February Book Reviews

I am starting strong this year with my reading challenge. After a horrible year of reading and not wanting to sit and read, I am FORCING myself to power through and get back into it. 

SO! The goal for 2025 is 20 Books.

Much less than usual, but I am getting married at the end of the year and didn’t want to give unrealistic expectations. Now that I’ve seen how many I’ve gotten through by March, maybe I should up my game. 

I got a 3-month Kindle Unlimited Membership, and I am determined not to leave it unutilized this time around. That is also where all of my books the past 2 months came from. Aaaand why 5 of the books are from the same series. 

The Reviews:

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin 

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My 2024 in Books

The Year: 2024

The Goal: 20 Books

The Total: 20 Books Read out of 20, woohoo!

Goal Completed…by the hair of my chinny chin chin. I finished 4 books in December to reach my goal. I would not say 2024 was a great year for books. I was in a GINORMOUS reading slump, but in the end, I stuck it out.

Here’s the complete lineup.

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Love Letter to 2024

As this year comes to a close I can’t help but wonder where it went. A lot of people I talk to say that 2024 felt never ending to them, but to me it all blurred together and I can hardly believe it’s been 365 days since I drove home from a New Year’s Eve party. 

2024 had its ups and downs and lots of stagnant moments but with the 25th year of my life slowly wrapping out I spent some time scrolling back through my photo album. I learned I need to take more photos and videos of memories outside of just my students, but amongst the class parties and photos of my students’ latest playdough creations, I found something beautiful from each month. 

Here are the highest of highs from each month of 2024. 

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Transitioning into Fall Favorites!

Mid-October makes me want to accept that it’s a new season, though I always miss summer. I am ready for Fall outfits and cozy weather… if California will get on board and drop the temperature. Here is what I’ve been loving so far this October. 

Cozy Weather Playlists

To play in my car with the windows up and the A/C on haha. At least I can pretend it feels like Autumn outside.

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How to be a SoCal Tourist

“You guys don’t get out much, do you…” 

As this is an Actual sentence spoken to me, this Summer I wanted to actively see more of the places near me. While more often than not I don’t go more than 20 minutes away when I do I head to San Diego, so this year I decided to head North. Lo and behold, there are a lot of other cool things to do if I dare to venture a little farther from home.

So if you want to adventure around Southern California, these are the things worth your time.

Laguna Beach: Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters

Pageant of the Masters
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Hello, Summer Goals! So here’s the gist

Summer is in full swing and after taking a month to relax and wind down after the school year I am getting antsy. Here is what I am most hoping to accomplish in the next 6 weeks before I go back to work.

Reading: Finish 4 Books

My reading goal has not been going lol So I hope to read at least 4 books before work begins again. I am about 40 pages away from finishing one book and hoping that the next few books I choose will be great enough to fly through. Fingers crossed.

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First Third of 2024 Book Reviews!

My energy has been squashed from the last few weeks of the school year. Second graders have been in summer break mode for a month now, so you can imagine what my classroom volume level has been like. (and if you can’t just message me and I will send you an audio recording of it haha) I’m a few books behind, but am still proud I’ve read anything at all.

Blade of Ash by C. F. E Black 3/5

“The only way to beat death is to chase it.” 

Struck with the same death curse his father, the king, died from just a few days before Red finds himself stuck. Will he have to accept his death, or will he have to learn to trust the very person he blames for his father’s death? The royal sorcerer. 

The magic world-building was fascinating. The royal sorcerers’ magic is tied to their King/Queen’s Truthwell. It was a slow build as this is just the first book in a series, but that was probably the most interesting part of the whole thing. While I did enjoy reading it, I didn’t feel totally invested in the plot because there are many qualities of the two main characters that bothered me. Probably won’t be continuing with this series. 

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The Best of March!- I got jumped

March flew so quickly that it’s actually the middle of April now. AH! But here is the best of it 🙂

Work-Life- Getting Jumped at School lol

As a kickoff for our Jogathon, we had a BMX show for the students, and some of us teachers got jumped! One of my students even hugged me after saying she was happy I was still alive. Meanwhile, another went “I thought, eh see you at the hospital I guess” HA!

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Ireland Diaries: Sligo, the Final Installment

The final installment of the Ireland Diaries is here. If you haven’t read the others you can find the links to them below 🙂

Sligo and Easkey were the final places I visited on my Ireland journeys and it was also the part that I was most excited about. My cousins on my dad’s side live in Ireland and, with the exception of one, I had never met any of them in person before. We had been chatting on the phone and emailing and skyping etc since we were little kids but that was all.

Our whole lives we spent every year hoping it would finally be the year we could meet. It only took me 21 years but I did finally get my grandparents to take me to Ireland to meet them, and it was like we had been hanging out in person all our lives. 

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