December Wrap Up! ’20

Happy New Year’s Eve! Less than a day, and this damned year will be over. We’re not out of the woods yet though – 2021 will be rough for a bit but we can get through it! But this year being over will still be so welcoming. It’s the mental line we’ll get to draw, boxing off the year and allowing us to progress.

Augh.

Anyways, this is what I read:

Books

Hunted by Meagan Spooner – This is a young adult fantasy with a tinge of romance. Honestly, I was expecting the romance to be a lot more heavy handed as it’s a beauty and the beast retelling, but it wasn’t as in my face as I thought. Sure it was there, but the author focused a lot more on magic and tone, and I really enjoyed it. – 4 stars

Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw – This was probably my favorite book of the month, and it was also read via audio book. The narrator was Croshaw himself, so it had that nice deadpan delivery. This book is about a magic school student that is killed, but then he ends up being revived to be an evil minion of a villain and he’s really grumpy about it. This book is laugh out loud funny and I adored it. The only issue I had with it was its use of an ableist slur, so if that’s a hard line for you, you might wanna pass on this one. – 4.5 stars

The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh – Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I stopped about a hundred pages in. This isn’t super shocking, as the first book in the series was about a three stars for me. This one was just… awkward. – 1 star

Ouran High School Host Club vols 1-2 by Bisco Hatori – I’ve finally started this series. I read it in its entirety about fifteen years ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy about the details, so it’s like reading it for the first time. This series follows a young woman who accidentally breaks an expense vase, and to pay her debts, ends up in her school’s host club, posing as a man and acting as a host. This has many comedic elements and if I remember correctly, an eventual romance or two. – 4 stars each

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson – This is a reread, and I read it on Christmas Day! It’s a middle grade chapter book about a children’s pageant and Christmas magic and yada yada. I enjoyed it as much as I did last time, though I didn’t care for the gender stereotypes it portrayed. Without that though, it’s super wholesome. – 4 stars

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin – This is a YA romance between a witch and a witch hunter, and takes place in France! It was a buddy read and honestly I feel like I’m missing something. The book was ok. I didn’t hate it but there were several themes within it that were a bit uh, yikesy.

But yeah, it was ok. I guess I just didn’t see what everyone else saw. – 3 stars

Other Stuff

• I’m doing Blogmas! (duh) and I will be for the next week or so.
• I’m on vacation and I’m seriously enjoying it.

Reading Goals

• You’ll find out tomorrow!

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And that’s it! I’ll see you all in 2021!

November Wrap Up! ’20

Well hi!

Today’s post is a little (a lot) late – I’m not even sure if WordPress will count it as ‘being posted Nov 30th’ because their servers are 5 hours ahead of me. But know this is going up around 9pm on Nov 30, my time. I haven’t messed up Blogmas yet.

So November wrap up! I gotta warn ya: Nanowrimo was this month, so I barely read. So this should be short and sweet:

Books

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko – Honestly this is probably my favorite book of the year so far. It’s just so weird. It follows a young girl as she’s whisked off to a school that teaches… something. It’s not really clear what, and for the majority of the book, I was totally confused. I finished the book and I’m still not sure I understand what I read.

But it was awesome. 5 stars.

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie – This was an audio book for me this month, though I do physically own a copy. This was also my first Agatha Christie book! I realized in retrospect it was one of a series but luckily they’re standalone enough that I was able to perfectly follow. I did like this – it was charming.

4 stars.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner – Unfortunately I didn’t quite like this. I didn’t really dislike it either tho. It was very meh? I feel like I read this book ten years too late. I have the box set of the three but honestly I don’t know if I want to continue. If you’ve read this series – lemme know, does it get better? Worse? Stay the same?

2.75 stars.

Other Stuff

• I won Nanowrimo!

Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 164/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
  May – Pass
  June – Pass
  July – Pass
  August – Pass
  September – Pass
  October – Pass
  November – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 209 – close!
  

And that’s it! I’ll see you tomorrow!

October Wrap Up! ’20

Happy end of October! This month my reading did slow down a bit, but I also read all novels and graphic novels, no manga, which is the first time in a long time that happened.

This is what I read:

Books

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous – I picked this up as part of my end-of-year-MUST-REACH-TBR-GOAL frenzy. It was short so I figured I could get through it quickly. Well I did. It was ok.

3 stars

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb – I buddy ready this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks and I really liked it! This was the second book in Hobb’s soldier son trilogy and man was it gritty. Killed me. But overall, liked it. Wrote a blabber, if you’re interested!

4.25 stars

Armada by Ernest Cline – Unfortunately this one was a DNF. I tried. I tried. Augh I tried. This book felt like a teenage boy’s wet dream. And to be fair, that’s probably intentional. And I’m sure there are a large number of people who would love this.

It’s just not me.

1 star

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux – I picked this up for the same reason I picked up Go Ask Alice: it’s short.

I gotta tell ya though, I was not expecting to love this. But color me surprised, it was by far my favorite read of the month. It was eerie and spooky and heart breaking and dramatic and it was perfect. I. loved. it.

5 stars

Fence vol 3 by C. S. Pacat – Again, a short one! This is my one and only graphic novel of the month and it was pretty decent. I was able to pick it up after not having read vol 2 for literally a year and figure out where I was, so it’s got that going for it.

I’m still waiting to love this, it hasn’t happened yet, but it could potentially get there. I like it, though.

3 stars

Other Stuff

• I’m super full right now. I had ice cream! Not really news but I enjoyed it, man.
• Yeah I got nothin’. October was uneventful, at least to the extent that I’m comfortable sharing on the internet.

Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 161/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
  May – Pass
  June – Pass
  July – Pass
  August – Pass
  September – Pass
  October – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 214

And that’s it! Lemme know if you’ve read any of the above. Happy reading!

September Wrap Up! ’20

Happy October! It’s officially ‘Emily can use all her spooky banners’ season (which… will start with the post after this :p)

I read a decent amount this month, both books and manga.

Books

1776 by David McCullough – This is a nonfiction read, which I picked up on audio book. It follows – well, the year 1776, in America. It goes over the battles and reads from diary entries of those alive during those times. I learned a lot that I don’t remember learning in school at all. I rather enjoyed this.

4 stars

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – I did it, I finished my Hunger Games reread! I wrote a full post about my thoughts on this, if you’re interested but long story short: I liked it more this time than I did ten years ago.

4 stars

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – So I picked this one up on audio and buzzed through it in one day. Honestly despite it being a classic, I knew basically nothing about it aside from what pop culture has told me.

I ended up really enjoying this. It was so morbid in a classic horror kind of way.

 4 stars

A Dance with Fate by Juliet Marillier – I picked this book up with my buddy on release day, after finishing Harp of Kings last month! I ended up really enjoying this too – the character development in it was awesome. I really can’t wait til the third one comes out… a year from now. Cry.

4 stars

Manga

Hotel Africa vol 1 by Hee Jung Park – This was a reread for me, in prep to read volume 2, which I’m currently in the middle of. The first time I read this, I loved it. I gave it a 4 point something. Upon reread, I liked it even more!

5 stars

act-age vols 1-2 by Tatsuya Matsuki – Shortly after getting this series, I heard that the author was arrested for being a terrible human. So we’ll see if the rest of this gets translated or not, though honestly I don’t know if I’d pick up anymore.

For what this was though, it was pretty good. It follows a young girl, trying to get into acting. She’s a method actor though, and has issues with emotions during her roles. It was a really fascinating read.

4 stars and 3.5 stars, respectively

Hands Off! vols 3-4 by Kasane Katsumoto – Continuing this series from last month, I’m still enjoying it. I can’t tell what this series is trying to be, though. Parts of it are light fluff and other parts are pretty morbid. Parts of funny and others are super dramatic. I have no idea! I’m enjoying it though. It’s cute.

3.75 and 3.5 stars respectively

Graineliers vol 1 by Rihito Takarai – I picked this one up because this is the author that wrote Ten Count, which I really liked. This however is totally different, and definitely one of the weirdest manga I’ve read. It’s a weird… dystopian series about seeds with fantastical powers on the black market. It’s neat!  – 4 stars

Shaman King vol 8 by Hiroyuki Takei – Sloooowly reading through this series. It follows a boy trying to become the king of Shamans in late 90s Japan. It’s funny and entertaining, and one of my sister’s favorite series, which is why I’m reading it. This one was pretty good! – 4 stars

And that’s it! My goal this coming month is to cut down on my tbr is quickly as I can. That might mean more DNFs, which I rarely do, so don’t be surprised if those pop up in October’s wrap up. Happy reading!

August Wrap Up! ’20

Happy September! August was a pretty good month – nothing insane happened for once (well, nothing that wasn’t already happening). So I took the brief reprieve to read some books. This is what I read:

Books

Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier – This author has quickly become an auto-buy for me. There’s just something so whimsical about her writing that almost makes me feel… homesick? It’s weird, but I love it. Speaking of, the second book in this series comes out today and I am gonna go get it after work!

This book follows a small cast of characters, trained warriors going undercover has bards to discover who took the missing Harp of Kings, an ancient artifact given to humankind by the fae. While the beginning of his book was a tad slow, it really picked up towards the end, and it and had some great character development. One of the characters I kinda hated at the beginning of the book, and by the end he was my favorite.

4.5 stars

Reamde by Neal Stephenson – This book I picked up on audio because it was a chunker. Coming in at over 1000 pages, the audiobook was something like 38 hours long. I gotta say though, it was pretty decent. I did definitely have my issues with it, which I might get into if I decide to write a full review on it. But story-wise it was pretty good. I can’t say I’ve ever read a 1000 page thriller and was actually thrilled the whole time. This didn’t seem to lag at all, which really surprised me. So yes, it was good, but fair warning: some of the terms used to describe people are dated.

3.75 stars

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert – This was also an audiobook pick up. This is a romance focused around Chloe, the woman on the cover, and Red, the man on the cover. It was a very neat read – it had really good representation as far as race, sexuality, and chronic illness. And the characters were actually like… nice to each other. I realize that shouldn’t be the bar, but I don’t know what to tell you. The ending ‘conflict’ fell a bit flat for me, as it teetered a bit into the miscommunication trope, but overall this was a sweet, nice read.

3.75 stars

Manga

Shaman King vol 7 by Hiroyuki Takei – I finally picked up manga again! Albeit I did it on like August 29th, but it counts. This series is getting more interesting, and I’m liking it more now that we’re getting some character development on ‘the villains’.

So far I’m not smitten with this series like my sister is – she’s the one who wanted me to read it – but I’m enjoying it and I can see myself getting smitten if it keeps going the way it is.

3.5 stars

Hands Off! vols 1-2 by Kasane Katsumoto – The last time I was at an anime con in February, there was a stall selling manga for three bucks each. They had this entire series, and since I remembered reading it in high school and liking it, I picked it up – all eight volumes and the two sequel series volumes.

So far, reading it again for the first time in fifteen years, it’s actually pretty decent. It’s funny, and the plot it’s hinting at is interesting. So far though it’s been rather episodic with hints of character development so I’m hoping it enters an arc of some kind. But overall, not bad!

Other Stuff

• I turned 30 in August! I’m old now
• I had my third wedding anniversary in August! We’re old now

Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 145/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
  May – Pass
  June – Pass
  July – Pass
  August – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 235

And that’s it! Lemme know if you’ve read any of the above. Happy reading!

July Wrap Up! ’20

Happy August! Today is my three year wedding anniversary! So that’s pretty neat. We’re gonna order steak or something for dinner, I think.

Anyways, I read five books this month – I didn’t pick up a manga all month which was weird. It’s been literal years since I’ve done that. Who knows why.

Books

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol 1 by Fuze – This was a 10 in 2020 book, so progress, yay! This is the light novel the anime was based on and while I thought the anime, particularly the beginning, was decent, my feelings unfortunately didn’t transfer to this novel. I didn’t enjoy being in the main character’s head – he’s a bit of a skeeve and after getting more than fifty percent through the book he showed no signs of improvement. In fact he got worse, and the things he thought and did were written as if to be funny instead of a problem. So I dumped it. The anime, while having hints of this, didn’t really get into as much detail, which is why I was able to finish it. But this man, no thanks. DNF at 58%. – 1 star

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins – This was a reread for me, which I’m doing in prep of picking up the sequel. I wrote a coffee time post about it, along with one for The Hunger Games if you’re interested. But overall, I enjoyed this book just as much as I did the first time I read it in 2011. 4.5 stars

Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb – This is the first book in Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy and I ended up really enjoying this. This series follows a young man, Nevare, born to be a soldier and living on the frontier of his country. The empire he lives in is trying to expand east, into lands inhabited by the Plainspeople, various groups of people with various shamanic-like magical abilities. Nevare himself is destined to be a soldier in this expansion and is sent to a military academy for training. This book tackles a lot of topics such as an over-bearing patriarchy, prejudice, sexism, fatphobia, spiritualism, and learning to admit to oneself when one is being an asshole. I really like the characterization in this book and the more that I think about it I think I want to write a full review for this. So, that’ll be to come, I guess. 4.25 stars

Inspection by Josh Malerman – This is probably my favorite read of the month, just beating out the Hobb book but a little, itty bitty bit. This book is by the same author that wrote Bird Box, which I read a couple years ago and loved. This one follows a young boy named J, who lives in a tower with 23 other boys, all named B through Y. The tower they live in is surrounded by pines, and none of them have ever left. None of them know what the outside world is like, and none of them have ever met a woman, let alone know that they exist. This book was really good. 4.5 stars

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa – This was a 10 in 2020 book, so progress, yay! This book is a romance and follows a woman named Sara after she tries to kill Pestilence, one of the four horsemen in the flesh who appeared on Earth to end the world. Obviously this book is apocalyptic, as there’s a plague sweeping the land (sound familiar) and has a 100% kill rate.

I had… a love hate relationship with this book. I liked the premise and some of the execution, but it kinda fell flat at the end and honestly made me kinda peeved. I’m tempted to do a spoilerly blabber on this one to get my points out, because it’s rare I read a book that gets a middle of the road rating and makes me so happy and mad at the same time. We’ll see we’ll see. 2.5 stars

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And that’s it! I really need to hop back into manga, I miss it! I made a big manga order for my coming bday (the 7th), which should ship soon-ish I hope, so I’m hoping to read most of not all of that order this coming month.

If you’ve read any of the above, lemme know! Happy reading!

June Wrap Up! ’20

All the months are blending together, this month was a bit hotter than the last, but that’s all I can give ya about it. These are all the books I’ve read in the past thirty or so days:

Books

The Inheritance & Other Stories by Robin Hobb & Megan Lindholm – This is a short story collection containing works by the same woman under different pen names. She one of my favorite authors of all-time, and over the past few years I’ve absorbed her Hobb Realm of the Elderlings series into my psyche. This short story collection contains a few stories set in that world, and were the last in-world materials I had yet to read, so I picked it up with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks, because we’ve been buddy reading almost the entire over-arching world together at this point! After this we’re gonna have to find another huge series to lose ourselves in, will need something to fill the void.

The three Hobb stories in this I rather liked – They were between four and three stars each, which considering my track record with short story collections is pretty good. The Lindholm stories though were unfortunately not as palatable to me. There were a couple I liked, but most of them were either just ok or I actively disliked them. Emily-reads-short-stories-syndrome strikes again, I guess.

Overall though, this was a decent collection. The Hobbs stories were definitely my favorite bits. 3.5 stars

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – This is a bit outside my typical genre, as I’m not a huge literary fiction reader. It follows an elderly man after he passes away and meets five people in heaven. Kinda self-explanatory. I feel like this story was written to pull at the heartstrings throughout, but personally it didn’t really pull me in. I could see the elements that were to be really striking, but I don’t know, I wasn’t really affected, except for when the main character was talking to one specific person. I feel like I wasn’t the target audience for this. But regardless, I did overall enjoy it. I’m glad I read it, both because it’s so well-known and now I’m in the know, and because my mother in law loves this book and now we have one more thing to talk about together. 3.5 stars

Red, White and & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – I picked this book up on audio this month! This follows the first son of the United States and a prince of Wales in a hate-to-love romance. I thought it was cute. The hype for this one definitely affected my judgement though. This book was listed in many people’s favorites from last year and I can totally see why, but because of that I guess I had my expectations a bit too high. Regardless though, I did rather enjoy it for what it was. 3.75 stars

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio – Again, an audio book! This book follows a group of college students attending a prestigious arts college, studying Shakespeare, and a murder. The narration of this was fantastic, I really liked the way Shakespearean verse was interjected throughout the book, and the way it paralleled Shakespeare’s writing at times. This book really pulled me in, and I found myself wanting to reread all the plays that I read back in high school, convinced I’d appreciate them more this time around. This is again a bit outside my usual genre, but man, that did not stop me from really loving this. The only reason I’m knocking a half star is I was able to see the plot twists coming, so some of the wow factor was dissipated for me. But even so, I seriously recommend this book, it was fantastic. Definitely my favorite of the month. I don’t have a physical copy of this as I listened to it on Scribd, but I gotta get one, man. I can definitely see myself rereading this. 4.5 stars

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – I picked this up because I recently purchased the prequel, as seen in this month’s haul. I haven’t actually read these books since I originally read them back in 2010 or so, when they had first come out. I’ve watched the movies multiple times but never actually reread the books. So with this new one coming out I wanted to refresh myself on the source material. When I originally read this at around 20 years old-ish, I gave it a five star rating. I remember loving it. This time around, it got a four. I think it’s just from 1, being a decade older and 2, having read more and more books and being able to better define what I’m looking for in a five star book. So I definitely enjoyed this reread, but I feel like I was able to give it a more realistic rating for my opinion of it. Catching Fire is next, hopefully this coming month. 4 stars

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks – I FINALLY FINISHED IT. I’ve been reading this book for literally years. Why? I don’t know. This book was basically always on the back-burner. I really liked it, mind you, but it always took a back seat, perhaps unfairly. Out of the four books I’ve read in this series, this is probably the one I liked the least. And by ‘least’ I mean it got a 4.25 when all the others got a 5, so take that as you will.

This series follows a slew of characters and involved a magic system based on the visible light spectrum. Users of this system are able to convert light into physical matter, forming it into whatever their heart desires, but the more the user does the magic, the closer it brings them to death. This series also has politics and war and religious factions and all sorts of things. I love it. And it’s funny! 4.25 stars

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Manga

Shaman King vols 5-6 by Hiroyuki Takei – Continued this series a bit this month, I really need to pick up the pace. Some new characters were introduced in these volumes, one of them being an necromancer that was way more intense than I remember in the filtered anime that came out a while ago. So I’m rather enjoying this, the plot is getting more and more involved with each volume. 4 and 3.75 stars

Kakuriyo vol 3 by Waco Ioka – This was just as good as the first two volumes, and I’m solidly invested at this point. This series is very Spirited Away-y, only a bit darker and more involved. It follows the main character, who gets pulled into the spirit world and is made to be an ogre spirit’s wife. She isn’t having it though, and strives to be independent within the world she’s found herself. I really like it, and wrote a blabber on vols 1 and 2, in case you’re interested. 4 stars

Takane & Hana vol 3 by Yuki Shiwasu – Continued this series a bit too! I’m still luke warm on this one but so far it’s still sweet and innocent, which is what I’m after. There’s a sizeable age gap in this, so it could potentially go weird. For now though, it’s pretty good, and I plan to continue it. 3.75 stars

Ajin vol 1 by Tsuina Miura – This is definitely an interesting manga. I’m only one volume in so far and I’m rather intrigued. It takes place in a world where occasionally, someone doesn’t die when they’re supposed to. They find out they can’t die, and therefore that they’re an Ajin. In this world, Ajin are seen as not human, as a different species slowly infiltrating the human race. And thing is, until someone dies… and then doesn’t, nobody knows if they’re one of them or not. It’s really fascinating, and deals with some heavy topics. 3.5 stars

5 Centimeters per Second by Makoto Shinkai – This is a one shot manga, following a pair of childhood friends as they grow up and grow apart. It had a sort of melancholy feel to it, and the author did a really good job at showing how the characters subtly pined for each other as they lost contact. I really enjoyed the emotional elements to this. The plot though was a bit sedated. Nothing really happened except the passage of time, and the ending was ultimately unsatisfying to me, but then again maybe that was the point. This manga was based on the animated movie I believe which I haven’t seen yet but I would like to. 3 stars

Blue Exorcist vol 3 by Kazue Kato – This series is definitely getting more interesting with each volume. It follows a young man who discovers he’s the son of satan in a world where demons are routinely exorcised. The main character decides to take control of his situation and join the exorcism academy, set on defeating satan. It has a lot of action elements, some good character development, and even a bit of humor here and there. I really like it. 3.75 stars

Absolute Boyfriend vols 1-6 by Yuu Watase – This is essentially a quintessential shojo manga. I read the whole series this month, and it was a blast from the past and so, so very entertaining. This series follows a teenage girl who orders a robot boyfriend on a free trial, and then doesn’t return him quickly enough and is then stuck trying to pay him off. The AI in this is very life-like and without knowing he’s a robot, you’d never be able to tell.

I gotta tell ya, this series is like, absolutely insane. It’s completely over the top absurd and funny and really, don’t go into this expecting an actual serious plot. Just go with the flow and take each plot development with humor and you’ll love it. It’s. Nuts. 3.5-4.5 stars each

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Other Stuff

• I went to the bookstore this month! Like three times! Though I have a feeling it’s a luxury that’ll go away again. Spikes are a thing because nobody feels like taking preventative measures, apparently.

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Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 134/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
  May – Pass
  June – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 235

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And that’s it! I actually read books this month (and bought books too, which hasn’t happened in a while). I’m glad I’m actually in the mood for novels again, I missed them.

Happy reading!

Reading Goals 2020! | Mid-year check-in

It’s officially the time of year where does their mid-year posts: check-ins, best/work books so far, etc, and I’m rather pumped for it. I love these kinds of posts, I get so many good recommendations! (PS so if you post these kinds of these and you don’t see me in there in your posts already, please link them and I’ll go lookie)

So, January 2nd of this year, I posted a bunch Reading Goals. This is my progress on them so far:

• Read 50 books

I’ve actually increased this to 100 books, since I hit it really fast. I’ve been on a manga kick and that really helped. Currently I’m at 132 books read (the majority manga) so I can say both this goal and the updated one are complete.

• Maintain a consistent posting schedule

At the time of posting, my schedule was Saturday-Sunday-Wednesday. Right now it’s Saturday-Sunday-Tuesday, and I keep it up most of the time. I tend to miss one or two posts per month, but overall I think I’m doing okay, mostly consistent. So considering I still have six months to crash and burn, I’ll say this one is in progress.

• Keep track of reading statistics

So… I’ve noticed a trend. My goal was to keep track of statistics as I read the books, but I tend to just binge-add fifty or sixty books at a time. So right now, it’s been a while since I’ve updated my stats. But I will do so by the time I post about them. So this also gets a solid in progress.

• Reduce physical TBR to 200

This one took a bit of an interesting turn: When I made this goal, I had 252 books on my physical TBR. That included fiction and nonfiction. The problem is, I read nonfiction…. sometimes. So I decided to split my nonfiction books to its own TBR. So remaining, I have 236 unread fiction books. Nonfiction honestly I’m not too worried about, because I own so little of it and I read it so seldom. So from this point I’m going to focus on getting my unread fiction down to under 200 books. Cheating? Yes. Pbtbtbt. In progress

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And that’s it! So far I haven’t horrendously failed any so I’m doing pretty well I think. Lemme know how you’re doing! And like I said if you post mid-year-y posts, do link me, I wanna see.

Happy reading!

May Wrap Up | ’20

Happy end-of-May! I read quite a bit this monthly, mostly manga still. I just can’t shake this kick that I’m in, I don’t know what’s up with it.

Anyways, this is what I read:

Books

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – While I did like this book, I fear I have the unpopular opinion of ‘it didn’t leave me wanting more’. I know there are like four or five books in this series now but honestly I don’t plan on continuing. I rated this highly, so don’t think it was because I didn’t like it, but I don’t know, it just didn’t really… ensnare me, I guess? 4 stars

Shaman King vols 1-4 by Hiroyuki Takei – Shaman King is a series I read a lot as a teen. I used to own the first seven or eight volumes, and the first volume in particular – the one shown above – I’ve probably read fifty times. I ended up giving my copies to my sister though, who went on to collect the the entire 32 volumes of it. I decided since I’m stuck at home anyways, that I should finally read the whole thing. I like it just as much as I remember! 4, 3.5, 4, and 4 stars respectively

Waiting for Spring vols 1-4 by Anashin – If you follow my wrap ups at all, you’ll know that I just read this back in March or so. Well, I read it again when I picked up the volumes physically, along with three more. I like it just as much as I did, and I do plan on getting more volumes in this series. This is a fluffy romance and it’s cute and I love it. 4, 4, 4, and 3.75 stars respectively

Yarichin Bitch Club vols 1-2 by Ogeretsu Tanaka – Honestly going from the synopsis, I went into this expecting it to be pwp, but surprisingly there is a plot, along with some pretty interesting character dynamics. I’m definitely interested in reading more of this but I still gotta tell ya, it’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read. 3.5 and 4 stars respectively

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren – Again, I’m an unpopular opinion here: I thought this book was alright. I didn’t hate it at all mind you. I thought it was cute. But I think the hype got to me about this one, and I didn’t rate it anywhere near the almost-constant five stars that I’ve been seeing around. It was enjoyable for what it was, though. 3.75 stars

Honey Darling by Norikazu Akira – This was a cute one-shot romance fluff between a vet and a guy who has no idea how to care for a kitten. Went into it expecting fluff and that’s what I got. I rather liked it. 4 stars

Blue Exorcist vols 1-2 by Kazue Kato – This is another series I borrowed from my sister along with Shaman King. This one she really likes, and it has an anime that my husband has seen and liked, but I’ve never been exposed to either. So I picked it up and aside from a sixteen year old being a professor, I’m rather enjoying the story. I’m gonna continue. 3.75 and 4 stars

Given vol 1 by Natsuki Kizu – This I picked up because I adore the anime. Honestly reading this had me wanting to really watch the whole thing start to finish, which I still might do. I rather liked this format, but for a story about music, I feel the anime does it a bit more justice. 4 stars

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits vols 1-2 by Waco Ioka – This series I picked up having heard nothing about it and I unexpectedly found myself loving it. It’s so whimsical and Spirited Away-y. I did write a full spoiler-free blabber on it, if you’re interested. 4 and 4.5 stars

Takane & Hana vol 2 by Yuki Shiwasu – I’m still luke-warm to this series unfortunately. I kinda like it, but there’s an uncomfortable age gap between the two main characters and it has the potential to get weird. It hasn’t… yet. And I’m holding out hope that it’ll go wholesome instead, but if it does go creepy, I’m dropping it, man. 3.5 stars

Candy Color Paradox vols 1-2 by Isaku Natsume – This one I really liked. The romance is sweet and both characters are rather likeable. It’s funny, too. I definitely plan on continuing this one. 3.75 and 4 stars

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And that’s it for books! I’m almost done with another, but it’s just too soon for me to add it to the list. It’ll be on next month’s for sure!

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Other Stuff

• Honestly nothing much of note has happened this month. Still being a hermit. I miss the bookstore.

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Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 105/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
  May – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 235

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And that’s it! Happy reading!

OWLs Magical Readathon is finished! | April Wrap Up

Hello! This April, I was participating in the OWLs portion of the Magical Readathon. I made my announcement post about it towards the end of the March, where I decided I was going to go after the career of Magizoologist and complete the Dragon Tamer training.

Well, in both of those I succeeded. So what I’m gonna do is go over my OWLs books first, then I will go over the rest of what I read in April. So if you’re only interested in the first bit, there will be a nice bold header to let you know you’ve made it to the end of the good bit.

Magizoologist Prompts

Care of Magical Creatures: Hippogriffs – creature with a beak on the cover

Charms: Lumos Maxima – white cover

Herbology: Mimbulus Mimbletonia – title starts with M

Potions: Shrinking Solution – book under 150 pages

Dragon Tamer Training: A book containing dragons

OWLs Books

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson – Care of Magical Creatures – This book went the same way for me that a lot of young adult fantasy romance books do: That I liked it well enough for what it was, but I didn’t love it. Now, this isn’t me knocking ya: there are a ton of books that I do love, but recently this has been the pattern. What I did love though was the whimsical way that the author wrote. I definitely wanna pick up her newer book because of this. 3.75 stars

Pandora Hearts vol 1 by Jun Mochizuki – Charms – This one really through me for a loop. For some reason – whether by the name or the cover – I thought it was a romance. It was not a romance. Honestly it’s more of a fantasy horror. That surprising genre aside, I did end up really liking this one. It deals with a realm that’s… almost like an underworld but not quite. It’s really cool, and I definitely plan on continuing this one as soon as I can get a hold of more issues. 4 stars

Model vol 1 by Lee So-Young – Herbology – This was technically a re-read for me, but the last time I read it was about 2006, so it was basically brand new. This follows a young woman when her friend brings someone from a bar to her house, passed out drunk, and leaves him there in her care. While he’s sleeping, she notices his beauty and decides to paint his portrait. Well, turns out he’s a vampire. I gotta tell ya, this came out in the height of the vampire romance genre trope and it falls pretty heavily into it. It was still enjoyable enough though for what it was, and with a dose of nostalgia added in, I found myself liking it. 3 stars

I Hate Fairyland vol 1 by Skottie Young – Potions – This one unfortunately was a bit of a let down. I picked this up due to the hype, which was mistake number one. It’s about a young girl who gets trapped in Fairy Land… and then never gets out. Forty years later, she has the mind of a grumpy adult and the body of an eight year old. This is supposed to be a comedy – brutal, gory, and full of bubble gum and rainbows. But personally I found it kinda too boring. But hey, I could see why someone would like it. Just not for me. I didn’t hate it though, I was rather neutral. 3 stars

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan – Dragon Tamer Training – This was definitely a favorite of the month. I think I like it even more now in retrospect than I did while reading it, and I really, really enjoyed reading it. This book is a fictional memoir of a woman in the fantasy-equivalent of Victorian England who sets off on a journey to research dragons in a far away land. Honestly it felt like Elizabeth Bennet was climbing into caves and exploring ruins. It had a smart sense of humor and the narrator at the time of writing her memoir is in her 70s, so the story she’s telling from when she’s 19 is full of witticisms and retrospect. It was really well written and really entertaining, and I’m definitely gonna pick up the second one. 4.5 stars

And that’s it for OWLs! I succeeded in completing all the prompts, and so I’ll continue with Magizoologist in August for the NEWTs. Lemme know how you did!

April Wrap Up

So in addition to the five books and manga mentioned above, I read thirty-five more things! 33 were manga, 2 were books. Can you tell I’m still deep into my manga kick? Can you?

LDK vols 1-9 by Ayu Watanabe – I picked this series up on Kindle Unlimited (I have a free trial version for now, so I’m taking advantage of it) and honestly it was pretty entertaining for a while, but I kinda just… lost interest. By the time volume nine rolled around, this manga was neck-deep in your standard tropes and dramas. And I’m not saying that was bad necessarily, because I definitely get into the mood for manga like that, but at my time of reading it really just wasn’t doing it for me. It was fun while it last though. I might continue it again in the future, who knows. 3-3.5 stars each

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – I picked this up on audio originally to be a Fantasy Bingo 2019-2020 book, but I didn’t finish it in time. So now it’s gonna be a Fantasy Bingo 2020-2021 book. I ended up rather liking this. The characterization was really neat and while nothing really happened lots of things were happening. This book really was a lot of small plot points instead of a big goal overarching. It was pleasant and nice, but I gotta tell ya, I have about zero motivation to pick up the next one. Why? Who knows. 4 stars

Mars vols 1-4 by Fuyumi Soryo – This one went the same way as LDK did. I kinda just got bored with it. I remember picking up the first volume in high school and liking it, but I couldn’t remember what it was about. So I plucked the first handful of volumes off Kindle and gave them a try. Well, turned out to be a dramatic romance. And I must reiterate: I do like those normally. I don’t know what it was about this, but by volume four I really didn’t care to pick up volume five. It was alright while it lasted though. 3-4 stars each

Waiting for Spring vol 1 by Anashin – I realize I just complained about two romances right before this, but this is a romance and I really liked it. So much so that I’ve ordered the first four volumes physically and they’re on their way here now! They’ll be part of next month’s haul. This manga follows a girl who ends up becoming friends with the members of the basketball team at her school. Awkward teenage feels ensue, yada yada. But I liked this one and am gonna keep going. Maybe it was the execution that made this one different? Who knows. 4 stars

The Heroic Legend of Arslan vols 1-2 by Hiromu Arakawa – Do you recognize the author name? This is the same person who wrote the all-mighty Fullmetal Alchemist! This is a fantasy following a prince to a kingdom on the brink of war. While his father is ruthless and loves the glory of battle, Arslan is gentle and thoughtful and doesn’t like to fight. This series had a slow, but solid beginning, but volume two really picked up and made me want to continue, so I will! 3.5 and 4 stars

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I think I was in a weird reading mood this month. This one’s a bit outside my norm, but the hype made me pick it up when I saw it on Scribd, so. This book is a story about a woman who had seven husbands, her rise to fame, and what happened to get her there. It was alright. I knew going into it that I likely wasn’t going to super love it, but I did end up enjoying it for the most part. So for someone who doesn’t typically read this genre, I thought the book was pretty solid, and I can see how someone who does read this genre would be bonkers for this book. 3.75 stars

Black Butler vols 12-28 by Yana Toboso – So last month I read vols 1-11 and I basically raved about how much I was loving it. Well, this month I caught up to where the series is currently at (vol 29 comes out in August) and guys, I am smitten.

The manga is set in 1889 England, and, well, here’s the goodreads synopsis because I’m crap at this:

In the Victorian ages of London The Earl of the Phantomhive house, Ciel Phantomhive, needs to get his revenge on those who had humiliated him and destroyed what he loved. Not being able to do it alone he sells his soul to a demon he names Sebastian Michaelis. Now working as his butler, Sebastian must help the Earl Phantomhive in this suspenseful, exciting, thriller manga.

And honestly that synopsis doesn’t do it justice. It’s so much more than that. Black Butler has quickly become one of my all-time favorite manga. Like, I’m talking in my top 3 ever. Ever. It’s just so good. It’s well written, it’s funny, it’s suspenseful, it’s mysterious, it’s action-packed, it’s occasionally absurd, and it’s everything I want in a manga.

The currently plot arch around the last few volumes has me absolutely reeling and I am pining for volume 29 so much. Honestly I might even reread the entire series to keep the edge off in the meantime. Augh I can’t get over this series. And as of yesterday, I lent all twenty eight volumes to my sister so she can read it so I have someone to talk to about it. I need to talk about the plot twist, augh. And nobody I know has caught up yet. So I’m forcing my sister to commiserate with me. She’s gonna send me live-reactions as she reads and I’m so ready for it. I do have to say though, while the manga is fantastic, I don’t think the anime is on the same caliber. For some reason the anime is mostly filler. It’s not bad, it’s good, but if you watch the anime and go ‘why in the world does she love this so much’ it’s because you’re missing the point. Most of the manga plot doesn’t actually show up in the anime. Just. Sayin’.

Anyways, I love this series. The last I think four volumes were all five stars, and leading up to it, there were a few more dotted in there. I’m so ready for volume 29.

4-5 stars each

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Other Stuff

• I’ve jumped on the baking bandwagon. Cooking, too. This month, I made coffee cake, loaded potato soup, a million tacos, and today I’m gonna take a crack at a slow-cooker brownie cookie. I even bought yeast, dammit.
• I started playing Breath of the Wild again, and man am I loving it.

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Reading Goals

• Read 50 books – 94/100
  
• Maintain a consistent posting schedule
  January – Fail
  February – Pass
  March – Pass
  April – Pass
• Keep track of reading statistics – In progress
  
• Reduce physical TBR to 200 – 236

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And that’s it! April was a tiring month despite me not really doing anything. It was weird. If you’ve read any of the above, lemme know! Happy reading!