Bookends

BOOKENDS: What I Read in April 2024

- Meg

While it looks like I read more in April than March, it was a lot of finishing things I had started in prior months! I also wavered for a bit about counting the books I read for my courses, but I decided that the hard work needed to count for these! 🤣 The Reformatory is such great historical horror, and my first Tananarive Due (and definitely not my last). I had two DNFs this month, too: Icebreaker (sports romance is not my thing but I was curious about the Gru thing [iykyk] but it took so long for any part of the story to be set up that I lost any shred of interest that I had) and The Blacktongue Thief. This was one of my 12 in 24 reads, but it felt like it was a story being told around the actual story and nothing about it really engaged me, so I decided not to waste what little time I had to read that month on something that I wasn’t enjoying. Both of these DNFs came one right after the other and tie that with some weird course experiences, I was just like I DO NOT WANT TO READ ANYMORE. But I did end up rounding out the month by finishing Said’s Orientalism and MacLean’s Bombshell. I had read parts of Orientalism before, but not the entire work, and I really enjoyed it. MacLean’s historical romances are always a fun time.

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

🌠 The Reformatory, by Tananarive Due
🌠 The Beast and the Bookseller, by Eva Devon (Kindle Unlimited)
🌠👻 Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace
💖👻 The Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman
💖 Ebony and Ivory: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities, by Craig Steven Wilder
💖 A History of American Higher Education, by John R. Thelin
💖 Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education, by Margaret J. Barr
💖 Orientalism, by Edward W. Said
💖 Bombshell, by Sarah MacLean

BOOKENDS: What I Read in March 2024

- Meg

Considering my March page count, I read a lot of shorter, easier to fly through books this month. The Scourge Between Stars is one of my favorite reads of 2024 because it’s such a spooky science fiction read that I wish had more, and a reread of Anne of Green Gables is always welcome (and much needed as a comfort reread). The rest were okay! The Cat Who Saved Books was adorable and heartwarming, the historical romance was fine (not out of the ordinary/genre defying, but good, well-paced, and entertaining). I’ve read two of Hazelwood’s books so far and they are basically the same thing, just in different fonts. The Batman manga was interesting! I loved the art style most of all, and I like seeing familiar characters in different lights.

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

🌠 The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
💖 One Scandalous Kiss, by Christy Carlyle
🌠 The Scourge Between Stars, by Ness Brown
💖💞 Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
🌠 Love on the Brain, by Ali Hazelwood
💖 Batman: Justice Buster, vol 1, by Eiichi Shimizu, illus. Tomohiro Shimoguchi

BOOKENDS: What I Read in February 2024

- Meg

February started off strong with the continuation of the Throne of Glass series reread, but the heaviness of Davis’s and Kozol’s works tied in with a lackluster-to-me series ender with Jordan’s The Duke Effect put me in a reading slump (along with word and taking two courses at the time, it was all too much).

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

💖💞 Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J. Maas
💖 The Duke Effect, by Sophie Jordan
💖💞 Heir of Fire, by Sarah J. Maas
🌠 The Shrinking of Treehorn, by Florence Parry Heide
💖 Women, Race & Class, by Angela Y. Davis
🌠 Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol

BOOKENDS: What I Read in January 2024

- Meg

I’m still here!!! 🙃 If my lack of updating my blog is any indication, 2024 has not been so great of a reading year for me. I’ve read some great books, but eesh. I’ve had some transitional changes at work that have kept me busy and exhausted, and between that and my second job, I haven’t had much time or energy to read the way I usually do! Because I am a perfection with chronological recording, even if … nine months late, I’m going to be posting my monthly wrap ups twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays until I’m caught up and then on Sundays after the month ends.

January did start off strong though, because I really enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Kindred. All three touch on three of my favorite kinds of books, the historical/epistolary fantasy, the historical horror, and time traveling/historical speculative fiction. Emily Wilde is a series I still can’t wait to continue, and I hope there are several more books that explore all aspects of the faerie world Fawcett has created. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a fabulously terrifying young adult horror that I’ve been recommending consistently, and I need to read White’s other two books as soon as possible. Kindred was one of those “why haven’t I read this yet” books, and it’s an important read in general. I’m looking forward to reading more by her! The two historical romances were fine, and I was trying to finish up reading some series that I started because I enjoyed the beginnings of those series! The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is essential reading to help understand what is still happening regarding Gaza. I am making it a priority to continue learning about Palestine and its history.

Overall, it was a decent reading month, but I wish I had read more! (This is going to be a theme for the entire year, lol)

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

💖 The Duke’s Rules of Engagement, by Jennifer Haymore
💖 The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, by Andrew Joseph White
💖 The Virgin and the Rogue, by Sophie Jordan
💖 Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler
🌠 Hugo and the Maiden, by S.M. LaViolette (Kindle Unlimited)
💖 The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi

BOOKENDS: What I Read in December 2023

- Meg 2 Comments

I made a very dedicated effort to finish off my 23 in 2023 reading list, which lead to three DNFs (The Night Ocean, The Luminaries, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) because they were three I was got iffy about by the middle of the year and dreaded reaching next for them (which should have been an indication at the beginning of the year! I think because I’d carried them around for years and multiple moves, I felt obligated to give them a try, but this was a lesson in letting go of something no matter how much weight (physically and metaphorically) it carried.

The rest of the reading month was great!! I giggled and kicked my feet at the three romances I opened up the month with (even if The Dead Romantics has a dose of millennial cringe in it). Cemetery Boys made me love what YA can do, Where Peace Is Lost made me want to read more science fiction in 2024 (which I strangely haven’t???), The Genesis of Misery is Pacific Rim meets Joan of Arc with all of the strangeness of kaiju and religion combined, and The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson was so engaging and I loved her introduction at the beginning. It’s made me excited for the paperback release of her translation of The Iliad later this year that I will definitely pick up.

Overall, 2023 was a decent reading year. I focused more on what I wanted to read and requested much less from publishers overall (and getting access to Edelweiss as a bookseller helped with that immensely because I can download most upcoming titles I’m interested in or want to review without having to go through the waiting/approval thing). I also realized that I very much enjoy reading a finished product, because so much can change between the advance reader copy and the finished book.

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

💖 The Duke’s Rules of Engagement, by Jennifer Haymore
💖 The Dead Romantics, by Ashley Poston
💖 My Lady of Misrule, by Amy Rose Bennett
👻 The Night Ocean, by Paul La Farge
👻 The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton
💖 Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas
💖 Where Peace is Lost, by Valerie Valdes
👻 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
💖 The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang
💖 The Odyssey, by Homer, trans. Emily Wilson