I've been trying and failing to start this blog post for nearly half an hour, so let's get the elephant out of the room: I feel really rusty when it comes to blogging. I haven't flexed my writing or blogging muscles in some time for two reasons. First, there is a lot going on in the United States (more resources on Black Lives Matter here), the Philippines (more resources on the Anti-Terrorism Bill here) and the rest of the world, and I've been trying to learn, listen and take action. Second, my mental health has been all over the place, and so I've been focusing on that as well.
2020 has been rough, friends.
Anyway, it was really only last week when I felt like I was ready to start blogging again, so here I am! I decided to start myself off easy (and pretty much on my typical schedule) by sharing a recap of the last two months. I, along with the other members of my household, are still practicing social distancing. We're all very lucky to still have our jobs and be able to work from home, which I'm grateful for every day (even when work gets stressful).
Apart from the usual work days and household chores, my forms of entertainment are still the same: watching shows and films (Rachel and I finished our rewatch of Sailor Moon!), reading (I started finding my reading groove again at the end of June, and I hope the momentum continues through the rest of the year! Though, even when I'm not reading published work, I've been reading a lot of fan fiction.), Animal Crossing; New Horizons (I've spent over 400 hours on the game at this point and I'm not even mad about it), and chatting with family and friends. I did finally properly venture out for my first in real life friend date (a safely done socially distanced picnic, mind you) with Rachel to celebrate her birthday early, and I'm hoping to do the same with other friends soon!
Even though I had slumpy reading weeks during both months, I still managed to read 10 books in May and 12 books in June. My favorite next in a series reads were Nightfall (the way that Shannon Messenger continues to escalate the plot stakes is a wonder), Gemina (I started this one feeling skeptical but by the end of it, I was a fully invested emotional mess) and Love on Lexington Avenue (listen, I love a good grumpy hero, okay?) I enjoyed Beach Read (which was hyped up to me before I read it, and I hate to join the hype train, but I have to because it was just that good), and got fully swept up in reading Angels' Blood (which is the first of the Guild Hunter series and totally succeeded at hooking me from the start). I also had the pleasure of reading Macky's first published novella, Cold Snap (and if you like space shenanigans with a great ensemble cast, this is the novella for you)!
In case you missed anything, here are all the blog posts from May and June:
- Abbreviations #103: Incendiary, Wicked as You Wish + Vengeful
- Friends with ARCs: Four Days of You and Me + The Paper Girl of Paris
- Tunes & Tales: Electric Light
- Mini Series Review: The Sweet Series
- Paranormal Book Club: Sweet Evil
- Abbreviations #104: The Duchess Deal, Romancing the Duke + The Princess Plan
- Self-Isolation Projects
- Abbreviations #105: Surprise, The Simple Wild + Cover (Story) Girl
- Abbreviations #106: The Guest List, Yearbook + The Lost Carnival
- Friends with ARCs: You Say It First + Seasons of the Storm
- Mabuhay! Of Film and Fiction
If you want to see Macky & I talking about books you should definitely check out our YouTube channel.
Here are all the videos that went up in May (as there were none uploaded in June):
If you'd rather listen to Macky & I chat about all of our interests, you should definitely check out FandomBuzzz.
Here are all the podcast episodes that went up in May (as there were none uploaded in June):
So glad you're feeling ready to start back to blogging, even if just a little. Things have been so crazy here in the US that I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know about things in the Philippines, I'll have to read up on your link you shared. I have become obsessed with Animal Crossing as well! I go through phases where I have to play a bunch of times every day, and then times when I just make sure to log in every day to get my Nook miles. But the new diving is fun, and now I'm just rearranging flowers and trying to get all the different colors. I need to read Gemina, I loved Illuminae. You got a few good books there. Hope this month is going even a little better!
ReplyDeleteLisa Loves Literature