Hey everyone,

Right now I'm going through a rather dark time in my life, so I've decided to add another daily practice into my life—mindfulness.

I've been very stressed out the past few hours and really needed to recharge myself. So, naturally, I searched up what I should do on Google.

This website was very helpful for me to learn more about mindfulness, and I'm going to implement it into all parts of my life starting today, right now. I listened to the 5 minute meditation just now, and I'm feeling much more at ease.

I still have a long way to go, but this is a start. We all have to start from somewhere, so don't expect to start meditating for hours on end!

I'll keep you all updated as I continue my practice—let me know how you are faring as well.

mel

I'm writing this blog post on January 30th, but it will be posted tomorrow. Before I published my previous blog post, I hadn't known that today, I lost someone in my family.

I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like to with this person, but I mourn the lost of this person, and it's jarring seeing the pain and suffering of the people around me.

I'm not a religious person, so I don't take comfort in knowing that this person is in a better place, and that is definitely something no one should say to another person during a time of lost.

I'm still in shock; this doesn't seem real. This death was so sudden and abrupt; I don't know how I'm feeling right now.

Just a quick update on my thoughts.

mel

Hello everyone, I'm back!

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, today I will be reviewing Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

This review will contain spoilers, but I'll begin with a basic review of the book.

In short, I absolutely loved this book! I finished within a few days—Cath is such a relatable character. Even though I would say I'm extremely different from her, there were so many moments I saw my past self in her. The characters in this book are all quite wonderful and lovable, and it was nice to take a break from all the dramatic books I've been reading and read something fun.

If you love contemporary books like me, I highly recommend this one; it's one that I really enjoyed reading. Now onto the spoiler section!

SPOILERS BELOW

a. Dialing 911 into my phone and holding my finger over call is totally something I'd do while walking back home alone.

b. Cath (and a lot of the characters in this book) seems to have unhealthy conflict resolutions—she literally just pretends like nothing happened instead of addressing the issue, something I did a lot as a kid.

c. Wow, Nick is freaking annoying.

d. Abel is annoying too.

e. I really like Reagan; she was one of my favorite characters.

f. I've never been a fan of fan fiction, but its interesting to see Rowell's take on Harry Potter with Simon and Baz. 

g. What even was that ending though? I thought part of the book was missing or something... There was a good chapter or two that I still needed to get some closure.

h. What an amazing professor!

This was just a quick list--I didn't take notes while reading (which I should), so I'm probably leaving out a lot of details. But have no fear, I'm currently reading Isla and the Happily Ever After, and I will be sure to keep track of my thoughts.

That's all for this quick book review—see you tomorrow!

mel

Hello everyone!

A summary of my day:

a. Started off the morning pretty early; I went to the animals shelter and hung out with the cats.

b. Went grocery shopping with my dad and bought a bunch of overpriced vegan food... I might do a haul in the future. :)

c. Came back home, took a shower, and then set off for lunch.

d. Went to a Buddhist temple to celebrate Chinese New Year (which was yesterday actually, yet there was still a lot of people).

e. Came back home, finished Fangirl (review coming soon!), and worked on some homework.

f. Had a lovely dinner with my family and went on a walk.

Now I have to finish the rest of my homework; I'll probably be sleeping late today! Goodnight everyone!

mel

Surprise, it's me! (Actually, this is a scheduled post but it still counts right?)

I haven't been doing much of anything these days which leaves me time to get back into one my favorite pastimes: reading. I used to be quite the avid reader and then school started getting busier and I started to get addicted to YouTube instead.

But this month has been different—I actually finished two books, and I'm working on the third (Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell)! Both of these books I'm reviewing today happen to be the finales to their respective trilogies.

This review is going to be very quick and incomplete; it only contains one spoiler, which I've labeled for your convenience.

The first is The Midnight Star by Marie Lu. I can't remember if I reviewed The Young Elites or The Rose Society, which are the first and second books of this trilogy.

I forgot most of the details from the first two books going into this third book, so I didn't know what was happening and who was who most of the time. A few notes about this trilogy as a whole:

a. I love that the main character is an antihero; it makes her so much more interesting. Granted, I don't really like her (she's really extra) but that's a minor detail.

b. Now that I think about it, I don't really like any of the characters in this book...

c. SPOILER ALERT! I wonder if Enzo did truly love Adelina... I was disappointed when he said the name of some other girl. But I do like Magiano, so it's all good.

d. This book got really confusing and complicated near the end, but I really liked how it ended.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this series; it's very interesting, and the setting it takes place in is so cool. But the characters were kind of bland; none of them were very likable, in my opinion.

The second book I read was The Black Key by Amy Ewing. I definitely remember reviewing the first book, The Jewel, but not the second.

This book is extremely similar to The Hunger Games, minus the actual games and the love triangle. The main character is strikingly similar to Katniss; they could very well be the same person. I also see many parallels between other characters (i.e. Violet and Prim, Lucien and Cinna, etc.)

To me, this trilogy is just another run-of-the-mill YA fiction series (as was The Young Elites). However, the world it takes place in is very interesting; I often found myself imagining what my life would be like if I were to live in this world (which, thankfully, I don't). I often predicted what would happen, but nonetheless, I couldn't stop flipping the pages to see what would happen next. Again, the characters aren't lovable at all, but if you enjoy reading this genre, you would probably like this trilogy.

So that's the end of today's post! Hopefully more book reviews will be coming in the future. I'm almost done with Fangirl, so look forward to that review!

I'd love to hear what you thought of either of these books if you've read them. Thanks for reading!

mel

Hello everyone!

It has been over a month since I've last blogged—is it just me or has this sentence been my go to introduction to every one of my posts these days?

I'm finally back, and it's 2017! I hope you all had a great holiday season and have been having a fantastic new year. To be honest, my new year so far has been extremely tiring—every day is so repetitive and long and dreary and depressing....

Anyways, something I've been considering lately is daily blogging. I know that sounds comical coming from me, considering how this blog post started off. However, I was thinking of posting quick snippets of my life on this blog, so each blog post would be short and sweet. I'm going to try giving it a go and see how long it takes to wear me out.

Even though the weekdays seem to drift by slower than ever, I can't believe the end of January is near. I mean, what?! Where did the time go? The end of this year is going to signify a huge change in my life, and I want to document it right here, on this blog.

Anyways, that's all from me today. I wouldn't blame you if you don't believe me, but I'll be here tomorrow. In fact, I'm probably going to work on some blog posts right now.

Thank you so much for reading!

mel