curlybookowlblog-blog

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Diverse reads & to be reads of the week #16 — reading peaches This Stressful Event I’ve been talking about a lot – the reason why I haven’t had time to read & comment on your posts lately, sorry!

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Movie Review - CoCo (Spoiler Free)

Movie Review – CoCo (Spoiler Free)

This movie…ahhh all the feels. This was the absolute most heartfelt and amazing movie I’ve seen in awhile. Coco has such a meaningful message behind it that family always comes first.

The movie is based around Mexican culture and their holiday dia de muertos (day of the dead). They put up pictures and items to honor past loved ones and let them come over and join in the celebrations.

Coco is…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Come as you are by Lauren Blakely

Come as you are by Lauren Blakely

I couldn’t have scripted a more perfect night.

For one fantastic evening, at a masquerade party in the heart of Manhattan, I’m not the millionaire everyone wants a piece of. Fine—multimillionaire. But who’s counting all those commas? Not me, and not the most intriguing woman I’ve ever met, who happens to like dancing, witty banter, and hot, passionate up-against-the-wall sex as much as I do.

Th…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Legendary by Stephanie Garber – Review by A Court of Crowns and Quills ARC provided by Flatiron in exchange for an honest review Book: Legendary Series: Caraval, #2 Author: Stephanie Garber Pages: 416 Genre: YA Fantasy Publication Date: May 29, 2018 Legendary rating: ★★★★ Caraval rating: ★★★★ Goodreads Synopsis: Stephanie Garber’s limitless imagination takes flight once more in the colorful, mesmerizing, and immersive sequel to the bestselling breakout debut […] via Legendary (Caraval, #2) by Stephanie Garber: Non-Spoiler Review — A Court of Crowns and Quills

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

From Twinkle, with love by Sandhya Menon

Goodreads Rating – 3.9

Pages – 336

Published – May 22, 2018

Publisher – Simon Pulse

Purchase Here

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Social Media and Self Care

Social Media and Self Care

The Past few months I’ve noticed myself losing the motivation to keep up my blog and my social media accounts. When I started blogging I was doing it for the fun and sheer joy of sharing my opinions and reviews on my favorite books. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year and I’ve noticed some things that I myself have been doing to suck the joy right out of it. some of the stuff…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

My Favorite Essential Oil Combos

My Favorite Essential Oil Combos

I’m big into essential oils mainly for diffusing and making my home smell good. Recently I found a few combos that really help with different things. Young Living is the only essential oil brand so far that I have found that is safe for your skin. I use their peppermint for my hellish sinus headaches and it works amazing for getting rid of them faster than my liquid Advil, but I’m rambling again…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Seasonal-A-Thon Spring Fling Edition

Seasonal-A-Thon Spring Fling Edition

One of the things I took on this month was a read-a-thon project. I and four other amazing bloggers teamed up to start it. This will be our first month doing this so there may be hiccups along the way. We have been planning this I believe the last two or three weeks, so it was very short planned. The Read-a-Thon will go from May 15th – June 15th, it will be a quarterly read-a-thon. I hope you can…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

I’ve seen some people tweet or post on Instagram that they cant find any books that deal with mental health or they cant find any that deal with this one specific illness like OCD or Anxiety. Mental Health is extremely important and books can help show you what others go through with an illness or you already have it and know you are not alone, that others suffer from this same illness.

These types of books represent people and the things they go through. I know the books with OCD and Social Anxiety mean the world to me. Representation is extremely important for anything, race, religion, mental health, etc. Everyone wants to find themselves represented in some way and I agree. Now I’m just rambling, so let’s dig in.

Book I’ve Read

Queens of Geek was my first book that dealt with a mental illness. One of the MCs has social anxiety and is on the autism spectrum. It was amazing to finally see myself in a book. I’m not gonna lie, I cried reading this book because forever I thought I was just the freak of nature that couldn’t even go into a store without panicking.

Optimists die first and Goodbye days both deal with guilt and anxiety around someone’s death. They both show how easy it is to blame yourself for something that was out of your control and you couldn’t have changed it.

The Color Project and They Both Die at The End deal with Anxiety. TBDATE deals with a heavier form of anxiety in my opinion than Color project does, but they both show how you can work things up in your head and make the world out to be something so horrible when in reality you can make it beautiful and an amazing place to be.

Turtles all the way down was my first OCD read and it was fucking accurate. The MC has a germ thing where she will wash her hands or eat soap three to four times. I’ve never read a book and went holy shit, that’s me. I don’t eat soap though, my mind attaches to the idea that somehow my home will burn down while I’m gone. I’ve gone back in 4 times on several occasions to make sure the stove is off or my straightener is unplugged. OCD books are my favorite now because they have shown me that I’m not alone, that there are others with this same illness. This book I believe is also own voices, the author suffers from OCD as well.

Before I read What I lost I had no idea what an eating disorder was or how it affected people. What I Lost shows the struggle of getting out of it and gaining control back. Emmmabooks talked about the book in her Video. She has been through this mental illness and can speak for the Rep.

Astonishing Color of after dealt with depression and Suicide. It showed how one day you could be happy and over the moon, then the next day you don’t even want to get out of bed. The book showed the trauma of the illness and the pain a persons loved ones go through just wanting to help that person. Astonishing shows how someone can get so depressed that they want to end there. It shows how hard it is for the family, trying to figure out why, what they could have done to prevent it. Astonishing is a book filled with pain and magic, but it shows just how bad depression can be and why it is important to get help with any illness.

Books I Haven’t Read

These I have not read yet, but I’ve heard great things about there rep. Now I haven’t read these so I’m just going to list the books and what reps they may contain.

Eliza and Her monsters deals with severe anxiety. Girl Against the Universe someone told me has anxiety rep. History is all you left me has OCD rep. Under rose tainted skies I believe deals with anxiety and OCD. Twelve steps to normal deals with deals with addiction. A tragic kind of wonderful has Bipolar rep. Finding Aubrey is about anxiety. Word on the bathroom walls deals with Schizophrenia. Sad Perfect is about an eating disorder. Four weeks, five people represent a number of mental illness from OCD to anxiety to eating disorders. How to disappear deals with Social Anxiety. Perfect deals with OCD.

See why these books are important. Just these I’ve posted about represent so many people in the world. You learn and grow from them even if you suffer from no mental illness. I hope your able to pick some of these titles up and enjoy them as I have.

What are your favorite mental health books?

Mental Health Book Recs I've seen some people tweet or post on Instagram that they cant find any books that deal with mental health or they cant find any that deal with this one specific illness like OCD or Anxiety.

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Feature Friday – Why I won’t buy books from amazon by pages unbound Amazon Sells Books at Loss It’s no secret that Amazon’s cheap prices come from selling books at a loss.

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Ace Of Shades by Amanda Foody

Ace Of Shades by Amanda Foody

Goodreads Rating – 3.9 Pages – 416 Published – April 10, 2018 Publisher – Harlequin Teen Purchase Here

Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets… and secrets hide in every shadow.

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Ennemust leave her…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Coffee With Chrachel Podcast Review

Coffee With Chrachel Podcast Review

So I’ve noticed recently that I listen to way too much music. Like in obsessively listening. I constantly have headphones in just to go check the mail. I wanted to change that over to podcast and at least be listening to something productive or educational. I found a few other bloggers who have talked about there favorite podcasts and fell in love with a few of them.

The first podcast I was…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Books I’d give to a non-Reader by Book Bosomed Blonde Being back home in Canada I’m surrounded by family members and friends who let’s just say have a lack of enthusiasm when it comes to reading.

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

May TBR

I’m going to try and read 10 books this month. Last month I barely got 6 read, so I’m spending this month challenging myself to read more. I have recently become so busy with listing my home and packing things. Here are my 10 reads I hope I can get finished this month!

1. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets…

and secrets…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Ive recently started trying to eat more vegetables than junk food and cokes. I’m pre-diabetic and have struggled with it for over 10 years. I’m starting to go vegan and try to live a healthier lifestyle than what I have been. I recently found this recipe on Pinterest, if I find the link I’ll leave it below.

I did change it up a bit. There’s really no right or wrong way to make these. Now I do buy my sweet potatoes from Sams club so two or three of these big potatoes feed me and my husband at dinner and I have some left over for lunch the next day.

First wash your potatoes. I don’t mean sud them up with soap, just rinse them in cold water. I cut the ends off and split them in half.  Now my potatoes are really big so it can be difficult cutting them in half. I split them in the middle, and then cut both half’s again so you end up with four sections of the potatoe.

Now I just slice them into strips and put them in to a bowl. If the strips are to big for your liking you can still cut them down into smaller strips.

Once you have all your potatoes cut and in the bowl, you can add seasoning. Now I use to measure things when I first started cooking, I stopped doing that years ago unless it’s a new recipe.

First I add olive oil, around 2 to 3 tablespoons, then I add  1 tablespoon of garlic, onion and either cilantro, basil or rosemary. I usually tend to go to the rosemary when I make mine anymore. I just love the flavor it gives off.

Now your gonna get dirty. You can try tongs or a spatula, if it works for you god bless. I use my hands and mix the fries and seasonings together. Usually it takes a few times and they are mixed pretty good.

Lastly lay them out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. If your fries are thicker you may need a few minutes to let them cook longer.

Let them cool about 5 minutes and serve.

Sweet Potatoe fries Ive recently started trying to eat more vegetables than junk food and cokes. I’m pre-diabetic and have struggled with it for over 10 years.

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

(Arc) Mirage by Somaiya Daudo

(Arc) Mirage by Somaiya Daudo

Goodreads Rating – 4.7Pages – 320 Published – August 28th, 2018 Publisher – Flatiron Books Purchase Here

          In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too,…

[curlybookowlblog-blog]

Ash Princess Review by Read it and Weep I got the idea to start this segment from this amazing blog: That Artsy Reader Girl. Basically I’m going to follow her prompts and do a little top ten list every Tuesday.