Category: What I’m Reading

Books, What I'm Reading

December 2020 Buddy Read: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

by Simone1 Comment on December 2020 Buddy Read: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
December 2020 Buddy Read: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Hi hello!

A couple of months ago, someone mentioned to me that they would love to buddy read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon with me. I couldn’t be more excited to read the book, but I’m having trouble remembering who I spoke to about it.

But that conversation gave me an idea. I have always wanted to do more buddy reads or read-alongs as a part of the blog, so why not start with this one? It might not work out, but it makes me happy to create content like this where I can share with you all and you can share with me. I’m so excited for this one in particular because it’s been on my list for a very long time and it’s been one of my goals for 2020.

I first need to proclaim my endless love for Samantha Shannon. Her first book, The Bone Season, was one of the books that made me into a fantasy reader. I think I remember she was just 21 when she wrote it and had this whole 8-book deal with her publisher. I know that only a few of the books are out now (and I need to catch up on the series), but I will always remember The Bone Season for its world building and legendary characters. It’s a bit of an urban fantasy with a very big magic system that runs underground. It’s a story that I’ve read on multiple occasions, but when I saw she created a high fantasy standalone book, I knew I had to have it. The only issue is, I never made time for it.

I chose The Priory of the Orange Tree because this book is BIG and I know that many folks are probably very intimidated by its size. But I took some time to look at how big the book is and slice it down to about 200 pages per week throughout the month of December. I think the book looks bigger than it is especially since I’ve devoured 800-page novels before, but we shall see and I hope you join us!

The Schedule

Each week, I’ll be reading 200 pages of the book and then I’ll be including a discussion post with my thoughts and questions at the end of every week. You don’t have to follow this schedule at all! If you want to read it in one sitting and read my thoughts on each section, go for it. If you wanna follow along, I hope you come back here and join in on the conversation! The dates are when I’ll be updating the blog with my thoughts so far:

  • December 11 – 1-206
  • December 18 – 207-404
  • December 25 – 405-610
  • December 31 – 611-804 (end of book)

Here’s more about the book

I have a feeling this one is going to be filled with twists and turns. I always think this when the synopsis is too bare bones to explain anything. Here goes nothing.

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tan has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Will you be joining in?

Book Recommendations, Books, What I'm Reading

What I’ve Been Reading Lately: September 2019

by SimoneLeave a Comment on What I’ve Been Reading Lately: September 2019
What I’ve Been Reading Lately: September 2019

I can’t believe that it’s already the middle of September! And luckily the books I’ve been picking up have been good. Don’t you love when you’re on a reading streak and every book you pick up is amazing? I wonder how long this will last because I know I’ll come across a dud soon enough.

It’s also coming onto Fall, which is every book reader’s favorite season. For me, I absolutely love reading Fantasy books in the Fall and this season has some of my most anticipated releases of the year! Yes, the entire year I’ve been waiting for this season. I’ve already shared a little on what to expect this season, so you’ll see more of that soon. For now, here’s what I read so far:

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

Probably the biggest book I read this month and it was an absolute trip. This is the final book in the Nevernight Chronicle and it’s a series that will definitely stay with me for a long time.

This series in general is about a young teenager named Mia who watched some pretty horrible things happen to her family and vowed revenge for them. But she’s just a teenager with no skills in revenge. That is until she meets Mercurio, an assassin for the Red Church. Mia grows and learns how to kill and finally enact her plans for revenge with her friends helping her along the way. The series follows her as she learns how to become an assassin until her final moments with the man who killed her father. It’s a pretty incredible dark fantasy with witty commentary and footnotes because the author is that extra.

Find my review on Goodreads

Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

According to my Goodreads, I haven’t read a contemporary book in a minute, so I’m glad to have read this one after my huge hangover from Darkdawn.

This is the story of Georgina, a woman who recently lost her job, her boyfriend, and just ran into her first love who doesn’t even remember her. At first, I thought this was a romance novel, but it turns out to be much more than that. It’s more the story of a young woman coming of age at 30. I loved this book because it reminds me a lot of myself; a young person just trying to find that niche for herself while contending with the people who want to take her down (or really looking out for themselves).

Find my review on Goodreads

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean

While I’m coming to terms with the historical romance genre (I’m learning I’m not a huge fan of balls and dukes and the same conversations of ruin), I still love Sarah MacLean’s Bareknuckle Bastards series.

This one in particular follows Hattie, a 29-year-old woman who is much to old to be married. Instead of becoming a spinster, Hattie has it to lose her virginity and take over her father’s business. But when her little brother gets into trouble with Whit aka Beast, she must go and fix this. Of course she didn’t expect to fall in love with Beast at the same time. Out of all the historical romance I’ve tried, this one gets me the most. I think it’s because it’s more interesting than another duke and another ruination making the story more complex and also sharing London’s underbelly than being about the ton.

Find my review on Goodreads

What have you been reading lately?

Blogging, Books, Lifestyle, What I'm Reading

Reading Update // June 14, 2019

by Simone3 Comments on Reading Update // June 14, 2019
Reading Update // June 14, 2019

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’re all going to be spending time outdoors this weekend and soaking in that summer sun. I just hope there’s a little sun in June here in LA to enjoy. I wanted to approach the end of my week a little differently and give you a reading update from the week!

This week, I went to San Diego with my hubby for a few days. We just wanted a getaway with some fun in the sun. We most definitely got what we seeked out and went home with a new tan, a new burn, and a new book. We actually packed in a lot of fun and adventure for ourselves within the three days we were there. It was a great few days away from work, but I also had work looming in the back of my mind the entire time.

I checked out Mysterious Galaxy, which is a bookstore dedicated to speculative fiction, romance, and horror/thrillers. When I went to the LA Festival of Books, I saw the Mysterious Galaxy booth and surprised that it existed. I knew if I went back to San Diego, I would make a special trip over there. Luckily for me, it was about 10 minutes from our Airbnb and so we made a pit stop before heading down to Pacific Beach for lunch.

I honestly believe if I lived in San Diego, I would just go there and make friends with all the employees. I would somehow find myself working there part-time without getting paid because of all the time I spent there. If there was a couch in the store, I would most definitely have my very own butt groove imprinted into the seats.

Usually when I go to bookstores on vacation, I pick up memorabilia from the store, but I wasn’t a fan of the stuff they had available, so I decided I would pick out a book instead. If you visit bookstores on vacation, I strongly encourage you to pick out at least one book or buy a t-shirt or tote bag from the store. You can easily support a local bookstore this way and come away with a nifty little souvenir to remind you of your visit.

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I picked up The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb.  This Assassins series has been high on my read list and I’m finally committed to reading the book. I honestly feel like if I own the book, the commitment to reading the book is baked into the receipt. Bookstores should seriously write a disclaimer on their receipts that says “note: your purchase of this book commits you to reading it. We’ll be waiting for your review.”

Of course I’m teasing about that second part.

For reading, I took Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay with me and learned that I’m terrible at reading on vacation. I knew we were only going to be in town for three days, so I hedged my bets and brought one book. I’m so glad I did because I ended up only reading half the book and finishing it when I get home. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say it was really good. Review to come next week!

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One thing I noticed while we were out there was that I love reading by bodies of water. Put me in front of the ocean or by a lake and I’m totally in my zone. I love the sound of the waves or nature around me while I turn pages in my book. It’s soothing and legit my self-care. I think I’ll be making a lot of trips to the beach this summer (especially since I live so close).

But I noticed that I’m terrible at reading on vacation. When we’re on vacation, we’re out and about and checking out landmarks and nature and historical buildings and all that. I’ve worn my Apple Watch on vacation and noticed the 20,000 steps my husband and I take over the course of our day. We are not sitting by the pool people (although I would much rather be doing that). So reading kind of falls by the wayside and that was obvious here too because I only read half of my book.

My reading life aside from that is a total burning trash heap. I’m in the middle of four books, I have three books to review for work, and I don’t know when I’ll have time to participate in either my book club reading or the Dune buddy read I signed up to be in. Ever have that feeling you’ve put way too many things on my plate? I feel like this might be par for the course for me because I always pile food onto a tiny ass plate believing that I’m “portion controlling” but really I’m taking more than I can handle.

So the focus of this weekend is to get back on track. I’m going to finish my work book, write that review. Then I’m going to finish up my half-read books and hopefully feel better about my place in my TBR.

How’s your reading life been going?

 

Blogging, Books, Lifestyle, Weekly Series, What I'm Reading

Weekend Wrap up // May 24, 2019

by Simone4 Comments on Weekend Wrap up // May 24, 2019
Weekend Wrap up // May 24, 2019

Happy Friday, everyone!

The Jam of the Week has got to be It’s All Coming Back to Me Now by Celine Dion. I remember listening to this song as a kid in car rides with my mom and sister. We would just sit there and belt out the tune with Celine. Of course, we didn’t do it justice like she did, but we were kids and she’s THE GREATEST SINGER IN THE WORLD.

Well, this week was a pretty busy week with work, reviews, and articles all due. I spent most of my time staring at a computer screen than pages of a book because it was just that busy. But I’m feeling really caught up, accomplished, and going into the weekend with some fun books to read.

Links I Loved

The Carpool Karaoke featuring Celine Dion. I know I featured Celine for my jam of the weekend, but I can’t get enough of her. I honestly google the price for her Vegas show I’m so into Celine Dion. I think it’s her ability to be goofy and silly and bring out the serious when she needs to bring it out. I love that she’s so playful, but then gets on stage and belts out the hits. Also, she’s done some of the most iconic love songs in the entire world, which was surprising to me.

The new trailer for Star Trek: Picard. Ok, so I’m a trekkie. I absolutely love Star Trek: The Next Generation and Picard is my captain (I’m sorry fans of the OG). So when I heard that they were bringing back Picard and creating a new series around the latter part of his career, well I couldn’t resist. But I think what really solidified this news for me was the teaser trailer. It’s so atmospheric and I can’t wait for it to start!

Launching my Patreon! So this news will be a little bit more relevant next month when we finally have a June pick and I figure out how to set up the dates for the the book club discussion. A lot of folks reached out to me about my hesitation with starting a Patreon (mostly because I’m afraid people will hate me for charging money) and reassured me that this is a good move. What I’m doing will support the endeavors I’m making and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

What I’m Reading This Weekend

Well, next week the Girls Night In Book Club is meeting in LA, so I need to read the book for the meeting. They chose American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. Here’s more about the book:

It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club, and her career has stalled out; she’s overlooked for every high profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Thomas is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent.

In the year that follows, Marie will observe Thomas, seduce him, and ultimately, have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.

Inspired by true events–Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”–this novel knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.

Blogging, Currently Loving, Lifestyle, What I'm Reading

Weekend Wrap Up // May 3, 2019

by SimoneLeave a Comment on Weekend Wrap Up // May 3, 2019

This week felt kind of short, but maybe that’s because it’s the start of a new month! I did spend Tuesday morning watching Avengers: Endgame, which was a nice way to end the month. The final day of the month to watch the final Avengers movie. After I watched it, I had to check out the Half in the Bag about it. I would strongly suggest not watching that interview until after you’ve watched the movie. It’s got SPOILERS everywhere and I don’t want to be the person that ruins the movie for you. Here’s the trailer for the movie if you didn’t know the Avengers are finally coming to an end. This movie was legit 10 years in the making.

This weekend, I’ll be heading off to YallWest; a YA and Middle Grade book festival that takes place every year. Funnily, it’s in my town so I’ll be moseying over there on Friday night and Saturday to check out fun booths, giveaways, and just have a regular old time. I’ll be representing BookSparks for the weekend sharing a new book around the festival.

Links I Loved

Actually, not much happened for me this week. Therefore, I present you with these bunnies.

Blog posts from the Week

This week was short for me as I get my bearings and begin a new month of reading. I shared my monthly wrap up and my plans for May. I’m really excited about it being Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage month. Being Asian myself, I love sharing stories from #ownvoices and it makes me excited to dive into these reads.

April was definitely an interesting month of reading. It was my first month at a new job plus it was my anniversary month and so many other great events taking place. I can’t wait to see what May has in store!

What I’m Reading This Weekend

I’m having a tough time choosing what I’ll read this weekend. Maybe a YA romance? Perhaps the start of an epic fantasy? I don’t know what the future will hold. I think what I’ll do is start The Poppy War by RF Kuang since I need to read The Dragon Republic for work.

But I’ll probably start with Somewhere Only We Know by Maureen Goo!

What are you reading this weekend?

 

Books, What I'm Reading

Weekend Wrap-up // March 29, 2019

by Simone5 Comments on Weekend Wrap-up // March 29, 2019
Weekend Wrap-up // March 29, 2019

It’s the last weekend of March and it felt like the longest week of March. Spring is most definitely in the air and if you’re in the LA area, then maybe summer is in the air as well.

Last weekend, I finally watched Baby Driver and absolutely loved it. If you’re a fan of movies like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, then you’ll like this. Why? Because they’re the same director. Edgar Wright is incredible and creates these visual masterpieces set with a certain rhythm. Baby Driver did give me a little anxiety because it’s super high-paced with a lot of car chase scenes.

Anyway, I’m a huge fan of its soundtrack. The music Edgar Wright picked for the movie definitely had a rhythm to it that lended itself well to the way the movie is edited. I think you can appreciate the scene above and also, this song is a current favorite of mine.

Some personal news

The biggest news I’ve got for you this week is that I’m starting as a reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly! I think that this new job will be increasing my reads per month and I’ll actually be paid to write reviews! 

I think the only bad news here is that it’ll affect my current TBR methods. I might have to adjust my reading to only newly published books. Thank goodness I have my Backlist Book Club to keep me reading off my unread shelf. I’ll probably have to read more than my regular eight books a month. That’s okay! I’m happy to read more if that means I’ll be paid to do it.

In other news, I started working on my first summer reading guide. Squeals again! Since this is my first time putting the guide together, it won’t be the most perfect thing. All I know is that I want to read all the books on the list so I can give you my personal recommendations for the summer. Of course, the genres represented will be contemporary/literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, a little romance, and a few thrillers. What are some things you would like to see on the guide?

I want my reading guide to be one of the ones you look to when you’re packing for vacation. It’ll be the one that you’ll want to check to help unwind as you watch the sun set. I can’t wait to share that with you!

Blog Post This Week

This week was all about the Backlist Book Club and updating you with book reviews. I guess the last and first week of every month are dedicated to posts heavy with what I’ve read, what I’ll be reading, and what I’m doing next. I think my favorite post from this week was my review of The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory. It’s most definitely going on the summer reading guide because is it really summer without reading romance?

What I’m Reading This Weekend

This weekend will probably be a light reading for me. I’ll be out and about in the beautiful summer air and hanging out with friends, so opportunities to hang out from the nook will be slim. So my weekend reads will consist of one book:

Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

I do want to talk about this series and Sarah J Maas. Have you ever felt like you’ve outgrown an author? Sarah J Maas was the first fantasy author I explored. When I first started on bookstagram, I read A Court of Thorns and Roses. It’s a series that got me into reading more fantasy and I appreciate the series for being my gateway. But now that I’ve read more books and expanded my library, I’m not as interested in reading Sarah J Maas.

It’s kind of sad, but sometimes you just outgrow an author and what they write. I might read more later, but for now is to finish this series…soon. Then put Sarah J Maas on the read shelf indefinitely. Do you find certain authors you’ve just grown out of?

 

Books, What I'm Reading

Weekend Wrap-Up // March 22, 2019

by Simone2 Comments on Weekend Wrap-Up // March 22, 2019
Weekend Wrap-Up // March 22, 2019

Recently I’ve been listening to Sunmi’s “Noir” on repeat. She’s this amazing artist coming from Kpop female group stock and now focusing her time on creating music that is both trendy and speaks to certain social issues.

For “Noir,” Sunmi tackles the “self harm” we all commit for social media. While we might not be hurting ourselves physically, the mental harm social media causes can really mess you up. I know it’s definitely messed with me. But despite that, this song is such an ear worm of sound. I hope you enjoy it too.

Here’s what’s happened this week:

Links I Love

  • The Florida Man Challenge – I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did, but I did. If you’re not sure why this challenge exists, let me explain it to you. In Florida, arrests are public record. That means everything from a night in the drunk tank to a giant drug bust makes the news. Almost every day, there’s something that happens in the most ridiculous way. The challenge requires you to google your birthday with the phrase “Florida man.” The reason for the phrase is obvious when you see the results.
  • Bill & Ted’s 3rd Adventure – I’m really excited about this one because I’m a huge fan of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. My motto in life is “be excellent to each other and party on, dudes!” Well, I don’t say it out loud but I like to live by that motto. When I found out that Bill and Ted will be returning, the first thing I said was “why?” I mean, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are now middle aged. They can’t reprise the youthful roles of teenagers, so they’ll have to be adults. Will they actually be normal humans or will they still be the boys of Wyld Stallyn?
  • The new trailer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – My husband and I are huge Quentin Tarantino fans. I think one of our first dates was to see Django Unchained (which happens to be one of my husband’s favorite films). So I was super excited to see Tarantino coming out with a new movie especially one that centers on Hollywood during the 1960s-1970s. It specifically centers around the celebrities victimized by Charles Manson and the Manson family.

Blog Posts This Week

I started the week off with a mid-month checkin and ended it with thoughts on Booktube. My topics on the blog are scattered, but it is a direct reflection of my scattered brain.

What I’m Reading This Weekend

I’ll admit that this week’s reading was not my favorite. I read two super heavy books about immigrants in America. One of which hit a little closely to home and I spent an afternoon crying. Don’t worry about me, though! I’m okay, or at least I’ll be okay. This weekend, I have a book club meeting so I plan on spending today listening to one book and then I’m taking the rest of March off and reading books I want to read.

Bad Blood is currently making some waves on the Internet due to the HBO documentary on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. If you’re not aware of this story, this is a nonfiction about a startup company called Theranos. It was supposed to be THE company that would disrupt the healthcare system making it affordable for people to blood test at home. However, the system actually doesn’t work and what happened was a desperate CEO covering up the biggest scandal ever. Here’s a link to the documentary on HBO.

I wanted to originally read The Bride Test last weekend, but couldn’t fit it in. Now that my week of heavy reads is over, I want to reward myself with something a little lighter. I absolutely loved The Kiss Quotient and I’m excited to read this next.

What will you be reading this weekend?

 

Books, What I'm Reading

Mid-Month Checkin – March 2019

by Simone2 Comments on Mid-Month Checkin – March 2019
Mid-Month Checkin – March 2019

Happy Monday! I decided Monday was a good day to launch into a mid-month checkin. I’ve been in this state currently where I’m so content just reading. I want to pick up book after book after book without the wait of analyzing and criticizing what I just read. I have notes in my notebook, but I just can’t get in front of the computer and write my thoughts.

So I have a lot of books I read, but I haven’t shared any thoughts. They’re coming soon!

In other news, I had completely different plans for my March reading. I was going to catch up on reading The Throne of Glass series, but somehow that’s not going to work out this month. There’s still time, but I figured I would spend all of March reading Throne of Glass. I’ll be lucky if I finish the month with one.

Like I predicted, March is turning out to be a better reading month than I anticipated. I think it’s because I’m working to organize my work and daily errands and making more time to read. This week wasn’t a good week for that, but that’s okay. I got a lot more work done for the blog, and considered some other bigger content pieces for the future. Let’s hope I can get to that promise. Here’s what I read so far this month:

As you can see I was on a little Leigh Bardugo kick this month as I tried to reread The Grisha Series to prep for King of Scars. I don’t regret making this decision, but that took a considerable amount of time I didn’t budget for. It’s okay because it made me a huge fan of the series and I absolutely adored King of Scars.

After reading that whole fantasy series, I needed a little break. I was going to try and read the surfing memoir Barbarian Days, but my brain was too tired from taking in that giant universe. So I decided to read some romance ARCs I recently received from Netgalley. Both of these books were super cute. If you like romcoms especially ones starring Tom Hanks, then you’ll like this one. I wish there was a bigger variety of romcoms (since I’m a huge romcom fan myself), but I was okay with the Tom Hanks references.

The rest of the month is dedicated to:

I have about three more books to read for various book clubs in my life. All the books for this month are a little bit heavier, so I’m going to be focusing my time to read these this week.

Next week, I would love to start the plan I had for March and read more Sarah J Maas. I feel like at this point I’m just trying to get through this series so I can say I finally read it. It’s taking forever to finish this series, but I definitely want to finish it soon. I’d like to focus the rest of my year to the other fantasy series I’ve got on my list.

How’s your month going?

 

Blogging, Lifestyle, What I'm Reading

Weekend Wrap-Up // March 8, 2019

by Simone3 Comments on Weekend Wrap-Up // March 8, 2019
Weekend Wrap-Up // March 8, 2019

Hey everyone!

We’ve finally reached another weekend. I’m most excited about this one because I’ll be heading off to San Diego for a little weekend away. I want to check out a new city, skateboard on their boardwalk, spend some time baking in the sun, watch my husband surf, and visit bookstores

The big bookstore I’m most excited about is Warwick’s. It’s the one bookstore so many of you suggest whenever I think about going to San Diego. I’m going there and I might buy myself a tote bag or a t-shirt to commemorate my time there.

I do hope you get to spend some time at a bookstore either on vacation or in your hometown. I’m realizing more how important it is to support local business, but also independent bookstores. So many times I’ve been burned by Amazon and buying anything from them. I want to dedicate myself to putting my money towards causes that actually care about books.

Links I Loved

Blog Posts from the Week

I’m starting to finally feel like my reading is picking up again and my writing will follow. This week, I’ve posted about my wrap up, my book haul, and pencils. LOL, what a fun little week it’s been. I’ll include links below in case you’ve missed them (of course):

What I’m Reading This Weekend

Since I’ll be in San Diego, I want to bring something with me that’s fun and interesting. I think I’ll also be bringing my Kindle because the drive to San Diego will be short and from our plans, it sounds like we’ll be too busy to actually chill and read. I think the Kindle will be good to pack for any lulls within our plans. I’ll be bringing along:

I’m most excited about Bad Blood because it’s about a billionaire tech mogul who lied about her ability to test blood at home and got super caught. Isn’t it funny how one lie can build and become numerous lies and then you find yourself trapped in a web of frustration, lawsuits, and bankruptcy? Yeah, me neither.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is my highly anticipated read of 2019. It hasn’t published yet, but after I finished reading The Underground Railroad, I wanted to read more from him. This one isn’t about slavery, but civil rights. I know this will move me, but it will also be creative in the way Colson Whitehead always is.

The others are early ARCs and I might not get to them, but I love having these options available for me. This goes double when I’m carrying my Kindle.

What are you reading this weekend?

Have a great weekend!

Simone

Blogging, Books, Lifestyle, What I'm Reading

February 2019’s Mid-Month Checkin

by Simone11 Comments on February 2019’s Mid-Month Checkin
February 2019’s Mid-Month Checkin

I hate to admit it, but February hasn’t been kind to me. We’re now in the middle of the month and my reading hasn’t been going so well. I’ve read…one book.

In some small way, I’m angry. I’m angry at myself for not focusing and reading as much as I can. I’m angry that I’ve put down two books this month and struggling to get through another book right now. What is with me?

As a book blogger, there aren’t many breaks you can take. You take a break from blogging and it’s like you didn’t even exist. You take a break from reading and the books just keep piling up on your nightstand before it all tumbles down. So taking a break feels a little cumbersome.

As a reader, this frustrates me. I want to read. I sit down with my tea and snacks and my book and I make a concerted effort to read, but I end up on my phone. I end up talking to my husband. I end up playing video games and the book goes another day without a page being turned.

I know I should be kind to myself, but if I’m being honest I haven’t been in a good space mentally for a month now. I’ve been stressed from finding a job and it’s put me off from reading books. I’m not a control person, but I do try to keep myself together. I feel like someone who put buttercream too soon after the cakes came out the oven. I’m melting in a way and just trying to push myself together and it’s not working.

So right now my slump is looking pretty disastrous and I wanted to be honest about that here. Things aren’t going as planned and my brain just needs the rest. I’ll be back next week, I think.

What have you read this month so far?