Hey Bookywrms!
2020 is officially over. 2021 is here! Let’s rejoice and hope for a year filled with joy and books! Totally feel like a clown for calling 2020 my year (Lupe) considering how much of a disaster 2020 turned out to be.
This Month’s Posts
A few minutes looking at this while filling my portion I (Sophia) realized I forgot to schedule some posts so like the lazy forgetful duck I am, I scheduled some really old reviews. (I think I still have one from 2019.)
- [6 Dec] Bookwyrm Breakdown: Happy Holidays
- [27 Dec] Grave Humor by R.J. Blain ★½
- [30 Dec] The Alchemist and an Amaretto by Annette Marie ★★★★
Books Hoarded
Lupe
- A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown – couldn’t resist the sale on Kindle. Plus, Sophia told me how great this book is! Also, I’m a sucker for beautiful book covers.
Sophia
- XOXO by Axie Oh (ARC) – being a K-Pop fan, I’m always up for books involving K-Pop. Also I know I’m on a Netgalley ban of sorts but I like to think with time until like August 2021 there’s plenty of time to catch up.
- Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo – it’s been a hot minute since I read Six of Crows, but it’s not been long enough that I need to do a reread! I think?
- The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter – um… this didn’t turn out as good as I hoped it would be.
- Woods of Silver and Light by Victoria McCombs – my favorite character from the first book, The Storyteller’s Daughter is the lead!!!
Books Devoured
Lupe
I did it! I’ve read one book this month! Honestly, I finished this half an hour before New Years. I will forever be a procrastinator.
- The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Sophia
I think I got to a point after finishing my Goodreads challenge that I stopped reading because NO MORE WILL I NEED TO STRESS. (Although if I’m desperate I’d just change it to 95 books at the last minute like the clown I am. 🤡)
- Unlucky in Love by Cary Hart
- Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
- The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
- Every currently published novella from The Iron Fey series
- Spark and Sorrow by Rachel A. Marks
- The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter
Fandom Assemble
GIF still to be found.
Lupe
- The Mandalorian- What a FINAL. I cannot explain how emotional that last episode was! I thought I was just a regular Star Wars fan, but I am now an official air conditioner. Without giving away any spoilers, the CGI did not offend me at all. I was shocked. Was not expecting that to happen at all. The real tear jerker for me was the goodbye. *crying again*
- The Masked Singer/ The Masked Dancer – SPOILER ALERT: I’m still mad that Seahorse didn’t win this season on The Masked Singer. The Masked Dancer, on the other hand, will be more challenging to guess the celebrities! I was mad at myself for not guessing the first celebrity to go home on the premiere of The Masked Dancer. It was so obvious, too!
- Soul – the message in the film hit me like a ton of bricks. It was honestly something I needed to hear in this time in my life. Pixar really did it again. BRAVO!
- Unpopular opinion – WW84 was not as good as the first installment. Please don’t come for me.
Sophia
Honestly? I can’t even remember much from December but I think the Percy Jackson TV show logo reveal happened???
The Breakdown
What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐
Lupe
On December 12th, I officially turned 23. I was also an emotional wreck. Can someone explain why I was crying or tearing up every time a family member would video call me and say Happy Birthday? It was very worrisome.
- On top of being emotional, I was stressed from working. I was placed in a different working position in November. Having to start again from ground zero stresses me out. I had a little over a month of experience in this new role. My coworker, who was training me, went on vacation and I was left to be in charge for 3 weeks! Safe to say that I survived and I will be working on getting my mental health back in order.
- My goal was to read one book this month and I did it!
- Began a new bullet journal for 2021!
December was just a month of surviving in my job and trying to figure out what I want to do in my spare time. It was also a time of reflection. I tend to feel sad during this time of year for no apparent reason. Other than that, I’ve been laying low and focusing more on what I want to accomplish in my life.
Sophia
December was a continuation of rest but also some overtime (I’ve eyeballing The Iron Fey special edition on Fairyloot) and bugging the IRS because it’s actually been almost a year since I submitted my tax returns and… I still have nothing. I don’t even know how I can do 2020 taxes. 😬
Other Things
- I finished reformatting ten blog posts! I’m kind of skipping goals in 2021 (or at least being flexible), but I’d actually like to try and finish all of them?
The easiest way is just delete it all. - Made a new blog header. It’s nothing too elaborate, but I think we’ve long gone past I’m a Graphic Designer™ stage.
- At some point I locked myself out after setting up Cloudflare which was an oops but I somehow got back in through a different browser. (Weird but I’ll take it.)
- Minor revamp on my portfolio. The lack of internet access had me making some minor changes, plus there was one thing that kept bothering me since I first revamped over the summer.
- Bullet Journaling! I’m starting a new one since it’s been a long while since I’ve done it. I think my biggest fail was how I just made the first like a planner instead of personalizing it
- I popped out of the cave to gather up some of my favorite K-pop songs of 2020 over at The Arts STL! I ended up skipping out on the book list this year, though.
I also helped Kal from Reader Voracious work on her server going into the New Year, and honestly, what better way to end a shitty year than to break things and have fun? We kind of got distracted with a gaming bot and started playing a game of Uno (she won), Connect 4 (I won) and watching me fail epically at Minesweeper (I definitely didn’t win).
I’m just that bad at the game.
Let’s talk, bookwyrms! How was your December? How did you ring in the New Year? What are you excited for?
Lupe is a 20-something Mexican-American who enjoys reading and watching movies when she gets the chance to relax. Her all-time favorite series consists of Bloodlines and Vampire Academy (among others), and her favorite author is Richelle Mead.
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
If you enjoy her posts or found them helpful, consider tipping on KoFi!
Lupe – I feel your pain about starting from zero at your job (I have done 4 different functions since WFH began, none related to my actual in-office job). My hats off to you and yeah! You did it!
Sophia – that is strange about your taxes. I hope you get some answers on that soon. I love that you are going hard on the Iron Fey series. I really want to pick up the new installments at some point.
Yeah… I agree. Thankfully I did finally get some answers though! (After *mumble grumble* over a year…)
“Totally feel like a clown for calling 2020 my year considering how much of a disaster 2020 turned out to be.”
I think it was EVERYONE’S disaster, Lupe. No need to feel dejected.
Happy belated birthday Lupe! Mine was on 14th, but thankfully, I didn’t cry. Not even when I stopped and realised I had turned 54 😲. Anyhow, I hear you about having to switch jobs and being left ALONE. That shouldn’t have happened! The silver lining is, you proved to yourself how resourceful you are.
My NY’s Eve was spent…at the local E.R., with an unbearable pain sitting roughly under my right shoulder blade. Every time I drew a breath, I was screaming inside. To cut a long story short, my heart is OK, but I’ll have to take a CAT scan to pinpoint the source of the pain – and in the meantime I’m living off NSAIDS and painkillers. Fun times.
Happy new year girls!
Oh no… I’m glad you’re okay and I hope you’ll feel better soon! Sending you much good vibes. <3
I do feel like I should have guessed the first Masked Dancer, but oh well. It’s a fun show – I love watching people dance.
I really hope 2021 is a better year for us all – in all aspects of life. Even without Covid, 2020 would have been a rough year for me, so I’m looking for positive change.
Happy new year Sophia and Lupe!
Lmao finishing 30 minutes before the Newyears is so relatable Lupe, I did that too with Jade City, which was also the only book I was able to read this December. Being sick sure lands you into a big reading slump.
Happy Belated birthday! and wow 23 is huge!
Yay for reformatting posts Soph! I should probably get on that too since I revamped my blog and my older posts surely look like a mess now! I also started a new Bullet Journal and it looks quite good if I say so myself 🙂
Hope you both have a great year ahead!
I hope you’re feeling better! But yeah I definitely agree being sick is a quick and easy way to go into a reading slump.
Ahhhhhh I haven’t visited in awhile – I’ll have to check out your revamp!