July Book Haul [Book Haul #3]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with my July book haul! I bought 14 books this month, which was more than I wanted to buy, but I don't really feel bad about it because several are books I have already read, and several are ones that I plan on reading this month.

Anyway, enough rambling. On to THE BOOKS.

Amazon Purchases

I bought all of these books off of Amazon at different times throughout the month, some just from Amazon, and some from their third-party vendors.

Project Runway: The Show That Changed Fashion

I actually already owned this book. I bought it right when it came out two years ago. However, if you remember from my bookshelf tour (Click here for part 1), I had this sitting on my windowsill. Well... apparently, we had a leaky windowsill and my copy was ruined. So I found a new copy from a third-party vendor on Amazon for only like $5, so I went ahead and got it and tossed the ruined copy.

Literary Listography

This is the most recent in a series of Listography books. I actually pre-ordered it so that I could get it this month on the day it came out. Each page has a different list for you to fill out. Since this one is all about books, there are lists to fill out such as "Favorite books of all-time" and "Favorite fantasy books." I also have the Music Listography and the original Listography. So far, I'm really liking this one!

The Shadowhunter's Codex 

by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

I own and have read all of Cassandra Clare's books, so I really wanted to get this one. I found it for only $5 from a third-party vendor on Amazon, so I snagged it. I plan on reading it this month, so it's not really adding anything to my TBR.

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

I've been eyeing this one for a while. A horror novel set on the moon sounds extremely intriguing, and when I saw it for only $7 on amazon, I went ahead and bought it. I'm hoping that I get to read this in October with my horror TBR!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This. Book. I've been wanting to read this for so incredibly long. This is actually the book I'm reading right now, but I'm not too far into it. Anyway, I picked it up right at the beginning of the month when I saw it for $7 on Amazon. It was also the best place to find it in paperback, and for once I significantly preferred the paperback cover, so I was glad to find it pretty inexpensively.

Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Yet another one I've been eyeing for quite a while, and it was $6 on Amazon. You know the drill by this point. I'm also not adding anything to my TBR, because I've already read it!

Four by Veronica Roth

I found this one one day at Target. I knew that she would be releasing a collection of novellas told from Four's POV, but I thought they were going to be separate and that they were going to be published as ebooks. So when I saw this sitting at Target, I just decided to pick it up.

Book Outlet

As usual, I made yet another Book Outlet purchase. Although this time I tried to keep it relatively small!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This was the book that prompted the Book Outlet purchase. I had seen this on Book Outlet off and on, but every time I found it, there weren't other books on there that I really wanted, and each time I went to go make a larger purchase, it was never there. And it would be pointless to buy it on Book Outlet without anything else, because then I would basically be paying full price. Either way, I plan on reading this within the next couple weeks!

Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

I saw that it was only about 3 dollars, and had been wanting to read it, so I went ahead and grabbed it. This may be included in my October horror TBR, but at the same time, I'd probably want to read the sequel immediately after and I have a very long list of books I want to read in that month already... so maybe not. Either way, this sounds like a really interesting take on a ghost story, and the text is a very subtle shade of red, which is super cool. 

The Travelers Books 1 & 3

These two books are the first and last books in a trilogy based off of the Pendragon series by DJ MacHale. Each book has 3 stories, each one about one of the 9 travelers (except Bobby Pendragon) prior to the Pendragon series. I just recently found out that these are not actually written by DJ MacHale, which bums me out just a little, but it will still be nice to read stories about my favorite travelers. And since my two favorites are the ones featured in the middle of these two covers, I'm hoping their stories are longer and more intense than the others. 

HARRY POTTER!

This month, I was finally able to find the last two books I needed to complete my hardcover Harry Potter collection!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

This may be my least favorite book in the Harry Potter series (check out this series post and this video to learn more about my Harry Potter rankings) but I still wanted a pristine copy of it, and for an inexpensive price. And I finally found one! 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Even after re-reading the Harry Potter series in June, my rankings of the books didn't really change. Apparently, I've got a pretty good grasp on which are my favorites and which aren't. What did change, however, is the gaps between each ranking. Previously, I'd had Order of the Phoenix (5th fave) and Goblet of Fire (4th fave) mostly tied, with Goblet of Fire getting a slight edge. After this read, however, Goblet of Fire is almost tied with Prisoner of Azkaban, which is my 3rd favorite. Either way, it went from getting 4 stars on GoodReads to 5, which is an extremely rare occurrence for me. 

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Finally, I also found The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which I still hadn't purchased for some reason. I borrowed my friend's copy years ago, but hadn't ever bought it myself. Thankfully, my favorite used bookstore had it for $4, so I got it along with the other Harry Potter books I found that day!

So there we go, those are the 14 books I bought this month! Like I said, I didn't plan on buying very many this month, but since I've already read several and plan to read several this month, I don't feel bad about it. I do still plan on trying to buy very few books, so I'll probably only be allowing myself to purchase books that I have on my TBR for the rest of the year. 

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

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The Secret Lightning Scar- Chapter 3 [A Harry Potter FanFic]

September 1^st came surprisingly quickly, and it wasn’t long until I found myself on the Hogwarts Express, sitting in a compartment with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George, staring out the window at the English countryside the train was weaving through. Fred and George were chatting excitedly about all of the pranks they would pull upon arriving at Hogwarts, while Hermione scolded them. Ron and Harry were talking animatedly about the upcoming quidditch season and the positions that would need to be filled on the quidditch team.

“Are the twins planning on playing quidditch this year?” I wondered, hoping that the answer was no. While they were still at Hogwarts, I played as a chaser, and only ever got to play beater when they were out. I didn’t mind playing chaser, but my real love was playing beater. Competing with the twins would be difficult. They were both equally good, meaning either both of them would get the spots, or neither would.

“So are you two going to play quidditch for Gryffindor?” I asked them, pulling myself out of the daze I’d been in.

“Don’t worry, sis,” George said with a smirk that looked surprisingly sad. “We’re not allowed to play. The letter from Hogwarts said that. I’m assuming it’s because we’re far older than everyone else. Or something. So your spot is safe.” I immediately felt bad for asking, because I knew how much they enjoyed playing quidditch.

Just then, the door to our compartment slid open to reveal Malfoy, signature smirk across his face, flanked by Goyle and Zabini, both looking incredibly bored.

“Potter. Granger. Weasley.” Malfoy said as a curt greeting. “Carrie,” he continued with a warmer tone and an actual smile directed at me. Shockingly, he was being abnormally friendly toward everyone else. Normally, all everyone else got was a sneer in their general direction. I was the only one who ever received a warm greeting from him, his affection never failing to be completely obvious.

“What do you want, Malfoy? I’m not interested,” I snapped. He frowned, but my rejection didn’t seem to shake him too much. It shouldn’t have at that point. He’d continually asked me out throughout school. At this point, I was all but convinced that I was a mere challenge for him. He just wanted to win, and he was going to keep going until he did.

“I’m here to extend an olive branch, actually. Although I would still completely love to take you out if you’d give me a chance,” he said, another seemingly sincere smile crossing his face. I was speechless. Draco Malfoy, who had tormented us for years, was standing in front of us, asking for forgiveness. Sort of. It was as close to “I’m sorry” as he was probably going to get.

Unlike me, Hermione seemed to have plenty of words to say. “Oh shove off, Malfoy. You’re only saying that because Voldemort was defeated and now you’re crawling back with your tail between your legs,” she retorted.

Malfoy scowled at her. “And how would you know that, you filthy-” but he stopped himself mid-sentence, and paused before beginning to speak again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, much more calmly.

Fred rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Malfoy,” he said. “Just get out. No one wants you here. Not 
after what happened.”

Malfoy frowned- a legitimate frown this time- and simply said, “I tried.”

He looked straight at me for a brief second, but I couldn’t exactly read the emotion in his eyes. Frustration? Sadness? Whatever it was, he was upset- but not angry. He then turned around and walked down the train’s corridor, Goyle and Zabini following.

“That was pathetic,” Ron said with a chuckle. I frowned, still confused by what had just happened.

“Did no one else think that seemed surprisingly genuine for once?” I asked. It was Hermione’s turn to roll her eyes.

“He’s just trying to get your sympathy. He realizes he was on the losing side and then has to return to school with everyone hating him. He’s the same Malfoy we know and hate,” she said. But I wasn’t so convinced.

“Hermione, he stopped himself from calling you a mudblood. When has he ever done that in the past?” I said.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually falling for this. He’s just trying to save face. Anything that’s pro-Voldemort isn’t at all OK right now,” Fred said.

“I just think he’s acting incredibly odd, that’s all,” I said. Harry, who was directly across from me, gave me a very quizzical look, as if wanting to know what was going on in my mind, and I knew he’d question me about it later when the others weren't around.

I went back to staring out the window, this time wondering what had just happened, and where the real Malfoy had gone. We arrived at Hogwarts soon enough and I soon found myself seated in one of the carriages, being pulled closer and closer to my one true home. Everyone continued chatting except for Harry and I, who simply sat and attempted to catch glances of Hogwarts through the trees. When we finally got through the woods, my heart leapt with joy at the sight of Hogwarts spread out before me. I glanced over at Harry and we shared a joyous grin, knowing we were home.

Once we reached the front gates, we all hopped off the carriage and hurried to grab our luggage and haul it toward the doors of the castle. I was impressed by all the repairs that had been done in the last couple months since Voldemort’s defeat. Last time I’d been here, huge chunks of the building were strewn all over, but now the castle looked as if it had never been touched. As we walked across the courtyard, we ran into Neville, Dean, and Seamus, who were catching up on each other’s summers. We said a brief greeting to them as we continued toward the entrance hall. Once there, we dropped off our luggage and made our way through the huge doors of the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table. We took our seats and waited for the sorting ceremony to begin. The ceiling above us reflected the gorgeous sunset that could just be seen through the windows, making my return home feel all the more perfect.

The first years filed through and were sorted into their houses fairly quickly. I noticed that there was a relatively low number of Slytherins this year, and couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t a coincidence.

I was starving, and by the way Ron was squirming, I could tell he was famished as well, but we had one more thing standing in the way of our feast- McGonagall. Once all of the first years had been sorted, she stood and walked up to her podium.

“Welcome to another year at Hogwarts- a very unique and unprecedented year, if I do say so myself,” she said. “I’m sure you’re all at least a little confused about how this year is going to work, so I’ll briefly explain before continuing on with my other announcements. I and the Ministry of Magic have decided that the education received last year at Hogwarts was not up to par due to Lord Voldemort’s control over this school. Because of this, students will be completing the year they should have completed last term. This means that we have a doubly large class of first years. Students may, if they desire, take examinations to prove proficiency in their current year and move forward a year. We understand that this is inconvenient, but we have been left with no other choice after last year’s fiasco.”

McGonagall paused for a moment, to let her words settle, and then continued on to her announcements. “I would like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forrest is, in fact, forbidden. I would also like to remind everyone to look at the list of banned items that they should have received, and to make sure you are not in possession of any of these items, especially those from Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.” McGonagall paused once again to peer over her glasses at the Weasley twins, who both scowled back at her. “I would also like to introduce our new professor, Professor Hughes, who will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.” McGonagall gestured toward a pretty blonde woman seated beside Professor Sprout who appeared to be in her mid-thirties.

“Now,” McGonagall said with a smile, “let the feast begin!” As soon as the food appeared in front of us, Ron, Harry, and I were grabbing at it.

We sat there for several hours, shoveling food into our mouths, sharing summer stories, and enjoying being back at Hogwarts. After we’d sufficiently stuffed ourselves with enough food for the next month, we retrieved our luggage and hauled it upstairs to Gryffindor tower.

Hermione turned in quite early, preparing for the first day of classes by getting as much sleep as possible. Several of us hung out in the common room until only Ron, Harry, and I were left. It was nearly 1 in the morning before Ron finally left, yawning profusely.

Not two seconds after we heard the boys’ dormitory door shut, Harry turned and looked at me. “Spill the beans,” he said. At first I was completely confused.

“About what?” I asked.

“Malfoy,” he reminded me.

“Oh! Right! I dunno, I just thought he seemed like he genuinely wanted to make peace with us,” I said. “He was relatively friendly, and didn’t insult any of us the entire time he was there.”

“This might surprise you, but I actually agree,” Harry replied.

“You do?” I asked, taken aback.

“Yeah. He was certainly acting odd if nothing else,” he said.

“So you think he actually regrets the side he chose?” I asked. Harry shrugged.

“I don't think he really chose. He had it pushed upon him. His father messed up, and Voldemort forced him to step up in his place,” Harry said. “He only chose the side he did because he would have been killed otherwise.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Malfoy is still definitely of the pure-blood mindset,” I replied, still skeptical. Harry vehemently shook his head.

“You should have seen him the night Dumbledore died. Dumbledore offered him protection from Voldemort and told him he had options. Malfoy was lowering his wand. He didn’t want to do it. He may be a stuck-up git, but I’m not sure I’d ever define him as evil,” Harry said. I let the words sink in. Maybe Harry was right. Maybe Malfoy wasn’t quite as sinister as he seemed.

“I guess only time will tell,” I said. “Maybe he’ll leave us alone now.”

“Maybe. But right now, we should probably get to sleep. We have class early in the morning,” Harry said.

We said goodnight and headed up to our dorms. I curled up into bed, excited to start the new term in the morning, thoughts of classes, food, and Malfoy’s oddities filling my head. This was already turning out to be an interesting term.

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I hope y'all enjoyed chapter 3 of The Secret Lightning Scar! Chapter 4 is coming on Saturday, March 1st! Sorry this one was a bit short. The next one will make up for it, I promise!

Hope y'all are excited for the next section, because I'm excited for y'all to read it! See you back here soon!

Previous section:  The Secret Lightning Scar- Chapter 2 [A Harry Potter FanFic]
Next section: The Secret Lightning Scar- Chapter 4 [A Harry Potter FanFic]
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Project Runway Season 12 Episode 3: An Unconventional Coney Island

It's time for season 12's third episode, and our second unconventional challenge! Woot!

Check out all of my Project Runway Season 12 review posts HERE.

The episode begins at 5:30 AM with Heidi going into all of the designers' apartments and waking them up. As hilarious as this was, the thing I find ridiculous is that poor Heidi had to be awake that early to wake them up! And she did literally nothing else with them until the runway. Poor, poor Hodi! (Season 1 Jay reference, anyone? No? Just me? OK then.)

Heidi tells them they are taking a trip to Coney Island that has to do with their next challenge. Clearly much later, in the daylight, Tim meets them on the Coney Island Boardwalk. They meet a guy from Yoplait frozen yogurt. Before their challenge, begins, they have to take carts of Yoplait fro yo and give it away to people. The people they give fro yo to will give them a word to describe their experience. The designers are to choose 3 words and write them down. These will define theme and direction of design. They then discover that this is a team challenge. They'll be working in teams of 2. Tim pulls out the velvet bag to choose the teams. They are: Alexander and Justin, Alexandria and Dom, Ken and Jeremy, Braden and Karen, Kate and Helen, Sue and Sandro, and Timothy and Miranda.

At this point, I was already slightly confused by what was going on. This was possibly because I knew from previews that this was the unconventional challenge, and I couldn't quite see how this whole Fro-Yo thing fit in. Since I was typing notes as they went along, I actually had to pause the show to figure out what they were actually being told. I couldn't keep up with Tim's instructions, and I type really quickly. But more on this in a minute.

They have 15 minutes to hand out samples and get words from people. These people have to be people that Project Runway got to come onto the show, because most people would just say "delicious" or something like that. After their 15 minutes are up, Tim announces that they are not going shopping at Mood. They’re playing games and winning prizes, which will serve as their materials. They each get 100 dollars with their go bank card and 30 minutes to play games.

In my opinion, this is really 2 challenges put into one. The whole Yoplait Fro-Yo thing could be quite successful as a standalone challenge, and clearly the unconventional challenge works quite well on its own. Project Runway does a lot of promotion stuff like this, like with the HP challenges, and the Garnier challenges, but this one just seemed way too forced. I mean, I can't even remember what words the teams used, besides maybe one or two teams that were in the top/bottom. And the judges didn't even seem to factor it into their judging, which just shows how completely pointless and forced this product placement was.  

Everyone seems to be having fun and getting along. This is why carnivals are so awesome. The highlight of this whole sequence was, of course, the UNICORN moment. I know many people don't like Timothy, but I just love him, and that little segment with him finding the unicorn, freaking out, and running over to win it was just the funniest part of the whole show. And the fact that he rode it around just killed me. He's precious. I also had to laugh seeing them all standing in front of the carnival with their huge bags full of prizes. They all had SO much stuff!

We got a lot of workroom drama this week courtesy of Miranda and Timothy and Sandro and Sue. I definitely think that most of the drama between Sandro and Sue is due to Sandro just not being able to compromise on anything. He has too strong of a personality and is coming off very rude. 

FLUFF! FLUFF EVERYWHERE!

We get another segment of Timothy and his unicorns. Apparently, according to him, unicorns are not simply horses with horns. I think he also said that unicorns have cloven hooves, which, in case you were unaware, are not what horses have. Cloven hooves have points that are kinda like toes, but horses' hooves are that perfect half-oval horseshoe shape (go figure). I knew the stuff I learned in Equine science would help me someday!

... No, really, I legitimately took that class my sophomore year of high school. And I didn't learn anything, because I did horseback riding in elementary school.

But I digress. A LOT.

Timothy also says that he doesn't want to cut up the unicorn. And adds that unicorns are apparently more like hippos than horses. And unfortunately, no equine science knowledge can help me understand what in the world he was talking about there.

Miranda left the room at some point, and while she was gone, Timothy re-sketched and designed the look and she got upset. During Tim Time, Sandro and Sue started fighting again and Sandro was being really rude. Tim also sees that Miranda and Timothy’s look is not great.

Later, they're all sewing, and Miranda begins badmouthing Timothy and their dress. And when he walks in, Miranda badmouths him right in front of him. Poor Timmy. I like Miranda, but I’m starting to get really annoyed that she’s being so incredibly rude. Timothy is thisclose to quitting, and when he walked out of the workroom, I was almost convinced that he was leaving. But, having seen the previews, I knew he hadn't, because it showed him on the runway.

What he was actually doing was going and sitting (with his unicorn, I might add!) and reading the card that his model, Sophie, gave to him earlier that day. This girl is just the sweetest! I'm not sure why she wrote him a card, but seriously, how awesome is she! Last week, when he went on and on about her being so nice and giving him hugs and encouragement, I figured she was just doing that to be nice, but it seems like she's really a supersweet girl who genuinely cares about him. That's the model you want to have when you're on this show. One of the sweetest Project Runway moments I've seen!

The next morning, Miranda gave Timothy a tearful apology for badmouthing him, but Timothy shoots back that actions speak louder than words. Ouch. While I can appreciate that he was extremely hurt, and that yes, actions speak way louder than words, she seemed genuinely upset and sorry. I think she probably took time reflecting that night and realized that she had been very wrong, and was trying to remedy their relationship before sending the look down the runway. She didn't handle the first day well, but he didn't handle runway day well at all.

RUNWAY!

Bradon/Karen: very sculptural. I was excited to see this completed, but I don't think I like it. It looks like there's a huge green tumor coming out of her hip. I'm surprised they got away with that one.

Dom/Alexandria: It's basically just a blue dress with a domo face on it. To me, it looks very junior, which is something that usually doesn't go well with the judges. Which is why I was completely surprised that the judges liked it. Seriously, what?!

Sandro/Sue: even with all their bickering, I think they ended up with a good look, even if Sandro was completely overpowering.

Helen/Kate: I think I may have been even more impressed that Kelly Osbourne. Seriously, when that walked out, I decided that if that didn't win, then there was something wrong with this show.

Alexander/Justin: I liked the colors. I thought the top looked good when the jacket was taken off. But that's about as good as it got. 

Jeremy/Ken: For me, this was the dream team. And for the third week, they made something really impressive that got passed over for the top. I'm not sure what the judges were thinking this week.

Timothy/Miranda: When I saw it on the runway, I actually liked it! I really don't know why the judges hated it. Yeah, it may have been a little safe, but it wasn't the bad color pallete that they made it out to be!

Top 2:
Helen/Kate
Alexandria/Dom

I'm really surprised that Alexandria and Dom were in the top. Sure, it looked well-made and clean, but it looked SO junior! What are they thinking??

Bottom 2:
Timothy/Miranda
Justin/Alexander

Once again, I was surprised that Timothy and Miranda were in the bottom. I thought that in the end, they were able to pull it off, even if they didn't get along. I thought Bradon and Karen deserved it more, maybe only because I predicted Karen to be gone by now... but I like Bradon, so I'm glad he was safe. All the Timothy/Miranda drama came out on the runway, and I did think that Timothy handled it incorrectly. Sure, Miranda messed up big time, but she seemed to legitimately be upset about it. At least, in the lounge, it was pointed out to him that he was doing the same thing that Miranda did the day before. 

Helen is the winner. Kate is in. Alexandria and Dom are in. Alexander and Justin are in.
Three strikes, and you're OUT, Timothy. Miranda is in.
Timothy goes out in true Timothy style. He says that he should’ve danced more. As he cleans up his stuff, he says that he won’t ever stop believing in unicorns and takes his cute unicorn with him.

So far, if you ignore the fact that i predicted Karen to be gone first, I've done pretty well. It looks like we'll have Sandro storming off the set next episode, which probably means he's going to quit. That's great for me, because it falls right in line with my elimination order which, in case you forgot, is this:

15-Karen
14-Kahindo
13-Timothy
12-Sandro
11-Helen
10-Dom

This gap represents the talent gap that I believe exists between those above and below...

9-Alexander
8-Alexandria
7-Justin
6-Kate
5-Jeremy
4-Ken
3-Sue
2-Bradon
1-Miranda

Right now, I'm thinking that I might re-do this just a touch. I feel like Sue probably won't make it as far as I originally guessed. Helen will probably make it farther than I thought. So, here's a new, top 13 order:

13-Sandro
12-Karen
11-Dom
10-Alexander
9- Helen
8-Alexandria
7-Justin
6-Sue
5-Kate
4-Miranda
3-Ken
2-Jeremy
1-Bradon

So, there you go! I'm really curious if Sandro leaving means that a previous designer returns. Maybe Timothy??? I doubt it, but we'll have to see! Also, Saturday, I'll be posting the first section of my list of Project Runway designers from best to worst! So make sure you check that out! See you then!