law- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

What are some of your goals this month? 

Linking up with Nicole and The Peaceful Posse

What's New With Me/Currently

What a crazy month it's been, but so much fun too! I must say I'm looking forward to a much quieter November before the craziness of December (vacation AND birthday AND Christmas) starts up! This is my time to embrace hygge and recharge for a bit. Here's what I've been up to since last time:

I went to NYC Comic Con for the first time! It was... overwhelming. And SO crowded. It was hard to even get to the booths to see what they were selling! I didn't dress up, but I enjoyed all the people who did, and the highlight for me was hearing Rainbow Rowell speak and get a signed copy of her latest novel, Carry On! We also sat in on a Star Trek panel so that we could already have seats for the Walking Dead panel, but we didn't make it that far lol. We got to NYC at 9am and that panel started at 9pm- not happening! 

It may not be much, but I decorated my door for Fall. I made the wreath pictured, and the "bouquet," and just purchased the mat from And That! Coming home to that just makes me so happy!

I also did a major closet clean-out- 3 huge TJ Maxx bags filled to the brim for Plato's Closet, and they only accepted like 7 items! The nerve! But my closet is more organized and I'll attempt to sell on Poshmark before donating. 

We saw Bruce Springsteen on Broadway! It was amazing. It wasn't a concert (no screaming fans and drunk people singing- this is Broadway, after all), and it wasn't a play- it was more like him telling stories about his life as if we were in his living room, and he played a few songs in between. His wife even came out for some of them. I especially loved the theater- it was so small and intimate, and just the perfect venue. We could hear him even when he wasn't at the mic. 

We also hosted our annual Halloween party! This year our theme was Game of Thrones/Medieval. Blue and I were Daenerys and one of her dragons. (I hope) everyone had a great time. I wrote more about it here.

Realizing: I need a new job. Just writing that out freaks me out, but I just don't fit in this department. It became crystal clear during my (first negative) annual review when asked "What do you want to do?" and I couldn't think of anything. I made something up obviously, but this is not where I want to be. 

Stirring: Just my (second) morning coffee! Iced today, because for some reason it's 75 degrees out. In November. But there's no such thing as global warming right? 

Appreciating: Alllll the pumpkin beers! 

Investigating: Why in the world I've been banned from Ebay and Etsy. I didn't even realized I was banned until I went online to buy an Iron Throne decal for Halloween. It's been over a month and I still haven't received an update, or been granted access, to either site. #rage

Reading: I finished Erin's Reading Challenge for the first time in the 3 years I've participated! WOOT! I'll be sharing my reviews on Show Us Your Books 11/14.  Currently reading The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson. 

Watching: finished Stranger Things over the weekend! Did you guys watch? What did you think? My regulars, TWD, Grey's Anatomy, Blindspot, This is Us, BBT, and a new favorite The Good Doctor. Also still watching movies for Jenn's challenge. 21/25

Listening To: Just the radio lately. 

Eating: Halloween candy. Crunch/Krackle, Snickers, and Twix are my faves.

Making: Last month I made pumpkin Oreo cheesecakes, lighter spinach pasta alfredo, tie-died a skirt  and restyled a wig (that I've worn for the past 3 years) for my Halloween costume.

What's new with you lately?

Linking up with Anne, Kristen and Gretch

This Is Halloween!

Now that I've got that stuck in your head...

Every year (meaning last year and the year before), Blue and I throw a Halloween party. This year we went with Game of Thrones, or "Medieval." As we've done in years past, there was a photo wall for pictures, goody bags for every guest, and a costume contest where everyone votes on a winner or couple's costumes and the winner wins a bottle, this year we chose vodka. Luckily we had a non-alcoholic prize too (a pumpkin carving kit and TJ's pumpkin muffin mix) because our winner was our youngest guest, my friend's 12 yr old niece. (This is an adults-only party, but she's always around and she's pretty awesome.) All of the decorations are from the Dollar Store and Amazon. We usually have about 20 guests, there's lots of snacks and dancing, and though we do have beer and wine, our only request is that you bring what you're drinking.  Anyway, enough chatter. I'm going to let the pics do the talking!

The Invite:

"Halloween is coming,
prepare to raise your glasses,
Because this year we're going medieval on your asses!

Be a king or a queen or a knight or a wench,
But any costume is fine if you're still on the fence.

We'll have plenty of food and treats if that's what you're thinking,
our only request is that you bring what you're drinking!

We hope you can come, we'll see you at seven, but our Kingdom requires we shut down at 11!" (written by Blue)
The Decorations: 

Castle photo wall, banners, and a 6 ft. "Mountain"/Knight

knights and banners- party prep time

goody bags

The Menu: 

Chicken "Littlefingers"
Theon Greyjoys in a Blanket
Bagel Bites
(meatless) Baked Ziti
allthechipsndips
Halloween cookies
Oreo Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Red Wedding Punch (with a giant brain shaped ice cube)

The Costumes: 

"The Dude" The Big Lebowski

Our 1st place winner- Thing 1

Game of Thrones- 2 Melisandres, Dany, her dragon, and The Night King

Dead Construction Worker

Hot Mess Express

Unicorn

Our "true" winners- Belle and the Beast

Dana Barrett and Louis Scully from Ghostbusters

Yours truly- Daenerys Targaryen and her dragon

The Mountain Mamas group shot

Do you celebrate Halloween? 

What's been your favorite costume this year? 

Unread Books On My Bookshelf

I didn't think I had a lot of books on my shelf that I hadn't read, because I try to get rid of the ones I don't want to keep in the slight chance I re-read them (which has literally never happened except with Maniac Magee). So I was surprised when I counted 26/54 unread. Some of these have been there for years, and have moved with me from apartment to apartment. Most are ones I've picked up along the way at library sales or Paperback Swap and was just never "in the right mood" to read. I've even started a bunch of them only to put them down for something else. Sometimes I tried to work them into challenges just to finally read them, but you can't force it if you're not feeling it, ya know? So here's what I hope to read in the coming season. 

Unaccustomed Earth, Goodnight Nobody, Best Friends Forever, The Things We Do For Love, What Alice Forgot, The Invention of Wings, Summer Sisters: I've read other works by these authors and loved them, so I thought I'd enjoy these as well. 

Summer Rental and Ladies' Night: I've always read great reviews about Mary Kay Andrews' books but never read them, and these looked like I'd like them.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: It looked like a "smart book" and I liked the description. 

Memoirs of a Geisha: I wanted to read this before watching the movie, but that didn't happen. Usually I won't read a book after seeing the movie, but it was so long ago and I've hear d so many rave reviews about the book that I feel like I need to read it. At some point. 

At First Sight: I feel like I "should" read something by Nicholas Sparks.

Beautiful Ruins, The Paris Wife, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Orphan Train, Me Before You, Some Girls Are: all inspired by Show Us Your Books linkups. 

Shantaram: Originally borrowed this from a friend but had to give it back before I finished it (because it's nearly 1000 pages and whoa) so I bought it.

Dreams of Significant Girls, The Friday Night Knitting Club: I liked the cover and the description on the back, and they were 10 cents each. 


Those are the ones that I'm still interested in reading. Below are the ones I'm ready and willing to part with. Some of them I've read, some I haven't but I just don't care/have no interest in reading them, so it's time to let them go. If you'd like any of them, let me know and I'll mail it to you! 

On the Road: I was slightly obsessed with Nelly Furtado when she first came out, and she said this book inspired some of her songs, so of course I had to read it. Also I feel like this is one of those classics that I "should" read, but I've tried (unsuccessfully) like 5 times, so it's time to move on. 

Why Not Me?: I also had a slight obsession with everything Mindy Kaling for a minute, and I really enjoyed the first one, and I got this as a gift after the panel discussion. 

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: I've tried to read this several times, but The Bloggess just seems so full of herself and like she's trying too hard to be funny. Her stories are all over the place, and I can't tell when she's joking or being honest half the time since it is a "mostly" true memoir. No, thank you. 

Revenge Wears Prada: I read The Devil Wears Prada and I loved the movie so I thought I'd get the follow-up, but I lost interest. 

Three Cups of Tea: I was all "wow, this guy is building schools in the far-reaches of countries, I want to read his story!" but then "60 Minutes" looked into it and it turned out that there were many "inaccuracies" in his story, so why read it if it's all bull?

The Tipping Point: I thought I'd like this because it deals with psychology, but it's too science-y/research-based. Also I didn't realize it at first but my copy has a lot of mark-ups in the margins. 

Do you hoard books? 

Which one should I read first? 

Linking up with Jenn and re-inspired by Kristen

A Few Good (Looking) Men

It's Thursday, which means I'm finally linking up with Jenn's Tuesday Topics! This topic was 10 Sexiest Men Alive. I noticed while picking my favorites that I'm a big fan of piercing eyes, some (not a lot) of facial hair, and a good set of locks (minus Jesse Williams, but that's okay too). I'm not really a fan of rock hard anything, because it just looks kind of uncomfortable and un-cuddly. Most of these are old favorites, though luckily some of them still grace my screens. (Apparently, I also like the "hand on head" pose.) Without further ado- here are my Top 10: 

Kit Harrington (Jon Snow- Game of Thrones)

Joe Manganiello (True Blood- Alcide)

Ryan Reynolds

Matthew McConaughey

Josh Holloway (Sawyer- Lost)

Jesse Metcalfe

Chris Hemsworth 

Eric Dane (Mark Sloan- Grey's Anatomy)

Jesse Williams (Jackson Avery- Grey's Anatomy )

Chris Pratt

Honorable Mentions: Jeffery Dean Martin, Gerard Butler, Scott Eastwood, Colin Farrell, John Stamos 

Who would you add to your Top 10?

Linking up with Quirky Pickings!

Show Us Your Books: Lately

Cheers to 3 years of SUYB! Thank you Steph and Jana, for creating this linkup as a place for fellow bookworms to share what we've been reading! This month I read a lot of light/easy reading to knock out Erin's challenge. And I'm almost there- only 3 more to go. I think I can do it! More on that at the bottom. 

Holes - Louis Sachar: 4 Stars
Read if you like young YA (middle grade)
library hardback

This is definitely a middle grade level story, and I'm sad I didn't read it when I was younger. It was cute and it pulled me in quickly with the mystery of the curse and why they were digging holes. I liked Stanley and Zero and seeing their relationship grow. And I really loved the ending. 

I Am The Messenger- Markus Zusak: 4 Stars
Read if you like YA msytery
library hardback

First, this is nothing like The Book Thief and I don't think it's fair to compare the two. They're not even the same genre (other than fiction). That said, I really enjoyed this one and it also had me thinking about it long after I finished it. It's the story about an average person who saves peoples' lives by doing little things that have a great impact in the long run. The book is incredibly well written and definitely made me angry, upset, and hopeful all at once.

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging- Louise Rennison: 3 Stars
Read if you like chick-lit, diary-style, YA
library hardback

I feel like some of the British humor got lost in translation and I probably would have loved this one more if I'd read it when I was younger. I saw that someone compared it to the 14-yr-old version of Bridget Jones and I'd have to agree with that. I'm not sure that I liked the ending though- it just seems kinda wrong. Overall it was a cute, fluffy story about make-up, friendships, and boys. 

Barbara the Slut and Other People- Lauren Holmes: 3 Stars
Read if you like short stories and don't mind cursing
library e-book

I read this in a single sitting. The stories were pretty hit or miss for me. My favorite was the first one (How Am I Supposed To Talk To You?) about a 20-something coming out to her very traditional Hispanic mother. My least favorite (My Humans) was written from a dog's POV after being adopted. Maybe I'm not really a fan of short stories though, because I felt like the endings were severely lacking (or just sucked). Actually,"sucked" is too strong- I like happy endings. Many of these were not. 

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Erin's 7.0 Book Challenge updates: 160/200 and only 3 more to go... and I'm going for it! I've already started 2 of these:

|5 points| Freebie: Some Girls Are- Courtney Summers (currently reading)
|15 points| An animal on the cover: Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by The Blogess aka Jenny Lawson (currently reading)
|20 points| Compass/cardinal direction in title: East, West- Salman Rushdie
|10 points| Starts w/ “B”: Barbara the Slut and Other People- Lauren Holmes|10 points| Yellow cover: Everything Changes- Jonathan Tropper 
|20 points| Published in 2017: We Are Never Meeting In Real Life. - Samantha Irby
|25 points| A commonly banned book in America: Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging- Louise Rennison
|30 points| About mental illness: Everything Everything- Nicola Yoon
|30 points| Non-human main character: I Am The Messenger- Markus Zusak
|35 points| A Disney movie /book/ based on a Disney movie: Holes- Louis Sachar

What have you been reading lately?