Always Me

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday and welcome to Music Monday everyone!  This week I'm featuring four of my favorite songs from  Jirka Hájek .  I'm so glad his music just happened to popup on my YouTube recommendations.  Give a listen to Bealtaine , Foggy Dew , Western Shore , and Folk Tagelharpa :  You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

Happy Sunday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my eighth progress update and set of mini reviews for the 6 books I've completed since my  last update  for the  2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge .  I read 42 of 50 books for this challenge so far with only two more to go. Without further ado, here we go in the order I read them in: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor is absolutely fascinating look into the lives of royal women in English history.  It took me a little bit to get into the style of this book, but once I did I realized just how intriguing and gripping each segment was.  My favorite section was the first part on Matilda.  I knew a little about the other women going in, but I knew nothing at all about her.  As it turns out that what we know about her life was quite interesting.  How her life ties into all of the other figures presented in one way or another is something else.  Finally, I'm glad there were family trees at

Today, I'm sharing a whopping five ARC mini reviews - Legendborn ( Legendborn #1) by Tracy Deonn (available September 15, 2020), Smash It! ( Smash It!  #1) by Francina Simone (available September 22nd, 2020), The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira by Lou Diamond Phillips (available October 20, 2020), When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole (available September 1, 2020), & The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen (available September 22, 2020). Wow! Okay, let's get to it.  I received these ARCs from NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋  ❋   Legendborn ( Legendborn #1) by Tracy Deonn was one of my most anticipated releases of September, so I really lucked out when I was approved for the ARC.  As it turns out, this novel is easily one of my best reads of 2020 so far.  I can never resist an Arthurian retelling and this one hits all the right notes for me.  The legend, the world building, the magic system, and diverse cast o

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy and happy.  August has quickly come to a close and that means I've now completed 16 out of 24 books of  Book Riot's 2020 Read Harder Challenge !  The tasks I completed required me to read an audiobook of poetry   and  a debut novel by a queer author  and I selected  Milk and Honey  by Rupi Kaur  (I originally planned to read  Swing  by Kwame Alexander , but I was unable to get my hands on a copy) and  Tarnished are the Stars  by Rosiee Thor  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and what's next for September:  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I've been told many times that  Milk and Honey  by Rupi Kaur  is a must read and I finally decided to give it a try.  I honestly had no clue what to expect when I started listening, but it was really pretty impressive.  Each section of poetry and prose takes us on a journey from the bitterest parts of life to the sweetest that can be found if you just look.  It's an incred

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader , and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by  Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader  and  Laura @ Blue Eye Books . For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs. Happy Friday everyone! 

 As you may know, I've been taking part in this year's  Magical Readathon , hosted by G. @ Book Roast. This year was the final round for this readathon and I completely understand G.'s reasoning for wanting to change thins up next year. I've already taken part in the  O.W.L.S.  and the  Visit Hogsmeade readathon , and I'm glad she gave us the opportunity to complete our courses of study for the readathon.  For the N.E.W.T.s, to complete my course to become a Magizoologist (in honor of one of my favorite characters), I needed to earn an Outstanding in Care of Magical Creatures, an Exceeds Expectations in Charms, and an Exceeds Expectations in Herbology.  My goal was to read all seven books to pass and I succeeded.  You can see my original tbr post here .  Keep reading to see what I'm planning to see my thoughts on the books I read for this readathon:  Acceptable - Salamander: Fire on the cover/ in the title ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I have no excuse for putting  Rose Under Fire

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I hope everyone is staying healthy.  It's official! I've completed two maps for the  Disney-a-Thon  - Team Hercules and Team Beauty and the Beast!  You can see my original TBR post  here  and my reviews for my Team Hercules books here .  I'd say I had a pretty great reading month.  Keep reading to see my mini thoughts on my Team Beauty and the Beast reads here: Belle: Read a book with a grand adventure ❋  ❋  ❋ Uprooted  by Naomi Novik  is my first official book from this author.  It's been recommended to me time and time again and I'm glad I gave it a try.  It's a very fairy tale-esque fantasy.  Even though it has many glowing reviews and had been recommended to me many times, it never quite lived up to my sky high expectations.  It started off strongly and I adored the first quarter of the novel.  After that though, it just didn't quite hold my attention throughout.  I think most of that ties into the cast since I felt a little di

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors (Living or dead. You can post 10 questions for one author, one question each for 10 different authors, or anything else!).  For my list, I'm not directing them toward specific authors, but these are general questions that I wouldn't mind asking many favorite authors.  Here we go, in no particular order: What is your writing Kryptonite? Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? How do you select the names of your characters? What books, films, and TV shows most inform the aesthetic of your book? What's the strangest thing you had to do or research to create this story? Which other genres would you most like to try writing? Does this story have a soundtrack or a playl

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday and welcome to Music Monday everyone!  This week I'm featuring a couple of favorite songs from Emancipator .  I just randomly happened to stumble upon this DJ while listening to Pandora.  I've listened to quite of a few of his songs since then and so far I think these are my two favorites - Anthem and Lionheart . Have you listened to any of

Happy Saturday everyone! Today, I'm sharing my TBR for Mythothon which is a mythology themed readathon that runs for the entire month of September.  It is hosted by Louise @ Foxes and Fairy Tales  and there are eleven prompts which are all based on piece of Welsh mythology called The Four Branches of the Mabinogi or Pedair Cainc Y Mabinogi, particularly the first part of the story called The Tale of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed.  It's considered one of the oldest prose stories in Britain and was written in Middle Welsh (12th-15th century).  This challenge give us a few options - we can double up on prompts or select one for each.  I'm challenging myself to read eleven books for all of the prompts.  You can follow the official readathon Twitter account here and you can follow along with participants progress via the #Mythothon hashtag as well.  Keep reading to see my TBR for the Mythothon readathon: 1. Read a book with an animal on the cover or in the title My choice: Wolf By Wolf