Resolutions Recap 2022

 Hello and welcome to my yearly resolutions recap where I remind myself what a failure I am! LOL!

1. Get at least one piercing
2. Get at least one tattoo
3. Add 20,000 words to my WIP novel
4. Write 30,000 words for National Novel Writing Month 2022
5. Break in all my Dr Marten shoes properly
6. Get a new job
7. Learn to drive
8. Get a new car
9. Sew a garment
10. Learn how to crochet
11. Learn how to cross stitch
12. Read 100 books
13. Watch 100 films
14. Go to the cinema 5 times
15. Go to Longleat Safari Park
16. See a show on stage

Yet another successful year as you can see! So we ended up with a new car at the end of July. The old one, a Nissan Micra, broke down fatally while we were en-route to go shopping in June (I totally looked back at Facebook and Twitter for the dates LOL!). It started to slow down, the gears went funny and then we pulled over and it wouldn't restart. A policeman wanting to do speed checks pushed us into the car park of a shut down pub. We waited 4 hours for the RAC in the heat, I got sunburn just sitting in the car. It turned out to be the timing wheel. We looked for a new one but in the meantime I was walking to work in the height of summer, ugh. It could have been worse though, the day after the actual breakdown we'd planned to go to the cinema to see the latest Jurassic World film, a breakdown on the motorway would have been hell!

We eventually found a new car within our meagre budget, a Citroen C1. Where it had been sat around a while we needed to get a new battery straight away but it's OK, it prefers going fast to slow. The gears are a bit clunky and the left indicator has just started playing up but it's got it's MOT in a couple of weeks, a tad overdue, oops!

I ended up with a new job at the end of September. I left the old one on Tuesday 27th, started the new Thursday 29th! Things had deteriorated badly at my old job. I was accused of mishandling a donation, suspended, investigated, thought I was going to lose my job but kept it by the skin of my teeth. A lot of the issue was verbal information and an incorrect date given, I remembered the correct date, they found the details and all was good-ish. This was the beginning of September. My manager then sent through the latest rotas and we weren't scheduled to work together at all up until at least November (that's how far it went at that point). She'd also hired a Sunday Supervisor behind my back when our original plan was share the weekends as we'd been doing and get me an extra day a week. Then she started leaving loads of catty notes about the way I work so it was good timing that I left then.

My new job is slightly better but it's not one I want to stay at. Some days there's loads to do, others there's nothing and you end up tidying. Ugh. When I started they wanted me to stay away from the tills but now I have entire shifts covering the customer service desk. The training was abysmal, I'm only just figuring some parts out. Sometimes they moan when I'm not doing something quick enough but I'm helping customers and covering breaks in between doing whatever I'm doing. The foot pain that started in my last job is also getting worse so I end up limping around which isn't great.

Only one cinema trip this year :( Sing 2. We planned on seeing others but finances etc just never work out. I made it to 152 books read though so I'm proud of that. I can't remember the film number and officially there's still a few days of the year left but it is over 100. NaNo was a fail this year, I didn't even reach 5,000 words. I did absolutely no planning and a depressive funk made me wonder if I was even going to attempt at all.

Everything else was obviously finance and time related. And motivation, I've struggled mentally this year, I'm constantly in a low level of I don't care. Hopefully that might improve soon? Please?

Back Sunday with this year's resolutions! (Though I'll write it up now and then schedule it XD)

Stef Out x

Golem by P.D. Alleva

 

Ebook provided by author for review. Thank you.

3/5 stars

I really enjoyed the concept for this novel, a demon or the devil (wasn't totally clear which) coming to life through a statue who likes to possess children. Also the way the story initially came together with a detective being given a case about a missing child and then being told the story by Alena, the key figure and initial suspect in the original case, his initial disbelief and gradual realisation that it is all true were all great.

The writing itself however could use a bit of tightening up I feel. We got told Alena's backstory twice with very little difference between the versions, just a touch more detail when she was telling the story herself but it's not details that particularly mattered to the story as a whole. There were some instances that felt unnecessarily descriptive, a paragraph about a storm for example. There were also some odd wording choices, a section where Alena, a cisgender woman, was basically described as having an erection. Also this same scene which generally reads quite sexually seems to involve, or at least have present, children which I find concerning, devil possession or not.

The pacing was also a little off for me as well. Some sections felt very slow whilst others felt rushed. The ending felt very abrupt as well. Also I didn't really understand Annette's chapters and how she connected to the larger story.

On the whole a great concept but the execution was slightly lacking for me personally.

Stef Out x

Kermes Vermilio by Brendon Luke

 

Ebook provided by the author for review. Thank you.

1/5 stars

DNF at 31%

A very disjointed book. Here's a character, they're dead. Here's another, oh they're dead as well. Now this character is alive again. I don't care about anyone because there's no reason to.

We keep jumping through time and to different people and nothing seems to connect.

I couldn't work out if it was actually earth or some kind of alternate universe, there was some kind of talk about different opposing tribes which I expected to be more relevant than has been.

The writing style itself didn't flow for me, I found it tiring to try and read. The final straw for me was a guy who is empowered by the raping of his sister. No thank you.

Stef Out x 

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary

 

2/5 stars

I liked the characters and the plot was interesting but I felt like there were too many things being juggled and some got dropped. They were originally going to talk to Ayana but then her storyline got all but abandoned. They made a massive thing about Marnie having tattoos and they may have been seen by the wrong person but I didn't understand the relevance of the tattoos and them being seen by this person was forgotten.

Also the writing style itself could use a bit of pruning. Near the beginning a character's only description was "obese girl in a black tracksuit". Are you telling me there was no better way to describe her than that? It feels very dehumanising. Also Marnie was referred to as a child as living in "near-autistic" silences. That just made me cringe. A lot of autistic people are not silent. And then there was the chapter opening where two or three sentences were used to describe thunder. The "then" and "now" chapters could have been clearer. The ending felt very rushed as well.

Stef Out x 

The Anti-Consumerist Druid by Katrina Townsend

 

Ebook provided by the author for review. Thank you!

5/5 stars

An engaging and beautifully written book. A little bit memoir, a little bit self-help, and a sprinkling of spiritual guidance in the vein of follow your instincts and emphasis on everyone's journey is different.

Katrina writes with unflinching honesty, she openly admits when she makes mistakes but dispenses with a woe is me attitude, she just gets on with it. Her advice is real and solid and you can apply the principles of shopping consciously and appreciating the small things in life even without having issues with a shopping addiction.

There are also some great points about the climate and social media. It's too easy to feel powerless and overwhelmed about climate change but even small changes can make a difference. Katrina doesn't say it specifically but a lot of the book in general makes me think of the old make do and mend philosophy. As for social media, moderation is key and kill the comparison. It always feels like everyone is in a better place than you but so much is behind the scenes and not all of it is necessarily good.

As for Druidry... It's not something I knew a lot about beforehand although I have had fleeting interests in Wicca and Paganism over the years (and a lot of witchy themed books on my shelves to show it). However, reading Katrina's story of discovery and her spiritual experiences and finding that Earthly connection was truly inspiring.

On the whole I loved and appreciated this book and I look forward to reading future works by Katrina.

Stef Out x 

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

 

Ebook from the library.

5/5 stars

This was a beautiful book! Wallace is a lawyer and one of the partners at his firm. He likes things to run smoothly and he loves his suits. He is very organised and in reality not a very nice person. And then he finds himself at his own funeral following an out of the blue heart attack.

The funeral has very few attendees, his ex-wife and his three firm partners. And one other strange woman. Mei is a reaper, he's her first solo job and she's a little late, she's here to break the news to Wallace that he's dead and to take him to Hugo, the ferryman.

Wallace understandably struggles with the idea of being dead, and the idea of being stuck in his off-duty flip-flops. That the ferryman's base is a quirky tea shop does little to help, at least initially, but gradually with the help of fellow ghosts Nelson, and Apollo the dog, Wallace accepts his fate and allows Hugo to help him.

I loved this! It was so heartwarming and I loved the characters, everyone was really well-rounded and well-developed. There are difficult moments but they were handled sensitively. The representation was brilliant and again really well handled. The ending was beautiful and perfect and I loved it!

Stef Out x

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read May 2021.

5/5 stars

Nishat has just come out to her parents but they are traditional Muslim Bangladeshis who absolutely do not approve. Be who you want, except a lesbian. Then at a family wedding Nishat re-meets Flavia who she went to primary school with. Flavia is biracial Brazilian and she and her mum moved to get to know her white Irish side better, especially her cousin Chyna.

At the wedding there was an instant connection but things soon sour when both girls choose doing henna for their school's business competition. Nishat is angry at Flavia's cultural appropriation and her friends lack of support. Things deteriorate further when someone outs her at their all-girls Catholic Irish school.

I loved Nishat's relationship with her sister Priti but I wish the side characters had been developed a little more. There were family things I loved but then a couple of plot points were abandoned. I loved the writing style, it just could have done with more length and a touch more finessing.

Stef Out x

Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

4/5 stars

This guy really knows how to write characters! Josie and Delia co-host a cult horror themed TV show. For Josie TV is what she wants to do with her life and her parents have even organised an opportunity in a different town for her. For Delia horror is the thing she loves, it's the thing she shared with the father that abandoned her. She's scared because everyone leaves.

I loved the friendship between Josie and Delia, it was such an authentic relationship. Lawson was amazing as well, he defied stereotypes and I loved it! The writing throughout was really fun and genuine. Delia and her mother's depression was treated so well and the use of medication was totally normalised and they had a great relationship. The stuff with Delia's dad was handled brilliantly as well.

I only have a couple of tiny criticisms. I wish we could have had a little more of Josie with her family, on the whole "family" was skewed heavily towards Delia. There were a couple of idiotic jokes that were too bad for one person to know, never mind multiple (2022 note: why did I not include these specific jokes in my initial review?). Also the entire convention section was absurd and went way too over the top with trying to jam too much into just a few hours.

Stef Out x

When I Was Ten by Fiona Cummins

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read April 2021.

4/5 stars

Catherine has a secret. Her real name is Sara and aged 10 she killed her parents. Now many years later her older sister, Shannon, is featuring in a new documentary about the murders and their family, hoping to reconnect with Sara. This news incites a renewed media interest in the case, interest that soon leads to the revelation of Catherine's identity. most crucially to her formerly clueless husband and teenage daughter.

The book has three narrators: Catherine/Sara writing in third person, mostly alternating with Brinley, the sisters' childhood friend turned journalist in first person, with additional chapters by a politician who is in trouble for remarks he made about the case on live radio. There are also frequent flashbacks to the girls childhood.

The base story was intriguing with plenty of twists. The key them seems to be you never know what's going on behind locked doors. I felt that the storyline with the politician was overall pointless, it felt like you could cut it completely with no impact to the rest of the story. The writing style was easy and readable but a few "medical" based scenes were weirdly detailed. I also wish the ending was more complete.

Stef Out x

Heads Up

 Just a mini heads up post to let anyone out there who might be reading this that I'll be doing three extra posts today after this one to make four reviews in total. One has already been posted.

After re-doing my NetGalley list I found several books that I had read and not left feedback for. I didn't think I'd even written reviews but double-checking my other notebook revealed them so I am going to type them up and post them all today.

Stef Out x

Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read May/June 2021.

5/5 stars

Chloe has a plan. Cross country running, top grades and a good college. But then she collapses while running, revealing a heart defect that necessitates a transplant.

8 months later Chloe's physical health has improved enough that she's taken up surfing despite no prior interest, but the cute instructor helps! Her mental health however is a little shakier, she's lost her place in the world and she's having strange nightmares and memory flashes she doesn't recognise. What's going on?

I loved this book! It was so well-written and engaging and it really drew me in. I loved Chloe's progression as a character and how she became more accepting and more relaxed as the book went on, that pressure to achieve being alleviated.

The twist near the end was so interesting and so well-written and so heart-breaking and I loved it! The overall story is one of hope and carrying on.

Stef Out x

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read May 2022.

3/5 stars

Camino and Yahaira are half sisters, not that they know it yet. Their father has been splitting his time between the Dominican Republic with Camino and New York with Yahaira, that is until the plane he's on comes down and he's killed.

This book was written beautifully, I believe it's considered a novel in verse. There are a lot of Spanish phrases which obviously I don't understand but it doesn't particularly take away from the reading experience.

The pacing of this novel could have been better, for two thirds not a lot actually happens which is especially shocking when you consider that all in all that covers a period of almost two months. It took way too long to get the sisters together and then the book ends very abruptly. I wanted to see more of their new life together, what was the adjustment period like? It just ends which I found very disappointing and almost dropped the rating to 2 stars.

Stef Out x

A Land of Never After by R.L. Davennor

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read May 2022.

3/5 stars

So I will preface this by saying that I have never read Peter Pan, I don't think you need to though. This book takes a few familiar elements: Wendy, Peter, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys and Neverland and completely twists them.

Wendy has just left the orphanage where she grew up when she runs into Peter who then steals her satchel, so she follows him straight into Neverland. But Neverland sits under a horrible curse, kill and steal a being's life force or rot. But who is responsible for the curse? One Captain Hook. Peter's long-standing rival. Everyone has secrets and somehow Wendy is the key to everything.

I thought that the story and ideas were great but there were elements that were lacking. The pacing was strange, one chapter ended with Wendy falling asleep then the next opens with her running through the forest with no explanation, some kind of training session maybe? I'd also have like more development. Wendy didn't seem to have much personality beyond the basics. Also her 'friendship' with Peter is a bit something and nothing. They have a deep conversation about something which seems all but forgotten after apart from one small aside.

I might read the sequel if I come across it but it doesn't feel especially memorable enough overall to actively seek it out.

Stef Out x

Goodreads: Here

Instagram: Here

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

 

(Review copied from Goodreads)

Original review March 15: I liked and didn't like this story. The characters were well-developed and interesting and very real as modern teenagers but Tori is so unlikeable. She improves slightly throughout when she realises that shock horror she's allowed to care! I found myself wanting to know more about Michael and I really want a more detailed story about Charlie, he was so sweet! There also wasn't much detail given about the situation with Ben and the conclusion of Lucas was a little obvious and cliched. I also found all the conversations about shipping and fandoms and the sexual tension between Sherlock and John in BBC's Sherlock very odd as despite them being popular topics of conversation these days - particularly online - I haven't come across those sort of conversations in books before now.

Re-read Oct 19: I still sort of agree with some of my previous thoughts but now I find Tori relateable in her pessimism and some of the rest I just don't care about. I just enjoyed the book. I do still want to know more about Ben's situation though. I don't know if it comes up during Heartstopper at all? I seriously need to read that sometime!

Re-re-read May 22: Ben's story makes so much more sense having read Heartstopper. Also having read Heartstopper I wanted more Charlie and Nick! On this reread I barely noticed most of the fandom stuff although there is a lengthy Harry Potter based conversation in the opening chapter. I've come to appreciate Tori more with each reading. I did want to know more about the other guys involvement in Solitaire though.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x 

It Helps With the Blues by Bryan Cebulski

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read April 2022.

4/5 stars

This was a strange and engaging little book. We follow a nameless narrator and his connections? I'm not sure how to word it. We open with our narrator and his friend Jules just hanging out, she then invites Dennis who is struggling with something. We later learn that Dennis has taken his own life.

What follows is our narrator pondering over his various friendships, peppered with letters some have written themselves. In fact the only person who doesn't write a letter is Estelle. Once upon a time he bullied them - sidenote but I loved how self-aware he was about his past mistakes - but a chance meeting leads to an almost something, the overarching theme to this section is his pride in Estelle discovering their identity, and getting rid of an apparently racist boyfriend.

Our other characters are Gabriel, openly gay and angry at the world, and Joshua, Jules's younger brother who had a connection to Dennis and feels partially responsible. A small cast yet effective in its simplicity.

At 178 pages by GoodReads description this is a short book and I think that would be my main criticism. It is great as it is but I wanted more. More backstory, more connections. I wasn't a fan of the way things were abandoned with Gabriel and I hated how abrupt the ending was. Did our narrator sort his crap out? Who was he?

Stef Out x 

To Dare by Jemma Wayne

 

I found this quite a dull book really. I kept expecting more from it. Instead I got tasteless descriptions of a violent beating and wholly unlikeable characters.

Sarah in particular annoyed me. Blaming Veronica for her sister's death when she wasn't even involved. The issues that led to it may have been caused by Veronica but I feel that there was enough years for Sarah to have gotten help for her issues.

The ending was very disappointing. Very rushed and a lot of lack of clarity. I was surprised when I noticed I was near the end of the book because I felt like there was still so much to cover. Even now I'm unsure of what really happened.

2/5 stars

Stef Out x

Plan Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Read March 2022. Borrowed from the library but also own as an ebook thanks to NetGalley.

3/5 stars

Dual timeline told in alternating chapters. Half is set in 1902 where Libbie is running a girls school with her partner Alex when a diary of a girl named Mary MacLane starts making its rounds. What follows is tragedy and creepiness. And a lot of yellow jacket wasps 😬

The other half is set in the present day where a horror movie is being made about Brookhants School's tragic past. It girl Harper Harper is one of the co-leads and is also co-producing. Aubrey is a former child star whose role in the film has suddenly changed. Merritt is the writer of the book about the original tragedy that is now the basis for this film.

So firstly this book is super queer. Like 99% of the female characters have a same sex leaning. Harper is named lesbian, Aubrey is bi, not sure what Merritt is and the historical sections introduced me to the term "Boston Marriage" wherein two women (whether romantically inclined or not) would live together in order to achieve careers and independence uncommon for the time.

I thought that it was interesting and creepy but the novel was too long (over 600 pages) and too slowly paced. A lot could have been cut in my opinion. Also the ending was very abrupt. I've seen reviews saying it could have been a duology: the historical story and then the modern one. That would allow for the detail without being overlong.

Stef Out x 

Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins

 

Read February 2022. Borrowed from the library.

5/5 stars

I read this in two sittings and it could have been one but I needed to get to bed. I loved this book! The characters were amazing, Felipé was so relatable for I too am a fat, socially awkward gay. And like Felipé my school bullying was directed towards my weight rather than anything sexuality based. Sigh.

I loved the development of both the boy's characters and the growth of their relationship. I also loved Caio's friends and I wish we'd had more of them. I just wanted more story in general, 15 days was just not enough!

Stef Out x

After the End by Clare Mackintosh

 

Read January/February 2022. Book I owned but since donated.

3/5 stars

This was a very strange book. Pip and Max are a married couple whose 3 year old son, Dylan, has cancer. It soon comes to a point that it's time to choose what to do next. Pip and Max sadly disagree on what to do and a court case soon comes.

What follows is a Sliding Doors-esque alternating chapter dual narrative following each outcome after the trial.

The layout change did confuse me for a moment but it was kind of interesting to see the similarities/differences between the two futures.

There was one character who we got to know who was then dropped which was frustrating and then the ending was a bombshell and an unexplained cliffhanger all in one which annoyed me.

I do like the author's writing style though, I didn't twig until I checked GoodReads that I had already read a book by her, the other was Let Me Lie which comes under thriller and this was domestic drama.

Also interestingly I found this at work and then re-donated it back there after I'd read it and then today while looking for a book for a book stack photo on Instagram (@owls_rainbow) I found a copy on my shelf! So that one will go to work as well as it's not one I see myself re-reading.

Stef Out x

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

 

Book I own. Read January 2022.

5/5 stars

This is a book that doesn't hold back and it feels like such a necessary read.

All white people should read this and especially white men. Stop fetishizing black women, stop using and abusing them.

I loved Queenie, she was strong but in a fragile way. I loved her growth throughout and how she gradually realised that she needed help and accepted it. I really appreciated that it showed the divide in family attitudes towards getting help.

Her friends were a great mix but I hated Cassandra and her lack of faith in her supposed best friend!

Overall I loved this book but it's a difficult one to review. The summary is just read it.

Stef Out x

Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

 

4/5 stars

CW: small amount of transphobic language, misgendering and use of outdated terms.

This was so nearly a 5 star book! The story was ever so gripping and drew me in straight away.

Pairs of victims are being kidnapped, held in a secure location and starved. They are left a gun with a single bullet and an instruction to kill or be killed.

The DI on the case - Helen Grace - is a strong, stoic character who is struggling to find the reason behind the crime. Soon another pair appears, seemingly unconnected to the first but clearly the same perpetrator, and unusually a woman!

I loved all the different points of view and the descriptiveness of the author's writing. The characters and story were engaging and the pacing was good overall but the ending was seriously lacking.

The killer's explanation was vague and sparse, I had to guess her motives and even then I'm unsure overall.

I did appreciate the overall reveal though. But after the killer is apprehended everything just stops and that's it, the book is over.

There was an extract from the next book in my copy which picks up a short time after and presumably gives a lot more of the aftermath, so it's disappointing that it's not included in this book. However I enjoyed it enough to seek out more in the series.

Stef Out x

Seven Days by Alex Lake

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

4/5 stars

Read November 2021

In seven days Maggie will lose her son because in seven days Max turns 3. 3 years old is when he takes them away. It's happened before. Twice. Maggie has been held captive by him for 12 years now.

This was so nearly a 5 star book. I loved the set-up, I loved the multiple points of view, seeing how things developed over the years. The writing was descriptive and emotional, a great study in humanity and how differently people can react to a missing family member.

There was one part of the plot that I initially thought was a red herring becasue it was revealed so early but as the novel unfolded the reasoning became clearer and it worked so well!

My main criticism was that it ended very quickly. It felt like the author was given a maximum page/word count that they couldn't go over so everything was tied up a little too quickly in my opinion. I wanted more of the "after" and how it was going back into real life.

Stef Out x

Madness by Paityn Parque

Ebook provided by the author for review. Thank you.

Read November 2021

3/5 stars

Firstly, apologies it has taken me so long to type this up. I finished the book, hand-wrote the review in a notebook and then life got in the way a little bit.

Ezra is a normal student until the night that she's murdered. Anyone would think that this is it but then Ezra wakes up. She's in a strange game called the Battles. It's kill or be killed, and if you are killed you just come back.

I was reading this in chunks spaced quite far apart so that may have affected my opinion but to begin with I wasn't sure what to rate this. There was a lot of action but that action could be repetitive: scout, kill, sleep, occasionally shower or train, though rarely eat.

I understand that while in the game past lives and interests are pretty irrelevant but it still would have been nice to have learned more about the characters as we went along. They generally lacked distinction for me and kind of blurred together. Also time, was time still passing outside? Have the kids disappeared completely or were they found comatose in their own beds? I wanted more detail.

The feats overall were a nice addition although I'd like to know more about them and how they're allocaed, but maybe that's covered in the sequel. I did think the reveal around Jack's feat was a bit abrupt, and a bit rushed. I still don't really understand it.

The ending however was very gripping and sets up perfectly for a sequel. Hopefully we find out more about the origins and the mechanics of the game itself.

Also overall the writing was very good, no obviously clunky phrasing, smooth to read, though a lot of sneering going on in the last quarter or so.

Stef Out x

New Year's Resolutions 2022

1. Get at least one piercing
2. Get at least one tattoo
3. Add 20,000 words to my WIP novel
4. Write 30,000 words for National Novel Writing Month 2022
5. Break in all my Dr Marten shoes properly
6. Get a new job
7. Learn to drive
8. Get a new car
9. Sew a garment
10. Learn how to crochet
11. Learn how to cross stitch
12. Read 100 books
13. Watch 100 films
14. Go to the cinema 5 times
15. Go to Longleat Safari Park
16. See a show on stage

I also have extra mini goals like getting a bit fitter and clearing my Gmail and Outlook inboxes. Gmail is where Quora stuff gets sent (it was a little bit of an obsession for a while) and Outlook is Pinterest emails. Both require more time dedicating to them than I usually want to spend on them. I have been making progress on the Pinterest ones this week though, no money to shop with (£10 til PayDay) and bank holidays meaning not many working days this week meant I've had a little more computer time, in between colouring my calendar for this year.

Then of course on top there are the extra "need to buy" goals. I need a new laptop, I'd like to go old school and get an old iPod Classic for my music. We need a new carpet in the living room, we need to vinyl in the hallway and kitchen. I need a new desk chair. We'd like to re-replace the sofas for comfier ones. (Background - one of the old sofas broke so they were emergency replaced last September but the only ones we could afford turned out to not be overly comfy.) We both need new beds and probably mattresses.

All in all a lot of reasons to need a new job with more hours/more money. Sigh.

I also need to catch up a lot with my NetGalley books. I've decided to put a pause on requesting for a bit to give myself time to catch up a little, I have over 300 that I need to read and that's on top of my existing reading lists for this year. I've thought up a 22 in 2022 list plus I want to try and read the alphabet as well. Anyway this is long enough now so I'll leave it there.

Stef Out x

2021 Resolutions Recap

 Before I start anything else can I plead with the universe to make 2022 less of a shit show??? Please!!! Although early signs are not hopeful. Onto the recap before I get into that...

1. Get at least one piercing
2. Get at least one tattoo
3. Read 100 books
4. Watch 150 films
5. Go to the cinema 5 times
6. Learn to drive
7. Get a new car
8. Go to Longleat
9. See a show on stage
10. Learn to cross stitch
11. Learn to crochet
12. Write 20,000 words of a novel
13. Get fitter
14. Break in my sequin Doc shoes
15. Keep up to date with book reviews
16. Start to grow my hair out

Well that was a disaster. Coronavirus is still affecting everything massively. As are my pathetic finances. I still haven't found a new job but that is a definite goal for 2022. To cut a long story short my old manager quit with a week's notice so I was running the shop single-handedly 5 days a week from end of July to the beginning of October. I debated taking it on permanently but I didn't decided quick enough and now I have a new manager. It has been... tough. She's lazy and slapdash about everything and has criticised me to my face and it's hard. I've lost all confidence in myself and my ability to do the job because whatever I do it's wrong or not good enough or ignoring something I didn't realise she'd said. I'm just tired of it all.

I was up to date on book reviews for a while but there's one from April I still haven't posted and two that have been hand-written but need typing up. I've decided to stop requesting from NetGalley for a bit, I just have too big of a backlog that I really need to catch up with, plus I have three (!!!) to read that were author requests. On top of that I've created a list of 22 books to read in 2022, plus I want to try the Alphabet Challenge.

Films were a disaster this year for some reason. I got to 95 I think it was and only managed two cinema trips, both in December: A Boy Called Christmas and Encanto. Both were amazing and I've already bought the Encanto soundtrack. We were hoping to see the new Spiderman film but there's just one teensy problem there... The car is broken. It's been making a strange noise when you reverse for a while and then the other day it made a loud clunk so we're thinking whatever it is has broken. It means I'm using foot power to get to work at the moment as well which is fun. Not. Mum gets her money on the 14th so hopefully it won't be too expensive to fix.

Speaking of the car, over the space of a couple of months we bought two new ones and then bought our original one back. The first was an Audi estate which had a broken window and an unfortunate gear problem - it would jump into fourth when you wanted second, not good. Then we ended up with a Skoda Fabia, just getting home was fun with that one, it was running on fumes and the petrol cap was jammed. The first station's attendant couldn't help and they were out anyway but the second managed to sort it. It was an uncomfortable car but it ended up needing to go because it had a habit of just stopping without warning. A tad dangerous. Then thanks to notifications from the DVLA because the logbook hadn't been done we discovered that our original one hadn't been sold yet so we bought it back.

Writing was OK this year, I manged 26,000 words for National Novel Writing Month in November so I'm really pleased with that. Fitness, hair etc, forget it, I kind of forgot about the crafty stuff and I feel guilty about my shoes. 2022 will be the year! I hope...

Anyway that's long enough for now, I will be back soon-ish with my 2022 Resolutions (I haven't even come up with them yet...).

Stef Out x