Today I am reporting from our new apartment. Yes, we have moved and looks like we are almost settled. There are a few more boxes to be unpacked but they can stay for now. We do have to make some purchases soon.
As for the new house, I am delighted by the amount of sunshine it gets all through the day. And we chose a high rise building and now we can see both the sunrise and sunset from our balcony, well almost. Of course we still have to wait and see how hot it is in summer. But for now, we will enjoy it.
How does our view look?
What was your week like? Do you enjoy gazing at the sunset/sunrise? What are you reading currently? Let us talk.
What I read this week
With all the rush and chaos, I forgot that I was reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. And started reading The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.
I will have to finish them both, if and when I get sometime to take a break. Fingers crossed.
What I watched this week
I caught up a few episodes of The Office but the show kinda lost it charm after Steve Carell, don’t you agree?
During the days before shifted the television and got it running, I was obsessively watching silent vlogs on Youtube. Here are some that I really enjoyed.
It has been a busy few days on the home front. We are planning to move houses soon, so went on a massive decluttering drive last week. Discarding things is a difficult thing for me, my Indian-ness wants to reuse or repurpose things that I have never seen in a year or two.
But I powered through and got it done. Everything has been sorted and classified and discarded, ready for the movers who will be coming later this week. Except for the bookshelf, which will move without any declutter.
I have not found much time and I am still reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, but I am enjoying it.
I also started Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg this week, which I am liking too. If you enjoyed Atomic Habits by James Clear, you will enjoy this one too, I suppose.
What I watched this week
Every time I had a break from the house chores, I slumped on the couch to watch the Office (US) re-runs on Amazon. Nothing else.
On my blog
In case you missed the posts from my blog, last week.
Who knows how long it has been since I wrote a review? Actually I know, it has been almost 6 months. But here I am with one. So read on to find how The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe turned out for me.
Nora O’Malley and her friends were not prepared for being held hostages when they went to the bank that morning. Neither were the robbers prepared for these normal looking teens to foil their heist. They were especially not prepared for Nora to be an ex con artist.
Before she became Nora O’Malley, she was a number of other girls – a prop for her mother to lure gullible men into their sweetheart trap. She was raised to be a con artist herself until she escaped.
Did the hostages survive? Did the bank heist succeed? You will have to read The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe to know more.
Book review of The Girls I’ve Been
The Girls I’ve Been follows a multiple timelines – a bank heist in the present and Nora’s numerous cons in the others. While I loved the present timeline, the narrative style of some of the other timelines didn’t sit well with me. Too distracting from the heist part, if I may.
I really enjoyed the strong and complex background stories of each of these characters and their complicated family dynamics.
The Girls I’ve Been had so many beautiful and strong relationship angles. I loved that the romance (Sapphic or any other kind) didn’t entirely take over any of them, and the platonic friendship was exceptional.
I especially adored Nora’s very dependable and devoted sister Lee, the only adult in The Girls I’ve Been who deserved to be with these teens.
The Girls I’ve Been is full of strong women and smart girls, and I hope you will love Iris as much as I did. And another yay for the strong LGBTQIA+ and good mental health representations.
What worked for me
The Girls I’ve Been is a fast paced young adult book that maintains the action and suspense until the end.
I loved the friendship between the three teens as well as the beautiful Sapphic relationship between Nora and Iris.
Morally grey characters are my favorites and grey characters who try hard to be good are the best.
What may have been better
The Girls I’ve Been has quite a few flashbacks that kinda slowed down the pace. I felt the narrative style of the flashback became annoying after a while.
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe is a perfect page turner that you will enjoy if you are into young adults. It has great representations and MORALLY GREY CHARACTERS. Can’t wait for the Netflix adaptation with Millie Brown Bobby!
It has been a while since I did a Sunday post or even blogged. How have you been? Is the New Year treating you alright? Well, it has been almost ten days and I am here online, so you are right that I have some of those “new year, new me” vibes sticking to me.
But it is 2022, and let me not forget that I barely survived got through the last few two years, so I am going to keep everything as light as possible, and not have huge plans or overhauls. Basically all I am going to start with is doing the bare minimum on my blog and stick to flexi-schedule, and see how it goes.
How about you, guys? What did I miss in the blogging world?
I had to scramble to finish my last year’s Goodreads reading challenge, but I did it finally. And that is why I want to pace myself by reading a book a week, for my 52 books goal for 2022. Of course, I will be a bit flexible with it. So fingers crossed.
So last week, I read The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe and currently reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
I will let you know how they were soon, okay?
What I watched this week
Did anyone watched the Netflix adaptation of Anxious People?
I loved the book, as I have mentioned earlier as well, but I was left disappointed with the adaptation. I think it missed the whole “feel good” factor that Beckman’s books are known for.
The official voting is out and 2021 was a shit show. But of everything that happened, I loved how consistent I was in blogging here and writing in few other places, for more than eight months in 2021.
Of course all good things have to come to an end. Or so it seemed, when I hit that dreaded burn out or crash that lasted almost since September. And it took quite an effort to get out of it, but here I am.
Pin me!
Let us chat
What was your 2021 like? How many books did you read and how many are you planning to read? What did I miss in the blogging world? Let us talk.
