Tag: year

December 2021 Wrap-Up / The Year in Review

Kat Impossible12 Comments

I finished the final month of 2021 strong by reading 6 books. This may not seem like a lot to some people, but if I take back a look at the past year, that was a really solid month for me in terms of books. I’m really happy with that and it made me finish my Goodreads challenge with a neat 50 books in total. Let’s take a look!

One Hundred Years of Solitude Daisy Jones & The Six Saga, Vol. 1 Where the Crawdads Sing Taste: My Life through Food Weather Girl

As per usual, click on the covers to get re-directed to Goodreads, where you are always welcome to add me as a reading buddy! OR find me on Storygraph, where I’m trying to find my footing as well. My own reviews you’re able to find by clicking on the titles in the list above if there are posts for them.

As is tradition, I’ll share parts of my reading year. As I’m still struggling with the desktop interface of Storygraph a little bit (I hear the app works better), I have to forego their stats for now, even though they’re magnificent. They even show you what kinds of moods and pacing you were most drawn to, but I’ll just stick to the simpler one curated by Goodreads for now (you can find the full post here).

I originally set the goal to read 35 books (yes, I aim for achievable), but managed to read a total of 50 books (as mentioned above already), which in this particular case translated to 17,255 pages. My reading experiments really motivated me, but I also started a new job that involved a lengthy commute for the first couple of months, which allowed for way more reading time. My shortest book was actually a novella called Galatea by the ever magnificent Madeline Miller. I’m not surprised to find that the longest one was Anna Karenina. It did feel like forever.

The average book I read was about 345 pages long. Honestly, that tracks with previous years, because around 300 pages is the length I feel most comfortable with. I do plan to try and read some lengthier books in 2022 though … we shall see if I actually manage to go through with it. As for my average rating, it’s exactly the same as last year with 3.7 stars! I have gotten more critical over the years and hardly ever give 5 star ratings, if I don’t absolutely adore and love the book, but at the same time, I do know what I like and tend to find books that fit into what I enjoy.

2021 was … something.

I remember clearly, the hope I harbored for 2021 to be better than 2020 and in some regards it really was. I found a great place to work at with colleagues I absolutely love to be around, I found an apartment for myself and finally moved out from my parent’s place. I should not complain and yet … 2021 was hard! Maybe one of the hardest years I had to face ever with a lot of personal dreams getting crushed (goodbye, my beloved Canada) and devastating events that drained my spirits. I don’t want to get into it, but for a time there, it was just one blow after the other. The fact that we’re now going into the third year of the panini isn’t helping either … BUT, and this is just my sunny disposition coming through, I refuse to let that drag me down in 2022. I’ll dust myself off and just get right back to it. I’d like to think that things happen for a reason, that you’re always right where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be. And when it doesn’t feel like it, just fake it until it does *shrug*.

So, on to more pleasant things! I was really consistent with my blogging in 2021. With a few exceptions, I always managed to post at least 3-4 times a week, which would have been unimaginable in some of the past years. I’m still not back to the crazy posting schedule from 2016, where I double and triple posted some days, but I have found my groove and would like to continue that into the new year. I want to thank each and every one who has visited my corner of the internet and especially those that stuck around! My gratitude for your support knows no bounds!
Here are some updated blog stats for you:

  • The blog currently has 2,871 WordPress followers and a couple people via mail as well. I’ve made the decision to wait until the 3K mark for another giveaway on the blog. Money is tight, but I definitely want to celebrate that milestone once we hit it!
  • There have been 20% more views in 2021 than in the previous year, which I know is vague, but has me thrilled!
  • While I’ve written about 1,490 posts for this blog, I don’t want you to go digging too far into the past. I’ve started to tidy up a little and removed some of the older postings. Sometimes I just changed my opinion on them, other times I don’t feel like it fits the content on here anymore. Either way, I’m hoping to not have too many dead links, but I’m working on it.
  • Once again, I’d also like to give a huge thanks and shout-out to my top commenters! The fact that people keep showing up makes my heart sing and my day better. Please feel free to show them some love in return: Brittani, Caro, Marie, Rami and The Orang-Utan Librarian.

MOST POPULAR POSTS OF 2021

I’m going to start with the posts that I wrote in 2021 and that were most popular and list some of the most viewed archive posts below! If you want to know more about a post, simply click on the title!

Are Tom Hiddleston and I compatible (readers)? – Genuinely ALL my reading experiments (I’ve also done this with Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal so far) were so well received. I did time this one particularly well with the release of the Loki series, so I get why it had the absolute most clicks, but you guys were here for the celeb book club and I love that! I don’t have too many original features on here, so I’m happy that my one original idea took off so well.

8 Years of Blogging – Reintroducing Myself! – Yes, I have been doing this for a very long time and since my readership is constantly changing, I thought it was time to reintroduce myself. The feedback and support was absolutley lovely.

WandaVision: Episode 1 & 2 Review – So many people were here for this show, but also really, really confused. I hope my reviews and recaps shed some light and didn’t just confuse people further. I did stray into theories like so many others from time to time.

credit: Marvel Studios

Book to Screen Adaptations 2021 – This post was SO much work and a lot of the release dates got changed up again, but it was too on brand for the blog not to do it. Since it was so well received, would you be interested in me having another go at this for 2022? 

MOST POPULAR POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVES:

MY 2021 RANKINGS

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve waited to publish this post until I had all my yearly rankings up! There’s a lot on there, but the chances that I forgot something are still pretty high. Anyway, this should be an accurate representation of my favorite movies, TV shows and books from the last year.

MY OTHER DECEMBER POSTS

MARVEL REVIEWS

VARIOUS TAGS AND POSTS

TV SHOW/MOVIE RELATED

THURSDAY MOVIE PICKS

TRAILER POSTS

Now, I hope you’ve already had a brilliant start into the year 2022 and that it will be kind to you! Please let me know which content you liked on the blog last year, so I can work and plan for everything that comes next! THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF THE LIFE AND OTHER DISASTERS COMMUNITY!!!

 

My Top 10 Movies of 2019

Kat Impossible28 Comments

Here we are! Today is the day that I finally finish all my 2019 rankings. As you should be able to guess from the title of the post, it’s about movies I have watched in 2019. I tried my best to mostly include releases from last year, but let me warn you, it’s not my best list ever. I only watched Parasite in 2020 for example. Also, a lot of movies haven’t been out in my territories yet and yeah … don’t judge me too harshly.

10. Instant Family

I need silly content sometimes and I have an absolute soft spot for adoption/foster home stories, especially the ones with a positive message and happy end. So yeah, this might not be everyone’s cup of tea and maybe you won’t find it funny, but I loved how heartwarming it was.

9. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu 

This movie was by no means perfect, but there was something interesting about it. I really enjoyed seeing the pokémon animated in a real life setting and Ryan Reynolds voicing one of them was just the cherry on top. I think I’d like it if there were sequels to this for sure.

8. The Goldfinch

This movie would have been better served as a limited series, giving every character the time and respect to slowly explore their story. This way it was rushed and confusing at times, but something about it still gripped me. Also, the cinematography was beautiful.

7. The King

When I think of Timothée, I think of a boy. I never expected to watch a scene where he plays a king talking to his men on a battlefield, giving a speech that carries through rows and rows of people and believe his performance, but I did. And it was brilliant! (Most of all, shout out to Joel Edgerton, who was involved in so many parts of the making of this movie though and carried big parts of it.)

6. Long Shot

Maybe not the most obvious choice, but I found this movie funny and poignant? I was really sad that it flopped almost everywhere, because I never like Seth Rogen films, but I liked this one a lot. He works so well with Charlize Theron and it’s a sort of romantic comedy without too much romance and really current jokes.

5. Klaus

If you add any new Christmas movie to your yearly watch list, please, let it be this one. I didn’t just like the animation style, but I absolutely, with all my heart, adored the storyline. I swear, by the end of it, I was in tears and had no regrets.

4. Yesterday

I know that we had Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody and whatnot last year, but … I haven’t actually seen them yet. There is just something that always makes me worry about these biopics not being what I want them to be. Yesterday had it far easier in that department, because while they really dug into the legacy of the Beatles, they made it a whole story of their own. I liked how creative that felt and I really, really liked the cast.

3. The Party’s Just Beginning

This movie is best enjoyed with a lot of trigger warnings concerning graphic scenes of a suicide and warnings about depression. I watched it while I was in a bad place and it didn’t exactly help, but this movie was really great nonetheless. I am so proud of Karen Gillan for pouring her heart into this project and having it set in Scotland none the less!

2. Someone, Somewhere

Yes, I put a French movie in this post! It’s a love story without being a love story at all. It’s about how hard it is for single people in this day and age, especially in a big city. It’s about how you have to have your life in order for you to be able to share it with anyone else. It basically spoke to everything my heart and brain thinks daily.

1. Brittany Runs a Marathon

It’s supposed to be funny, but I cried my way through a lot of parts of this movie. Don’t let the trailer fool you, it’s not about how you have to lose weight in order to become a “better person”. That’s not what happened to Brittany at all, she turned into a bitch as soon as she was skinny if you ask me, but just like the last movie, it’s a lot about how you have to find a way to live with yourself. Also, it’s really motivational. I hate running and I wanted to run for days afterwards.

Honorable Mentions

As you’ve seen these past couple of days, I like to give a shoutout to some movies that haven’t made it in the ranking. Here we go:

  • Shazam!
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Captain Marvel
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Aladdin
  • Always Be My Maybe
  • Good Boys
  • Last Christmas
  • Someone Great
  • Love at Second Sight
  • Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood
  • Otherhood

Also, because I watched a lot of German content, I also want to specifically mention some movies worth checking out here:

  • Der Junge muss an die frische Luft/All About Me
  • Golden Twenties
  • Cleo
  • Traumfabrik
  • Nirgendwo
  • Trautmann/The Keeper
  • Rate Your Date
  • O Beautiful Night

That’s it! What did you think of that list? Any surprises on it? Let’s chat!