February Recap

Hi, everyone! I have a hard time keeping up with other blogs and booktube channels so let me make it easier for you and this blog / The Lushables channel. Below the cut you'll find a list of my blog posts and booktube videos if you're so inclined. Or, you can watch the video & click on any of the pictures to be taken to the post or video in question!

This month I reviewed on the blog:

• My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

• Stone in the Sky by Cecil Castellucci, as a part of the blog tour.

• The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

• And, whoops!, not mentioned in the video: I talked about my 15 TBR Books That I'm Going to Read this year and the YA Debuts that I'm Anticipating Reading.

This month I also posted about...

• The process of making thumbnails for my booktube videos. A post full of self-deprecation and silliness per my usual PoV when looking at pictures of myself and trying to edit things in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.

• How to Respond When Someone Disdains YA Literature. I made a half serious, half silly (aka me!) infographic for how to respond to all the YA haters out there.

• There are also a few giveaways, which you see in the sidebar to your right.

I kept up with my feature, Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds, which, on Wednesdays, goes over the latest young adult, middle grade, and new adult book related news:

• Bookish Rounds 71 & its accompanying book byte video 7

• Bookish Rounds 72 & its accompanying book byte video 8

• Bookish Rounds 73 & its accompanying book byte video 9

• Bookish Rounds 74 & its accompanying book byte video 10

• How in God's green earth am I in the 70s for bookish rounds videos? If I'd posted them EVERY Wednesday, that makes for about 17 months, but I've also skipped a few, so what, am I on more than that? Have I been doing this feature for 1.5 years? WHUT WHUT WHUT.

In the above video, I solicited advice on:

• Time management. HOW do you manage your time? When I did my January recap (video), I had so many more links. A discussion post every week and on my blog I was posting booktube videos and I was getting ready to comment on every single booktube channel and blog. WOAH, slow down there. About halfway through February, I went to this sort of career development advising session and they were talking about how you should know at least one programming language before moving onto your post-doc or applying to grad school and read 2 articles a week outside of those you read for class and save all your time when you're at work or school for research because time at home is meant for doing homework from your classes. Science is a lifestyle. And I started freaking out because all I could think was: HOW AM I EVER GOING TO DO EVERYTHING I WANT TO IN MY LIFE? Let's face it: blogging/reading is a hobby. It is the first thing that should go when I start to narrow down on my time. But I don't want to narrow down on it; I want to find better time management skills. Do you have any advice?

Things that I read this month:

• The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart, which was on my 15 TBR Books to Read this year list. This was a read-along with Joséphine of Word Revel and I'm still undecided as to how I feel about the series and this book in particular. I am interested in reading Lockhart's other book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

• Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. Here is the review I typed on Goodreads:
  
  
  
  I've had a book hangover for the past couple of days because of Crown Duel.
  
  Once upon a time, I had a feature on my blog called "Christina Reads Your Recommendations." Small recommended this book and said: "It's like a fantasy Pride and Prejudice with an imperfect main character who grows throughout the book, a swoony slow burn hate-turned-love romance, and lots and lots of political intrigue. Since you liked Grave Mercy, Graceling, and P&P, I think you'll like this. It's one of my Special Shelf books."
  
  Small, I want to read all your Special Shelf books now. You recommended Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series to me, which I LOVED LOVED LOVED, and you recommended this to me and yaaaaaasssssss. Meliara/Vidranic forever! What little shipper heart I have is happy.

• The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. You'll hear more about this title from me come April, when I review it. For now, here is my Goodreads stand-in review:
  
  This one is definitely more epic than the Kiss of Deception. Epic in the stakes, since I guess Kiss of Deception covered more ground between the countries. If you liked the deception, intrigue, and political games of The Kiss of Deception - and the implications of the second half of that book - then you'll definitely like The Heart of Betrayal. Would recommend this to fans of The Girl of Fire and Thorns, the Grisha trilogy (the Komizar reminds me a little of the Darkling and how he and Alina interacted), The Winner's Crime, and Finnikin of the Rock (Finnikin + Girl because of the quest-like elements, the religious backgrounds and stories influencing the world, and political intrigue). I'd say Megan Whalen Turner fans too, but I think MWT focused more on the individual characters (Gen, Attolia, Eddis, Sophos) than their countries whereas The Heart of Betrayal goes really in depth for the Vendan culture and general dynamics between Venda, Morrighan, and Dalbreck. That's what makes me think (about this book): good epic high fantasy. Also, if you were worried about the love triangle-ish elements of the first book, I'd say don't worry. Also, Lia is badass. Love her as a heroine and getting to see her adapt to her circumstances.

I am currently reading:

• Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman, which was on my 2015 Books that I'm Anticipating list. I am hoping to finish before next week so that y'all will have my review by the release date, March 10th... but I am super intimidated by this 600+ page book. I'm only about 16% into the Kindle version and it feels like I'm not moving in the Kindle version (the percentage that is). Blah! But the writing and world and characters are lovely.

• Girl at Midnight - Melissa Grey, which was on my 2015 YA Debuts that I'm Anticipating list. I'm only about 5% into the book, but I like it. It's got a distinct third person voice that reminds me of a mix between The Mortal Instruments and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Don't take my word on that yet though - 5% is nothing; I think that's just the prologue and first chapter...

Things I bought this month:

• Stories and Scenes from Mount Lebanon by Mahmoud Khalil Saab. I emailed my old Lebanese college professor and asked him if he knew more about Lebanese/Middle Eastern mythology than what you'd get in, say, 1001 Nights and the Qu'ran / Bible. One of the things he mentioned was a character who I'd never heard of before, so I googled. And found that character in this book, and this book looked to be right up my alley since I love reading about folklore. Add it to the pile of books I have on Lebanon!

and from the Strand...

• The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh. NOTE: I MISTAKENLY SAID "CROWNED" CURSE IN MY VIDEO.

• The Returning by Christine Hinwood

• Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox &

• Mermaids in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea

Whenever I'm in the Strand, I pick up ~5-10+ books that I've heard good things about or wanted to read in the past. I put them all in my basket and sit on their benches and read the first few chapters. If I mesh with the writing style and like the synopsis and what it promises well enough, I'll get the book. Sometimes I have debate between books because maybe like seven books have interested me - well, what is a "later" book? What am I more in the mood for right now? etc. All of the above books have a fantastical or magical realism element to them, which is my style.

Things I received this month:

The February YA Buzz Books from HarperCollins:

• All That Burns by Ryan Graudin

• Unleashed by Sophie Jordan

• No Parking at End Times by Bryan Bliss

• Better than Perfect by Melissa Kantor

Since I was just talking about having a difficult time managing my time blogging/reading vs. doing other things in my life, it is unlikely I will reading and reviewing these books. However, I will probably hold a giveaway for them. It is my blogoversary in March (this month!) and I've been blogging for four years (whuuuuuuut !!!!), so expect to see something soon enough on that end.

I'm leaving for Japan this Friday (!!!!!!!) for vacation and I'm hoping to schedule some blog posts (and videos!) for my absences in March (many days :O). Afterwards I'll hopefully have caught up on visiting the blogs that I've neglected these past two weeks despite the very kind comments y'all have continued to leave here. Oh, look, another outtake from the above video...

So, what have you been up to this month? What did you read and/or purchase to be read? What are you currently reading? What did you post about? Let me know how the month has gone for you!