February was gone in the blink of an eye! The month of so many wonderful book releases, Valentine's Day, and lots and lots of rain.



We acutally were really disappointed with the Aquarium, which was geared almost exclusively toward children, and was packed with rude people who expected you to move out of the way and cater to them and their kids simply because we didn't have kids of our own. We only stayed for about an hour and a half before we had to leave. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, and I have no problem with them! I have a problem with parents who think they and their children are entitled to push you out of the way or cut in front of you simply because they have kids and you don't.

Once again I'm late getting my monthly recap posted, I just can't seem to get these up early in the month! Well, goodbye 2016! I started off the year with a photo captioned, "Here's to 2016 kicking 2015's ass!" Let's just say it did *not* live up to those expectations. BUT it wasn't all bad.

October went by in a flash! I felt like it was gone in the blink of an eye and I hardly had a moment to sit down. I only managed a few blog posts, but I did get through more books than I had thought, so that’s a plus. Can you believe it’s already November and the holiday season is upon us???


I'm actually pretty surprised I read 9 books in October. I didn't think the number was quite so high until I was putting this list together. Falling Kingdoms was my 100th read of the year! I have officially met my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for 2016. At this point I'm ultimately going to try for 120 finishes, we'll see if I can make it!

I can’t believe September is already over and I’m going to start dating things as October. Am I alone? It’s the month of changing leaves, Halloween, and candy corn. Do you like candy corn? I do! I finally got a chance to slow down this month and get in more reading and stitching time. It was a nice change of pace.

I made some great progress on my Hogwarts Crest. Finally! I finished the middle left side and have officially begun the largest part of the pattern. I know most people start from the center and work their way out, but I stitch how I read - left to right, top to bottom. I’m just hoping this part doesn’t take me another 4 months to get through! My Griffindor lion has a butt :)

Not much to report here other than what you see above. I spent most of my free time either reading, stitching, or with my husband and fur family and I am perfectly happy with that. I needed the rest after running around non stop for months on end.
I had a rough couple of days in and out of doctors' offices at one point, so I decided to completely ignore my tbr pile and finally take time time to do a reread of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. It was worth it and, I felt, well deserved. This was my first time reading a version of The Philosopher's Stone, and truth be told, even though I've read The Sorcerer's Stone so many times, it's been so long I couldn't really tell how much of it was different slang wise. I just know I loved it.

My husband surprised me with the Game of Thrones coloring book, which was awesome! It has some great illustrations, but some are more like hand sketches, so I'm not sure how to color them in yet.
How was your September? Are you ready for fall and Halloween? Do you dress up? Have you read any of the books I read this month?

1. My name is Jacqueline, but most people call me Jackie.
2. My husband and I have been married for nearly four years. We have four cats, Snickers, Spike, Luke, and Leia, and a dog named Zeus.   
     
3. I’ve always loved to read, but only for fun. I’ve always hated assigned reading, even if it was an alright book. Something about being forced into it, being told what I should think about it or what the author may or may not have been trying to say never sat well with me. 
4. While I’ve always been a reader, it wasn’t until the past few years that I really started devouring books, and I’m much happier for it.
5. I can knit, crochet, and cross stitch!
6. I’m not much of a cook, but I love to bake. 
7. I only recently started building back up my book collection. A few years ago, when we moved, I gave away almost all my books. Afterward, I only checked books out from the library and/or read ebooks. I’m so happy to finally be filling up my bookshelves!
     
8. I don’t watch much tv. I can’t just sit and watch something, I have to be doing something at the same time or else I feel lazy. Typically I’m cross stitching, or writing a blog post, or something.
9. If it hasn’t been obvious from my various instagram posts and other blog posts, I’m a gigantic Potterhead. 
   
10. I work a full time day job, but my dream job would be to own my own bookstore-cafe. Short of that, I’d give anything to work in the publishing industry, but there are no such jobs in the Sacramento area.

WARNING: RANT & SPOILERS

Please read the above sentence. If you loved The Cursed Child and/or if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want the story to be spoiled for you, stop reading now. You’ve been forewarned.


I want to start off by saying that I went into reading Harry Potter and The Cursed Child knowing that J.K. Rowling didn’t write it herself (did you know that? If not, you should it explains a lot), but she did give it her blessing, and I went into it with an open mind. I was very excited to be transported back into the HP universe and brought back to my childhood and teenage years of wonderment, ready to be immersed in wizardry, spells, Hogwarts, the lot of it, 19 years later.

It started off fine, I had no issues reading the screenplay style and it picked up right where The Deathly Hallows left off on Platform 9 ¾ left off with Harry talking to Albus Severus about how it would be okay if he was sorted into Slytherin. From there we’re introduced to Rose, Hermione and Ron’s daughter, cousin to Albus, and Scorpius, son of Draco Malfoy. Rose tries to warn Albus away from socializing or being seen with Scorpius because there are rumors surrounding him that he is the son of Voldemort -which right off the bat I was like what? Anyway- but Albus makes his own choice to stay with him on the train on their first trip to Hogwarts, Rose leaves, and it’s the start of a long friendship.

So, Albus gets sorted into Slytherin (shocker, I know), and a few years go by and Albus and Scorpius have become great friends. He resents that Harry is his father and he’s very emo. Scorpius is basically a mish-mash of Ron & Hermione’s personalities, nothing like Draco at all. One summer while Albus is home, Amos Diggory, Cedric’s dad - you remember him from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire don’t you? - pays a visit to Harry asking him to use a time-turner that the Ministry is rumored to have confiscated (as all others were destroyed after the previous war) to go back and save Cedric. Harry denies its existence and says no. Delphi, Amos’ niece (or is she!?) pops up and gets into Albus’s head and basically convinces him that he should go back in time and save Cedric. It will be his big moment and maybe that can gain some respect with his father. He and Scorpius get the time-turner, go back, manage to screw everything up, have to get help to fix everything, and then everything’s right in the end. Along the way we find out Voldemort did have a kid, and it was Delphi all along, and her mom was Bellatrix….


1. Voldemort having a kid at all brings up so many issues I have a hard time figuring out where to start. He thought he was so high and mighty would he have really brought himself low enough to breed with someone? And yes, that’s exactly how he would have thought of it, breeding. He thought he was better than everyone.

2. Bellatrix being the mother - I mean, if it had to be anyone, I can see why she would be the choice, but still, see my above point.

3. Her giving birth at Malfoy manor before the battle of Hogwarts - again, plausible, but Draco not knowing about it? His parents were living in the house at the time. How could they not know and why wouldn’t they have, at some point, not spilled the beans? It’s pretty freaking hard to hide a pregnancy for 9 months, plus a birth, and with Bellatrix being a top ranking Death Eater, how did NO ONE talk? And why, when Hermione used polyjuice potion to become her in The Deathly Hallows to get into Gringotts, didn’t anyone question her not being pregnant?


Depending on your theory of time travel, and sticking with J.K.’s own from Prisoner of Azkaban, Albus and Scorpius going back in time in the Goblet of Fire MAKES NO SENSE. It would have come up in the narrative! They directly interacted with Hermione, yet she has no recollection of this? More plot holes!

Overall, I think it might make a good play and would be fun to see live in person and it’s the only reason I’m giving it 3 stars. Mostly it read like a piece of fan fiction. I’m kind of surprised it received her approval as it was. The more I think about it the more upset I get. I know I can’t be the only one! I’ve heard mixed reviews, and I think most people that consider themselves to be huge fans feel similarly.


Okay, rant over.

What did you think? Do you agree? Did you love The Cursed Child? Did you hate it? Are you in between?

April was a very busy month! Was it busy for you? I felt like I never really had time to sit and relax.


I finished 11 books in April- 7 Audiobooks, 5 physical books. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m going to get through more audios this year than physical books, but I’m okay with that. This brings me to 24 audiobooks listened to so far of my goal of 50 for my 2016 Audiobook Challenge.

1. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner  3/5 🌟
2. My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga  4/5 🌟
3. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab 5/5 🌟
4. Room by Emma Donoghue  4/5 🌟
5. The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder 4/5 🌟
6. Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby  3/5 🌟
7. Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman  5/5 🌟
8. Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid  3/5 🌟
9. Partials by Dan Wells  4/5 🌟
10. My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel by Grady Hendrix  5/5 🌟
11. Fragments by Dan Wells 4/5 🌟

I managed to finish through page 4 of my Harry Potter Hogwarts Crest this month! Only 8 more pages in the pattern to go! I joke that at this rate, I’ll be done by Christmas. I joke, but it’s very true.


I also made this cute, quick gift for a co-worker as a going-away gift. She was my only fellow Browncoat and I’m going to miss her.

I was lucky enough to find a copy of The Drawing of the Three at a local Goodwill to finally complete my Dark Tower box set again after years of a whole where book two should be. Teaches me to lend out any books!



I ran my first official 10k! I run a lot on my own, but this was my first real race and it was amazing! I finished in 52 min, 11 seconds, for an average of 8:24min/mile, a personal record. Out of nearly 560 people, I finished 89th! I couldn’t believe it. I really liked not having to stop for cars, crossing the street, etc, which is probably why my time improved so much, so I may do more races. We’ll see :)

The left is post race with my finisher medal and the prelim results, and on the right is the official race results.