Thursday, December 20, 2012

Update Thursday #16

I got the idea for Update Thursday from the amazingly wonderful Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting an update on my reading, writing, what’s going on at the blog, and anything else I think is worth mentioning.


FINISHED READING:



Photobucket

Naughty or Nice? by Stephanie Bond from the Under the Mistletoe collection {GoodReads}
Mistletoe in Manhattan by Talli Roland
{GoodReads}
 Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi {GoodReads}

CURRENTLY READING:
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins {GoodReads}

ON THE BLOG:
On the weekend I posted my Stacking the Shelves - it was my birthday edition #1 because I showcased the books I bought for myself for my birthday. This weekend I'll show you guys what I got as gifts for my birthday!

I reviewed Splintered by AG Howard and gave it 5 stars. This book...you guys...if you're a fan of Alice in Wonderland, and/or enjoy books with action, romance, amazing characters, beautiful writing, and incredible world-building, you need to pre-order this book. It comes out January 1st! 
As you can see above, I've been on a Christmas book kick, so I dedicated the first half of this week to Christmas reviews. On Monday, I reviewed Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (4 stars), The Christmas Strike by Nikki Rivers (4 stars), and I did three mini reviews: Mistletoe in Manhattan by Talli Roland (4 stars), Naughty or Nice? by Stephanie Bond (4 stars), and Christmas Kisses by HM Ward (3 stars).

WRITING:
Well, I said I was going to take December off writing after a very stressful writing month in November, but a week or so ago I got an idea for a Christmas story, and I started writing it on Tuesday. I've finished 2 chapters - a little over 5,000 words. I'm thinking it will likely be novella length, but I'm just going to go with it and see where it takes me. I have almost a year to write and revise it - I figure I'll publish it next November. I'm really excited about it and I'm having fun writing it, so I'm hoping I can finish it this month or next while I'm feeling the holiday spirit.

ALL THE REST:
It's been a busy week. Sunday was my birthday, Monday I got a bunch of work done, Tuesday I went shopping for everything I'd need for Christmas dinner, and then went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 at night with my childhood bff, and Wednesday I got some blog stuff done and wrote a chapter of the Christmas story I just mentioned. 

For my birthday, my sister-in-law and nephews came over for the afternoon and we had lunch, cake, presents, and watched The Santa Clause 3. It was a lot of fun. We took a ton of pictures; it's usually a nightmare trying to get the boys to pose for pictures - they're 10 and 2, so you can imagine how difficult it is to get them both looking at the camera at the same time, let alone both smiling or not making faces. We ended up with some hilarious candid shots and also some fantastic posed shots that I was really happy with. I'm hoping we can do more at Christmas, but I think I may be pushing my luck hoping for two good 'photo shoots' in a row lol. 


Breaking Dawn...I know what some of you are thinking: "Why, Marie, WHY?!" And I say: don't judge!! lol I personally loved the books...mind you, I read them before I became a blogger and became more...'discerning' I guess you could say. The thing is, for the most part I'm really easy to please when it comes to books. I don't have the issues that a lot of other people have (love triangles, instalove, etc) - for instance, the people who thought Edward was a stalker and that Bella was a whiny little bitch...I didn't notice that/feel that. The movies on the other hand...I've had a love/hate relationship with the movies. I think the casting was done poorly, and the acting in the first movie was so bad, it was almost painful to watch. It's so awkward that I find myself squirming or groaning at times just because it's SO BAD. However - and this is just my opinion - each movie has gotten better (even if the acting at times is still cringe-worthy), and I really enjoyed Breaking Dawn Part 2. I've seen every single movie in the theatre with my childhood best friend, and I couldn't not see this one. I actually even cried at the end, although I cry super easily - during commercials, TV shows, movie trailers, you name it. It's actually kind of a joke in my family...my sister-in-law picked out two beautiful cards for my birthday - one for Sister and one for Aunt - and she purposely picked ones she hoped would make me cry and then she sat there with my camera and waited for me to cry lol. But yeah, I really enjoyed it, and it was strange knowing it was the last one. Now all I can wonder is what will be the next big thing? Beautiful Creatures? The Mortal Instruments? Something different? What do you think?

How has your week been so far? What have you been up to? Any blog posts you're particularly proud of that you think I should come see? What have you been reading? Watching? Have you seen Breaking Dawn Part 2?


2 comments:

  1. happy belated birthday!! ( i'm sorry i missed it!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. So. I'm slap happy and I'm choosing right now to comment on this post since I somehow forgot to get back to it Thursday when I first saved the link to read it after work... (run on sentence...) ANYWAYS.

    Cannot cannot cannot wait to hear what you thought of Through The Ever Night. :) And I can't wait to see what you think of Lola and the Boy Next Door too! GAH! I NEED TO READ STEPHANIE PERKINS! Blast my overloaded reading pile.

    I think your writing project sounds great--it's laid back since it doesn't have a deadline and that will probably make it be a great story in the end because you won't be rushing around and you can work out all the details. (that was another run on sentence and I'm not sure if it made sense...) I can't wait to see it!

    I love the family pictures! The boys are such cutie pies. :)

    I still need to see Breaking Dawn Pt 2... I usually see them with MY childhood best friend, lol. But she hasn't brought it up. I should ask her, we're going to run out of time for it! I think Mortal Instruments will be a big one, although Beautiful Creatures might be too (I don't think as big though). Once you read Mortal Instruments, you'll see. I tried reading Beautiful Creatures and I couldn't get into it. I honestly don't remember anything about it.

    (OMG this was a long comment... I'm shutting up now!)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting Ramblings of a Daydreamer! I love hearing what you have to say, and I appreciate every single comment. I hope to see you here again soon! ♥
~Marie

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...