Things You Can do on Halloween When you're a millenial stuck living at home

Living at home after college can be hard for a lot of reasons, but a huge one is that depending where you live, you may not have a social life you can build. Let me tell you, friends, suburban CT is not a good place for you if you want to have a social life as a millenial living at home. Living at home can be especially tough when you see your long-distance friends doing fun things, especially for holidays you used to celebrate together like Halloween, so this post is for all my fellow millenials stuck at home for Halloween.

Here are some things I've thought of that you might want to do this Halloween if you're stuck at home with no social life but want to get into that spoopy Halloween spirit:

1. Watch some scary movies. This is an obvious one, but marathoning some horror movies definitely sounds like a lot of fun. My picks would be Insidious, The Descent, Oculus, and of course the Scream movies, because you've got to have a decent slasher classic in there.

2. Get a bag of Halloween candy and let your sugar cravings run wild. I may not be doing this because I don't really have extra money to spend on things like candy, but I might run to Walgreens tomorrow and pick up some of my favorite candy-shaped things just for funsies.

3. Read some spoopy books. Maybe this will only appeal to me, but while I watch horror movies, I also like to read, and pairing a spoopy movie with a spoopy YA horror sounds like a pretty decent Halloween night plan to me. On my list of spoopy books to read are The Wicker King and The Hollow Girl. First I need to finish The November Girl, though, so let's hope I get on that between the time I write this post and Halloween night, although I think that one is going to be at least a little spoopy as well.

4. Make some fun fall cocktails. I have a giftcard from my birthday to Total Wine and a collection of fall cocktail recipes on my bookmarks bar, so I might stock up on cocktail makey things for a boozy Halloween evening as well. Plus, if you're a little schnackered, the scary movies might not be quite as terrifying.

5. Marathon a horror TV anthology. I've been rewatching AHS: My Roanoke Nightmare, and might continue it tomorrow. I've also started Channel Zero, which is pretty good, and have been considering giving Slasher a try since it's on Netflix and therefore easy to access. But we shall see, what with all the other spoopy movie plans above (take a shot of a Halloween cocktail every time I use the word "spoopy" in this post).

6. Make scary Halloween treats! Candy is fun for sure, but if you're like me and love a good round of baking, find some recipes for Halloween-themed treats and get cookin'!

What are you doing this Halloween?

October 2017 Rewind

Was that really just October? Because it sure didn't feel like October. I can still wear flip-flops and t-shirts most of the time, wore 3/4 sleeves to work maybe two or three times, and long sleeves zero times. So therefore, it must not have been October, but the calendar tells me it was, so I suppose I'm in the wrong here.

October was a stressful month. I've been dealing with a lot lately, on top of sending in my application for graduation. I'm weirdly worried something will happen and I won't graduate, even though I've gotten maybe two Bs throughout my entire master's program and my professors always have good things to say about my work and my advisor said my professional development essay was right on track. I'm just very hard on myself and have a hard time seeing myself succeeding sometimes because of it.

I'm not even going to talk about my October goals, because I'm fairly certain I didn't meet any of them, unless reading 5 books was one of them (I read 6). On that note, here's what I read this month:

The Hazel Wood - Melissa Albert

This Darkness Mine - Mindy McGinnis

Eliza & Her Monsters - Francesca Zappia

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzie Lee

bone - Yrsa Daley-Ward

Replica - Lauren Oliver

I finally broke my three-star reads streak with The Hazel Wood, which is not only the best book I read this year but a new favorite. It was so amazingly good and I can't wait for it to come out so I can own every edition that exists. I also really liked This Darkness Mine, and really hope I have the opportunity to terrify some teenagers with it in my future library career. Gentleman's Guide was as good as everyone said it would be, and I liked Eliza way better than Made You Up, so that was good, too. The only disappointment of the month was Lauren Oliver's Replica, which I've been meaning to read since before it came out (I had an eARC but bought it because of the weird read it however you want thing), but it just wasn't as good as the Delirium books. 

More exciting things that happened in October include the binge watching of Stranger Things 2 over the weekend! The second season was so good and so satisfying. I also got a lot of new music, including stuff by the Front Bottoms, which is a band my boyfriend hooked me on, and P!nk's new album, which is pretty dope and super fun to sing along to. I also participated in Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, and even though I didn't stay up the entire 24 hours as intended, it was still fun and I finished two books during it. 

How was your October?

Baa Baa Black Sheep

I feel like I am often a black sheep when it comes to popular books or highly hyped books. If everyone else loves it, usually I hate it. If everyone hates it, sometimes I like it. For today, I've compiled a list of books I've been a black sheep on in some way.

Everyone was really excited for Gayle Forman's next book after If I Stay and Where She Went, and I was for sure one of them. Those two books are two of my all-time favorites (don't see the movie though; it'll ruin the magic of them a bit for you because it's so terrible), so naturally I was psyched to hear about Just One Day. However, unlike the rest of the book world, I found it very disappointing. I didn't buy the one night stand romance, and found Alison/Lulu boring and sheltered, even though she tried so hard to step out of her comfort zone. In short, I just didn't buy this book and couldn't get on board with the characters or romance, which left me with nothing to like about it.

When We Were Liars came out, everyone was like, "OMG this book is so sophisticated and literary," and I was over here thinking, "this book is confusing and terrible and everyone in it is terrible and I don't care about them or their rich people problems." This book had all the worst tropes in YA, especially when it came to showcasing the "problems" of extremely privileged and rich people. The writing was also bizarre and came off as trying too hard, and was so pretentious my eyes were stuck in a permanent eye-roll loop throughout the whole book. And oh god, the twist. I hated the twist. It was so dumb. I just...I don't think I can talk about this book anymore.

To be fair, I still haven't managed to actually finish this book. I've tried reading it twice and got a little further the second time but...I just couldn't. I love books in weird formats, but I hate space sci-fi YA, so it was a mixed bag for me. I wanted to like it so badly, but I just couldn't follow the story to save my life and kept forgetting what was happening every two pages. Maybe I'll try it again eventually but for now...no.

I've already talked about disliking Adam Silvera in general, so I'll try to keep this one short. Everyone thought this book was so emotional and sad, but I found it to be entirely too reliant on the gimmick of the concept with little substance where characterization and writing was concerned. Overrated.

In the past, I have made no secret of my hatred for John Green, which has since somewhat abated because I kind of liked Paper Towns and reading about his experiences with anxiety and OCD. I think in general he's way overrated and gets too many accolades for mediocre books while other better writers get compared to him even though they're BETTER. This one in particular, I did not like though. Alaska is total Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and it's just not very well-written. I may not hate John Green anymore, but I still kind of resent his fame, which is basically due to his Internet, video, and podcast fame, and not as much whether he's a good writer.

This is the only book on this list that's here because I liked it more than everyone else. That was probably due to the fact that I hated the author's first book, This Song Will Save Your Life, so I was ready to be more impressed by her second book. In retrospect, it's not that great a book, since Arden is pretty boring for most of it and also vaguely creepy for stalking her favorite blogger, but it's still better than Sales' first one, IMO. It's more of a character-based book than everyone was expecting, I think, which is why people didn't really like it, but that's more up my alley in contemporary YA anyway, so I think that was also why I was more open to liking it somewhat more than the rest of the YA world. 

Bisexual Romps, Pirates, and Manhunts // The Gentleman's Guide To Vice & Virtue

Title: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Author: Mackenzie Lee

Date published: June 27, 2017

Pages: 513

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.
But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.
Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

This book was so delightful. I'd seen it hyped up by nearly everyone who's anyone in the YA community, and I can happily say that this book lived up to, and even exceeded, its hype. This is honestly probably the most unique book I've read in a while, and definitely the most unique historical fiction novel I've ever read, so it deserves all the hype, all the stars, all the love.

Here is a small sampling of all of the amazing things you will find between the pages of this remarkable, wonderful book:

• Diversity. OMG, a historical fiction novel where not everyone is white and straight? Be still my fluttering heart. Even better, a bisexual MC? Be still my fluttering, bisexual queer heart! Monty is a roguishly sassy MC with a crush on his best friend, who is black, which is also something we never see in historical novels, despite the fact that people of color existed in history, and not just as slaves or servants, which is generally the narrative the mainstream forces upon us. This book dealt really well with racial issues, and even had a few moments where Monty himself slipped up, but even then, the book addressed those quite well. Percy is also diverse in other ways that I won't explicitly state because SPOILERS, and those were explored in an interesting way also and brought up a lot of interesting questions and points of view about the lives we value and what makes life have value.
• Sass. Goodness, this is by far the sassiest book I've read this year, and again, for sure the sassiest historical fiction novel. For a lot of the book, Monty is a fresh arsehole, but all of his dialogue is purely delightful and hilarious to read. His sassiness will make you laugh and cringe for him, and the banter between him and Percy (WE HATE RICHARD PEELE!!) is also wonderful to behold.
• Character growth. As just noted, Monty is often a total butthole. However, he is a multidimensional character who is very complex and grows throughout the story. He grows through hardships, his friendship with Percy, and even HAVING HIS PRIVILEGE CHALLENGED, which is not shown nearly enough in YA. 
• Adventure. To be fair, I did not read the entire Goodreads summary before I read this, so I did not know about the manhunt aspect until it happened in the book. So, I was quite surprised by many happenings in the book, which does not happen for me very often while reading YA anymore, probably just because I've read so much of it. There were lots of fun twists and turns that made the 500+ pages go by quickly, which is definitely a feat worth noting since I do not usually gravitate toward large books because I just don't have the time, or at least feel like I don't. 
• Venice!!!! It has been a dream of mine since childhood to visit Venice, so to see it featured prominently in the story was very exciting and nostalgia-making for me. In fact, I loved all the settings in this book, and found them very vivid and well-written. Venice, however, was for sure the favorite, other than Barcelona, where I have actually had the pleasure of traveling to. 

Basically, if you have been like me and been putting this book off because either you don't normally go for historical fic or because of the page count, GO FORTH AND READ!! This book is so wonderful, delightful, and full of joy. I promise it will be unlike anything you've read, and it will go by so fast you'll wish there were even MORE pages. 

Weekly Rewind 10/16-10/21

It's the end of one week and the beginning of another, and last week was not an easy one. It's been very tough for me emotionally since I've been having friendship troubles, lack of friends, and all the #metoo stuff from the past week. I finally broke down last night in the middle of the read-a-thon and let it all out and feel a little better, but I'm still just feeling a little fragile and emotional in general.

But, I still managed to post a little bit last week. Here's what I wrote:

- a roundup of terrible book covers on NetGalley (like, they didn't even try with some of these)
- I tried to look at the positive with this list of things that are actually making me happy lately
- a bunch of posts for Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, including the opening survey, book recs for the past 10 years, readathon memories from previous years, and the closing survey

I really wanted to stay up for the entire 24 hours, but I think the breakdown kind of derailed that and tired me out halfway through. I also got lost as to what to read when I finished Gentleman's Guide because it was good and I was tired and didn't want to think. I wish I had been able to do a full 24 hours, but maybe some weekend when I don't work I'll try it again on my own just for fun. Plus, there's always the April read-a-thon, and who knows what the heck I'll be doing in April.

I also read three books this week, and all of them were good, although bone, the poetry collection, was not as good as I was hoping. However, both YAs were fantastic, and I hope I continue to have fewer 3-star reads than I've been having this year.

I also made two trades, one for The Cruel Prince, which I absolutely cannot wait to read, and one for the black, no-cover ARC of Matched for my collection of that trilogy. I'm still trying to find Crossed and Reached ARCs, but I will have a nice collection of the first one at the very least. I also won another Goodreads giveaway for The Raven King, and now only need an HC of The Dream Thieves to complete the Raven Cycle. I really want to wait until I own all of those books before I start reading them because I have a feeling I'm going to want to binge the whole series, so I really need to get my hands on The Dream Thieves ASAP because it's about damn time I read that series. Oh, and my mom bought me the new Golden Compass book, La Belle Sauvage, so that's pretty exciting. I'm so nervous/excited to get back into that world, since it was one of my all-time favorite series as a kid. 

Dewey's Read-a-thon closing survey

Hello, fellow Read-a-Thon-ers! It's the last hour of the read-a-thon. We made it! Or at least some of us did; I went to sleep at around midnight, plus I lost four hours to work :( I did not read as many books or as much as I intended, but I had a bit of a breakdown in the middle because of other things and that really tired me out. But anyway, here's how I did:


1. Which hour was most daunting to you?

Honestly, the second hour, because I had gotten up around 6:00 and was very tired. I almost napped, but instead just rested for a minute, recaffeinated, and got back to it.


2. What did I read?

I only read two books, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and Bone, a poetry collection by Yrsa Daley-Ward, both of which I had started before the event and had hoped I would finish much more quickly than I actually did. Note to self: do not start a 400+ page book a couple days before a read-a-thon.

3. Which books would you recommend to other read-a-thoners?

Definitely GGTVAV even though it's super long. It's a great, fun, diverse historical YA that's really unique from anything I've read.

4. What's a really rad thing we could do during the next event?

um...just do it again?

5. How likely are you to participate again? Would you be interested in helping organization and prep?

Yes and yes!

#readathonmemories

The fourth-hour readathon challenge is to share what your favorite book was from past readathons. I unfortunately do not remember how many times I have participated in the readathon, so I can't do one book for each one, but last spring 2016, I most loved Summer of Supernovas. It's about a girl obsessed with astrology who uses it to control her whole life after her mother dies. There's a lot of fun and romance and silly teenage mistakes and it's simply a delightful read. I remember ripping through this one in my dorm the year I graduated and just adoring it. If you haven't gotten to this adorable contemporary yet, GET ON IT!!

Dewey Mini-Challenge: 10 Books for 10 Years

Not only is it Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon day, but it's the 10th year of the event! As such, the first challenge is to recommend a book from each year the challenge has been running. Of course, I find it impossible to recommend only one book per year, so each year on this post will have at least 3 books.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Dewey's Read-a-Thon Opening Survey

Hello, fellow readers! Today is the day! It's Dewey's 24-hour readathon, and I am planning to be actively reading for hopefully over half of it. The first mini-challenge is the opening survey, the answers for which I will be posting below!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Just outside of Hartford, CT. And no, it is nothing like Stars Hollow, unfortunately.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
This is a tough one, but definitely either Turtles All the Way Down or The Book of Dust. First, I have to finish The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue which I started mid-week last week and am almost halfway through, but then it's time for Turtles! I am not a huge John Green person but I am excited for this one since it's based on his experiences with anxiety and OCD.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Chocolate chip muffins in the morning and chocolate chip cookies as my midnight snack to keep me going.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Other than reading, I'm really into music. I majored in flute performance in college, and just took up violin again after a 10 year break. I also love to sing. Additionally, I'm pursuing my master's degree in library and information science and will be graduating this winter. Yay!

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This year, I plan to try to stay awake all 24 hours, or just take a two or three hour nap at some point if I'm really desperate. The plan is to consume lots of caffeine and have many snacks. Unfortunately, another thing I'll be doing differently is taking a four-hour break because I have to go to work today. Sad face :(

Things that are making me happy

I'll be honest: I've been struggling lately. I'm putting a ton of pressure on myself at my internship to be perfect, which I know is unreasonable because it's an internship and everyone I'm working with there has made it clear that it's supposed to be a learning experience and I'm allowed to make mistakes, but I'm always harder on myself than anyone else could possibly be because that's how I've always been. Seeing all the #metoo things have also been hard, even if it's been kind of affirming in a weird way to know I'm not alone in my experiences, but it's also been bringing up hard, old feelings of wondering whether my experiences are valid enough and reflecting on how much they have changed me and how I see myself.

So, it's been hard to see the positive in things. Most days I feel like my main accomplishment is getting myself to go to work and be a functional, useful person there or not breaking down in general. I wanted to write this post to remind myself that there are positive things happening for myself, and maybe to remind other people that positive things in life don't have to be major, life-changing events, but can also be little, simple things.

1. Playing violin. This, other than singing loudly in the car and at home, is honestly what's making me the happiest right now other than my boyfriend. I took up playing violin again recently after a 10 year break, and even though I'm somewhat terrible, I'm playing it simply because it brings me joy. All I have to feel when I'm playing is the joy it brings me, and I don't have to think about how good I am or compare myself to others or even my own skill level when I last stopped playing. It's the one thing in my life I feel I can do with zero pressure and pure joy, and I'm so glad my mom had it fixed for me because it's really helping me.

2. My boyfriend. My boyfriend is basically Jack from this is us, minus the drinking problems and mysterious death and jealousy issues. He is so, so, SO supportive of me and never loses patience even when I hash out the same issues with him again and again, and always has my back. Knowing that he's proud of me and thinks I'm doing a lot is so comforting, even if I can't always believe it, because his opinion and affirmations mean the world to me. He means the world to me, and having his love and support is exactly what I need right now.

3. Exercising. I've been either going to the gym to read on the stationary bike or trying to get 10,000 steps per day, and each time I do one of those things, I feel very accomplished and like I'm gaining some sense of control back over my body, which is one of the things I feel like I lost as a result of my #metoo experiences. I love checking off "worked out" on my self-care chart and feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I do it because I used to hate working out and couldn't force myself even to take a walk, so it feels like a big deal to me.

4. Reading. I finally broke my 3-star reading streak and have been reading some great YA books and continuing to read great poetry. I finished my Goodreads challenge, which earlier in the year I switched from 75 books to 50, but now I'm hoping I can at least get to 70 before the end of the year. Reading has always been a major release for me, and it continues to do that.

5. Fun, little things at my internship. Even though it's been a major source of emotional stress, there are a lot of things about the internship at the library that I enjoy. Every book I've recommended we buy to the teen librarian has gone into the book cart, so I'm contributing a lot to collection development with my vast YA knowledge, which makes me feel very proud of myself and my knowledge of the materials. I also had a lot of fun with the director, the teen librarian, and the head of the children's department making a very creepy scarecrow of Where's Waldo for the town scarecrow contest. Who knew community engagement could be so...creepy?

6. My retail job. Of course there are things I don't like about it, such as not having a set schedule because that makes me anxious, but overall, I've been surprised by how much I genuinely enjoy working in retail. It's not what I want to do long-term, but it's another place where I don't feel as much pressure to be perfect because it's not my career, which in turn actually allows me to perform better because I'm not scared to try new things and fail. I genuinely like helping people feel good about themselves through clothes, and I love the clothes I have to sell, which helps, and the clients are mainly older women, who I tend to get along great with because I am an old soul at heart. It's very easy to be nice to people and help them when you understand their reasons for shopping at a place, and very gratifying to see them leaving feeling good and excited about things you helped them find.

7. My babies. By which I mean my cats, because ew, I do not want my own babies. I just want to read to other people's babies and teach parents about early literacy, then hand the cute babies back to them at the end of the program, please. But the cats are always helpful and adorable and bring me so much happiness, even when Jaeda climbs on my computer while I'm trying to blog or do school work or watch Netflix. Cat cuddles are so comforting and lovely, and I will be very sad when I move out and can't afford to have cats for a while.

What are some things that make you happy during tough emotional times?