February 2023 Monthly Wrap Up!

I’m a few days late in sharing my February 2023 monthly wrap up, but time is an illusion anyway so it doesn’t matter! This month was pretty busy with “real life” things, which I’ll talk a little bit about. So I didn’t read quite as much as last month, but I still enjoyed my reads. I also watched some fun movies and shows!

---

Books I Read

---

• Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
• Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
• Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen
• Begin Again by Emma Lord
• The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

I thought I hadn’t read that many books this month, but I read 6! Which is still great! Though of course reading any amount is great. I think the latter three were my favorite reads. Is it fair to say that half of my reads were my favorite? Well I’m gonna say it anyway and you can’t stop me!

Lunar Love, which is an adult romance, featured two mixed race protagonists, and since I’m mixed myself it’s always wonderful to see that rep in books. It also had great depictions of different familial relationships.

Begin Again is a new adult romance that takes place during the main character’s first year of college. I really like reading romances set in this time, I can’t pinpoint why exactly. I think there’s just something about the excitement of people first experiencing college and having a different kind of freedom that is just really joyful.

And finally, The Unbroken!! Yes, I have FINALLY gotten around to reading the sapphic trifecta, and I started with this one. I’m definitely super impressed, and can see why so many people rave about it. Though frustrating, I really loved reading the discussions that the author was having about colonization, and feeling a disconnect with your culture. Definitely relatable for me, though for me it’s in a less intense context (i.e. not war/rebellion). The pacing felt a bit uneven to me, but that is my only complaint!

---

Movies and TV I Watched

---

• Shallow Grave (black comedy crime, directed by Danny Boyle)
• A Life Less Ordinary (black comedy, directed by Danny Boyle)
• Your Place or Mine (romcom, Netflix original Movie)
• We Have a Ghost (comedy horror, Netflix original movie)
• Lockwood & Co. (action/adventure horror-ish, Netflix original series)

Movies

Last month in my wrap up I mentioned that my partner and I are watching movies that are covered by the Blank Check podcast. This month the podcast started covering the films directed by Danny Boyle, who is a British director. We watched two of his films, Shallow Grave and A Life Less Ordinary. These two are his 1st and 3rd films respectively. The 2nd is Trainspotting, which my partner watched without me. All three actually feature Ewan McGregor as one of the main characters. I’m not sure I’d really say I “liked” either of the movies haha. But it was definitely interesting watching them.

Next up was Your Place or Mine, a Netflix romcom starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. It got not great reviews, but honestly I had a great time watching it. I don’t really have high standards for romcoms, I just want to be entertained. And this movie did that!

Last weekend I watched the new Netflix movie We Have a Ghost. I watched this with a handful of my friends that I met on Bookstagram! We’ve watched quite a few movies and shows together. This was a horror comedy movie following a family that moves in to a house that is already occupied by a ghost. The younger teen of the family befriends the ghost, but the world at large ends up finding out and becoming obsessed with the ghost. It was a surprisingly touching story! And if you’re a horror baby like me, don’t worry, it’s not too scary. There are only a couple scenes that are creepy/scary.

Shows

To my own astonishment, I only watched one show this month! And I only started it on the last day of the month haha. I’d been seeing a ton of book Twitter friends watching Lockwood & Co., which is a new Netflix show that is adapted from the book series of the same name. It’s about a group of three ghost hunting teens, and I’m really loving it so far. I can’t wait to continue!

---

Things I Did!

---

The biggest thing I did this month was start at my new job! I had been looking for a full time position for a while, and have now started as a full time data analyst. I’ve been going in to the office, and working a full 9-5. It’s a big change from working from home and working on my own time, so it’s taking me a while to adjust. I come home super exhausted every day haha. I’m also working with a team of four other people, which is also an adjustment from mostly working independently. But so far so good overall!

I also took two trips, one to Utah to go skiing with my family and one to Virginia for something with my partner’s family. It was really nice to spend time with both families. The standout was getting to see Moxy again! Moxy is my best bud – she’s a super cute pitbull doggie. In 2021, before moving across the country, my partner and I lived with his family for a few months. His brother was also living at home at the time, and Moxy is his dog. I wasn’t working at the time so she and I hung out every day. Lots of couch cuddles and play time and walks! That was also the period where my grandfather was diagnosed with and passed away from cancer. So Moxy really was a huge help in terms of emotional support. I cried when I saw her again since it had been about a year and a half since we moved and I last saw her!! I’ll share some pictures of her below haha.

---

---

---

How was your February? Did you do anything fun? Feel free to share your wrap up post in the comments if you have one!