I feel like I need to start this with a personal note, in part to explain why I’ve been so quiet lately. There will be a separate post actually looking back at my Best Of and other stats, so feel free to skip this one if you’re here just for the books!
Continue reading…personal
April Wrap-up and May Plans
Another late post, and the reason is… I caught covid and spent the last week being useless, doing nothing but blowing my nose, sleeping, and having insomnia (the irony, I know!) and brain fog. Even listening to an audiobook was hard, let alone write anything…
I’m on the mend though, and I want to get this out ASAP so I can focus on my May plans.
April was a pretty good month as things go, I read 14 books and close to 3500 pages! As always, a lot of audiobooks – and I cleared some old books from my TBR, that I own in ebook but found the audiobook for instead, so that really helped!
That said… I also blew up my budget by buying so many paper books, so while ebooks went down, paper and overall TBR went up… ah well, the curse of the book enthusiast I suppose!
Let’s talk about the chronic health thing
I keep mentioning it a bit in my recaps but I want to talk a bit more about it. I’m having chronic health issues. Chronic pain. Just calling it that is a new development for me, because I feel a bit of an imposter doing that. It’s only transient, right? it’s gonna go away and then I won’t be in pain anymore? well… not so far. And as it’s sucking more and more of my energy, and to be honest, mental health, I’m trying to embrace the label.
Continue reading…(February and) March wrapup
So things got a little bit away from me there…
To give you a bit of context, I’ve been struggling with my health (yes, again, that’s the “chronic” part unfortunately, and it’s making me exhausted, and also depressed, so that’s a double whammy there) while having to restart work, and job searching for something better for both my sanity and my health. Oh, and I moved apartments! So, it’s been busy. And in the middle of all that, I kept thinking I needed to do a February wrapup, until it was mid-March and I thought, well… The same happened with reviews, where I’ve been postponing some so much that I just can’t think what I wanted to say anymore.
So here we are, March has just ended, I’m still in the same job, I’m still exhausted all the time… but on the plus side, I’ve read some cool books! I managed to finish the r/fantasy bingo, as you might have seen earlier this week. I’ve read some of my physical books, too, and a buttload of audiobooks because they help me get through stuff when I otherwise don’t have the spoons to focus.
Continue reading…A little chat: 2021 achievements / Goals for 2022
I have been thinking over the last couple weeks on how to set up my “bullet” journal (it’s lined so it’s not really a bujo but I use it similarly) and so it has allowed me to reflect on what I achieved and what I want to do next year in a lot more detail, as I’m combining regular planner and reading journal. Thought I’d talk a bit about it here!
Continue reading…A little life update (or, why the blog has been so quiet)
Hi everyone!
I just wanted to say a few words about why the blog’s been so quiet lately. I did not want to go on an official hiatus, as I kept really wanting and meaning to write and post reviews, but for those of you who don’t follow me on twitter – I’ve been struggling with extreme fatigue and other health shit that’s taking all of my energy (on top of having a full time job, and all that).
So at this time, I’ve about 4 posts lined up, with just the title written… and nothing more. I’m hoping that the little holidays I’ve got will allow me to write them, and if I do they’ll be on a 1/week schedule so I’ve a bit of room space. I also have 1-2 ARCs to read that should have reviews of course.
I do enjoy writing this blog and the interactions I get from it – and I’m looking into making it a bit more graphic and maybe revamping the theme. But yeah, posting will really depend on my energy. Ultimately, what I enjoy doing most is reading, so I’m keeping the most energy just for that (and ensuring my rent is paid and cats fed), and seeing what’s left for other stuff.
Anyways, I wanted to thank you all for sticking around with this little blog. And I hope you can all have a refreshing and restful end of year, and start 2022 on a good footing. Cheers!
mini readathon: a recap
So I planned to do this yesterday but i ended up finishing past midnight instead of 5pm like I said, soo it was a bit late.
While I didn’t read quite as much as I’d planned, I did finish 3 books I’d already started:
-Stormsong by C.L. Polk (I’ll be posting a review of the first in the series shortly)
-Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri, which keeps blowing my mind that much later. Also got a review ready to go
-Best SFF of the year (2018). Like all story collections there were great hits, and there were some misses. I allowed myself to skip some, but I enjoyed most of it
I’m currently on holidays for a few days in the countryside, and typing this from mobile. I’m excited to be out of the house for a bit, even if it looks like the weather won’t be on my side. My holiday read is gonna be The Unbroken, and I’m really looking forward to that!!
A life update (and mini readathon)
I’ve been unusually silent the last couple of weeks, mainly because i’ve struggled to read pretty much anything. I’ve started half a dozen books, and only finished one audiobook (The Truth, by Terry Pratchett, which I’d feel odd reviewing considering. you know. It’s been published for years and years.
On the why side, there’s not really a reason, I was not really busier than usual, I’ve just been dropping things on account of how tiring the first 5 months of this year (and the whole of last year) have been. And we can go out again, which means I do, sometimes, plan to do stuff other than reading during the weekends. And then my health hasn’t been the best, sometimes the chronic pain is not just “can’t hold a paper book” but “can’t focus on an audio because pain” so I’m learning to deal with that and cut myself some slack
But! I’ve got the next week off work, and while I’ve got Plans, I also want to make the most of this weekend where I’ve nothing to do. So I decided to do a readathon, 5pm today (Friday) to 5pm Monday. You can also join in this storygraph challenge if you’re tempted to do the same.
I’ve a few ebooks lined up (2 ARCs, manly) but this is mostly it:
- finish Stormsong audiobook (5 hours left give or take)
- Jasmine Throne ARC (70% in!)
- Best SFF of 2018 (I’m 1/3rd through?)
- A Desolation Called Peace (barely started)
- Pyramids (read or DNF, I’ll decide once I get started)
Then the “I’m not likely to get here but I’ll try” ones:
- HEartbreak Inc, another ARC I’m really excited about
- Either The Galaxy and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers, or Ancestral Night, by Elizabeth Bear, as the mood strikes me
I’ll be talking about this on Twitter, and hopefully updating you here on Monday night!
May Wrap-up and Highlights
May has been both a relief, and a stressful month. First, I’m entirely finished with my school work. I ended in my dissertation about a week early from the due date, which was a total relief. I feel like I’ve got things under control for the first time in a long time.
Restrictions are lifting slowly over here, so I took a trip to Kilkenny a few weeks back. It was maybe a bit early (and definitely a rainy day…) so the mix of doing outdoor stuff and being in the rain wasn’t a good mix per se, but I still enjoyed it. Even if it took my body a couple of days to recover from all the walking.
My body’s still acting up with pain flareups, so I’ve been reading a lot of audiobooks as I lay in bed waiting for it to pass. There’s got to be a good side to everything! I read 13 books all together this month, so here’s just some of the highlights!
- The Tea Dragon Society and The Tea Dragon Festival, two amazingly gorgeous comics by Kay O’Neill. I only got the second one on Saturday and I gotta say it was just as good, if not better, as the first one!
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer – a soft-spoken, informative and heartbreaking audiobook about Native American ways of living. A must-Read in my opinion.
- A Memory Called Empire, by Arcady Martine: Fast paced and brilliant scifi novel around colonialism and the meeting of cultures. I’ve just about started reading the second one in the series!
- Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. This book wrecked me! I might eventually write a review, though it’s the 3rd book in the Wayfarers series – it mostly works as a standalone. It’s another amazing bit of writing by Becky Chambers, who’s now definitely an auto-buy for me
- Hani and Ishu’s guide to fake dating, by Adiba Jaigirdar, an absolutely adorable Irish-Bengali YA romance that had me feeling all the feels!
- A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and the Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djeli Clark – I’m really excited for A Master of Djinn to come to my country in audio format, but in the meantime I’ve found some Clark short stories I’m gonna read too.
I’m behind on my ARC reviews, but I’ve started Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, it’s shaping up to be a great novel already!
For June, I’d planned to do a queer author spotlight, but I’m realising now that I won’t have the spoons to do it as well as I’d want to. So instead, I’m going to focus on reading queer books this month (more than usual, that is to say) and use those reviews to highlight some queer authors and stories.
What’s the last queer book you read? And your favourite queer book of all times?
🌈 Happy Pride month everyone! 🌈
This is a library appreciation post
The library reopened this week!
It had been closed since the end of October, not even available for Click and Collect, or to drop off finished books. Our COVID numbers have been really high all winter, and of course I entirely understand the need for everyone to stay safe. I can live without if it means my librarians stay safe.
But on Monday, at 1pm (the official opening time) I was in the queue for the library, along with quite a number of people, actually. Moms with kids, grandmas and grandpas, young people like me, and middle-aged folks, some with their bikes chained to the railing outside. Most of us with piles of books to hand back in. I can live without the library, but I was so so glad to see it reopen – and to see so many people looking forward to it, enough to queue!
Continue reading…