Oof… What a hard, odd week. It was both good and bad, and I just… Well, I don’t really want to talk about it. Let’s just say something really stressful happened during the middle of this week, and I was completely thrown off. After that, it was all a blur. But I’m fine now! That’s part of the reason why I was away from social media so much this week – and although I really missed a lot of you, I also needed the time to recharge. I have been more active than usual on my Instagram update account though! I’m hoping to be more active everywhere next week, as much as health and life will permit.
In terms of reading, there’s nothing new! Well, not completely true, cause I started Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as a buddy read with my friends Gayathri and Sim, and it’s been quite a ride – that book has everything, I love it absolutely and it’s perfect for a buddy read. Other than that though, I’ve just been finishing up books that I’ve been reading for a long time now, and they’re great, but I’ve also already talked about them, so nothing new to say! I also finished The Enchanted April that I mentioned last time, but there will be a separate review for that one as well – I was absolutely in love with that book. You’ll hear me gush about it sometime soon!
One more thing. You may remember that I did a follow thread on Twitter a little while ago, and I just wanted to thank everyone for following me! At the beginning of last month I had barely reached 700 follows, and now I’m way over 800! That makes me so happy, and so much more motivated. Thank you all!
Okay #bookbloggers! New Year’s follow train. Haven’t done this in a year. Your links, your bookstagrams!
RT and tag friends too and I’ll follow them ❤ if you follow back I’ll love you extra much 💗
Happy Almost New Year! pic.twitter.com/vM62UHp4MA— Evelina | Avalinahsbooks (@AvalinahsBooks) December 30, 2018
~ What I’ve Been Reading ~
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has been sitting on my shelf unread for MUCH TOO LONG. Because I’m absolutely in love with it, and I’m only halfway through, but I’m already sure that barring something completely off about the ending, I will be giving it 5 stars. It’s just such an emotional ride – there are loads of laughs, but there are also sad moments where you can’t believe that this character is still alive and so strong after what you are surmising happened to her. That’s also part of the whole allure of the book – as soon as I started reading it, I realized that it was going to be one of those stories where we don’t get told what happened in the main character’s past until the very last chapters. Things are being gradually uncovered, and you keep guessing – that’s part of the fun. I love making theories when I read books – and not many books allow me to do that. We’ve also got such a quirky, incredibly different, but mysteriously relatable main character! Like, I can admit I’m a bit weird, so I wasn’t too surprised to find I was relating with Eleanor in a lot of places, but it was slightly odd to hear that both my friends who I’m buddy reading with felt the same! There’s something just so magical about a character that you know you’ll remember reading about for decades. I’m completely engrossed in this book and I can only recommend it!
[ Goodreads ]
~ What I’ve Been Bookstagramming ~
Well, my ‘real’ bookstagram has been silent this week, but my update one’s been active. First of all, my Eleanor Oliphant one – this should eventually reach my ‘real’ bookstagram!
View this post on Instagram
Then I also wanted to say goodbye to Christmas! I love this photo of our tree, and the books:
View this post on Instagram
And I also wanted to share this amazing quote from The Enchanted April:
View this post on Instagram
~ What I’ve Been Talking About ~
Last week I had two posts – a review of The Four Women, a complex dark and somewhat paranormal tale of love and loss, emotion and ambition. It was great! And I also had a guest post from Andrea @ Little Red Reviewer, about whether we are being too organized as bloggers and what that does to our wellbeing:
~ What I’ll Talk About Next Week~
Next week I should have a review of Shin in the buddy read format together with Dani @ Perspective of a Writer, and I should also have the #NewBloggersWelcome newest issue!
~ What I’ve Been Hauling ~
So how has your week been? And what are you reading? What did you haul?
As usual, I’m linking up with the Sunday post meme at Kimba’s book blog and Stacking The Shelves over at Tynga’s Reviews.
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.
Congrats on your well-deserved following growth! This is the second time this day that I’ve seen Eleanor Oliphant in a positive light. Definitely adding to my to-read books. Enjoy the weekends reading! 🙂
Thank you! And yes, you need that book! It made me laugh and cry, and it’s just so exceptional. Absolutely loved it.
Congrats on the 800 follows avalina!!! And sorry for the hard week. Hope you’re okay now. Looking forward to your elionar oliphant review
Thank you! Yes, things are better 🙂 I just finished Eleanor Oliphant and it was SO GOOD! I can recommend it with all my heart.
Sorry Evelina, that you were having some tough time. But I am glad you are better now ☺️ Yay, for oiur buddy read. We chose an amazing book and I am so happy that we all loved it equally. This ia definitely goong to be one of my top books of the year
And congrats on 800 followers. You deserve it ❤️
We did! I’m seriously incredibly happy about our choice of book for a buddy read. I’ll remember it for a long time for sure 🙂
I got an ARC of Eleanor Oliphant in 2017 and LOVED it, it was one of my five star reads for the year. Interestingly it is my most read review of all time. I am so glad to hear that you are loving it as much as I did.
It is a popular book! So lucky to get that as a review copy 🙂 I’m always super happy when one of my review copies works out like that – I feel like I’ve been lucky and received a big gift, hehe 🙂
My week has been tiring after being back at work after the holidays. I hope your week goes well next week. I hailed some great contemporary romances. I have heard great things about Eleanor Oliphant.
Megan @ reading away the days
I hope so too. I hope we both have a much better week! Thank you for visiting 🙂
Sorry you got so very derailed, Evelina – it’s horrible when it happens and I hope things are resuming to something like normality. I’ve also been AWOL this week simply because too much has been happening in my real life and I’ve decided to stop stressing when I can’t keep up with everyone, otherwise it stops being fun. Have MUCH better week!
I really hope so too. It’s hard to be always present online! Agreed, I have also come to the same conclusion. I hope we both have a much better week, and thank you so much for visiting 🙂
You so deserve the follower growth! And oof I hope the stress eases off for you *hugs* I finally broke my reading slump…at least I hope I did cause wow trying to read without the motivation is soooo hard. And it’s been happening since Aug 2017 >.> but i read The Heartbreakers by Ali Novak on Saturday and wow…just what I needed to start off the year! I also think I’ve figured out how to combat this particular reading slump, well as best as I can in that instead of taking notes, I’ll just write a review after finishing the… Read more »
Awwww Clo thank you so much 🙂 oh, and I’m so glad to hear about your reading slump being gone! Yes, agreed, motivation is KEY. Since August 2017 :O oh wow, so you basically need to break out the champagne now then, huh. LOL!
Yes, I’ve found that writing the review as I go is indeed the easiest way. It’s why I break them up into paragraphs that deal with only a particular topic 😀 it’s because I write each paragraph separately xD xD
I hope you have a wonderful week as well, thanks for commenting! <3
Sorry you’ve had such a hard week – hopefully this next week will be much kinder to you!
Eleanor Oliphant was one of my favourite books I read last year. I absolutely hated Eleanor at first but I warmed up to her quickly and found that I could relate to her so much as well. It’s like you said – there’s something magical about reading about a character you know you’re going to remember for a long time.
Hopefully! I’ve finished Eleanor Oliphant now and it’s been brilliant! So at least there’s that 🙂
I somehow warmed up to Eleanor right off the bat. She was so endearingly weird – and I could instantly see why, and where it’s all coming from. It’s such a good book!
Sucks you had a rough week but I’m glad you’re okay now.
Growing followers is hard but I find engaged followers to be even harder… Here’s to a good 2019! It’s sucked so far but there’s plenty of time to get better.
Thanks 🙂 I somehow never had trouble with engagement, thankfully (looks at all those unreplied comments…) I’ve just had trouble with the actual follows 😀
Wishing you a good 2019 as well 🙂
Nice haul !
Have a great day !
Thank you! 🙂 you too 🙂
This week has been okay, flu not taken into consideration of course. It’s the flu season anyways, and I guess I had to break my streak of 3 consecutive years healthy in January lol. I’ve only read 3 books so far, and that number is too low for my liking, but I’m hoping to catch up this week. I’m also excited for all my TV shows to come back, and as a little dare for myself (presented by my bff, bless him) I’m going to start learning how to code starting tomorrow. We’ll see how that one goes.
I’ve also only read that many! But for me I think it’s kind of much, so I’m happy with the number 😀 oh, learning to code! Good luck 🙂
I need to add Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine to my wish list! That is a gorgeous photo of your tree with the books.
Hopefully this week is less stressful. Happy reading.
Thank you! And you definitely do, that is one truly amazing book 🙂
I hope next week will be nice and free of stress, Evelina!
I have an exam tomorrow, and even if I’m very well prepared, I do feel a bit stressed…
It sounds like your buddy read is awesome! I love buddy-reading, because it’s so much fun to discuss things straight away with other readers.
Thank you! I hope so too 🙂 yes, buddy reads can be amazing! I have especially many scheduled this year 🙂
I hope Eleanor Oliphant is good. I’m still on a waitlist for that book. I’m happy that you’re enjoying it so far. Have a great week!
It’s very very good! I loved that book, just finished it last night before bed 🙂
I hope everything is fine now Evelina! And don’t worry about taking some time off, real life happen to the bests of us! I hope that next week will be better for you. Now how did I miss the post about being too organized???? Headed over there right now!
Thank you, everything is relatively better now indeed 🙂
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is one in the tbr pile that keeps getting pushed back. May have to pull it up now 😉 Have a great week.
You should totally pull it up! It’s amazing!! Have a good week too, thank you 🙂
Eleanor Oliphant has been on my TBR forever too! hoping to get around to it soon, and so glad to hear that you’re enjoying it. congrats on all the new follows, you absolutely deserve it! thank you especially for everything you do for us new bloggers
It was absolutely amazing, very recommended 🙂 and thank you!
I’m sorry things have been so stressful for you and hope this week is better, Evelina:)
Thank you, Laura!
Welcome back and congrats on the new followers! I am really excited to see your review of Shin – I need to finish it, I read half of it and then stopped for no reason X_X.
Thank you! Ah yes, I know, I do that too with books, even when I’m enjoying them so much 😀 and I don’t even know why!
Been hearing so much about the eleanor oliphant book. It’s definitely on my TBR now. Congrats on 800 follows, you deserve it and more.
Thank you! Also Eleanor is SO worth a read. I was laughing, and crying, and EVERYTHING. That book is so precious.
Buddy reads sound fun. Glad you are enjoying your book.
Thank you! Buddy reads are the best 🙂
Sorry it was a hectic week but glad to hear you’re taking care of yourself. I always love your pictures so I’m going to have to go look for you on instagram!
Aw, thank you! That’s a very sweet thing to say and you totally made me smile 🙂
I hope this week is amazing and you find more wonderful books. Way to go on all the new followers. You do so much for the new bloggers. Anne – Books of My Heart
Thank you!
That’s so exciting about Twitter, congratulations! And I love the cover of Shin! Here’s hoping the inside is just as wonderful as that beautiful cover!
It is! Yep, I also liked the covers of that series 🙂
Congratulations on the followers! I’m glad you took the week to distract yourself a bit. I hope this week has treated you much better.
Thank you! Yes, this week has been better indeed 🙂