I wasn't sure I was going to be keen on the romance/friendship genre choice with The Book Drop but I've been loving it. I started on literary fiction type books and then moved over to this one. I assumed I'd eventually land back on mysteries but I think my current choice is what I need during this pandemic. 

I'm not sure what the governor is doing in my state but I'm staying home until Dr. Fauci says it's safe. Look, it's hard and annoying and I'm legit stir-crazy but I think it's only responsible to listen to the grown-ups here. 

At least I've gotten a lot of reading done during the break. I've been reading about four or five books a week. Sometimes as many as seven. I still have a huge pile of books to go through. I might photograph it one day but...I'm not really ready to commit to that. Maybe at the end of the year to show how much I've got to read and stuff. People get twitchy at my hoard but eh. 

I received this book in a Muse Monthly book subscription, which ended a few years ago. Yes, it sat on my TBR pile that long. Not because I'm slow but because it kept getting moved around the pile depending when I rearranged it. The way I have now is much more visual as some are spine out on the bookshelf while others are stuck in piles below. 

None of that was interesting, I mean, who cares how I have my TBR pile set up. I'm  not sure what the lady who created the box is doing--well, I do, 'cause I'm a little nosy. They work in the publishing industry. Anyways. The box was great because it caused me to branch out with genres. 

I was a bit bad and went shopping (online) and got some new items. I don't need them obviously since I'm going nowhere this year because of Covid-19 but whatever. 

I also listlessly read three books. I'm so slow this week for some reason! Plus, I only half watched some of the TV shows I had taped. I didn't really try any new recipes other than a bland lemon pasta bake. What is with all these bland recipes? I can make it better obviously but what's the point of keeping the original if it's so boring. Do we  not believe in spices and flavor? Lord help me. 

Since Spotify doesn't allow me to mark a podcast episode as "listened" if I heard it on another medium, I've been fast forwarding/skipping ahead on most of them. With casefile though, since the episodes are long and it's been awhile on a few of them, I decided to re-listen to some. I haven't worked my way up to EAR/ONS as of yet (the GSK/DeAngelo) as they were creepy. I know other people are getting into podcasts, and I got an email from Amazon or Google. I'm not sure if I'll stay with Spotify or not. I'm okay at the moment. 

I'm strangely slow with music/podcast innovations. I might have been the last person on Apple's previous platform (ITunes) before they shut it down. I keep trying to listen to the regular radio in the car but the station owners have decided to start playing Fox "news" segments and -I still can't get over this- Bill O'Reilly's segments. So...I'll be bouncing from that. 

I mean, I just want to listen to music. I don't need a DJ or their "forward from Grandma segments" and I don't want a biased "news" break. Just play the freaking music! They've been driving me insane. The other day I counted TEN ads and then the Fox "news" break.

I sent an email asking if this was permanent because if it is, I'll find something new but if it's going to stop I'll stay. I hate changing music stuff but I have Spotify, Amazon Prime and Google Music. I can switch over if necessary. 

And don't come for me over Fox. Everything Rupert Murdoch touches turns into tabloid trash. I'm not interested in losing brain cells from this crap. I'll lose them a better way thank you very much. 

I'm really enjoying this subscription. Granted, it's a bit pricy since I'm in the USA and it ships from the UK but it has great choices in books and nice add-ons. 

This is my third box from them (I think?) as I started with the Spring/Winter/February box. They have a monthly box but I choose the quarterly model. They also have sci-fi/fantasy but I wanted the mystery genre. 

I don't know how to title them though. The website goes by months (next grouping is November than February) but I'm so used to going via seasonal. I guess I should do monthly so it's less confusing. 

Anyways, this box is the Chronicle Book Box, a book subscription from the U.K. As I'm not in the U.K., it's an international service although I'm not sure the pricing for every distance. I shop quite frequently from the U.K. and still have a bank overseas so it's not as terrifying for me. Their checkout process is simple though (one of the easiest) with multiple options. (card, online payment/banking, etc.). 

I will say that the monthly and quarterly boxes don't always have the same books and items. Sometimes there's overlap (like when we got the coasters from FortyVenus.) They  have an online shop for books and items, so it's easy enough to buy. Which is nice if you prefer the U.K. cover for a book or want an item that was in the monthly/other genre. 

You can check out their social media for more book unboxing/content. Instagram and Twitter. 

I'll go through the books and I received and put a synopsis (plus link in the shop if they're still available) below. 

I got this book after a disastrous run-in with Bobbi Brown's advice. Brown is a talented make-up artist and I believe she did makeup for a lot of Hollywood stars who have this "golden glow." She also has "rules" and all the girls in my school growing up assiduously followed them. The problem is of course, with makeup there aren't any rules as everyone's face is different. Also, you can use makeup to change things up and innovate in all sorts of ways. Rule wise, I'd only say that you shouldn't use dangerous chemicals and practice. Just make yourself happy really. The "advice" that I took from Bobbi had to do with yellow toned foundations. She recommended that people (or the actress that she worked with really) use yellow toned foundation. So I went out to give it a go. 

Oh.my.gosh. I had yellow face. I was a walking racist character. It was not good. Was it Bobbi's fault? No! I was a stupid kid who didn't really get marketing (Bobbi wanted me to buy a yellow toned foundation from her brand of course) and also I didn't understand color matching and makeup in general. It was also most likely advice more in line to her starlets and not dorky little middle schoolers. I don't want to sound like I'm hating on Bobbi, I think she's a fantastic artist and really the Queen of the neutral look. You can't go wrong with that. 

Bobbi had a book at the time and I desperately wanted it. My mom got this book for me instead, and I'm quite grateful for a variety of reasons. I don't remember much from Bobbi's book but it was very much in the same vein "how to do makeup", this was pre-Youtube (we were on our own. It was a wild west of makeup looks y'all!). My friends and I would take this book (and Bobbi's) and do makeovers on each other when we were having sleepovers. I think my mom just went for variety. Whatever the reason, this was a win. It's been with me since that time and I've used it for reference to this day. 

I'm missing about one third of my hurricane supplies. I'm not too worried about myself in general for any storms. I have migraine food, migraine medicine and books to read. I do miss the ice packs when the power goes out for longer than a day. 

I'm going to have to refill my supplies regardless. 

I've tried out some complete flops in the recipe department. I don't think my taste is so outrageous but all the dishes turned out really bland. It's a bit of a disappointment. One was so bad I ended up ordering a last minute pizza. The good news is that I'm going through all these cookbooks and random cuttings and getting rid of the bad ones. This last attempt was a quiche that was...dull. Everyone else liked it but I thought it needed so much more. 

The new Masterpiece Mystery! I love Masterpiece but most especially their mystery subsection. The newest one is Van der Valk. It's set in Amsterdam and is a police procedural. It's based on books by Nicolas Freeling. I haven't read the books by Freeling and I haven't finished the first episode but the series seems like it's going to be a win. 

This was the last ever box for Popsugar, which is a bummer for me as I tend to really enjoy this subscription. Alas. 

PopSugar the website is less of a destination for me. I honestly remember it being far more useful when I first started going (when it was different pages for money [Savvy Sugar], fitness, celebrity and fashion). Going through my bookmarks (it's a process) I've found a bunch of things from them I've saved that are all fluff. For example, one thing I had saved was about block scheduling. At no point did this article ever mention how to block schedule, what it was, or show any examples. Nope. All fluff and filler words and a waste of my time. 

The box was nice though. 

Something is a little wonky with my scheduling aspect of the website. I'm not sure if it's me (and something I can fix) or something that someone with more technical experience and back-end knowledge only can fix. So...this is supposed to show up on Wednesday...but we'll see how that goes. 

I received this book in a Muse Monthly box, which no longer exists. It was a fun box because I received books (and tea!) from authors that I wouldn't normally gravitate towards. I wouldn't say I enjoyed all of them but I think the box editor's taste was pretty good. It also helped me gather more of a taste of tea flavors. I thought I was going to prefer lighter tea, floral teas,etc...nope. Black tea. STRONG tea. Light me  up because I need my tea to be vicious. 

This was a pretty thick mailer (more goodies than normal). It was also the roll-out for the first illustrated bookmarks from artists. There was some call for artwork or something via instagram that I saw but I'm not too on the news there. 

The Book Drop is a book subscription with various genres. It's from Bethany Beach Books (in Delaware), a independent bookstore. I have the 'Books for Bubbly' which is a mish-mash of two genres: romance and friendship. So far it's good. Since my usual genre is filled with serial killers this is a much slower pace for me but it is nice. I get to try different authors and books that I normally skip over (in favor of all these murder-y books). 

I'm just going to do a bunch of unboxings until work calms down. It's been a bit hectic. 

I'm almost caught up on Watch What Crappens Podcast and finishing the Aurora Teagarden series. 

I have to be honest, I think I'm a little off with The Book Drop unboxing. I just opened (and photographed) Septembers box (at the end of August) but I'm constantly worried that I've mis-labeled the photos when I upload them. Even with the included materials. It's nonsense. I'm pretty sure this is July's unboxing (as it does say July).

The Book Drop is a newer subscription (to me) and I've switched from the literary (tea) to the romance/friendship (champagne?). I might switch again but right now it's working. It's a subscription of newly released paperbacks from an indie bookstore in Delaware called Bethany Beach Books. 

Woo-hoo! I'm officially caught up with Lavish's unboxings. Lavish Bath Box is one of my longest running subscriptions. It delivers bath items from indie bath shops every month. It's about $38 per month and includes six items. Usually one or two bath bombs, a bubble bar, and then a variety of other bath products.