February 2020 | Monthly Wrap Up

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Danica Christina

newheader-monthly

We’re almost in Spring already? This month was a little less in numbers and page count but I read a lot of great books this month. Some personal things that happened this month:

  • got a promotion to a new position
  • got a raise
  • got a massage
  • got our bathroom completely redone due to a flood
  • kept losing the daily raffles to win Hamilton tickets
  • spent some time back home with my family
  • went to a vegan restaurant as a lovely weekend date
  • was more social after work than usual

I’m excited to see what March has in store for me!

STATS

Money Saved from Library Books/ARCS: $331.08
Pages Read: 5,013
Average Pages Read Per Day: 173
Books Read: 18
Average Book Length: 278 Continue reading →

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Weekly Update #19 | 02/23 – 02/29

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Danica Christina

Screenshot 2019-10-27 at 09.04.51

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. I’ll also be linking to Stacking the Shelves a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Happy Sunday! What a week it has been. I’ve been trying to manage my mental health this week while still going to work and trying to perform at my normal level as I learn my new position. Lots of late hours, early mornings, and quieting my inner critic.

Friday was a good day though! In my previous position we had monthly rewards and the ones with the “most points” got a special prize at the end of the year. I just got in to the top 4 and found out that at the end of March I get to take the day off work for an “all expense paid” day at a luxurious spa! I am so excited to relax and hang out with my teammates.

Putting a heavier focus on my wellbeing this week and I hope that continues through the month of March. Have a great week everyone!

Continue reading →

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Friday Book Beginnings & The Friday 56 | #63

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Danica Christina

Friday Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and the Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.

So Friday Book Beginnings you choose the book you are currently reading or the one that is closest to you and share the first few sentences. For the Friday 56 you simply turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader and share a sentence or two that you enjoy. Then just add maybe a synopsis about the book in case others are interested. That’s it!

***

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

Published on: July 10th, 2018 by Gallery/Scout Press

Goodreads | Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…

Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes? Continue reading →

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Shelf Control #1 | From the Mouth of the Whale

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Danica Christina

I wanted to join a new weekly feature and stumbled upon Shelf Control hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out the introductory post, here.

16059540From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjon
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 30th, 2013
Pages: 231

Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis (from Goodreads): From the Mouth of the Whale is an Icelandic saga for the modern age. The year is 1635. Iceland is a world darkened by superstition, poverty, and cruelty. Men of science marvel over a unicorn’s horn, poor folk worship the Virgin in secret, and both books and men are burned.

Sjón introduces us to Jónas Pálmason, a poet and self-taught healer, banished to a barren island for heretical conduct, as he recalls his gift for curing “female maladies,” his exorcism of a walking corpse on the remote Snjáfjöll coast, the frenzied massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers, and the deaths of three of his children. Pálmason’s story echoes across centuries and cultures, an epic tale that makes us see the world anew.

Continue reading →

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Weekly Update #18 | 02/16 – 02/22

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Danica Christina

Screenshot 2019-10-27 at 09.04.51

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. I’ll also be linking to Stacking the Shelves a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Happy Sunday! This week, although a shorter work week, felt like the longest week ever.

I have spent my weekend so far at my parents house, hanging out and reading to decompress. Dad and I went to the mall and at Indigo they had “blind dates with a book” on a main table. I’ve always been intrigued by this premise so I decided to give it a chance.

Screenshot 2020-02-22 at 8.46.14 PM

Put your guesses in the comments what you think this book was! Unfortunately, I had already read it before.

Heading back to my apartment later today to cram in a weekend’s worth of chores in an afternoon. Nothing too exciting on the agenda this upcoming week but I hope it’s a good one.

Continue reading →

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Friday Book Beginnings & The Friday 56 | #62

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Danica Christina

Friday Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and the Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.

So Friday Book Beginnings you choose the book you are currently reading or the one that is closest to you and share the first few sentences. For the Friday 56 you simply turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader and share a sentence or two that you enjoy. Then just add maybe a synopsis about the book in case others are interested. That’s it!

***

Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding

Published on: July 10th, 2018 by Gallery/Scout Press

Goodreads | Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat. A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world, but after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before–until she meets Kate Randolph. Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart. Continue reading →

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Book Review | My Sister, the Serial Killer by Okinyan Braithwaite

Posted on February 20, 2020 by Danica Christina

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Okinyan Braithwaite
Published by: Anchor Books on July 30th, 2019
Genre: Fiction, Africa, Contemporary, Mystery
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

Goodreads | Amazon | BookDepository | Indigo

Summary (from Goodreads): Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead.

Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

Continue reading →

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