So September has not been an easy month. So many things to catch up with after my vacation and travels, and especially work. I am still quite stressed, and working late nights a month later. So during this busy time, I am not even sure where my blog’s headed. I am definitely keeping it, but I might either go on hiatus, or just blog way more intermittently. We will see.

But there’s good news as well! The fact that I’ve been rather active on my second Instagram account that I’ve created. Frankly, I am pleasantly surprised that I already have over 100 followers on that account in a week! Thank you everyone ❤️ the fact that it’s a smaller account makes it so cozy for me, and I almost always know who is going to reply to my captions, and I love hearing from those people. I feel like I’m using my second Instagram the way a social network is supposed to be used – without overthinking it, purely for sharing what I’m up to with my friends and as frequently as possible. It has been a while that I’ve loved using a social network this much! Here’s one of my most recent unedited photos – yes, that’s precisely the point of that account – to share unedited, raw photos, and let them be unattractive – but it’s genuine. If you haven’t followed me yet, see my account here:

 

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Just taking my notes for The Sugar Queen. I’m really enjoying it so far, and after all, how could I not get completely into a book by Sarah Addison Allen? I said I wouldn’t be doing many formal reviews anymore, which kind of eliminates the need for notes, but with this book I just find myself tempted to write things down. Thoughts just form sentences in my head and I have to put it in notes. After I finish this one, I’ll be diving into a rec by @unconventionalbookworms, who actually didn’t just recommend me the book, but straight up gifted it to me ❤ (#bookcommunity FTW!) It’s called Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis. Have you read it? I was surprised to find a lost sisters theme in The Sugar Queen too today! Although it wasn’t even hinting at that as I was starting to read it last night, right before I talked to Lexxie. It’s interesting how things just bunch up like that, isn’t it? #currentlyreading #chicklit #romance #sarahaddisonallen #jillshalvis #reading #toberead #takingnotes #remarkablepaper #remarkabletablet #readingbooks

A post shared by Evelina | Avalinah (@avalinahsbookbites) on Sep 28, 2018 at 2:41pm PDT

What have I accomplished in September though?

• • decided to ditch my schedule and rigorous calendar. I’ll just be posting whenever. If I first run out of posts, that is 😂
  • decided to change up my post format and focus less on formal reviews
  • decided that books I didn’t absolutely enjoy won’t be going on my blog anymore – only on social media and review sites
  • I reached 1k on my original Instagram account and created my second one
  • Broke 3k on my Twitter account
  • got a package from the lovely Tor.com – yay for international reviewers!
  • Broke through 100 books read (my yearly goal was 52…)
  • At one point, I was currently reading 11 books and was in a little slump. I’m not sure I’m out of the forest quite yet.
  • And you know what? My blog is turning two years in two weeks!

So even though the month was super stressful and busy, it seems reading-wise it was still not a bad month. Let’s see the books I read and which ones I would recommend though – my reading this month was a mixed batch, although leaning towards the good side.

~ 5-Star Miracle Books Read ~

September marked the end of my beloved Murderbot Diaries – Exit Strategy comes out blog on October 2nd, 2018. As sad as it was to close this chapter, it was an amazing ending. Plus, there’s good news! This will not be the last that we see of Murderbot. More on this in my Murderbot Diaries post on Tuesday! I truly loved Exit Strategy, it’s just as wonderful as the other Murderbot books and I can honestly recommend it. Another pleasant surprise this month was Finding Baba Yaga. It’s a novel in verse, and I’ve never been much of a poetry lover – which is why I was so surprised to love Finding Baba Yaga so much. It was great! Not pretentious or mysterious at all – it was clear and understandable, sad in places, funny in others, and I loved what it was trying to say. Very recommended. Thank you Tor.com for these amazing review copies.

And of course, then there’s A Year of Living Kindly. This book I could recommend to absolutely everyone. It’s just so good and aligns so well with my virtues, I can’t even tell you. It has practical insights about how, and especially WHY you can make your day to day life focused on more kindness, and what’s the most important – it’s not religiously oriented, so it works for just about anyone. There should be more books like that. Thanks to She Writes Press for the review copy. I actually bought this book myself after it came out, despite having read the review copy. That’s the first book I’ve ever bought even though I had a review copy. So you can probably see how much it meant to me.

~ 4-Star Steady Good Books Read ~

I absolutely loved The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone because it was such a colorful, all-encompassing middle grade book! I believe I’ve already rambled about it here in my list of middle grade stories that might pick your mood up in the autumn. I really, really recommend it! I also liked Mindless, a strong and very moving short story by Louise Cole about a teen who is left no choice but to defend her family and ends up in trouble over it. It opens your eyes to the realities of some people – realities we have barely just started taking about in the past five years. Thank you to the publishers for these review copies.

~ Okay Books Read ~

It was so hard putting Ewan Pendle and the White Wraith in this group – because Ewan is so much better than the rest of these books! And yet, I couldn’t say I completely enjoyed it. It remains somewhere in between 3 and 4 stars, because while it was a great story, it was just a tad dark for me at the time, perhaps. The rest of these books though… I DNFed three of them. Primrose Street was good, but it also just got too dark, and I can’t handle dark at the moment. Tomorrow Factory was imaginative, and while it reminded me Central Station, it also had the same drawback that that book had – being cold and unattached to the characters. That’s a no go for me, usually. The Psychology of Time Travel I pretty much flat out hated, because it showed a lot of bullying and discrimination for having mental health issues. I realize that the author wanted to raise these issues and talk about them, but it was just too jarring for me, and the story itself bored me, so there was no way I was finishing it. As for Things We Learn When We’re Dead… I realize I’m probably the only reviewer out there that didn’t like it, but… the book was 500 pages and I only got into it after maybe 200. That’s not okay. But there’s a bigger thing that wasn’t okay – the book tries to make light of loss, tragedy and suicide . I will talk more about this in a mini reviews post next week. But basically, it didn’t go down.

However! While I pretty much hated three of five books in this pile, I’m still giving them good ratings, because I understand that the reason I didn’t like them was me, rather than there being something wrong with the book (with maybe the exception of The Things We Learn.) So that’s me being nice, I guess? Which means… That this month there is no ‘Totally Meh’ books pile!

~ The Stats! ~

I don’t know if I should keep posting the stats! They’re like wildly over the top by now xD

~ On The Blog In September ~

Out of all these posts, I’m probably most proud of the discussion, Why Authors Should Take Extra Care When Writing Enemies to Lovers. It seemed to be a hot topic! Out of the reviews, I recommend to check out Going Widdershins, a story of oppression and healing that I would absolutely read again, and Sleep, Merel, Sleep, which I dubbed the perfect middle grade story.

~ Books Hauled ~

 

 

Okay, so I actually hauled a little more than I said I did. Because I got this amazing Humble Bundle with 24 Doctor Who comics. But I’m not putting that on the hauls list because that would explode it xD and I’m pretty sure I will read them fast! But anyway, there are like ten days left to get this Humble Bundle, and you can pay as low as 1$. If you want to get hyped up for the new Doctor Who season, I can very much recommend it and have an affiliate link here! You can also choose how much goes to the publisher, the charities and affiliate (my blog) before you check out. Doctor Who HYPE!

I also have to express my love for this community once more. I just asked Lexxie @ Unconventional Bookworms for a sweet cozy book recommendation, perhaps romance, the other day, and she just… gifted one to me! This has got to be the sweetest thing ever. THIS is what our community is and I can’t help but feel very lucky to be in it ❤️

~ Next Week ~

Next week I’ve got a lot of scifi planned. First of all, it’s a post about The Murderbot Diaries as a series, and then – a review of Tomorrow Factory that I’ve been pushing out of the way for far too long – I’m not excited about it because I didn’t like the book all that much, but I wrote it before I decided to stop writing reviews for books I didn’t love on the blog. So, to the last hurrah!

~ In The Bookish Community ~

Clo @ Book Dragons 24/7 guest posts at Northern Plunder and gives us 5 Reasons Why Love in Books is Overrated

Sim @ Flipping Through the Pages talks about her own weird reading habits

Kat @ Novels and Waffles talks about DNFing and her bookish turn offs

Gayathri @ Elgee Writes talks aboout all the convenient ways she’s found of following blogs

Jackie @ Death by Tsundoku talks about how and why The Giver has moved her time and time again

As usual, I’m linking up with Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday post, also with Stacking the Shelves at Tynga’s Reviews, Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

And that’s it for my September! What about you? Share your links with me in the comments!

Evelina AvalinahsBooks

I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.