Just Thoughts

I'm thinking of moving this blog to WordPress. It just seems like 90% of all the blogs I follow are WordPress... and also I can follow them easily via WordPress.. I haven't messed around on there in years and Blogger was just so easy to set up with Google. But I feel like it's maybe unprofessional or something? I mean, do people use Blogger anymore?

I have the WordPress page set up but it's a logistic thing at this point as I've got so many things saved for future posts here that would need to be transferred. WordPress is kinda clunky on my phone, so I'd need to pull my laptop out at some point to look that over.

June Wrap-Up 2020 + July Goals

I think the theme for 2020 is going to be 'it's been rough' because, again, June was rough.

Pile o'notebooks & coffee sustenance 

I just started my old job again. Things are slow as everything is trying to pick up. I've seen no evidence of this, but I'm told it has. My biggest worry is getting laid off again since COVID-19 has spiked, again, and that was the reason I was laid off the first time. We'll see.

Seven Books in Seven Days #5

This series will be running for the next three Saturdays, where I talk a bit about the seven books (or series) that most influenced me growing up. See previous entries in this series here: day one, day two, day three, day four. 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.

I didn't watch Veronica Mars when it first came out, I caught her once the original series was cancelled. I think, maybe, I jumped in when all the kickstarter stuff was getting the fans in a fervor. I started watching the show and couldn't stop. Watched it once through, watched the movie, got the books when they came out and read them. A year or two later, I watched/read everything again. Then it simmered for a while until I heard talk of the 4th season. It was all renewed and I watched/read everything again. The Thousand Dollar Tan Line (2014) by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham and my absolute obsession with Veronica Mars (also Logan).

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 #4

This series will be running for the next five Saturdays, where I talk a bit about the seven books (or series) that most influenced me growing up. See previous entries in this series here: day one, day two, day three. 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.

May Wrap-Up 2020 + June Goals

I meant to post this on Monday, but got so caught up in everything going on that I forgot. Tuesday was #blackouttuesday and I only posted links to help/donate/petitions on all my social media. Wednesday I was just drained and honestly, I still am. If you want info on the police killings and protests and resources to help out/donate, check out my pinned tweet and scroll on down. I've been retweeting like mad anything that's useful. Also, if you want to become a better ally, join me in participating in a buddy read created and led by @bookswithshae that's starting tomorrow, the 5th. She's picked for everyone to read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and White Rage by Carol Anderson. You can get the books free on Scribd (2 month free trial, it's her code) here. Check out Shae 🦄✨ (@bookswithshae): twitter and Youtube. There's a website set up for the buddy read here.

I ended up reading five Tor shorts this month, two graphic novels I got off Netgalley, one physical book (review here), one ebook from Netgalley, one ebook from the library, and three audiobooks. I bailed on two that just could not keep my interest (and one especially I kept trying, but would pick it up and just never actually open it to read). I feel bad about these bails as they were both in a reading swap I was doing. Slowly, I'm clawing myself out of this slump, but looking down the road... there are pitfalls, especially if things continue on in lockdown as they have. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep my spirits up and keep focused on the things I need and want to do.

ARC Update + Plans

This is my stack of ARCs and books won from the random giveaways sometimes on publisher's websites.

Half of these are pretty old. Life and mental health got in the way of taking care of it, but one of my biggest goals of this year has been to catch up and start blogging more about it. (See original post here.)

Seven Books in Seven Days #1

This series will be running for the next seven 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 first book I'm going to talk about is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I own the entire Time Quintet, but I've only read the first one (and it desperately needs a reread). I think I read this for the first time when I was 12? 13? Maybe earlier, even. The set I own I think is the only books I've managed to keep through three cross country moves.

Day 08 - Star #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here.

The eight and last prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads is star. So, I chose, for having star in the name, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as suggested by Miss Camila on her post for the third prompt of this challenge, Golden Classics. I realized I hadn't read the book and saw the hold time for the audiobook at my local library wasn't very long... so I went ahead and got it. It only took a little over two hours to finish it on the morning of May 8th.

Bookternet All-Star Charity Challenge

This challenge is for the book community to raise money for Covid-19 relief. You can find the fundraiser here. She's matching donations up to a certain amount, but if you cannot donate, just share it.

So, basically, just books that are popular with book internet folks, whether for good or bad reasons. Out of all of these, I've read very few but I thought it might be a good (read, probably terrible) idea to read them all. I've read a few of these already and there's some I'm not really looking forward to, but we'll see.

Day 06 - 400+ #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here. Keep up with prompts here.

Just the first second of the hundreds of chapters

The sixth prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads is any book over 400 pages. OK, so I'm going to talk to you guys about the longest book I've ever read. It's not actually a book.

April Wrap-Up 2020 + May Goals

I finished The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence (review here), listened to the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for my HP reread, and two new books:  The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander (read for unshelving project, also gifted - review here) and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (audiobook was fantastic). There's been a few false starts with various audiobooks. May go back to them, we'll see.

I joined this movie community called Letterboxd the later half of this month where I've been logging my quest to catch up on all the horror flicks I've missed. Still catching up on some reviews there, but if you watch a lot of movies and wanna join, here's my profile - add me!

Won some more books, received some gifts (see pic above) - thus the unshelving project never ends. Tried to do the Dewey 24-hr redaction, but only managed to read an hour. Spent a lot of time playing Sims 4 (since I don't have a Switch for Animal Crossing). Still laid off.

Day 04 - Family #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here. Keep up with prompts here.

The fourth prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads is family. The book I chose for this prompt I actually recently read (ha!) the 13th to the 22nd of this month. I had An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir on my radar for a while, but a friend asking me about it as she'd just started prompted me to see if the library had it available and it did on audiobook!

This book is a lot of things and I had my issues with it (that I won't really get into here) but what little family relationships here were strong.

Laia's relationship with her brother Darin is really the catalyst of this story. They are both Scholars living with their grandparents after their parents were killed when they were little, in Serra under Martial rule. They are treated as second-class citizens. A Mask, basically the elite soldiers of this world, captures her brother and murders her grandparents, thus starting her journey to try and rescue him. She goes through literal hell for him and learns some surprising things about him that really endeared him, to me at least. Her parents leave huge shoes to fill, her constantly told she doesn't live up to her mother's name (Lioness).

There is a sort of love square here with the two characters (Laia and Elias) who alternate POVs. Laia bounces between the Mask, Elias (who's not like other Masks) and a Resistance fighter and her handler, Kenan. While Elias has his old friend Helene that he's unsure if he has feelings for and Laia, who really just throws his whole life out of wack. These emotions, I think, are a little more realistic than most love triangles/squares/whatever.

Helene and Elias have just graduated and are two of four chosen as aspirant, the winner becoming new emperor (even though the current one is still alive) and the second becoming their blood shrike (which is a pretty cool title) while the other two die. These events feel very YA and pull the plot forward for Elias as Laia is tasked by the Resistance to spy on these trials by becoming the Commandant's new slave girl.

I think the opposite side of the coin of Laia's devotion to her brother, is Elias's relationship with his mother, the Commandant (which adds a nice layer of tension). She's cruel, mercilessly so, and loathes her son, even leaving him to die in the desert just after his birth and she actively wants him dead throughout the whole book. It's a little over the top, we get a little feel as to why towards the end, but definitely nothing that spawns sympathy. She's just evil and seeing her end will likely be very satisfying. Elias's grandfather and him have a surprisingly loyal relationship though, which was refreshing.

The other two Aspirants, Marcus and his twin Zac seemed to balance each other out in a way. Marcus is a piece of work while his brother is very subdued. There was a lot going on there.

I don't know, there was just a lot going on here in general! When this first book was published, Sabaa Tahir made it sound as though it was going to be a stand-alone (which with that ending... no!) but it's actually getting it's fourth and final book sometime this year. I've started the 2nd... here's hoping I can get caught up!

'The Girl and the Stars' ARC review

I got this ARC for review from Berkley and Penguin Random House - thank you!

Picture of The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence

Set in the same world as the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, The Girl and the Stars tells the story of Yaz, a girl with unique powers in a very inhospitable environment - above and below the seemingly never ending ice.

This story had an absolutely breakneck pace that took some time to get used to. Things just happened and happened without much breathing room. Yaz was an enjoyable narrator and handled all the craziness much better than I would've lol ... really, there's not a whole lot I can go into about this without there being spoilers. I in particular really liked Erris, too. Hope to see more of him in the second book, which looks like it's going to be coming out April 2021.

I gave this four out of five stars and look forward to looking to Lawrence's other books (especially Red Sister) while I wait for the rest of this trilogy.

I'm also sharing this copy with a reading group, and will have additional thoughts in 3-4 months or so. Will link everything there and here whenever that happens. Probably with an updated copy as this book travels across the country to three other people before getting back to me (hopefully - lol).

Day 03 - Golden Classic #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here. Keep up with prompts here.

The third prompt for the Book Review Blog Challenge hosted by Ann over at Great New Reads is Golden Classics, basically anything published before 1995. I don't think I consider myself a 'golden classic' but there ya go.

The book I chose is Pet Sematary by Stephen King. This was published in 1983 and I read it back in 2017. This was my first King book. I've read a few after this one, but so far none have been as good. As some of you may know, I'm planning on trying to read IT this year. Right now though, it's collecting dust on my shelf with my other chunksters. We'll see.

Pet Sematary is one of those taunt horrors where you know what's going to happen and no amount of yelling makes the characters stop, but still you just can't put it down. I gave this four out of five stars on Goodreads. I've seen the movies, too. The 1989 version I think is superior (though not better than the book) to the 2019 one, which I think relied too much on jump scares and adding in creepy things that just didn't exist in the book - the book is more psychological than anything with King's typical character study type to it. Both movies lack on that, but alas.

I'm a bit later on posting this than I wanted, but today's been cut between a very tired baby (she woke me up before I'd even planned to wake up at 4:50AM), trying to catch up with where I should be for Camp NaNoWriMo, and participating in Dewey's 24-Hr Readathon.

What's your favorite Stephen King book? Pre-1995, if you can. What's your weekend plans?

Welcome! #BookReviewBlogChallenge

Find info about this challenge here.

Sign up if you want to participate (before April 25th) here. 

Bullet journal page for challenge

Basically, you'll be reading books that match up to the 8 prompts and making blog posts about them with pictures. You can use books you've already read/reviewed, just will need to make a new post linking to it explaining why you chose that one, but you cannot use the same book for multiple prompts. There's a prize for most points accrued, but I'm pretty sure I won't get close to first place haha .. it just sounds fun!

A book that sparks joy

A book of mine that sparks joy is this upside down bound book. It's a very cute story that I've read to my kiddos a few times. Having to flip it over to read it really cracks them up! (Find the welcome post here.)

But anyway, just posting my intentions of trying (we'll see if I'll get any done during April due to Camp Nano) and good luck to everyone participating! ❤️

Arcs

OK, I'm bad at reading these, but sure are quick to ask for them. So one of my goals for this year was to read (some of them long overdue) all the arcs or otherwise free books I've been sent for review. I'm reading two right now, on and off (one I'm having a hard time getting into), but they're not priority compared to the book swap read that I was supposed to have done and sent off by the end of this month though that's likely not going to happen. This one is also an arc, so two bird one stone right? Ahem.

I guess I'm just going to list them here and will cross off/link when done. With the libraries closed for now, I have very few books that need read immediately, so hopefully I can jump on this? I'm going to list from the oldest to newest to the best of my knowledge.

Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys
Woman No 17 by Edan Lepucki
The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy (translator Daniel Wasserman)
American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by KAte Winkler Dawson (current read)
The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence (review)
Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman
A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
Stolen by Shadows by Evelyn Avery

I also have about 15 or so that were gifts that I don't necessarily want to include on this list, but would really like to try and get to if I can get all these read soonish. This ties into my spring cleaning as I'm wanting to try and get as many of my physical books read so I can determine if I want to keep or purge. I have so many books and a vast majority of them sit pretty, collecting dust, unread. Also, I'd be nice if at some point in the future, I'm able to not have 10+ boxes of books while moving. Not that we're planning on moving, but positive thoughts?

Anyway, if I receive anymore, I'll add them to this.

Have You Heard About Litsy?

Why am I posting about this? It's like when a big publication posts about a nice beach spot and then the small, secret spot is suddenly overrun with trashy tourists letting their dogs poop everywhere, driving up prices.

But in these times of everyone staying home and having to be amused by their phones and TVs, I thought maybe there'd be more reading. So here's Litsy. It's kind of like a mix of Instagram (pictures) and Twitter (word limit). You can have a to-be-read list (which you can add to directly from other's posts) and the only ratings are pick (love), so-so (meh), and pan (not good). You can also bail, which has been a fucking revelation to me. That I don't have to finish a book I'm not enjoying. Embrace it. Life is too short for crappy reads.

There's tons of little games and read-a-longs and swaps that are community organized and it's generally a very friendly and welcoming group. We very rarely get spammers or harassers (and if we do, they get the ban hammer pretty quickly). People have made pretty genuine friends on there and I know some of them meet IRL.

So if you're a reader and are interested in posting your meh pictures you took before you got that perfect one for bookstagram and mini reviews that don't have to be full of hashtags or promotions, come on and join us! The link above is actually directly to my profile. The website is OK, but I'd suggest a combination of it (to block any hashtags you're not interested in seeing and for a more organized notification bar) and the app (which is just more convenient).

Add me! :)

'The Exorcist' review (book + movie)

I picked this up as my local bookstore was reading it for horror bookclub (it was rescheduled to April and then outright cancelled. I think they're going to try to do an online meetup, but we'll see). I heard from tons a folks that it was really scary and honestly, it wasn't.

I think it said a lot about gender and cultural norms and mental health (probably not intentionally in some cases) and overall I found it interesting. It was gross and perverse and though it had tons of scenes of research... we never got an explanation as to how Regan got possessed.

I have two theories. I haven't done any research into what people are thinking and I know there's a sequel but I haven't looked into it so no clue if it delves into it. So, first... she didn't close the ouija board. It was such a minor thing though and wasn't spoken about again once Regan started to really go off the deep end, but maybe? I mean, ouija is bullshit, but in the realm of possessions and such, it could be a possibility.

OR it's all just a visceral allegory. Regan is hitting preteen age and going through puberty. I've heard somewhere that some people think that during that time you're open to possession, but I think it's more simple than that. Just an ew, yucky thing. I mean, the possession could've been scary and apart from a few creepy moments, the entirety of it is just sexual. She asks people to fuck her, she masturbates, sometimes violently. A good chunk of her insults to taunt the priests are sexual in nature. For a seventies crowd, that is horrifying seeing a young girl talk/act that way. Overall, girls don't do that. People still feel that way now, to an extent.

Another thing I was annoyed with was Chris' atheism and how it wasn't really explored well in my opinion. She comes off as dumb and a bit of a floozy and it sort of felt like victim blaming at times - a 'where's the father, your broken home caused this' or 'well, your lack of belief brought this demon into your house' sorta thing. I would've liked the utter horror at finding very convincing evidence that there's something else, more. But she just kinda cowtails. I do appreciate that they explored every avenue of health/mental health before even suggesting such a thing, especially consider this was set/written during the time where women were basically doped up on tranquilizers to be "normal" and there was no real exploration beyond that.  Tranquilizers are used quite often in both book and movie.

I also watched the movie. It was good, the practical affects were really interest to try and figure out (and in some cases, google - looking at you cold breath). I think they were trying to lean more into Karras' crisis of faith and everything with his mother, but it didn't come through as strongly as in the book and so that final scene I think wasn't as potent. I also found the pacing to be... bad. We don't get to see Regan slowly descend, she just IS one day and there really was no build up. I think that was the probably, as a mother, the creepiest thing while reading - thinking about these little things adding up to a child who I don't recognize anymore and nobody knows how to help.

For what it was, it is a masterpiece of horror literature/film, an entire genre of horror films wouldn't exist without it and overall, I'm glad for the experience.

February 2020 Wrap Up + March Goals

To start, have you seen the picture of that hospital nursery where they put all the babies into little frog hats for the leap day? Very cute. Highlight of my month considering it wasn't a great reading month, I didn't get much done with my other goals, and the news has been an absolute shitshow. So here's some cute frog babies.

I finished one book I started in January, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (review here). And only actually started and finished two other books. The Princess Beard by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, a very funny audiobook borrow (I'm working on a review of the trilogy now and some commentary not strictly review related) and Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker, a physical book for horror bookclub at my local bookstore. I didn't finish it in time for the meet and didn't want to spoil the ending by going anyway, but there longer I have mulled on it, the more I wish I'd let it be spoiled. The ending honestly ruined the book for me and I'll likely post a spoiler-y review in a day or so.

As much as I was looking forward to Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer, I just could not get into it and returned it to the library. I'll have to pick it up again when I think I can focus. I bailed on Highfire by Eoin Colfer, which is a shame as I dug Artemis Fowl, but just could not get into this adult fare. Didn't read any Way of Kings.

I'm slowly chugging along with American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson (it feels a bit disjointed with lots of facts thrown at you and also, wtf was original CSI. Insane.), The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey (which I'm not feeling so far, but I got it for review), and just started Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore on audio the last day of February (it's good so far).

On Litsy, I joined a group of gals who are going to be swapping books for four months. The 4 books we're going to cycle among ourselves sound interesting and I'm especially excited to get my choice back in the mail at the end. I'm reading my proof copy of The Girl and The Stars by Mark Lawrence, which I was SO stoked to receive a copy of. I've heard the author's other stuff has just been great.

I also set myself up for a bookswap, which I may end up regretting as I may spend too much on my match. The host hasn't matched everyone up yet, won't be until March 11th, I think? It's like spring/Easter themed. I'll probably post what I get on here (or if it messes up - which is why I stopped with the swaps originally - I'll complain about that instead).

Not much TV watched last month. I think I watched a single movie? Idk. Lots of YouTube. Just playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on hard and getting my ass handed to me. Bioshock and restarted Skyrim with a warrior, necromancer orc.


March Goals:

• Finally use the giant magnet to go magnet fishing.
• Finish The Girl and The Stars, primary, but also the others I'm currently reading (3, with the exception of Way of Kings since there's just no way)
• Get one book for one of the bookclubs (I'm leaning towards The Exorcist for horror bookclub)
• Once I get the match for the swap, get everything for it ASAP
• Write a short story (or anything, seriously)
• Get review for Rotter House posted here and two other posts (I have one solid idea and the other is a maybe)

Anyway, how was your February?