Monthly Recap [March 2016]: I Ain't No [Haul]laback Girl

Well... It has been an EMBARASSINGLY long time since my last recap. We're getting there, guys, slowly but surely. I'm going to forget the fact that I'm basically getting carpal tunnel [from extreme piano practice.] However, life hasn't been that exciting, except for the fact that my grades are really good. Apparently, if I can get a 95 or higher average in all subjects in twelfth grade, I'm eligible for a really good scholarship. Okay, right now, I do have those grades but I heard that in grade eleven, there's this huge drop so I'm keeping that in mind. And it goes without saying but the largest reason I haven't been blogging much is because of school. Oh well! I only have a few months left.

In terms of break, March was FILLED WITH 'EM! I basically had two weeks off [thank you snow day, making it a five day weekend!] On my break, I didn't do much but I decided to try out doing a "Document Your Life." It was a lot of fun but I don't think I can be consistent with it, mostly since my days are very routine and no one wants to see a scenery shot of the same street thirty times over. But come summer? HECK YES.

*I put a FUN snippet of me rapping Satisfied from Hamilton if you're into that, at the end of the video below!*


How was your March?

Don't sigh but I don't necessarily *remember* the books I received since my last haul. It's going to be insane, I tell you. I feel like I'm going to miss a lot of the books but these are what I can remember! Plus, most of them come with pretty pictures since I've been getting more and more into my bookstagramming LYFE. All of these books came from the publishers unless otherwise stated. I'm going to say a general thank you right now because otherwise I'll just be repeating myself. I am so grateful, constantly grateful for publishers considering me <3

All from HMH kids! You are so great. These books are so gorgeous and I will admit, I haven't had a chance to read them yet, but I will and I will shout about them from the rooftops! I also received Speed of Life by J.M. Kelly but the photo for that one hasn't been posted yet - I'm saving it!

Everything except "Gated" is recent book mail. I don't know how "Gated" got thrown in the mix but oops! Square Root of Summer and Guile are from Macmillan, Down with the Shine is from Harper [I'm on the blog tour!] and Scarlet Epstein... is from Penguin. Also, Square Root of Summer is really tall and I love that so much.

I won Amy Tintera's giveaway for an ARC of her latest novel. She's also so nice - she signed it! Or was that part of the giveaway? I don't remember. Either way, it was a lovely surprise. I also wanted to show another picture of Down with the Shine because it is such a "Nova" cover. Not sure what that means - but it is! Lastly there is The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas! The cover is so so gorgeous and there's so much mystery too. I am so excited to read that one. Plus, I did the photoshoot seconds ago, meaning if you're seeing it on the blog, you're seeing it for the first time. [I'm very happy with the results of this shoot, to be honest.]

Okay, I will say that I don't get as many ARCs as the large bloggers but when I do, it blows me away. Sometimes, just sometimes, I get lucky and the book Gods grace me with their presence. This, friends, is one of those times. I am so asdfghjkl; excited to read HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer, my most anticipated of 2016! AND THAT COVER! It's shiny, like it almost looks too beautiful to be an uncorrected proof. LORD I AM EXCITED.

During March Break, I was able to go to downtown Toronto and do a little shopping. There's a discount bookstore so I got these three hardcovers for 18 dollars. One hardcover at retail price isn't even 18 dollars Canadian so I am SO EXCITED. I also want to go to Book Outlet but it's kinda far - one day!

Below are some Lush products I bought [because I obviously have no self control.] The thing on the right is a solid perfume - like a balm you rub on your wrists that smell nice. It doesn't really... work long-term but I love the smell. Vanilla is the best!

April is going pretty well. I have an exam on Tuesday and a piano one on Thursday. We've just started reading To Kill a Mockingbird in English class. I don't necessarily... like it [kind of confused that the narrator is a young child when a lot of the story deals with the grown ups] but I'm going to hold off the judgment until we get further in. Other than that, life is pretty good!

Tell me about your March! I know this recap was super late and I'll try to be better but heyyy, better late than never, amirite? How many books did you read [me: like two], what accomplishments are you proud of and one act of kindness you ever did or were on the receiving end of! That last one, though; I am excited to hear your stories.

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Monthly Recap [July 2015]: So Long Summer School!

SO I SURVIVED SUMMER SCHOOL.

I started off the course thinking I would flunk but I finished with a 90% so I am very happy. However, because I had to work double time to fix the mistakes I made at the beginning, it meant that I had close to no reading time. I've read maybe five books this month? However, those book were like Illuminae, Crown of Midnight, Emmy and Oliver etc. so it's definitely a quality vs. quantity month for me.

When life gives you cupcakes...

The highlight of my month was the discussion post I wrote about culture in YA. It was actually in the middle of my hiatus but I broke it because I realized that the post needed to be written and there was only a small window of time before the post became irrelevant. It sparked interesting discussion on both ends and I feel like the comments were more intellectual than the actual post. If you haven't read it, I really suggest it - it's eye opening. But the thing I'm most proud is because I tried my hardest to create an environment where anyone can post their respectful opinion without hate or backlash. I think I succeeded.

Nova's fun thing of the month: I went shopping with friends in the middle of the month! I had such fun with my three friends and we hit like every store. I only bought a few things *cough* candy and a cardigan but it was awesome. The highlight was me stating my blunt opinion on stuff in every story. For example: One friend wanted to get this god-awful Pink sweater for $65 and she asked me if it was worth it. I told her no and as we walked out, the look I got from the worker could've killed. 

My reply?

 

Review

This month was good in terms of quantity. I'm very happy! Thanks so much to Raincoast Books for Riders. I had such a great time making this edit! HMH sent Vengeance Road [which I feel so honored to have received because I didn't think I had a shot] and Random House for Illuminae. Illuminae was the galley cover and I received it after reading someone else's copy.

Library/Borrowed

I got to meet the awesome Jessica @ Bookish Serendipity at the library and she lent me her copies of Crown of Midnight, Illuminae [the HC version] and Daughter of Deep Silence. I overall enjoyed all three! So yay - big hits! Unfortunately, I only photographed Illuminae but I'll probably end up doing book shoots for the other two because they're preeety.

Very excited for August - since my July was kind of shot, let's just hope that I can set some goals. I'm working on some new fitness plans and they make me feel alive! [If you have tips/sites to help on that front, link me!] I'm also playing old MMORPG games because childhood revisitation during summer is very important. How are you doing?

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Monthly Recap [June 2015]: So Much Stress and So Little Books!

June was a month of fun. Besides my birth month and the birth of this blog [it's turned one for the umpteenth time,] I actually had a really good time. Things got pretty stressful towards exams but that's natural, right? I'm glad to be out.

Hold it! No I'm not. Currently, I'm doing summer school so I can get ahead. It's awful. My teacher is horrible and to her, one little mistake will get me an 80% in her course. I want this to be over so bad but I have another three weeks to go. Also, things are due the day they're assigned so I have about 12 hours to do a major project every single day. #Pray4Me

In other news, I'm getting less books. This is good. I've been so behind on everything, I don't think I could deal with another crapload of ARCs. I'm also really happy because quality vs. quantity and all that. The ones I got, in my opinion, are of the highest quality. Not that I'm biased or anything.

I got to take two shots with my sister for Canada Day and I wanted to practice my photography. We played with sparklers because neither of us wanted to hear lame fireworks. I didn't expect these shots to match but they do and I think they look cute! I'm the one on the left - I know, it's hard to tell.

Nova's fun thing of the month: I take pictures of plants with books and sometimes people are like, "oh, that's so pretty!" I appreciate all those comments but really, I can't take full credit. I am not kidding when I say that sometimes, I'll sneak into someone's FRONT garden and use their plants as props for a shoot. It gets really weird when it isn't in my neighborhood. One guy in a different neighborhood had a rock garden and I really wanted to use it but he looked angry and he was out watering his grass so it was like nooooope.

Review

Raincoast Books [Macmillan] are seriously my favorites. I received a copy of Tonight the Streets Are Ours, My Secret to Tell and Romancing the Dark in the City of Light. I haven't read any but both Leila Sales and Nat. D. Richards are authors I've had great success with! Ann Jacobus is a new author to me but I'm expecting great things!
I also received an eCopy of Signs Point to Yes!

Lastly, I got a copy of The Scorpion Rules from Simon and Schuster. Very excited for that one!

Yes! That's it for the entire month. I'm so happy because while it isn't crazy large, they're great titles! I hope you're as excited as me for the release of these!

Library/Borrowed

Giselle @ Book Nerd Canada let me borrow her copy of Throne of Glass. So guys: I did it. I read Throne of Glass. This is news! I actually didn't want to read it initially because hype monster scares me but I did. And it was pretty good! I don't know if it deserves the crazy amount of hype but I'm told the series gets better so when I get Crown of Midnight, I'll definitely be diving for it.

I'm very happy to have finished school but not that I have to continue. It's actually awful - I don't recommend summer school for a course you really want to learn because it's so sped up. However, I hate history so much that I don't even care if I come out with this having learned nothing. How are you enjoying your summer?

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Monthy Recap [May 2015]: Love Projects and Let's Party!

Hello guys! Can you believe another month passed already? And I'm writing this early but by now it should be after BEA. I hope all of you who went had an awesome time. I didn't go but some of the books I received in the mail make me think I might as well have.

Nearer the beginning of May, there was some drama on twitter. It didn't get too bad, in my opinion because I've seen worse, however it did upset me because I've seen a lot of it in this year alone. On a reaction to that, I decided to create the "You Are Appreciated" project where bloggers/readers/authors can send me notes addressed to others and I'll put them on a card and make them all purdy.

"Let's Party?" That's vague, huh? I finished the projects that stressed me out for weeks. You might have noticed that I was gone this whole week [as in, I didn't get a chance to comment on your pretty, pretty blogs. Don't worry, I will today or tomorrow!] My week went as follows. Monday/Tuesday: massive cramming. Wednesday: Science/Religion unit tests. Thursday: big geography presentation [that I only did on Wednesday night.] Friday: Clarinet test. It's safe to say that I rocked everything. It should be impossible to do something the night before and get a good mark but when you have an energy drink, anything is possible.

Funny little story: Before my geography presentation, I was so nervous that I chugged an energy drink. While it made me giddy and worry-free, it also made me talk fast. I'm a naturally fast talker and I only get faster when I'm nervous. So imagine me nervous, fast talking and hopped up on an energy drink. I had to physically restrain myself from talking fast. This included tapping my foot, thinking about what I wanted to say and looking at the audience deliberately after every slide. [You have no idea how much I struggled doing that.] At least now I know never to do that again.

Review

The book gods smile down on me and I haven't even gotten all the ones I'm expecting yet. First off, from S&S, are Zeroes and Cold Iron. Seriously huge books! I hope I get a chance to finish them before they come out, haha.

Raincoast [Macmillan/Chronicle Books] is amazing. I was able to get Elena Vanishing [which is a beautiful book that must be read], A History of Glitter and Blood and Blood Will Tell. I also got the beauty that is Six of Crows. I also got the highly coveted, Truthwitch from the publisher!
Lemme tell you, a tiny blogger like me never thought she would make it this far.

Skyscape sent me a finished copy of End of Days. I finished it and really enjoyed it. The ending is fabulously cute and it's literally like Susan screams out, "the ship has sailed!" in an excited voice.

I also lucked out with Penguin. Getting Soundless made me flail a little. I'm actually surprised that there isn't MORE hype about this book. It sounds fantastic!

Edelweiss has been pretty good to me too! I haven't requested anything in over a month but I got approved [finally!] for Rook, Hotel Ruby, Diary of a Haunting and Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls.

Macmillan also sent me eGalleys of Sweet, Joyride and Seriously Wicked. I've only read Sweet but it was excellent - like an amped up version of the Adipose Doctor Who episode.

Bought/Giveaway[s]

I felt the urge to put that s because I very rarely enter giveaways [due to time] and a very rarely win them so to win two is like a miracle. The hosts were awesome about the prizes and I'm so stoked to have gotten an ARC of The Winner's Crime [thanks Lily!] and ACOTAR [thank you awesome people at Great Imaginations!]

Jenny Han had a signing where I live so obviously, I begged and was finally able to go. I bought P.S. I Still Love You prior and here's a picture of a display of these pretties [duh i bought one!] I also have a recap of this event, which will go up on Tuesday.

I'm so over stress! I've still got exams in two weeks but it doesn't even bother me. I intend to chill all of this week and drink lots of Starbucks! I've got a CRAPLOAD of books to read but I hope I'll be able to get through the hole I've dug for myself. [Also my DS resurfaced so I'll be stuck on that thing - a DS has stuff phones don't, just saying.]

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Monthly Recap [April 2015]: Swaggin' Collages and Sarcastic Conversations

So this month is actually kind of a blur... Did anything even happen?

Some typical things: eating, sleeping, blogging, complaining about grades, crying over my "failed tests" [getting a 92] and using my phone for bad purposes. No, I do not play Plants Versus Zombies 2 during all my classes.

Yes, I totally had to scratch my head to think of the cool stuff I did this month. For one, I was inspired by Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat to make a collage out of swag. We went to Home Outfitters so I could buy a blank picture frame.

Also, I need to rant.All month, this kid in my science class makes really stupid comments at everything I do. I ask the teacher a question and he goes, "you aren't always right!" I talk to my friend and my teacher gets annoyed and he goes, "thank the f* lord, I thought she would never shut up." I wish people would just mind their own business and not make stupid comments when it's uncalled for.

And now, to end with Nova's funny story of the month because happy things. This time, I have two.

1) I was in the library yesterday with my friends and the librarian was like, "oh it's the hooligans again!" because we're always in the same spot at the same time. She's joking, of course. So I say, in my naturally sarcastic voice, "I love books. I read all the time." She calls me a liar and imagine her surprise when I start talking.

Her: what books do you read?
Me: can you give me examples because there are too many.
Her: Uglies by Dan Wells?
Me: You mean Scott Westerfeld? Uglies was okay but I picked up Afterworlds and that was a trainwreck.
Her: [surprised] What about that new one... The Red Queen?
Me: LOVED it! Plot twist at the end was amazing. I got to read it early too [explain about ARCs...]
Her: And there's one my kids are talking about. Snow Like...?
Me: Ashes? Snow like Ashes? That was is a definite recommendation and the author is such a sweetheart.
Her: How do you know the author?
Me: [smiling at this point] [Explain the whole blogger thing] I was really lucky to host her release day twitter party with a good friend [*cough* Nikki]

And now... she's guilt tripping me to go to the book club that meets once a month. I kind of don't want to go because I've never gone before but I think I will because why not?
Also, my friends during this conversation were like, "How does this girl know so much about books?"

2) The scene is after band practice in the music room. The band teacher is also my music teacher.

Me: But sir! I have a 93% in your class. Can't we bump it to a 95?
Him: Work hard for it.
Me: [someone is playing black widow on the xylophone] Do you know this song?
Him: [starts singing some old song]
Me: Is your age in triple digits?
Him: Your 93 just went to a 89.
Me: Your favorite book, The Chrysalids. Yeah, it sucks. [He was also my English teacher.]
Him: 85
Me: You dress badly. [walks out the door]
Him: 80.
Me: [comes back in] Really badly. [runs away]

And I don't know what happened after but I for one thought it was hilarious. And if you were wondering, yes, I do talk to my teachers like this. But only because I know them well enough to know that they aren't going to kill me.
I don't recommend trying this with just any teacher - you have to know their personality enough to know you won't get in trouble.

Review

I lost the shots of the other S&S books unfortunately.

Something insanely cool happened. I got my first unsolicited book. Well, I'm getting my first. It hasn't come yet but I got the email! I don't want to talk about it yet because it hasn't come but when it does - all the squeals.

This month, I was lucky to get Galgorithm, Last Year's Mistake and Most Likely to Succeed from Simon and Schuster. They have a list where you pick your top three and they send you one. Imagine my surprise when I received all three!

I also got The Revenge Playbook [which was fantastic!] so thank you Harper.

Lastly,  I was able to get a review copy of 5 to 1 so thank you so much Random House.

Library

I was able to get The Evolution of Mara Dyer ande The Kiss of Decption from the library. I'm doing my best with the whole juggling thing but I really should not be borrowing books.

Won/Bought

For those who might not know, before April, the last time I bought a book was in... September? So yes, I did break my ban for these two beauties! Here are the Goodreads pages to Hollow City and Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
I bought Hollow City because of the price [25% off] and Blue Lily... because it's signed by Maggie! It's the ONLY copy in the store that's signed so I had to!
Also, I won a giveaway from the k8chat and got a copy of The Kingdom Within so thank you so much for that.

Let's keep this closing short since my recap was insanely long. I hope you had an amazing April. If you didn't, let's hope May will be better. What did you do this month? Funny stories?

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