Weekly Updates – Page 3 – The Bookish Mutant

Weekly Update: April 11-17, 2022

Posted on April 17, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles, and happy Easter for those who celebrate! 🐰 I hope this week has treated you well.

I’ve had another low-key week; I only had three days of school since the seniors had a few days off for all the other grades to take the PSATs/SATs (I do NOT miss those days… yikes), so that was a nice change. The weather got a bit colder, but I went out and got milkshakes with a friend, so that was fun.

I went through my Barnes & Noble books this week, and I liked them both! I read a Kindle hold and I’m onto my school book club’s May pick (Mexican Gothic), and I have some library books for next week as well. I’ve been doing some sketching and outlining for book 2 in the sci-fi WIP at the moment; just the bare skeleton and attempting to make a playlist, but I’m having fun with it.

Other than that, I’ve just been listening to too much Wet Leg and Jack White, drawing, playing with Ringo, watching Spirited Away (my god the c r e a t u r e s), and celebrating a quiet Easter with family. I’m seeing Snail Mail tonight too, so I’m super excited!! This will be my third time seeing her!!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) – Martha Wells (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3) – Rainbow Rowell (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Seven Devils – Laura Lam & Elizabeth May (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Chandler Legacies – Abdi Nazemian

The Library at Mount Char – Scott Hawkins

Extasia – Claire Legrand

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: April 4-10, 2022

Posted on April 10, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

Monday was the highlight of my week by far, but it’s been a good week overall. So Monday…I got a haircut in the afternoon, and that night, I got to see Spiritualized!! Without question, one of my favorite concerts that I’ve ever been to. At this point, I’m not even mad that they didn’t play “Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”—they played so well, and I feel so lucky to have seen one of my favorite bands live. Thanks, J Spaceman and company. 💗

I’ve had a decent reading week; I wouldn’t go so far to call it a slump, but it’s dangerously close. My first read of the week ended up being a DNF, but most of the others ended up being in the 3-star range. I’m moving onto my Barnes & Noble books and some others next week though, and those ones are VERY promising.

Other than that, I’ve been listening to way too much Spiritualized and rewatching videos from the concert, listening to the new Wet Leg and Jack White albums, drawing, finishing up Severance (AAAAAAAAA) and Raised by Wolves (I’m sorry what happened there), and hanging out with Ringo (still bent on biting my feet whenever possible, unfortunately).

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Witches Steeped in Gold – Ciannon Smart (DNF – ⭐️)

She Who Rides the Storm – Caitlyn Sangster (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Our Stories Carried Us Here – Tea Rozman Clark et. al. (anthology) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Measure for Measure – William Shakespeare (read for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Conductors (Murder and Magic, #1) – Nicole Glover (⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

Book Review Tuesday (4/5/22) – Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating

SONGS:

“Shine A Light” – Spiritualized

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) – Martha Wells

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow, #3) – Rainbow Rowell

Seven Devils – Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno Garcia

Today’s song:

I forget what dredged this song from the depths from my memory but god I love it

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: March 28 – April 3, 2022

Posted on April 3, 2022April 3, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

The beginning of this week was sort of weird; going back to school post-spring break hit me hard on the first day (and not getting much sleep the night before didn’t help), so Tuesday was a slog. But the rest of the week was nice and slow—I’m glad that I haven’t had a lot of schoolwork this week. Nice to ease back into routine.

I had more time to read this week, and I had a good batch of books from the library—all in the 3.5-4 star range! I got some more promising books from the library this week, as well as a few from Barnes & Noble yesterday (FINALLY got my hands on Any Way the Wind Blows!), so it should be another good week next week! I haven’t really done any writing since The Sharing of My WIP, so…

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing, listening to too much Spiritualized (as usual, but now I’m freaking out that I’M SEEING THEM TOMORROW AAAA), watching Severance (A A A A A), re-watching the original Spiderman (you know, I’m something of a scientist myself…), and Death on the Nile (ehhhhh…at least Gal Gadot is gorgeous), going to Barnes & Noble, and trying to get Ringo not to bite me. He’s still in that phase.

And I hit 500 followers! I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again: thank you all so much, you mean the world to me 💗

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Island of Excess Love (Love in the Time of Global Warming, #2) – Francesca Lia Block (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Most Likely – Sarah Watson (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America – Amy Reed et. al. (anthology) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Flamefall (The Aurelian Cycle, #2) – Rosaria Munda (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Witches Steeped in Gold – Ciannon Smart

The Conductors (Murder and Magic, #1) – Nicole Glover

Our Stories Carried Us Here – Tea Rozman Clark et. al. (anthology)

She Who Rides the Storm – Caitlyn Sangster

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: March 21-27, 2022

Posted on March 27, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

This week was my spring break, and even though I didn’t go anywhere, it was so nice to just have a week of rest. The cold I got last week still hasn’t *quite* let up, but most of it’s gone.

Since I didn’t go to the library last week, I went through some books on the Kindle library for most of this week. Most of them ended up being in the 3-star range, but I ended up having an (unexpected) first 5-star read of the year—The Wide Starlight! I got some new books from the library yesterday, and they’re looking promising…

I haven’t written a whole lot over break, but it’s mostly because I’ve started sharing my sci-fi WIP with my family and some of my friends! I’m still shaking internally—I’ve finally put my baby that I’ve been working on since 2019 out into the world…

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing, decorating my new sketchbook, babysitting Ringo, listening to all the new music that came out this week, going to the museum with my dad, re-watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and starting on Severance. (I’m only on episode one, but I’m already hooked…)

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Jade Fire Gold – June C.L. Tan (⭐️⭐️.5)

The Wide Starlight – Nicole Lesperance (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating – Adiba Jaigirdar (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back (From a Certain Point of View, #2) – Elizabeth Schaefer et. al. (anthology) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Island of Excess Love (Love in the Time of Global Warming, #2) – Francesca Lia Block

Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America – Amy Reed et. al. (anthology)

Flamefall (The Aurelian Cycle, #2) – Rosaria Munda

Most Likely – Sarah Watson

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: March 14-20, 2022

Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

This week was my last week in school before spring break, so after I got my tests out of the way, everything just slowed down and relaxed. I welcomed it 100%—I like having a nice, gradual slow-down to my school work before the break starts. And I won’t have any real homework for a week! We had a snow day on Thursday too, so that’s always lovely. (Minus the shoveling…) However, I’ve had a cold since Thursday afternoon, so that’s sucked. It’s getting better, though. At least I can breathe out of both nostrils now. (Kind of.)

I spent most of the week re-reading the Smoke Thieves trilogy, and I had a lot of fun diving back into that world! I made a whole post about it too—I’ll link it under Posts and Such. I wasn’t able to go to the library this week because of said cold, so I’ll probably be trawling the Kindle library for spring break reads.

School slowing up allowed me to write a little during school hours, and I’m getting close to finishing my final (for now) edits! I’m back to the climax right now, it’s getting fun…

Other than that, I’ve just been watching Raised by Wolves (anybody else feel like you’re being pummeled with a hundred different twists per episode? Not complaining, but w h o a ), attempting to help train Ringo, talking comics with my creative writing teacher, and listening to almost nothing but Rings Around the World and Heaven or Las Vegas. (Two great albums!)

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Passing – Nella Larsen (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Smoke Thieves (The Smoke Thieves, #1) – Sally Green (re-read) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

The Demon World (The Smoke Thieves, #2) – Sally Green (re-read) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Burning Kingdoms (The Smoke Thieves, #3) – Sally Green (re-read) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Heartstopper, vol. 2 – Alice Oseman (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

This section’s sparse—I’ll be looking through the Kindle library, so here’s what I’m reading right now:

Jade Fire Gold – June CL Tan

Today’s song:

very In Rainbows

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: March 7-13, 2022

Posted on March 13, 2022March 13, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

This week’s been a little tiring. I had another couple of quizzes and tests, and I’ve been proofreading my big research paper and I had to crank out a short story in the span of about a week. At least the short story was a lot of fun—went just past 10 pages on google docs, somehow.

Reading-wise, it’s been a slower week; most of the time I’d normally be reading, I was either writing said short story or drawing, so I didn’t get through my whole library haul. I did like everything that I read, though—all 3-4 star reads for me! I’ll have some good material to review next week. Most of my writing time has been taken up by the short story, but I’ve been able to go back and edit some of my WIP in the later part of the week.

Other than that, I’ve been spending time with Ringo, trying to drive in the snow (oof), listening to Guerilla Toss, Cocteau Twins, and Super Furry Animals, and watching the new Batman! Without question, one of the best Batman movies I’ve ever seen—unexpected but perfectly-cast characters, fantastic acting, and some of the most beautiful character development I’ve seen out of Batman himself. Go see it if you haven’t!

And now I’m almost at 500 followers! I can’t believe it, thank you all so much! 💗

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Heartstopper, vol. 1 – Alice Oseman (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Love in the Time of Global Warming – Francesca Lia Block (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Daughter of the Burning City – Amanda Foody (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK

I’ve given into the feminine urge to re-read the entire Smoke Thieves trilogy so that’s the plan here

Passing – Nella Larsen

The Smoke Thieves (The Smoke Thieves, #1) – Sally Green

The Demon World (The Smoke Thieves, #2) – Sally Green

The Burning Kingdoms (The Smoke Thieves, #3) – Sally Green

Today’s song:

almost finished listening to this album all the way through and I LOVE it!

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: February 28 – March 6, 2022

Posted on March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

This week’s been another sort-of-slog, what with even more quizzes to study for and homework to get out of the way. I’ve been whittling away at an eight-and-a-half page research paper for AP Lit, and I finished the rough draft, so at least I have that out of the way. We’ve also been training little Ringo, and the fact that I’ve already given him the nickname “menace to society” should say everything about how it’s going. He’s a good boy, though.

I’ve had a string of great books this week, so I’ve got plenty of choices for my review next week! Incidentally, several of them were sequels, so it was nice to have closure for a handful of duologues that I’ve been enjoying. I’ve been going through my library books and some of the books I got from my English teacher’s decluttering, so that’s been lots of fun. I got some more books at the library yesterday; one of them was the first volume of Heartstopper, which I’ve had on hold for almost two years (yep, that’s how long the wait was), so it better be good…

Other than that, I’ve been drawing a little, enjoying the handful of warm days we had this week (of course, we just got dumped with snow again), playing guitar, and catching up on Raised by Wolves (hhHHHEHSAHASHD WHAT).

Also I’m almost to 500 followers?? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Devil in the Device (Goddess in the Machine, #2) – Lora Beth Johnson (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Man Suit – Zachary Schomburg (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

A Psalm of Storms and Silence (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, #2) – Roseanne A. Brown (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

What We Don’t Talk About – Charlot Kristensen (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Golden Apples of the Sun (anthology) – Ray Bradbury (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

LITERALLY JUST THINK TANK SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Heartstopper: Volume 1 (Heartstopper, #1) – Alice Oseman

Passing – Nella Larsen

Daughter of the Burning City – Amanda Foody

Love in the Time of Global Warming – Francesca Lia Block

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: February 21-27, 2022

Posted on February 27, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

I’ve had a bit of a chaotic week; I visited family in Florida over the long weekend, and we got back home on Tuesday—2/22/22 (happy Twosday, everyone!) My routine was all thrown off for the rest of the week, but now I’m settling back down.

I forgot to connect my Kindle to the wifi while I was away, so most of my reading this week was re-reads—the Pioneer duology and Memento, all of which were just as good as they were when I first read them. I got some more books from the library, and I’m looking forward to reading them all! I also had an unexpected book haul because my English teacher was cleaning out his room and was giving out some of his extra books. Got some poetry and Ray Bradbury in there…

I did a lot of editing while I was in Florida, and I’m in the final stages of cleaning up my second draft! I wasn’t able to do much later in the week because of all the homework I had to make up from the week before, but I think I’m making good progress.

Other than that, I’ve just been bundling up for the freezing weather (nothing like coming from 87 degree weather to 0 degree weather amirite), listening to Think Tank (great stuff!), and eating leftover Valentine’s Day cookies. And we have a new addition to the family—meet our corgi puppy Ringo!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Survivor (The Pioneer, #2) – Bridget Tyler (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Road – Cormac McCarthy (read for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Memento (The Illuminae Files, #0.5) – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Blackout (anthology) – Dhonielle Clayton et. al. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Beasts of Prey – Ayana Gray (⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Home (Binti, #2) – Nnedi Okorafor (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

THE ONE, LONELY POST I MADE THIS WEEK:

Lucifer on the Sofa – Spoon album review

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Devil in the Device (Goddess in the Machine, #2) – Lora Beth Johnson

What We Don’t Talk About – Charlotte Kristensen

A Psalm of Storms and Silence (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, #2) – Roseanne A. Brown

Today’s song:

a little presumptuous to name a song “Good Song” but nevertheless it is a good song

That’s it for this (short) week in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your week, and take care of yourselves!

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: February 7-13, 2022

Posted on February 13, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

This week has generally been quiet; reading poetry in my English classes, studying for far too many quizzes and tests for my liking, and enjoying four relatively sunny days before we got snowed on again. Just low-key, and I like it that way.

I broke out of my brief reading slump, and I really liked most of what I read! I’ve been continuing to focus on books by Black authors this month for Black history month, and I’ve been finding lots of sequels to books that I’ve been eager to read (Redemptor, Adulthood Rites, etc.). I also got to stop by the comics shop, so I got some single-issues to read as well.

In the writing department, I’ve gotten more serious about the editing process; I’ve gotten into the weeds of re-reading and doing a more comprehensive edit, and I’ve been working on resurrecting a few brief scenes. I’m getting better at snipping out some of these continuity errors, but I got [ahem] sidetracked by deciding my one human character’s birthday, so 🥴

Other than that, I’ve just been studying, listening to Portishead, Mitski, and the new Spoon album, and watching Raised by Wolves. We’re also getting a new puppy soon, and we got to visit the litter yesterday!! THEY WERE SO CUTE 😭 We’ll be taking one home in a few weeks, and I will most definitely post a picture when we get him!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Noor – Nnedi Okorafor (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Noor: 9780756416096: Okorafor, Nnedi: Books

Redemptor (Raybearer, #2) – Jordan Ifueko (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Redemptor (Raybearer Book 2): 9781419739842: Ifueko, Jordan: Books

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves – Meg Long (⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves: A Novel: 9781250785060: Long, Meg: Books

White Smoke – Tiffany D. Jackson (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK

(fairly sparse this week since I wasn’t able to volunteer at the library, but here’s what’s on the agenda for now)

Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, #2) – Octavia E. Butler

Amazon.com: Adulthood Rites (The Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 2) eBook : Butler, Octavia E.: Kindle Store

The Road – Cormac McCarthy (for school)

The Road (Oprah's Book Club): Cormac McCarthy: 9780307387899: Amazon.com: Books

Today’s song:

SUCH A GOOD ALBUM DANG I’ll try to review it soon

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: January 31 – February 6, 2022

Posted on February 6, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

It’s been a bit of a long week for me—very cold, filled with studying, and topped off with a reading slump. But, miracle of miracles, our school district called a snow day on Wednesday AND a 2-hour delay the next day! Freezing as it was (and it got well below freezing in the middle of the week), it was so nice to sleep in.

As far as my reading, I’ve been in a bit of a slump. I ended up having three 2-star reads in a row, so most of the week was a bit of slog. Fortunately, The Grief Keeper seems to have temporarily broken me out, and I’m excited for the books I got at the library yesterday.

Writing-wise, I’ve been getting deep into the weeds of editing, with…varying degrees of success. I’m in the process of both cutting out and resurrecting scenes, which involves trawling through my almost 600-page first draft (OOPS), so that’s been a bit of a struggle. All in the name of making things more coherent.

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing a bit, practicing guitar, watching the new season of Raised By Wolves (interesting start??), listening to the new Lucy Dacus single (SO GOOD) and the new Mitski album (hit or miss…expect a review soon), and hovering around the fireplace to warm up.