The first month of 2017 is in the bag! Woo! What a month. The upside for me this month is today being my birthday and my family surprising me with a road trip visit to Washington D.C. to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture which was absolutely fantastic! So before I list the highlights of the blog this month, check out a handful of photos from my museum visit. Also, if you plan on visiting this museum, be sure to get there when it opens so that you can spend all day there and if you want to take your time and see everything, consider making this a two day trip!
Book Reviews
* Flying Lessons and Other Stories Edited by Ellen Oh (Audiobook)
* Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Illustrated by Cliff Chiang & Matthew Wilson (Graphic Novel)
* The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon (Audiobook)
* The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri (Audiobook)
E-book/Book/ARC/Audiobook Haul
* Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
* Caraval by Stephanie Garber
* Snowbirds by Crissa-Jean Chappell
* The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt
* The Life Fantastic by Liza Ketchum
Movie, Blu-ray, DVD, & TV Reviews
* Blu-ray: Bad Moms
* Movie: All We Had
* DVD: The Story of God with Morgan Freeman Season One
* TV: Face Off All Stars (Syfy) Season 11 Premiere
* TV: Insecure (HBO) Season One Digital HD
January Notes
* I’m really proud of my How to Read Widely: A Guide post and hope that it helps readers everywhere. I’m no artist so the info-graphic is so basic ha ha but the content itself, I really hope gets to the readers who are truly looking to figure out how to read as widely as they possibly can.
* I shared my favorite lines from We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
* My Top Ten 2017 Debuts I’m Excited For list was filled with lots of contemporary titles. A shock for this sci-fi gal! I also participated in Top Ten 2016 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To And TOTALLY Plan To Read This Year.
* This is how I read a book in a day if you’re wondering!
* “Celebrity Memoir Done Right” is a new feature around here. So far, I’ve talked about Lauren Graham’s Talking As Fast As I Can.
* Loot Crate put the spotlight on ORIGINS this month. Peep that Action Comics #1 Reprint with authentication included! Woo!
Books I Read
If you’d like to keep track of my reading progress as it happens and reviews as they are posted, feel free to follow me on Goodreads!
E-Books I Read on My Kindle:
1. Places I Never Meant To Go by Shay Lynam
2. My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir by Garry Marshall
Audiobooks I Own / Received For Review That I Listened To:
1. Flying Lessons and Other Stories Edited by Ellen Oh
2. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
3. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham
4. The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
6. Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer
Library Books (Physical & E-books) That I Read:
1. The Magnolia Story by Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines with Mark Dagostino
2. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
3. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
4. Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Library Audiobooks That I Listened To:
1. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Note: Check out this trailer for the movie adaptation)
2. The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham
3. InterWorld by Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves
Short Stories/Novellas That I Read:
1. Shine by Jodi Picoult
My favorite five reads this month: My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir by Garry Marshall, The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon, The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, and The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Movies & Documentaries I Watched
Watched in January 2017
The Shallows (Netflix DVD)
Swiss Army Man (Netflix DVD)
Now You See Me 2 (Netflix DVD)
The End of the Tour (Netflix DVD)
The Secret Life of Pets (Netflix DVD)
Storks (Netflix DVD)
Playing It Cool (Netflix DVD)
Coherence (Netflix DVD)
Snowden (Netflix DVD)
My favorite movies this month: Coherence, Snowden, The End of the Tour
Until next month, happy reading and viewing!