February Wrap-Up // March TBR | 2015

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image source: here. edited by me.

The second month is almost over and we're entering the third month, March! I still feel time flies by so fast each and every month. New year just seemed like yesterday, and we're almost at the first quarter of 2015. This month I read 6 (almost 7) books, which is quite okay, even though I hoped I could've read a bit more than that. A lot of things happened in February, that's why I couldn't read as much as I wanted. So here are the books I've read and reviewed this month, non-review posts in February, and a list of books I'm planning to read in March.

The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3) by Rick Riordan
This book was so amazing because the Greek and Roman demigods are finally united! It was really fast-paced, action-packed, and extremely entertaining to read. If you want to know more about my thoughts on this book, click the link above to read my review—because I wrote quite a long one xD Definitely a 5/5 for this one. ✮✮✮✮✮

Jatuh Cinta Adalah Cara Terbaik Untuk Bunuh Diri by Bernard Batubara
My first short-stories collection in 2015, and it's not disappointing at all! The stories took on a different kind of romance—focusing on the dark and gloomy parts of love. Beautiful writing and I gave this book a 4.5/5. ✮✮✮✮½

Cemburu: Di Antara Sakura Padang Salju by Hapsari Hanggarini

The author sent me this book to be reviewed; and it's actually published in 2013. The book focuses on teen/young-adult romance mixed in with family and friendship conflicts in it. 3/5 stars for this book :) ✮✮✮

Masterpiece of Love by Monica Petra

Another book I received from the author personally, and this one is a non-fiction memoir/autobiography book of the author. The story tells the author's life from childhood growing into an adult, sharing her experience being a person with microtia unilateral grade three on her right ear. I gave this a 3/5. ✮✮✮

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus, #4) by Rick Riordan

If the third book was intense, the fourth book is even worse—and of course, I absolutely love it! Everything about their adventure is thrilling and had me at the edge of my seat the whole time. Again, if you'd like to know all the FEELS I had with this book, check out my (oh-so-long) review. A definite 5/5 for this book. ✮✮✮✮✮

Majo & Sady by Jung Chul Yeon

I received this book from the publisher, Penerbit Haru, to be reviewed—and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I was highly anticipating this book because I love the illustration style. And the comic strips inside are so funny, I laughed a lot while reading. However, there are some parts that I wasn't able to understand; probably because of the language barrier. But still very entertaining and enjoyable read, so 4.5! ✮✮✮✮½

Interval by Nay Sharaya & Dion Sagirang
This book I also received from the author to be reviewed; it's a book written by two authors with two different perspectives from the main characters. The story focuses on family drama with teenage characters. It's quite good, but I think some parts could be better. So I decided to give it a 3/5. ✮✮✮

Angels of Morning Star Club by Lim Se Hyuk
A Korean-translated book that I also received from Penerbit Haru, and I really really love this book! I love the characters, the plot, and how this story made me think about things—and maybe also people in general. The society always has some sort of prejudice/stereotype towards a certain group people; but is that fair for them? Read my review to find out more about my thoughts on this wonderful book :) 5/5! ✮✮✮✮✮

I also finished reading Endless Love by Wu Xiao Yue, but the review will be posted soon in March. And I'm currently reading The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, the last book in The Heroes of Olympus series. I'm going to miss Percy Jackson so bad when everything's over :'( Most of the books I read this month I received from authors/publisher, so I didn't get to read all the books on my TBR list last month. Hopefully I'll get to them next month, because I have soooo many books on my TBR. I wrote quite a variety of non-review posts this month, but I totally skipped Top Five Wednesdays because the topics are too difficult for me :1 I'm hoping to join again next month, and I'm also looking forward to watching some movie adaptations too in March. Below, I also listed the books I'm planning to read in March :))

Non-Review Posts in February:

The Liebster Award 2.0
(Un)hauling: Step-by-Step of Saying Goodbye to Books. Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes To Romances In Books
Top Ten Book Related Problems I Have
My Kindle Experience
Opini Bareng: Karakter Tokoh Utama
Single Ville Giveaway: Winner Announcement
Amazon Online Bookstore Review
February 2015: Book Haul

March TBR: (I might have more books coming in next month, so this list can change and is quite flexible)

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Legend by Marie Lu
Sabtu Bersama Bapak by Adhitya Mulya
Priceless Moment by Prisca Primasari

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As I've said earlier, a lot of things happened in February and it was quite a hectic one for me—and mostly are events that made me happy. I finally started doing one of my 2015 resolutions this month, which is to learn what I want to. On February 7th, there's a Basic Calligraphy workshop held at a restaurant near my house, and the teacher is a very skilled calligrapher (called @cforcalligraphy on Instagram). I've wanted to learn this for so long and I decide to join in! I was quite worried at first because I know nobody and came alone—but all the other people there are very friendly and I had a blast. I'm currently learning the very basic of pointed-pen calligraphy, and I'm doing my best to get better at it :)) Oh, and on a similar topic, I recently finished my Easy Sewing Class at Arva; and learned some basic stuff about making patterns for clothes. I'm still unsure whether I want to continue taking more classes or not. I'm also currently thinking about taking other classes such as Cooking Class or Korean Class.

And of course, talking about February, I can't miss talking about Valentine's Day. I happily spent my Valentine's day with my parents. Having dinner at 5.30PM and was already home at 7.00PM—and had a late night date with books. It was a wonderful date ♥♥ LOL. Do I sound pathetic? I hope not. Aside from that, me and my family also celebrated Chinese New Year. Just like any other year, I ate too much and now I'm trying to cut down my calories intake. It was really fun getting together and seeing distant relatives whom I don't see very often :))

A bit of update on the entertainment section, I finally watched Big Hero 6 (thus the many GIFs in this post)! I know I'm so late... it's because I didn't get to see it when the movie premiered. It was a really good movie that's very heartwarming, cute, funny, and made me teared up a lot. I'm sensitive with kids' movies like this one. Tadashi Hamada is my man ♥♥ I wish he had a lot more screen time in the movie :(( Another news is....Shinhwa is finally making a comeback! If you didn't know, Shinhwa is one of my favorite Korean-male group, and has been around the entertainment industry since 1998. They just released their 12th album called We. I'm so happy for my oppas, because they went through so much in 2014 :') I hope to see more of them in Korean variety shows because they're still the funniest kpop idols ever. They're going to be on Running Man this Sunday, I'm so excited! Any Shinhwa Changjos reading this post? ;))

And last but not least, one of the best thing that happened to me this month is: I finally got myself a new camera !! I've been wanting to buy a new camera since some time ago, but I felt like I didn't have enough budget to spare in my bank account. But during Chinese New Year, I received some bonus allowance money from my parents and I finally decided that it's time to get a new camera! Before this new camera, I used the Canon Powershot G11 for all my pictures (including the ones on this blog). And I wanted to get something that can produce higher quality images. I had quite a lot of cameras in mind, including: Fujifilm X-M1, Samsung NX3000, or Sony A5100/SonyA6000. All of these are mirrorless camera and produces image quality that's comparable with a full DSLR/SLR cameras. Since I don't like having a really big/heavy camera, I wanted to get these smaller-type ones. After contemplating for weeks (reading so many reviews on the internet, watched tons of Youtube review videos, comparison post, etc.), I finally bought the Sony A5100 from the store! I've been using it for several days now (including my February Book Haul post) and I'm currently loving it. It even has a selfie screen ♥♥♥ I hope I won't regret my decision... because that money won't come back to me. ㅠㅠ If you have experience with the Sony cameras, feel free to share it with me, because this is the first time I'm using a Sony product.

 

 

Sorry for that long rant there, and that's it for this month's wrap-up! How was your February? Was it full of love or quite plain like mine? I wish you all the best in the coming month! And don't forget to keep reading! Bye! ;)

  by.stefaniesugia♥ .