The Happiness Zine

Just on the off chance that you haven't seen me banging on about this on social media, I created a zine! More specifically, it's a mini downloadable art zine full of things that make me happy.

Interested in checking out the zine for yourself? You can find it HERE.

I'm on Patreon!

I am incredibly excited to announce that I am now on Patreon! This means that you can now help make more videos and blog posts possible.

Patreon is a really incredible place for creators, artists, and anyone else with a "nontraditional" career or hobby to gain a monthly income. As someone who freelances and whose monthly earnings can vary quite a bit, I find the idea of any kind of steady monthly income is incredibly appealing.

Of course, I know that it is a lot to ask of you, my viewers and readers. I am already so grateful for the time you're willing to spend watching and reading my content and for the amazing, insightful comments you leave me. So trust me when I say that I have put a lot of time and effort into creating rewards that I think are fun and worth every cent of your pledges.

If you'd like to find out out more, please feel free to head on over to my Patreon page!

2,000 Subscribers! [Q&A Announcement]

I haven't done a Q&A video since I reached my first 100 subscribers, so now that I've reached 2,000 I thought it was time for another! I would love to take any questions that you may have; they don't have to just be about reading. I've already started getting some fantastic questions and will wait a few weeks before filming my answers.

Do you have a question you'd like to ask me? Feel free to leave me a comment here, on the video, or on any of my other social media platforms!

April Magazine

I am thrilled to announce that I am now writing book reviews for the new site April Magazine! This site launched just this month and aims to share stories for and about Asian women around the world. I honestly could not be more excited to be part of this endeavor.

As of right now, I will be contributing monthly book reviews and will focus on promoting Asian female writers. My first review is of Han Kang's The Vegetarian, which you might remember I posted here on The Little Spider a few months ago. Starting next month, I'll start exploring some new authors with a new review!

About April Magazine | Become a contributor to April Magazine

Bout of Books 16

It's time for another Bout of Books readathon! If you've been following my blog for the past year or so, you probably already know how much I enjoy this readathon. You can set your own goals or take it as easy as you want, which is what I plan on doing this time around!

Sign ups run through Tuesday, May 10th, so head on over to the Bout of Books website if you'd like to participate.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

--From the Bout of Books team

Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming TBR!

The NaNoWriMo Tag

It's November, which means it's finally NaNoWriMo time! Just in case you have never heard of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, it is a challenge in which thousands of people around the world attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel draft in the thirty days of November.

I couldn't be more excited to participate this year and plan on doing weekly update posts here on the blog throughout the month.

If you would like to join me and be my reading buddy, you can find my NaNo profile HERE.

Bout of Books 14

You gotta love summer readathons! This past week was the Booktube-A-Thon and in little more than a week's time, Bout of Books 14 will get under way. This is my first time "officially" participating with an announcement post and everything, but this is a readathon that I have followed for the last few years with enthusiasm.

If you'd like to sign up for Bout of Books yourself, head over to the Bout of Books blog. If you want more information on what Bout of Books is all about, see the blurb below.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

--From the Bout of Books team

TBR coming soon!

Life Changes... And Goes On

Why, hello there! It's been a while.

The last two months have been interesting, to say the least. I made a couple of big life decisions and moved, again. I won't really go into it here because that's not what this blog is about, but I will say that I feel lighter, happier, and like my life is moving in the right direction again.

This greater life change has inspired me to be more honest with myself and make the corresponding changes to other areas of my life. And that includes making some changes to this blog.

I had a lot of fun writing beauty and lifestyle posts but ultimately, that's not what I'm passionate about or enjoy discussing. "They" say to write what you know, so I've decided to convert this over to a blog about books and reading. I will be keeping some of my current features, such as monthly favorites and #YearOfMiyazaki, but for the most part my content will completely transition over to be more in line with my YouTube channel.

It may seem a little dramatic to dedicate an entire post to this transition, especially given that I have a very small audience at this point, so I'll cut myself off now. All you really need to know is that some things will be disappearing and in the future there will be less skincare, and more books.

Wishing you all clarity of mind and happy reading.

Marisa

#YearofMiyazaki and The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

If you guys haven't been able to tell already, I like to have multiple projects going at the same time. It keeps life interesting and I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I actually felt bored or like I had nothing to do.

A new project I'm starting this year over on my YouTube channel is my Year of Miyazaki (#yearofmiyazaki). I have been a fan of Studio Ghibli films since I was a kid; in fact, I think it's safe to say that Studio Ghibli played an even bigger role in my young life than Disney movies did. With #yearofmiyazaki I'm attempting to watch all of Studio Ghibli's full length films in 2015. I'll be working my way through the list above and have decided to just pull names out of a jar because I was finding it too difficult to pick which order I was going to watch them in. I just recently decided that I'd like to get as many people involved as possible, and so I'll be posting the discussion videos here on the blog as well!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to kick off the project by watching the 2014 documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. It's an absolutely beautiful and fascinating documentary that I have to admit I've actually watched more than once by this point.

In case you'd like to do the project with me, I'll be watching Kiki's Delivery Service next!