The Rundown is where I recollect and wrap up stuff every two months. Check out other wrap-up posts here.
So What Happened?
Absolutely nothing. Folks, I hit a slump!
Well, technically that was for October since I still was able to read a bunch of books back in September. In my pool of comics, contemporary romances, and thrillers per usual. Yep, I still haven’t made my way back to SFF.
Favorite reads for September and October are The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, The Project by Courtney Summers, The Silence of Bones by June Hur, and Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. But in total, I was able to read 12 books for September and October.
I bought a ton of new books (I still can’t believe myself hahaha!) that I’m eyeing to read. Also, my book orders from Book Depository and Book Outlet arrived around last week. To top all of that, I met up with my friend JM last Friday in Fully Booked BGC in celebration of this birthday and we both came home with new books. I’ll make a separate post for the book haul because there are just too many! 😂
Nothing really notable happened the last couple of months, except for me quitting my day job and going full-time in freelancing, I guess. I signed up for a bunch of online courses to upskill. Hope that goes well for my sake!
September-October Blog Posts
Book Reviews
📚 I read The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida last August but it was only in September that I posted my review of this hauntingly beautiful book. I also got the chance to chat with author Clarissa Goenawan and featured her for an interview on the blog.
📚 The Shaadi Set-Up by Lillie Vale was one of my most anticipated books, but it didn’t fully meet my expectations. I still enjoyed reading it though! Here’s my review so you can read what worked and what didn’t.
📚 June Hur is now one of my favorite authors. I can confidently say that despite only having read one of her published books. The Silence of Bones completely blew me away and I can’t wait to read her other books!
📚 Now onto the book that threw me off my reading game. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood was such a delightful read! The hype it’s getting is definitely well-deserved! I truly enjoyed reading every single page! It got me into a reading slump so bad!
📚 I got offered a review copy of Unearthed by Lilliam Rivera. You know me as a Marvel gal, but I switched sides for a bit and read this fresh and uplifting take on Jessica Cruz and her family as she deals with the racism and xenophobia in their community.
📚 After loving Sadie, I finally caved in and read The Project by Courtney Summers. It was so good! I really love Courtney Summers’ writing style and how thought-provoking the story was.
Other Bookish Posts
📚 I dug up my reviews of Sadie by Courtney Summers and P.S. I Like You by Kasie West for From The Repository. Both of these are about a couple of years old so I did a little bit of editing.
📚 To diversify your Halloween TBR, I posted Six Spooky Books to read from BIPOC Authors.
📚 I also did The Undas Book Tag, a tag created by Your Tita Kate. Bea tagged me to do it, and I figured since it was Halloween, it would be a fun thing to do!
Roll The Credits 🍿
Movies 🎞
To celebrate Spooktober, I mostly watched horror and thriller movies. I recently posted my Halloween TBR and Watchlist where I was aiming to watch The 8th Night and Fear Street Trilogy.
🎬 Shang-Chi was amazing! Easily one of my Top 3 MCU movies! I really enjoyed the action sequences and the story. Can’t wait to see more of Shang-Chi and Xialing in the future!
🎬 Smaller and Smaller Circles was definitely haunting. I enjoyed the story but the dialogue seemed a little unnatural and off-putting at times. Still, I had a great experience watching the film. I’m definitely bumping the book up my TBR.
🎬 I didn’t grow up reading R.L. Stine but I enjoyed the first two movies of Fear Street. They just weren’t that scary for me though. I definitely thought I’d be scared watching them. I mean, I should’ve known especially since I’ve seen the first Goosebumps film. I guess I was just really looking forward to something more scary. I’m excited to watch the 3rd one though, I hope I get to it soon.
TV Shows 📺
📺 I enjoyed the rest of the What If…? episodes leading into the Finale. I definitely loved seeing the Guardians of the Multiverse together! I hope we get more of them in the future!
📺 Hospital Playlist Season 2 ended in September which was sad now that it’s over. BUT!!! I’m happy that all my ships have sailed! If you haven’t seen this K-drama yet, I recently listed 5 Reasons to watch Hospital Playlist.
📺 I tuned in to Hometown Cha Cha Cha but I’m stuck in episode 14. I’m hoping to finish the drama by this weekend. I saw some clips from the ending so I know what’s going to happen, but I’m still pushing through with it.
📺 Since it’s spooky times, I recently subscribed to Discovery Plus and I’ve been watching random true crime and paranormal documentaries. Also the final season of Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural premiered this October so I’m tuned in every week. Netflix also dropped The Raincoat Killer, a documentary featuring a South Korean serial killer, whom I first learned about from Reddit a couple of years ago.
That’s about it for my September-October recap! Now I’m off to find some fluff in romance books since I’ve been consuming a lot of spooky things over the weekend! 😂
Let’s Chat! 💬
How did your Halloween go? What was your favorite highlight of September/October?
I am still waiting for my copy of The Love Hypothesis to arrive. It’s been forever. HAHAHAHAHHA