What I’ve been up to in February 💖 A mixed bag

Hello fellow bookworms 💖 February always feels like such a short month (even though we’ve got a leap year this time)! Sadly, I don’t have any good news to report concerning my job hunt, I’m still trudging along and hoping I can sort out my life soon instead of being stuck in limbo. At least I read some good books and got into gaming again 🥺

Important Resources

Help Palestine: Carrd, Help with one Click, Ceasefire Now, Decolonize Palestine

https://dotherightthing.carrd.co/ ● WHO COVID Guidelines (2023)

Help Turky & Syria ● Help the Ukraine

Support Trans People ● Abortion Access (US)

🔁 = Reread 💌 = Library Books ⌛ = Digital Arc

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

I read 10 books in February! Compared to last month, my reading experience was definitely better 😄 I allowed myself to listen to a ton of audiobooks again (mostly while doing my diamond paintings or relaxing with coloring books/mindless games)! I’ve been struggling to read visually recently, so not pushing the issue helped me because now I’m eager to switch things up! I’ve been itching to pick up my Kindle again after listening to audiobooks for most of the month 🥰 I also managed to tackle more of my owned books, because my library had some of them available in audiobook format!

I read 5 books out of my comfort zone this month! Most of them were Adult books, but I managed to read my first Mystery book of the year and ended up loving it 🥰

• Killer Instinct (Jennifer Lynn Barnes) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚
• Business or Pleasure (Rachel Lynn Solomon) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧
• Payback’s a Witch (Lana Harper) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧
• From Bad to Cursed (Lana Harper) ⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖🎧
• The Rebels of Gold (Elise Kova) ⭐⭐.5💌🎧

1. One Piece Vol. 19 (Eiichiro Oda) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

2. One Piece Vol. 20 (Eiichiro Oda) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

3. One Piece Vol. 21 (Eiichiro Oda) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

4. One Piece Vol. 22 (Eiichiro Oda) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

5. The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧

6. Killer Instinct (Jennifer Lynn Barnes) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚

7. Business or Pleasure (Rachel Lynn Solomon) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧

8. Payback’s a Witch (Lana Harper) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧

9. From Bad to Cursed (Lana Harper) ⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖🎧

10. The Rebels of Gold (Elise Kova) ⭐⭐.5💌🎧

Favorite Books 💕

What I’ve been up to in January ❄️ Snow & More Job Hunting ~ 10 Authors I Discovered in 2023 💖 New fave series & debut authors

Reading One Piece for the first time 🏴‍☠️ East Blue Saga Review ~ The Cozy Fantasy Book Tag 💖

Did I read the books I hauled in 2023? 📚 ~ Book Review: The Chalice of the Gods 💌 Percy Jackson is back!

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

• Top Ten Tuesday: YA Romances on my TBR (24hryabookblog)
• Out of Comfort Zone Reading Challenge 2024 | Pushing myself to read differently (Abi @ Scribbles & Stories)
• Top Ten Tuesday: Love Freebie (Pen Pal Romances) (Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense)
• 2023 Reading Goals: FINAL Check-in! & Tag Time: Creatures of the Night Book Tag (Destiny @ howlinglibraries)
• Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett & #TopTenTuesday: My Favourite Romantic Meetings (Dini @ dinipandareads)
• Review: The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan (Lotus @ Pages of Starlight)
• Review: The Someday Daughter, Ellen O’Clover & My biggest 2024 writing resolution ✨ BIG NEWS ✨ (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• My favourite book covers (Morgan @ morganisreadingagain)
• Fiction Books Featuring Octopi 🐙 & Authors On My Auto-Read List (Sophie @ Me & Ink)
• Lessons I Learned from Audiobook as a Visual Person (Tasya @ theliteraryhuntress)

Things are still tricky on the job front. All of this reminds me of my Master’s thesis when every month I’d have to deal with the same issues 🙈 Unfortunately, I still have no job offer despite trying my best to apply for opportunities and prepare for interviews. There was one promising interview but I haven’t heard back from them yet, so I hope they give me a chance soon 🙏🏻 The interview went really well and the position feels right, but I don’t want to get my hopes up yet. Nevermind, they rejected me just now 😢 They gave me some nice feedback, but it’s disappointing that I was SO close! The month actually started with me feeling better and more hopeful than I’ve been in ages! Sadly, I had to deal with a very unpleasant interviewer and rude recruiters, who were immediately hostile because I missed (1) phone call.

I’m increasingly worried because it takes me so long to find a job, but the job market is so difficult and competitive. People have now started questioning why I don’t have a job yet and the unspoken implication that it’s some sort of red flag that means you’re lazy or difficult really gets to me. It’s not only demoralizing but also feels like a reflection of my self-worth. I truly hate capitalism 🙈 I’ll probably have to visit the job centre next month as I’ve already exhausted all other options. I don’t have high hopes though as I haven’t heard any good things about job centres in our area.

💖 What I Watched in February 💖

I caught up with some of my favorite shows in February, so I had a good time! Still working on watching the One Piece Anime as always 😄

• One Piece (S7-8)
• Lupin (Part 3)
• Queer Eye (S8)
• Currently Watching 📺 One Piece (S9), One Day (S1)

It’s already March 😱 It’s scary how fast the months fly by! My plans are the same as the previous months: job hunt and pray that I finally find something 🙏🏻 I hope I can share some good news soon, it definitely feels like this will go on forever just like my Master’s thesis. Apart from that, I’ll be doing the same as usual: reading good books and playing my Switch games while I still have more time for them! I should also finally be done with my overdue reviews this month 🥳 I accumulated over 120 reviews during the course of my Master’s thesis and I can’t believe I’ll catch up soon! I’ll try not to let it get this out of control again and make regular reviewing into a habit!

📚 #DevourYourTBR 📚

“March is all about celebrating diverse voices through reading books written by authors from marginalized groups. This includes BIPOC authors, queer authors, disabled authors, and authors who have mental illnesses.”

© DevourYourTBR

💖 March TBR 💖

One of my resolutions for 2024 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!

• When You Were Everything (Ashley Woodfolk) 📚📖
• One Piece Vol. 23 (Eiichiro Oda) 📚📖
• Concrete Rose (Angie Thomas) 📚📖🎧

 

• Bloodmarked (Tracy Deonn) 💌📖🎧 ~ Year in Aeldia
• No One Can Know (Kate Alice Marshall) 💌📖💗 ~ Discord BOTM
• I Hope This Doesn’t Find You (Ann Liang) 💌📖🎧
• + I’m currently reading This Cursed Light with Destiny ❤️

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