Author: EMM

Disappeared for a while…

~ EMM

But I’m back. I think.

I stopped blogging at the end of last year because I was studying for my private pilot check-ride. Good news: I passed! Bad news (at least as far as the writing and reading stuff goes): I immediately jumped into instrument training. Then I passed that check-ride as well… and now I’m working on my commercial certificate. 🙂

Because of all that focus on flight training, I’ve really only been reading extremely dry books written by the FAA about how airplanes work and the associated regulations. Which means there hasn’t been much to say here. At least about reading. Or writing.

To say that I’ve become obsessed with flying is probably not far from the truth. It’s kind of taken over my life. Which I am not mad about, because I freaking LOVE it!

But I also love to read. And I love to write books. I’m hoping that if I can get back into blogging regularly, it will hold me accountable to actually finishing some books (both reading them and writing them).

I’m not setting ANY reading goals, though. Or writing word count goals. But, I think blogging about how I’m trying to find my way back to some semblance of balance will be useful — and maybe entertaining for anyone reading these posts.

One of the reasons I’m not setting any reading goals is that I am reading at a snail’s pace these days, which is very unlike me. I’m barely even reading my email. It’s a serious problem. To give you a sense of how much I am not exaggerating, I’ve only finished reading ONE book so far this year, and it’s already May!

I’ve started and stopped reading several books over the past few months. Not because I didn’t like them. Just because, when it comes to anything that’s not advancing my flight training goals, I appear to have developed the attention span of a goldfish. I’m hoping this is only a temporary affliction.

I have quite a bit of fun stuff to share with you in the coming weeks, including (hopefully) an update on the book that (I think) is finally going to break my epic reading slump. But there is also this other major adventure coming up for me that I am very excited to talk about…

I am participating in the 48th annual Air Race Classic this summer!

I dedicated a page on this blog to the race so that there will be one place where I can point folks to with all the relevant information. I’m just getting started on it, but you can check it out here. More on that very soon… including my plan for how I’m going to ease back into my writing habit (and hopefully keep it going) while I’m flying cross country in a tiny single-engine airplane (twice).

Talk with you more soon! ❤

September Wrap-up and October TBR

~ EMM

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I read three books in September. I think that puts me at 34 books read so far this year (plus 2 DNFs), which is 5 books behind schedule (according to Goodreads) to hit my annual goal of 52 books read.

Five books isn’t that bad, I suppose. It means I need to average about 5 books a month for the last three months of this year, though. And I sincerely doubt I’m going to finish 5 books in October. So, this may be the first year since 2014 that I haven’t read at least 52 books! Shocking!

Anyway, to re-cap from previous posts, here’s what I read in September:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood — The only book I finished on my Orilium Autumn Equinox TBR.

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske — I liked the magic and world-building in this book, but the story seemed to drag a bit in the middle for me. I think I’m going to continue with the series, though, if only because the next book features two different main characters, and they were two of my favorites from the first book.

Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon — A re-read of book two so that I can refresh my memory before continuing on with the rest of the series.

In-Progress

I continue to make slow progress through Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott. This is by no means a reflection on the book, but only a result of my lack of time to read and also the fact that I insist on listening to the audiobook instead of reading this on my Kindle. I have a trip coming up that will require a lot of time in-transit, and I am looking forward to finishing the second half of this tome, uninterrupted.

Meanwhile, on my Kindle, I am slowly making my way through Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon for the second time. This is book three in the Vatta’s War series. I’m doing this re-read as a series buddy-read with my Camp Book Club friends (L & S). I am especially enjoying revisiting this story because it features Aunt Gracie, a character I really love. I sincerely hope she survives to the end of the series.

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Because of my upcoming trip, I have just downloaded a bunch of books from the library. Here’s a sampling of what I’m considering reading while I’m traveling:

  • The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen — I read the first book in this series last year and really enjoyed the imaginative world-building and the characters. I don’t think this is a direct sequel. More like different story, same world, maybe? Regardless, I’m looking forward to checking this out.
  • Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa — I pre-ordered this because Suyi has become an auto-buy author for me, but it keeps getting buried on my Kindle. I have pushed it to the top for this trip.
  • Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett — I’ve read several books by this author and enjoyed all of them, so I have been very much looking forward to this one, her latest release.
  • Darkside by Michael Mammay — Another new release by another of my auto-buy authors. This one is an unexpected book four in his military sci-fi series! Hooray!
  • Grave Expectations by Alice Bell — I can’t remember who recommended this one to me (maybe S?), but it’s been on frozen on my holds list for a while now, and a hilarious paranormal murder mystery sounded like excellent vacation reading to me.
  • Stories are Weapons by Annalee Newitz — Several of my author friends are reading and recommending this right now. I’m very much looking forward to listening to this on audiobook during my travels (once I finish Furious Heaven).

I’m not considering this an actual TBR, because I will probably just read whatever I feel like, and I may not feel like reading any of these. Plus I may have more studying I need to do in order to wrap up “secret summer project” by the end of October. But, these are the books I feel like reading right now, if I had more time to read for fun.

What are you reading this month?

Planner System Update

~ EMM

It’s that time of year again! Everyone in the planner community is eyeing the 2025 planners and making their decisions about what is going to give them “planner peace” in the new year.

As for me, I think “planner peace” is like the Easter Bunny or Santa. Doesn’t exist. And that phrase is beginning to make my ass twitch.

Why am I so grumpy about planners, you ask?

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you can probably guess. You might remember my previous posts on my various misguided attempts to find the perfect (for me) planner to replace my bullet journal, and you’ve likely been expecting this post.

To catch you up if you haven’t been following along on this adventure… I first tried the Bullet Journal method back in summer of 2017. Then, during then pandemic when “planning” sort of seemed like a sick joke, I decided to try moving from a BuJo to dated planner (Passion Planner monthly). I don’t think I made it through even half of 2021 before I bailed and went back to the BuJo method.

I tried again in 2022 with a slightly different dated planner system (Midori monthly). That also didn’t work out. Then I made another attempt in 2023 with yet a different planner set up (Passion Planner weekly). Another fail by mid-year that had me trying the Hobonichi Techo half-year planner instead. I was convinced it was going to work because it had monthly, weekly, AND daily planner pages, which seemed to be what I was missing in my previous attempts to replace my BuJo.

And I was right. Mostly. That set-up worked well enough that I convinced myself to try the full year Hobonichi in 2024.

This year’s planner: a Hobonichi Techo 2024

However… there aren’t a lot of blank pages available in that planner for goal planning or what the BuJo folks call “collections” (ex: project task lists, notes, etc.). And, because I wanted to have a dedicated place to track my running, I got a running journal as well.

Running journal

In addition to those, I have a separate notebook for journaling, plus another for each of my writing projects.

The current in-progress notebook stack

It’s too much, and it’s making me want to return to my bullet journal. I was doing my best to hold off until January before making a change, but this past week I decided to give up and go back to the BuJo, at least for the rest of September.

The notebook I was using for my bullet journal before I switched to the dated planner still has about a hundred blank pages left. I think it’s nearly enough to get me through the rest of this year. So, I’m going to see if I can even remember how to BuJo, and see if it’s just the entire concept of planners that has been frustrated, or if I finally can find some “peace” by going back to the BuJo Method.

Expect an update sometime in December, when I commit to a 2025 planning system…

Weekend Reads Inbox-Outbox

~ EMM

We’re about halfway through the month, and I’ve only finished one book on my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR.

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I finished Bride by Ali Hazelwood and enjoyed it. I’ve heard that her adult contemporary romance books are really good if you enjoy the “big guy with small girl” and “broody alpha male” tropes. Those aren’t at the the top of my favorite tropes list, which is why I haven’t picked up any of her books before. However, I think those particular tropes work pretty well in the context of a paranormal contemporary romance. Somehow, I’m less inclined to get annoyed by romance frustrations that could be resolved with some basic communication when the hero is a broody literal-Alpha of his werewolf pack. There is a bit of that in this book, and it’s a little (okay, a lot) obvious what’s going on, which may make some people want to throw the book across the room. It didn’t bother me too much. Probably because of how this sort of miscommunication thing has almost become a norm in this particular sub-genre. But, it is why this was only an “enjoyable read” for me and not more.

After that, I started This Spells Love by Kate Robb. I think I picked this up from my library because I saw it on a witchy contemporary romance list somewhere. I got through the part where they do the spell described in the blurb and into the resulting alternate reality the following morning. Then I bailed. This is not a witchy contemporary romance like Payback’s a Witch or The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. This is more like a Freaky Friday thing, and I just wasn’t feeling it. So, that’s going back to the library as a DNF for me.

On the positive side, though, it does get me back on track with my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR!

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I was feeling a potential reading slump coming on after those two books, so I decided to pick up my book club book for this month, which happens to be a re-read of book two in a series I’m enjoying but haven’t finished and have convinced my book club buddies to read along with me. The only problem is, I’d forgotten that Marque and Reprisal (book two in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series) starts off with Kylara in a somewhat mopey mood. Not ideal for pulling myself out of a potential slump, but at least I know she snaps out of it pretty fast.

Before that, I tried picking up Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, also by Elizabeth Moon, which is on my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR. But I didn’t get very far into it before setting it down again. It starts a bit like epic fantasy, but for some reason I’d thought it was also space opera? Oops. Oh well. I’m planning on continuing. I just want to eliminate my potentially slumpy reading feelings first, so they didn’t infect my opinion of the book.

I found and read a recap of the first two Neapolitan novels, and it did make me more excited about finishing that series. But I also really want to read The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. So, I may pick up that next, instead. Then I can at least finish my reading for Psionics & Divination.

Regardless of what I read next, I doubt I’m going to finish my TBR for this month. Kind of a bummer that I don’t have more time to spend reading for fun right now, but I’m sure I’ll be back to devouring fiction by November.

August Reading Recap

~ EMM

For some reason I was sure I only finished one book in August. Then I checked Goodreads, and what do you know? I actually read THREE whole books last month! Shocking!

Seriously. I have been so busy with “secret summer project” that I really haven’t had much time for reading aside from just before falling asleep. When I’m in that mode, I average about a chapter a day, and I really don’t make much progress on anything. (Side-note: I promise I will reveal “secret summer project” at some point, but don’t get too excited because it is not at all writing or reading related)

But apparently, I did make progress! I finished three books!

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Here’s what I read in August:

The Weight of Command by Michael Mammay — Catching up on my backlog of Michael Mammay military sci-fi. This was a really good one that I very much enjoyed and definitely recommend.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst — Look. I LOVE all the SBD books I’ve read so far, so don’t hate me when I say this is probably my least favorite. I just think that cozy fantasy is really not my jam. Ha! That pun was not intended, but considering that raspberry jam plays a huge part in this story, I probably should have seen that one coming.

The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho — This was a delightful and unputdownable (for me) contemporary romance that I recommend if the synopsis sounds at all interesting to you.

Also, I just finished reading A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske this week and enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll continue with the series. That leaves only one more in-progress book from this summer’s reading.

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I’m still listening to Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott on audiobook. I haven’t had much time for audiobooks, either. So, it’s taking me a while to get through this one, even though I really like it. (Persephone is still my favorite character.)

And I just started on my Orilium TBR! I decided to kick things off with Bride by Ali Hazelwood. I’m enjoying it so far, even though first person present tense isn’t my favorite.

Orilium Fall Equinox Readathon TBR Time

~ EMM

This was a hard one to put together! But the readathon starts tomorrow, so here we go….

If you remember back to my April wrap-up post (aka the last update I posted before disappearing for several months), I finished seven books, but only four subjects. That I knew of. I never bothered figuring out if any of the other books I read counted for any of the other subject prompts.

Instead of doing that now, I poked around at some of the other “callings” that sounded interesting and then tried to see if I had the subjects to pursue that calling. After attempting a few of those, I gave up and decided to just stick with leveling up my Story Weaver calling.

But the prompts for Story Weaver are HARD! And I’m not sure I can read six books this month with everything else I have going on. In the end, I managed to pull together this TBR for September, but I’ll be shocked if I get even half of these read before the end of the month.

Here’s the breakdown by subject:

Inscription

I only need “O” level in this one, which is just one book, but the prompt is to read a book with a title that has all the letters in your first name. That’s a lot of letters! And one of them is a Z!

Luckily, the folks over on the discord came to the rescue and let me know that The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson basically covers all the letters. And it works! Plus, it looks like it’s a stand-alone. So I went with that one.

Psionics & Divination

I need “Q” level in this subject, so two prompts/books.

The first prompt is to read a favorite author’s debut book. Okay. Sure. but who is my favorite author? I considered a lot of options for this one, and ultimately went with an author I really like who has been writing for a long time. I’ve only read a few of her more recent books, and I never read her first book. So, I’m going to try that one. It’s called Sheepfarmer’s Daughter and the author is Elizabeth Moon.

The second prompt is to read a book where the same letter appears in the title four or more times! For this I picked a short one that I was planning on reading next(ish) anyway, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark.

Lore

To get to “D” level in this subject, I need to read three books.

The first prompt is to read a vampire book! Vampires are not my fave… BUT, I’ve been wanting to give Bride by Ali Hazelwood a try, so I’m going to try that one for this prompt. I’ve never read anything by Ali Hazelwood before, and this is her only non-contemporary romance novel (that I know of). So this is going to be interesting…

Next is to read a translated book! I’ve been meaning to finish the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Novels series. I read the first two books a long time ago, though. I’ll need to find a recap of those books to refresh my memory before diving into book three, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.

And then I need to read a re-telling. For this prompt I am going for another book that has been on my TBR forever. It’s a YA contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park called Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueline Firkins. It looks super cute.

Summer Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM

It’s been a while since I posted something here. I’ve been pre-occupied with a new hobby this summer. Maybe I’ll do a post about that at some point, but it’s not reading or writing related, so maybe not. We’ll see.

Regardless, my new obsession left me with a lot less time for reading, and it shows. Between the start of May and the end of July, I only finished six books.

Here’s what I read this summer:

  • Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson — This was a really good companion book to The Space Between Worlds (which I also loved).
  • Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey — I really liked this cute contemporary rom-com, especially the way the two main characters bonded over music.
  • A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn — Another enjoyable installment in the Veronica and Stoker historical cozy mystery series.
  • Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon (re-read) — This is one of my favorite books, and I ended up re-reading it when I found myself in a bit of a reading slump.
  • A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry Thomas — Another Charlotte Holmes historical cozy mystery, not my favorite in the series, but I continue to love the characters.
  • Morning Glory Milking Farm by C. M. Nascosta — Picked this up because I needed something light and fun to read while I was sick, and it did not disappoint.

Technically, summer isn’t over. I was going to wait and lump all my August reading into this post as well, but I suspect I’m going to want to do an Orilium Readathon TBR post soon. So, here we are.

Does this mean that I’m going to be back to regular blogging? I don’t know. Probably. At the very least, I have a few posts planned for the next couple of weeks.

As summer winds down, so will my new summer hobby, which will likely mean that I’ll be back to my usual schedule soon enough. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this little teaser post, and I’ll be back when the fall equinox class prompts are posted for the September Orilium Readathon!

Orilium Spring Equinox (aka April) Reading Wrap-Up

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

April turned out to be a BIG reading month. I finished SEVEN books and (temporarily?) DNFed one!

Orilium Spring Equinox Reading

Here’s a recap of everything I read in April:

  • It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey — I really enjoyed this cute rom com set in the Pacific Northwest.
  • The Homecoming War by Addie Woolridge — If you need a book for an ambitious bookworm tween or teen in your life, get them this one. It’s so adorable that I wanted to hug the book when I was done.
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett — I love a good Sherlock / Watson character dynamic, and this one was perfect, especially because the super smart and slightly unhinged detective is a woman. Bonus points for really cool world-building, an engaging mystery plot, and great ensemble cast. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author.
  • Unclaimed by Courtney Milan — I really liked the premise of this book, so I skipped book one and jumped straight to book two. I know I’ll eventually go back and read the others because I love Courtney Milan’s books, and this one (as expected) did not disappoint.
  • Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong — This one, on the other hand, surprised me in a good way. I wasn’t expecting much from it because I haven’t read anything else by this author, and I found myself eager to get back to it. That may have had something to do with the audiobook narrator being very good, but I liked this enough that I think I’ll read the next one when it comes out.
  • A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe — If you want more spicy lesbian romance in your life, definitely do not skip this series. I wasn’t quite buying the “enemies” part of the enemies to lovers trope, but found the world-building intriguing.
  • End Credits by Patty Lin — I listened to this one on audiobook (read by the author) because a friend recommended it. I found the parts about connecting with your creativity and pursing the things you’re passionate about to be really good.
  • A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen — I stalled out at about halfway through this one after hitting over half the boxes on my bingo card. I’m counting it for the readathon, but I’m not sure if I’m going to finish it. I think I’m just not that into Vikings? Possibly, the problem started when the heroine doesn’t tell the hero what really happened on her wedding night, even though the oath she had to swear had a loophole big enough to sail one of those drakkars through. When she didn’t spot that immediately, I kinda lost interest in her as a character.

If you’ve read A Fate Inked in Blood and think I should keep going, definitely let me know. I am willing to be convinced.

I’m really hoping now that Fairyloot has spun off a Romantasy specific subscription box the adult selections will be a little less romance heavy. This is such a weird thing for me to say, given that I really enjoy sci-fi and fantasy with romance. But, their romance-heavy fantasy selections all seem to feel just a smidge above YA to me. The ones that are actually adult (The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, Babel, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, Emily Wilde, Spells for Forgetting, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, etc.) are the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.

May Reading TBR

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

April isn’t quite over. I am still working on finishing the last book in my Orilium TBR. But (of course) I’m already thinking about what I want to read in May…

May 2024 TBR

These are the three books I have at the top of my TBR for May:

  • Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson — I loved The Space Between Worlds, and I have been eagerly anticipating this second stand-alone set in the same world. Luckily, so have my Camp Book Club friends. So we decided to buddy read it in May.
  • Generation Ship by Michael Mammay — Another long awaited space adventure written by my current fave military sci-fi author. I have been struggling to get this to the top of my TBR for a while, but it’s going to happen in May!
  • A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn — One of my two favorite historical cozy mystery series has a new book out, and I cannot wait to read it!

Are you picking up on the general vibe for my May reading plans?

If not, let me explain. May is my birthday month, and I really want to fill it with anticipated five star reads. Nothing with DNF potential, please. I want to have the BEST reading month.

That’s not to say that April was a bad reading month. It wasn’t. More on that when I do my wrap-up post. It’s just that, readathon months, with their reading prompts, tend to help me clear off titles that have been lingering in the middle to bottom half of my TBR. Which is awesome, but it means I’m very behind on some new releases by my auto-buy authors.

The three books I picked to read in May are exactly that. New(ish) releases by three of my auto-buy authors.

In addition to these three, there are two new releases coming out in May by two other authors on my auto-buy list. I pre-ordered both. The first is Kilby Blades’s second Green Valley Heroes book, Young Buck, which comes out May 9th (her first in this series was Forrest for the Trees). The other is Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s near-future sci-fi novella, Lost Ark Dreaming, which releases on the 21st of May. But, in order to read either of these, I’ll need to take my Kindle off airplane mode, which means reading or renewing my current library haul. (#ReaderProblems)

I’m excited to see how many of these books I can devour in May! Happy reading (and birthday month) to me!

Book Overload — A mid-month check-in

~ EMM

To give you a sense of how my reading is going this month, here are some numbers:

  • Books carried over from previous months = 3
  • Books started this month = 3
  • Books finished this month = 2
  • Current number of books in progress = 4

Do I have more in-progress books now than I did at the start of this month? Yes.

Have I finished reading everything on my Orilium TBR? No.

Status of my Orilium Spring Equinox TBR

In fact, I haven’t even started the Psionics & Divination read (A Fate Inked in Blood) yet! I meant to start that one in the first week of this month so that I could be sure to have plenty of time to finish, but plans changed. I can’t remember my reasoning now, but I’m sure it made sense at the time.

Seriously, everything feels backward and wrong on so many levels this month. Why would reading be any different?

Is some celestial object in retrograde or something? BRB. *Goes to Google.*

Yes. It appears that is in fact the case. Well, there you go. That makes me feel a little better, I guess.

A Game of Hearts and Heists (my Art of Illusions reading assignment) is one of the books I started reading already. But I had to put it aside so I could read (and hopefully finish) The Tainted Cup before my Camp Book Club discussion this coming Friday. The good news is that I am really enjoying The Tainted Cup and find myself excited to get back to it every time I have to put it down to do something else.

After I finish The Tainted Cup, I plan to start A Fate Inked in Blood (finally!) and get back to A Game of Hearts and Heists. There are still two weeks left in the month, so I think I have time to finish all three of those books.

As for the two books I’ve already finished this month, they were both contemporary romance reads. The first was It Happened One Summer, and the second was The Homecoming War. Both were really fun books that I tore through and didn’t want to put down. I sighed happy sighs when I finished them. Highly recommend both if you like contemporary romance.

How is your reading going this month? Are you off to an equally awkward start? Or have you already finished your TBR?