I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to this month, but in hindsight I’m pleased with what I did get done. Taking part in Wyrd & Wonder for the second time was so much fun, and the push I needed to finish half a dozen rec lists I’ve been working on!
Read
I’ve read 14 books a month every month this year bar April, when I made it to 20. So dropping down to nine is…well, I’m not impressed with myself.
I don’t know what happened this month. My brain has been very fritzy; I keep starting new books, or even start rereading old ones, rather than…sitting down and finishing any. This is always an issue for me to some degree, but this month it was over the top.
Rosaline Palmer and One Last Stop were both the kind of feel-good-wonderfulness, with really addictive characters+prose+storylines, that settled me when I was feeling manic. Eating Authors was more soothing than addictive, but sometimes you need that too – although not when you’re feeling hungry, because the book is full of descriptions of ridiculously awesome meals and you will find your mouth watering more than once!
Banner of the Damned and Summer Sons were in-between: soothing and extremely addictive, strong enough to draw and hold my attention when it was flitting all over the place.
Our of 9 books, I read
- 5 women, 2 genderqueer folx, 1 man, and an anthology that was a collection of all three!
- 8 books by white folx, one anthology of mixed authors
I think at this point it’s become obvious that I really suck at reading non-white authors. Still pondering what to do about this. I don’t want to read books that don’t interest me, but I know there are authors of colour writing stuff I love! Gotta look harder for them, I guess.
Books Reviewed
You could argue that my write up of Kushiel’s Dart was a review of a sort, although I didn’t intend for it to be; and I did write 10 mini-reviews for Top Ten Tuesday. Considering that I was much more focused on Wyrd & Wonder posts than reviews, I think that’s acceptable for this month, all together.
Books DNF-ed
There’s nothing wrong with Constellations of Scars, at least not that I found; I just had to DNF this one because it turns out I am still not ready to read books about abusive mothers. The mum in Scars is not physically abusive, but she is controlling and manipulative and is using her daughter, and I wasn’t able to handle it. Had to put it down and walk away.
For the Wolf, on the other hand…wow. I’m sorry, this is the book we’ve all been hyped for? Yawn. Seriously unimpressed. The horror isn’t horrifying, the Monster Boyfriend is not anything close to a monster, and the prose feels like very meh YA rather than great Adult. I actually double-checked that this is marked as Adult, because many of its flaws would have been forgivable if it had been YA (although I’d still have DNF-ed it) but no. This is supposed to be a dark, pushing-the-envelope Adult Fantasy, and it fails to deliver on absolutely every level.
ARCs Received
I finally managed to stop requesting things! Because I ran out of books to request Only 6 this month; down from 10 in April. I’m devouring Jasmine Throne, of course, but The Last Graduate and The Fallen are both going to require rereads of the first books in their series before I dive in to these new installments.
I’m still pretty sure they heard my shrieks of delight in Australia when I got approved for The Past is Red. NEW CATHERYNNE VALENTE, EXCUSE ME WHILE I HYPERVENTILATE AND FREAK THE FUCK OUT.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
ARCs Outstanding
I’m working – too slowly – on reviews for several of these, I swear! Specifically, my review for One Last Stop should be up tomorrow for the book’s release day!
Rec Lists & Misc
I got a fair bit done for Wyrd & Wonder! I wrote an essay-thing about fantasy vs reality through the lens of my fibromyalgia, and though I didn’t manage any of the other book tags, I did write up my Desert Island Reads as prompted by Imyril! And I took a minute to explain what the hell my Crescent Classics are – I hope to write more about them in future.
Then there were a bunch of rec lists!
Gentle Books For Trying Times (All fantasy, ofc)
13 Standout Fantasy Standalones!
10 Ridiculously Cool Magic Systems (a sequel to last year’s list!)
10 of the Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction (again, a sequel to last year’s!)
And last of all, though not officially for Wyrd & Wonder, Queer SFF I’m Excited For This Pride!
Looking Forward
June is going to be so freaking epic!!! As previously mentioned, I already put together a list of the Queer SFF I’m looking forward to this month, and I swear I keep checking the clock to see how much longer it is until tomorrow, when the first of them will hit my ereader!
It’s also my blog’s second birthday tomorrow! I seriously can’t believe I’ve managed to keep this thing going so long. Or that I have followers and subscribers who actually want to read my rambles! Thank you to all of you, and to everyone else who stops by to read something I wrote <3
I hope everyone else had a great May, and that we all have an amazing June!
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