Hello, and welcome!

My name is Marion and in this ol’ post, we’re gonna take a look at what has happened in the last few months of my life.

Okay, seriously. I know, I have been away for quite a bit. And I know, you are probably wondering and have questions. At least I hope you do. Because otherwise that would mean that you haven’t even noticed that I was gone. Um, you have noticed, right?

Overview

• READING UPDATE
  • My Reading Highlights 2022
• BLOGGING UPDATE
• LIFE UPDATE

READING UPDATE

I have not written any wrap-up posts since…May? Hoo boy, that would be quite a list. I actually wanted to change the format a bit but I guess with so many books it’s not really feasable to put all the covers and everything in here. I’ll do that next time, I promise.

This time, I’m just gonna show you my highlights of 2022, how about that? Anyway, I have managed my goal of reading 70 books last year, yes, I have even read 85 books! It felt very good. Weirdly, after reaching the goal in September I didn’t really read that much anymore. But anyway.

My Reading Highlights 2022

I thought it would be fun to do a rundown of my favourite books of 2022 instead of making a boring list of all of them. 🙂

Adult & Young Adult Books

🦊 If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

A fake romance trope love story with great characters without being repetitive or cringe with amazing characters and interesting subplots about past trauma, prejudice, raceism, family and sickness. I read it front to back twice in 2022, I loved it so much.

🦊 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

An old favourite of mine. Epistolary novel set just after the Second World War with stories about personal tragedies of the characters, but also friendship, love and funny bits. Have to reread it regularly.

🦊The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon

The story of a girl who meets the love of her life – on the same day she’s gonna be deported. Had to read more of Nicola Yoon after reading one of her newest books with a blogtour.

🦊Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

College girl gets almost killed and has her life saved by a vampire who turns her into one of them. There is a lot of reluctance and grief over the loss of humanity and I acutally quite enjoyed it. A book I have been implored to read for a long time, forgot about and relized after reading it that this is actually that book.

Middlegrade Books

🦊Eva Evergreen – Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe

A sweet and magical story about a young witch who only has a little magic in her blood. The book gives you wonderful cozy Studio Ghibly feels and was my first read of 2022!

🦊Hedgewitch by Skye McKenna

Something about this book is so very British. It’s not just the setting but the tone of the book. I quite liked reading it but cannot think of anything to say right now.

🦊Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman

Secret school! Unicorns but the bloodthirsty kind! A mystery! What more could you want? I didn’t find this book lacking and am looking forward to the next installment that will come out soon!

🦊Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega

I think this was one of the last books of 2022 for me? Doesn’t matter if it wasn’t. I loved it so, so much. The tone, the characters. I adored it.

Graphic Novels

🦊 Crush by Svetlana Chmakova

The third installment in the Berrybrook Middleschool Universe and I’m not gonna lie, I have read this one about ten times last year. Jorge is the strong and silent type and has a crush on a pretty girl for the first time. But it’s not only this, “Crush” is also about friendship, Internet safety, body autonomy, cliques, bullying and many other things. I love this one so much.

🦊 Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

“Lore Olympus” is a webcomic that has quite a cult following by now. I read it on Webtoons and I’m still waiting with bated breath to read a new chapter every Sunday. It’s a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone (and a few other things) and it’s so full of amazing characters and great art, you have to experience it for yourself and get addicted.

🦊 Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock

The story of a family that starts out rather ordinary and gets more magical as the story progresses. I quite liked it but not as much as some of the others, I think. I would still recommend it though.

🦊 5 worlds – The Sand Warrior by Mark Siegel

Okay, this was officially the last book of 2022. (I looked it up.) And I really loved this one. The worldbuilding is fantastic and incredibly vast. Too vast to explain it all here tbh. But there are five books in this series and I’m gonna read all of them.

BLOGGING UPDATE

Well, I would say there were two big updates when it comes to my blog in 2022. First of all, my prolonged absence. I’m sorry. I know, some of you might be wondering. There was a lot going on in my life, many things that have been stressful and blogging just had to be put on the back burner for a bit. I really hope that I will be able to take better care of my blog and I also hope that you will not fault me any other absences. I’m grateful for this little community around here and I hope you will still be around in 2023.

The other thing, as you have probably already noticed, is the new style!

It’s still not completely done, there are some kinks to be ironed out, but I’m so happy that Tirilu got a new and improved look with new features and new colours and all of that on a self hosted basis. I can do so much more with this blog (here’s hoping that I will actually do something with it, lol) and am really happy. I feel like this is what Tirilu should have looked like from the start and now the final evolution is done. There are still some things to be done and if there is anything that doesn’t work or if you have any suggestions, please tell me about it! I’m really fond of my blog and while I know it’s not the biggest and best out there, it’s mine and I love him.

(I would write down a list of posts you can read if you are interested but at this point there is not much and it’s not all updated yet, so I will, regrettably, have to leave that out. There is really not much at this point to convince you that this is a blog worth your time, is it?)

LIFE UPDATE

First of all, I wanted to post this wrap up a month ago but then I got sick. I am on the road to recovery but me being me, I’m a terrible patient and have no patience whatsoever. (Wait, does the word “patient” come from “being patient” because you have to be patient until you get better? If yes, this has just been a massive eye-opener.)

🦊There have been some changes in my life. First of all, The Boyfriend and I decided that our flat in my hometown was too expensive and we decided not to renew our contract. There was quite a bit of scrambling while we were looking for a new flat. The region where I live is unfortunately rather overinflated when it comes to housing costs and when we found something the new landlord just dragged everything out so much until we ran out of time and decided not to sign the contract. After all, if the landlord is already being difficult before we moved in, how would it be after we moved? Luckily, one of the other flats we looked at and we initially didn’t get became available again and now we have a wonderful flat that is so much closer to our workplaces and even has a fireplace. It’s so great, I love it. (Even though there are still some boxes standing around after half a year but psssst! – nobody must know.)

🦊After long consideration, I have decided to further my education! Yay! I have never gone to university and so far it’s not feasable to go and do a whole bachelor degree but I’ve booked a couple of online courses and I’m now training to become a Graphic designer. I’m so hyped. It’s nice to really learn something professionally which I have just dabbled in here and there and being able to implement it at my workplace. I’m really seeing progress and while it’s sometimes kinda hard to study while also working a fulltime job, I’m feeling very good about myself.

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Thank you so much for reading! Let’s chat!

🦊 How was your 2022? What did you read? What have you been doing?

🦊 What do you think of the new Tirilu design? Do you have any questions?

🦊 Do you want to tell me anything else?