Hi everyone! I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of March already, despite having been in lockdown for the entirety of 2021 so far, this year seems to have gone quite quickly (which is only fair considering that 2020 crawled by). This winter has been well…..pretty awful with the third lockdown in the UK, but things look as if they might be turning a corner, with lockdown starting to be eased more in the next few months. Anyway, it was the Spring Equinox on Saturday, which means it’s time for another Quarterly Rewind, the feature where I wrap up each season on the blog and look forward to the next one. So today, naturally I will be wrapping up Winter and looking forward to hopefully better times in Spring. This post will cover 21st December-19th March:
Image from Winter:
Favourite Quote From A Book You Read This Winter:
“Life is cruel, and often without cake.” -The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi
Okay, I could have gone with any number of gorgeous and lovely quotes from The Silvered Serpents because Roshani Chokshi is a beautiful writer, but laughs have been in short supply in lockdown, so I thought I’d rather share one of the funny ones, because it made me smile, in a year where there has yet to be much to smile about!
This Winter In One Word:
Lockdown 😦
Most Popular Review of The Winter:
I’ve only read four books in the period that this Rewind covers because I’ve been in a bit of a slump, but I have reviewed all of them. The most popular of these was Kingdom of The Wicked, Keri Maniscalco’s newest book, which was fairly hyped, so it tracks that the review would be quite popular:
Top Two Books I Read This Winter:
I’ve had a fairly mixed Winter as I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump, so I didn’t find any particular favourites, but these were the books I liked the best:
- The Silvered Serpents-Roshani Chokshi
The second book in The Gilded Wolves series, it did suffer a little from middle book syndrome and I didn’t love it as much as the first book but the characters are still great and that definitely carried the book in places where it felt like the plot wasn’t as strong as The Gilded Wolves.
2. The Midnight Library-Matt Haig
The narration definitely made this one for me, I loved Carey Mulligan’s narration. It was definitely a fun concept and overall well done, even if it felt a little bloated and slightly preachy in places.
TV/Films I’m Looking Forward To Watching This Spring
I’m still not anticipating being able to do a massive amount this Spring, as we’re still going to be fairly locked down (though I am super excited to be able to see my friends and go riding again) so I’m once again going to share the TV I’m looking forward to watching. I’m so excited for when I’m finally doing enough to fill up the normal Things I’m Excited To Do section of this post!:
- Shadow and Bone-Obviously, I am massively excited for the Grisha series to finally hit Netflix, like many other bookworms. The trailer looked so cool and I can’t wait to see the series in full on 23rd April!
- The Great Stand Up To Cancer Bakeoff-The Celebrity Bakeoff for Stand Up To Cancer started a couple of weeks ago, and I’m so happy! I love Bake-off and it’s just the slice of joy that we need in lockdown! Plus it’s for a really good cause.
- Moxie-Okay this is a film not a TV show, but I really enjoyed the book, and I’m looking forward to watching the film. It’s a very timely film given the discussions going on about sexual harassment in the UK at the moment (I know it’s a US based film, but sexual harassment is an unfortunately relevant topic in all societies).
- WandaVision-I know, I know, I’m super behind having not yet seen this, but I’m planning on finally getting around to it soon after seeing how excited everyone has been about it.
- It’s A Sin-Again, I know, I’m super behind, but it’s definitely one that’s high on my priority list to get around to when I’ve finished watching The West Wing.
- Behind Her Eyes-I’ve heard really good things about this one too, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.
Three New Obsessions This Winter:
I’ve hardly left my house, so I’ve not exactly been able to develop many new obsessions, at least not beyond TV shows:
- Superstore-I got through all five seasons of Superstore that were available on Netflix in February, and I really loved it. I can’t wait for the final season to be added, whenever that is.
- The West Wing-I started watching The West Wing at the beginning of March, I’m just up to Season 3 now and really enjoying it. Yes I know, I’m super far behind, but I was too young to watch it when it originally aired!
- Call My Agent-I’ve been watching this with my Mum, and really enjoyed it, despite knowing fairly little French.
Five Most Popular Blog Posts This Winter:
My most popular blog posts were again largely TTT posts, but surprisingly, my review of Ninth House was actually by far my most popular post this winter, it’s a fairly old one, so I wasn’t expecting so much interest!
- Ninth House Review
This is the fourth time that this review has appeared in my most popular posts in a Quarterly Rewind, you guys really seem to like this one, which is very heartening as I often find my reviews struggle to get views compared to my other posts.
https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/ninth-house-alex-stern-1-review/
2. Top Ten Tuesday #298
This was one of my first Top Ten Tuesdays of 2021, where I talked about my Goals For 2021. I always love doing these as it’s fun to set goals for the year ahead, so it’s nice to see you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/top-ten-tuesday-298/
3. Top Ten Tuesday #306
This was my Top Ten Tuesday from last week where I talked about Books That I Was Considering Removing From My Goodreads TBR. Thanks to you guys, my Goodreads TBR shrunk by 9 books, so I would consider that a job well done!
https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/top-ten-tuesday-306/
4. Top Ten Tuesday #299
This was my annual list of shame, where I shared the 2020 releases I missed out on and was planning to catch up on this year. I think these kinds of lists are always popular because we all have our own lists of shame!
5. Top Ten Tuesday #300
This one was my New To Me authors list, which is one I always love doing, as I enjoy sharing new to me authors that I’ve found and loved with all of you so I’m glad to see that you guys also enjoyed it.
Four Posts I Enjoyed On Other Blogs This Winter:
I’m never massively good at keeping track of these, but I did manage to find some for you:
- Maggie Stiefvater did this really great post about readers’ responsibilities to authors and authors responsibilities to readers. It was a super interesting read and something I hadn’t really thought about.
2. Monica Lewinsky interviewed Roxane Gay on how to write trauma for Vanity Fair and I found it a really insightful and interesting interview.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/02/roxane-gay-on-how-to-write-about-trauma
3. Asiya Iftikhar wrote this really great post about positive relationships between POC mothers and their LGBTQIA+ daughters.
4. I’m cheating slightly here because this is an article that I contributed to, but it’s a really important article so I wanted to share: I, along with many other of the Indiependent’s female & non-binary contributors wrote about our experiences of sexual harassment and assault following Sarah Everard’s murder.
Five Shows I Enjoyed This Winter:
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Okay, so this was technically a rewatch, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and its catchy musical numbers provided just the right amount of serotonin during the early days of the UK’s third lockdown.
2. Death In Paradise Series 10
The latest series of Death In Paradise hit screens in the UK just as we went into our third lockdown, and I definitely needed all the sun soaked vistas of Guadeloupe and the cosy murder mysteries that this show provides in the dark days of January even more than usual this year.
3. Superstore
Again during lockdown 3, comedy was exactly what I needed and I flew through all five seasons available of NBC’s hit comedy when it hit Netflix in the UK last month.
4. This Is Us Series 5
Though the constant stop-start and long breaks between episodes have been mildly annoying (though of course understandable), I have been enjoying the latest series of This Is Us.
5. The West Wing
Like I said, I’ve finally been watching The West Wing this March and I’ve been really enjoying it.
Six Songs I’ve Listened To Way Too Often This Winter:
- champagne problems-Taylor Swift
I love champagne problems so much! It’s such a beautiful, heart-breaking song and probably one of my favourites that Taylor has ever written.
2. Without A Believer-Sara Barielles
Weirdly this may be the song from Waitress that I’m most obsessed with, and IT’S NOT ACTUALLY IN THE SHOW, it’s one of the deep cuts from the Lost Songs album!
3. Chandelier-Moulin Rouge Original Broadway Cast Recording
Genuinely like this cover better than the original song!
4. the last great american dynasty-Taylor Swift
One of my favourites from folklore, so naturally it comes up on my shuffle quite often.
5. Moving Too Fast-The Last Five Years
One of my favourite songs from the show so I listen to it quite a lot.
6. The Negative-Waitress
The Waitress cast recording is in constant rotation on my iPod and this is one of the songs that seems to come up the most.
So there we go, that was my Winter! All in all a fairly bleak one, so I seriously hope that Spring is better and that I get more books read! What have you enjoyed most on my blog this Winter (or summer if you’re in the southern hemisphere)? What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!
bookloversblog 
Love this wrap up! I can’t wait till we’re out of lockdown and have a bit more freedom!
Thank you! Me either 🙂
I’m really enjoying Call My Agent too! I can’t speak French but it looks good and it’s funny.
The SU2C Bake Off has been good, I loved watching Tom Allen attempt to bake!
It’s fairly easy to follow, especially with the subtitles, so it’s quite a good one for those of us with little French! Ha ha yes, that was great, Daisy Ridley was such a disaster too.