I hope you are all having a nice, lovely summer! If your weather is anything like mine is, you'll be hitting the beaches and lakes and rivers! I haven't been doing any of that, mostly because I've been too busy reading, working, and seeing movies! But Hedgie and I have been reading outside in the sun, so we haven't been total recluses.
June has been pretty fun. Earlier in the month, I went and saw Maleficent and The Fault in Our Stars. I loved the first movie - it will always be my favorite retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I'm pretty indifferent to Angelina Jolie as an actress, but she was brilliant as Maleficent, and I loved the twists in it. The Fault in Our Stars . . . well, you can read my full opinion of it here, but to sum it up: I did surprisingly enjoy it, but I had issues with some of the cast (namely, Augustus).
A friend and I also made a trip down to Powell's City of Books! I really, honestly didn't need to do that this month. My pocket book took a bit of a pounding in May, and June hasn't been much more merciful. But we had to fit our summer trip down at some point, and I knew we were going to go back in May, so I should have exercised discipline and not bought so much last month. I tried to be good at Powell's, but the bottom line is when one goes to Powell's, one simply can't not spend money - and lots of it. So expect a looooong book haul this month. Lots of titles to show you!
I also got to meet authors Leigh Bardugo, Emmy Laybourne, Ava Dellaira, and Jennifer Mathieu on June 19th! Pictures and the like will be up on Monday! It was a ton of fun meeting all four of these lovely ladies. Thank you so much, girls, for signing my books to Bilbo the Reading Hedgehog and I! It was super awesome meeting you!!
Other June activities have involved rewatching pretty much all of my favorite BBC shows (and some new ones!), as a build up for marathoning Sherlock. And now that I've rewatched all of Sherlock, I can now safely say that I am past my exhaustion and am starting to feel the wait for Season 4. My BBC-a-thon was fun, though. I rewatched all of Downton Abbey, Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, and Merlin. I also introduced myself to Robin Hood (which I'm having immense fun watching), and the mini series called The Hollow Crown, which consists of Shakespeare's four plays Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V. If you haven't seen it, you really must. It is a spectacular series. Henry V has always been my second-favorite Shakespeare play, but now I love it more than ever (the fact that Tom Hiddleston plays Henry has nothing to do with it. Okay, yes, it does, because he was a spectacular Henry!). I also finally saw all of North and South, which was a lot of fun. I intend to go on my Jane Austen marathon in July, because I should.
All of this BBC has reawakened my need to write, so I've actually been working on stories! I finished some needed changes to The Birthright, and while I'm waiting for feedback on that, I have actually started working on what I am temporarily calling "Arabella's Story." It is - sort of - a prequel, but not really. It is the story of one of the other characters in The Birthright. And I'm not just casually working on this novel; I'm actually working on it with steadfast earnestness. And I've made progress! I finally have a beginning that I'm genuinely happy with, and while I have yet to figure out what the mystery is, I have everything else more or less mapped out. Arabella's Story is an absolute blast; it's made me realize just how much I truly love a lot of more minor characters in The Birthright, now that I'm getting to know their backgrounds better.
In more distant news, June has also marked the beginnings of my plans to go to BEA and BookCon next year. I saw so many blogger and book tubers talking about how awesome it was, and yes, I am rather jealous, so I've determined to start saving for it now so I can go next year! And I'm also going to start saving for my future trip to England. There's no time like the present! Now that I've settled into the new path my life took, I'm ready to start making future plans and get some traveling under my belt before I'm too old and have other things I have to pay for.
Have a happy beginning of the summer, friends!
Okay, BookCon sound like a terrible and brilliant idea. Where's it held?
ReplyDeleteI've actually been rather good this month with bookbuying, mainly because I know next month I'll probably go to my used bookstore to trade in the books I cleaned off my shelf, and then August is my bday, and then Sept/oct are probably going to have even more releases than I am currently planning for. I did splurge and buy the first season of Merlin this month though but it wasn't full price so I felt justified :)
I'm glad you enjoyed Maleficent! My friend and I went to see it a few weeks ago and I really liked it!
BookCon is in New York. If you go to BEA right before it (literally right before it), you automatically get into BookCon.
DeleteMy book buying was actually rather good this month as well - mainly because there was an unexpected expense earlier in the month (more on that in my book haul at the end of the month). My publishing of the Powell's trip was premature; my friend and I are going in July, but it was meant for June. That's what happens when I plan posts way too far ahead. ;)
The more I think about it, the more I realize how much I loved that movie. It was just awesome.
We should totally go next year, that would be awesome ;)
ReplyDeleteHaha, okay, well, either way, Powell's lets you buy many books that is more per dollar than normal :P I have my next order written down, but it might be a while before I place it. I need to procure some more funds first.
I know! I loved it the first time, but I think if I saw it again I would like it even more.
We should absolutely go next year! I've already started putting money back. And I'll have a friend with me who knows New York pretty well, so we won't get hopelessly lost. ;)
DeleteI have my next order written down, too. Whatever I can't find in store, I'm going to order. Still trying to fill out some of my series.
Movies, reading, and BBC marathons...sounds like an awesome start to summer! And definitely travel while you can.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it, though? ;) I'm all caught up on my shows, so it seemed like a good time to rewatch some of them.
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