What I’ve been up to in February 📖 Research, Anxiety & a ray of hope

Hello fellow bookworms 📖 Since February was such a short month, it flew by so fast! At the same time, I was so busy that I had to go on a semi-hiatus! I’m still on hiatus for now, as I’ve got a lot more work to do and I’m struggling to catch up with blogging. I have some posts planned, but there might not always be two per week. I’ll also be slower with blog hopping and answering comments!

Important Resources

• https://globalissuesawareness.carrd.co/ & https://dotherightthing.carrd.co/
• Anti-Asian Violence Resources Carrd
• HelpPalestine Carrd, Learn about Palestinian history & Help Palestine with a Click
• HelpAfghanistan Carrd
• Good News: the Harper Collins Union now has a better contract and will return to work! 🥳
• Support Trans Children in Texas: Thread of orgs/groups to follow and gain resources from & Gender-Affirming Resources for the Transgender Community
• Help the Ukraine: Carrd with info & donation links & Ukraine Crisis Media Center
• Support Abortion Access (in the US): https://needabortion.org/, Donate to Abortion Funds, Plan C (self-managing abortion at home) & Support independent abortion clinics

🔁 = Reread 💌 = Library Books ⌛ = Digital Arc

📚 = #ProjectBacklist 📖 = #DevourYourTBR 😊 = Buddy Read & Book Club

I read 18 books in February. I didn’t anticipate that I would read so much, but you can tell how shaky my mental health was by the number of books I read 😅 Out of these books 13 were audiobooks, as I struggle to pick up physical or e-books when I’m stressed! Audiobooks are coming to the rescue once again 💖 I also reread 8 books, as I craved some comfort reads! I also had the random urge to reread the entire Murderbot Diaries series, as I love it so much and the audiobook narration is one of my favorites 🥰

I read 10 books out of my comfort zone this month! Compared to my monthly average last year, this is a lot! All of these books were Adult (though I think A Deal with the Elf King is more NA and intended as a crossover book) and I also managed to read 3 nonfiction books! I have been really enjoying reading more nonfiction this year 😊

• The Dead Romantics (Ashley Poston) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5📚📖🎧
• Lost in the Moment and Found (Seanan McGuire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌🎧
• Atomic Habits (James Clear) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌🎧
• The Roommate Risk (Talia Hibbert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖
• Ship Wrecked (Olivia Dade) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

• The Lighty We Carry (Michelle Obama) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧
• Mythos (Stephen Fry) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌🎧
• Never Been Kissed (Timothy Janovsky) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧
• A Deal with the Elf King (Elise Kova) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖
• All the Feels (Olivia Dade) ⭐⭐.5📚📖🎧

1. All Systems Red (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

2. Artificial Condition (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

3. Rogue Protocol (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

4. Exit Strategy (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

5. Network Effect (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

6. Fugitive Telemetry (Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁💌🎧

7. The Sad Ghost Club Vol 1. (Lize Meddings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁📚

8. The Sad Ghost Club Vol 2. (Lize Meddings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁📚

9. The Dead Romantics (Ashley Poston) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5📚📖🎧

10. Lost in the Moment and Found (Seanan McGuire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌🎧

11. Atomic Habits (James Clear) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌🎧

12. The Roommate Risk (Talia Hibbert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖

13. Ship Wrecked (Olivia Dade) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

14. The Lighty We Carry (Michelle Obama) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧

15. Mythos (Stephen Fry) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌🎧

16. Never Been Kissed (Timothy Janovsky) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧

17. A Deal with the Elf King (Elise Kova) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

18. All the Feels (Olivia Dade) ⭐⭐.5📚📖🎧

Favorite Books 💕

Arc Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett 🧚🏻‍♀️Academic Rivals & Mischievous Fae ~ Favorite Adult Romance Authors 💖 ~ Review: The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith … In BUZZWORDS 😈 

10 Authors I Discovered in 2022 ❤ Finding new favorites ~ Book Review: Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson 📖 a new comfort series 🥺

For this section I’m sharing my Favorite Blog Posts of the Month 💗

• Latinx YA Books Releasing in 2023 & A month of Cozy Books, Book mail & Productivity │ Reading Diary pt. 5 (24hryabookblog)
• My Favourite Books of 2022 | Faeries, princesses, office romances, & vengeful AIs & Anticipated Releases | Books I am ridiculously excited to get my hands on in 2023 (Abi @ Scribbles & Stories)
• February TBR: attempt #2 at my 2023 “clean slate” goals! (Destiny @ howlinglibraries)
• #TopTenTuesday: 10 Favourite Female Main Characters (Dini @ dinipandareads)
• All My Favorite Books Are About Grief and Loss … (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• US Vs UK Book Cover | 2023 Releases (Kristin @ Kristin Kraves Books)
• 10 YA Books To Make You Swoon This Valentine’s Day & How I Use Notion For Writing (& My Favorite Notion Writing Templates) (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• 666 Reading Challenge: 2022 Wrap-Up & New Genres for 2023! (May @ foreverandeverly)
• Do star ratings matter to me? (Morgan @ morganisreadingagain)
• A Case for Negative Book Reviews (Nicole @ Thoughts Stained With Ink)
• Authors I Know: Alice Oseman | what’s most popular, my favourite or deserves more love? & The Romantasyathon Reading Diary | a weekly readathon 🥀 (Sophie @ Me & Ink)
• MORE 2023 Releases Find to Add to Our TBR (Tasya @ theliteraryhuntress)

I could finally do some work. After months of not being able to properly work on my Master’s thesis, I finally had enough information to do research and develop theories! Being able to do something was good, even as I struggled with the amount of work to be done and my waning motivation (being on standby for so long brought a lot of frustration that’s still lurking in my mind). It’s disheartening that the semester is soon finished and I still have most of the work to do 😅 I was a bit overwhelmed with how much work I suddenly had to do, that I couldn’t work on before. I hope our survey will finally start soon as well, as we haven’t started with the data collection yet.

My mental health was still terrible with my anxiety in overdrive for a variety of different reasons. I don’t really talk about it, but I’m struggling with my anxiety being the worst it has ever been. I also haven’t been able to regularly meet my friends, so I’ve been feeling lonely, isolated, and hopeless lately!

But then at the very end of the month, I went to a show! I’ve loved watching Dan’s Videos since high school and couldn’t make it to the past tours. I’m lucky that he went on his “We’re All Doomed” world tour and I knew this was probably my last chance! I managed to get VIP Tickets that included a Meet & Greet, plus good seats, I’m SO lucky that I was literally right in front of the stage! I had SO much anxiety beforehand, but I’m proud that I coped with it, as I had a great evening and the show itself was SO much fun. I got some Merch, I meet up with an old friend and I felt the happiest I’ve been in months 💕

Got to meet @danielhowell on Monday and it's the happiest I've been in months! 🥰 I couldn't go to the past tours, but I'm so glad I made it this time!

Thank you for the fantastic show, I had such a good time and it really helped me have some much-needed hope 💖 pic.twitter.com/iRVVPCNGjU

— Caro 💜 (@bookcheshirecat) March 2, 2023

💖 What I Watched in February 💖

My watching was more successful than last month! I loved all of the shows I watched and Lockwood & Co. is definitely a new favorite 🥰 I’m definitely planning on checking out the books now!

• Lockwood & Co. (S1)
• Bake Squad (S2)
• Kaleidoscope (S1)
• Currently Watching 📺 Shahmaran (S1)

It’s March already! 🌼 Most of my plans for the new month include more Thesis work, now that I can finally work on reading and analyzing all the articles I researched. There are A LOT of them, but hopefully, I can get all of them done, so I can move on to actually writing parts of my thesis 😱 Reading-wise I hope to get some more owned books read! I’ve not been focusing on them as much in the first two months of the year 😅  I’m also planning to read two ARCs (an overdue one and another one for a blog tour), so I mark them as finished on my Kindle! Let’s hope there are some new favorites incoming 🥰

📚 #DevourYourTBR 📚

This month’s challenge is to “celebrate BIPOC authors and authors from countries other than your own!“

© DevourYourTBR

🌼 March TBR 🌼

One of my resolutions for 2023 is to start the month with a TBR of no more than 6 books! 📖 I’m going to read more than the books listed below, but I really needed to get rid of my overambitious TBRs!

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna) 📚📖💗 (Discord Book Club Pick)
• The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) 📚
• Silver in the Bone (Alexandra Bracken) ⏳📚

• Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi) 📚📖💗🎧
• The Dragon’s Promise (Elizabeth Lim) ⏳📚📖🎧
• Spy x Family Vol 9. (Tatsuya Endo) 📚📖

What were you up to in February? Did you read any good books? I hope you’re doing well! 📖