Changing Planes – The Bookish Mutant

Happy Saturday, bibliophiles, and more importantly, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃🍬🐈‍⬛ I hope you all have a wonderfully spooky day!

Four posts in a week (Sunday Songs is coming as scheduled!)…I probably haven’t done that since, what, 2020? Yeah, the only reason I could keep up posting so many things per week on here was because being inside during COVID gave me way more time on my hands. The only reason it happened this week was because half of them (including this one) were pre-planned. Enjoy it while it lasts!

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Unemployment summer is over, and I’m here to report that unemployment fall is…not nearly as fun. Most of the past few months got swallowed up by job hunting, which was pretty disheartening, to say the least. Thankfully, I did get a job after all! I should be starting it soon, which, after months of sending out my resume and getting either no response or rejections, is a huge relief. Just to give you all a heads up—my schedule’s still up in the air, but you can definitely expect things to slow down over here in the next few weeks since I’m getting ready to start my job. Thankfully, it should give me enough time to still do a lot of the creative things I love, but my posts will probably be less rambly (maybe for the best) and less frequent.

Anyway, that’s taken up most of what’s notable from September and October, but I did have some time to go on vacation! I loved being among the fall leaves in Vail, and it was a much needed break. And between the job stuff, looking at grad schools (you want something scary for Halloween? EEK! Grad school tuition 😭), and trying to be a functioning adult, I did my best to try and make time for all of my creative stuff. In spite of employment, my book ramblings and alien drawings will persist. One of the highlights of September was reading Ursula K. LeGuin’s Words Are My Matter, which jumpstarted my inspiration for worldbuilding and writing, so she’s been putting kindling on the fire for the past two months. I’ve also become a sort of woke book fairy—I went through my bookshelves at home and found some books to donate (with trans people, people of color, queer people, etc) to a little free library near my neighborhood. Women want me, Republican legislators fear me.

Thankfully, 2026 has been stacked in terms of great things to watch, read, and experience. More on this below, but having a new Becky Chambers book to read made my month! I’ve been occupied with Taskmaster, The Great British Bakeoff, Avatar: Seven Havens, and Abbott Elementary. I also watched You Can See Everything a few days ago, and…all I’ll say is that I need some sort of soul shower. I feel like Elizabeth’s Holmes’s eyes are imprinted on the back of my corneas. Christ.

But the best experience of all was the Monday before last, when I finally got to see Phoebe Bridgers in Denver! I’ve missed out on multiple chances to see her, and it was worth every penny to see her on this tour. I dressed up like an alien and screamed along with hundreds of strangers to “I Know The End,” and I think that healed the place inside of me that had been raw since 2020. Phoebe Bridgers, you are a national treasure. I’ll talk about it more soon, but in the meantime: there’s nothing like hearing the opening chord to “Motion Sickness” and then feeling the entire arena shake from everybody cheering.

And if you haven’t already: for those of you here in the States, VOTE! Yes, this system may be corrupt, but participating in democracy—and keeping the dream alive—is the best path forward to make sure that we can at least try to rein in this horrific administration. Check your registration if you haven’t already, and if you can, vote early!

SEPTEMBER READING WRAP-UP:

I read 14 books in September! I began the month on several very high notes, and ended it in a slight slump. But thankfully, that meant that there were so many books in between that were good or great—and I had some fun reading books for Bisexual Visibility Week and the first half of Latine Heritage Month!

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Palace of Eros – Caro De Robertis (⭐️⭐️)
My Name is Emilia del Valle – Isabel Allende (⭐️⭐️)
Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys – Mariana Enríquez (⭐️⭐️)
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter – Heather Fawcett (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

A Tall Dark Trouble – Vanessa Montalban (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Full Shift – Jennifer Dugan and Kit Seaton (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
This Is the Year – Gloria Muñoz (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Summer in the City of Roses – Michelle Ruiz Keil (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Blue-Skinned Gods – SJ Sindu (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Girls I’ve Been – Tess Sharpe (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Sunward – William Alexander (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
The Folded Sky (White Space, #3) – Elizabeth Bear (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books – Ursula K. Le Guin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books – 5 stars

REVIEWS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

BONUS:

OCTOBER READING WRAP-UP:

I read 12 books in October! I think this may be my worst reading month in terms of the amount of books read, tied with February. Understandably, it’s because a) I’ve been getting ready for my job, and b) several of these books were sizable. But even though the month started out with a lot of misses, nothing redeems a reading wrap-up quite like a new book from the woman, the myth, the legend: Becky Chambers!

2 – 2.75 stars: