Holiday Snapshots

1. Reedit from this year's Trail of Lights post.

2-5. Decorating the tree! My family actually got a live tree this year and it's so much more exciting than having our old plastic tree out.

6.

*cue Pentatonix Christmas music* #lomoinstant #myinstax

A photo posted by Jessica (@7remedies) on Dec 24, 2016 at 6:37pm PST

And not pictured is the sheer amount of Christmas music I have listened to, especially Pentatonix's Christmas music since they have a new holiday album. As a result I added a couple of my favorite tracks to the holiday playlist I made last year.

Have a merry Christmas! - Jessica 

Instax Diaries #8

I can't believe it has been 6 months since I've made my last instax post, I've gotten quite a few good shots since then but I haven't been shooting instant film enough lately. I do have some monochrome film in the mail, that I can't wait to test out. So hopefully during break I'll have a little bit more time to experiment.

As always, I only took photos of trees and leaves... - Jessica

Trail of Lights (2016)

My absolute favorite holiday event in Austin is the Trail of Lights. I've been going since I was a kid and every year I love to blog my shots from the Trail. So here are some of the shots I got this year...

Happy holidays! - Jessica 

Bookish Goals For 2016 (Con't)

At the beginning of the year, I set a couple of bookish goals for myself. One of the goals I set for myself was to read 70 books, I surpassed that goal and have so far read a total of 135 books (with two weeks to spare). I also made a list of books that I would like to read this year, and did not do as good of a job with reaching the goal of this list. So here's the list of books that I wanted to get through this year:

1. Jane Austen collection - Of the 6 novels that Jane Austen wrote, I read one this year. And I almost didn't finish it. I started reading Persuasion in February and I didn't end up finishing it until this month. And it wasn't because it's a terrible book (I really loved it), but I was slowly reading it and I just kept picking up other books to read instead.  One day I will read the rest of her novels, because I absolutely loved Persuasion and I know her other books are just as loved.

2. The Grisha Trilogy and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - I feel really accomplished because I read all four of these books this year, plus the sequel to Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom. I really enjoy Bardugo's writing, and her characters. I definitely understand why her books are so popular now.

3. Forgive Me if I've Told You This Before by Karelia Stetz-Waters - I failed at reading this book this year. I did start this book and got about 40 pages in before I set it down, and never picked it up again. Absolutely nothing was wrong with the 40 pages I read, I just wasn't feeling in the mood for reading it at the time. This is really rare for me, because I'm the type of person who once I start a book, I finish it (I don't like to DNF a book). This year I really wasn't in the mood for reading contemporary novels, and a majority of the ones that I did read (with the exception of like 2 or 3), didn't blow me away. I think as I've grown older, my tastes have shifted more and I enjoy reading fantasy novels a lot more. That being said, I am still really intrigued by the plot of this novel and I hope to get around to finishing it.

4. The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi - And this is another book series I didn't get to. In my defense, I read a lot of other middle grade books this year (including a ton of Rick Riordan books and the WondLa Trilogy). But at the same time, these were the easiest books to read on my list because they're so short (there's five books and they're all under 150 pages), so I don't really have a great excuse for not getting to these.

5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - And again, I still haven't read this. I've wanted to read this book for so long, and I've heard nothing but good things about it. This is another book that I still really want to read, I just didn't have the time to read it.

6. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson - And for the last book on my list, I did get to this one. I enjoyed this book, the art style and the story were fantastic. I also read more graphic novels this year, and I really enjoy them.

So of the 18 books in this list, I managed to read 7. I know that there still two weeks left in the year, but I've got a list of books I want to finish before then and unfortunately these titles aren't on that list. So I didn't do the best job of completing the books on this list, but I'd rather have more books on my TBR then to have none at all. - Jessica

Books I Read In November

During the month of November I didn't have a whole lot of reading time, and I only managed to read 8 books. This was actually my worst reading month of the year, but I really liked to books I got around to reading during that time. So here are all the books I read in November and my thoughts and spoiler free opinions on them...

This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills - This book centers around Sloane, who has just moved to a new state and has never really had friends before she met twins, Vera and Gabe. During this book, Solan sets out on an adventure to recover a painting by the twin's late mother. I enjoyed this book and I really enjoy the authors writing. I did have some really high expectations for this book, because the author's first book First & Then rekindled my love for contemporary YA novels.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer - This is an origin story for the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and centers around how Catherine became a villain. I really loved this book, I think the author did a fantastic job of capturing the environment of Lewis Carroll. I really like the story that Marissa Meyer created for Catherine and how it explains her character from Alice. Marissa Meyer is also the author of one of my favorite series, The Lunar Chronicles, and I absolutely love how she reinvents common stories in general.

The Royals Trilogy by Erin Watt - This series follows Ella after her mother's death, when she goes to live with a friend of her father's and his five sons. I hardly read straight up romance novels, but I was really intrigued by the Cinderella premiss. These books were a little ridiculous at points, but they were so addictive and entertaining. I really liked these books and the characters, and I'm actually looking forward to reading some similar books in the future.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Screenplay by J. K. Rowling - I picked this up almost immediately after seeing the film, and I absolutely loved reading it. I loved seeing how J. K. Rowling's descriptions were taken and created perfectly on screen. I also loved reading each character and seeing how they were translated, and how the actors added so much to their roles. I highly recommend seeing the movie and breezing through this (it's such a quick read), because they each add so much more to my love for the Wizarding World.

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon - This book centers around the day Natasha and Daniel meet, for Natasha it is her last day in the states before she's deported and for Daniel he has a college interview for the professions his parents want for him. I liked this book, Nicola Yoon is an amazing story teller and I really like her writing style. This book tackles some serious issues of race and immigration and I really love seeing these types of diversity in YA novels.

Truthwitch by Susan Denard - This book centers around the unlikely friendship of Safiya and Iseult, one is a Truthwitch and can tell truths from lies and the other is a Threadwitch and can see the ties of people around her. This book centers around their escape from the royals who want to use and kill Safiya for her Truthwitch powers. This book absolutely blew me away. I love how complex the world the world building it and I absolutely loved the characters and their relationships. This book was initially really hard for me to get into, but as I unraveled the characters stories and the world, I could not put it down. I absolutely can't wait for the release of the second book, Windwitch, next month.

And those are all the books I read during the month of November. I've already completed my reading challenge of 130 books for the year, but since I'm almost done with school, I'm going to have a lot of free time and I just want to catch up on my reading. I'm also hoping to catch up on all my Harry Potter rereadings, as I have slowly been making my way through Deathly Hallows, I still need to read the illustrated edition of the Chamber of Secrets, and I have yet to read the Pottermore short stories that were released a couple of months ago. - Jessica