September 2020 wrap up

Good morning bookworms!! Welcome to the September 2020 wrap up!!

September is done, so that’s another month checked off for 2020 in this seemingly endless year. And while I’m not American and don’t live in the US, I can’t help but feel that the worst for this year is not over yet. (Yes, I am talking about the upcoming election. Please register to vote, and VOTE when it is time, because every single voice makes a difference.)

I have to say, I thought I worked hard earlier in the year, but the last couple of weeks in September were intense. To be fair, I started holidays on 28 September, and thank goodness, because I really needed some time to catch up on life and blogging and READING!! Yes, September was my lowest reading month of the year. Consider this your warning for below!! All I had the brain capacity for (after working 10-12 hour days) was lying on the couch and watching TV. But I did tick off some movies and shows that I wanted to get through!! (It’s the small things, really… ?)

Anyway, let’s talk about what I did in September!!

OK, so September was a terrible (for me) reading month. I only read FIVE books. While I’m still well ahead of my Goodreads goal, I guess I just wish that I had read more. Even ticking off more graphic novels would have been good. Although, it’s probably not silly to leave them for Graphics-a-thon later this month.

As I mentioned in my TBR, I am still doing my N.E.W.T.s (?), in order to support Gintare and all of the amazing work that she put into it. But I’m now spreading it out over the rest of the year because I can.

Book	Author	Series	Symbols + ? prompt	Rating	Cover
Take a Hint, Dani Brown	Talia Hibbert	Brown Sisters #2	⛱ ❤️ ? ? ?️‍? ?‍? ?	4
Majesty	Katharine McGee	American Royals #2	⛱ ?‍♀️ ?	5
Demons	Kurtis J. Wiebe	Rat Queens #3	⚔️ ?️‍? ♿️ ? ?‍? ? ?	3
On the Wings of War	Hailey Turner	Soulbound #5	⚔️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? Potions: A	5
Well Played	Jen DeLuca	Well Met #2	⛱ ❤️ ?‍? ? Potions: E	4

My favourite book of this month goes to Majesty by Katharine McGee. Primarily, I just really love the characters, but also I’m absolutely here for that level of drama!! While it’s not “wholesome” drama, I still found it really fun and enjoyable. I have a book review for this one coming up later this month, which will go into more details on why I loved it.

General

Honestly, all I did in September was work, and then I slept my first proper day of holidays. After that I read an entire book and then went book shopping on what was deemed “Super Tuesday” here in Australia. It’s called that because we had SO MANY books come out on 29 September. For instance, Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend came out, so you can bet that I was at my local bookstore at 9am that morning looking for a copy. Sadly, the shipment was delayed so I had to come back at midday for it. They did ring me though, which was so nice!! ? ?

But… that’s really all I did!!

Gaming

I streamed The Sims 4 a couple of times in September (twitch account: twitch.tv/meeghangames). In particular I played one really long session with the new Star Wars expansion pack, Journey to Batuu. While I liked it, at the same time, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t a Star Wars fan. The missions were a bit… repetitive and clunky, and they maps were quite annoying. For example there is only one bathroom in the entire world. This means you have to keep switching camps every time you need to pee.  But I did like that you can be a smuggler, a rebel or part of the resistance.

I also started looking into what I would need in order to stream from the Switch… but it looks like I need extra tech, so I’m not sure when I will organise that.

TV and movies

Things I watched in September were:

• Jane Eyre (BBC movie)
• Emma (2020 movie)
• Mansfield Park (BBC mini series) (rewatch)
• Elementary season 1 (rewatch)
• Enola Holmes
• In the Heart of the Sea
• Anastasia
• Rise of the Guardians (rewatch)
• Dolittle
• Halloween (2018 movie)
• The Boys (season 1)
• Love, Guaranteed
• The Home Edit (season 1)
• Sing It (season 1)

I was definitely going through an Austen-type phase of watching at points during the month. (This isn’t the order that I watched things, but I’ve tried to group them into things that make sense.) I had been wanting to watch the new Emma since it came out (I didn’t love it). In actual fact, after watching it (and being completely horrified with how they destroyed the proposal scene), I went back and rewatched just the ending of the BBC miniseries version (with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller). This then sparked me rewatching Mansfield Park (also with Jonny Lee Miller), and restarting Elementary. Which then reminded me that I wanted to watch Enola Holmes and it was AMAZING!! Which was probably my favourite thing I watched all month.

When I told husband about the classics rewatch I was doing, he suggested we watch In the Heart of the Sea, which is the Moby Dick adaptation starring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Holland. And then I wanted to watch lighter things, so I watched Dolittle (I was also thinking of all the Marvel heroes I had just seen and wanted some RDJ). Which then led me to rewatch Rise of the Guardians, and then Anastasia (which, surprisingly I’d never seen before).

Husband also wanted to watch the new(ish) Halloween movie. While I’m not a fan of horror or thrillers, I can usually get by with slasher type films (think Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer) although the jump scares get me every time. But I had seen all of the previous Halloween films, so I knew what I was getting into (it was the start of my Josh Hartnett phase, ok?). Husband also wanted to watch The Boys, which while not horror, is definitely gory and very adult themed. Although, I quite enjoyed it.

And finally, I did some mindless TV viewing to wind down during my first week of holidays (there is so much of this for the October wrap-up). So I started smashing out romantic comedies, and Sing It! and also The Home Edit!! I am now obsessed and redoing my pantry this week. ? (I wish I was joking…)

Music

Honestly, I don’t even know what I listened to in September. I know I had my “concentrating” playlist on a lot, but it’s pretty much just filled with Fall Out Boy, Taylor Swift and a weird selection of other songs that I can have in the background without getting distracted.

I don’t know that I will ever stop being amazed that I am now hosting Top 5 Tuesday… so, these are the topics we did in September:

• Top 5… fave characters A-E (Where I definitely did more than 5 characters)
• Top 5… fave characters F-J (Where I 100% flaunted about 10 characters)
• Top 5… fave characters K-O (Where I ended up just ranting for far too long)
• Top 5… fave characters P-T (Where I finally did less than 10, but still cheated)
• Top 5… fave characters U-Z (Where I still didn’t stick to a limit of 5)

Apart from this it was a pretty slow blogging month. As I said before, I just worked my butt off this month to prepare for going on holidays. (I pity the poor person who has to do my job while I’m away, although I tried to get as much done as possible before going.) But I am getting organised for the rest of the year now, which is so nice!! WOOT!!

I am pretty caught up on blog-hopping, which is fantastic!! These are some of my fave posts from your blogs that I read in September:

• Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea talked about 6 important questions to ask yourself before writing a blog post
• Tracy @ Truffle’s Literary Wonders discussed how to have a healthier relationship with reading
• Isabelle @ Nine Tale Vixen shared how she takes notes while reading
• The Orang-utan Librarian looks at how on-trend they are for YA novels
• Fadwa @ Word Wonders discusses if the #ownvoices label has lost its way
• Malka @ Paper Procrastinators talks about the hidden downside of mood reading (and I agree so much with this)
• Katie @ Never Not Reading shared her thoughts on relating to characters of different races
• Kat @ Novels and Waffles shared 20 recommendations based on Camp Half Blood cabins (and even though I haven’t finished the first 5 PJO books, this brought me so much joy)

Finally, while this isn’t a bookish post, I wanted to share with you a post from Stephani @ Ms Stephani Michelle. In it, Stephani talks about how she has made changes in her life to help support her physical and mental health. This includes big things like changing her career, but also smaller things like having a wardrobe that makes you happy. Anyway, I just really loved this post, and I hope you do too. (Go for the life advice, stay for the book reviews. ?)

How was your September?