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!

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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

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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

 

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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

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WHAT I ACQUIRED

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

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ON SCREEN

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

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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.

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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%)

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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!)

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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

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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

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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.

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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!

 

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?