Updates, DNF Mini Review, Discussion About Authors Branching Out, & Recs. (Yup, I Rolled A Lot Into One Post.)

Hey guys! I haven't been around on the blogosphere lately as much as I would like, but I'm sure you understand. I know we've all been there and life happens. To be honest, ever since the summer I've been struggling. I want to get back to blogging and blog hopping more, but it just may not be as much as I want right now. I don't want to stress myself so I'm okay with that. 

I wanted to write a quick update to let everyone know what's been going on in my life. Since it's been SO LONG since I have! Feel free to skip to the bookish stuff though! So my husband is going back to school (He just started last week.) to get his degree. YEY! I'm super proud of him and he's not even going to get a degree he really wants, but one that will hopefully help with his job/financial stuff in the future. While that means more stress on me at home, I'm very proud of him and I love that he's trying to better things for our family. Another thing that's been going on is I've been having MAJOR sleep problems. Insomnia and anxiety has been kicking my butt. With everything going on in life I feel like I'm having a hard time functioning. On a good note though since I started the Keto diet last September I have lost 50 lbs!! My husband has also been losing weight and my daughter has also lost a little. She is 12, she has autism, and she has a hard time when it comes to food. She's struggling a little bit, but we're working on it. As for my twinnies both of them are doing pretty well, despite the fact that within a few days from each other they accidentally gave each other corneal abrasions. They are okay of course, but they weren't even being hyper or anything. They just need to be more careful! These boys are a mess and how come twins have to always do the same thing? HAHA! :P 

I originally wasn't going to post my review for Two By Two on my blog (Which is why I just copied and pasted it hehe laziness for the win!), but I kept thinking about it. I want to commend Nicholas Sparks for going outside of his usual formula even though this book didn't work for me. In my opinion, most of his books are pretty much the same recycled formula with just a few things changed. That's always worked for him though. I mean his books and movies have been majorly successful and I have enjoyed all of the other Sparks books I've read so far. I have to give him props for trying something different than his usual style. And hey, I'm sure there are some people out there that do like this new Sparks book and that's fantastic! 

My point is this got me thinking about other authors that have gone out of their comfort zone. Of course everyone doesn't like the same things and I'm not trying to bash any authors here. I'm just curious in general, what do you think about authors branching out and trying new things? Whether it worked for you, or not, and why. My sleepy brain can't think of any other authors though right now. So I'm curious what authors have you read that tried something new? A new genre, a new writing style, whatever? Did it work for you? Why/why not? 

I'm looking for some recommendations!! Once my reading schedule clears a bit, I want to read more mental health books later this year. I need recs though to add to my list I've started. I have a few options so far, but I would like more to add. What I'm looking for is fictional books that portray mental illness realistically and without glamorizing issues. 

Okay guys, sorry for the SUPER LONG post! Thanks for hanging in there. :P 

Top Ten Tuesday- Top Ten Books I Read Due To Recommendations

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted here at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is all about books read due to recommendations! 

There are so many books that I never would have found if it wasn't for recommendations! I'm so glad all of these were recommended to me though because I LOVE THEM ALL!! This list was so hard to get narrowed down to ten. I almost made it a longer list, but I finally did get the list cut down to ten and here they are!

1. The Troop By: Nick Cutter 

A big thanks to Stephen King for this one! I saw somewhere that he praised and recommended it and I had to read it. 

2. Milk & Honey By: Rupi Kaur

I was never really interested in this one, but it was recommended by a few people and now it's one of my favorite books!

3. Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series By: Laini Taylor 

This series was recommended EVERYWHERE by EVERYONE. 

4. You By: Caroline Kepnes 

I saw You recommended on a ton of blogs so I had to read it!

5. Ugly Love/All Colleen Hoover  Books

I saw CoHo recommended on SO MANY blogs.  I'm glad I gave her a try. 

6. Obsidian By: Jennifer L. Armentrout 

So many people recommended this one to me. 

7. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer By: Michelle Hodkin 

This is another one that has been recommended to me so many times. 

8. The Grisha Trilogy/Six of Crows By: Leigh Bardugo 

Six of Crows was actually recommended to me more than The Grisha Trilogy, but I had to read those first. 

9. The Fever Series By: Karen Marie Moning 

Even though I only enjoyed the first 5 books in this series, it's still one of my favorites and I'm glad it was recommended. 

10. We Are the Ants By: Shaun David Hutchinson

I'm glad a few people recommended this one to me otherwise I never would have read it and it's amazing. 

That's it for this Top Ten Tuesday! Thanks to everyone that has recommended these books to me. Most of these I wouldn't have found (or bumped up on my TBR) if it wasn't for blogging. That's definitely some inspiration to keep working on the blog when it gets stressful/time consuming! What blogs have you read and loved thanks to recommendations? 

Weekly Updates & Recommendations (10/3/16-10/9/16) PLUS MIss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children MOVIE Review!

This week has been pretty hectic! Well especially this weekend, the weekdays were pretty much same old, same old. Friday night my husband and I took our kids to see the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children movie. So here's a short review for that: 

I have to say that I enjoyed it better than the book. Which we all know is rare! I rated the book 3 stars back when I read it because while I loved the pictures in the book, it was hard to get into. Also, I don't feel like the writing is that strong since some of the things I didn't 100% understand by the end. The movie did a better job of explaining some things and seeing it visually may have helped. Tim Burton always does a fantastic job! I wasn't interested in reading the other books before, but I might now. It's a really weird reverse for me since I think I'll watch all of the movies first and then read the last two books. Also, the acting in the movie is FANTASTIC. I highly recommend seeing the movie, even if you are meh about the book like me. 

Saturday was pretty busy too. I went out and about and got a lot of things done. Like my car repairs, which cost me almost $400. YIKES. Today is a chill day for me and I'm just spending some time with the family. Also, I've been really enjoying my creepy reads for October! That's really about it this week. 

Currently: 

Reading: The Daemoniac By: Kat Ross and The Many By: Nathan Field.

Watching: I've been watching some more pilots to see what new shows are any good. I watched the pilots for Timeless, Frequency, and Pitch. So far I like all three, but I'm not sure on ANY of these shows how they will go in the long run. I'm surprised to say that I think I enjoyed the Pitch premiere the most. Which is surprising because I hate sports. I like that this has a lot of drama though and the big twist at the end of the pilot is CRAZY! 

Listening To: New JoJo music! I love her song "Too Little, Too Late" from back in the day and I'm THRILLED that she has some good music again. Check out the new songs, "F*ck Apologies," "Mad Love," and my favorite so far, "FAB." There's also one called "Music," but I haven't listened to that one yet. 

AngelErin's A+ Cover of the Week: 

AngelErin's Book Pick of the Week: My Review

For my recommendations this week I decided share some horror movies! I wanted to share ones that are underrated or that people may not know. Some of these I think horror fans may recognize, but I'm not sure so I added them anyway! All of these movies are definitely on my all time favorite horror movies list. Of course I do have a lot of favorites. LOL! 

*Click on movie title to view on IMDB* 

Inside- This is a french film (with subtitles) that I love. This one is not for the faint of heart due to the ending. Just a head's up!

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night - The tagline for this is, "The first Iranian Vampire Western." It's fantastic and the music is great too. This is one with subtitles. 

Audition - This one is a Japanese film so there are subtitles. I will admit that most of the movie is dull, but the end is worth it. I'm still freaked out by the sound. Watch to find out what I mean! 

Trick 'r' Treat - This one is great if you don't want anything too scary. 

Cube - Before SAW, there was Cube! 

The Taking of Deborah Logan - This one part still haunts me. 

May - Really freaking weird, but good. 

Maniac - This is the remake with Elijah Wood. I haven't seen the old one yet, but this one freaks me out because it's from the killer's POV. 

Clown - Creepy clown + Demonic = What more do you need??

Afflicted - I really liked this one and I didn't expect to. It's different than what I expected. This one part really freaked me out and stuck with me. 

Orphan - Vera Farmiga is in this one!! 

Suspiria - An oldie from the 70's! This one has one the best horror movie music scores in my opinion. 

Antichrist - Willem Dafoe does such an amazing job in this one. It's super strange though, but in a good way.

The Entity - An oldie, but a goodie! I thought everyone knew this one, but I've had many people tell me they've never heard of it. It creeped me out so bad as a kid. 

V/H/S - I wasn't expecting much when I went into this one. I am surprised how freaky and weird it is. It's fantastic though.

Dead Silence - I don't know why this one isn't as well known. The ventriloquist doll thing is just so creepy! 

Okay that's it for this week! It was a pretty good/busy week and I hope to rewatch some of these horror movies this October plus some new ones. I know horror isn't for everyone, but if you want something not too scary I would say that Trick 'r' Treat and Dead Silence aren't too scary. Have you seen any of these movies? How was your week? 

Weekly Updates & Recommendations (9/26/16-10/2/16)

Um, is September really over already? This year seems to be going by super fast, I'm not ready for the holidays yet! This week was pretty decent for me. There was nothing bad that happened. Woot! I've just been very tired. On Wednesday my plans got cancelled so once my kids were at school I literally slept the whole day until I had to pick them up. That was fantastic because I never get enough sleep. That's just a mom's life for you though. Other than that, my week was seriously dull. These updates have really made me realize how unexciting I am. :P 

Currently: 

Reading: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams By: Stephen King and A Life in Parts By: Bryan Cranston. 

Watching: I haven't been watching Castle really this week. I took a break with all of the season premieres, but I can't wait to get back to the show soon. This week I watched a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I watched the pilot for Designated Survivor (loved it),  the pilot for The Exorcist show (hated it), Big Bang Theory is back, The Voice is back, and Project Runway is back. Ah, there's just so many shows. I can't keep up! Another thing I watched recently was the Lifetime movie, Girl in the Box, which is based on a true story and it was pretty darn good. 

Listening To: Come On By: White Lies. Hooray they have a new song!! I love it! 

AngelErin's A+ Cover of the Week: 

AngelErin's Book Pick of the Week: My review is coming soon!

For my recommendations this week I decided to recommend some more fabulous book bloggers!! You have no idea how hard it is for me to narrow these down. I'll definitely be highlighting more amazing book bloggers in the future. 

Du Livre- Not only does Amber write wonderful reviews, but her blog is SUPER CUTE and I adore the French flair. 

Metaphors and Moonlight - Are you looking to find an intelligent book discussion? Kristen has the best ideas for discussion posts and you just have to check them out for yourself.

Booker T's Farm - Books And Nails And Puppy Dog Tales- Barb is one of the few fellow bloggers that I see posting about horror novels and she always finds creepy books I haven't heard of yet! She also posts reviews for other genres and she is a dog lover. 

Star-Crossed Book Blog - This blog is run by multiple ladies and I love how enthusiastic and honest all of the reviews are. Everything is full of so much personality! 

Miranda's Book Blog- Have you seen Miranda's All About That Cover feature? If not, then you need to! I really love seeing which covers she picks and it's always fun trying to decide which covers I like best. 

Well that's it for this week! Nothing horrible happened, so I count that as a win! :) How was your week everyone? This year is going by too fast and I'm not ready for the Holiday Season yet, what about you? I love Halloween, but I feel like I'm not even prepared for that one. LOL! 

Weekly Updates & Recommendations (9/19/16-9/25/16)

Well I don't know what happened, but this week either went by fast or I didn't really do a lot. I took care of my family, read some books, went to the pool a couple of times, worked on my blog, listened to some music, and watched some stuff. It was a very chill week honestly, other than the migraine from hell I had one night. My favorite part of the week though was on Friday when I went to my local library's book sale!!! I'll do a book haul below of course. 

Currently: 

Reading: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams By: Stephen King and Pretty Wicked By: Kelly Charron. 

(Click the covers to view on Goodreads) 

Watching: I'm still watching Castle. I also watched the first two episodes of AHS recently. What do you all think of the new season? I think I've been up, down, and all over the place with it so far. I liked it at first and then the second episode I didn't. So we'll see I guess. 

Listening To: Can't Stop the Feeling By: Justin Timberlake. I have to admit that I was pretty meh about this one at first, but then it grew on me some more. Also, I think this is the first JT song that I have liked in quite a while. 

AngelErin's A+ Cover of the Week 

(Click on the cover to view on Goodreads) 

AngelErin's Book Pick of the Week: My review is coming soon! 

(Click the cover to view on Goodreads) 

For my recommendations this week I decided to recommend a website/app. Why just one rec this week you may ask? Because this one app is all that you need!! Libib is a website/app that you can use to catalog your books, music, movies, and video games. I use it religiously to keep track of my books! I haven't expanded into my DVD collection just yet, but it's been a huge lifesaver as far as books go. I have over 1,300 books (DON'T JUDGE ME!) and when I go out book shopping sometimes I forget if I own a book already or not.  I think we've all bought a book before that we already owned. Or maybe my memory is just that bad lol. Either way, now while I'm at the bookstore I can just pull out my phone, open the Libib app, and search my library on there! There's many ways you can add books to the app. There's a barcode scan, you can enter the ISBN #, or you can manually add it in. There's also  a ton of other fun features to help you catalog that you can play around with. 

(Click the photo to view the website) 

For the record, I was not asked in any way to promote or share this website/app. I just really freaking love it!! I highly recommend it to anyone with a crazy book collection like me. 

This week I also have a book haul to include!! As I mentioned before, I went to a library book sale. My library has them twice a year and I love to go and get goodies for SUPER CHEAP. I got a pretty eclectic selection I think and a few of them are middle grades that my sons will read also. So here's my haul from the book sale on Friday! 

Okay so that was my week! I can't complain. Things are going pretty well for the most part over here and that's fantastic. How was your week guys?!!? I hope it was wonderful!