Saturday, September 29, 2018

October 2018 Reading Plans


Y'all know that I'm a big fan of thrillers. There's not much better than a book that gets your heart pumping and makes you urge your eyes to read faster so you can just find out what's going to happen! For the past two years I participated in the #SpookAThon, and while that's all well and good, it just never seems like enough time for me. So, for the spookiest month of them all, I decided to read predominantly horror/thriller novels! I do have a couple non-thrillers on the list for this month to break it up a bit, but I am so excited to get cozy under my blankets and get spooked with these titles!



Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Misery by Stephen King
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
The Line That Held Us by David Joy
Providence by Caroline Kepnes
The Merciless by Danielle Vega
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
#fashionvictim by Amina Akhtar
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Trading One Marathon for Another

Lil Zoe taking a snooze on Sunday afternoon <3

This last week has been actually insane! That seems to have been the running theme since the spring. There's been very little time to breathe over these last few months and the last 7 days have been no different. We can start right off with Wednesday night when Brett broke his nose.


Yup. That's a thing that happened! I left the gym Wednesday night after putting in an hour on the treadmill and feeling super good about myself, and I texted Brett to let him know to let him know I was on my way home. He called me right back and let me know that during football practice that day, one of the players accidentally knocked him in the face when he was demonstrating a drill and broke his nose. :( Poor Brett! I immediately scooped him up and brought him to the emergency room where we hung out for a solid 5 hours and he got an x-ray and a referral to an ENT that he'll meet with later this week. WOOF! At least our new health insurance had kicked in a few days before he broke his nose! ;) On the real, he's fine and has been a trooper through this whole ordeal. I'm hoping he feels better soon!


I've been "training" (in the loosest sense of the word) for the Newport Marathon over these last few months, but honestly I have not made training a priority at all. Between the intensity of my job search, the business of a new academic year, and the stress of starting a new job and getting used to a new routine, training has fallen to the bottom of my list and there were many weeks where I got *maybe* one run in, and never my long run. It's been shit, to be frank, and in the past I've been able to get away with it and still manage to finish 26.2, but this time around it's just felt different.

I scheduled myself a long run for this past Saturday, knowing that the marathon was right around the corner. I originally intended to go out for 15 miles, kind of realizing that this was my last chance to run double-digit miles before race day. The first 8 miles were fine, but quickly my stomach started having issues, my legs cramped up, and I got VERY dizzy. I managed to walk/slowly jog 4 more miles before calling it quits, and I realized that Newport, unfortunately, could not happen. There was no way I was going to be ready to run 26.2 in two weeks time, having such a terrible training cycle and awful last run. Newport wasn't going to be even a little bit fun. So I decided to defer my registration to next year.

I won't lie, I was really disappointed with myself directly after finishing my run on Saturday. I felt really bad that I wasn't able to push myself physically or mentally the same way I have in past training cycles. The stars were just not aligning this time around and I felt really bummed. But after a pep talk from Brett I started to feel better, and honestly more relieved than anything that I would not have to try to fake my way through a marathon and probably feel really awful throughout the process. 

I still wanted to fit in another race before the end of the year, however, and complete one more state toward my 50 Marathons in 50 States goal! After some hemming and hawing, comparing prices of flights and registrations, and making sure I can take time off of work, I landed on choosing to run the Richmond Marathon in Richmond, VA!

This will be a fun little weekend trip to Virginia in November and I honestly think it's going to be so much fun. Runner's World has named it "America's Friendliest Marathon" which I am all about, and you get some UNBELIEVEABLE swag for finishing the race, including a medal, a hat, a blanket, and a jacket! The majority of the course is nice and flat, there's plenty of course support (including party stations!) and I've heard nothing but positive things about the crowd. I'm hoping the next few weeks I can get serious about my training, actually put some miles in, and have a successful race. I've already bought my flights, so no turning back now! :P


Saturday night Brett and I headed into Boston for his cousin's wedding reception. We had to miss the ceremony because Brett had a game (which they won - wooo!) but we were glad we were able to celebrate Mike & Angela in the Boston Seaport which was SO beautiful. We danced the night away and had such a fun time hanging out with family.

With the Bride and Groom!





This week has been a really great week. Monday we surprised my boss with a post-work get together to celebrate his upcoming wedding. It was so fun to have a couple drinks and apps with my new staff and get to know them a bit better outside of the office. I'm glad I've found myself on a staff where I get along with everyone really well. It honestly makes the day to day so much easier! I also got to meet his fiancee who is so nice and we bonded over working at Seven Sisters institutions (he works at Wellesley!). I'm looking forward to more chances to bond with my colleagues outside of the office!


Last night Rob and I went to go see Aziz Ansari in Providence! He was doing a few pop up shows around the country to test out his new show, and I saw the announcement on Instagram last week and knew I had to try and go. I thought Rob would be down for a random adventure, and he was! So we bought the tickets and went last night. I've been dying to see Aziz live for years now and I'm so happy I got the chance. It was an interesting show because it was all new material that he was testing out, but I was in stitches literally the entire time and I'm excited to see what the final product will be when he releases his special!

I only have Saturday off this weekend, which will likely entail a long run, a bunch of reading for the Read Your Face Off buddy read (Beartown by Fredrik Backman - I'm really enjoying it so far!) and some video recording (#BorrowAThon announcements, anyone?) so while it may not be super relaxing, I'm hoping it's at least productive! :) I hope everyone has a fantastic rest of their week and I will check in again soon! <3

Thursday, September 20, 2018

5 Thriller Recommendations!

As the cooler and spookier months are right around the corner, I thought it'd be fun to share some spookier books that folks might like to put on their TBRs! I really love horror/thrillers. I think they're so much fun to read and always leave me wanting to continue to flip the pages to find out what will happen next. I've compiled a list of 5 thrillers, all of which are unique and bring different strengths to the table, that you might want to try out for yourself. Let me know in the comments if you might pick up any of these titles this season!

1. The Long Walk by Stephen King
2. Intensity by Dean Koontz
3. The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
5. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

New Job, One Month In


On a walk with Zoe at Golden Hour this past weekend!

A few months ago, I stated that I wanted to make an effort to write a non-video blog post once a week on Wednesdays. Then my whole life got insane with my job search and that plan when to the gutter. :P Now that I've got a bit more of a handle on my life, I thought I could bring that idea back and give little life updates each week to let you know ~what's going on~ and get back to my blogging roots. I feel like life has been whizzing by lately and I want to take some moments each week to share what's been up!

Panorama of the West Coast sunset at Baker Beach when I secretly went to San Francisco in July for a job interview! So happy I was able to sneak in a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge during my 36 hour stay!

Saturday was the one month mark of being at my new job and I'm confused at how quickly this milestone came, but at the same time confused at how I've only been working at my new campus for such a short amount of time. It feels like I've been here forever and no time at all. How is that possible?





I feel like I've been adjusting to my new position really well. I feel like I've been connecting really well with my colleagues, bringing a lot of my strengths* to the table, and learning every day. Of course, if we're being completely honest, all of the change has been overwhelming from time to time, but I'm lucky enough to have so many kind and understanding people on my staff that make the transition so much easier and coming into work every day so much fun!

I'm in charge of the Activities Fair. I think this semester's event was a big success!

The new academic year hasn't come without it's various challenges. My morning commute is nearly 2 hours with the Boston traffic, and my afternoon commute is not that much easier. I'm adjusting to a new sleep schedule (up by 5AM and so tired I can't keep my eyes open by 9PM) and coming to terms with what my new amount of free time looks like. Brett's been crazy busy with football, as usual, which has been tough as we rarely get to spend quality time together. However, through all of the challenges, we are both making the best of what we have, understanding that this will be temporary, and having as much fun as possible when we are together.

Chillin' with the pups (our favorite thing to do) and a dinner out at Ichigo!

This weekend we're heading to a wedding which should be a lot of fun. I don't have a tone of formal wedding wear (most of my closet is work clothes or athletic wear), so I went out and bought this really cute pastel pink Calvin Klein dress earlier this week at Marshall's (originally $139.99, bought it for $39.99 #score) that I'm pumped to wear! It'll be great to get the chance to have a few drinks with B and dance the night away. Definitely need to blow off some steam!

Not a typical color I go for, but I'm excited about this find!

Hopefully I will do better about keeping this blog up to date through these busy weeks! There's so much I'd love to record and remember and sometimes things just move so quickly that I forget to take a moment to reflect. Here's to hoping I can stay on to of the ball over here on this corner of the internet and work to make this more of a place for memory keeping! See you next week... hopefully. ;)

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Clean Out Your E-Reader (#COYER) Wrap Up | Summer 2018


During the summer I participated in the COYER readathon for the first time in an effort to make time to read the books that were on my Kindle. I'm happy to say that I was able to read 13 total eBooks, 8 of which were Kindle books at 5 of which were audiobooks! I'm really happy now that I'm in the habit of reaching for my Kindle books again because I really do love reading from my Kindle and often can forget to pick it up. This readathon definitely helped me take advantage of my collection of eBooks and I'm so happy that I'm back in the swing of reading my Kindle!

BOOKS COMPLETED

99 Days by Katie Catugno
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Running Man by Charlie Engel
The 8 Mistakes of Amy Maxwell by Heather Balog
Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Ms. Marvel, vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Summer 2018 Book Haul!

The end of a season means that it's time to haul all of the books! Again, I have a decent amount of books to share with you all, all of which I am super pumped to get to at some point. Why isn't there more time in the day to read?! I just want to get to all of these stories! Let me know if there are any books in this giant pile that you think I should get to sooner than the others!


Amazon


Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Deathnote, vol. 1 by Tsugumi Ohma
Providence by Caroline Kepnes
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 7-9 by Hiromu Arakawa
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Audible

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Undead Girl Gang by Lilly Anderson

Book of the Month

July


The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones


August



The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Goodbye, Paris by Anstey Harris
The Line That Held Us by David Joy

September

#fashionvictim by Amina Akhtar
Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
November Road by Lou Berney


Book Depository


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
(20th anniversary house edition - Gryffindor)
Orange, vol. 1 by Ichigo Takano
Orange, vol. 2 by Ichigo Takano
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

Kramerbooks (Washington DC)


Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe

Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Barnes & Noble

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
The After Party by Anton DiSclafani
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

#ContemporaryAThon Round 3 TBR!


One of my favorite readathons, the ContemporaryAThon, is returning next week (September 17-23)! I really love how laidback this readathon, and I've found that the group of folks that host and participate in this readathon are all so lovely to read with throughout the week. It's been a little while since I've participated in a week long readathon, so I'm excited to see how much reading I will accomplish next week. I hope you all will participate as well!

CONTEMPORARYATHON TBR

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Monday, September 10, 2018

August 2018 & N.E.W.T.s Reading Wrap Up! + August Vlog

Y'all... staying on top of my internet and reading game has been a bit of a struggle for me lately. Transitioning into my new position, learning my new schedule, trying to fit in quality time with Brett... it's been tough to balance! Hence why I'm finally posting my August wrap up on the blog a solid ten days into September. I'm optimistic that it will even itself out eventually but for now I'm just doing what I can to stay on top of everything. That being said, I did get a decent amount of reading done in the month of August despite the insanity, and I actually did surprisingly well in the N.E.W.T.s readathon! Hopefully next time around I can do even better. :)



READING STATS FOR AUGUST

Participated in 3 readathons (#NEWTsReadathon2018, #ReadYourFaceOff, #BookTubeAThon)
Continued 1 series
4,235 pages read
12 books completed

Holes by Louis Sachar
Physical copy, 4/5

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Kindle eBook, 3/5
Achieved the Acceptable mark in Arithmancy

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Physical copy, 4/5
Achieved the Acceptable mark in Muggle Studies

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Physical copy, 4/5
Achieved the Exceeds Expectations mark in Muggle Studies

Ms. Marvel, vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
Kindle eBook, 4/5
Achieved the Outstanding mark in Muggle Studies

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Audiobook, 4/5
Book 2 of 7 of the A Song of Ice and Fire Series

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
Physical copy, 4/5
Achieved the Acceptable mark in Transfiguration

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
Kindle eBook, 4/5
Achieved the Acceptable mark in Potions

Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Kindle eBook, 4/5
Achieved the Exceeds Expectations mark in Potions

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Physical copy, 3/5

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Audiobook, 3/5

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Kindle eBook, 3/5
Achieved the Exceeds Expectations mark in Arithmancy


AUGUST VLOG

Going along the theme of being insanely busy, I only really had the energy to vlog #ReadYourFaceOff in the month of August. I did have a lot of fun celebrating my BookTube bday with the RYFO fam, though, and playing BINGO throughout the day was an extra bonus! I hope whoever was able to participate in August had just as much fun as I did!

Saturday, September 1, 2018

September 2018 Reading Plans {Playing TBR Catch Up}

There comes a time every year when I feel the need to check in on all of the TBRs I've made in the past months to see what has been read and what hasn't. I've been feeling the need lately and I've decided to create a list of TBR books from past readathons or reading projects to catch up on during the month of September! I feel like I create these readathon TBRs and even though I don't get to certain books, I'm still so excited to read them even though they may get pushed to the back for one reason or another, so I'm definitely looking forward to reading these books throughout September.




Originally from 10 Book TBR #2
Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Originally from Emojiathon - March 2018
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
The Kitchen Daughter by J.A. McHenry

Originally from Book of the Month Month - June 2018
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emie Lang

Originally from Clean Off Your E-Reader - Summer 2018
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch

Originally from BookTubeAThon 2018
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Originally from the N.E.W.T.s Readathon
Nevermoor: the Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Nightfilm by Marisha Pessl
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green*

Additional books to be read in September

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter Reread 2018

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock
5 Star Predictions #2

Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Read Your Face Off Book Club September 2018 Buddy Read