August 2023 Favorites
August was a fun one although hectic. With two kids back to school on different days, during different weeks, it felt like there was a lot going on. August is the start to me getting uninterrupted work time back in my life after having my kids home for summer, which is always bittersweet. I love having the kids home, but they like school and I know it’s positive for them.
In work news, I’ve made impact in my neverending quest to get more organized and started using Notion instead of the Trello, Google Sheets/Docs, Scrivener, paper notes, Notepad, etc journey I’ve been on. Obviously, all that hasn’t been working for me, so it’s nice to get it all set up in one place—Notion—so that I can find what I need without feeling like I might pull out my hair.
This month, I read five books and three were in a series. Here’s the series I read in full this month:
The books are standalone romance, but with characters that make an appearance in other installments. Overall, I enjoyed the series and appreciated the representation of autistic characters, as I don’t recall reading a romance featuring autistic characters before reading these. My favorite of the three was The Kiss Quotient, and although I looked forward to The Heart Principle the most, it was the toughest to read.
This August, I recommend these books:
Katee Stein gifted me an ARC copy of Glass Helix which I’ve been excitedly reading this month. First off, can we talk about how beautiful this cover is? I mean, what a dreamy color palette! And their sweet lovebird pose! I love love this cover, and I’ve been enjoying this novel so very much. Stein is wonderfully talented at weaving story with worldbuilding, and I’ll be publishing my review of this book in the next few days. Glass Helix is out September 4 and can be preordered here.
Reading Like a Writer was a gift to myself this month as I’m dealing with writer burnout and working to find my way back to a place where I feel more in the zone. I bought this paperback from Thriftbooks which is one of my favorite shops for used books. You can shop Thriftbooks here (affiliate link) and enjoy their large selection, fast shipping, and a rewards system that can earn you free books in future orders with Thriftbooks.
Gardens of the Moon is the first book in the heavily recommended Malazan series, which I bought this month on Humble Bundle. I swear, every time I hop on r/fantasy, this series is recommended, so when I saw the Humble Bundle for the full series, I knew I needed to hop on that deal ASAP.
Top articles, podcast episodes, and more that I enjoyed this month:
This big list of tools for creating ideas has me feeling inspired.
31 gratitude journal prompts can be found here. My favorite question of the bunch is this one—What conveniences (internet, technology, etc.) helped me today?—which I’ll be journaling on today.
Since tiring of social media more and more, I’ve started reading lifestyle blogs and subscribing to their newsletters. Some of my favorite lifestyle blogs are An Indigo Day, La Vie On Grand, Use Less, The Simply Luxurious Life, & Pretty in the Pines.
Last month I mentioned how into Fallout 4 I am, and that’s still going strong, so I listened to Fallout soundtrack composer Inon Zur interview on the Kiwi Talkz podcast after searching his name in my podcast app.
One of my all-time favorite blog posts that resulted in a “reset to zero” notification on my calendar every Sunday at 9am is Reset to Zero. This is one of those little things I do each week to simplify.
What I listened to this month:
There are days I keep Spotify playing something all day while I work, clean, or spend time with my family. Sometimes it’s on low volume so I can have that little bit of background noise (I swear it helps me focus) and other times I’ll blast a favorite song when I’m driving alone or otherwise have a few minutes to myself.
My top music month to month is usually a mix of metal, K-pop, and soundtracks (most often from video games, and sometimes from movies or TV shows). As you can see from the chart above, this month wasn’t much different—lots of metal (Septicflesh, Ihsahn, Children of Bodom, Dark Tranquility, etc), a bit of K-pop (Seventeen, Stray Kids, Monsta X) a few video game soundtracks (Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mega Man, Oblivion, and then there are the outliers (Oklahoma! which is a musical I grew up watching as a kid and hadn’t heard for a long time).
I also tried out the soundtrack to the brand new musical game adventure Stray Gods, which was interesting but not fully to my taste. I did watch a play through of the game on Twitch, but I’m not sure if I’ll end up purchasing it for myself. I tend to stick to a few video games I really like and either take a long time to play new ones or just never really get around to them. With video games, I’m more picky—usually it’s books where I’ll read pretty much anything.
This month showcased a lot of my favorites like Septicflesh, one of my go-to melodic death metal bands. Their album Communion is a favorite, especially due to catchy hits like Anubis and Sunlight/Moonlight.
My favorite Amazon purchases of the month:
I’ve been a dedicated nail polish girly for literal decades, but getting into ASMR videos on TikTok had me wanting to try out press-on nails. I bought a pack at a local store, but once I found Amazon has a better selection I had to place an order for a few decorative sets like the ones pictured above. There are so many shapes (square, almond, coffin, etc) and lengths and design options (glitter, marble patterned, floral, matte, glossy, etc) and so I ordered a nice variety and I’m looking forward to changing up my nail look.
Cozy paranormal mysteries are perfect for this time of year—Autumn is coming soon! Beth Dolgner is a staple of the genre for me, and if you haven’t read this series, you should really start. It’s perfect for the upcoming spooky & cozy season.
Despite the fact that my phone has a notes app, carrying a paper journal is my preference for note-taking on the go. This peacock design is so pretty, plus small enough to fit in my bag so I can take it everywhere.
