Monthly Highlights - October 2016

I'm so glad I live in a world that has Octobers.

~ Anne Of Green Gables ~   

   Just had to say that *nods*.

   My October was insane. In all the best ways (I think this has been one of my favorite months this year!) but still insane. Which means it should be quite fun to write about *nods*.

   - Had our awesome friends over to hang out - which resulted in me getting my hair curled and then climbing trees (and jumping out of them - my face nearly met the ground on that one). 'Twas fun XD.

   - Going to Vala's Pumpkin Patch, which was pretty fun. Except for when it started raining lemondrops and gumdrops at the end. I got wet, just sayin'. We went to another pumpkin patch later in the month with relatives that were in town, which was also fun.    

   - Celebrated my little sister's second birthday (I love her so much <3) and my younger sister's golden birthday (which was tons of fun!) 

   - Had relatives from Arkansas over for a week, which was basically the best part of this month. I was so sad when the had to leave :(. But we had a blast while they were here - going to the zoo, a pumpkin patch, a trunk-or-treat, lots of fun stuff *nods*.

photo credit goes to Ariel

   - Shared my first bit of story-writing on here with you guys (10 Till Midnight)

   - Plotting for NaNoWriMo. Or - more like ... thinking about plotting for NaNo. I'm too lazy for that stuff (plus I feel like I kill the idea by planning it, so ...). I'm pantsing NaNoWriMo XD.

   - Did multiple lead-up-to-NaNo posts, which were super fun. Those were some of my favorites posts I wrote this month *nods*.  

   - Collected pictures for NaNo. Started a journal for NaNoWriMo 2016 (in a Harry Potter notebook, so bonus points for that). Made a collage for my story and set it as the background on my computer. BASICALLY EVERYTHING NANOWRIMO. The end.

Ze collage. 

Four of the books I read wouldn't fit on the collage, but oh well *shrugs*.

   Look, I actually kept track of them this month! Awesome *nods*. AND with how many books I read this month I can't tell you about all of them - but I will give you my thoughts of a few of them.

   - (whole series) The Hunger Games (hy Suzanne Collins) OH, my goodness. You guys. I don't know why I waited so long to read these books! It was an amazing series and I whizzed through the first book in just one day (plus I own it, and it looks awesome on my shelf). I think that the second book, Catching Fire, was my favorite. Mockingay, which I still loved, was probably my least favorite. Mostly because I got confused around the climax. It was confusing. ANYWAYS. Hunger Games got 4 stars, Catching Fire got 4 1/2, and Mockingjay got 4.

   - Stars Above + Cress (by Marissa Meyer) Stars Above is an adorable book that is a companion to the Lunar Chronicles series - I loved reading it! All the short stories were so fun to read (the last one was my favorite, just saying XD). And CRESS! I might have sorta kinda skimmed this book on my first time through (mostly because I really wanted to read Winter), but then I got yelled at for not fully reading it (Cress fangirls, you guys. Scary people *nods*) and so I skipped off to pick it up again. IT WAS EPIC. I can't believe I skimmed it the first time. Stars Above got 4 stars, and Cress got 4 1/2.

   - The Girl Who Fell Under Fairyland And Led The Revels There (by Catherynne M. Valente) THIS SERIES, YOU GUYS. I read the entire series this month (minus the first book, which is *takes a deep breath* The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making. I read that one last month ... I think) and I LOVED it. The whole series had the feel of a slightly darker Alice In Wonderland, which was SO much fun. And the ENDING! Guys, I'm so picky about how a series ends. And this one ended PERFECTLY. I could rave for a lot longer, but I should probably stop XD. Anyways. I would tell you how many stars each book in this series got ... but do you see the title? They're all like that. I'm not typing them all out. I'd give the whole series about 4 1/2 stars.

   - Savvy (Ingrid Law) I originally picked up this book just for the name (I have a friend who calls me Savvy a lot *nods*) but it turned out to be really good! The writing and the plot were both a lot better than I thought they would be, so I ended up giving this one 4 stars. Quite a happy surprise! 

   - Six Of Crows (Leigh Barduro) Honestly, I picked this one up because of all the hype. And really? It didn't live up to the hype. I felt like I was having to shovel through the first half-or-so of the book. But I kept going because I wanted to tell you guys what I thought of it by the end. Over halfway through the story it got a little better, but I'm going to give it 2 stars. Not sure if I'm going to give the second book in the series a chance or not.

   ALSO I won a giveaway for a box set of the Lord Of The Rings series at the end of September (all the happiness!) and the books look gorgeous on my shelf. Thank you so much, Deborah! (and go check out her blog, she is epic *nods*)

   And the there was the books haul. The very, very large book haul. I think I got, like ... maybe fifteen books? I can't even remember XD. And then I got these epic boxes that look like books - here, I'll show you a picture of some of the stuff.

   SO the other books didn't want to fit in the picture (they are finicky), so you get pictures of these ones. I finally (finally!) found myself a cute little copy of The Hobbit + a hardcover of Anne Of Green Gables + the purple book box + all the other lovely things *nods*.    

   - The Q&A Tag. Second tag this month - 'twas fun.  

   - 8 Days To NaNo - My Thoughts. Me and my brain and fingers don't agree when it comes to NaNo. We had an interesting conversation. 

   - 5 Things I Learned In Europe - Guest Post By Micaiah Saldana. My lovely friend agreed to do a guest post for me!

   - 10 Till Midnight - Spooky Story Challenge. The first piece of my actual 'story-writing' that I've made public. 0.0

   - 18 Days To NaNo - My Plan. Yup. I spilled all my secrets. Go read the secrets.

   - The Get To Know Me Tag. Self explanatory *nods*.

   - Beautiful Books 2016 - Introduce Your Novel, where I spill not-so-much about my stories because I'm pantsing NaNoWriMo.

   - Interview With Authoress Tessa Emily Hall ... I feel like the title speaks for itself on this one.


   - Purposeful Pages Linkup - October Edition, in which it is somehow October. Go figure.

   - Katie Grace shared about her NaNoWriMo novel, Where The Shadows Lie, which sounds like it's going to be ah-mazing.     
   - Hannah White wrote an epic post about not being able to ruin your story that I SO needed to read.

   - Deborah O' Carroll also shared her NaNoWriMo novel, The Library In The Stars. I need to have this book *nods*.

   - Nadine Brandes wrote about 10 bookish items for your writing space. I need them all, oh yes.

-- Last month's goals --

   - Thirty followers. *blinks* Somehow that happened. Thank you to all my wonderful followers!

   - Plotting my NaNoWriMo novels. Eh ... nope. I have surrendered to the insanity that is pantsing NaNoWriMo *raises white flag*.

    - Turn one of my poems into a song. So this didn't work out. But October was a whirlwind, so I totally have an excuse *nods*. 

-- This month's goals -- 

   - ACE NANOWRIMO. That is the only goal. The most insane goal. I can do this. You can do this. We'll all do this! *highfive*  *passes around the ice cream* Oh wait, one more goal ...

   - No requesting library books. This will be so insanely hard. I mean, did you guys see how many books I read this month? It was a lot. And now (since big nasty NaNo decided to barge in) I'M NOT GOING TO REQUEST ANY MORE IN NOVEMBER. The only library books I'll get are the ones I already have waiting. We'll see if this goal gets met or not XD. 

   And that was my insane October. I don't know how the next month could be any more crazy, but I bet it will be. If I don't survive, blame NaNoWriMo XD. See you guys in November! 

~ Savannah Grace

   How was your October? Did you do much NaNo - prepping (are you NaNo-ers freaking out about tomorrow?!)? What was your favorite book you read? What are some books I should read in November? (I need suggestions!)