Month in Review // November – I Already Hate Christmas

We’re so close to Christmas, I can almost taste the Candy Canes

But shhhh, don’t mention candy canes to my best friend because she’s still pissed off that the last IOS update didn’t have candy cane emojis.

Also, there is nothing like working in retail to make you fucking hate Christmas.

Look, I will love Christmas again once it’s Christmas Eve and I have finished work. It’s just how it goes.

Customers are awful and sometimes they make we want to stab myself in the eye with a reindeer antler just so I have an excuse to walk away.

I get it, Christmas is a stressful time for all, but don’t take it out on me, you Grinch.

On a happier note, I have enjoyed being back so fucking much guys! You’re all so welcoming that it’s impossible not to enjoy my time blogging!

  

November’s TBR

│Queer, There, and Everywhere│✅│

│The Dark Beneath the Ice│✅│

│Princeless: Raven The Pirate Princess, Book 2│✅│

│Giant Days, Vol 7│✅│

│The Good Son│❌│

│Giant Days, Extra Credit│✅│

I did pretty well with sticking to my TBR! I just didn’t read the 1 ARC I told myself I was going to read and this is exactly why I have so many ARCs unread.

But I did reach my reading goal of 100 books this year!!!

Read

│Princeless: Raven The Pirate Princess, Book 2│Raven The Pirate Princess│Jeremy Whitley│✅│📚│★★★★★│Read Nov 1│🏳️‍🌈🔆│

│Giant Days, Vol 7│Giant Days│John Allison│✅│📚│★★★★★│Read Nov 1│🏳️‍🌈│

│The Dark Beneath the Ice│Amelinda Bérubé│✅│📚│★★★★☆│Read Nov 18│🏳️‍🌈│
Not as good as I thought it would be but it was a cool creepy story with some w/w romance! 

│Colette’s France│Jane Gilmour│🚫│📚│🏳️‍🌈│
I don’t wanna talk about it. 

│Cravings│Chrissy Teigen│✅│📚│★★★★★│Read Nov 24│

│Giant Days, Extra Credit│Giant Days│John Allison│★★★★★│Read Nov 28│📚│🏳️‍🌈│

Book of the Month

│Queer, There, and Everywhere│Sarah Prager│✅│📚│★★★★★│Read Nov 17│🏳️‍🌈🔆│

This was such a great read! I’ve been really searching for more queer history lately and this book had been on my TBR for a while.

So when the History is Gay podcast interviews Sarah Prager, the author, on the show I knew I needed to pick it up soon!

+It’s the first YA Queer history book of it’s kind!!!!

There are so many great historical figures I never knew about in the pages of this book and I’ll definitely be covering some of the for Ancient Archive in the future!

My only complaint is that it didn’t cover Magnus Hirschfield, despite making references to him twice?? Was a little disappointed but that’s a very minor complaint about a fantastic book!

│November│Read: 6│Average Rating: 4.8★’s│Diversity: 6/7│

This was a very slow reading month for me as I’ve been trying to find balance between everything I’m doing at the moment and kind of failing????

So reading was kind of forgotten! Oops.

Haul

│City of Ghosts│Cassidy Blake #1│Victoria Schwab│Pub: August 28 2018│📖│🔆│
Watch this sit on my TBR for two years because I’m fucking trash and buy a book seems to ensure I’ll never fucking read it…

│Bright We Burn│The Conqueror’s Saga #3│Kiersten White│Pub: July 5 2018│📖│🏳️‍🌈🔆│
Now I have the full series I HAVE TO READ MORE THAN JUST THE FIRST FUCKING BOOK.

│The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy│The Montague Siblings #2│Mackenzi Lee│Pub: October 2nd 2018│📖│🏳️‍🌈🧠│
My ace fave, Felicity, has a whole book all to herself I’m so happy!

│Far From You│Tess Sharpe│Pub: March 27 2014│📖│🏳️‍🌈🧠│
My book twin. 

 

Film & TV

November’s TBW

│Bohemian Rhapsody│✅│

│Boy Erased│❌│

│Robin Hood│❌│

│Colette│✅│

│Lucifer│Season 3│✅│

│The Good Place│Season 3 Eps│❌│

│Buzzfeed Unsolved│✅│

│Supernatural│Season 1│❓│

│Charmed│Season 1│❌│

I didn’t get time to watch Boy Erased and Robin Hood before the month was up but I’m going to see them next month!

I definitely overestimated how much TV I would have time to watch for sure! Next time I’ll just stick to one show.

And Supernatural I kind of just skipped to all my fave episodes???

Watched

│Lucifer│Season 3│📺│2015-│💭 Tom Kapinos│🌟 Tom Ellis, Lauren German│★★★★☆│
Fave character: All of them??? I especially love Mazikeen, Linda & Ella!
I am secretly glad that I have finished this one. 26 episodes is too long for a Lucifer season I think. By the end, everyone was just doing my head in. 

│Colette│🎥│2018│🎬  Wash Westmoreland│🌟  Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson, Dominic West │★★★★★│
Fave Scene: Uhhhh, hello, of course, my sapphic ass fell in love the moment Suit!Keira Knightly came on screen.
I went and saw this by myself after work one day and I am so glad I went. It was soooo good! 

│Bohemian Rhapsody│🎥│2018│🎬 Bryan Singer│🌟Rami Malek, Joseph Mazzello, Lucy Boynton│★★★★☆│
Fave Song: Honestly, I am Bohemian Rhapsody trash.
I went and saw this one with my mum. We’d been looking forward to it for months and it was well worth it for me. Lots of tears were shed, if I had seen this by myself I would have sobbed. 

│Supernatural│Seasons 1-3│📺│2005│💭 Eric Kripke│🌟 Jensen Ackles Jared Padalecki, Jim Beaver│★★★★☆│
Fave Episode: S4 E6, Yellow Fever
I decided to do a whole series rewatch and then instantly regretted so basically I’m just watching my fave eps and eps with my fave Supernatural Ladies in them.

Youtube

│Buzzfeed Unsolved│💻│2016-│🌟Ryan Bergara, Shane Madej, Brent Bennett│★★★★★│
Fave Moment: Basically anytime Ryan and Shane are bickering. 
I’m all caught up now and it’s just so fucking good!

│Basically the whole Vlog Squad│💻│★★★★☆│
Fave Video: Following a Bob Ross Painting Tutorial with Liza & Trying on Baby Costumes – Zane Hijazi
⬆I watched both of these videos after my mum went to bed. I put my headphones in so that I wouldn’t keep her awake. She scared the shit out of me when she appeared out of nowhere to pull my headphones off and tell me to go to bed because my laughing was keeping her awake. Oops. 

The next day I got her to watch them so she could appreciate them and she thought they were hilarious…so at least I made up for it. 

Listen I’m not gonna say I’m proud of this but I basically spent like two days watching loads of David Dobrik and Zane Hijazi videos. They’re just so funny and they’re all just terrible to each other??? Sometimes you have problematic faves and apparently, this group are some of mine. 

Music

I’ve been listening to music a lot lately!

│Ariana Grande│Thank u, Next│
Trust Ari to go through hell and come out the other side fucking thankful. 

│Snugs│Never Needed You (feat. Keiynan Lonsdale│
I need a Keiynan Lonsdale album or EP like yesterday.

│Troye Sivan│Bloom│Plum│
Will I ever get sick of these two songs??? Tune in next month to find out.

│Panic! At the Disco│The Overpass│
Panic! only just released an album a couple of months ago and I already need more. I’m sorry Brendon I know you work hard, no pressure.

│YungBlud│Machine Gun (F**k the NRA)│
YungBlud has become to the artist I listen to when I’m just fucking angry and need to get it out. 

│Shawn Mendes│Youth (fest. Khalid)│In My Blood│
Youth should be his generation’s anthem.

│Camila Cabello│She Loves Control│Consequences│Into It│Something’s Gotta Give│Inside Out│In the Dark│
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I’m late to the party but I fucking love Camila Cabello. That voice? Those lyrics? We stan one (1) pint size legend….. oh wait no, make that two (Ari I see you)

│David Guetta│Don’t Leave Me Alone (feat. Anne Marie)│
Anne Marie is always hit or miss for me but this is a great song to belt out.

│Madison Beer│Say It To My Face│Dead│
I watched the Madison Beer You Sung My Song video and after looking into her music I found these two and was fucking sold. 

You say you can’t live without me
So why aren’t you dead yet?
Why you still breathing? (why, why?)
And if you say you can’t live without me
Then why aren’t you dead yet?
Why do you say that?

Iconic.

│Halsey│Without Me│
I mean Halsey will always win me over, I need a new album thanks.

I’ve also now decided to start making playlists with the month and year in the title so I can look back on times in my life and see what I was listening to.

Podcasts

│My Favorite Murder│🎙 Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark│★★★★★│
Fave Quotes: “I am getting back into feelings again”, “What a great opportunity for a ton of bad decisions”, “Once you do enough meth you can beat up a car.”
Fave Episode: Of recent, 145 – Live at the Mircosoft Theater in Los Angeles. They did a show for 7000 people for Halloween!
Uhhhh Guys they had Cameron Britton AKA Mindhunter’s Ed Kemper on to tell his Hometown on the Halloween Live Show!!!!!

│Unsung Sluts│🎙 Stacie Rasmussen, Tabitha Davis│★★★★★│
Fave Quote: “If you can’t beat them, lead them.”
Fave Episode: Episode 12 – Witches and Banshees
Guuuyyyyyssss this episode gave me a book idea so of course, it’s my favourite.

│History is Gay│🎙 Gretchen Ellis, Leigh Pfeffer│★★★★★│
Fave episode: Episode 8: Nazi Punks F**k Off, Pt 1: Magnus Hirschfeld & Episode 17: He’s a Real Wilde One (Oscar Wilde)
It seems they’ve taken a bit of break so now I’m sad!

│Unexpected Fluids│🎙 Riyadh Khalaf, Alix Fox│★★★★★│
Fave Episode: E10: Sloppy Seconds with Shane Jenek (Courtney Act)
I’m trying to listen to this one more while I’m blogging because I am so behind on so many podcasts but this one doesn’t require my full attention!

│Let’s Talk about Myths, Baby│🎙 Liv│★★★★★│
Fave Episode: I don’t have one yet! I’ve only listened to a couple of eps. 
I discovered this one through someone’s blog post. Do you think I can fucking remember who it was after binge-reading everyone’s posts for the last three days??? Absolutely not. So if that was you please let me know so I can link you! I can’t even go through my history because I read it while at work. 

Anyway, I fucking love myths. I was one of those kids that had a very full on Ancient Egypt phase, and test me on my knowledge because I honestly can’t remember most of it. But I really wanna learn more about other civilization’s mythology because myths, in general, are just so fucking batshit.

I was a whole month ahead of schedule on my blog and mostly a month ahead for my Bookstagram as well going into November!!!!

And so I focused mainly on editing my past posts since I was so far ahead and forgot that to stay ahead you have to keep making new posts???? Imagine my shock when I look at my blogging schedule and see I have almost run out of already ready posts!

Thankfully I write my reviews in advance so I have them written, I just have to move them to WordPress and do the thing that makes the pretty and all of Down the TBR Hole posts are done and ready to go because apparently I can only focus on one thing at a time and binge wrote?? these posts while I was on a break. Break Greyson hated myself for it but present Greyson is very much appreciative.

Use Your Words Highlights

Book Review // The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – What Do You Mean She’s Not a Real Person???

This book was very personal for me and I’m quite proud of my review and moodboard!

Tag // The Liebster Award

Mostly I’m including this because I’m very proud of the questions I came up with so if you’re looking for a tag to do count yourself as tagged so I can see more people answer my questions.

Book Review // The Nowhere Girls – Girls Are My Religion

This book was soooo good and I need to shout about it to everyone go read my review so I can persuade you to read it too.

Tag // The Blogger Recognition Award

Look I gave some blogging advice and got a little too personal as per usual!

I would have included my Ancient Archive post here but that just turned out to be a mess and I am sorry.

Blogosphere Highlights

│Savannah @ With Love, Savannah│A Discussion on Thanksgiving // my thoughts on the national holiday that celebrates the genocide of my ancestors│
I don’t like celebrating Australia day for the same reason I wouldn’t want to celebrate Thanksgiving if I were in America. If you’re wanting to know why someone wouldn’t want to celebrate these holidays, check out Savannah post!

│Vicky @ Vicky Who Reads│Reading through the Ages: YA Book Recommendations for Teens of Any Age!│
Not all YA books are suited for all ages in the Teen age group! If you’re wanting to know what books might be good for your age range, or you’re an adult wanting to buy a book gift for teen then check out Vicky’s post!

│The Many Ways YA Books & The Community Isolates Teens│
Vicky writes great discussion posts and she nails it again by talking about how the YA book community can isolate teens! 

│Emma @ Emma Reads Too Much│I READ ALL THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS AND IT WAS WHATEVER: A DEFINITIVE RANKING│
If you’ve become disillusioned with the Harry Potter series over time (or what seems to be JK’s dedication for fucking up as much as possible) then this post is for you! 

│Elise @ The Bookish Actress│PLEASE WATCH ME PUBLICLY INVALIDATE MY OLD OPINIONS ON THIS AUTHOR MORE WITH THIS REVIEW OF LADY MIDNIGHT BY CASSANDRA CLARE│
This is great for people who don’t put all of Cassandra Clare’s books on a pedestal but want to know if her latest series is actually an improvement or not! Or for hardcore fans to get some validation for their love. 

│SEEING YOU GUYS GET MAD ABOUT THE LACK OF DIVERSE FANTASY BOOKS IS STARTING TO PISS ME OFF [AND HERE’S WHY], FEAT. SOME BOOK RECS│
Hey oh, it’s another great discussion post holding the community accountable for when they fuck up a little. If the only LGBT+ books you read are m/m romances or written by straight authors maybe you should read this. 

│HOW TO BE A BETTER BOOK BLOGGER [AND PERSON IN GENERAL]│
If you want tips on how to be the best blogger you can be that read this post!

│Destiny @ Howling Libraries│DISCUSSION: LET’S LOOK AT MY ARC SHELVES!│
Ahhhhhhh Destiny is hosting an ARC readathon in January and it might be the first readathon I take part in if all goes well!

│Krystin @ Here’s The Fucking Twist│My Favourite Online Bookstore!│
If you’re in the US or Canada and want to know a great online bookstore so you can save more money and buy more books then check out Krystin’s post! 

│Luna @ Bookish Luna│Let’s Talk / Book Breeze App Review│
If you’re in the market for a new app to track your reading then check out Luna’s posts! 

│May @ My 1st Chapter│TEA TIME TALK / All About Audiobooking: a guide from a compulsive multitasker│
I’m thinking about jumping back on the audiobook train since I feel like I’m always fucking busy and yet never find time to read! If you’re wanting to join as well, check out May’s post! 

│Fadwa @ Word Wonders│NAVIGATING THE BOOK COMMUNITY AS A PERSON OF COLOR│
Wanna know how to help POC in the book community??? I mean you definitely should. I’m not trying to guilt trip you or anything but if you don’t then go away thanks. But before you do check out Fadwa’s post and learn something!

│WORD WONDER’S TBR EXPANSION: BOOKS WITH TRANSGENDER AND/OR NON-BINARY MAIN CHARACTERS│
If you’re wanting to read more books with trans rep then check out Fadwa’s post!

│Abbiee @ Abbiee│My Day In The Life of NaNoWriMo (How I Stay Consistent And Inspired)│
So it’s a bit late for me to be sharing it with you but if you struggled with NaNoWriMo and are wanting some tips on how to improve next time then check out Abbiee’s post!

│Marie @ Drizzle & Hurricane Books│WHY I DON’T BINGE-READ (LIKE, EVER)│
I feel like most of the book community are all big binge readers but Marie shares why she isn’t one of them!

│Kaleena @ Reader Voracious│FLAPPING PAGES: AN INTERNATIONAL ARC PROGRAM│
Kaleena set up a program to help international bloggers to get a hold of ARCS. If you’re not an international blogger and want to help out or are an international blogger who would like some help then please read Kaleena’s post!

│Ellyn @ Allonsythornraxxbooks│MY MEGA PUBLISHING WHO-TO-CONTACT LIST FOR AUSSIE READERS // Because Australian publishers deserve love too!│
Ellyn, bless her, made a great post with contact details for Australian publishers so if you want to start requesting books directly from publishers make sure you check out her post!

│Marija @ Inside My Library Mind│So You Want to Start a Bookstagram: Nailing Your Bookstagram Aesthetic│
If you want help with your Bookstagram game then make sure you check out Marija’s post!

November’s Goals

☁️ I want to go for walks in my new neighbourhood often ✅

☁️ Eat healthier ✅

☁️ Make at least one or two of the recipes from the many cookbooks I borrowed from the library last month ✅

☁️ Keep ahead of my blogging schedule by at least 2 weeks but preferably a month or so ❓

☁️ DON’T BORROW ANY LIBRARY BOOKS (unless they’re cookbooks or holds) ❓

So my first three goals I totally nailed but my last two kind of?

I stayed ahead of my blogging schedule for two weeks until like the last or second to last week???

And I definitely borrowed more than just holds and cookbooks from the library but they were graphic novels and a book for Ancient Archive study so do they even count???

I Left the House

I once again went to the Lucky Dumpling Market before it closed for the year!

I was a little disappointed, the food just wasn’t as good??? But the Boba was better so that’s a win!

I Socialised

My best friend came over and we made cookie dough which was so much harder than I thought it was going to be!

She made a joke before we started about how she feels like she’s cooking with a child and I’ll probably need a lot of help…

She was not wrong.

Then we watched The Bodyguard on Netflix and??? I hated it?? I think??? I don’t really know.

Everything is Breaking

Our washing machine broke and our vacuum is like on the outs so that was a whole thing but thankfully we were able to replace them both!

So now we have a wireless vacuum which is fucking great and it’s specifically for animal fur and it’s so good.

And the washing machine also can get rid of animal hair is incredible because I had resigned myself to a life of just being covered in fur…if only the wash didn’t take 3 fucking hours. That’s sooooo long.

What??? I’m Actually Healthy Now???

I’ve been walking on my days off which is great and I’m eating really healthy!

I’m feeling really good, I’m sleeping better, my mental health is better, just everything, in general, is getting better.

I mean there’s family drama yet again but it’s like it doesn’t affect me anymore which is great!

I think that’s it?

I feel like I haven’t done anything this month and yet I’ve been so fucking busy????

I wish I could say I’m looking forward to a quiet month this month but no.

I hate December, it’s literally my busiest month and I always wanna die by the end of it so let’s all take a moment to pray for future Grey whose healthy lifestyle is about to fly out the fucking window as she lives off of fast food and little else while working far too many shifts.

Also mum wants to get my wisdoms out and like??? No, wait until after the worst month of my life every year, please.

What did you do this month?
What did you read?
What did you watch?
What posts did you write that you’re super proud of?
Are you looking forward to December or do you dread it like me?

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