August Wrap Up | ’18

Hello! I read nine things this month. Mostly manga, but hey, I’m cool with it.

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Books

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

This book was a joy to read. I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Naomi Novik – her Temeraire series (which I’m currently buzzing through) and Uprooted both – and this was no exception.

I really loved the atmospheric feel this novel had. It had a coldness to it that made the icy Staryk creatures all the more mystical and whimsical feeling. I wrote a full blabber on this one, if you’d like to learn my thoughts. Short version: I adored it.

5/5 stars

 

 

Fruits Basket Another vol 1 by Natsuki Takaya

When I saw this on the shelves man, I flipped out a bit. I loved Fruits Basket as a teenager and have actually a few second hand copies of it coming up in the next haul, but I had no idea there was a sequel out. I bought it immediately. I couldn’t help it. And then I read it immediately too. I loved it – it gave me the nostalgic Fruits Basket feeling but with fresh characters and a fresh plot. I’m going to enjoy following this one as it continues to come out.

4/5 stars

 

 

Fence vol 1 by C. S. Pacat

This series came out in trade either late July or early August, I don’t remember. But, I’ve been waiting for it. Fence is the latest work by C. S. Pacat, who also wrote Captive Prince, so I was all over it. It turned out to be a solid beginning to a series, but I feel like I’ll need a few more volumes before I can decide if I love it or not.

3.75/5 stars

 

 

 

 

Attack on Titan vols 15 and 16 by Hajime Isayama

Still chugging along on this train – each volume tends to hover between 4 and 5 stars for me, depending on if we find out anything super interesting.These fell right along in the pattern. They were gifted to me for my birthday from friend Amanda, and I read them right away and loved them. Need more now, please.

4/5 stars each

 

 

 

Land of the Lustrous vols 1 and 2 by Haruko Ichikawa

These two manga (and vols 3-5 which I haven’t read yet) were lent to me by friend Brady, who snoops my blog sometimes, so hi. They’re centered around gem-people who live in a world seemingly having had an apocalypse of somekind, thought not too much detail has been given yet, I feel that from the contents of volume 2, it’ll soon become more the focus. The first volume of this was just ok for me. The second though picked up and got me a bit more invested in the story. Will be finishing it for sure.

3/5 and 4/5 stars

 

Orange: Future by Ichigo Takano

I don’t know why, but this series always makes me feel like crying when I read it. It makes me feel sad, even when happy things happen. I love it though. This volume follows the events of the two omnibus volumes, and I feel it really did a good job handling any loose ends. I actually read this unexpectedly – I was sitting on the floor, sorting my books, when I went to move this one into another pile. Instead I sat there cross-legged and ended up reading it for twenty five minutes. Hah. I really liked it.

4/5 stars

 

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

This is the only other actual book I read this month. I felt myself getting slumpy mid-month. I had been keeping myself afloat with manga, but the urge to actually pick up a book was small. So, I figured I should pick up one I would fly through, and YA fantasy really tends to do the trick for me. So, picked up this as it was on my 10 in 2018 list. I did fly through it, and hey, my slum is broken now.

Actually, I picked it up and read it as my sole read for the Bout of Books readathon, right after I made a post about reading a bunch of other things. Ended up not touching any of them, haha. Just read this one. Got about 550 pages in during the readathon, and then finished it the next day.

It had been about two years since I read Heir of Fire, so I had to go look up spoilers for it so I would remember what in the world was going on. I had heard that this book was a bit controversial among its fans, and I suppose I can see why, but I ended up rather liking it.

4.25/5 stars

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Other Things

• I had my first wedding anniversary on August 1st
• My 28th birthday was on August 7th
• We went to Chicago and saw a live recording of Wait Wait Don’t Tell me and Peter Sagal signed my book!

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Reading Goals

• Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books: 52/40
• Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books: 3/10
• Keep book buying low (6-8 books/season):
  • January-March purchases: 9
  • April-June purchases: 12
  • July-September purchases: I don’t wanna talk about it
  • October-December purchases:
• Get my physical TBR down to 270 books: 303
• Finish the r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge by Mar 31, 2019

• Participate in the Beat the Backlist Challenge: Discontinued

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And that’s it! Happy reading! 😀