Monday Muse: Autumn Love!

Hi everyone! Welcome to Monday Muse! Aaah, I missed writing these posts. It's just so refreshing to write something crazy and not entirely bookish related sometimes. You, my poor readers, have to put up with my rambling though! ;)

Oops, I almost forgot to tell you. Our post today is all about...

Ah, I love Autumn. Or as Americans call it, fall. ;) Although I technically live in two-seasons country, it still doesn't mean that I can't have autumn spirit, right? And yes, we are currently in the middle of Autumn! Still, I think it would be fun to explore autumn thingy. Better late than never. ;)

Autumn Books

1. The Demon Catchers of Milan by Kat Beyer

This is not a book for everyone, but I think you should give it a go if you have time. Demon, bells, and Italia. Sprinkled with gorgeous writing, and you get great combination for fireplace read!

2. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Ah, good old Harry Potter. Recommended to read in any season, really. ♥

3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Everything you can ask for a story is in this book. So enchanting, I'm hopelessly in love with this book! My heart flutters just thinking about this book. ;) A definite autumn/winter read.

4. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

I don't know if any of you have ever read/watched the animation from Ghibli Studios in Japan, but I think this is perfect for autumn read! The movie is very cute too, although more suitable for younger audience. :)

Oh! Looks like the theme of autumn books is magic! Or maybe it's my personal preference LOL! x)

Warm Drink


As you might have already known, I'm a big tea drinker! I love drinking tea with milk in rainy days. There's nothing better than watching the rain falling outside while you're inside your warm house, seeping your warm drink. Because I looove chocolate (in whatever form possible), I get you a recipe for a very simple yet delicious chocolate drink:

 

Chocolate Bar Hot Chocolate

♦ 1 (1.55 ounce) bar milk chocolate candy bar, chopped
♦ 2/3 cup milk, or more to taste
♦ 1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional)

Place chocolate pieces in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add milk and whisk constantly until chocolate is melted and well blended, about 5 minutes.

Whisk in cinnamon. Remove from heat; add more milk if desired.

Serve in a mug.

source: Allrecipes.com

Sounds easy, right? It tastes really good too! You really should try it at home if you have time. :)

Autumn Fashion

It's time for sweater, scarf, cardigan, and cool boots to show up! I love cute clothes, and especially when they are warm and comfortable. ;) Bring in (literally) the fifty shades of brown! ;)

And of course: guys in sweater. I admit that I have weakness for boys who wear sweaters. Makes them look more preppy and neat in a good way. Sweater also has special effect that make them look one hundred times cuter, don't you think so? :P

SMITTEN here! ♥ ;)

Halloween

When we talk about autumn, of course we also talk about Halloween! :) To tell you the truth, the nearest mall in my city has already decorated the entire floors with pumpkin decoration since early September! I know: WHOA. Someone is excited for trick-or-treat party. Here we call it Pumpkin Festival, not Halloween. :)

Costume inspiration:

I-monsters and Doggy Krueger!! Run for your life, people!

Or you can dress classy, dance shamelessly in front of your friends, and ask them to call you PSY (Gangnam Style)! I bet that everyone will have good laugh hehe! ;)

Wow, there are so much things to do in autumn, right? And soo many things to look forward! :) Maple leaves, cute scarf, warm fireplace, Halloween... the list just goes on and on! And.... this is the end of today's post! I hope it can brighten your day even just a tiny bit! Stay inspiring, get inspired, and have inspiration! Happy Monday, awesome people! ♥

Tell  me in comments, what is your favorite thing in autumn? :)

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Dear friends,

It’s hard to review a book that you love. Because you always want to do the book justice. Because you want your review to pass your personal standard. Because you want people to understand how much you love the book but you don’t want to gush too much. It’s hard to write a review for the book that you love, because you want to do it ‘right’. It’s kind of crazy that it took me several days just to write this review.

If you need a summary, here it is: The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about a freshman named Charlie, and this guy Charlie is extremely naïve to the point of almost unbelievable. Later, he befriends two seniors who expose him to things in real world.

This book is very quotable that I swear, I reblog different quote from The Perks of Being a Wallflower every week in my Tumblr blog. Just Google ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower quote’ and you can see dozens of typographies popping up. I think it's the way Charlie describes things around him. I love Charlie’s voice. Sometimes it’s very child-like, but other times it feels more mature than most people in his age. It’s honest, real, and relatable. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever encountered.

I found little things that Charlie did to his friends are endearing. The way he gives gifts to everyone and doesn’t wish for anything in return. The way he makes mixtape for Patrick and picks winter as the theme. The way he wants to buy books for people he loves not because he wants to educate them, but because he wants them to read the book and fall in love with the story too. Charlie is, in a quirky and extraordinary way, adorable. As I've already said, sometimes Charlie can be child-like, but he is not childish. He grows up, and he learns about things. Charlie makes mistakes, and I can’t say that I agree with everything he does, but he is still one of my favorite fictional characters ever.

I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower because it makes me see things from different perspective. And because I love Charlie, and all the other characters in this book. Because they feel real. As if I can touch, have conversations with them when I read the book.

This book might not be for everyone, and there are scenes like drinking, smoking pot, or sexual scenes that I don’t want to expose to youngsters. But if you’re ever in the mood of something short, beautiful, and special, something that will make you think… please pick this book.

And all the books you've read have been read by other people. And all the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people. And you know that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing "unity."

It's like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means that you're happy, too.

Love always,
Hilda 

Website * Goodreads * Amazon * Book Depository

I rate this book: 

 Four cups of tea. Amazing! Love the book, it’s simply awesome. I love the tea flavor!  A strong recommendation.

Interview and Giveaway: Gina Linko

Hello there lovelies! Wow, it has been such a long time since I did an interview/giveaway in Catch the Lune, right? Therefore I'm so pleased to bring you Gina Linko today! Gina is the author of Flutter, the YA sci-fi romance coming from Random House this October 23rd! There will also be giveaway in the end, so without further ado... please welcome Gina Linko! :)

 
Hello, Gina! Welcome to my blog! It’s amazing to have you here! :) Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Thank you for having me! I think your blog is supercool, and I am thrilled to be here! I am a writer, a college writing teacher, and a mother. I have three small kids and basically reading and writing are my hobbies. I used to teach middle-school science too, so I think I’ve always had a sort of bend toward science and science fiction.

What was your inspiration for writing Flutter?

I like to just go with the what-if of things. I like to read science-y things and take it one step further. What if….? The ending of FLUTTER is something I had worked out in my head, just this can’t-guess-it, surprising, twist of an ending, and the story sort of unfolded backwards for me, with the ending driving the story. But basically, Emery is the main character and she has had these seizures her whole life, but they are not just seizures. She believes she is time-traveling. She calls it looping. When her loops start to intersect with her real life, things start to get a little crazy, and Emery follows clues from her loops to solve the mystery of her special power, as well as a few other mysteries along the way. And also a cute boy. Of course, a cute boy with secrets.

Emery, the main character in Flutter, loves Dala horses. Is there any particular reason why she loves the wooden statuette (other than because it’s super cute, of course! ;) )?

They’re Scandinavian, sort of a good luck charm. In the book, she loves the dala horses because she stays at a cabin, one that is called the Dala Cabin, because it is decorated with these little horses. And they become special to her for a number of reasons, which I can’t give away!

What should we expect from Flutter when we read it? :)

Oh, you can expect romance, mystery, a sci-fi twist, time travel, but even more than that it is a story about what is really important in life. Figuring out exactly what is important in life, to you. It’s about love and loss. About our fate and choices. And, of course, you can expect a great big twist at the end!

If you could go back in time and met your teenage self, what would you tell to the young you?

So many things! To start with, perms are not good. Don’t do it! The 80s were not kind to our hair, people! Check out my bio in my web site and you can see the actual photographic proof. Seriously, though. I would tell myself, Be yourself. Cultivate your hobbies – what you like to do. Not what is “in” or what is cool. Be yourself. Because we all only get this one go-around. One life. Fill it with what you are passionate about. (That sounds kinda dorky and cliché, but I mean it!)

If you were a witch, what spell would you cast mostly in your life?

Do I have to choose one? Is there a spell for getting my kids to brush their teeth? Or a spell to clean that grimy stuff out of the kitchen sink drain? I would like those spells. ; )

What would you do if you were transported into before century time?

Probably I’d wander around trying to tell people that I had come from the future and no one would believe me, and then I’d try to find Doc to build me a flux capacitor. (I’m not sure if that is too old of a reference. Is it?) Seriously, I would LOVE to travel back in time, and I’d probably do some dorky things like wander libraries and try to find old first editions of books or something. Stalk old literary stars and artists.

If you could talk to one animal, what animal would you choose to talk to? 

I just love these questions! I would definitely talk to a cat. Don’t they just always look like they have it all figured out?

Lastly:

What do you love most about being an author? :)

Aside from the thrill of sitting at your keyboard and really getting in the groove of writing, I love to hear from fans. To hear that your work, your little spark of an idea, has touched someone out there, it’s inspiring. Truly.

Thank you for answering the questions, Gina! Hehe, I would definitely choose cat too! They always seem to know things you don't know, right? ;)

Gina Linko has a graduate degree in creative writing from DePaul University and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three children. Gina teaches college English part-time, but her real passion is sitting down at a blank computer screen and asking herself the question, "What if...?"

 

 Goodreads * Twitter * Blog

All Emery Land wants is to be like any other 17-year-old—to go to school, hang out with her friends, and just be normal. But for as long as she can remember, she’s suffered from seizures. And in recent years they’ve consumed her life. To Emery they’re much more than seizures, she calls them loops—moments when she travels through wormholes back and forth in time and to a mysterious town. The loops are taking their toll on her physically. So she practically lives in the hospital where her scientist father and an ever-growing team of doctors monitor her every move. They’re extremely interested in the data they collect when Emery seizes. It appears that she’s tapping into parts of the brain typically left untouched by normal human beings.

Escaping from the hospital, Emery travels to Esperanza, the town from her loops on the upper peninsula of Michigan, where she meets Asher Clarke. Ash’s life is governed by his single-minded pursuit of performing good Samaritan acts to atone for the death of a loved one. His journey is very much entwined with Emery’s loops.

Drawn together they must unravel their complicated connection before it’s too late.

Website * Goodreads * Amazon * Book Depository

Now, move on to what I know everyone has giddily anticipated....

Open INTERNATIONAL. The first winner will win a signed hardcover copy of Flutter. The second winner will win a hardcover copy of Flutter, pre-ordered by me from Book Depostory. Three runners up will each win a signed bookmark.. The signed copy and bookmarks are provided by lovely Gina Linko, so make sure that you thank her and follow her journey through the bookishland! :)

Giveaway ends October 24. Winners will be notified by email. May the odds be ever in your favor! :)

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