Sparkling Letters Monthly Recap: September 2016

Unlike every other months when I feel like time passed very quickly, September felt like forever to me! Basically because I’m (still) unemployed and everyday feels like holiday to me 😛 nonetheless, welcome to another recap! I’m also adding a new feature in which I’ll list down my favorite bookish posts around the blogosphere. Without further ado, let’s see what I’ve been up to this month ♥

• The job hunting party is going well so far! I’ve had several calls and interviews this month and I’m currently in the selection process of some prestigious companies in Indonesia. I really, really wish I get in! Wish me luck? ♥
• I miss my friends 😦 like… A LOT! I went to uni in Bandung which is like 3 hours away so most of my uni friends either live there or in other different cities. That means I have very few uni friends living in the same city with me, which means I have only a few people to hang out with. Which is sad… at least I still hang out with my high school friends 😛
• Actually, there’s not much going on with my life :’)

I read around 15 books this month but 4 of them are rereads so… they didn’t count? :’) I didn’t buy too many books either because (money???) and all I want to buy are new releases which aren’t available yet in my country because international shipping sucks like that.

Read this month

• Jandy Nelson’s duo : I’ll Give You the Sun (5/5) and The Sky is Everywhere (4/5). SO SO SO ADORABLE! And emotional I cried a lot?!! I love these books so much and I couldn’t wait to read Jandy Nelson’s upcoming books ♥ Full review.
• Immortal Writers by Jill Bowers. (3/5). I received the eARC via Netgalley. The idea of this story is actually really unique but I felt like reading an MG instead of YA. Too much explaining and that’s just annoying.
• 5 books I read during #DiverseAThon : Homegoing, Written in the Stars, Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Juliet Takes A Breath, and Everything Leads to You. Some I love so much while the rest are just… plain. Full recap here.
• A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir (4/5). One of my most anticipated release of the year that (sadly) didn’t live up to my expectations. Still loved it though. Full review.
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (3.5/5) Loved the plot, utterly disliked the main character. I have sooo many issues with it! Full review.
• Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter (1/5) Um… probably the biggest disappointment of the year? My first 1 star rating in a long while. No world building, vague plot, basically everything didn’t make sense. I was so looking forward to it 😦

Did you see that my last reads are all disappointing? I was on a streak of bad books and it totally killed my mood for reading! I was going to slump so I reread The Way to Game the Walk of Shame for 3 times in 2 days to prevent it. I could practically recite most of dialogues which not at all weird, right? 😛 I’m also starting to reread the ENTIRE series of Harry Potter because it’s been a while ♥

I ordered Crooked Kingdom, Vicious, and A Gathering of Shadows but they haven’t arrived yet. Really hoping to get them soon because all of this hype around Crooked Kingdom is making me SUPER JEALOUS! </3

I celebrated my 6 months blogiversary on September 2! ♥ there’s something satisfying from hitting another milestone! I hope to keep blogging and someday move to self hosting 😀

The blog is getting a steadier number of visitors everyday and I’m sooo happy ♥♥♥ My referrers also varied and I’m stoked to see people finding my blog for everywhere. Thank you for visiting 😀 But there’s ONE MYSTERY that I haven’t cracked : why can’t I predict which posts would get high traffic??? Sometimes when I’m drafting, I had a feeling that this post will be a huge hit but then it’s so lonely?! But then when I was just posting because of necessity, that post received so many likes and comments? Why is that? :’)

Anywayyy, I haven’t been in the mood for blogging lately. I’m so sorry that I was so late to reply your comments and didn’t visit back (like I usually do). I also haven’t done much blog hopping lately. But this shall pass soon and I promise I’ll blog hop sometimes next week 😀

My favorite posts this month :

1. Let’s Talk About Diversity
2. My Reading Kaleidoscope Part 1
3. The Joy and Struggle of Reviewing

My most popular posts this month :

1. Do You Binge Read Books or Slowly Savor Them?
2. Let’s Talk About Diversity
3. Top 10 Tuesday: Ten All Time Favorite Fantasy Books

All around the blogosphere ♥

• Aentee @ Read at Midnight shared some free Throne of Glass wallpapers. Spoilers: THEY’RE GORGEOUS ♥
• Cait @ Paper Fury talked about what her preference in fairy tale retellings 
• Jeann @ Happy Indulgence talked about misrepresentations in diversity
• Rebecca guest posted at Lily Bloom Books and talked about 4 elements of blog graphic
• Briana @ Pages Unbound shared some tips on writing an epic discussion post
• Laura @ Boats Against the Current talked about signs of a book blogger
• Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight shared some of her struggles on bookstagram 😛
• Josephine @ Word Revel shared some bookstagram tips on how to pick background photos

So that’s my September recap, everybody! How about yours? Anything interesting?  Link me to your own recaps or just tell me! Would love to hear your thoughts! ♥♥

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