July Round-up

Oh well, no wonder I’m doing a July round-up so late because I haven’t been blogging that much either. Plus, there’s not much to round up, at least in book section. 😀 I was a slow reader in July with only 2.5 books and 2 short stories read, sniff. I’d say I’ll read more in August, but my promises have been turned to ashes so far, and August’s almost over sooo.

What I’ve Read in July + August TBR

Oh boy, here we go. The two books I’ve read are both ARCs, My Plain Jane, and Kingdom of Ash and Soot. Both reviews are coming soon, but I liked the first one significantly more. I’ve also read two short stories by Shirley Jackson, because I loved We Have Always Lived in the Castle so much I wanted to explore her other work. The stories are The Summer People and The Lottery. I loved both, they have an ominous feeling of dread hanging over them until the last page, but the novel was better, so both got a 4/5 from me. I’ll probably read The Haunting of Hill House next.

I’ve only bought one book in July (sigh), and it’s Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. I’m currently finishing Uprooted by the same author and I’m loving it!

What will I read in August, hmm? Well I’m finishing both Uprooted and I’ll Be Gone in the Dark at the moment, then I have some buddy reads scheduled for The Silent Companions and Heart-Shaped Box, and I want to try and tackle an ARCs that is coming out in September, And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness. Will I make it? I don’t know and I don’t care, I’ll just do my best. 🙂

TV/Movies

Since I neglected my reading duties, I had a lot of time to plow through some old and new TV shows. I finally finished Charmed, and as this was my first time ever watching the last few episodes (I was constantly delaying it), I was heartbroken. It wasn’t as sleazy as I though it would be, and it certainly made me chop some onions. Speaking of Charmed, what do you guys think of the reboot? I really don’t think it’s necessary, as they could have just created a fresh witchy TV show instead of recycling something that has a cult following and status. Rebooting movies is enough, why do we have to do it to our beloved shows too?

Next I binged the new Orange is the new Black season, and I loved it! I love that show so much, but the waiting is killing me as I usually binge the whole season in one day. After Charmed I decided to re-watch My name is Earl, which used to be one of my favorites when I was a teen, and it still rocks, I needed some laughs. But my current obsession is called Castle Rock. I’m seriously hooked, and even though I haven’t read more than 3 King books, I recognize some stuff from other movies, and I’m watching each episode twice to pick everything up.

Some shows I’m looking forward to in the upcoming months are: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (I realize this completely contradicts my Charmed rant, but this one has a chance to turn out better), the new seasons of Outlander (Let the sobbing commence), Better Call Saul (Already started but I’ll have to wait) and Mindhunter (Plot and release date kept strictly under wraps), and A Discovery of Witches, which may or may not change my views of the (Bleh) book.

In the movie section things were pretty okay: Life of the Party was funny, but I adore Melissa McCarthy so I’m biased, my rating on IMDB: 8/10. My Friend Dahmer is something I needed to watch as a true crime aficionado, and now I’m eager to read the graphic novel it was based upon. Ross Lynch did a terrific job of portraying young Dahmer exhibiting the first sociopathic signs that will lead him on a killing spree. My rating on IMDB: 7/10. I really liked the new Tomb Raider, and I don’t get people snapping at it and at Alicia Vikander. Yes, she has smaller boobies, get over it. I loved the plot, and the origin story, and I hope they’ll do more movies. My rating on IMDB: 8/10. The last movie I watched was a twist on the slasher genre which was better than I expected it to be. Tragedy Girls is cool, a bit campy, but all in all a fun watch. My rating on IMDB: 7/10. Oh, and I re-watched Wonder, sob sob. My rating on IMDB: 8/10.

Music

My hiatus actually started when I went to a four-day music festival, which required some serious recovery, and after which I kind of went slack in every area possible. The festival was great though, it’s EXIT festival, the largest and most popular of its kind in Serbia, and a lot of foreigners come each year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard of it. It’s located on the Petrovaradin fortress in Novi Sad, and there are many stages with different kinds of music, like techno, drum & bass, metal, rock, reggae, latino, etc. If you ask me, it’s getting worse each year, because they used to bring big names in different genres of music, but lately it’s mostly focused on techno, which kids like and I hate. I did manage to dig up some bands/djs I love though. Fever Ray was cool, Dog Eat Dog too, but I had the most fun on electronic acts (ah the irony). Delta Heavy threw a massive d&b party, and Zhu is my new obsession. I danced my feet off and drank a decent amount of beer. It was fun.

Warning: a lot of nekkid people in the video.

Other

Other than that, I didn’t do much except work work work. I did play Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, and I don’t really have much to say about it, because it’s awful. Should I do a rant review to warn all of you unsuspecting HP fans? Maybe I will. Now I’ll get to catching up on all posts I’ve missed, because there’s so much, and I want to read it all. 🙂 What have you guys been up to in July? If you even remember, haha. 🙂 Happy reading everyone! ❤