August Wrap up 2016

September 5, 2016 Marinainw0nderlandLeave a comment

My Reality

This month has been soo busy. And it flew by in no time at all. I took a week long vacation to Ventura, California. And it was amazing. I got to visit the little island of Santa Rosa, eat some incredible Italian food.After coming back from Ventura, my birthday was right around the corner. I can officially say I have been alive for 24 amazing years. This month I discovered a new book called, “The Japanese Art of Tidying Up”, and such an amazing read. Which leads me to say, I have been getting rid of my shit. There you go I said. After discovering this book and reading a little of it, I couldn’t wait to start decluttering. And its been amazing so far. Lastly, I have applied to colleges. You heard it right here, this girl is putting her big girl pants on and going to a University. ( Which one is to be determined, but the important part is that I applied right?)

Books

On too the books… This wasn’t the hottest reading month for me. But, the highlight that I have been the most proud of is that I have been keeping up to date with my “Research Methods,” textbook readings. WHOOP WHOOP!!! Textbooks are always the most hardest things for me to read and I tend to have the habit of procrastinating my text readings but, this semester things are going according to plan.

As far as all other books go, I only read 2 books at the very,very,very beginning of the month.

Safe Haven By Nicholas Sparks, I gave it a 3.75/5 . I wanted to love this book. However, I felt like it dragged on in places. The main character Katy, was well developed and had quite a deep story line to her. The male protagonist, Alex was a heart throb. He was a very attentive father and put his kids before everyone and everything. I enjoyed how the story developed around their relationship. There was a dark side to their relationship as Katie was running away from her demons that weren’t far behind. I enjoyed this book and the complexity that it brought with it. My one complain is that the story just dragged in some spots and I wish there was a little more Obsidian action scenes because there was a lot of potential for that .

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout, I gave it 2/5. This book held absolutely no meaning for me. It was fun to read, it had a little of the 90’s Rosswell vibe to it. However, it didn’t grasp my attention from the start. One day, I’ll pick up the rest of the series until then I have other things to read.

Blog Posts

There were a total of 2 blog posts this month.

#FridayReads Ventura California edition and Obsidian review. There is hope that next month there will be more #fridayreads and reviews up.

Video Posts

Lastly, there were ZERO videos posted this month. I did film, just haven’t been inspired to edit. There is hope September will be a better filming month.

Until Next Time…..

With warm cups of tea and just a few more chapters,

Rina in w0nderland

Monthly Wrap Up

March 2016 Wrap up

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016 Marinainw0nderlandLeave a comment

March wasn’t the best reading month for me. I only read two books in March. For a majority of March, I was working on my final project for my “Child Development” class and visiting my dad in the hospital.

6131164 ” A Clockwork Princess“, by Cassandra Clare. This was the 3rd and final installment of the “Infernal Devices” series. I loved this series from the very beginning and was a little sad for it to end. The ending was perfect and the book gave me all the feels.The characters really came to life, and the relationships between the characters were epic and touching all at the same time. I enjoyed seeing how Tessa’s life turned out and I had to reread the epilogue several times. I also, started reading/listening to “City of Heavenly Fire” and I felt that it really helped that I read “Clockwork Princess”, before starting “City of Heavenly Fire” because they do talk about certain relationship that occurred in “Clockwork Princess.” I gave this book a 4/5 stars.
I also read “Cress“, by Marissa Meyer. This part of the Lunar Chronicles Series. I enjoyed reading the series so far. However, this was my least favorite book so far. I just really felt there was hardly anything going on the the story and for majority of the book they were flying around in space. However, the ending of the book was amazing, and I really can’t wait to get my hands on the next book “Winter”. I was a little confusing to me at parts because there were so many different characters that had significant counterparts. In this novel, many of the characters were separated from their counterpart and I had a hard time keeping up with which characters were together. I gave “Cress”, a 3/5 stars.

Stay tuned, for my April TBR, which I am hoping to have up this week.

Until next time, warm cups of tea and just a few more chapters!

Rina

Monthly Wrap Up

January 2016 Wrap -Up

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016 Marinainw0nderlandLeave a comment

Hey Bibliomanics,

Its been a hot minute. The last week of January and the first week of February was attack of the flu. That is the main reason that there hasn’t been posts up in the last week. I am glad to announce that I am feeling so much better and I am ready to tackle February.

Reading: In January I read a total of 3 books. And I have reviewed 2/3 of those books. ( The reviews & Discussion will be linked below.)

Grey: I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. It was a bit of a downfall for me because I was expecting to learn more about Christian’s childhood. Even though, I got a glimpse of it, I had higher expectations. I didn’t feel like their needed to be a retelling from Christian’s point of view of the entire book. I did find some parts enjoyable such as learning about Christian’s business and seeing some of the difficulties Christian had to face as a child. However, I only gave this book a 3/5 stars because I felt it was just too drawn out with very little new information to give to the reader. (Discussion)

Scarlet: This book was very enjoyable. I had a hard time getting used to the changes in POV between Cinder and Scarlett. That took a while for me to switch over from one to the other but once I got used to it the book was very enjoyable. The relationship between Wolf and Scarlett was simply perfect. I loved Wolf. He was very witty and had a good guy/bad boy vibe and I am a huge sucker for the bad boy vibe. As always Cinder was badass and I just enjoyed seeing how her story intertwined with Scarlet’s. There was also a huge mystery element in this book which made it even more enjoyable. I gave it a 4/5 stars.

Clockwork Princess: I listened to this one on audio book. I loved, loved, loved the narrator. This book just slightly didn’t make the cut to be a 5 star read, mainly because there were a few parts in the 6131164 book that dragged one. The relationships between the characters were so strong and complicated that it made it hard for me to stop listening to the story. I loved Jem and by the end of the book I began to love Will as well. I fell head over heels Jem. But, overall the book was great. I loved the love triangle, which I don’t say very often. The romantic relationship between Henry and Charlotte, was beautiful, simply because it was so pure. Charlotte supported Henry in all his inventive ideas no matter how obscene they may have seemed to everyone else. That was something that seemed so powerful to me. Also, Tess’s characters as always came out to be so selfless and strong that I couldn’t help but admire her. My heart ached for her as well as she had to face so many difficulties regarding the ones she loved. But, this book was beautifully written and is my favorite out of the “Infernal Devices” trilogy. I gave this one a 4/5 stars. (Review to come.)

Movies/TV: This month I watched several movies that that I throughly enjoyed and meddled in some tv shows.

Cross roads Crossroads: I love this movie. This has been one of my favorites since it came out in 2002. It stars Britney Spears, Taryan Manning, and Zoe Saldana, as 3 childhood best friends who reunite on a road trip after graduation. There is friendship and a mystery boy involved. Like I said I love this movie, it has some of Britney’s hit singles such as “I love Rock and Roll”, “I am not a Girl” and “Overprotected”.

The Lady in the Van:

This one was one of my favorites this month. I have a f Lady in the Van Poster ull movie review on this movie. I thought it was great, Maggie Smith was an amazing Miss.Shephard. She played a little old lady, who had her set ways and lived in a yellow van. It was humorous and full of love. I adore Maggie Smith, and this movie was very heartfelt. I highly recommend everyone to check it out.

Kangaroo Jack:

I have a feeling that I fell asleep in the middle of this movie. So, I don’t have all that much Kangaroo Jack to say about it. The parts that I did watch I found very funny. It follows two friends that are sent to deliver money to the mob in Australia. The money is put into a jacket pocket, and the jacket ends up on a Kangaroo. And so the movie follows the adventures of these two friends as they try to track down the Kangaroo to get back the money. ( I think I need to re-watch this one.)

Angel Season 1:

This is another one of my favorites. This is the spine off tv show, from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. It follows Angel-TV-Series Buffy’s love interest Angel as he protects the citizens of Los Angeles after leaving Sunnydale. I love this show. Angel is such an awesome character. I love seeing how he comes to terms with the loss of his relationship with Buffy. He tries really hard to make up for his sins, by saving the people of Los Angeles. I really like that there is a detective feel and not just exploring the supernatural. There are two characters that join Angel from Sunnydale, a watcher- Wesley and Sunnydale’s popular cheerleader Cordelia Chase. I’ve been enjoying re-watching this show. Plus who doesn’t like a hunk who protects citizens from the night?

Girl Meets World Season 1:

This show I stumbled on accidentally. I have heard Girl Meets World about a spin off from the 1993 “Boy meets World”, starring Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel. This follows their daughter, Riley and her best friend Maya as they run into adventures and learn life long lessons. It is a Disney channel produced show, so there is a lot of kid friendly content and a typical Disney feel to it. However, I did find it to be enjoyable and I loved seeing Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel, and how their characters have grown through out the years. I think that its worthy checking out for the Topanga and Corey fans and its a nostalgic feel to fans of the original show. (Don’t expect it to have the same feel, as it is very much 2000’s Disney. )

General:

In general life news, I am officially back in school so juggling blogging and assignments is a little bit of a struggle but I am committed to at least one post a week.

Secondly, I went back to yoga and I have been loving it. I have been currently doing hot yoga and have been working on mastering the sequences with closed eyes as part of a meditational and balance practice. I am not quit there yet. I have also signed up for the February Yoga Six challenge where you try to go to 29 classes. I know that I won’t be going to all 29 but I want to go as many times as I can this month. The main goal is over 5. Secondly, this months practice focus is primarily mastery of the hot yoga class. (And possibly some meddling in running/walking. We will see how that goes.)

How’s was your January? If you wrote a January Wrap- up leave a link in the comments down below I would love to check it out. Let me know what you watched or read. As always if you have any recommendations or requests for reviews please leave it in the comments or for review inquires e-mail me at: marinareviewsbooks@gmail.com. I love connecting with all of you.

Warm cups of tea, and too just a few more chapters.

Marina