March Favourites & Wrap Up

March was…a lot. A lot of deadlines. A lot of plans. A lot of anxiety and stress. And apparently, a lot of new favourites too. So at least something good came out of all the excess, right?

The Bear and the Nightingale

My highest rated book for March was The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, and my god I feel like I’ve been talking about this incessantly. Inspired by Russian folklore, this follows a girl called Vasya – a girl who knows the stories of fairy tale are all true. A slow, atmospheric read, this just captures the fairy tale feeling perfectly. It’s magical but dark, and there are so many different elements to the story aside from the magical fairy tales that add more plot strands and intrigue to this book. I both read and listened to this one via audiobook, and oh wow was I enthralled. The narrator’s Russian accent helps set the scene perfectly, the pronunciations weren’t (and won’t be) a hindrance to me as I stop to google how everything’s said. And by the end I was thoroughly wrapped up in this book, and it had my emotions entirely. I’m currently reading the second book and can’t wait to see where the series goes!

NYALitFest

March brought to me my first bookish festival! I attended the Northern Young Adult Literary Festival on the 16th, and had a fab time there. During the day there were a number of panels – Feminist Fantasy and Inclusiveness in YA to name a couple – as well as a few stalls dotted around the central area where you could buy books, bookish swag, or maybe even snap up some arcs from publishers. I have to admit I was slightly daunted by the event because not only was this entirely new to me and I’m a nervy bean who doesn’t know how to talk to new people…I also did a quick introduction for the feminist fantasy panel, in front of 300+ people! Yikes. But all went smoothly and the day was fab, and I even stayed overnight with my gals Charlotte and Jess since the journey was so long. I’m glad this event exists, and I’ll for sure be looking out for next year’s!

Katherine’s Reads

Soooo y’know when you come across a person and you just instantly find them so interesting? Kat was one of those people for me. I discovered her channel in March and ever since have been itching for more videos from her. She chats about books and creates journal videos, but seriously she could chat about a phone wire and I’d listen. I can’t even explain why! I just love her style, and hearing about other people’s lives via vlogs is s l o w l y becoming a favourite thing of mine, so her rambles are a blessing.

ASMR – Gibi

This is not something I expected to get into, but ASMR randomly popped into my life. Here I was, minding my business, when youtube goes an recommends me one of these ASMR videos while I’m chillin’ with my earphones in and oh good lord I haven’t stopped since. Just. All the tingles. I love them. I found it super weird at first and would cringe away when the sound “got too close” to one ear over the other, but now that I’m used to it I adooooore it. And the sleepiness I get from these videos is on another level. You wouldn’t think that intense sound would send you to sleep but there’s something so soothing about it, and it’s a real struggle to open my eyes again to turn off the video before the ads come blaring through my earphones. I’ve had a tough time anxiety-wise throughout March, so having this extra tackle-approach for getting to sleep at night has been amazing, let me tell you.

Hair

Simply put, ya gal got her hair chopped off and she’s LOVING IT. I’ve had my hair shorter than this before but had a full fringe back then, so I was sure if I’d be able to pull it off without. And the blunt cut scared me slightly, I must admit. I’ve always had layers before. But nope, the hair is short and poofy and even more untamable and I LOVE IT.

Glossier Cloud Paint

I never used to wear blusher, but I wanted to have a li’l dabble and figured Glossier – the brand known for the natural look – would be a good place to start. And I was right, because now blusher has become part of my makeup routine permanently. I always shied away from it because I already have pretty red cheeks from all the scarring I have, but I’ve found that just the tiniest bit of the Glossier Cloud Paint makes me look all glowy and healthy. I definitely want to keep the natural glowy look so I’m thrilled to find it works for me so well!

Joco Reusable Mug

In my bid to find all the ways I can help the environment, I feel like my search for the perfect reusable mug has been constant. They either let drinks cool down too quickly, have a risk of leaking, get too hot to carry or are simply, well, ugly. But lo and behold, I found the Joco mugs! Now I will just say, this isn’t entirely perfect. In fact, there’s a number of things I found myself criticising every other mug for that I’m apparently willing to let slip with this one. For instance, there’s no way to close the lid completely so you have to want your drink now, instead of storing it in your bag for later. Or the fact that – being a glass mug – it’s a bit clunky to carry since it can’t be folded away. And I have to admit, it’s expensive for a mug (£19ish).

HOWEVER. I just can’t help but love it. I’ve always adored glass mugs. Something about being able to see the coffee just makes me smile slightly because apparently I live for the aesthetic things in life. It’s so simple, and so why deny myself that tiny pleasure in my everyday life? Not only that though, this mug actually does keep drinks warm for a decent amount of time. I usually use it during my 9am lectures, and my drink will stay warm for at least 40 minutes of it – much better than the 10 minutes of a to-go cup. It’s so easy to clean as the drink doesn’t stick to the glass AT ALL, so when I’m at uni I can literally give it a quick swill at an available sink, throw it in my backpack and not worry about any leftover residue fusing itself to the sides. It’ll be just as easy to clean properly once home. And honestly, with the amount of times I’ve used this mug already, the £19 was well worth the money.

Seriously, my coffee intake has doubled since buying this mug so think of all the to-go cups I’m not using, yayy!

P.S. This is not an ad. I just really love the mug ok.

So that’s it for my March favourites! As for my wrap up…

What were some of your March favourites? Were there any that surprised you?

How many books did you manage to read in March? Which was your favourite of the month? Have you read any of the books I read this month? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…