So January just flew by, but I managed to get a good bit done despite my mental health not being the greatest.
Books
I managed to finish three books this month, which puts me right near my goal. I wanted to finish 4 but I’ll take 3. I finished a lot of books I wanted to finish last year so I’m happy with that.
I loved this book even if I didn’t think it was as spooky as the first. My review of it will be up early next month.
A sweet retelling of Little Women by Hena Khan. This was the first book I finished this year and I loved it. I hope to see more like this from Hena Khan. You can find my review here.
A great middle-grade story about a girl with OCD. I gave my #ownvoices review and you can find it below. Overall I thought it was good, and approachable for the age group it was targeted at.
Readathons
I signed up for two readathons this month.
I attempted this Readathon in 2019, but it just kind of fell by the wayside. So I’m happy to give it another shot in 2020.
As CW at The Quiet Pond explains it “The aim of this challenge is to read as many books written by Asian authors as you can! These books can be backlist titles (i.e. released in 2019 or earlier), new releases, and ARCs. We welcome books of any genre, any format, and any length.”
You can find more information about it and how to join at the link below.
Also by the Quiet Pond, I signed up for The Pondathon, a very cute story-driven readathon where you create a character, mine is below. You sign up for a team, I’m Team Xiaolong, and gain points in various ways such as simply reading, posting about diverse books, or buddy reading.
Here is my character for the readathon:
You can find the signup for the Pondathon here. Please consider supporting CW (@artfromafriend). they are doing a LOT of work for this readathon.
Gaming
I’m still playing Pokemon Shield and I just beat Opal’s gym after like three times. Now I’m headed for the ice gym.
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I’m also really looking forward to Animal Crossing for the Switch coming out in a couple of months. Do you play any games? If so what system? I’ve also got a PS4 but I don’t use it as often.
Mental Health
I haven’t been feeling great mentally, so any pictures of kittens and adorable floofs are much appreciated. However, blogging and reading help. I hope you all are doing well mentally and that if you aren’t things improve for you.
I also became a Patreon for The Latest Kate, if you don’t know the name you might recognize her art. Her art always helps me feel better so I wanted to support her. Below is an example of some of her art, please consider supporting via the link below.
Overall
Overall January was a productive month for reading, gaming, and life in general. Even if my mental health wasn’t the greatest I had some good days, and I’m hoping to work from there. I can’t wait to read more in February and hope to read more books next month and help with both my readathons.
Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels
I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been doing great mental health wise; I hope things pick up for you in february!
I’ve been debating picking up pokemon shield because I love pokemon go so much and I’ve been wanting to try to play my switch more because I bought one last year and have played it probably less than 10 times. I’m also super curious about Animal Crossing.
Thanks! I really appreciate that. I talked to my disability lawyer today about my disability case and he said good things and have upped one of my mental health medications so I’m hoping everything goes well.
I love Pokemon Go as well, we should trade usernames. I really love Shield and Sword because they combine the classic plot of Pokemon with a more open world adventure.
Also you should totally pick up Animal Crossing if that’s possible. It is literally one of the cutest things known to man.