What a month. The word of this month was slow and it’s kind of funny looking back at that thinking how busy June’s going to be for me. This month, I wanted to embrace slow living and take things as they come. Unfortunately, towards the end of the month, things ending up coming, and that to, coming fast. The kind of slow living I wanted to embrace this month was the one where I don’t rush into things head on and get bombarded by anxiety. I wanted to live a life of moderation and gradual growth rather than destroying myself with perfection while rushing to the end. I think that this is a goal that I’ll be revisiting again down the line. I followed through on this goal in regards to certain aspects of my life but not everything so there’s definitely room for improvement.
On the bright side, I consumed so much content this month and I’m very pleased with that.
As someone who reads maybe two books a month, I ended up reading five! So let’s talk about a few of them.
I enjoyed most of the books I’ve read so far but I’ve got to say that my new favorite read is “Never Seduce a Scot” by Maya Banks . I say new favorite because I reread “Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo this month and if you don’t know, the SOC duology are some of my favorite books. If you want to hear more about “Never Seduce a Scott”, I’ve got a review up on the blog so feel free to check it out, [here].
I also finally finished “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert this month. I started this in March but only managed to get 25% of the way through before picking it back up in May. This was an interesting book. I think the hype really got to me so while I did enjoy it, I didn’t love it. This book introduces five different elements: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust, and divinity, that guarantee a more magical, creative life. I think I made the mistake of going into this book expecting in-depth discussions on the writing or creative process and while certain sections did deliver this, I felt other parts of the novel fell a bit flat. I think I was expecting something solely technical and so I think that the casualness of the writing really threw me off. While a more casual tone of writing worked for certain sections, it didn’t for others and it made things feel a bit repetitive? The section that I really loved is Gilbert’s discussion on Persuasion.
Here’s a quote that I really loved from that section of the novel. “Slip away from everyone else at the part and go off to dance alone with your ideas in the dark. Wake yourself up in the middle of the night in order to be alone with your inspiration, while nobody is watching. You don’t need that sleep right now; you can give it up. What else are you willing to give up in order to be alone with your beloved?” As someone who’s recently fell in love with early mornings, this was a song to my ears. If anything, this quotes make me fall in love with the early morning darkness even more.
This book did an amazing job including quotes from different authors and people out there and their view on creativity. I think it really added to the novel. Alongside the quotes, I really liked how Gilbert shared other people’s life experiences in creative living. The incorporation of other people’s stories resulted in the kind of technical exploration into creative processes that I was hoping to find in Gilbert’s book.
The other thing I didn’t really mesh with is the spirituality side of it. While I liked it, I think that it went on for a bit too long and some of the discussion around it felt a bit repetitive. So if you’re not into spirituality, you honestly can just skip that section of the book and be fine.
Over all, I think that this book is a good conversation into creativity but it’s just that. I went into this book with extremely high expectations and ended up just having a decent time with it.
In the month of May, I’ve found two new tv shows/movies that I’m head over heals in love with.
I’m halfway through this Korean Drama and I’m so, so, glad I started it. It’s my first k-drama and I’m in love with it. The music … the relationships between every character and how everyone’s connected… the character arc’s of some the most precious cinnamon rolls… this show is just amazing. I don’t want to say too much on it because I’m planning to publish a blog post on it so be on the look out for that!
But I think it would be an injustice to just mention it and not give anyone new to the show a little summary on what it’s about.
The thing about this show is that everyone’s connected in some way and there’s so much that happens within the first three episodes that it’s honestly best to go in blind and just watching everything unfold. The first episode mainly sets up our plot and introduces some of our main characters and their back stories.
The show starts off by introducing two sisters who grow up very close to each other. The best of friends, they’re navigating their childhood and watching their parents fight over their father’s decision to leave his work and start a start-up. We’re also introduced to a boy, who’s in the background of these girl’s lives and somehow ends up directly involved with their story line. How? You’re going to have to watch to find out.
This show is honestly inspiring, motivating, moving, and so cool to watch. As the name suggests, we also get to see the more technical aspects of starting a business and certain technologies which I’m having a very fun time geeking over.
This movie was so good! I think that this movie was based off a book and if it’s not, I need some amazing office romance book recommendations (not The Hating Game though lol). A lot of the rom com Netflix movies that have been produced recently have been pretty cheesy or cringe for me and this one was just perfect. I love how it wasn’t insta love and that it featured such an easy friends to lovers romance that built up over time. I loved how uniquely different the two characters were and how none of them exuded big headed ego filled characters like other Netflix rom com’s tend to do, especially that one with Adam Devine. I also loved how the movie encapsulated that fast paced office environment because I feel like movies often fail to do that properly. It’s honestly one of my favorite romance movies on Netflix so if you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.
A post exploring different things I’ve learned and took away from Caggie’s podcast called “Saturn Return with Caggie”. This is a podcast that explores big transitional periods in people’s lives while also exploring different topics such as the influence of alcohol in social situations, finding one’s true authentic self, breakups, and more! This show isn’t overwhelmingly astrological and it does is a good job in explaining and diving deeper into what one’s Saturn Return really is, both astrologically and mentally, based off star positions and mythological significances regarding this notion.
Review : Never Marry a Scot by Maya Banks
My review on Maya Banks, “Never Seduce a Scot”. Spoiler alert, it’s a five star read from me and has officially joined my top favorite historical romance books. This book features a hearing impaired mc as well as dueling clans and an arranged marriage. The hearing impaired mc is based off the author’s husband and the way the mc deals with being hard of hearing is done really well. I do not have a hearing disability but from what I’ve heard from others, the consensus is that it’s done really well in this book. The writing really shows that this novel was written by someone who is either hard of hearing themselves or knows someone who is hard of hearing.
288 Hours and The Discovery of Romanticizing the Slow
This post features a writing piece I’ve done that explores the romanticizing of slow living and letting go off perfectionistic living.
Shadow and Bone TV Show Halfway Thoughts
I think it would be a miss if I didn’t put at least one Shadow and Bone TV Show related post so if you’re looking for more S&B content to consume, you can read this one featuring my thoughts halfway through the show. I’ve watched it almost three times by now and still need to work on putting together a post on my final thoughts but spoiler alert: I really loved it.
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