Summing It Up: March 2018

Hello, hello! Happy April! 🙂

Okay… so those promised book reviews never did happen, huh? Turns out I put the wrong year since a lot of them were drafts originally created in 2017. Sigh. (That is proof of how rusty I am with the whole (book) blogging routine, haha.) Anyway, I took them down for the moment and don’t plan to reschedule them just yet since I want to re-edit them at least once more… and since April is a heavy exam month… those aren’t going to go live anytime soon, unfortunately. (I have hopes for May though!) :’)

Anyway, time for the recap! March was a meh month for lack of better words. A lot was going on in my life but I felt like I was wading through water since it also felt like I wasn’t really accomplishing much of anything. I didn’t do so hot on several exams that month so my spirits were kind of low. (And I’m trying to recover my grades in those two particular classes-looks like I’ll be working extra hard in April so I might not even be as active on my Instagram. I had plans of actually trying to limit my use with that app to twice daily anyway since I felt like I becoming too dependent. LOL, this makes it sound like a drug addict. XD)

But the good news is… I started reading again! I began marathoning the greatly popular fantasy series, Throne of Glass. The first few installments (particularly book 2, Crown of Midnight) wowed me because I, honestly, wasn’t expecting to enjoy this series after some criticisms that I had heard with Maas’s stories and characters prior to picking the series up. To my relief, as I said, I quite liked them… that is until I got to Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows. The later drove me nuts because I was so mad with a certain character’s characterization and development (or lack of) and I have it on a temporary hold so that I can solely focus on school (and calm down after that traumatic turnaround mid-series).

But yeah, (I didn’t realize that I said this so much until people commented about it on my Instagram stories, haha.) that was an abridged version of my March!

– What I Read –

Throne of Glass | Crown of Midnight | Heir of Fire

• Throne of Glass – 3/5 Stars
• Crown of Midnight – 4.5/5 Stars
• Heir of Fire – 3.5/5 Stars

I could have easily finished Queen of Shadows by the end of March to include in last month’s “read” list since I’m nearly done… but, as mentioned before, I’m taking a break since that sequel is vastly disappointing and I kind of need to prioritize school first. (I’m literally on the brink of not passing Pharmacotherapy II with a C. It is that bad, to my dismay. T_T)

Anyway want some initial thoughts? Literally:

Me while reading Crown of Midnight

Me while reading Queen of Shadows

I feel so betrayed right now. Sigh.

– March Blog Posts –

• Summing It Up: February 2018 [Wrap Up/Favorites]

– Favorites –

View this post on Instagram

Ahaha, I was just going to share a picture of my newly arranged bookshelves for #shelfiesunday but it ended up becoming a mini room tour collage instead. >.< Things have moved around since I’ve last shared photos of what my reading/studying nook looked like. It’s still chaotic but it very much screams me. XD . Anyhow, wishing you all a restful and productive Sunday! 💙💜💕 . #bookstagram #studygram #bookshelves #bookshelf #bookcase #shelfie #nook #studyroom #office #roomtour #bibliophile #bookblogger #student #books #shelf

A post shared by S U M M E R (@readxings) on Mar 25, 2018 at 12:20pm PDT

During my spring break I started “project reorganize my shelves” again. It (surprisingly) time consuming and (not so surprisingly) a lot of work. Anyway, long story short, I am very content with the end results of this bookshelf reorganization. ^.^

View this post on Instagram

Just wanted to quickly share a collage of the loot I got from @_moonchu! I am so in love with everything I ordered, omg. Also, Katie was so kind and gave me a few free items, which I did not expect at all. (Thank you so much, again!!) Also, the packaging was amazing and the shipping is incredibly fast. The prints are, surprisingly, pretty high quality as well. (The paper is thick and the colors are so vibrant.) I also really like Katie’s art style and palette since it’s so galactic and whimsical. 😌✨🌙 I definitely recommend this artist and shop! ☺️💙💕 . Anyway, I have to go and study for two exams tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough day knowing that I have lab as well. Sigh. I miss spring break already! >.< . #bookstagram #studygram #studyspo #totoro #art #studioghibli #studying #bibliophile #bookblogger

A post shared by S U M M E R (@readxings) on Mar 19, 2018 at 10:18am PDT

I discovered a new artist, Katie at moonxco! Her art style and color palette is certainly my style since I love watercolors and the cool spectrum of colors. The packaging that all this came in was also so sticking cute (as you saw in my  Insta story unboxing). I highly recommend this artist/shop if you like these kind of prints and items. 🙂

– Favorite Videos –

Musically, I’m not really a fan of Suzy. I think she’s beautiful but her voice was never one that stood out or drew me in. But this song… T_T I don’t know if it’s because I was having a hard time in March but I related to it a great deal. I actually cried listening to it the first few times. I was, honestly, going through my entire somber ballads playlists a bunch in March though because I was just in that sort of mood. “Breathe” by Lee Hi and “Through the Night” by IU were other melancholy staples in my trackless last month.

Most of my favorite videos from March is… as you guessed from the Olympics channel since they finally posted the performances. XD Of course I had to talk about Exo and their powerful performance during the closing ceremony. (Get it? …sorry. XD)

I’ve been a huge fan of Virtue/Moir (and Davis/White from the USA) every since 2010. I secretly like watching the ice pairs and dancing more than I do men or women’s singles to be honest. And this performance was so incredible, especially knowing that this was after the couple taking a few years hiatus after Sochi 2014.

Knowing that Yuzuru sustained some recent injuries and still performed this well, makes me so proud! :’) He’s such a precious human being and if you haven’t already googled his reaction videos of when he breaks his own records, you totally should! It puts me in a good mood every time.

Oh my. …let’s just say I’ve got it real bad for NCT. Even for the young ones. XD

Edit 6/22/18: Looks like the audio video I originally posted got taken down… here’s a replacement (of the actual MV!).

This has totally been my soft jam this past month because it is just so good. Hwasa is probably my favorite vocalist in Mamamoo; this statement has huge weight since each member has unbelievable strong, unique vocals. I just think she has the best cadence and right amount of soul, if that makes sense.

This vocal/dance medley is like so cool and I had to share! I really need to order the Empathy album since I love all the tracks. :’) (But look at poor Mark jumping into each subunit’s performance, LOL. He’s such a hardworking kid!)

I didn’t realize how rarely I listened to English music until recently… Anyway, I LOVE this song so much. I haven’t seen Black Panther yet though because, to be honest, I’m not into superheroes of any kind. (Well, aside, from Batman. But I like that trilogy mainly because of Christopher Nolan more than the hero himself.) But I’ve heard fantastic things about this movie from my friends that have seen it already.

– What I’ve Been Watching –

Flame’s Daughter, The – 3/10 [Dropped]

Oh my gosh, I am SO letdown by this show! The Flame’s Daughter was one of my highly anticipated drama releases of 2018 because the premise sounded up my alley and the trailer looked brilliant (plus, pretty much everyone from 3L, 3W, 10MoPB is in this one), but this show does not have much going for it despite the obviously high production value that was put into making it. I don’t think the cast is that fitting (Vic Chou doesn’t sell his character well and seems sort of out of place in a historical drama if I’m honest). And Dilraba Dilmurat is having me very disappointed with her unconvincing acting; I feel like it’s always kind of similar with all her dramas. And it makes me almost mad that Zhang Bin Bin is playing another character that is not going to get the girl. (Is he being type casted? Because it sure feels like it with all the roles he gotten.) Also, why in the world is three men into one women? Like I don’t get it how is there already a love polygon this early on in the show? Anyway, this one probably isn’t as horrible as I’m making it sound but it doesn’t change that I’m vastly disappointed with the 10 episodes that I have seen. Again, the only good points (in my opinion) are the fight scenes, and the characters, Yu Zi Han (played by Liu Rui Lin) and Lei Jing Hong (played by Zhang He), who both I’m convinced will have horrible deaths or something (because all the good characters seem to in these type of dramas).

Trailer (if you’re still interested despite my negative review LOL):

Untouchable Lovers – ?/10 [Currently Watching]

Because I was reading again, I guess it was a good thing I was only watching Untouchable Lovers sporadically. I’ve been trying to wait for Viki to catch up on subbing the show in English. Watching it with Vietnamese subtitles was a struggle since I’m not even 100% fluent in my parents’ mother tongue, lol. The show is still intriguing and I find the entire cast gorgeous more than ever. (So unbelievable that they’re all very young though!)

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