Author: EMM

Currently Reading (Inbox)

~ EMM

I started reading Full Moon Over Freedom last night. This is the second book in a small town contemporary romance series featuring three Mexican-American sisters. They have all recently returned home as adults, each for their own reasons. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and this second book follows the “perfect” (and potentially also witchy) sister in a second-chance romance. I read the first two chapters before bed last night and am excited to be back in this world with a new pair of main characters.

As I mentioned yesterday, I started The Golden Flame about a week before the end of November. This book was one of the YA FairyLoot special edition hardcovers that I got and never read. It’s the second to last of the ones I wanted to read this year for the Adventure in Aeldia challenge.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book, because I never heard anything about it, either before or after it was released. The reviews are kind of mixed (3.4 on Goodreads), and out of all my FairyLoot stash, this one seemed most likely for a DNF and donate. That’s how it ended up as my pick for the November prompt (“at risk of an unhaul”). I won’t be making a decision to DNF or not until I get further along (usually somewhere around page 50), but so far, the first couple chapters were interesting enough to keep me reading. I didn’t want to travel with a hardcover, though. So I left this one at home. But I do want to try to finish (or DNF) it before the Lightfall readathon starts next weekend.

Speaking of travel, I also have an audiobook that I’m planning to start tomorrow. I managed to get System Collapse (the new Murderbot book) from my library. It’s due back before the Lightfall readathon starts, so I can’t listen to this for the audiobook and crafting prompt. But that’s okay, because I have a LONG travel day tomorrow, and I think this short book is going to be the perfect thing to listen to during my journey.

But right now it’s time to do some more writing sprints with my friends. I’ll be back tomorrow with the recap of what I read in November so you can see how I’m doing with my end of the year reading TBR.

Countdown to Winter Solstice

~ EMM

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I am excited to start transitioning into the cozy reading phase of my year, and I want to try something I’ve always wanted to do but have always been too intimidated to attempt. Blogmas!

In case you are unfamiliar with this concept, it’s basically some format of a post a day during the month of December. Some people do an abbreviated “12 days of Blogmas” version. Others go one a day for the whole month. And I think some only do a countdown to Christmas.

I’ve decided to do a countdown to the Winter Solstice. As someone who lives in the upper northwest corner of the US, it gets pretty dark in the winter months and the days get really short. Counting down to the shortest day of the year has become something of a thing for me. And celebrating that we’ve made it and turned the corner to the other (brighter) side and longer days ahead is something I enjoy.

My plan is to celebrate and share my cozy winter reading with a post a day through the 21st. I may keep going after that, depending on how much I’m enjoying this. Or I may slip back into a less frequent posting schedule. We’ll see.

Currently reading

Yesterday, I finished the book I’d been reading on Kindle. The day before that I finished the audiobook I’ve been listening to. And I left the hardcover I just started reading (This Golden Flame) at home (because I’m away for the weekend at a writing retreat). So, I’m between books at the moment.

I have several options from my end of year TBR that I could start as my next Kindle read, but I haven’t decided which one to pick. Here are the books I’m considering:

What do you think? Which one should I read next? Let me know in the comments or vote below.

Now, I’m off to do some writing and then go for a run. More fun tomorrow, including which of these options I picked to read next!

Celebrating Lightfall! (aka Magical Readathon time!)

~ EMM

As soon as I’m finished writing the draft of this novel, I want to bury myself in books and just read non-stop until the end of the year.

Realistically, I know that I’m not actually going to be done after I finish this draft, but I think I can manage to carve out at least one week to celebrate Lightfall (aka participate in another Orilium Magical Readathon). It sounds like EXACTLY what I need.

So, even though I should be writing right now. I’m taking a moment to consider my Lightfall TBR.

The reading prompts are given by store you may want to visit in Old Favour Pass. You can visit as many or few of them as you like.

Here’s what I’ve added so far…

I am probably not going to have time to visit every store during this eleven day readathon, but I sure am going to try!

The Old Tails Bookstore — Book you wanted to read this year but had not had the chance yet.

For this one, I’m picking something that is a genuine WANT to read and not something I feel like I NEED to read. (Let’s just put aside the million reasons I feel like I need to read something. Getting into that would require an entire post. Maybe I should dive into that at some point, but not today.)

You probably would not be surprised to hear that this task was harder than it should have been for me. Ultimately, I picked Manslaughter Park, which is a Jane Austen murder mystery retelling. This is one I have had my eye on since it was very first announced. It was released in June (!), and I still haven’t gotten around to reading it, yet.

Smith & Friends & Sons Arcane Goods & Such — Last book you added to your want to read list (not counting books not published yet).

Phew. An easy one. Or so I thought until I looked at the number of pages.

As I’m writing this, the currently available book that I most recently added to my TBR is the most recent FairyLoot special edition hardcover, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare.

Would you believe I’ve never read a Cassandra Claire book? I’ve added several to my TBR over the years. I think I may have even purchased one or two. But I’ve not ready any of them. So, this would be my first Cassandra Clare book. But, folks, it’s over 600 pages! That might really make it hard to read anything else during this readathon.

Wallice’s Wonderful Winter Wanimals — Snow or ice on the cover.

This one is easy. Definitely going to have to be A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. I will be stopping to see the winged winter stoats at WWWW for sure!

Shank & Shawl Legitimate Retailer — Steal a book from someone else’s TBR.

Bring on your TBRs, people! I haven’t seen many Lightfall TBRs posted, yet. So, I may skip this store unless I find something good to borrow from someone else’s list. Alternatively… I may use this as a way to sneak in my buddy read book for December (once we figure out what that’s going to be). Now there’s an idea…

Owlcat Craft Cafe — Listen to audiobook whilst crafting (or craft in the title)

So many options! I may change my mind later, but I’ve been trying to get to Bloodmarked for a while now. So much so that I considered it for The Old Tails Bookstore prompt. But, then I saw this prompt, and it’s a much better fit here. I listened to the first book on audio and that worked well for me. So, I think I’m going to grab Bloodmarked on audio from the library and listen to it while I (finally) finish my Star Wars cross stitch bookmarks.

Occult Premonitions — Prompt based on a random tarot card.

Judgement is the card I got from the random card generator. This card felt eerily familiar until I remembered it was Justice not Judgement that I got for the Autumn Equinox TBR.

It took me a minute to get past the giant angel and the naked dead rising from their graves to notice that there’s a sea and some mountains there. Scrolling through the book covers on my the top of my TBR, Shanghai Immortal jumped out at me. Something about that cover felt right for the vibe of this card. So I’m going with that one.

And bonus points if you noticed that several of these books are NOT on my end of the year TBR. I will have an update on how that’s going at the end of next week. I am hoping to finish a few more books before the month is over. But if I want to do that, I need to get back to writing the novel and not this blog post.

While I finish this draft, let me know in the comments if you’re participating in this readathon and, if so, where to find your TBR!

October Reading Recap

~ EMM

And now for the update you’ve all been waiting for (hahaha)! Did I read everything on my October TBR? Did I finish the TWO hardcover books I have in progress? Read on to find out…

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What’s missing from this picture? That’s right. The Foxglove King and Bone Crier’s Moon. I didn’t finish them in October.

Here’s what I did finish reading:

  • Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh — I LOVED this book. This was one of those books that was so very ME that I could barely put it down and kept thinking about it long after it was over. Definitely going on my favorites shelf!
  • Starter Villain by John Scalzi — A fast fun read that I really enjoyed.
  • A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher — A cute young adult book. Not really for me, but probably awesome for a young reader who likes fantasy where the kid has to save the world.
  • Choosing to Run by Des Linden — I picked this up because I’ve been pretty obsessed with running for the past couple years (#RunStreak day 724 today) and found this very inspiring. I’m not planning on running marathons anytime soon, but I got my first taste of half-marathon racing this year, and I’ll definitely be doing that again. In the meantime, I did my first cross country race in October, and I have a 10k race coming up this weekend.
  • The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia — A short read that delivered with a good spooky season atmosphere.
  • A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli — A really cute contemporary romance. I was a little frustrated with the obligatory romance break-up beat at the three-quarters mark. The reason for the separation made sense in retrospect, but in the moment it felt like something that could have been solved with a conversation.

Currently Reading

I am about halfway through The Foxglove King and only about twenty percent into Bone Crier’s Moon. I was really hoping to finish at least one of these before the end of the weekend, but that didn’t happen. I’m really getting into The Foxglove King, though. If I was reading it on my e-reader I’d probably be done by now. My plan is to finish both of these by the end of this week because I don’t want to start another hardcover until I at least finish the one I’m currently reading.

Inbox

I’ve already been over these in a previous post, so I won’t go through them all again. But there is one new one on here. I agreed to read Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. J. Parker as my buddy read this month. So that got added to the stack. I still feel like this is a very ambitious list of books to finish before the end of the month, though.

A Planner Update for the Planners

~ EMM

Back at the start of the year, I mentioned I was planning on using two planners this year. One was a Passion Planner weekly for managing my writing goals that I also planned to use as a reading journal. The other was going to be my free-form bullet journal which would be where I kept track of my daily to-do lists and household admin tasks.

How it started…

That set-up lasted about six months.

Can you guess what caused my system to fail?

If you guessed the Passion Planner, then you probably have been reading this blog for a while. You may even have said to yourself, back when you read that post at the start of the year and saw that I was making another attempt at using the Passion Planner this year, “Good luck with that!”

If you did, give yourself a prize. You were correct. The Passion Planner didn’t work for me. Again.

Never have I really wanted a planner to work so much before. I mean, that cover is SO CUTE! And the whole set-up is all about achieving your goals! How much more “me” can you get?

I think the problem is that I just hate using multiple planners. I need ONE that does everything. That means monthly, weekly, and daily views. Plus some blank pages for random stuff I need to keep track of.

The twist is, around the same time that I came to that conclusion, I realized that bullet journaling wasn’t really working for me, either.

I started bullet journaling because of the flexibility. It allowed me to have any kind of view that I wanted. I just needed to create it on the page. But, the more I found what worked for me, the more I got sick of creating the framework for each day or week or month. And because I had to create everything as I went along, I never had a good place to park future tasks and milestones as I planned out projects. I just couldn’t get that whole “future log” thing to work for me. Every time I made one, I would completely forget it existed.

Frustrated and annoyed, I went in search of “the perfect planner.” Which, just to be clear, I know does not exist.

I ended up buying a Hobonichi Cousin Avec to try using for the second half of 2023. It’s not perfect, but it does have monthly, weekly, and daily pages.

How it’s going…

Then I pulled the reading journal pages out of the back of my Passion Planner and made them into a little booklet so I could continue using them.

So far, this has been working pretty well. I still hate having the reading journal stuff separate, but at least now I can tuck them into my planner and pretend it’s all the same notebook. But next year, I want to incorporate the reading journal stuff into my daily planner.

The big thing I’m struggling with is STILL future planning. But now it’s not because I don’t have a place for it. I think I’m realizing that not having a place for it meant it wasn’t getting done effectively.

As an example, I like to plan quarterly and refine that plan monthly. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good space in my Hobonichi for noodling out my quarterly goals and associated projects. Maybe it’s just because this is the half-year version of the planner, but there aren’t a lot of blank pages at the back.

For Q4 of 2023, I did all my goals brainstorming and associated project planning in Obsidian (which I’m just starting to mess around with). Once I had that all sorted out, I transferred my October goals onto the monthly calendar in my planner, and then started adding milestones and weekly plans to the monthly, weekly, and daily calendar pages. But I kept November and December in Obsidian. This way, I could tweak my plans based on how October went before finalizing my November goals, projects, and tasks and putting all that into my planner.

Will this bring me planner peace?

This new system is working well enough that I bought the full year Cousin for 2024. Aside from slapping some stickers on the front, I haven’t started to set it up, yet. I think I’ll wait until at least mid-December to start messing with that.

If you like, I’ll do another post at the end of the year to walk through my new setup once it’s ready to go. But next up will be my October reading recap. Did I finish everything on my list? Stay tuned to find out.

End of the Year Reading Plans

~ EMM

I have a LOT of writing that needs to get done before the end of the year, but there are also a lot of books that I want to read (aka: the story of my life). If I can manage to get back into that “deep work” groove I had going back in April, this won’t be a problem. But I have been really struggling to resurrect whatever it was I was doing before.

October has (so far) been a better reading month than September. But I’ve only finished two books so far this month. I have another three in progress, but I’m only making slow progress because I’m still spending too much time messing around on the internet when I could be chilling with a book.

I need to get my focus back on track because I have eighteen (!!!) books that I’d like to try to read (or DNF) before the end of December. Here’s what’s on my list:

I have put these in a reading order that I may or may not stick to once I get started. In general, the list alternates between Kindle and paper reads. There’s a reason for that. My plan is to always be reading one hardcover and one Kindle book because I read on my ereader before bed when I don’t want to be bothered by having a reading light, and I have a growing stack of hardcovers I need to get through if I want to justify keeping my book box subscription.

What’s left on my October TBR:

  • Bone Crier’s Moon by Kathryn Purdie — This is one of my Fairy Loot hardcover editions from back when I was subscribed to their YA box. It’s also one of the nine books I wanted to either read or DNF and donate this year. This one is up next because it fits the October prompt for the Adventure in Aeldia route I want to take (book with a map). Ideally, I’ll have it finished (or DNFed) by the end of October.
  • The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia — This is a short story written by an author whose books I enjoy. I saw it on the Amazon Prime reads monthly email (I think) and grabbed it. This one has a bit of a horror vibe according to the blurb. It seemed seasonally appropriate, so I think this will be what I pick up after I finish my current Kindle read (A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking).
  • A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli — Since The Lover is only about forty pages long, I picked another seasonally appropriate book on my Kindle to read after that while I finish up Bone Crier’s Moon. I was searching for A Holly Jolly Ever After (more on that one below) at my library and stumbled on this one. It looked cute, so I thought I’d check it out as well.

What I have planned for November reading:

  • This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria — Another one of my Fairy Loot YA hardcovers that was on my “read or DNF and donate” list for this year. This one was a good fit for the November Adventure in Aeldia prompt (book at risk of an unhaul), so I’m planning on reading it in November.
  • Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend — I’m late to the party on this one, I think, but I have a young reader in my life who loves magic schools as much as I do. She’s probably a little too young still for the Scholomance Series, so I’m planning on getting her the box set of this series for her upcoming birthday. But I want to read at least the first book in the series before I do. So I got this on Kindle from my library and plan to read it after I finish A Holly Jolly Diwali.
  • The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi — Another Fairy Loot hardcover, but this time an adult fantasy novel by an author I know I like. I’m really hoping I have time to read this in November, because December is looking a bit packed…
  • Jade War by Fonda Lee — This one will probably take me most of whatever is left of November to finish, based on my experience with Jade City. But that’s fine. I’m really excited to continue with this series, and November is NaNoWriMo. So, I’m perfectly happy to have a slow read to enjoy while I’m trying to write almost two thousand words per day.
  • The Homecoming War by Addie Woolridge — I am so excited to read my friend Addie’s first YA contemporary romance! I plan to gift a copy of this to my Jenny-Han-loving tween niece and want to be able to gush about how awesome it is with her when she reads it.

And my December reading plans:

  • Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez — This is the last of my Fairy Loot YA hardcovers, and the last one on my list of “read or DNF and donate.” I’m planning on reading it for my December Adventure in Aeldia prompt (owl or cat on the cover).
  • Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez — I’m slotting this contemporary romance in to read on Kindle after I finish Jade War in case I need a lighter and faster read. Plus it sounds like it’s got some witchy vibes, so I want to try to read it during witchy season (aka fall), if possible.
  • Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao — This is also a Fairy Loot hardcover, and one that I started earlier this year but had to put down to read other things. I enjoyed the first chapter, though, so I’m hoping to get back to it as soon as I finish Woven in Moonlight.
  • A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe — This one is a Kindle book I pre-ordered but haven’t gotten around to reading yet. It looks like a really good fantasy romance, and I’ve been hearing some positive buzz about it. So I’m excited to read this after I finish Full Moon Over Freedom.
  • Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares — This is the next Fairy Loot adult fantasy hardcover on my list. If I don’t finish it before the end of the year, it will just end up on my “read or DNF and donate” list for 2024. And I’m hoping to keep that list as short as possible.
  • Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher — I started this book and put it down, then my hold expired at the library, and it got returned. I’m hoping I can get it back on my Kindle and finish it before the end of the year.
  • Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong — Same as Sun of Blood and Ruin, this is a Fairy Loot adult fantasy hardcover that I want to try to finish before the end of this year.
  • A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone — I had to throw at least one Christmas novel on the list, and this is the follow up to what turned out to be a book I recommended the heck out of last year after reading it (A Merry Little Meet Cute). Really looking forward to this!
  • Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun — This is the last of the Fairy Loot adult fantasy hardcovers that are on my list to read this year. If I can get this one read as well, I’ll be almost completely caught up with my subscription!
  • Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett — I have wanted to read this book for a while now because I really liked her other mystery series, but I keep forgetting it’s on my Kindle. So I am officially adding it to my end of year TBR.

You may have noticed that this list doesn’t leave a lot of room for spontaneity. I know. It’s true. If it wasn’t for trying to catch up on my Fairy Loot subscription, it wouldn’t be that bad. The problem is, I really need to figure out if I should continue my subscription into next year or not.

I thought that reading all the really old YA box stuff would be good enough. But all that did was clear off some shelf space for the new books coming in. Meanwhile, I’m really enjoying all the adult fantasy books I’ve been receiving. At least the ones I’ve managed to read so far. Some of them have been serious contenders for top five favorite books I’ve read this year.

That would suggest I should continue with the adult fantasy book box subscription. But, I’m not sure. I am REALLY struggling to fit reading actual paper books into my life. E-books are just so much easier. But for the ones I’ve read and loved this year, I’m really happy I have the hardcover special edition.

I think I need to get a better sense for how many of the books I’ve received this year are “hits” for me vs. “misses.” To do that, I need to get through more of the ones that I received so far this year.

My hypothesis is that trying to stay off the internet during the day will really help my effort to read more of these hardcovers. So, I’m going to pull the plug on the distractions and try this little end of the year reading experiment. Starting this week!

Updates to come on that. But first, I think I need to do a post on what’s changed in my planner system. Every time I link to that 2023 reading goals post I cringe because I’m reminded that the Passion Planner plus BuJo setup for this year did not work for me (again). Except this time, it wasn’t just the Passion Planner. I’ve ditched both the Passion Planner and my bullet journal! (I know. Shocking!) I have been experimenting with an entirely new planner system since July, and I’ve yet to mention anything about it.

But this post is already way too long to be getting into that now. I’m going to leave you on that cliff-hanger, but stay tuned for a planner update soon. Plus my October reading wrap-up. (Will I finish everything?) And progress reports on this end of the year reading plan.

Until next time, happy reading!

September Wrap-Up

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

September was a busy month for me with not a lot of reading.

I spent the first half of the month occupied with the Writing Excuses cruise to Alaska. First packing and prepping, then going on the actual cruise (which was great!), and then recovering and catching up on all the annoying life stuff I’d neglected while I’d been away. Not to mention, as soon as I got home, I had to scramble to get Poison of Power finished and published. Which it is now! So check it out if you’re curious about my new secondary world fantasy series. 🙂

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I finished ONE book in September. Jade City by Fonda Lee. It was excellent, and I really enjoyed it, and now I want to binge the rest of the series while the first book is still fresh in my head.

I started reading The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten, but I didn’t finish it. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but it sort of grew on me the more I read. I’m past the evaluation point (25%) and am pretty sure that I’ll actually finish it now that I have a little more time for reading.

In-Progress

Aside from The Foxglove King, I’ve started reading A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher and Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

Inbox

I’m working on a whole post on my end of the year reading plans, so right now all I’ll say is that if I want to keep up with my Adventure in Aeldia plans (aka my only 2023 reading goal), I need to read Bone Crier’s Moon by Kathryn Purdie this month. So that’s next up as soon as I finish a couple of my in-progress books. I may even try to grab a copy of it on audiobook so I can alternate between reading the hardcover and listening while I’m doing chores and stuff around the house.

Orilium Readathon Grades (aka Reading Wrap-Up)

~ EMM

Well, here we are. Halfway through September, and I have yet to post my readathon wrap-up. Partly that is because I was gone for the first week of September, and I’m only now kind of back into my normal(ish) routine.

But also (and it pains me to write this) for the first time in the history of my participation in the Magical Readathons, I did not finish all my classes (prompts). I’m pretty bummed about it.

If you remember from my TBR post, I had six books I needed to read, plus one bonus book for the Impling quest. I ended up reading only three books, and I did not get an Impling. Womp womp.

Here’s what I read (vs. didn’t get to):

I started with the books for Psionics & Divination, and I finished both of them pretty early on in the month. Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake was a very satisfying end to the Three Dark Crowns series that made me regret waiting so long to read it.

After finishing that, I moved on to The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler, which I enjoyed, even though it is a polemic (and I don’t usually like polemics). I thought a lot of the discussions about consciousness were very interesting, and it made me want to throw specific passages at my tech-geek friends just to hear what they had to say about it. Instead, I recommended the book to several of them and am hoping they read it so I can hear their thoughts.

Then, I started both Jade City by Fonda Lee and A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin. The later was a MUCH faster read, so I finished it first. Unfortunately, I had an advanced review copy, and realized after reading it that I really wished I’d read the final version. It’s one of those books that (for me) was a delight to read but didn’t stick around in my brain very long. So, I’m thinking I may get the final version and re-read it at some point.

As for the rest, I am still reading Jade City (and very much enjoying it). I only read the first chapter of Shanghai Immortal, and I never started The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (or Partners in Crime, which was the book I picked for the Impling quest).

I haven’t had much time to read in the past few weeks for a variety of reasons that mostly boil down to falling back into bad social media scrolling habits that I thought I’d broken earlier this year. Apparently, you have to be ever vigilant with that stuff. Annoying.

Even more annoying is that I didn’t even manage to hit my Goodreads reading goal for the year! I’m at 51 books read, total. ONE book shy of my goal! *shakes fist at self for time wasted on the internet*

Oh well. I can still finish my Adventure in Aelida challenge, and maybe bust a few more books off my Fairyloot hardcover backlog in the process. And I’m pretty confident that I can finish at least one book between now and the end of the year. 🙂

If I can just remember how to focus again, we’ll be all good!

What I’ve been reading

~ EMM

In my last inbox/outbox post, I was surprised to learn that I’d nearly hit my Goodreads annual reading goal of 52 books, and it wasn’t quite mid-year. Well, now July has ended, and I still haven’t hit my goal. So, I guess you could say that my pace of reading has slowed down a bit.

When last we checked in, I was at 42 books read. I am now up to 48 books read.Which means, assuming I can manage my August Orilium Autumn Equinox TBR, I should definitely surpass the 52 book mark this month.

Here’s what I’ve read since my last update.

Witch King by Martha Wells took me an unexpectedly long time to finish. It was a true epic fantasy novel, and as such, dense with world-building that made me have to slow my reading pace. I didn’t mind, though, because I really loved the characters.

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco also took me a long time to finish, but for almost the opposite reason. In this case, I found that I didn’t like the main character, and I felt like the author was holding back explaining the world (maybe in an attempt to add tension?), and that just didn’t work for me. I liked the book enough to finish it, but probably won’t be reading the rest of the series. (Unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it!)

I listened to You Will Find Your People by Lane Moore on audiobook. The subtitle for this book is “How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult,” and though I got a lot out of this one, it’s a little light on the “how to” part promised in the subtitle. That said, there’s a lot of good stuff in here about friendships that really resonated with me, so much so that I may eventually buy a copy for reference when this comes out in paperback.

I finally read A Sinister Revenge (Veronica Speedwell #8) by Deanna Raybourn. This was another fun addition to the series. The mystery plot in this one was well done and kept me on my toes with interesting twists through the end.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton was a weird but entertaining read. If you can get past the flying houses, this is a very good historical romance featuring high society not-so-secret pirates (who fly houses and steal from their peers?). The humor is very dry and very self-aware, which was a delight. And Ned (the hero) was giving me excellent Flynn Rider vibes. I guess the takeaway is, just don’t ask too many questions or press too hard on that whole pirate thing. If you like historical romance and can take the somewhat nonsensical world-building at face value, then you will probably enjoy this book.

Speaking of pirates, my favorite book I read this month was The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and it was exactly the “getting the band back together” and “one last job” sort of adventure that I love, with added bonus points for the middle-aged pirate captain / mom. Blame it on Sarah Connor, but I’m kind of a sucker for the badass mom kicking ass to protect the ones she loves. For more like this, see also a book I read and loved earlier this year, The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliot, and also the Queens of Renthia series by Sarah Beth Durst. (Note: I say this as a happily childless person.)

Now, I’m off to tackle that Orilium TBR. As the Wisteria Society would say, “Tally ho.” Or as Veronica would say, “Excelsior!”

Orilium Autumn Equinox Readathon TBR

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

August is almost here! Which means that it’s time for the Orilium Autumn Equinox!

(It also means that it’s nearly time for back-to-school sales on stationery… but that’s not what this blog post is about… so I’m going to ignore that temptation for the moment and get back to the topic of this post… Readathon Time!)

During this session at the Orilium Academy, I will be working to level-up in my chosen calling of Story Weaver. To do that, I need to achieve the following grades in the follow subjects.

  • Ordinary in Inscription
  • Qualified in Psionics & Divination
  • Distinguished in Lore

To achieve Ordinary I have to read one book based on the Ordinary level prompt for that class. For Qualified I have to read two books based on the corresponding prompts for that class. And Distinguished is three books. So, I have the moderately-challenging task of reading six books in the month of August!

Here’s what’s on my TBR:

Inscription

To achieve Ordinary in Inscription, I need to read a book from my end of the year TBR. I am going to pick something from my FairyLoot hoard for this one. I’m keeping a few of them to fill the final prompts for the Adventure in Aeldia quest. I’ve decided that I want to try for an Owlcat. In case you’re curious, here’s how that’s been going for me so far…

I was going to pick The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi because it’s the shortest of the bunch, and I don’t want to get bogged down in a long physical book and risk not finishing the rest of my TBR. But, I’m already planning on reading a gothic horror novel for a different prompt, so I think I’m going to try the second shortest, which is one of the more recent additions to the stack, Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao.

Psionics & Divination

The first prompt for Psionics & Divination is a little complicated. For “Introduction to Tarot” I had to pick a card using the random tarot card generator linked from the video. Then I had to pick a book that had one of the symbols on the card in the title or on the cover. I got Justice which has a crown, a sword, scales, and maybe also a throne. I have a few options that might work for this one, but right now I’m thinking I might try to FINALLY finish the Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake. I only have the last book, Five Dark Fates, left to read, and it has swords (and maybe a crown?) on the cover.

The second prompt for Psionics & Divination is “Reading the Future,” or read a book set in the future. For this one I’m going to read The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. This is one of the books that was nominated for the Nebula award for best novel, and it sounds really good.

Lore

Then, I have three prompts I need to complete for Lore. The first is “Tale of the Guide,” or read a book recommended by a bookseller. For this prompt, I went to the Powell’s Staff Picks page and scrolled through the list to see what jumped out at me. I’ve been meaning to read Jade City by Fonda Lee for a while now. According to Amazon, I purchased the book for Kindle in December of 2017. It’s probably about time I get around to reading it, huh? Especially if it’s a bookseller pick.

The second Lore prompt is “Cursed Cloaks,” or read a book with clothing on the cover. I haven’t found any books on my TBR with clothing not on a person on the cover. So, I’m going with A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin. It has an illustrated cover that feels like it’s featuring the (historical) clothing more than the people. So, I’m going with that one.

The final Lore prompt is the most difficult of the bunch for me. It is “The Underworld 101,” or read a horror book. I don’t like horror. But one of the Hugo nominees for best novel is a gothic horror, and it’s written by an author I like. So, I am going to try The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this prompt.

Here’s what my reading journal spread looks like for this readathon.

Now, there’s also this impling summoning quest that I would like to do as part of this readathon. But the 6 books I need to read for my Story Weaver calling already represent 2553 pages of reading (or about 82 pages per day on average).

The impling summoning quest, assuming you can find one book that satisfies all the prompts, requires reading at least another 400 pages. But, if I do decide to take on one more book for this quest, I think Alisha Rai’s Partners in Crime will satisfy all the prompts (between 400 and 450 pages, one letter appears only twice, released this year or last year, blue on the cover, read from this author before). I just need to start reading it at night (which is the final prompt). I’m hoping that, because it’s a contemporary romance, it will be a fast read, and I can squeeze it in with the rest of my TBR.

Are you participating in the Orilium Autumn Equinox readathon? Are any of these books on your TBR? Let me know what you think about my selections in the comments.