BOOKENDS: May, June, July, & August 2022

I took an impromptu hiatus, partially because it got very busy at work and partially because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the blog. I decided at some point during the summer that my blog needed a refresh. I had previously redone my blog in January 2020, I think? I liked it at the time, but the dark theme just kind of grew to something I didn’t like anymore, and it never seemed to work well when I tried to put it against a lighter background. Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when I started looking at graphics and other blog designs as well as beginning to tie everything into an overarching personal brand, I found these graphics that I couldn’t stop thinking about!! I definitely think this is more ‘me,’ and it’s mostly done in Canva, which means I can work on it from nearly anywhere. Ease of access and portability makes a whole world of difference sometimes!

I don’t foresee much change happening to the bookish content of the blog aside from more posts, and I’m working on embroidery/stitchy stuff to showcase and eventually sell on Etsy, as well as makeup and movie content that I wanted to lean toward when I initially redid the blog design two and a half years ago! I’ll be adding links to Etsy and other social media places you can find me to the sidebar once they’re also updated and ready to go.

My reading felt chaotic over the summer, but I’m excited for the fall season and all of the fall reads I have on my nightstand!


CURRENTLY READING

Sometime during the summer, I picked out titles to fill out the remainder of my ABC challenge and my physical TBR challenge, and The Ghost Bride and Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured were two of the titles I picked out! I’m enjoying both, and The Ghost Bride is a perfect book for spooky season. Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died is everywhere, and even though I’m a few chapters in, I’m really enjoying her writing style and her voice.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚 The Ghost Bride – Yangsze Choo
📚 I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy
📚 Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured – Kathryn Harrison


FINISHED READING

To keep the post on the shorter side, I’m not going to go much into detail about the books I read!! I’ll separate each month so it’s not a blob of books. If there are any you’d like to see a review of, please leave a comment and let me know!!

I read nine books in May!, and I think my favorite of the month was the historical horror by Ally Wilkes, All the White Spaces.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📓 Until We Meet – Camille Di Maio (thank you, Forever Pub!)
📚
A Duke in the Night – Kelly Bowen 
⌛️ Happy People Are Annoying – Josh Peck 
📓 A Novel Obsession – Caitlin Barasch (thank you, Dutton Books!)
📓 Forging a Nightmare – Patricia A. Jackson (thank you, Angry Robot!)
📚 The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
📓 Steal This Book – Abbie Hoffman (thank you, Hachette!)
📓 All the White Spaces – Ally Wilkes (thank you, Atria Books!)
⌛️ A Study in Death – Anna Lee Huber

 

I read nine books in June! I’m curious about these TikTok popular books, but I knew I wasn’t gonna like The Love Hypothesis, and I didn’t, lol. Ottessa Moshfegh, however, is a new favorite of mine.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

⌛️ A Far Wilder Magic – Allison Saft
⌛️ Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
📱 Lapvona – Ottessa Moshfegh (thank you, Penguin Press!)
⌛️ The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood
⌛️ Disorientation – Elaine Hsieh Chou
📚 Death in Her Hands – Ottessa Moshfegh
📚 People We Meet on Vacation – Emily Henry
📱 Sistersong – Lucy Holland (thank you, Redhook!)
📚 The Duke Heist – Erica Ridley

 

I read seven books in July! The Postmortal is excellent, and I’m a little sad I had it on my shelf for ten years and only just read it now… and I finally!!! finally!!!! finished The Big Book of Science Fiction. Note to self: don’t start tracking these books until the month you actually finish them because this was a lot.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚 The Postmortal  – Drew Magary
⌛️ Delilah Green Doesn’t Care – Ashley Herring Blake
📚 The Baby-Sitter’s Club #1 Kristy’s Great Idea – Ann M. Martin
📚 My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh
📚 The Baby-Sitter’s Club #2 Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls – Ann M. Martin
⌛️ The Viscount Who Loved Me – Julia Quinn
📚 The Big Book of Science Fiction – edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

 

I read seven books in August! This wasn’t my best month for reading, and Persuasion was my favorite read of the month.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚 The Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley
⌛️ The Fervor – Alma Katsu
📚 Goosebumps: Monster Blood – R.L. Stine
⌛️ The Bone Orchard – Sara A. Mueller
⌛️ If the Duke Demands – Anna Harrington
📚 Persuasion – Jane Austen
⌛️ Jade Fire Gold  – June CL Tan

 


ON THE HORIZON

I am trying to read more off my shelves instead of requesting more books from publishers and going to the library, so this is what I’ve got on my shelves for the fall season!!

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚  Up All Night With a Good Duke – Amy Rose Bennett
📚  Babel – R.F. Kuang
📚  A Year of the Witching – Alexis Henderson
📚  The Talisman – Stephen King and Peter Straub
📚  Reluctant Immortals – Gwendolyn Kiste


WHAT I ACQUIRED

Too many books, honestly, and more than I can recall to make some kind of feasible list.


ON SCREEN

I’ll be moving this section to a “Monthly Rewind” of sorts in the coming months!!


 

BOOKENDS: April and May 2021

I moved and I’m starting my new job at the end of the month! Until then, I’m going to be hanging out with friends and doing a little DoorDash to fill up time and make some money. I’m also hoping to transfer into the local BN soon part time also, but I’m so excited about this new adventure.


CURRENTLY READING

I FINALLY finished reading The People’s History of the United States, and while I’m currently still picking at The Agitators and The Big Book of Science Fiction, I feel like I’m finally making progress through some of the chunkier reads on my TBR. I’m listening to The Diviners again because I used my Audible credits to pick up the entire series once the final book came out. I love the narrator so much and think she does such a great job bringing this story to life, and I’m going to continue reading (rereading because I’ve read the first three!! But it’s been long enough that I want to revisit the entire series). It’s nice to listen to a book while writing out blog posts or playing a video game. The Helm of Midnight looked like a fantastic read, so I decided to borrow the ebook from the library. Beach Read was something I bought last year, and I wanted to read this before I read Emily Henry’s latest release.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

⌛️ The Helm of Midnight – Marina Lostetter (15%)
🎧 The Diviners – Libba Bray, narrated by January LaVoy
📚 Beach Read – Emily Henry
📓 The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought For Abolition and Women’s Rights – Dorothy Wickenden (6%; thank you, Scribner Books!)
📚 The Big Book of Science Fiction – edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (32%)


FINISHED READING

I read eight books in April and nine books in May, both pretty good numbers considering I worked and prepared to move myself across the country in that span of time. I reread Once Upon a Dream because I remember DNFing it when I first read it and wanted to give it and the series another go. I’ve realized Braswell’s writing might not be for me, but I’m curious about the other titles written by other people. I reread the Shadow and Bone trilogy before the Netflix show released, and I enjoyed revisiting the Grishaverse! Malice is a wonderful start to a duology that retells and queers the story of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. This is the year of revisiting familiar and favorite stories because I’ve also decided to take on a full reread of Tolkien’s work, especially adding in the works I either haven’t touched since I was fourteen/fifteen or works I haven’t begun to start reading! The Other Black Girl is an amazing Get Out-esque glimpse into the world of publishing, and it feels like the book of the summer.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

⌛️ Once Upon a Dream – Liz Braswell (3/5 stars)
📚 A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn (3.5/5 stars)
📓 Astrid Sees All – Natalie Standiford (3.5/5 stars, thank you Atria!)
📓 Composite Creatures – Caroline Hardaker (4/5 stars, thank you Angry Robot!)
📓 I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories – Kim Bo-Young (4.5/5 stars, thank you Harper Voyager!)
📚 Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo (4/5 stars)
📚 Three Japanese Short Stories – Akutagawa and Others (3/5 stars)
📚 The Custard Heart – Dorothy Parker (3/5 stars)
📚 Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo (4/5 stars)
📚 Waiting for a Scot Like You – Eva Leigh (3.5/5 stars)
📚 The Wallflower Wager – Tessa Dare (3.5/5 stars)
📚 Malice – Heather Walker (4.5/5 stars)
📚 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien (5/5 stars)
⌛️ Finlay Donovan is Killing It – Elle Cosimano (3.5/5 stars)
⌛️ Come As You Are – Emily Nagoski (4/5 stars)
📓 The Other Black Girl – Zakiya Dalila Harris (5/5 stars, thank you Atria!)


ON THE HORIZON

The last couple of months were weird reading months for me, so I didn’t read any of the five I picked to read for April, but these are five I have immediately on my Kindle to read from the library or I specifically packed them to take with me in my car on my drive out!!

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚 Arsenic and Adobo – Mia P. Manansala
⌛️ Bring Me Their Hearts – Sara Wolf
📚 Dial A for Aunties – Jesse Q. Sutanto
📚 The Duke Heist – Erica Ridley
⌛️ The Siren – Katherine St. John


WHAT I ACQUIRED

I was very good on book purchases!!! More than I probably should have bought, but these five excite me the most.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook | 🎧 audiobook  |  💞 reread

📚 Anne of Manhattan – Brina Starler
📚 One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston
📚 People We Meet on Vacation – Emily Henry
💾 Burning Roses – S.L. Huang
💾 The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water – Zen Cho


ON SCREEN

GAMING: I bought Pokemon Snap and have played it a little bit (not a whole lot of time to waste on video games during a move)!

TV: I’ve watched most of Shadow of Bone, I really enjoyed Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki so far seems like a treat!

MOVIES: Cruella was fun and Raya and the Last Dragon was adorable.


PERSONAL

It’s so great to feel like I’m back home and around all of my friends again! I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year will bring, because it’s sure to be an adventure!

 

WRAP UP: November 2020

The end of the year while working in retail in the middle of a pandemic is not the best time to try to bring back a blog and instagram with any regular frequency, but HERE I AM. I’m TRYING. And that’s all that we can do, really. I read a little bit more in November than I did in October, but I didn’t really write any posts, so I’m making up for it now.


CURRENTLY READING

I’m still picking at A People’s History of the United States and The Big Book of Science Fiction (because they’re stuck under a stack of books and I’m too lazy to dig them out), and I’m reading a few prose poems a week out of The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem. They make me think about writing and prose poetry’s space in it all, so I’m enjoying savoring it. I also have a problem with waiting until the last minute to read my digital library loans, so I’m working my way through the next Lady Darby mystery, Mortal Arts. Angry Robot sent me a copy of The Rush’s Edge which I’m enjoying! And Scribner’s rerelease of One Writer’s Beginnings is a perfect winter read about writing.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn (29%)
📚 The Big Book of Science Fiction – edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (15%)
📚 The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson – edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod (8%)
⌛️ Mortal Arts – Anna Lee Huber (25%)
📓 One Writer’s Beginnings – Eudora Welty (10%)
📓 The Rush’s Edge – Ginger Smith (17%)


FINISHED READING

I read nine books in November! Most were okay, but some felt like a slog to get through. ACOWAR took the longest for me to read, and I feel like up until the 400th page or so, it was just the same cycle of action and inaction, really, that could have been condensed into a much smaller book. Wuthering Heights was one I’ve struggled with for years, and I just decided at the end of the month to read it and be done with it. The atmosphere was great, but I wasn’t expecting that level of emotional and physical violence and also why people consider it a love story. I’ve been in a nonfiction mood because I don’t really have to use my brain power to follow a linear story, and The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs and Time Travel: A History were great science reads.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 Nooks & Crannies – Jessica Lawson (4/5 stars)
📚 The Breakthrough – Daphne du Maurier (3.5/5 stars)
📚 A Court of Wings and Ruin – Sarah J. Maas (3.5/5 stars)
📚 A Duke of Her Own – Eloisa James (2/5 stars)
⌛️ Flyaway – Kathleen Jennings (3/5 stars)
📚 Lady Bridget’s Diary – Maya Rodale (3/5 stars)
⌛️ The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs – Stephen Brusatte (4/5 stars)
⌛️ Time Travel: A History – James Gleick (4/5 stars)
📚 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (3/5 stars)


ON THE HORIZON

I’m keeping this short and to the point because setting lofty TBR goals has never been one of my strong suits, but I really, really, need to read Real Life, I can’t resist rereading The Princess Diaries after seeing these new covers, and I want to start picking away at my neverending digital galley pile and Ruinsong is calling out to me the most.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 Real Life – Brandon Taylor
📚 The Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot
📱 Ruinsong – Julia Ember (thank you, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR))


WHAT I ACQUIRED

I am putting myself on a book buying ban from like… now until the end of 2021, because as I was sorting through my shelves this week and weeding a few titles out, I have too many unread books. I will still make a few requests here and there to publishers and check out books from the library, but I have to stop accumulating so much stuff. The first three books in Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive were on a really good deal, and I couldn’t pass them up. I’ve been holding off on starting this series, but I am also kind of in the mood for fantasy like this. Orbit Books had a great ebook sale over Black Friday weekend, so I picked up The Bone Shard Daughter, Nophek Gloss, and We Ride the Storm as they’re all books I’ve been anticipating reading! (And I also need to get back in the habit of reading things on my kindle/phone, so…) From Atria, I received Astrid Seeds All and To Love and to Loathe (I loved Waters’ debut! So I am excited for this one), and from Hachette, I received Culture Warlords. I’ve been following Talia Lavin on Twitter for a while now, and I enjoy her online presence and the work she’s done, so I’m curious to read her book now.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
📚 Words of Radiance – Brandon Sanderson
📚 Oathbringer – Brandon Sanderson
💾 The Bone Shard Daughter – Andrea Stewart
💾 Nophek Gloss – Essa Hansen
💾 We Ride the Storm – Devin Madson
📓 Astrid Sees All – Natalie Standiford (thank you, Atria Books!)
📓 Culture Warlords – Talia Lavin (thank you, Hachette Books!)
📓 To Love and to Loathe – Martha Waters (thank you, Atria Books!)


ON SCREEN

GAMING: I just hit 60 in Shadowlands on my main, and I think I’m going to give tanking a try with the new Death Knight I rolled on the Alliance side.

TV: I finished The Golden Girls, and I kind of don’t know what to watch next. I’m still keeping up with The Mandalorian, and I’m enjoying where that series is going!

MOVIES: Disney’s live-action Mulan was entertaining but it fell flat in a lot of places for me. I also rewatched Trainwreck because it’s one of those movies I watch to cheer myself up.


PERSONAL

Life has been busy with work, adjusting to new policies and enforcing them with customers, and just carrying on with life when it’s so… weird and all up in the air. I know it won’t immediately get better in 2021, but for the first time in a long time, I have hope.

WRAP UP: September & October 2020

Bookends is a weekly feature on my blog that is a little reflection on what I’ve read/watched/enjoyed (or not) over the past week!

I took an unannounced break from the blog and from a lot of Instagram posting because my cat Broccoli’s death affected me a lot more than I anticipated. I thought I’d be able to focus on a few more reads in the month of October, but near the end of last month, I started feeling motivated to read again and come back to the blog. I only read six books in October, which is less than average, but I’m okay with that number all things considering!


CURRENTLY READING

The top four I’ve been struggling with for various reasons, or just not interested enough in to read long chunks at a time. I’m most surprised about ACOWAR because I devoured the first two in a matter of days each. American history is a struggle because we’re in the midst of so much now. The Big Book of Science Fiction is HUGE, and I have to remind myself I don’t have to read all the stories in it if they’re not connecting with me at the time. I picked up some romance to try to get out of my reading funk, and it’s sort of working? Nooks & Crannies is part of my 20 in 20 tbr, and it’s very dark for a middle grade book but I’m enjoying it! I’m also reading a little bit of poetry here and there because it’s short, it makes me contemplate things, and I’m still trying to broaden my reading horizons.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 A Court of Mists and Fury – Sarah J. Maas (36%)
📚 A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn (29%)
📚 The Big Book of Science Fiction – edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (15%)
📚 Mansfield Park – Jane Austen (20%)
📚 A Duke of Her Own – Eloisa James (41%)
📚 Lady Bridget’s Diary – Maya Rodale (14%)
📚 Nooks & Crannies – Jessica Lawson (39%)
📚 The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson – edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod (2%)


FINISHED READING

I read eleven books in September and six books in October! I started quite a few in October, but I couldn’t focus on some of them very well to finish them in a timely manner. Overall, both months were good reading months with only one legitimately terrible-to-me read.

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

⌛️ Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life – Madeleine L’Engle (3/5 stars)
📱 Fable (Fable #1) – Adrienne Young (4/5 stars)
⌛️ Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell (3/5 stars)
📓 Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire – Dan Hanks (4/5 stars)
📓 The Phlebotomist – Chris Panatier (4/5 stars)
📱 Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir (5/5 stars)
📚 Into the Drowning Deep – Mira Grant (5/5 stars)
📚 Deathless – Catherynne M. Valente (5/5 stars)
📓 She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs – Sarah Smarsh (4/5 stars)
📓 A Place Called Zamora – L.B. Gschwandtner (1/5 stars, DNF)
📱 Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1) – Rebecca Roanhorse (5/5 stars)
⌛️ The Anatomist’s Wife (Lady Darby Mystery #1) – Anna Lee Huber (4/5 stars)
📚 The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) – Roshani Chokshi (4/5 stars)
📓 They Wish They Were Us – Jessica Goodman (3/5 stars)
📚 Nightbooks – J.A. White (4/5 stars)
⌛️ The Woman in the Mirror – Rebecca James (4/5 stars)
📚 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories – Washington Irving (4/5)


ON THE HORIZON

I’m keeping the same books from the last Bookends post, with the addition of Enchantress from the Stars. This is another of my 20 in 20 books, and I’m reading it in an end of the year readathon!

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 Beowulf – trans. Maria Dahvana Headley
📚 Real Life – Brandon Taylor
📓 Red Noise – John P. Murphy (thank you, Angry Robot!)
📓 Stranger in the Shogun’s City – Amy Stanley (thank you, Scribner!)
📱 The Orphan of Cemetery Hill – Hester Fox (thank you, HQN/Graydon House!)
📚 Enchantress from the Stars – Sylvia Louise Engdahl


WHAT I ACQUIRED

I did a lot of retail therapy in October, and these are some of the books I bought! I have been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Babitz’s Slow Days, Fast Company ever since reading Eve’s Hollywood, and I’m so pleased to finally have a copy to go on the shelf. Sarah Smith’s Simmer Down is a food truck romance that looks so cute and I couldn’t pass it up. I have an e-ARC of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Vol.1 but I wanted a physical copy to peruse through, and it’s big and floppy, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky finally came out in paperback! I have seen Kushiel’s Dart on a few friends’ instagrams over the last few months, and I remember reading this forever ago? But I didn’t have a copy because I think it was long enough ago that I just secretly borrowed things from the library. Scribner sent me a copy of Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings and it was a surprise to me because I don’t recall requesting it! I bought The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Once and Future Witches on release day as they’re some of my most anticipated new releases of the year! I didn’t know about Ex-Libris until it came into the store on its release week, and it’s so beautiful in person. I wish the illustrated covers included in the book were actual books to own!

📚 bookshelf pick  |  📓 physical review copy  |  📱 digital review copy | ⌛️ library/borrowed | 💾 ebook  |  💞 reread

📚 The Tethered Mage – Melissa Caruso
📚 Stalking Jack the Ripper – Kerri Maniscalco
📓 They Wish They Were Us – Jessica Goodman (thank you, BookSparks!)
📓 The Endangereds – Philippe Cousteau and Austin Aslan (thank you, BookSparks!)
📓 A Place Called Zamora – LB Gschwandtner (thank you, BookSparks!)
📓 Caley Cross and the Hadeon Drop – Jeff Rosen (thank you, BookSparks!)


ON SCREEN

GAMING: I caught up on reputations in World of Warcraft with the boost before the patch; after the Shadowlands patch, I’ve been focusing on leveling!

TV: I’ve continued watching The Golden Girls, and I just finished watching the first episode of The Mandalorian‘s second season.

MOVIES: Netflix’s Rebecca had potential, but I thought it lost its way with some of the casting and the very last scene. Adam Brody in The Kid Detective is fantastic, making for a very enjoyable film about what it means to be a kid prodigy coming to terms with normal people adulthood.

There are a few movies and shows on Netflix I want to watch, and I need to make a list so I stop forgetting what they are. If you have any recommendations, let me know!


PERSONAL

I adopted a black kitten who I named Wednesday! She’s been so cute and she loves snuggling with and being with people, so she has been a comfort these last few weeks.

WRAP UP: April & May 2020

Between COVID, the protests, and going back to work, I feel like the last four weeks have been a non-stop roller coaster of emotions and willingness to do anything that ultimately feels frivolous, like posting on social media and writing blog posts, because neither of those things seem important compared to what’s going on right now. But, I think having a place to share ideas and a place to write is important for me, so I’m working on how to navigate and use this space now and in the future.

Black Lives Matter. There’s no question about it. I’ve always thought myself to be progressive, but one thing that’s come to light for me recently is how much I still have to learn and how much I’ll always have to learn. I’m listening, I am working on unpacking my thirty-three years of living in privilege, and I am making a promise to myself to be better. I know I’ll make mistakes, but I am willing to put in the work, take responsibility, and do better. Not just now, but for the rest of my life. This carrd and this google doc/spreadsheet have a lot of information about protests, where to donate, and where to educate yourself. As a reminder, do your own research and do not ask Black people to do the work for you! There are many resources available online that people are sharing.

I also failed completely at Wyrd and Wonder, but this was also because I joined last-minute and didn’t plan anything. For 2021, I’ll be on the lookout for the initial post and hopefully be better about planning posts! I think for the time being I’ll have a set schedule, so I’m going to work on scheduling 2-3 posts a week (either reviews or lists of books I’ve read/want to read) just to keep my blog active and get my writing chops back because I feel like I’ve got a case of quarantine brain and nothing I write seems to make much sense to me anymore.

Now onto the reading!

In April, I read:

  • This Time Will Be Different, by Misa Sugiura (4/5 stars)
  • To Have and to Hoax, by Martha Waters (4/5 stars)
  • Be Prepared, by Vera Brosgol and Alex Lonstreth (3.5/5 stars)
  • Strange Love, by Ann Aguire (4/5 stars)
  • Sin Eater, by Megan Campisi (4/5 stars)
  • Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor, by Peter Wars (3/5 stars)
  • The Girl in the White Gloves, by Kerri Maher (3/5 stars)
  • Her Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado (5/5 stars)
  • Beheld – TaraShea Nesbit (4/5 stars)
  • To Catch an Earl, by Kate Bateman (3/5 stars)
  • Crown of Three, by J.D. Rinehart (4/5 stars)
  • Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson (4/5 stars)
  • Jagannath, by Karin Tidbeck (3/5 stars)
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas (4/5 stars)

In May, I read:

  • Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow, ed. Kristen Berg, Torie Bosch, et all (4/5 stars)
  • The Deep, by Alma Katsu (4/5 stars)
  • Death by Shakespeare, by Kathryn Harkup (4/5 stars)
  • Notre-Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo (4/5 stars)
  • Prince Charming, by Rachel Hawkins (4/5 stars)
  • Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper (4/5 stars)
  • The Queen of Blood, by Sarah Beth Durst (4/5 stars)
  • The Wrong Mr. Darcy, by Evelyn Lozada and Holly Lorincz (DNF)
  • The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (4/5 stars)
  • Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (5/5 stars)
  • Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson (5/5 stars)
  • Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (4/5 stars)

I read quite a bit during quarantine (statistically double each month than the previous six months), but one thing I’ve noticed is that I have a lot of books by BIPOC authors that I’ve bought but haven’t read (some for YEARS), so for the rest of the year, I am going to shift my reading focus to actually reading those and posting about them on social media and here on this blog. Next year I will likely do a full-year shift to reading more works across the board by BIPOC and non-white writers and continue that focus from here on out. It’s so easy to fall into reading “comforting” things that generally trend toward white writers, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, I can do better about stepping out of that comfort zone.

I also want to finish series that I’ve started but have never finished, so along with my 20 in 20 books challenge and my classics challenge, I’m going to try to finish up as many book series as I can! This includes N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR + TOG, Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia series, and likely others that I’m currently forgetting.

What have you read in the last month that really stuck out with you? How do you see yourself changing your perspectives on reading in the coming months and years?