LATELY WITH LILA NOVEMBER 2020 | A FAREWELL TO AUTUMN

Hey, friends! How’s everyone hangin’ in there? Hopefully good and if not, hopefully brighter days are on the way soon enough. We’ve finally reached the end of this god awful year, it seems., and thank god for that! I’m still kind of shocked that we’ve made it through December without the entire world literally imploding, lol! But never mind that doom and gloom; we’ve made it here and that’s a blessing. And now that we can check surviving November off the list, you know what that means: it’s time to wrap the month up! Without any further ado…let’s dive in!

• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (★★★★★) Aaaaaaaaaah my newest favorite book/series!! I loved everything about this book so much! From the story to the characters to the Black American representation—I loved all of it!

• Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco I read 75% of this book in November and I was loving it, so I can’t wait to see how it ends!
• Lightbringer by Claire LegrandThis is one of my all-time favorite series and I’m both excited and sad to finally be getting to the finale.
• A Sky Beyond The Storm by Sabaa Tahir Another ending to another all time favorite series and, what can I say other than “parting is such sweet sorrow”?

I watched the first few episodes of Season 1 of Legacies and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I was a fan of the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries but never watched the final seasons, nor have I seen the other spin-off of the show, The Originals. I do know the gist of the final seasons of The Vampire Diaries, as well as of how The Originals goes, though, and that definitely came in handy. Anyhoo, so far I’ve really enjoyed Legacies.

I also watched the first few episodes of Netflix’s adaptation of Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares and I’m happy to say that I found it super cute and plan on finishing the mini series in December! I went in pretty skeptical as I read Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares a few years ago and found it pretty bland and forgettable, but, luckily, by the end of the second episode I was pretty into the show. I can’t wait to finish it up and get all the holiday feels from it!

And, lastly, I watched the first episode of Blood of Zeus and was…mildly intrigued? Tbh the story is intriguing but the animation style gives me flashbacks to the biblical cartoons I had to watch in elementary and middle school when I attended a Catholic school 😂😂😂 But other than that it was fun and I’m thinking I’ll slowly continue watching!

HIGH NOTES

• “prom dress” by mxmtoon What a mood. What a bop.


• “Therefore I Am” by Billie Eilish I don’t know a woman who doesn’t feel this exact way, tbh.


• “F2020 (Remix)” by Avenue Beat and Jessie Reyez Is there anyone who doesn’t relate to this song at this point?


• “Pray For Me” by ABIR ABIR is a Moroccan American singer whose work I’ve always loved and this song definitely isn’t the exception to the rule!

November was a weirdly hectic month for what feels like the first time in forever! All of my classes ramped up the number of intense assignments as we geared up for finals season, plus my mom and I got a bunch of new shelves for multiple rooms in my house (including new bookshelves for my bedroom) and we spent a good week and a half moving those in and setting them up, and—on top of that—it was my birthday on the 28th! Add in a bumpy election week, and November was sheer madness! All in all, I can say I’m thoroughly exhausted and I still have my finals coming up soon! Nevertheless, though tiring, it was mostly a good month so I can’t complain too much.

December brings both finals season and the holiday season, so I feel like it’s kind of a mixed bag? This year’s holiday season is gonna be so different for obvious reasons and I don’t really know what to expect anymore. After such a rough year, I’m cautious about looking forward to 2021 too much. But I wouldn’t be a true Sagittarius if I wasn’t an eternal optimist and so I do have some hope that next year will be better than this year was. Let’s keep our fingers crossed just in case, though.

• How was your November?
• Anything special/interesting/fun coming up in December for you?
• What books are you excited to read this December?