Monthly Recap: November 2016

.....why, Gillian? Why are you making us relive November? I THOUGHT WE WEREN'T GOING TO TALK ABOUT NOVEMBER.

October was an absolutely appalling reading month for me, but I was determined to do better in November. Then, of course, THE APOCALYPSE happened, and...well. But I did actually read more this month than the month before (not difficult), and some of those books I even loved! TAKE THAT, NOVEMBER, YOU BIG STEAMING PILE OF HATRED AND POO.

Frostblood by Elly Blake
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst | my review
Lodestar by Shannon Messenger
skim-ish reread for comfort: Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead (when I'm stressed, I hang out with my favorite ships, and Sydrian was calling me)
A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith | my review
Beast by Brie Spangler | my review

I ALWAYS FORGET WHAT I READ I REALLY NEED TO START WRITING THIS SHIT DOWN

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
SO, THAT HAPPENED. I have many THOUGHTS of course and lots of FEELINGS but I must say I had a grand old time watching it the day it dropped. I live on the West Coast, so I really wanted to stay up until 12:01 and watch it the moment it went up on Netflix, but Thanksgiving driving and baking and socializing exhausted me, so I watched it first thing the next morning. I made coffee and crawled into bed with my leftover pie, some mac n' cheese, and my laptop, and I didn't move for six hours (except to reheat my coffee/mac 'n cheese/fetch more pie) in true Gilmore style.

Moana
More about that below because I lurved it!

NOTHING

I AM A BOOKSTAGRAM FAILURE

To be fair, my house was a mess of boxes for like three weeks and that is not photogenic but still, bad blogger, bad

Keep moving, nothing to see here, literally, I am made of fail

Unpacked boxes, set up house, DID ALL THE THINGS
My house looks like a house! Lots of life thingies and adult doodads

Brought out all my holiday decorations!
I am a direct descendant of Cindy Lou Who, so I reeeeally get into the spirit

Thanksgiving
I had a really love Thanksgiving, which was a bright spot in a month of poo. I made the desserts, which just so happened to be caramel pumpkin pie, brown sugar tart, cinnamon ice cream, and the favorite of the table: apple sorbet. Mmmmmmm. Happy leftovers were happy (there was no leftover ice cream or sorbet, tragically.)

NaNoWriMo
Well. Ish. Because of the global November blues, I only managed to churn out 10k on my WIP. The good news is, I was doing a NaNo CHEATY CHEAT, and starting with a WIP that was already at 40k. SO TECHNICALLY I HIT 50k WORDS. IT IS A NOVEMBER MIRACLE and it all happened in the final hours of the month. I think I'm back in the creative swing of things, and ye old WIP is chuggin' along at about 54k now. YOU CAN DO IT, LITTLE WIP!

Stress ate because November was the grade A worst
*pulls you all in for a group hug* *gives you apple sorbet and brown sugar tart*

Saw Moana
AND IT WAS SO GOOOOD

SHIPPED
The Shippy Awards are here! So I spent a lot of time putting that together and thinking about my fave ships this year. Plus I read some super shippy things this month, including Frostblood (new ship!!! SO SHIP!!!) and Lodestar which oh god save me I ship that damn middle grade ship so much if they don't become canon I will QUITE POSSIBLY PHYSICALLY CEASE TO BE I'll just evaporate I swear

This month's blog posts:

What I've Been Reading Lately
The Shippy Awards 2016: Voting Round (STILL OPEN, GO VOTE!)

Moana
AHHHHHH! I loved it so much! Lin's songs were MAGIC and I have been singing Moana's songs in my head (and not in my head, my dog is very distressed) nonstop for the last two days. The animation was gorgeous and Moana is the hero we deserve. Plus it was super funny and the Rock was a delight. It was a bit heavyhanded with the message but honestly, I loved Moana so much and could watch that animation all day and THE MUSICCCC (minus that "Shiny" song, sorry Lin) and I am a happy Disneyphile

Hamilton Mixtape
WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE SUCH BOUNTY?? Oh, right. We survived November 2016. And months January through October 2016.

Pentatonix Christmas
I've loved Pentatonix since they were on The Sing-Off way back when because I am a Pentatonix hipster. I am BEYOND OBSESSED with all of their Christmas songs/albums and basically, treat yoself to some gorgeousness and give this a listen: