April Wrap-Up 💻

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you well.

This monthly wrap-up was brought to you by the letter ‘S.’

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Well, here we are. It’s nice and warm outside, I’m only about a week and a half away from finishing my first year of college, and “Cool About It” is my most-listened-to song of the year so far, according to Apple Music. Yeah, I’m fine.

Somehow, I’m finally at the stage in the school year where everything is starting to wind down. My really stressful finals finals moment ended up happening…a good two weeks before I really should’ve been doing all that, but there’s something to be said for starting projects early and finishing them before everything is supposed to get stressful. (My secret? Overthinking and overestimating how close due dates are. Works like a charm.) Now that finals are right around the corner, I really don’t have a whole lot to do, blissfully. All is quiet. No stats tests to bomb at 7 am in a building I’ve never even set foot in before. I have achieved inner peace (becoming a humanities major).

That being said, working on all of these projects did eat up a good amount of time that I’d normally be reading, or blogging, and all of my other silly little activities, so my reading did take a relative hit. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t find some great books—I got to some anticipated releases, and I have another 5-star read to tick off the list! There were several non-review/Sunday Songs posts that I was eager to get to (see below), and I managed to get them all written, so I’m glad about that. Also, finally finished the Broken Earth trilogy…[incoherent, muffled screams intensify]

Other than that, I finished Dark (CORRECTION: IT FINISHED ME. GO WATCH DARK), watched Beau Is Afraid (forget Beau, dude, I’m afraid…also very overwhelmed…), had some fun on Easter, got a nasty cough (just now getting over it 😭), and started packing up my dorm. Time…time is a thing, huh?

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 16 books this month! I wasn’t able to read as much because of finals season, but it’s been a decent, if slightly more on the “miss” side of hit or miss, bunch. I did get a 5-star read, but said book was Thom Yorke’s lyrics and poetry combined with Stanley Donwood’s older Radiohead art, so that was bound to happen.

Also, I unintentionally read an abnormal amount of books that start with the letter ‘S’…do with that what you will.

2 – 2.75 stars:

• Made of Stars – Jenna Voris (⭐️⭐️)
• The Spear Cuts Through Water – Simon Jimenez (⭐️⭐️)
• Self-Made Boys (Remixed Classics) – Anna-Marie McLemore (⭐️⭐️.5)
• Unseelie (Unseelie Duology, #1) – Ivelisse Housman (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

• My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – Kabi Nagata (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Social Queue – Kay Kerr (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Never a Dull Moment: 1971 – The Year Rock Exploded – David Hepworth (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Stars and Smoke (Stars and Smoke, #1) – Marie Lu (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Strange Beasts of China – Yan Ge (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Star Splitter – Matthew J. Kirby (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

• Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three, #1) – Joan He (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1) – Octavia E. Butler (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Complete Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) – N.K. Jemisin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

5 stars:

• Fear Stalks the Land!: A Commonplace Book – Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Fear Stalks the Land! – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

• I had fun reviewing Strike the Zither, Stars and Smoke, The Spear Cuts Through Water, and Social Queue! (again with the letter ‘S’
• More music rambling—here are my Sunday Songs from 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, and 4/30!
• Happy Autism Acceptance Month! I made a list of book recs from autistic authors for the occasion.
• I reviewed boygenius’ great new album, the record!
• I reviewed season 2 of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone!

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

• Phoenix talks about her favorite books of the year so far!
• Marie made a super fun post: pick a spring aesthetic, get a YA book rec!
• Rania made a list of diverse reads for summer!
• LitForQueers made a list of bittersweet queer novels!
• Laurel made a list of sapphic sci-fi books!

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

Today’s song:

That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!