I Quit My Harry Potter Reread

Harry Potter was such a big thing when I was growing up. I bought the books as they came out, went to midnight releases, made many a friends through it, wrote fanfiction, bought tons and tons of merch. I bought in to the mobile game and Pottermore. Slytherin proud and all that. But man. Man, has Rowlings ruined it for me.

The reread wasn't going well, anyhow. It was my first time picking them back up since a reread when I was a teenager (I'd reread everything up until the newest book I got every time) and I decided, I'd go audiobooks for it just to give myself something new.

And boy, are they not good. Like, nostalgic obviously, but through an adult's eye they're just so much lacking and so much conveniences in the plots that they weren't even that enjoyable of listens.

My hold for the 4th book came in and I started listening to it, and then Rowlings and her being a complete shit on Twitter about transgender people. I can't with her and that dangerous, TERFy bullshit - AGAIN. And really there's so many problematic things about the series, but I'm sure you can easily find a number of book bloggers/vloggers who can spell those out better than me.

I let the audio sit with five or ten people - I dunno - waiting until it auto-returned. I couldn't bring myself to finish and don't think I should. I unfollowed her on Twitter a while ago and I'm not interested in consuming any more of her media. I'm done. So, stan Rick Riordan (who is so much more inclusive and diverse and is great on Twitter).

Seven Books in Seven Days #2

This series will be running for the next six Saturdays, where I talk a bit about the seven books (or series) that most influenced me growing up. This will not be in any particular order, as it's hard to put these seven in any sort of favorite to least favorite order.

The second series I'm going to talk about is the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. This trilogy consists of Northern Lights (or as I know, The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

January 2020 Wrap Up (w/some Feb goals)

Books Completed:

Storm Front - Jim Butcher (finished Jan. 05) review here

Guts - Raina Telgemeier (finished Jan. 11) 4 out of 5 stars, read because my oldest daughter gave it to me to read after she did. She has all her graphic novels and has liked them all. They're pretty good books!

Monstress Vol. 4: The Chosen - Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (finished Jan. 29) 4 out of 5 stars, this entire series has been interesting and beautiful, so far. Pretty great world building, too!

The Wives - Tarryn Fisher (finished Jan. 20) 2 out of 5 stars. I have a bone to pick with this book. It was seriously terrible. I may just dedicate a review post to it, but we'll see. (If I decide to, I'll link it here, too.)

I won a book (The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence) and recieved a book I won back in December (American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson). Both are have jumped up the immediate TBR pile (behind Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer, the bookclub horror pick for February: Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker, and my current reads).

picture of My Grandma and Me by Mina Javaherbin

Books Read With bb: 11 (plus plenty of rereads)

Her faves of the month:

First Numbers by Tony Mitten and Ant Parker & 12 Lucky Animals by Vickie Lee and Joey Chou (her Chinese zodiac is the dog!)

One of the picture books I read to the bb,  My Grandma and Me by Mina Javaherbin and Lindsey Yankey, completed 3 prompts for 3 different challenges I'm loosely working on. It was a pretty book and sweet.

January was rough for reading. Haven't gotten into the swing of this new year and new schedules so, especially audiobooks, reading has been all over the place. Also, all of my adult reads last month were just.. bad with the exception of one and current reads (though Just Mercy is upsetting in a different kinda way).

Here's hoping February is better! Loose TBR for February is: finish up Just Mercy (physical book for nonfic bookclub), The Princess Beard by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (audiobook), Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer (physical library borrow I've /patiently/ awaited), Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker (physical book for horror bookclub), American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson (physical copy for review), and probably a few chapters of The Way of Kings.

Other Unnecessary Stats:
Active TV shows: Grimm S5E9, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina S3E4, The Great British Pottery Throw Down S3E3
Movies watched: The Witch ****, Paranormal Activity 2 ***, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ***
Video games playing: Dragon Age: Inquisition (3rd replay, on hard) and picked up No Man's Sky again