Recap|| November.

Posted on November 30, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

novemberrecap

Hey!

Seriously, what happened to November? The month flew by, but it was a really great month for me. I got to visit my childhood best friend in Lakeland for a weekend. It was Thanksgiving! I even got pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done, which is so nice. I was debating on putting a Christmas tree up this year, because of my new kitten and of course my other cats. October destroyed ours last year. The cute mini tree I put up earlier this month (left picture) was a goner the second I put it up thanks to little Leaf. It’s now missing all the ornaments and ends up on the floor at least three times a day.

My sister got a new Christmas tree this year, so she gave me her old tree (right picture) and I decided to give it a chance. We didn’t even attempt to put any ornaments on it, because all three cats were in the tree the second it went up and the red garland is no longer intact on the bottom LOL. But I needed a tree, because I really wanted to wrap my Christmas presents and I had no where to put them if I wrapped them. So although every single day they climb in the tree and mess with the presents, I’m glad I put it up. You can see in the background little Leaf is messing with my other Christmas decor under the stockings.

ANYWAY I rambled on way too much! I also read some great books this month and I did an audiobook reread of a favorite series of mine. Here is what I read in the month of November. You can find a full list of these books and the other books I read this year over here. All will be linked to Goodreads below and I will also link to individual blog posts for them if I did a review.

Physically Read Books:
These are the books that I read by myself (not audiobooks) throughout the month of November.

Catacomb by Madeleine Roux – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
I freaking LOVE the Asylum series and Catacomb was pretty amazing. Awesome creep factor and pictures included. Perfect end to the series. LUCKILY, I still have all the novellas and prequel to read, so I am still SO stoked about this series.

The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
FINALLY read The Sword of Summer. I am a HUGE Rick Riordan fan, but I haven’t gotten around to reading his new books, sadly. I’m glad I finally read this one though, because it was of course amazing. Riordan never disappoints. Magnus was hilarious. I can’t wait to get my hands on the other books in the series. I also need to start reading the Trials of Apollo series ASAP too.

The End of Oz by Danielle Paige – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.
I also finally got around to reading The End of Oz. The ending of the Dorothy Must Die series. I am so sad that it has come to an end, but this book was the perfect ending. I loved everything about it and I flew through it pretty quickly. Such a fun series.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – 3 OUT OF 5 STARS.
Everyone has been raving about this book and how amazing it is, but I sadly didn’t think so. I mean, it was good and interesting and I love that it was told in verse. It’s also told over 60 seconds. The events in the book happen within a 60 second time period and that was cool. But I really just didn’t understand why everyone loved it so much. I don’t know. I would still recommend reading it.

Audiobooks:
These are the books that I listened to the audio versions throughout the month of November.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS. – REREAD
Outpost by Ann Aguirre – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS. – REREAD
Horde by Ann Aguirre – 5 OUT OF 5 STARS. – REREAD

Currently Reading Books:
These are the books that I started to read in the month of November, but didn’t get a chance to finish them yet.

beingfishkill TMI

Being Fishkill by Ruth Lehrer
TMI by Patty Blount

I started reading these books, but never got around to actually finishing them or even getting that far into them. I am probably about 20 pages into each book. Toward the last week or so of this month I haven’t been reading, because Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was released and I can’t get off it. I love Animal Crossing so much, so I am stoked there is a new game and it’s for your phone! I’ll be spending every ounce of free time I have getting all the Christmas decor and clothes this month. YESSSS! Feel fee to add me as a friend if you play!

ID: 6152 3535 068

Tomorrow I am going to Disney World and I am stoked to spend the first day of December at Disney. I’m going with my cousin and her son. We’re going to the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, so it’s at night. It’s their Christmas event, so that should be fun! They’re giving out free hot chocolate and cookies all night, so you know…I’m pretty stoked about that. I am ALL ABOUT hot chocolate and cookies. PRETTY FREAKING EXCITED TO WEAR MY MINNIE EARS ALL DAY, just sayin. 😛

I have a few travel posts in the works, if I can find the time to actually do them. It’s a lot of pictures to share, so I may have to buy storage for WordPress, because I’m almost out of picture storage. BLEHH. Coming soon; FINALLY my honeymoon post, weekend in Lakeland, and Disney.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| November.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleychristmas

Twitter: whoa_itsashley
Instagram: heyyitsashley
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_

Book Haul|| November.

Posted on November 28, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

bookhaul3

Hey!

I have a pretty small book haul for this month. I’ve been trying to be good about not buying books as I mentioned numerous times, haha. I actually unhauled a little over 50 books this month instead of buying! 😀 My older sister took 10 of the 50 and I am sending another 10 to one of my friend’s. I did get a few though, so here is my November book haul.

Physical Books:

your name. by Makoto Shinkai
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Renegades (arc) by Marissa Meyer

I traded my ARC of Daughter of the Siren Queen with Lilly from Lair of Books and she sent me Renegades. I am really looking forward to reading it. I seen a lot of good things about Long Way Down, so I picked up a copy. I read it this month and honestly….it wasn’t that great. SORRY. I know people LOVED it, but I just didn’t. 😦 I wanted to so bad. I gave it three stars. It’ll be in my recap post in a few days. SUPER stoked to read your name. and it’s a pretty short book, so I think it’ll be a quick read and sounds really good.

E-Books

rememberyesterday autopsying atheistswhokneelandpray

Remember Yesterday by Pintip Dunn
The Autopsying of Michael Edward Morgan by Barry Lyga
Atheists Who Kneel and Pray by Tarryn Fisher

I didn’t get many e-books this month either. There weren’t a whole lot of good sales or the ones on sale I already have. These were the three that I ended up getting. Had to get Barry Lyga’s November short story. I’ve been getting them every month all year. I need to catch up on reading them though! I’ve been REALLY wanting to read Forget Tomorrow for the longest time. I was able to get that one on sale awhile back and I seen the sequel Remember Yesterday was on sale this month, so I decided to get it. I’ve read a couple Tarryn Fisher books and they were pretty good. Atheists Who Kneel and Pray was on sale for $0.99, so I got it.

What books did you get this month? Have you read any of the ones that I got?

I have a few drafted posts to finish, so hopefully I’ll find some time to do those. It’s the holiday season, so it’s getting busier at work. I want to update about my trip to see my childhood best friend, because that was a lot of fun and I have a ton of pictures to share from the mini trip to Lakeland. I am also going to DISNEY WORLD Friday, so I am sure I’ll have a post about that as well. I need to finish my photo a day posts too, but I’ve been skipping a lot of days….oops. 😛 I also have some random pictures to share too. I just need to find some time to finish all of these posts, ughhh. No time right now, sadly. My recap post will hopefully be up by Thursday, if not then Monday.

LOOK WHAT I GOT! If you didn’t know, I LOVE the Home Alone movies (Lost in New York is my favorite though), so I HAD to get the Kevin Funko Pop. Hopefully I can get my hands on the others ASAP! Kevin was priority. 😛 “I’m eating junk and watching rubbish, you’d better come out and stop me.” 🎄 “KEVIN!!!!” 🎅🏼🖤

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| November 11-15.
Blog Changes.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleychristmas

Twitter: whoa_itsashley
Instagram: heyyitsashley
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_

Photo A Day|| November 11-15.

Posted on November 16, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi!

I’ve been doing a photo a day challenge over on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) this month (November) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-4 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Days 1-6 linked down below.

Some of these pictures were taken with my Nikon. I also just got an iPhone X and it takes AMAZING pictures, so some of these were taken with my iPhone as well. By the way, I tend to take a lot of nature type pictures. I’m kind of obsessed with taking pictures of flowers.

Days 11-15 of November.

*I skipped day 14, oops. topic would have been “silver”.*

Day 11: Grey
Instagram Caption: book mail. 😀 sooooo stoked to read long way down. i’ve heard so many good things about it. || photo a day • grey.
Camera: iPhone

Fun fact: it looks grey, but it’s kind of holographic so it shines blue. 😛 I seen a lot of good things about Long Way Down, so I had to buy a copy ASAP! I am going to Lakeland for the weekend to visit my childhood best friend and it’s a three hour car ride, so I think I will bring this book along with me and my Kindle since the next three books I want to read are on there.

Day 12: Brown
Instagram Caption: “you don’t like how you’re feeling, but you never rearrange what’s unappealing.” 🖤 || photo a day • brown.
Camera: iPhone

This was the first picture I took with my new iPhone X when I was testing out the camera, but never posted it until the topic for this day. We have a chain link fence, but the fence on the other side of our fence is brown. Perfect picture for this “brown”.

Day 13: Gold
Instagram Caption: i am so close to being finished with the sword of summer. it’s been so fun to read. i definitely plan to buy the other books in the series asap! || photo a day • gold.
Camera: iPhone

I was actually kind of stumped for “gold”, but then I realized toward the end of the day that my glasses had gold on them! Win for me and I really love this picture. I finished The Sword of Summer since this picture. It was everything I hoped it would be. I can’t wait to read the other books in the series.

Day 15: Neon
Instagram Caption: put the mini christmas tree up! 🎄🎅🏼 i’m not sure if we’ll have a regular sized tree this year. last year october🐱 destroyed it, so we had to toss it. leaf🐱 is already constantly bopping the ornaments off this mini tree and knocking it off the table. 🙄😒 || yesterday’s photo a day • neon.
Camera: iPhone

I was originally going to skip this topic, but did it today (day late, whatever 😛 ). I put up my mini Christmas tree and I forgot that the ornaments were kind of neon colored, so I decided to late post it on Instagram today. And what my caption says, Leaf is already destroying it. I am pretty sure I am going to go home after work and find it on the floor and all the ornaments missing.

In case you missed it;
WWW Wednesday #44.
Photo A Day|| November 7-10.
Photo A Day|| November 1-6.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

WWW Wednesday #44.

Posted on November 15, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

wwwwednesdayflower

WWW Wednesday is a weekly MEME hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Simply answer the following questions. 🙂

The three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

*Goodreads linked below.

Hi!

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve done one of these WWW posts. I think my last post of this kind of back toward the end of August, oops. 😛 I have been doing a lot better as far as reading goes. I find myself wanting to read more than I have been lately, which is good. I am going to just jump right into the books that I’ve been reading and listening to the last week or so.

Currently Reading:

theendofoz

The End of Oz by Danielle Paige

I am finally reading The End of Oz! I am about 30% into it right now and am really enjoying it. This series has been so much fun to read. I think this is the last book in the series though and I’ll be sad to see it end!

Recently Finished:

Enclave, Outpost, Horde by Ann Aguirre
The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

I listened to the audiobooks for Enclave, Outpost, and Horde. It was a reread for me though, because the new book Vanguard was just released this year and I really needed a refresher of this series. I first read them in 2012/2013. It’s hands down one of my favorite series EVER. This series is everything! I was so stoked to get back into it again and relive some of my favorite characters. I can’t wait to read Vanguard, which I am hoping will be this month or next month. 😀 I also finished The Sword of Summer, which was so freaking good! Rick Riordan never disappoints with his book. His characters are always the best, so funny, and so much fun to read. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next books in the series.

Reading Next:

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares
Being Fishkill by Ruth Lehrer
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

I am not entirely sure what I am going to read next, but it will most likely be one of these three. The Whole Thing Together is due back to the library in a week, so I may attempt that one. I still need to read my ARC of Being Fishkill, so I want to get to that soon and I’ve heard so many good things about Long Way Down and I am STOKED to have it and can’t wait to read it. Hopefully I can get around to reading all of these before the month ends.

What are you currently reading? Recently finished? Reading next? Have you read any of these books? Let me know and link me to your posts if you have one!

I have another photo a day post coming soon. I skipped a couple days of pictures (oops), so I’ve been waiting until I got three or four more since I skipped. Maybe tomorrow or Friday I’ll have that post.

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| November 7-10.
Photo A Day|| November 1-6.
Blog Changes.

I hope you have a great day.

ashleybluegray

Photo A Day|| November 7-10.

Posted on November 10, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hi!

Days 7-10 of November.

Day 7: Orange
Instagram Caption: 📖🧡 || photo a day • orange.
Camera: Nikon

I actually took this picture months ago, but never posted it anywhere so I decided to use it for my photo a day picture for this day. I’m pretty obsessed with with. It’s like the perfect bookish heart and my orange/yellow tapestry is pretty amazing.

Day 8: White
Instagram Caption: i’m kind of obsessed with the iphone x camera. 🐚 || photo a day • white.
Camera: iPhone

As my Instagram caption says, I am pretty obsessed with the iPhone X camera. It takes such great pictures. I was testing it out with my niece and had her hold out this shell and the shot came out pretty great!

Day 9: Black
Instagram Caption: 📸🖤 || photo a day • black.
Camera: iPhone

Another picture I had for awhile and ended up never posting it. I had no idea what to take a picture of for the theme “black”, so I decided to finally post this picture.

Day 10: Purple
Instagram Caption: 💜💜 || photo a day • purple.
Camera: iPhone

I don’t really come into contact or view of many purple things (so sad, it’s one of my favorite colors), but I had this purple flower laying around my house so I decided it would be perfect for my picture for today. Hands down one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken.

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| November 1-6.
Blog Changes.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| November 1-6.

Posted on November 7, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hi!

First I want to mention that I made a blog post yesterday talking about some changes coming to my blog. I’ll link it at the end of this post in case you missed it. This post today is part of those changes.

I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-4 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Today is day seven of the challenge, but I’ve only done the first six pictures so far. I haven’t done today yet. I’ll post the first six days in this post. After that it’ll be 3-4 per post.

Sorry for big pictures. Resizing them kind of messed up the pixels, so I left them as they are. I don’t know if WordPress is having an issue right now or what.

Days 1-6 of November.

Day 1: Blue
Instagram Caption: 🌴💙 || photo a day • blue.
Camera: Nikon.

View from the hammock in my backyard. We have a ton of different trees outside and also power lines, lol. I thought it looked cool together though.

Day 2: Red
Instagram Caption: s t r a n g e r • t h i n g s ♡ || photo a day • red.
Camera: iPhone.

The hubby and I went to a concert last week, but first we went to go get food at the brewery (Brewhouse Gallery) next door and they had a Stranger Things light setup, which was amazing!

Day 3: Green
Instagram Caption: finding solutions, not making excuses. ♫ || photo a day • green.
Camera: Nikon.

Forever palm trees all over Florida. More palm trees in my front yard. I swear, they are everywhere. That’s okay though, because they’re pretty to look at and take pictures of.

Day 4: Yellow
Instagram Caption: 🌼💛 || photo a day • yellow.
Camera: iPhone.

We have this pretty ugly bush/plant type thing in front of our house, but it grows really pretty yellow flowers. I know, weird right. Ugly, but also pretty at the same time. I take a lot of pictures of the flowers on it.

Day 5: Pink
Instagram Caption: 🌵💕🌵💕🌵💕🌵 || photo a day • pink.
Camera: iPhone.

We also have this pretty cool cactus in front of our house and I take pictures of that a lot too. I really like this picture I got with the little flower growing on it. It was perfect for my photo a day for day five. Hint of pink.

Day 6: Aqua
Instagram Caption: when you lose yourself, you’ll find what you’re looking for. ♫ || photo a day • aqua.
Camera: iPhone.

We have a pool that I don’t ever really use. I’m not a fan of swimming, to be honest. Sometimes I’ll sit with my feet in the water though, so that’s nice. Other times I just like taking pictures of it. My socks are kind of aqua color too!

In case you missed it;
Blog Changes.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Blog Changes.

Posted on November 6, 2017 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging, the blogosphere, and especially my blog and I decided to make some changes and I really hope you stick around for them! Continue reading this post to learn more about it.

I had originally created a blog called “still pixels” for my photography and I have an Instagram account to go along with it as well. I like everything I did over there for the two weeks I was doing it, but I think juggling two blogs is difficult; especially when I neglect this one A LOT over the last year. With a new year coming I want to make some changes to the content on this blog.

With that being said, I am going to slowly make this blog be about all the things I like and not only books. It’ll also be where I talk about random things happening in my life. A little journal (ish) in a way. Also, kind of like how I was doing with my random picture posts that I’ve done over the last couple years, but there will be more of it; not just once in awhile.

I’m going to migrate some of the things that I posted on Still Pixels over to this blog as well, because I liked the content that I made and posted there; like the headers that I made from the pictures that I took. I’m not going to delete Still Pixels, because in the future I may want to try again with that blog. I’ll be leaving it active, but not updating it (for now). I’m leaving my Instagram account for Still Pixels (stillpixels_) active too, but not updating that right now either. I put that account to private for now.

I will still be updating about books here, but books may not necessarily be my main focus. I don’t plan to rename this blog or anything, because “Socially Awkward Bookworm” still portrays who I am as a person. I am still (and forever) socially awkward and I am still (and forever) a bookworm. There’s more to me than just books though, so I want to talk about and share those things too. I love blogging, but sometimes not always about books and I have no idea where else to put the things in my head.

I think that’s another reason why I’ve been pretty MIA in the blogosphere over the last year and a half. I don’t always want to blog about books, but this blog has always been centered around books and I felt like maybe it would have been wrong in some way to post other things besides book related things and the casual picture update. So I’ve slowly stepped away, I guess you can say. I don’t want to do that though, because I love having a place to put my thoughts and my pictures (other than Instagram).

BUT! With a new year approaching rather quickly, I decided I am going to embrace it and post whatever I want to post about; whether that be books, music, tv shows, traveling, photography, or anything else happening in my life. This will be a space for all of that and more. In life if things aren’t working out for you anymore, you change it, or leave it behind. I don’t want to do anything in life that isn’t going to make me happy.

“I’m so focused on my own energy right now and people misinterpret that. I’m not being distant. I’m just gravitating to the vibes that suit me.”

I want to live a life where I am happy with all of my choices and what I am doing and I want my blog to reflect that too. I want to live my life as stress free as humanly possible and if that means having to let some things or people go, then so be it. Life is too short to be anything other than happy and who you want to be. Life is too short to not have the things you want and do the things that you want to do. I’m all about good vibes and that’s the way I want to live my life always.

“I’m learning to be more calm and patient these days. Just can’t afford to let anything or anyone steal my happiness.”

“The more in harmony you are with the flow of your own existence, the more magical life becomes.”

There will still be TONS of talk about books too; no one will ever be able to take away my love for books and the need to talk about them. You’ll just get to see more into my life as well and that could be pretty fun. 🙂

Twitter: whoa_itsashley
Instagram: heyyitsashley
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_

ashleyorange

socially awkward bookworm.

Monthly Archives: November 2017

Recap|| November.

Hey!

Book Haul|| November.

Hey!

Physical Books:

E-Books

Photo A Day|| November 11-15.

Hi!

Days 11-15 of November.

WWW Wednesday #44.

Hi!

Currently Reading:

Recently Finished:

Reading Next:

Photo A Day|| November 7-10.

Hi!

Days 7-10 of November.

Photo A Day|| November 1-6.

Hi!

Days 1-6 of November.

Blog Changes.

Hey!