Thứ Bảy, 31 tháng 12, 2016

Waching daily Dec 31 2016

What's up guys?

This is KreativeVein and today we'll be going over how to calm yourself down.

For me, this is extremely important as I'm the type of guy that gets into fights often,

both verbally and physically.

While I still get into fights from time to time, I can now control myself to where I

know which fights I will fight, the ones that benefit me, and to know the fights that I

shouldn't fight, the ones that would get me suspended from school, lose my social connections,

or harm my family.

So we'll be going through 4 tips to control yourself, all of these have worked for me

and I'll give you some brief examples of them working and when I should have used them.

Before we get into it, be sure to smash that like button like you'll be smashing your calmness?

Yeah that doesn't fit.

And subscribe if you haven't already.

Step 1: Exercise

My father always told me this.

While my grandfather was a very successful man, he and his son, or my dad, never got

along well as they were rarely around each other.

And when my grandpa was around, he would criticize my dad and they'd get into fights.

Instead of being angry and lashing out back, he would go outside and just run.

He was one of the better track athletes in his school and instead of wasting his time

sulking around, after running he would go to the park and just chill with his friends

instead.

Similar with me, I remember one time I was throwing all my shit against the wall because

I felt anger, and then my dad told me how childish that was and that I could just workout

instead.

I would punch a heavy bag that I had from boxing or just lift.

It's not best to only exercise due to anger, as the point isn't to exercise to get back

at others but to improve yourself, but it does turn your energy into something positive

that will help you.

Step 2: Realize That It's Not Personal

This is kind of just a concept that you need to make a habit of telling yourself, but when

people get mad at you, it's normally due to their own insecurities, someone else getting

mad at them and they want to release it onto someone else, or something similar to that.

My own father has never made me extremely angry, but sometimes other family members

will...

I guess, test me in a way where if I'm improving myself by sleeping earlier to wake up early

to workout, they'll make some underhand comment about how my style of life is backwards and

retarded.

The first time this happened I punched the shit out of the wall and yelled, but was it

worth it?

Nope, I couldn't sleep after that and the day after I was groggy as fuck.

Instead, just realize that the person that said that to me, while family, is lazy as

hell and whenever I go to sleep early, they realize that I'm making improvements that

they aren't, and they want to rationalize it.

Don't ruin yourself.

Understand that you are the first person in your life that matters.

Don't play into their games.

Even in school I see some people calling other students "try-hards," as if trying hard in

life is a bad thing.

Obviously don't make it seem like you put in too much work, learned that from intuition

and the 48 Laws of Power, but in reality do put in work.

Step 3: Breathe and Stay Silent

I'm not telling you to meditate here, but take a few seconds to breathe.

If it's in front of other people and you don't want to cause a scene, just act natural but

take some deeper breaths and just keep quiet.

You'll most likely want to comeback at them with something, but if you're angry most of

the time you'll end up looking like a joke.

If you can remain calm and just let the other person make a few jokes about you and just

laugh it off, that's alright.

Or, if the jab is very personal and you should respond, then once again, remain calm and

just explain to them that it's pretty immature.

Obviously calibrate this to your situation as if this is at school I would sometimes

just fight the person, but in a professional setting don't lose your job.

Breathe and reply calmly, or if possible, just don't say anything.

When my mother was getting angry at me for no reason other than that she had to make

dinner that day (I'm in high school), instead of attacking her again, I just set the table,

and ate in silence.

After about 5 minutes of her rambling through emotions, she calmed down and we ate normally.

Step 4: Leave the Situation

Once again almost everything is based on situation.

There are times where you should stand your ground and not just leave the room.

However, I know that if I stay somewhere and I don't calm myself down enough, it's best

that I just leave for a few minutes before I hurt someone.

I've burned many bridges by not just going to the bathroom and clearing my mind by breathing

but rather by punching that person in the face in front of other kids.

Everyone takes jokes at times, so if this is the one day out of the month where you

get roasted by your friends, don't go super saiyan.

But, if people are messing with you daily and it's not you but rather them that pick

on you for your race, where you come from, or anything else, you should leave the company

or social group.

It's not worth settling somewhere where the people just generally do not like you.

And unless you have a major goal and this is just a stepping stone that you will get

through in a year or so, it's not worth it mentally.

There are many other social groups that won't make you the butt of the joke and many places

where you can work where people accept you.

Or you could even just be self-employed and work in a work-space with other entrepreneurs.

That's all the steps for today, step 1: use the energy to work out, step 2: realize that

it isn't personal, step 3: breathe and use silence, and step 4: leave the situation (both

short term and possibly long term).

If you have any other tips please let me know in the comments down below, and subscribe

if you haven't already, KreativeVein, peace.

For more infomation >> 4 Tips: HOW TO CALM DOWN ► HOW TO CONTROL ANGER | How to Stop Being Angry ► Calm Yourself | Kreative - Duration: 7:04.

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Skincare Holiday Haul Sephora Edition! 節日折扣狂購!- [KIKI&COCO] ENG SUBS & 中文字幕 - Duration: 14:57.

Cut one of sephora haul.. sort of skincare edition

welcome to our Channel I'm Kiki and Coco, and

today we're going to be talking about

some of like the stuff we've gotten from

Sephora over the last like month.

yeah we got a lot and we haven't filmed

it in a while so we're going to break it

up into a lot of parts. Starting with skincare.

Yea, so some of the stuff we got when we

had the vib rouge sale and some we kind of

purchase afterwards but i think you know

Black Friday, boxing day sale they

all have like different events for it.

yeah so I guess we'll just start off

with something that I've already talked

about so I don't want to talk about too

much it's the Luna this this is the mini

two and basically this time they came in a

set for like $159 but which is the price.

Yea same price as this.

Which is the price of this itself

usually but because it's, I guess their gift

set edition so they've instead given us

like two cleansers and one is for day and one is

for night. Now I've tried both them and they're

kind of mediocre. Oh, I've seen like good

reviews on Sephora from it, but i guess to

each your own. yeah like what I mean like it

cleans well but I don't...

it's not like magical or like I'm not

going to repurchase that you know that sorta

thing like that's what i mean by

mediocre so there's not much to say

about these and to be honest, I don't know why there are

day and night even like it feels similar, but

yeah so we've talked about this already

if you're curious i will link the video

down below about the video where we

talked about it but this is amazing and

it was such a good deal.

ok so my other thing is kind of a

restock and we've talked about this before

as well it is this lancome gel cream cream

it's like a gel cream cleanser but

there's nothing gel about it, it's

just like really cream. I mean, not much to say about

it cleanses really well it was in one of

our empty products so maybe we'll link that

as well!

this is great yeah it's definitely been like

one of my go-to and I ran out so why not

buy it on the sale. Cleanses well

oh yeah it lasted a long time too, just

literally a pea-sized amount would give

you enough to like wash your

face fully. Yea it's amazing, I've been

using that cleanser for like the last

like five years. Another one that we

wanted to talk about that we both

purchased is the good genes sunday

Riley and this as you can tell is the

bigger size. yeah the biggest size

that they've ever come out with and

it's more worth your value too. yea for

those of you already watch our channel

you know that i am personally obsessed

with it like I've gone through like

three four bottles of the regular size

already so with the twenty percent off

I've decided to purchase like their

jumbo size. Granted it's still a lot, cause

Sunday Riley is expensive but this is

definitely worth your value. It's probably

the only value size product on Sunday

Riley actually did come out with yeah i

mean they do like gift sets, but I

don't even use some of the products and

those gifts and all mini size too, so it's not really worth it.

like it's good if you want to try it out

but...

yeah we're not going to talk too much

about this either because we've talked

about it multiple times, but it is like you know lactic

acid, it like helps reduce fine lines...etc

We know what we like. so this is kind of just

restock almost. So next it's kind of a

last minute last day of the sale like: oh I

feel like... Oh my stomach just growled.

We're really hungry.

Last day of the sale I just wanted to

like buy it before I wouldn't be able to

get it again.

so it's these like Sephora sleeping masks. i

got like so many different types i got

avocado, pearl, algae, orchid

and lotus they all do different things and

I just love them I love them more than

traditional mask, where you have to put it on and

wait for 30 minutes because i'm lazy i

can just put it on and go to sleep just

make sure your hair is out of the way. Do you have to wash it after?

It's not recommended, you don't

need to but I mean when you wake up in

the morning you're gonna wash your face

anyways but i love these, these feel

moisturizing they're like to give you a

radiant glow depending on what it is to.

I dunno, for me nighttime masks i go to

sleep with, they don't really work

that great on me like I've tried like a

giant variety and they're a little bit

like too oily for me. Like these tend to

have a little bit of oils in them I

think usually. And I....I don't think

these ones, these are just like clear gels or

No, I've had clear gel ones too and

I kind of break out the next day just

too oily and it just like clogs my pores

or something. So I personally prefer like

sheet masks. But either way these are five

bucks and with every one, I've never able

to use one just for one session I

probably break it up to five because

you've got a lot of it too. i can just

take it out.

Oh wow really yeah because like there's

only so much you can put on your face,

that's true so it's definitely worth it

i say i think it'd be like a dollar or

less per mask or per use. which is

amazing and it's very low-maintenance if

you're like me and you don't want to

spend that much time and it's such a good travel thing

to go with too. So another thing that I

want to talk about is something that

I've never used before this is the... I'm

sure a lot of people will know about this

the Claudalie Beauty Elixir, it's extremely pricey

so I was kind of doubtful when I got

my hands on it. I was like huh maybe I should or

shouldn't but I thought like hey why not give it a

try. Might as well buy when

it's on sale otherwise just return it

if you don't like it. right? so this is their

special edition Jason Wu one. Now,

special edition meaning that there's

nothing like an ingredient changes just

the bottles changed because it's jason wu

so this is. Same pricing though, yea same price.

and so umm... this smells.. it smells kind of

like you know like for those of you

have never tried sunday riley as well

it's like that weird herbal slash like

lemon grassy like... yeah it's not like the most

fantastic smell for people and

apparently it does bother a lot of people

and this kind of like one of those

products but i'm ok with it maybe it's

because I'm used to this whole sunday

riley thing so I'm definitely okay with

this and i tend to use this to kind of

just wake my skin up especially if i'm

studying or in front of the computer for

a long time and i feel like my skin is

just gonna dry out and I just give like

three spritz of this and this is amazing

it just smells so good. I mean when she gave

it to me smell I already felt a bit

energized too yeah it's like it's almost

kind of like it's got a slightly cooling

effect as well and generally i don't

know about you but i found a direct

correlation between if products don't

smell the greatest they tend to work more

for you because they're not they're not

adding like fake stuff to make it make

it likable for you and that part

of your nose but they're actually

putting ingredients in that would be

good for your skin. So i usually I

try I'm okay with things that don't smell

the greatest but work for your skin

I mean this is this one of their like

main things that they've had for like

years and I can tell you for a fact that

because I've been to shangri-la and they

have a Claudalie spa in

Toronto and the entire spa smells like

that as well. The spa just smells like the

beauty elixir. which is like... there's a good and a

bad thing there i mean for those

people who aren't used to it, they're

gonna find it strange but I think it

smells great.

this visibly smooths features tightens the

appearance of pores provides a

burst of radiance to the complexion.

so this is really good and it's a hundred

percent natural fragrance so i would

definitely really might recommend this

if you can you know afford to spend

little bit for something like

this. For sure, moving on,

so next is not much of a skincare but

more of a maintainace thing for your for

your... well I guess it can direct to skin care

because you do need to take care of your

brushes for your skin to be good but there

there we go

It's this cinema secrets makeup brush

cleaner and I got to show you later cause

this is amazing but I wouldn't recommend

you doing it often. you still gotta wash your

brushes but what it is it's kind of like a

quick fix right? Yea a quick fix, a brush cleaner that you

put your solution here you dip your

brushes and all the makeup dirt will

come off and you wipe it off and a

towel. It's very effective and it smells

like vanilla which is really good

yeah oh so you're definitely gonna try

that out maybe we'll have a video on

brush cleaning so we can show this to

you but i'm really liking this.

Wow now I'm curious. The one thing i don't

like is the pouring it's not a..

there's no spout or anything so sometimes i

do spill a small amount but that's like a

small price. that's true

something about i also want to talk

about it's just like a re-purchase and

because there was the twenty percent off

so i decided to kind of go crazy

these are the shisedo facial cottons and i know you see

this one package here but trust me i bought

like four. yeah I was like...

we go through these quite a bit and they

are great i mean i can even like when I

have leftover sheet mask fluid, i can

actually put this, dip one of these into

the fluid it'll soak up the fluid and I

just I just like gently tear it into

like two separate pieces and then I can just

like use it as a quick sheet mask

I mean it sounds crazy to invest in

designer facial pads. But trust me, these are different.

exactly, these actually are different

i was skeptical because my mom has been

using me since like I can remember as a

little girl. And I used to be like why is this Lady

spending eleven dollars on a bunch of cotton

Like has she gone cuckoo or

like what's happening but now

that I've discovered these, well not discover these

But now that i've actually

given them a try i can kinda see why they're so

expensive I mean you don't i don't see

why they're so expensive but... well sort of

but it's a higher-quality you don't get

much fall out from cotton and you know how

it sometimes when you have like your normal

cotton balls and you have to pick out the

little threads of cotton stuck on. There's

none of this. This is great and it's so gentle

yet it kind of somehow exfoliates, just a tiny

tiny bit. So I'm in love with these

so I've decided to like buy a whole bunch

why not when they're on sale?! Exactly,

like what other chance am I going to get.

So the last one it's not really much of a

skincare again but i just wanted to even

it out because she has a lot of skincare.

It's something I've always been after. And it's the my

burberry signature perfume. At first I

figured maybe I should get the festive

one because it's the time for it but

something about like having sparkles in it...

I feel like it would just clogs the whole

spray by itself. Oh really? well I never

thought of it that way and it also takes

away some product because that's not

perfume. That's true. So I love it

It just comes in um... I'd like to say Ebony,

I don't know what this material is. But I see it often.

Yea it's very nice and sturdy its kind of marble like.

It has Jasmine notes I don't know

what else it smells like iris to me. Well

like a mixture of all, yeah no like

it smells like it's got iris in there.

A very nice, feminine, sexy smell and it lasts a

while. the next day I'll still smell it on

it. That's the thing about a lot of

yeah that's the thing about a lot of designer

perfumes it's they do have

quite a good lasting power usually so I

i can see why people tend to invest a

little bit more in designer perfume. so you're

getting what you pay for

yeah okay last thing we want to talk

about for skincare is this product that

i got a sample of, and I was like I

need to go buy this, I need to go buys this.

This is like fantastic!

oh yeah she's been... but she's been

talking about it for like months and

I was like just go buy it already!

yeah and i was like no, this is so

expensive I'm gonna wait until I get a

discount and I finally did

So this is the Tatcha like polish

classic rice EH! classic rice enzyme

powder and it's great because it

does give you a little bit of a

exfoliant but it's not the type that you

would get wax beads. It doesn't feel like

that at all. It literally just feels like

rice powder that you would basically put

like a teaspoon in your hands add some water

make some bubbles and you'll feel this like

really fine like mist like texture and

then your'll just wash your face and your complexion

it's instantly clearer, its brighter, its

like more smooth and it's more natural i

think as an exfoliant for you skin. For sure.

Although I gotta say I've never had a product

like that where it's a powder form and I

had to like mix it myself. Well i know

I've know about this type of product for

a long time because apparently it's been

very kind of popular in Japan the whole

rice enzyme thing and I've heard about a

lot already, but I've never seen it in a

North American brand yet and if you

watch their like kind of brand story. Isn't it Japanese?

No it's actually like I think

the girl is like the the lady who

created the brand don't quote me on this

She's like from the states and then she had traveled to

Kyoto, Japan where they have a

lot of geishas and I don't if you know about

geishas but they have like a {Coco: flawless}

Flawless, full face of makeup though and

super white. So how they take

care of that is

very very important and apparently rice

enzyme they used rice water like when

you wash your rice and then you cook it

they leave the water and then they use

that water to wash your face. My mom was actually

saying you can wash your face with like

rice water. yeah a lot of people a lot of

old asian people do that

apparently. That's how they maintain your skin

and so she had taken those Japanese

geisha ideas and then she had devolved

into actual recipes for her skincare

line and that's how she came up with

tatcha and so I that's where the Japanese

part comes from but basically open this

yeah so it's in here like this you open it

up. The packaging is so pretty too

yeah they use papyrus on every one of their information

sheets too. Which is expensive by the way.

Because they have to hand make that. it comes

like this and this is the papyrus she's

talking about. And basically it just come in a

package like this. and when you open it

so pretty when you open it, you'll see

that it looks like this. Now it's not that you

twist the lid and there's another like

layer. it's literally you just plop this

part open and use pour a little bit in your

hand and then you add water with that. but

this works so well. So for those of you

have sensitive skin but still want to

exfoliate because you have to. i would

definitely recommend this product

ok so that's it for the skincare

portion of our Sephora haul. And please

watch out for next week when you see our

makeup section our insane makeup

section we're going to have to like buzz through

that like quick

ok so that's it! if you liked our video

please don't forget to give us a big

thumbs up for likes, subscribe to our

channel and check out other videos and

we'll link that down below as well, see you

next week! bye!

For more infomation >> Skincare Holiday Haul Sephora Edition! 節日折扣狂購!- [KIKI&COCO] ENG SUBS & 中文字幕 - Duration: 14:57.

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Paw Patrol HULK Finger Family Songs - Daddy Finger Family Nursery Rhymes - Panda Kids - Duration: 2:01.

Daddy finger, Daddy finger

Where are you?

Here I am, here I am. How do you do?

Mommy finger, Mommy finger

Where are you?

Here I am, here I am. How do you do?

Brother finger, Brother finger

Where are you?

Here I am, here I am. How do you do?

Sister finger, Sister finger

Where are you?

Here I am, here I am. How do you do?

Baby finger, Baby finger

Where are you?

Here I am, here I am. How do you do?

For more infomation >> Paw Patrol HULK Finger Family Songs - Daddy Finger Family Nursery Rhymes - Panda Kids - Duration: 2:01.

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Getting Started with Unit Testing Part 1 - Duration: 28:04.

For more infomation >> Getting Started with Unit Testing Part 1 - Duration: 28:04.

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December Reading Wrap Up | 2016 - Duration: 12:33.

[Christmas music playing]

Hey guys ! iI's Trina and this is my

December reading wrap up. Before I move

into the books that I read this month I

want to give a couple of quick shoutouts

to some of my fellow booktubers that

have really made 2016 a great year for

me. This year I have really gotten to

know Jenna from jennclarek, Meagan

from Meagan Precourt, and Monica from

tomesproject. All three of them live

somewhat near me and we've been able to

meet up several times this year at a

local bookstore and go to like author

signings. I'm just so thankful for them and

their friendship and for putting up with

me and I really highly recommend

following them because not only do I

love them but I love their channels and platforms.

[ jingle bell sound effect ]

For my TBR check-in this month,

I had wanted to read seven books and I

ended up reading four of those. I got a

really late start on reading because I

was traveling at the very beginning of

December and then right before Christmas

like the only thing I was in the mood

for were christmas-themed books so I

read a couple of those and then when I

was done I was like that's it I'm done

for the year, I don't want to read

anything else! So, you know, I didn't hit

all seven of these but that's okay I

still want to read them at some point.

[ jingle bell sound effect ]

Moving into the book reviews, I did read

a total of seven things this month and

as always I'm going to start at the

bottom and work my way up to my favorite

read of the month. So first up I read

Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty. This is

the fifth and final book in the Jessica

Darling series. This is a book series

that follows one main character, Jessica

Darling, as we read her journal entries

as she is going through her high school,

college, and her adult life.

Book number five here has followed her

into her adult life and it's set about

two or three years after the previous

book and in my opinion I just didn't

really need this book. It definitely felt

like something that was added on as an

afterthought. This book only covered a 24

hour time period so I did feel like

it was quite stretched out. Some parts

really dragged for me. This book also

switched in narration. The previous four

books were all her diary entries and

this one is now just a third-person

narrative. Because of this we got to

follow our other main character in the

series, Marcus, and just his thoughts as

he's alone but I unfortunately felt like

Marcus was acting very out of character.

He seemed like he was acting a lot like

Jessica and now maybe her personality

has rubbed off on him throughout the

years but really I just felt like the

author did not really distinguish these

characters. I ended up rating it only two

stars. I really didn't enjoy it although

I will say I am glad now to be done with

this series. It connected with me in

terms of being nostalgic to my high

school and college experiences but with

me and Jessica both being adults now I

just grew tired of how snarky and

judgmental she was. Now that I have

finished this entire series and having

read another of Megan McCafferty's books -

she has a series called Bumped or

Thumped or something like that.

I never continued in that series because

I felt like it was very judgmental and

that the author was really pushing her

tone and her thoughts on you and now

they have finished this series I feel

like it's the same way so I think it's

safe to say I probably won't read

anything else by this author in the future.

Next up I read The Twelve Days of Dash

and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

This one is the sequel to Dash and Lily's Book

of Dares. That first book is another book

that was told in journal format where

these two characters had never met

before but one of them finds the other's

journal and they start writing back and

forth to each other and leaving it in

places where the other will find it. Both

of these books are set during

Christmastime so this one takes place a

year after the first one and the

one character who is like super super

super into Christmas has now lost her

christmas spirit in this one, so it's

kind of the journey about her getting her

Christmas spirit back. Again, I didn't

think this book was necessary. I didn't

really need a continuation of it. tTe first

book is definitely better and I would

honestly recommend treating it as a

standalone. I would say it's a good book

to read around the holidays but honestly

I would just recommend the first book

over this one. The next book I read was

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. This is

the second and final book in the Six of

Crows duology. This series is about a

group of six characters from very

different backgrounds that find

themselves having to work together in

order to stop this drug from spreading

throughout their land that is

threatening to wreak havoc on their

magic system. I love the fantasy world in

this book, how diverse it is, how

diverse the characters are. This book

does have a good representation of race,

sexuality, and disability. The main

character Kaz has a disability that is

very similar to the author's so it is own

voices for disability.

However, I found myself pretty

disappointed in parts with kind of some

jabs that I felt were made at the

expense of mental illness. I felt like

parts of this book in terms of the plot

were dragging for me and so whenever a

book does drag a little bit I will start

to nitpick the smaller things and so

that's the only reason why I think I

noticed this. Although I do enjoy this story

and the characters, I felt like I wasn't

getting to know the characters on a

level that I wanted to.

Furthermore, there were a couple of

things that happened in terms of plot in

this book that came out of absolutely

nowhere and felt very random. It was

so unsatisfying to see random things

being thrown in here because I felt like...

like what-what even was the point?! I do

have a spoiler-free duology review up

and I also have an in-depth spoilery

talk about Crooked Kingdom if you want

to know more of my thoughts on some of

these things that I mentioned if you've

already read it.

Next I read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.

This is a retelling of a classic

fairytale also called The Goose Girl.

This is a story about a young princess who

has been betrothed to the prince of a

neighboring kingdom and as she's on her

way traveling to the prince's kingdom to meet him

she's attacked by her lady-in-waiting

who steals her clothes and takes her

place and goes to the other kingdom and

tries to pass herself off as the real princess.

Meanwhile, our main character, the princess,

goes into hiding and she becomes a

keeper of geese. I did listen to this one

on audiobook and that I think is why I

liked this one so much. I did end up

giving this one a four-star rating. It

had a very large cast of characters (voice actors),

it had sound effects and music.

The voice acting was phenomenal. It was a

great experience to listen to because I've

said this before, I really feel like

listening to audiobooks of fairytales

just works perfectly because I grew up

with fairy tales being read to me like at

bedtime so just kind of makes me feel

comforted and entertained so I enjoy

listening to fairy tales. It definitely

worked for me in that format. In terms of

the stor,y what I found as something that

I disliked is that I thought like the

beginning really dragged getting into it

and introducing us to the princess. A lot

of time was spent on building up things

that never really had much meaning in

the end, but the ending of this book

packed a big impact for me. It was extremely

fulfilling. I really liked it.

This is a story where it's like you

really want her to get her revenge on

this awful thing that has happened but

you also really enjoy as a character

that she doesn't like whine and complain

the whole time. She doesn't like lose

sight of things because she just wants

revenge. She actually takes comfort and

finds solace in where she finds herself

and I did really like that about her

character. And the ending was so

fulfilling to me and I was like, 'YES GIRL!'

So I really did enjoy it, that's why it

got a higher rating: the ending and the

fun audiobook. Next I read Leave Me by

Gayle Forman. This is Gayle's first

adult novel. I've read I think all of her

YA novels before so I definitely

wanted to check this one out.

This one is about a woman who is a

mother and she has a full-time job that

she's trying to juggle with her family

life. One day she has a heart attack and

she's supposed to start taking it easy,

be on bed rest to better recuperate, and

she's just finding it hard to recover

from it because of how hectic her

home life is and so one day she just up

and leaves. She's getting to be alone

for one of the first times in many years

and just getting to know herself a

little bit better and starts also

searching for her biological mother. I ended

up actually really enjoying this book. I

found it very easy to get into. I was

almost immediately invested. Like, I don't

have kids, I'm not in the same situation

that Maribeth is but the way that Gayle

portrayed it made me SO angry and

frustrated with her husband, with her

mother. Like the way that they weren't

helping her out, I was like, "girl you

better pack your bags and LEAVE. You need

some rest!" So like, I was kind of rooting for it

and then that made me stop and think,

but she's a mom and you can't just leave

your husband and kids. There was a

section of this book that talks about

characters who like leave their families

and how we can see them as being

redeemed or not usually depends on whose

side of the story that you're following.

So I really feel like this is more of an

exploration of just like how would you

feel if you're following the one that

left? Because usually that's the person

seen as the irresponsible, the bad one

who's hurt their family and stuff, and

it's like well let's follow that

character and see like what they do and

would they be understood? I did not

always agree with the things the

character was doing but it gave me a lot

to think about so I had an enjoyable

time reading it and I think that Gayle

writes adult fiction really well. I think

I actually enjoyed this one better than

I have some of her YA books. Then I

read What Light by Jay Asher. This book was

sent to me by Penguin for review

consideration but that did not influence my

thoughts on this book at all.

This is a book set during Christmastime

and we're following our main character

Sierra who lives in Oregon with her

family who owns a Christmas tree farm

and every winter they move to

California to operate a Christmas tree

lot. This particular year they think

it might be their last year operating

the tree lot because the business isn't

doing that well so when Sierra goes to

California she's got a whole different

set of friends in California and she's

struggling with the idea of maybe having to

say goodbye to them and not seeing them

again next year.

It is a romance, so of course she meets a

boy and this boy is a trope I don't like

but let me tell you about him. He has a

secret in his past that he is still

dealing with the consequences of today.

The guy with the mysterious past is a

trope that I usually do not like but I

actually really liked how it was handled

in this book. Like, as soon as this character is

introduced and you find out what the

rumors about him are I was like oh my

gosh this is gonna be terrible.

I was like on edge. Like, this is not

going to be a good thing. I don't

want this particular thing about him to

be redeemed in the end. And as far as my

feelings on this guy and

his character arc and stuff, I did enjoy

that this book dealt with forgiveness

and character growth and how you can

move past mistakes. Although I do think

that probably more emphasis should have

been placed on mental health and maybe

counseling but counseling was mentioned

in passing in this one and so that ended up

being good enough for me because I know

that this is just fiction and not real

life but I think that if you read this

discerningly that you would be fine with

it. I was pretty irritated for a while

at how these characters did not

confront what this secret was. Like, he

just did not tell her for a while and I

was screaming at these characters to USE

YOUR WORDS! One of the things I hate the

most in romance novels is when the

characters refuse to communicate, but

once these characters did sit down and

talk about it I felt they communicated

very well thereafter. There's actually a

scene where they get into a fight and

they do use their words and they do

actually talk about the issue at hand

and I realized as I read that scene,

wow I needed to read that, because I feel

like in most YA romances when a fight ever

is portrayed usually the characters just

make assumptions about each other, storm

off, and then refuse to talk. I did enjoy

how this one had the characters actually

communicating and also enjoyed how

Sierra communicated with her parents.

The parents were very active in her life

and overall I just really enjoyed this

book. It definitely has a lot of

Christmastime vibes, so I know it's too

late for Christmas this year but if

you're looking for a great Christmas

atmosphere type book to read next year,

definitely I would recommend this one.

The final book I read this month, my

favorite one, was actually a reread and it

was my favorite book last month also [laughs]. It is

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay

Kristoff. I read this one last month

so you can see my original review of it

in my November wrap up but in December I

actually listened to the audiobook of

this one because the audio books are

just a totally different experience. They

have a large cast of characters (voice actors), a ton of

music, and sound effects. It's a really

great immersive experience. I would

highly recommend both versions of this

book, the print copy and the audiobook,

but if you want to know which one I

recommend over the other I would just

recommend the book. The one thing that

the audiobook really cannot capture are

Hanna's drawings in the actual book so if

you do have a chance to choose between

one or the other, I would definitely

recommend that the print version but

also the audio book is really amazing.

So these are the seven books that

I finished up my year with. I ended up

reading a total of 111 things, although

I think nine of those were novellas. Let me

know what your favorite book of December

was and if you haven't seen it yet I do

have a video up on my favorite books of

the year overall, as well as a video on

my least favorite books of the year.

Thank you guys so much for watching and

I will see you in 2017. Bye!

Uh!

That was a bad one.

[music: jazzy version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas]

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