Update: Life and Books (Aug 2021)

 
 

Another month, another monthly post in which I have to figure out what to talk about.

I played some of the games I bought in the Steam sale last month! The Starfighter: Eclipse game, the one I’d wanted for a long time, was unfortunately a disappointment. Monster Hunting… for Love was fun though. I also played a bunch of very quick, free games by npckc on itch.io. They were cute, and my favorite was A Pet Shop After Dark.

I also started a new Sims 3 game after making this discovery:

Something I’ve been listening to a lot lately is this pop punk version of “Blinding Lights.” I don’t care for the original, but I love this cover! Makes me wonder how many other songs I might like (or dislike) if they’d been done in a different style.

I’m also really into this ice cream roll channel?? The sounds are lovely, the visuals are lovely, overall they’re just very soothing!

I think that’s about it!


Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing at the moment, though I may be switching webhost companies (again). And also maybe redirecting to a new domain. So if anything weird happens to my blog, you’ll know why. Hopefully it’ll be fine.

 

Books I Received for Review:

Nothing.

 

Books I Finished:

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow RowellThe Free Bastards by Jonathan French

If you’re considering buying one of the books below from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

The Extraordinaries // Flash Fire by TJ Klune – Cute, funny YA books about queer superheros.

Carry On // Wayward Son // Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell – I decided to reread (audio this time) Books 1 and 2 because I knew I’d forgotten a lot of details, and I’m so glad I did because this whole series, and getting to enjoy the books back-to-back, was wonderful! I really loved it.

The Alpha Experiment by Eliot Grayson – I’ve liked previous books in this mlm shifter series, but this one was too much about sex for me.

The Free Bastards by Jonathan French – A satisfying, albeit bittersweet, ending to a great high fantasy series about half-orcs.

 

In Case You Missed It:

– I reviewed Because You Needed Me and To Keep You Near by Tess Barnett, two books in a fun m/m urban fantasy series about fae and witches and humans.
– I reviewed Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell, an adorable finale to what I now consider one of my favorite series.
– I recommended 10 more m/m vampire books because you can never have too many vampire books!
– I reviewed Mutazione, a super chill and pretty narrative-based game.
– I shared pretty book covers featuring forests.
– I talked about how I like audiobooks now and gave some recs.

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

How has your month been?
Have you found any good books, music, etc?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

18 thoughts on “Update: Life and Books (Aug 2021)

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  1. Greg

    Sometimes covers are better than the original songs. 🙂

    I’ve got a few games I’ve been wanting to play too but just never seem to find time. Sorry the one was a disappointment! A pet shop game sounds fun. I need to explore some of the games out there…

    Have a great new week 🙂

    1. Kristen

      They really are sometimes. The problem is, I usually don’t go looking for covers for songs I don’t like, you know? So then I miss out on them!

      Pet Shop After Dark was a really cool game. Really unique sort of gameplay. Games in general are fun.

      Thanks, you too!

  2. Aj @ Read All The Things!

    I never played Sims 3, but I loved discovering connections between characters in Sims 1 and 2. I started playing Sims 4 earlier this year and was disappointed by the lack of lore and backstories. It sounds like they’re fixing that with the newest expansion pack, but I don’t have money for that pack yet.

    1. Kristen

      What?! You’ve skipped the best version of the game! Tbh, I’ve never been one to pay attention to lore. But I watch Plumbella sometimes on YouTube, and she does lore videos, and they’re so interesting. I feel like the devs must’ve had so much fun creating background for all the pre-made sims. This one I just happened to discover online!

  3. Cee Arr

    I’ve never got along with ASMR vids – makes me think there’s someone *right next to* my ear, and that freaks me out, lol! Glad you’re enjoying them.

    1. Kristen

      There’s no talking or whispering in these, it’s just someone actually making the ice cream in front of a camera and still has pretty visuals even without the sound 🙂

  4. Mary Kirkland

    I haven’t heard that song before, it’s not bad.
    I love finding interesting Youtube channels to watch. I usually fall down a rabbit hole when I go searching for new things to watch on there. One video leads to another and another and so on.

    1. Kristen

      Yeah I didn’t use to watch YouTube that much, but I watch it all the time now, and I’ve gone through so many different phases because of the algorithm lol.

  5. Roberta R.

    I can relate to having wanted to play a game (in my case, read a book) for so long, finally getting the chance and being disappointed. Isn’t that the worst? And I didn’t know games without a real purpose (either than enjoying the gameplay itself) existed. It sounds soothing.

    You should talk to my friend Carrie about the Rowell trilogy (though she liked the final installment less than the previous two). She’s a great fan, and loves to chat about books! Here are her GR reviews for the series:
    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1887331735
    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3012622580
    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4177441933

    Good luck with the new webhost/domain!

    1. Kristen

      It sucks to look forward to something for so long and then have it disappoint.

      I’ll have to check out her reviews!

      Thanks 🙂 Still trying to figure out what I should do. Why does it all have to be so stressful?!

  6. Becky @ A Fool’s Ingenuity

    I hate it when I game you’ve been looking forward to disappoints. It’s happened with a couple of Switch games before and it makes me wish I could return them. But glad you found a couple of good ones.

    You’re not alone in liking songs when a cover puts it into a style you like. That’s one thing I always liked from the Punk goes series where bands covered loads of different genres, helped me discover songs I probably would have hated when listening to the original.

  7. ShootingStarsMag

    Ooh this cover is so good. There’s a guy on TikTok that turns Broadway songs into pop-punk songs and I ADORE THEM!

    I’ve read Carry On, but I really need to finish the series.

    -Lauren