Hi everyone! Today I’m going to tell you all about the books I’ve read and other general entertainment stuff I’ve enjoyed. But before all that, it’s Memorial Day in the US so I’ll take a moment to remember all the American soldiers that died while in service to the country.

And onto the post!

Books

Well, um, book.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

I absolutely love Maas’ writing and novels, and I adored her ACOTAR series. So when she announced a novella I had to get my hands on it. I even preordered it. I’d rather hoped she would do a book tour and include Chicago or Milwaukee in it but she hasn’t and I don’t expect her to since I believe she’s due to have her baby this month (if she hasn’t given birth yet, I may have missed it or perhaps she hasn’t updated yet).

I did give this book 4 out of 5 stars as I thought the story was charming and sweet. It is a novella so obviously it wasn’t the action packed, high drama novel we’re used to but it was a great continuation of the story and a peek into the character’s lives. I believe there’s two more novellas and I can’t wait to read them as well as the rest of the Throne of Glass series.

This is the 6th book I’ve read this year, out of my goal of 25 so I think I may have to lower my Goodreads goal quite a bit. School has really taken a lot of time this year!

Musical

This month I saw a children’s theatre group perform Singin’ in the Rain Jr. at a local venue, which I did review already! I came across an instagram story post to a local town’s story and so that’s how I found out about it. I was worried I’d missed it but I saw they were still performing the following weekend so I rounded up my mother and dragged her to go see it with me! What a lovely daughter I am.

TV Shows

The first show I technically watched in April but it was at the end of the month after the post was up so I’m including it here. I started watching Wild Wild Country on Netflix after a coworker recommended it. It basically centers around an Oregon based cult and how it started and grew. It’s crazy to think of how the cult members were able to take over the town and establish themselves.

The next item was My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman on Netflix. I watched the Tina Fey episode on purpose and then the autoplay pulled up the Jay Z episode. I have loved Tina Fey’s work for awhile, as I remember watching clips of her Sarah Palin skits on SNL during my AP US Government class in high school and then watching 30 Rock a few years ago. I also loved her book Bossypants and so much more of her work (Mean Girls, Sisters, etc.). I find her hilarious and her interview was amazing. Letterman also took a trip out to Chicago as Fey started her career with the Second City Improv Group in Chicago. One of the most moving parts was when Fey started talking about how she accepted an award because she was advised to do so while her parents were still alive. Unfortunately her father passed away soon after that so she clearly was relieved that she did, as he was able to see her accept it.

Then the Jay Z episode was interesting too. I know very, very little about Jay Z, just that he’s a singer and that he’s married to another famous singer (I want to say Beyonce but I could be completely wrong?). It was very interesting. He seemed to have a not-so-good upbringing, and he seemed very down-to-earth. Unfortunately he started to defend Kim Kardashian’s husband whom I despise a lot, so I did lose quite a bit of respect for him that he’d gained over the interview but ah well. I did intend to listen to his music and give it a try but that didn’t happen as I completely forgot.

I also finally watched more of Altered Carbon so I finally finished episode 3. I think it’s still very interesting but it is a show that requires attention and so it’s not a good one to play while I’m blogging or cleaning or anything so it’ll take awhile to get through. I’ve also almost finished season one of One Day at a Time and I think I’m on season 3 of Liv and Maddie.

Podcasts

I’ve made it to about episode 16 of Up and Vanished which is a podcast about a cold case near Atlanta, Georgia. A few people at work have been listening to it as well and so I’m trying to catch up since I believe two finished it awhile ago and the third finished it a few days ago. I think it does feel like it doesn’t go very fast because not every episode is about the case, there’s also Q&A’s as well as episodes based on specific case evidence. However one of my coworkers told me that they solve the case really fast and I was confused because it seemed like we were no where close and the host was even saying that he might not wrap everything up in one season as it was still an ongoing investigation but now I get it.

Mobile Games

 

Update time for Ava Samwise Quagmire! I’ve been playing Hogwarts Mystery since it was released and am really invested in my character’s, Ava, Hogwarts education. She is now a third year student banned from going to Hogsmead (surprise, surprise) because she causes too much trouble (again, so much surprise). She’s decent at Herbology and going to be bffs with Tonks, still hates Merula, and considers Barnaby or whatever his name is to be painfully dumb after one conversation. How that boy made it into Slytherin is beyond me. I think Transfiguration and Charms are her favorite classes so far. She and Rowan haven’t had any major Harry/Ron fights yet but I’m getting slightly concerned that they’ll come. I feel like she could be making more of an effort to be friends with Ben and Penny as we’re third years and they are both still at level 2 friendship I believe.

Music

In preparation for the TSwift concert coming up, I’ve been listening to Camilla Cabello’s album Camilla. I am really enjoying it but much like the Reputation album it takes some getting used to. She has such a different sound though that I’m really enjoying. I really love both “Havana” and “Never Be The Same” but I’m also exploring other songs on her album and if you’re interested I’ll do an album review like I did for Reputation.

YouTube

So I do have three favorites for you this month. First up is Simone Giertz who “builds shitty robots” according to her channel. She is hilarious as she builds robots to perform tasks and they don’t always succeed, at least, not in the way they were intended to. She is going to have surgery this week to remove a brain tumor and she’s been incredibly optimistic in the face of it. Normally I don’t leave outside links on my blog posts unless it’s a referral link or a link to a blogger that I know and want to promote, but I really enjoy her channel so I have linked it above. I would highly recommend it!

Next I wanted to mention Shane Dawson’s videos with Bunny from Grav3yardGirl. When I first saw his series pop up as recommended about washed up YouTubers and trying to help them rebrand I thought it was a jokey sort of video but after my sister told me it was completely serious I tried it. I really ended up loving the series and although I’d never been subscribed to Grav3yardGirl I really enjoyed getting to know her and see her life. So I did subscribe to her now and can’t wait to see more of her channel.

Lastly I want to recommend EmmmaBooks’ video on how she decorated her graduation cap. I know have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to ideas for mine next year! She did a Shadow Hunters themed cap which was really creative and nice. I haven’t quite decided what I want mine to be like but so far I’m leaning towards a flower crown of sorts on the fabric under the cap as I feel that it might be a little more subtle and look neater. But at the same time I would like to put a quote on it from either a book that I’ve enjoyed (like something from the Harry Potter series) or a musical (like Hamilton perhaps). There’s so many possibilities!

Oh, and honorable mention to all the Detroit: Become Human playthroughs I’ve been watching on YouTube as well. The game looks incredible and I am really enjoying seeing all the possibilities!

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And there you have it! My month in terms of all things entertainment related! Let me know what you’ve been watching/listening to this month and if we have any in common.

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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