What I’ve been up to in May 🌼 I passed my Bachelor Thesis!!!

Hello fellow bookworms 🌼 May was a weird month, especially as I have less plans than I would normally have and it kind of put me in a bad mood, especially as I’m in between studies and therefore at home so much without many exciting things happening. Given the circumstances the Cruise that we had booked was canceled so my family and me all spent about a week at home, feeling a bit sad even though we knew that going on a Cruise simply wasn’t possible for the time being. Yet I still felt sad as I was looking forward to the Cruise so much and even though we’re probably going to do it next year, things have gotten a bit complicated because I will be at a new university then and have no idea about my schedule yet. With that being said, I hope you’re all still safe and taking care of yourself 🌷💗

EDIT: Given that there are a lot of protests going on because of the murder of George Floyd and other black people by the police, I wanted to include a list of resources you can use to inform and educate yourself on what’s currently going on and can find out how to get involved as well!

• A great comprehensive list of resources on blacklivesmatter
• 10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship
• Tips on how to help if you’re from Europe like me
• A great Thread on what you can do to help
• A great guide to anti-racist resources
• Safety Tips during Protests
• Nonfiction Book Recommendations about Black Activists

🔄 = Reread 💌 = Library Books 🌈 = Here and Queerathon

🐯 = #YARC2020  ✨= #StartOnYourShelfathon  ⌛ = Digital Arc

In May I was hoping to be a bit more chill about my reading … It didn’t happen 😂 Because I currently have a lot of time on my hands I was determined to do all the Readathons and also read so many books through the digital library offer that I’m currently using – which has access to so many amazing books that I’m determine to read. I definitely need to limit how many books I check out, because even though the offer is tempting – this is the best library offer I’ve ever had so I want to make the most of it – reading with a deadline was stressing me out a bit. That being said I did read  13 books and I had a lot of fun doing all the Readathons, so next month I won’t be doing as many and instead mood-read a lot, with a focus on my owned books that I haven’t really touched recently. So basically, the goal for June is to read what  I want without putting any unnecessary pressure on myself. I also still need to finish The Lies of Locke Lamora. I wanted to read it for Tome Topple but the book is a lot denser than I had anticipated and I only read about 50 pages because of that. I still think the book is interesting and Locke Lamora is exactly my kind of character, so I want to finally tackle this book in June 🙏

When it came to my Out of Comfort Zone Challenge … I kind of didn’t read as much compared to the other months 😂 I only ended up reading 2 books, though I’m happy to report that I ended up liking both of them (4-star reads!), so I’m counting that as a win! Both of them were adult books, so that’s always a great achievement for me. Saga is also a sci-fi graphic novel and Over the Top is a memoir/nonfiction book about Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness 🥰 I have no idea how many books I’ll read for the challenge next month as I’m trying to be a bit more chill about my TBR, but maybe I’ll continue with the Saga graphic novels as they make for quick and fun reads.

Saga Vol 2. (Vaughan, Staples) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 

Not Your Villain (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 🐯

Not Your Backup (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 🐯

Over the Top (Jonathan Van Ness) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈

Once again I couldn’t resist and participated in all the Readathons in May! The month was full of amazing Readathons and it pained me that I couldn’t do them all 🥺 But I picked out two Readathons that I definitely wanted to do and that was month-long, which is always a bit more relaxed and less intense than shorter Readathons. As May was both Asian American Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, I participated in two themed Readathons: the Asian Readathon (hosted by readwithcindy, I participated in it last year as well) and the Mentalhealthathon (my first time participating) 🥰 I had a lot of fun reading for both of them and read some great books! Here is what I was reading (I included all books together as some of them overlapped). The Asian Readathon didn’t have a bingo board but here is my finished Mentalhealthathon Bingo Board!

Readathon Key

• Asian Readathon = 🐯
• Mentalhealthathon = 🌷

1. You Asked for Perfect (Lana Wood Johnson) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐.5 💌 🌈 🌷

2. Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Adib Khorram) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ 💌 🌷 🐯

3. Not Your Villain (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 🐯

4. Not Your Backup (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 🐯

5. Over the Top (Jonathan Van Ness) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 🌷

6. Team Avatar Tales (Gene Luen Yang) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🐯

7. Seven Deadly Shadows (Alameda & Maetani) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 🐯

8. Shadowsong (S. Jae-Jones) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 🌷 🐯

9. Wintergirls (Laurie Halse Anderson) ⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌷

10. All Our Broken Pieces (L.D. Crichton) ⭐⭐ 💌 🌷

11. Saga Vol 2. (Vaughan, Staples) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 💗

12. Eight Will Fall (Sarah Harian) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 

13. Sheets (Brenna Thummler) ⭐⭐⭐ 💌 

Favorite Book 💕

🌼 Review: Vengeful by V.E. Schwab 💖 Villains, Heroes, and Victor Vale 🌼Favorite Books by Asian Authors 🌸 + #asianreadathon TBR

🌼 5 More Mental Health Recommendations 🌸 feat. #mentalhealthathon TBR 🌼 Talking about my Good Reading Habits 📗 Rereading, Review-writing, and Reading Motivation

🌼 Arc Review: Cat’s Café by Matt Tarpley ☕ Wholesome comics about animals and mental health 🌼 Getting Back to Writing #6 // Camp NaNo Wrapup and First Round of Revision Finished!! 🎉

🌼 The Flower Book Tag 🌺 Spring is here

For this section of my wrapup I’m linking up with the Favorite Blog Posts of the Month Meme that has been created by Kristin @ kristinkravesbooks to showcase our favorite blogs of the month!

• 10 Things I Want To See More of In YA Books About Mental Health (Cait @ paperfury)
• What It Takes For Me to Rate a Book 5 Stars // What I Look for in Characters, Plot & More, ft. Examples! & Guessing 2020 Book Release’s Plots Based on Nothing But Their Covers // In Which My Dreams of Becoming a Psychic Crash & Burn (Caitlin @ caitlinalthea)
• How Often Do You Complete Series? My Thoughts On Why it’s Okay to be a Serial Series Quitter. (Dani @ perspectiveofawriter)
• The Stuck at Home Book Tag! (Destiny @ howlinglibraries)
• Highest Rated Books (according to GR) I’ve Read! (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Character Book Tag // In Which I’m Back, Screaming About Books (Lily @ sprinklesofdreams)
• 3 Steps To Motivating Yourself To Write // Find Happiness And Fulfillment In Your Writing Life (Madeline @ Happy When Writing)
• A Percy Jackson adaptation is coming to Disney+ and I have so many thoughts! & My bookish “nope list” (aka, things that don’t interest me in books) (Margaret @ weirdzeal)
• If you liked these YA contemporary books, you’ll love these underrated ones! & Mental Health Awareness Month: 10 YA Books with mental health representation & 10 things I want to read more of in YA books (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Character Book Tag (Original!) (May @ foreverandeverly)
• Bookemon readathon sign-up post (Mel @ cottoncandybookwitch)
• March and April Wrap-up inc OWLs Magical Readathon 2020 (Pauliina @ bookaholicdreamer)
• My Favourite Characters in Quarantine Book Tag (Sophie @ sophiexli)
• Small ( s m o l ) Tropes I Love In Books & The Identity Crisis Book Tag | who am I, Hedwig ?? (Sophie @ meandink)
• Let’s Celebrate the Series Announcement: Percy Jackson vs Heroes of Olympus Book Tag (Tasya @ literaryhuntress)
• Percy Jackson TV Show Announcement Reaction// Discovering My Godly Parent (Tiffany @ readbytiffany)
• Announcing The 2nd Annual Summer Readathon! // 2020 Schedule + Themes & My Progress From The 24-Hour Readathon! // May 19, 2020 (Xandra @ starryskybooks)
• How I’d Gotten Into Audiobooks (Tips & Recommendations) & Book Maths: This Book + This Book = This Book & Cheated and Deceived: 5 Kinds of Plot Twists I Don’t Like & Post Ideas I’ve Scrapped (Veronika & Sabrina @ wordyandwhimsical)

I passed my Bachelor Thesis!! OMG FINALLY!!! I have been waiting for two months to hear back if I passed and finally find out my grade, so I know for sure that I can even apply to all the Master Courses that I already picked out. And then I finally got the E-Mail confirming that I have passed my Bachelor’s Degree, YES!! 🎉🎉🎉 I’m also really proud of the grade that I got and I still cannot believe that I can rest a bit easier now that I have achieved my Bachelor Degree 🥺💗 Also, everyone was so nice with their well-wishes and friends of our family baked me an amazing cake and gave me such lovely gifts, I’m so grateful 😭😭😭

Time to Party ✨✨✨

I’m also still applying to multiple Master Courses. Hopefully I’ll soon have my official Bachelor Certificate to use for my applications, but for now I’m making do with my official transcript of records. I applied to some of the universities that have an early deadline already and I’m hoping for the best. My current problem is that my specific study course is different from the classical Psychology Bachelor because I had to subjects (Psychology and Sociology), which means that I’m missing some areas of Psychology that we didn’t do but are required for a Master Course. Some of the alumni of my university still got into other Master Programs (I still cannot understand that our University didn’t create a Master Program for us, they had enough time), so I hope that I have a chance of making it! 🙏

Things that made me happy 😊

• I started playing a new Nintendo Game! I just finished playing Ocarina of Time 3D, which was excellent by the way. It’s such an important game in the Zelda Timeline and was challenging yet also great to play 🥰 I always love me some Tim travel so that part was great as well! Now I started A Link Between Worlds which is perfect as it builds upon the lore established in Ocarina of Time. This game reminds me a bit more of the earlier Zelda games in terms of the gameplay but it’s really good (and you can walk on the walls like a painting which is cool) 😄
• All the Percy Jackson Hype!! In case you missed it, Percy Jackson is getting a second chance at an adaption with a Disney+ Show!! We all know that the movies didn’t do the amazing world of Percy justice so I really hope this time around we will get a worthy adaption 🙏 I’m a bit scared about that, but I’m hoping for the best, especially as Rick Riordan will be more involved this time around. Now the only question that remains is how I’ll watch the show when it comes out because I don’t have Disney+ and don’t have the money just to get it for one show 😅
• Watching Shows with my friend Sandra 💗 Once again we have been checking out great new Netflix content and I really liked what we were watching this month! Together we watched {Never Have I Ever, The Half of It and The Stranger}

In June I finally need to be more chill 🌸 I said this last month as well, but I need to get less intense about my reading, so I won’t be joining many Readathons. But as it’s Pride Month I couldn’t resist joining the Prideathon, hosted by Kav @ xreadingsolacex and Marta @ stellae thoughts! 🌈 They have a Twitter Account and I especially love the prompts that you can follow along, so I’m really excited to be joining them and reading as many books as I can, while still being a bit more relaxed about my reading 😊 Apart from that, I will continue applying to Master Courses and also doing Revision (the second round of developmental edits is coming soon, and I hope it’ll be less intense than my first round of revision), so that’s about it for my plans 😄 Oh and I’m really excited about all the upcoming posts on my blog, especially as it’s time for some Mid-Year reflection already AHHHHH!! 😱

What were you up to in May? What was your favorite book this month? Did you in any Readathons? I hope you’re staying safe 🌼