Bookish Talks ~15~ Mini Reviews, Giveaways, and Life Changes

Hey, all! 

I figured this was a good time for another Bookish Talk! (Number 15!!) I have been all over the place lately, and you guys deserve to know what's been up! Of course I'll make it as bookish as humanely possible, but there are other serious matters that I'd like to mention as well. 

Ok lets do this chronologically! 

Life
It all started when I was born... 

Then 21-odd years later, a whole set of events came into play that made every day quite long and yet quite short. 

In February, I started my thesis that I told you about - the one about the evolution of the understanding of the black hole in the center of our milky way. As expected, this was a lot of work, more than I had anticipated. But I pushed through with the help of some friends who made sure I stayed hydrated and who made sure my thinking was logical. At the same time, I had some courses that were quite difficult for me, but that I found fascinating. 

On top of this, I was accepted for my Masters in Nijmegen of Physical Chemistry and Material Science! I'll also hopefully have a minor in Astronomy with this. But this also meant I need to find a place to live, which has proven to be... difficult. I'm moving in in 10 days and as of yet have nowhere to live! 

Mixed into all of this, my dad's job was relocated from a little town in the Netherlands to...

Paris. 

Yep! We just moved to Paris, France. 

I've always lived in small towns, near the country - in Italy we lived off the side of Pisa, in Luxembourg we were in the middle of nowhere, in the Netherlands we lived between a small town and a village. I don't know what city life is like, and I haven't properly had neighbors since I was 9! 

So far, it has all been quite scary and intimidating, to be honest. I usually try to be the optimist, but I found myself to be seeing the things I had never seen before in a town - stand-still traffic, graffiti everywhere, pollution making things seem grey... 

But then the lovely Internet came to my rescue! I looked up things to do, and was not disappointed. 

Cus I found the coolest bookstore in the world, Shakespeare and Company. 

Imagine Diagon Alley covered in books. That's what this bookstore is like! On top of that, it is in a whole quarter that is dedicated to pop culture! Sci-fi Cafes and Pop Figure shops and Comic Book stores and the whole lot is everywhere in that area! 

One big issue that I saw right after this, however, is that my room in our new house is... well its designed as if a drunk guy was given infinite Simoleons on the Sims 4, and was told to design a house. It is not very functional - I have two doors that go into my room on adjacent walls, a window that takes up almost an entire other wall, and two closets on opposite walls, kind of thrown in the middle of them rather than being in the corners. 

I saw no space for my bookshelves. And I have a lot of books. 

These are all of my book boxes, minus 4 boxes that I'm taking to uni with me and 2 that were in another truck. Even the movers were impressed.

And I had just hauled another 5 books from a second hand store on the banks of the Seine...

After a while, and a lot of moving empty shelves around and scrolling instagram, I saw a few shelfies that inspired me into doing something that I now am really proud of! 

Yeah seriously look at the upper corner of my ceiling, it looks like its melting! 

So overall, I'm missing home like crazy - life is not the same here, and I miss being able to take the bus 10 minutes to end up in town to see my friends, who I really miss a lot now. I lived in Maastricht for 8 years, the longest I've been anywhere!

And now in 10 days I'm moving again, to Nijmegen! I'll have another update after I'm settled there :) 

Bookish 

Book-wise, I have a few updates as well! I'll be hosting a giveaway sooner than later - I need to get settled in first! It would be for my 100 bloglovin followers (omg!!), my 5.75/6k insta followers, but most importantly to celebrate new beginnings, so might also be a back-to-school idea! It'll be in the form of a mystery subscription box, so look out for more info on that! 

I've also finished reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. All I can say is 4.5/5 feathers. It was incredible, but if I review anything about it, it will give away too much information about it. You just need to trust me!! 

I'm currently reading Lifelik3, by Jay Kristoff. I haven't been able to read Obsidio yet, but you guys know I love his writing! And I'm really enjoying Lifelik3 so far! Very cinematic! 

Companies you should check out! 

Finally, I want to advertise super great companies I've worked with lately! Make sure to check them out, all the links are in the names! 

Magic Chests - super lovely subscription box! 

Letters and Lights - a local candle company! 

Oriandle - The most amazing random bookish things by Sheuly and Julia <3  

Literary Book Gifts - Super cute classical novel products! Use my code JUSTANOTHERBOOKISHBLOG20 for 20% off any order! 

Thank you all so much for trusting me to rep your products in these last few months, it means loads to me! 

So yes, If I haven't been posting a lot in the past few months, now you know why! It's been hectic and a little stressy but in the end all's good! 

I hope you are all doing well, have a wonderful week! 

Stay bookish!