Monthly Wrap Up: October 2019

I don’t know how it’s possible for a month to feel both short and long at the same time but October accomplished it.

I managed to read nine books in October which I’m actually pretty proud of considering everything that was going on. Overall they were high quality books too which I was really thankful for. I’d still love to get back to reading fifteen books a month but if I’m going to be in the single digits I would at least like to read mostly good things. Here are the ones that were four or five stars:

• A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo
• By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery
• Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor
• When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis
• The Prom by Saundra Mitchell
• Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

Despite spending half the month in the hospital with my son and him having his seventh heart surgery I still managed to have a post go up every single day – I’m so effing proud of myself! It was not easy and I got incredibly stressed on way more than one occasion but it was really important to me and worth it in the end. I haven’t been able to go two full months with a posting streak yet but I feel like November might be the month I finally do it.

I didn’t have any concrete goals regarding my blog for October but I knew that I wanted to do better. My heart knows that stats aren’t everything but unfortunately that doesn’t stop my brain from obsessing about them. On paper, September, at the time, was my second best month but it didn’t feel like it. I almost felt like giving up on this whole blogging thing and I can’t entirely explain why. Discouragement and burnout were hitting hard. But no more.

October was better in every sense of the word – I broke personal records with my stats (I had over 2,600 views and broke 500 WordPress followers!!), I felt more confident about everything, I was excited to write posts, I co-hosted my first blog event. It was just a better month. And I’m determined to project that energy into the rest of the year and finish strong!

My three most popular posts from October were The Book Snob Tag, Let’s Talk About the New Hunger Games Prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Force Me to Read Any Book You Want! If you missed out on any of my other posts from the month, I’ve linked them all down below for easy browsing!

Reviews

• By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery
• Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor
• The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey
• A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo
• When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis
• A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price
• Day Zero by Kelly deVos
• Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

Waiting on Wednesdays

• Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin

Shattering Stigmas

• Hindsight is 20/20: How I Missed All the Signs by J.L. Tate
• A Day in My Life (As a Person with Borderline Personality Disorder) by Wendy from What the Log
• Author Interview with Candace Ganger
• The War Within by Tamara Basic
• A Personal Essay by Dana from Devour Books with Dana
• Review: By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery
• Author Interview with Ronni Davis
• Up All Night for Suicide Prevention by Lindsey Turnbull
• On Perfectionism as a Debut Author by Zack Smedley
• Jamie at Books and Ladders’ Review of Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes
• Handholds for in the Dark by Heidi
• Autism and How It Intersects My Chronic Depression and Anxiety Disorder by Mina from Bookish Enby
• Ted Revolutionizes the Toaster by Anonymous
• How My Mental Illness Effects Me as a Reader and a Blogger by Amber from The Book Bratz
• Accepting Help by Shon from Books and Bugs
• Taylor Swift and My Recovery from Self-Harm
• Shattering Stigmas 5.0 Wrap Up

Miscellaneous

• Monthly Wrap Up: September 2019
• Inspired by The Bootlace Magician by Cassie Beasley
• October Book of the Month

My son, Elliott, had his seventh heart surgery on the tenth. It was unexpected, we thought it wouldn’t be happening until the Spring, and it was risky, but it was the only thing that would help him. It ended up going better than anybody expected and we were able to come home on the seventeenth! His immune system has been reset though and he can’t get a flu shot until six weeks after surgery so we’re pretty much housebound for the time being. If he were to get sick it would be a really bad situation.

Being home has been great but it hasn’t come without its own stresses. We’ve been working on settling back into our routine after a month of hospital life and I think we’re slowly getting there. I went through a period of depression – being stuck in the apartment is rough and though I’m glad we aren’t in the hospital a lot of my friends are there so I’ve been a bit lonely.

Halloween was so much fun! We couldn’t take Elliott to any events or trick-or-treating so we went to my mom’s house. Elliott dressed up as a dragon and he was the cutest! I made candy and toy filled ghosts and pumpkins out of tissue paper and we hid them around the house for him to find. He also painted a pumpkin and we read books. I think he had a great night and it was the perfect end to the month!

How was your October? What was your favorite book you read? Do you like my inclusion of gifs for the first time ever? Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!