Autumn Book Recommendations

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Hi, everyone! Today I’m going to share with you some of the books that I think is perfect for Fall. We don’t really have Fall in my side of the world, but, well, I still get the vibes. ☺

I’ve been seeing a lot of people posting about their Fall TBRs (and since I am not really doing well with my attempt of a September TBR haha), I figured why not do a recommendations post instead? So I scoured around my room looking for the perfect Fall books to recommend to all of you only to realize that I haven’t really read a lot of spooky or creepy books. I did find a few titles that are atmospheric enough to recommend, so let’s go ahead and dive right in: Continue reading

Stuff I’ve Been Reading Lately #12

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BOOKS READ:

  • Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
  • Please Pick Me by Reina Regina
  • One-Punch Man Vol 8 by ONE
  • Cardcaptor Sakura Vol. 5 by CLAMP

BOOKS BOUGHT:

  • An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
  • Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto
  • Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
  • Wilder Girls by Rory Power
  • Wink, Poppy, Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke
  • Dragon Republic (Poppy War, #2) by R.F. Kuang
  • See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng
  • The Keep of Lost Cities (Keeper of Lost Cities, #1) by Shannon Messenger
  • Exile (Keeper of Lost Cities, #2) by Shannon Messenger
  • The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) by Brandon Sanders
  • The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) by Brandon Sanderson
  • The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3) by Brandon Sanderson

ARC/s:

  • Please Pick Me by Reina Regina

Continue reading

“To Be Human is to Discuss”

What is the meaning of discussion? It originates from the Latin verb discutere, meaning to dash into pieces. Discussion is a word we’ve been hearing since we started going to school, yet do we really know the true process of discussion?

A lot of people are suffering from different forms of stress and anxiety. I’ve read and watched a lot of books and films that focuses on these mental issues; one of the things that I’ve noticed in every book and every film is that the person suffering from these issues find it hard to discuss their issues with other people — sometimes even with their therapists.

Being someone who overthinks a lot and easily gets stressed out, I know how hard it is to speak out one’s thoughts and tell people what’s really going on inside one’s head. Personally, one of the reasons why I find it hard to speak my mind is that I don’t want to be labeled as crazy or toxic. So I resorted to just keeping myself preoccupied with other things so I wouldn’t have to be alone with my own thoughts and deal with my anxiety.

So why are we so afraid of discussions, they say? Because the problem with a lot of people is that when someone opens a topic or tries to discuss something, most often than not, the discussion ends up in a full-blown argument. It’s mentally and physically draining, sometimes it even causes more stress, that’s why some of us just choose to keep our mouths shut.

For me, another is reason is that I’m the type of person who overthinks everything, sometimes I go back to a specific conversation or argument and end up spending all afternoon thinking that I should have said this or this instead of that. So to avoid having to spend countless hours dwelling on what I should have said or done, I just let all my feelings and thoughts bottle up inside me. 

During the past couple of months spent in the safety of my home, I’ve had a lot of time to rethink things and to try and give things a different perspective, I realized that to discuss has a deeper meaning into it. It’s something that is very crucial in our daily lives — it’s something we need to learn the process of doing, because without discussion, everything is in chaos.

Book Review: [ARC] Please Pick Me by Reina Regina

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Title: Please Pick Me

Author: Reina Regina

Publication Date: November 11, 2020

Number of Pages: 124

Publisher: Moonchild Press Publishing

Genre: Poetry

Synopsis:

In a garden of a thousand other volumes, my little yellow book with its earnest plea and hopeful flowers on the cover sits waiting for you to pick it up. It’s got a heart it wants to give away.

These haikus, poems, and prose pieces are about

the miracle of being wanted back by someone we want,
the desperation of hoping they’ll fight harder when they waver,
the rawness of seeking reassurance that we are loved as we are, and
the tenderness we feel when we’re sending love out to others

—all those moments when we are making our need to be accepted plain and praying, please pick me.

This book was born after twenty-six years of learning that it’s okay to want to be wanted, that vulnerability is merely throwing open the gateway to honest connections, and that fighting to be loved the way you deserve is bravery and not weakness.

I hope you open it. I hope it invites you to be open too.

Continue reading

Eureka! Moment #7: Bullet Journal

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Hey, everyone! Today I’ll be sharing something that I have not really discovered for the first time — it’s more like rediscovering. I have always loved writing and I have kept a diary ever since elementary school, but it was just a plain diary full of random writings, notes, and quotes. I tried organizing my diary as I’ve seen my aunt do for her own diary, but I just lack those creative juices back then, so I stuck with just writing my feelings down. As I’ve said a thousand times already, writing has always been therapeutic for me — it has been sort of an outlet for releasing my stress, anxiety, anguish, and all the feelings I could not say out loud. That’s also the reason why I have this blog in the first place. Continue reading

The Social Media Effect

A decade ago, who would have thought that social media would take over our lives the way it does today?

It’s funny how we eat Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To be honest, for me, scrolling through my social media feeds used to be some kind of break from studying or working. “Used to” because recently, social media has been causing me stress and anxiety (and I’m sure a lot of people can relate to this).

Which brings me to my next observation: I’ve seen discussions and arguments going around, saying how social media is such an evil invention. This got me thinking, “Is it really that bad?”

Personally, even though it has been causing me quite a lot of stress and anxiety, I still don’t think of social media as an “evil invention.” When social media was first introduced to us, its main purpose was to give us the opportunity to connect with relatives and friends who live quite a distance away.

What really makes social media platforms “evil” are its users — Us. As the years go by and as each social media platform improves, its users have also changed with it. In my observation, discussions turned into arguments, being friendly was confused as flirting, and sharing or posting achievements was misunderstood as boasting. So unfortunately, these changes are bad rather than good.

My point being is that no matter how many times Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter improves or changes their policies, if the users continue being as toxic as they are today, I do not see social media being a better place anytime soon.

10 Books On My Priority List

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Hey, everyone! I’m back with another book list and today I’ll be talking about the top ten books in my physical TBR that are on my priority list. I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts that I am a mood reader which is why I don’t post monthly TBRs here or on Instagram (except for my readathon books). My being a mood reader is also the reason why I do not have a specific date set for reading each of the books that I will mention in this post, but hopefully, I can get to them before the year ends. Continue reading

Book Review: [ARC] Ever After by Olivia Vieweg

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Title: Ever After

Author: Olivia Vieweg

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Number of Pages: 288

Publisher: Graphic Universe

Genre: Horror, Dystopia

Synopsis:

Vivi and Eva are two travelers in a countryside filled with the undead. After a train breaks down, stranding them between safe zones, the young women partner up to stay alive. Vivi is struggling with grief–and guilt–over the loss of her sister. Eva is hiding the start of a horrifying transformation. Together they’ll face heat, zombie hordes, and their own inner demons, searching for signs of life in a land of the dead.

This graphic novel addition to an enduring genre is thoughtful and emotion-driven, but also full of zombie scares and action.

Continue reading

Stuff I’ve Been Reading Lately #11

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BOOKS READ:

  • Flyte (Septimus Heap, #2) by Angie Sage
  • Dekada ’70 by Lualhati Bautista
  • Ever After by Olivia Vieweg
  • One-Punch Man Vol. 7 by ONE
  • One-Punch Man Vol. 8 by ONE
  • Cardcaptor Sakura Vol. 6 by CLAMP
  • Kaguya-sama: Love is War Vol. 3 by Aka Akasaka

BOOKS BOUGHT:

  • Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
  • Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) by Kendare Blake
  • Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2) by Kendare Blake
  • Demon Slayer Vol. 1 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Your Lie in April Vol. 1 by Naoshi Arakawa
  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
  • The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1) by James Islington
  • An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2) by James Islington
  • The Modern Faerie Tales Trilogy (Omnibus Edition) by Holly Black

BOOKS RECEIVED:

  • Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
  • Storms by Chris Vick
  • The Museum of Heartbreaks by Meg Leder
  • Geekerella by Ashley Poston

ARCs:

  • Ever After by Olivia Vieweg 
  • One of Those Days by Adres G. Leiva

Continue reading

Favorite Debut Books

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Hey, guys! Today I’m going to talk about my all-time favorite debuts! I’ve been wanting to write posts of my favorite so and so and I have already started in February and sort of stopped because I ran out of ideas of books to list. Recently, I came up with a lot of ideas for my blog content and have been scheduling posts since last week. With that, I also came up with new topics for my book lists!

If you do not know, a debut book means it is an author’s first novel that has been published. I honestly love reading debut novels and discovering amazing authors, I mean, if the first novel they ever wrote is amazing, what more the next books that they will write, right?

Continue reading