My Summer 2022 TBR // Exploring New Genres and Revisiting Old Favorites

Hi, blogging world. Long time no see?

It would be an understatement to say that I’m excited to be writing this post. After a really long absence from blogging (technically a year, but more like two years), I’m hopping back on here to talk about all the books I’m excited about reading this summer.

Just because it’s been so long I feel the need to first say that I’ve dearly missed this space and the people in it. Abandoning my blog was never intentional, but rather a byproduct of my life becoming so busy. However, one of my goals for this summer for myself is to start putting energy back into my passions, so here I am, blogging again and relearning how to be creative and share my love for books. :’)

Lately I’ve been compiling a little list of books that I either want to read for the first time or reread this summer while I have some free time for reading, and I’m really psyched to share it! Without further rambling on my part, onto the books.

When We Were Infinite, by Kelly Loy Gilbert // Thoughts & Ramblings on a New Favorite

It’s been a long time since I last read a book that left me feeling viscerally changed. That is, until I finished reading When We Were Infinite a few days ago.

Sitting in the back of my family’s minivan, hurtling down a highway in Tennessee as rain pounded the windshield, I just stared at the blank page at the end of the book and thought- about the novel and the characters, yes, but also about how my life would never quite be the same now that I had read it. I could tell that the emotions I’d felt and the thoughts provoked by what I’d just read would be staying with me for a long, long time.

I’ve always read only recreationally, but ever since I started blogging and especially as I’ve become more involved in the world of Goodreads and ratings and reviews and to-be-read shelves and releases, I’ve become a much more critical reader. I no longer rate a book only on my enjoyment, but I’m also considering so many other factors as I read: do I truly like the characters? Am I bored at all? Is the writing exceptionally good?

Within the last year, I’ve found myself rating very few books five stars, and often I’ll already be thinking about the rating I’m going to give a book as I’m reading. (This might be unhealthy reader behavior.) When I was about a fourth of the way into When We Were Infinite, I knew it was going to be five stars. When I was halfway through When We Were Infinite, I knew I was going to need to talk about this book with someone, anyone. By the time I finished it, I knew that writing a blog post solely about this book was non-negotiable.

I’ve (much to my dismay) abandoned my blog terribly over the last school year. I wish I could attribute it to just being busy, but I know the reasoning lies much more with a lack of motivation or compelling content to blog about. But after finishing When We Were Infinite, I was overflowing with motivation and a desire to get all my thoughts out about this novel. Even if they’re scattered, even if this post isn’t as formatted as I normally would want and doesn’t follow the patterns of my ordinary content (something that caused me a lot of anguish over whether or not I should even post this), I ultimately decided that this is my book blog and there is no right or wrong way for me to talk about a book I truly loved (with no spoilers). So, here’s me doing just that- and thank you for being here. :’)

Why Can’t I Stop Falling in Love With Fictional Characters? // An Exposé of Yours Truly

I don’t think I’m alone in the feeling of falling in love with fictional characters...

…or at least I hope I’m not. I’m not just talking about falling in love romantically, either. There are so many different ways that I can fall in love with a character. Sometimes, yes, I want to be with them, but sometimes I want to be them. Sometimes I wish I could be their best friend and sometimes I wish I could be a part of their family- no matter how it happens, I fall easily for people who are nothing more than just words on a page.

Just because I want a reason to talk more about the characters I *love* and because I’m interested to know if I’m the only one who finds themselves in love with fictional entities, I decided this would be a good idea for a post. I’m expecting to fangirl a lot in this because once I start talking about my favorite characters it takes a lot for me to stop. :’)

But someone please stop me once I mention Richard Campbell Gansey III for the 1000th time.

*clears throat* But anywayyy, I’ll be discussing a lot of different types of love and I hope that it will be able to give you some recommendations of what you should read if you’re also looking to fall in love with a new character. Onto the post!

Blogger Origins Part II // Four Stories of Bloggers Joining the Community

I’m back again to spread some appreciation for the wonderful people that are bloggers.

All the way back in August, I published the first segment of a new series on my blog called Blogger Origins. Despite the fact that it has taken me *much* too long to continue on with this series, I’m very excited to actually be posting a part II of it today! (And I apologize for once again semi-disappearing from the blogosphere and for the extreme delay in continuing with this series. I blame it on schoolwork and my bad habit of spending more time thinking about my blog than actually blogging.)

To provide a little background on what Blogger Origins is, it’s an idea I had last summer when I became curious about how people found the book blogging community. I think this community is an amazing place, so it’s always being intriguing to me how we all ended up here by chance. This series is essentially just me featuring the stories that bloggers have been so kind as to send to me in an effort to show appreciation for and spotlight the amazing bloggers that exist. My hope is that you find these stories just as interesting as I do, and that you find new bloggers to follow!

The Evermore Book Tag // Taylor Swift Made My 2020 (Again)

It’s been almost three weeks now, but I still can’t wrap my brain around the release of evermore.

I haven’t fully recovered from the surprise release of folklore months ago, and now we have evermore too? Not only do I feel as if we’re undeserving of this incredible music, I’m surprised my heart survived listening to 15 new Taylor Swift songs. I’m completely in love with the new album and will be talking about how much I adore every song for the next decade or so- meaning, when I got tagged for the evermore book tag, participating in it was absolutely mandatory.

It warmed my heart so much to be tagged by Rhi, Aria, and Lauren for this tag, because I’ve loved talking about Taylor with all of them and it especially meant a lot that they still thought of me even though I haven’t posted on my blog in upwards of four months. Thank you so much you wonderful humans- please go read their posts and visit their lovely blogs. <33

An Update On My Summer Bucket List // In Which I Watch Marvel Movies, Read, & See the Sunrise

Well, summer is over.

Part of me is sad about this, because my days spent reading and blogging as I pleased are over, and I’ve already returned to the routine of (online) school, dance, and with that comes stress. But I’m also very excited for fall to come soon and for the semblance of normalcy that’s already returned to my life with school and everything else. Summer being over means we’re making our way through 2020!

This summer will probably go down as one of the most abnormal summers of my life? Usually I would spend it reading, hanging out with my friends, possibly traveling- and yes, I did a lot of reading, but nothing else went the way it normally would have. I was able to spend time with friends outdoors occasionally, but I didn’t go anywhere and didn’t venture out of my house very often at all.

Despite the setbacks and social distancing measures, this summer was not without its highlights: my whole family was at home, so we got to spend quality time together. I also had (almost too much) free time, and got to spend more time relaxing and doing things that interest me than I normally would.

At the beginning of summer (when I was naive and thought COVID might actually get better instead of worse where I live) I made a summer bucket list, so this is going to be my follow-up to that! I looked back at these goals a little bit, but not a lot, so I’m actually very curious to see if I mostly achieved them or mostly failed.

5 Stories of Bloggers Finding The Blogging Community // Blogger Origins pt. 1!!

Hi, friends! Welcome to my newest feature on the blog, Blogger Origins.

I am way too excited for this post because I don’t think I can ever truly talk about how much I love the blogosphere and all the bloggers that are a part of it. Blogging takes so much time, dedication, and passion, so any chance to promote or show love for my fellow bloggers is a chance I’ll take (psst you can also vote in the Book Blogger Awards right now to show your appreciation for bloggers!).

A combination of my desire to promote bloggers and my curiosity about how people found the blogging community culminated in the creation of a new series on Purely Olivia: Blogger Origins. Essentially, each post in the series will feature a handful of bloggers that have been kind enough to send me a short summary of how and why they started blogging.

My hope with this series is that you can not only find new blogs to follow and enjoy, but that you also might find it as interesting as I do to see how everyone’s blogging journey has come about! What I love is that everyone’s blogging origins are different, but somehow we were all led to connect here, and that’s pretty amazing.

An Update on My 5 Star Predictions! // Exposing My Skills As a Psychic (7 Months Later)

Way back in January, when the world wasn’t turned upside down, I made some five star predictions.

I like how my January self thought that I would do an update post on what I ended up thinking about the books in March, and here we are in August and I just now finished reading them all (I think that’s fairly representative of 2020)…but even though it took me much longer than I thought to read them all, I did it within the year and I guess that can be some sort of accomplishment!

I haven’t looked back on this list in a while, other than to occasionally see what books I still had left on it, so this post is basically going to be testing just how psychic my January self was. Or at least how well I know my reading tastes. (Although a fun fact is that my friends always joke that I’m psychic because I have pretty good intuition and I also somehow always manage to guess what song is going to be played right before it comes on, but I’m no Adam Parrish).

July Recap // ft. Lots of Reading, Sunsets, & Folklore (+ Ask Me Questions for a Q&A!)

It’s August, my friends!

I’m not sure why, but I’m actually so happy that we’re officially in August of 2020. I think part of me thinks this year is going to drag on forever, so making it to another month feels like an accomplishment. We’re also a little bit closer to fall now, my favorite season- and the return to school (and dance for me) is here, too. I usually dread August, but I’m trying to go into this month with as much positivity as possible.

Even though I didn’t really do much at all in July, because I had absolutely no commitments and the COVID situation where I live just keeps getting worse and worse, I still…did things? I might have not traveled anywhere or even left my house more than a few times, but I still had a productive month in the sense of reading and accomplishing some personal goals.

I’ve noticed in the past that July is always one of my more productive months in terms of blogging and reading, probably because it’s a full month of summer vacation for me and I usually don’t have any plans. Adding that to me being in quarantine (is it even still quarantine? I don’t know?), and I had even more free time on my hands! This resulted in worse mental health, but more free time spent on my hobbies and goals.

The Folklore Book Tag // In Which I Love Taylor Swift and Reading Way Too Much

Taylor Swift released a new album, and in conclusion, I am not okay.

I don’t exactly have the words to explain my happiness when I found out about the surprise release of Folklore, but I won’t lie, there were tears. Taylor Swift has been my favorite artist since her debut album released and I spent hours laying on the floor next to my CD player memorizing every song, and while I’ve loved everything she’s put out, this album has a special piece of my heart.

I could go on and on, but the lyrics (her best ever), storytelling, and genre (indie folk/soft pop/alternative?!) could not be more perfect. It’s genuinely my favorite album yet and!! I haven’t stopped listening to it or screaming about it since it released. So you can imagine my excitement when Ilsa created The Folklore Book Tag, and now I can talk about the album here while also talking about books!!

A major thank you to both Ilsa and Rhi for tagging me- I’ve loved talking about this album with both of them so far, so this was especially happy.🤍 I’m very much looking forward to talking about the songs, sharing my favorite lyrics at the end of each song, and tying them back to books using Ilsa’s prompts!! (Also, I will be using the graphics she created, so a thank you to her for that too.)