March flew so quickly that it’s actually the middle of April now. AH! But here is the best of it 🙂
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!
Welcome back to another post in the Ireland Diaries. If you’ve missed the others you can find them HERE.
Getting to go on a train trip was one of the things I was most excited to do when I went to Ireland. I told my grandpa that he could choose whichever trip he wanted as long as there was a castle to see. The trip we chose went from the Heuston Station in Dublin to Cork, then a van ride up to Cobh, and a train ride back. It takes about 3 hours by train to get from Dublin to Cork and the ride there didn’t seem as long as I expected. Though it may have been because I dozed part of the way.
Continue readingAn extra day in February gives me the extra wiggle room to help get a blog post out without feeling last minute. Phew. This month went by so fast. I blinked and now I have to change my classroom bulletin boards. (The worst moment of the month, yuck)
While it was a bit crazy I also got to spend a week with a college friend who I haven’t seen in almost two years so it was awesome! Yay to February break. Here are some of my favs from the month!
And just like that month 1 of 2024 is gone. A whirlwind of a month jumping back into another semester of teaching, the end of the holidays, and lots of SoCal rainy days. Let’s just say the first week after break having no outside time is NOT conducive to calm, attentive classroom behavior. Ha.
A new series I am adding this year is Monthly Favorites! (Thanks Melissa for the recommendation *waves*) Anything from random things I’ve bought that month to interesting trends on Social Media can be discussed. So tune in every month for something new!
2023 crawled and flew at the same time. Now I’ve blinked and we are in the middle of January 2024! How crazy is that? To start the year let’s take a look back at 2023 Highlights and talk about some goals for 2024!
and was surprised with a Downton Themed Birthday outing you can read all about it here
Or as close to it as you can get in Southern California, which is apparently in Pasadena.
I turned 24 this weekend. A very strange feeling as I told my cousin, I still feel like it was just yesterday we were playing Hide the Wii remotes on my 13th birthday but here we are. My mother likes to say I have Peter Pan syndrome so the past few years of birthdays realizing I am, in fact, growing up have been very bittersweet.
Continue readingSummers spent in Lake Tahoe have always been some of my favorite memories. I got to go up with my family last week for a few days and spend some time with my grandparents. I am always quick to recommend checking out South Lake Tahoe because there is so much to do.
There are always certain nonnegotiable items on the to-do list but this year we tried some new things too!
Happy New Year!
I can’t believe I am already writing the wrap up of all the books I read in 2021. If you read my first post last year “50 books in 52 weeks,” then you know I had a goal to read 50 books with at least 40 of them being new books (since I always just reread a ton of books every year).
Total Books- 55
9 Rereads – 46 New Books
* Indicates reread
5 more than my goal and actually succeeded with reading way more new books than rereads this year, which I am pleasantly surprised with.
I think that 55 books may be a tad bit too many to write a review on each one individually. Can you imagine how long that post would be?? So instead I am going to give you a list of everything I read each month with their ratings, and choose one from each month to write a short review on.
I hope this gives you some ideas of books you can add to your own reading list for the new year!
Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien 3.3/5
I wanted to totally love it. The Lord of the Rings is the series I get told to read the most and I was ready to be enamored. But I wasn’t and I’m sad about that. The book just took SO LONG TO READ, it isn’t even that long of a book at all, the writing style is just one that takes more time to go through and I wasn’t prepared. I even sent a text to my friend when I was about 3/4s of the way through saying “Do they do anything besides WALK and describe the setting???” I plan to finish the series in 2022, and maybe it will go smoother now that I know what I’m getting into… We will see
*Enchanted by Alethea Kontis 4/5
*Hero by Alethea Kontis 3/5
*Dearest by Alethea Kontis 3/5
Love and Olives by Jenna Evans Welch 3.7/5
I’ve read her other books Love and Luck and Love and Gelato and this one was a fun enjoyable read but not my favorite. It was pretty long for what the plot was and some of it felt a bit tedious but I liked the characters and think it’s a good easy read.
Nancy Drews and The Clue of Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene 3/5
Nancy Drew and The Phantom of Pinehill by Carolyn Keene 4/5
*Cress by Marissa Meyer 4/5
Walking with Mary by Edward Sri 5/5
Fairest by Marissa Meyer 3/5
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott 3.5/5
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel 3.8/5
Renegades by Marissa Meyer 4/5
After binge reading Meyer’s the Lunar Chronicles in November of 2020 I was excited to read more of her writing. From the get go this book was darker than the Lunar Chronicles but the premise is really fun and I dove into the characters’ lives gladly. Highly recommend it.
The Magician by Michael Scott 2.5/5
Archenemies by Marissa Meyer 4/5
The Anti-Mary Exposed by Carrie Gress 3.5/5
*Winter by Marissa Meyer 4/5
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli 3.5/5
Supernova by Marissa Meyer 3/5
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo 2/5
What Once was True by Jean Grainger 0/5
So, so utterly disappointed with this book to the point that I had to force myself to finish it. I hated all of the characters. The plot sounded great and just felt poorly executed to me.
Tell me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum 3/5
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 3/5
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 3.7/5
Heartless by Marissa Meyer 4.5/5
This may be my favorite Marissa Meyer book. I was skeptical of how a story focusing on a backstory of the Queen of Hearts would go, but I loved it. Though my friend and I are incredibly angry at certain events that transpired towards the end… I would read this again. It was well done.
Prince Caspian by C.S Lewis 3/5
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams 1/5
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 3/5
The Horse and His Boy by C.S Lewis 3.5/5
The Voyage of the Dawntreader by C.S Lewis 3/5
Kisses and Croissants by Anna-Sophie Jouhannaeu 2.5/5
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 3/5
This was the book most outside my reading comfort zone. Aside from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys I never read murder mystery but I thought it would be fun. While I was reading it my grandpa who apparently has read a lot of her books said this is his least favorite and her worst one. As I have only read this one I can’t vouch for how her other books are but I will say the ending was severely underwhelming. I think I will have to try another one to make a case for my like or dislike of her novels.
*The Magician’s Nephew by C.S Lewis 4/5
I think this is my favorite Narnia book. I love that it is the backstory of everything. Of Digory Kirke and even of the White Witch, Narnia and the Wardrobe. It helps everything that comes about later in the Narnia series make sense and I liked it even more this second time reading it.
*Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson 4/5
The Silver Chair by C.S Lewis 4/5
*Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson 4/5
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho 4/5
The Last Battle by C.S Lewis 3.5/5
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo 4/5
I didn’t think jumping ahead to this book would be that big of a deal. I read (and loved) the Six of Crows duology which I’ve reviewed before and assumed I could read this too without reading the original trilogy. The only reason certain aspects of the book made sense was that I watched the show over the summer. So if you want to read this book don’t follow my lead. Go read Shadow and Bone first (but after Six of Crows cuz if you don’t you probably won’t think you want to read this book). But anyway aside from that I really really enjoyed this book. Nikolai is a great character and I still can’t believe it, but I love Zoya too. I couldn’t read fast enough, I had to know what was going to happen. So read if you enjoy witty characters with seemingly impossible odds.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 3/5
I have seen a lot of mixed reviews on this series, and especially with the show having come out, there is discussion that the show actually fixed some of the book errors. I would agree to that. It is a decent series, especially the first book, but the writing in this debut novel is very weak compared to the other series’. I think her use of first person narrative was a detriment to the story and I found I liked her characters more in the show than the book. I wanted to punch them multiple times but reading this helped everything make sense in the final duology so it is necessary if you want to read those.
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo 3/5
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo 2.5/5
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo 3.7/5
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers 4/5
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander 3/5
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 3/5
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander 3.7/5
I have always enjoyed watching the movie version of this book. I didn’t know until recently it was a book. Obviously I then had to read it. This is actually the second book of the series, The Book of Three being the first one. The movie is the first two books put together and after reading the books, I think it was a good move, though of course the book is better. I enjoyed this better than the first book because it had more adventure. Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam are my favorite characters and I would read a book just about them. Overall, a good book.
Go Bravely by Emily Wilson 4/5
Gilded by Marissa Meyer 2/5
Worthy of Wearing by Nicole Caruso 4/5
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 2.2/5
The Martian by Andy Weir 4.5/5
This book was just the script for the movie. The only difference is the movie took out all Mark Watney’s extensive cursing and most of the math. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was fun seeing any differences. The writing is well done, the voice of Mark is engaging and pulls you in from the get go. Despite it being almost entirely written in basically journal entries it isn’t hard at all to imagine everything that is happening super clearly and for the plot to flow. Two thumbs up from me.
*The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan 5/5
Curses by Lish McBride 2.5/5
Augustine’s Confessions by St. Augustine of Hippo 4/5
Would you like me to do more book challenges on the blog this year?
Tell me in the comments how many books you read and let me know what your favorite book of all time is so I can add it to my reading list for this year!
If you have read any of the books I did this year and have things you want to discuss don’t hesitate to message me, I LOVE to talk about books!
Total Books- 55
Total Pages- 18,858
Least Favorite Book- What Once was True by Jean Grainger
Favorite New Book- Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Month with most books read- March with 7 books
Author that I read the most books of- Marissa Meyer with 8 books
Series Finished- 5. Shadow and Bone Trilogy. The Rule of Wolves Duology. Chronicles of Narnia. The Renegades Trilogy. The Woodcutter Sisters.
Longest Book- *Winter by Marissa Meyer with 827 Pages