Jobless July

Well, I was not exactly jobless in July, you see, but these two months between July and August are the time when I will have full 31 days off (summer break, everybody! *inner happy dance*). Except for the days where I have to make presentations in high schools along with other friends, I basically just stay at home, challenging my inner sloth. Since colleges are off, I did quite lots of breakfasting together with my old friends from elementary, middle, high school, even college friends in July, something that us Indonesian regularly do in Ramadhan month. It was fun to catch up with them, seeing how we're doing after months apart.

Did you read?
Why, YES, I did read, and in July I participated in #BCIDReadathon that was held by @BookClubID (update: I only managed to finish 3 books instead of 4 or 5 like I was originally intended). I didn't update the blog, I know, sorry for the lack of post! Since we're in this, I would also like to make an evaluation of my 2014 blogging goals that I set up in the beginning of the year, something like a mid-year evaluation, because it seems like I need to be reminded over and over again of my goals to get myself back on track.

Here is what I wrote in my 'Changes, Plans, and Secret Santa 2013' post last year.

'Beberapa goals buat IPR di tahun 2014 nanti'

• Dalam sebulan, harus posting minimal 5 postingan. 
• Pasang target Goodreads Reading Challenge 100 buku lagi, dan harus berhasil.
• Lebih aktif berpartisipasi di BBI.
• Tapi harus tetap bisa nyeimbangin waktu antara kuliah, social life dan blogging!

For the first point, I said that I have to post minimum 5 posts in a month. The first months were done quite good, started with 10 posts in January and February, but you can see as college started again in February and got a lil bit hectic during March, April, and the next months (not to mention the family problems that arised), I (pitifully) lost my balance in managing academic life, social life, and blogging, and unfortunately the latter had to be the one that was sacrificed, hence why in the last 3 months starting from May I didn't even write anything at all. *sigh* 

I know, no excuses, I'm sorry. We still have five months ahead to fix this. Go go go go go!

What about my reading challenge?

For the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I'm happy to say that I'm still on track (73 books so far). I have to admit that historical romances help a lot in this challenge, for most of them are light and have happy endings. Happy endings make me happy and want to read other books immediately, heheheh. I still read quite a lot of young adult books (contemporary or others), I just suck at writing reviews for them :| I also set myself to participate in at least one post of #PosbarBBI every month as my attempt to be more active in the community, but so far I have only participated in 4 months out of 7.

So there goes my report card...

Those are the books I read in July, 8 books in total. Only three of them are young adult books (ahaha), another one is a snippet suprise from JK Rowling, but it wasn't even a novella so I do not include that one.

• JD Robb's Glory in Death and Immortal in Death are the second and third book from the famous In Death series. I totally fell in love with the futuristic setting (oh, all the technologies!) and the series' power couple, Eve and Roarke. Stories about murders, criminals, and similar things like that are not usually what in my cup of tea, but for this series I found myself an exception.

• Landline, another fiction by Rainbow Rowell. I love it, it's better than her latest YA, Fangirl. Read my review here.

• Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels was my historical fiction pick of the month. Fabulous main female character! It was deliciously entertaining ;)

• Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Philips and Make You Mine by Macy Beckett are both adult fictions. In short, I prefer the former much better than the latter. I would totally look for other writings by Susan Elizabeth Philips.

• Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson, one of my favorite YA authors. She wrote Amy and Roger's Epic Detour also Second Chance Summer, two books that I would recommend to everyone. This latest creation from her, eventhough still very much enjoyable, fell on my least favorite, though.

• To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han, Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, and the latest installment of 1Q84 are the books that I read for #BCIDReadathon. I found myself another favorite: Throne of Glass series! It was AWESOME. 

Girl has one of the most notable characters' names in YA literary world: CELAENA SARDOTHIEN.

I really enjoyed this year's World Cup because THE GERMANS WERE ON FIRE, BABY and they won magnificently!!! :") This is my third time rooting for them in World Cup (I still remember crying my eyes out when they lose in WC 2010, this time I also cried but it was out of happiness YAAAAAS) I felt so proud seeing Bastian Schweinsteiger finally held the golden cup ahahahahah.
What team did you support for in this year's World Cup, by the way?

I watched three movies last month. You are the Apple of My Eye is a heartwarming coming of age Taiwanese movie adapted from book with the same name by author Giddens Ko (Indonesian version of the book is published by Penerbit Haru), Kings of Summer is a 2013 movie (Nick Robinson! luvvv) but it was a lil bit disappointing because the movie is kinda boring, and the latest one, Bajaj Bajuri is a local movie adapted from a famous sitcom that I recently watched this week.

As for music, I replayed Beyonce's Pretty Hurts and Taylor Swift's All Too Well many times this month.
Also, I just recently got hooked on (yet another) korean boyband called BTS/Bangtan Boys! My music player is currently repeating their songs over and over again as I write this post. I love how a lot of their members are still so young (Jimin and Taehyun are both 95-liners while Jungkook is a 97-liner. They're such a wonder).

No book blog recommendation this time, but here are a few links worth reading from around the web:

• Ginger from GReads! has an awesome feature on her blog for the summer: Sweet Summertime Reads Roadtrip

• Interesting site that I just discovered a while ago: Daily Zen List

• Read about Yasmeen, a hijabi girl living in America who takes a lot of sassy, entertaining selfies from Buzzfeed. And damn this girl IS smart! She's going to UC Berkeley this fall to study pre-med.

• The First Step for Anything is This: Show Up.

• Movie trailers: If I Stay, 50 Shades Of Grey, Mockingjay #1 Teaser Trailer: Our Leader The Mockingjay. (What do you guys think of them? 50's looking GOOD pretty much because of the amazing remake song from Beyonce and now I'm kinda pumped for it hehe. If I Stay... well a lil bit worrisome, I have to admit. It's my ultimate YA favorite book so I really don't want them to mess up!)

• Is Reading Too Much a Bad Thing? Is there any such thing as reading too much?

• Five reasons why Twilight is not completely awful by Steph Sinclair =))

• Some cute contemporary Young Adults to accompany your weekend read

• Another one from Buzzfeed: 42 Impossibly Fun Wedding Pictures that You'll Want to Steal. Yes I have a knack for reading wedding articles like this. Don't ask me why...

• Honestly, sometimes I'm still shocked when readers my age say that they don't like YA books or that they have no interest in YA books anymore. But the truth is, a lot of us feel that way, even Alicia, and even my ownself... (notice how a lot of adult fictions have been dominating my reading choice this year?)

August is my all time favorite month of the year because (of course), it's my BIRTHDAY MONTH YAAAAAAAAS. (Hint hint, middle date hint hint) I'm not excited about the prospect of getting older nooo but to think that I'll finally overcome another year in my life is somehow a beautiful thing. 18 has given me so much badassery, experiences, and magics that have molded and shaped me even more yuhuuu.

Other things I'm also excited about in August:

• Bangtan Boys comeback! Winner debut! EXO's new variety show, Legend! (Yup my life has been overtaken by korean boys, pretty much)

• If I Stay, the movie

• More high school presentations... It's a great way to exercise my public speaking :)

• ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER! Asdrjfeufefbecujrierfeufrnfe the book will be out only a day before my birthday <3

• Indonesian Independence Day on the 17th hihihih always love the atmosphere of celebration here

• More hanging out times with my friends!

What about you, what are you excited about for in August? Did you go anywhere for vacation this holiday? (I hope July was also a joyful month for you all) Any favorite book/article/movie/songs from July that you want to recommend? Shoot me with your words!

Don't forget to have fun and read some more :)