Weekly Wrap-Up: 12/23 – 1/5

So I took a little break last week with this post. Ya know, ’cause of all of those holidays in a row and all that. But I’m back on schedule!

The last couple of weeks have actually been pretty good, both with my reading and with my posting. Particularly with my posting. And especially with how busy the last couple of weeks have been with all of the holiday stuff going on. I was kinda busy.

But yeah, I’ll stop talking. On with the wrap-up!

Tuesday 12/24: Christmas Eve

I already said it during the last Weekly Wrap-Up I did – but Merry Christmas Eve!! 🦌🎅🔔🕯️ As I do every year, I spent this day hanging up a storm. So many cookies!

Wednesday 12/25: Christmas Day

I didn’t post at all during the rest of the week of the 23rd, unfortunately, so I didn’t really get to say Merry Christmas. So I’m gonna say it now: Merry Christmas!! 🎄🎁❄️🌟 I hope everybody had a great holiday, if you celebrate. Once again, it was super nice to see and spend time with family. It’s always the highlight for me this time of year.

Monday 12/30: Birthstone Book Covers

Last Monday, I participated in my favorite monthly post, Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a fun little post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.

Each month, for the post, you feature book covers that are either the same color of the month’s birthstone or include the color in the title. This month was December, and its birthstones are tanzanite, zircon and turquoise. So the colors are all different shades of blue.

Birthstone Book Covers: December 2024

Tuesday 12/31: New Year’s Eve / End of the Year Book Tag

Tuesday was the last day of 2024. So, to everyone, here’s a belated Happy New Year’s Eve!! 🎇🎆 So, since it was the last day of the year, I decided to do a post that kind of focused on the end of the year (even if it ended up kind of late to do this particular post).

The post I did was the End of the Year Book Tag. It was created by Ariel Bissett over at YouTube. There are six questions, and the tag focuses on reflecting on the past year’s reading, as well as looking forward to future reading.

End of the Year Book Tag

Wednesday 1/1: New Year’s Day / To 2025 Post

Last Wednesday was the first day of 2025! Happy New Year’s Day!! 🥂🍻🕛🎉 I hope that everyone’s had a nice start to the new year so far!

On New Year’s Day, I did my first post of 2025. It was basically what I usually do: a little ruminating on the past year mixed with some of my goals for the coming year.

To 2025: Happy New Year

Saturday 1/4: Summerfall & Homecoming Reviews

On Saturday, I finally got around to posting another book review. Or reviews technically in this case? Whatever. Anyway, it was the first time I posted a book review in close to two weeks.

For the novella I read, Summerfall, I gave it ★★★✯☆. It was the prequel novella to Winterspell by Claire Legrand. And for the short story I read, Homecoming, I rated it ★★★★☆. Homecoming was a sort of extra epilogue to Winterspell.

Summerfall & Homecoming Reviews

Sunday 1/5: December Reading 2024

Yesterday, I posted my monthly reading wrap-up for December 2024. It was thankfully at a reasonable time, this time around. For those who don’t know, monthly wrap-ups are when I go over the books I read over the past month, as well as my stats over on The StoryGraph.

Monthly Wrap-Up: December Reading 2024

Books I Read Last Week

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, I think I did okay the last couple of weeks with regards to reading and posting. I actually planned to take a bit of a break anyway, as my spouse was off the weeks surrounding the holidays, and I wanted to spend time with them and relax. It was a very nice couple of weeks.

Regarding this coming week, I’m planning to do my first Anticipated New Books Releasing in 2025 post of the year. I’m also gonna do my Yearly Reading Wrap-Up for 2024, as well. As for other posts… I’m not super sure about the rest. Hopefully I’ll do a book review, but who knows what’ll happen.

Concerning the current novels at the top of my TBR… I’m probably gonna end up reading one or more of the books I got as Christmas gifts. I’m not totally sure which one I’m gonna read first, or if I’ll read another after I finish it, but I’m definitely gonna do it. I’m looking forward to reading all of them – it’s all a matter of when I’ll get around to reading them.

Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you all have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 12/23 – 1/1

So. Yeah. I don’t think this is gonna be much of a wrap-up, seeing as I didn’t post at all last week. But I thought that this might get me back into the groove, and we’ve had a few holidays since then, so I have a little bit to talk about.

Anyway, I don’t have anything else to say. So let’s get on with the wrap-up.

Sunday 12/24: Christmas Eve

Merry (very late) Christmas Eve!! 🦌🎅🔔🕯️ I was baking up a storm the weekend before Christmas, and didn’t have the time or energy to read, unfortunately. But I made a bunch of delicious cookies!

Monday 12/25: Christmas Day

Speaking of which, here’s another very late holiday well wishing for y’all – Merry Christmas!! 🎄🎁❄️🌟 I had a wonderful but busy day, and it was super nice to spend time with family that I only see a couple of times a year. I really missed them. I hope anyone who reads this blog who also celebrates Christmas also had a great holiday.

Sunday 12/31: New Year’s Eve

Here’s yet another late holiday sentiment: Happy New Year’s Eve!! 🎇🎆 I was unfortunately sick this past weekend, so I didn’t feel up to doing anything, which sucked. But I hope everyone else had a nice last day of 2023!

Monday 1/1: New Year’s Day

For this one, I’m actually not that overdue! Happy New Year!! 🥂🍻 Yesterday, I was still under the weather – but this time with something else. My spouse was as well, so we took it easy and had a lazy day relaxing at home. I hope everyone has had a great start to 2024 so far, regardless!

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, I haven’t done anything regarding the blog since right before Christmas, but my spouse has been off work and I’ve been distracted. That, and de-stressing from all the stuff I did to prepare for Christmas. And then of course, I got sick, and am still sick (though I’m feeling a little better, which is why I’m finally posting).

For the rest of the week, I still wanna relax a bunch and spend a lot of time with my spouse since they’re still off work. So I probably won’t be posting much this week, but hopefully I’ll post at least a couple of times. I’m also hoping to get back into reading – I hit quite the slump in December.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 12/4 – 12/22

So, um, the title of this post is a little misleading. Technically, this is almost a “three weeks-ly” wrap-up. But that sounds dumb, so I’m still gonna call this a Weekly Wrap-Up.

Anyway, I haven’t really been too active on the blog this month. December is always a busier month for me, and to be honest, as much as I adore it, the holiday season stresses me out. Just a tiny bit. So I kind of took it easy this month. Sorry.

Anyway, let’s talk about the stuff I have done on the blog, since my last weekly wrap-up.

Wednesday 12/6: WWW Wednesday

Two and a half weeks ago, on Wednesday, I finally participated in another WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

WWW Wednesday: 12/6

Saturday 12/10: Spell the Month in Books

Two Saturdays ago, I participated in Spell the Month in Books for December 2023. Spell the Month in Books is a monthly post created and hosted by Jana @ Reviews from the Stacks.

Spell the Month in Books: December 2023

Thursday 12/21: Birthstone Book Covers / Reading & Recipes

Two days ago, this past Thursday, I ended up double posting. The first post that I did was Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a monthly post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.

The second post that I did on Thursday was a new thing that I thought up a few weeks ago. It’s called Reading & Recipes, and for it I showcase the thing I baked or cooked most recently and discuss the book I was reading at the time a little.

Birthstone Book Covers: December 2023

Reading & Recipes #1

Friday 12/22: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries Review

Yesterday I finally, finally, finally posted my review for Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. I absolutely loved the book and I gave it ★★★★★.

My review of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Books I’ve Read in the Last Three Weeks

💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁

So yeah, I haven’t been all that active so far this December. I’m hoping to post more than I have been next week, but no promises. Also, I probably won’t be posting tomorrow or the next day, as they are Christmas Eve and Christmas, and I want to spend all my time with family and friends. Plus, I’ll probably be tired from holiday stuff. I’m already pretty boned now actually – I’ve been busy making a ton of cookies these last couple days! (Not to mention wrapping presents the day before that!)

And… that’s kind of it for this wrap-up. I don’t have as much to say this time, I know, but like I said: I’ve been busy the last few days. I’ll probably end up reading books I get for Christmas next (if I get books for Christmas), and then I’ll read something else.

But yeah, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day/night! Also, to everyone who celebrates, Merry Christmas!! 🎄❄️🔔🎁

See ya ~Mar

Molly Moon Series | Bookish Christmas Gifts (Christmas Special)

So, like Thanksgiving, I wanted to do something a little special for the holiday. For Christmas, I’ve decided to post about books that I’ve received as gifts, particularly from different Christmases (though, once I run out of Christmas books, I’ll have to branch out to Books I Got As Gifts Just In General, haha).

For the first Christmas post, I wanted to share a series of books that I unwrapped under the tree… I want to say Christmas 2005? I’m pretty sure that’s it, yeah. This series was the first three books in Georgia Byng’s Molly Moon series.

This series was seriously special to me. I actually first read the first installment, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism before Christmas of that year. It was in our school library, and I remember seeing someone reading it in like October 2005. I asked if I could borrow it for a sec to read the front flap (it was a hardcover edition), and then decided to read it after she finished it and returned it to the library.

And then I read it, loved it, reread my favorite scenes, and then checked it out again like six weeks later to do the same thing again. My parents – sorry, “Santa” – could see how much that I enjoyed the book, and got me a copy of my own for Christmas that year.

As well as the two sequels that had been released.

And I proceeded to devour both of them during the rest of winter break that year.

So yeah, I really liked this series. Even though, looking back, Molly Moon (the character) was totally “not like other girls,” very overpowered, and even a little Mary Sue-esque; the plot was fun, the writing was engaging, and I liked the setting and magic system (before it started getting ridiculous in like book four or five, but this is really only about the first three books, so we’re going to ignore the rest of the series).

Now, admittedly, I haven’t read any of these books in years – though I do remember a lot about them. But because of this, I can’t really say if this series is nearly as interesting or engaging for older teens or adults (probably not). I’m mostly just reminiscing about my favorite bookish Christmas gift(s) ever. Because this series definitely was that. There’s a few reasons why I still remember this Christmas so vividly, even after all of these years, and the Molly Moon series is definitely one of them. So even though I can’t tell you how it compares to modern middle-grade/younger YA, I do recommend it, based on how much I enjoyed and reread it, to tween-age girls.

So, to close off this post, I’m going to end it with the info and synopsis of the first book. What books are your guys’ favorites that you’ve gotten for Christmas? Did you read the Molly Moon books growing up? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!!

Title & Author: Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng

Series: Molly Moon [Book #1]

Length: 384 pages

Genre: Supernatural

Release Date: 2002

Book Description

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hypnotism

Molly Moon is no ordinary orphan. When she finds a mysterious old book on hypnotism, she discovers she can make people do whatever she wants. But a sinister stranger is watching her every move and he’ll do anything to steal her hypnotic secret…