Ophelia After All – The Bookish Mutant

The Bookish Mutant’s Books for Latinx Heritage Month (2023 Edition)

Posted on September 15, 2023 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Friday, bibliophiles!

Here in the U.S., National Latinx Heritage Month lasts from September 15 – October 15! I’m always looking to diversify my reading, but this month is especially important to me since I’m half Latina myself, and I love exploring parts of my culture and others’ through literature. I sadly didn’t get around to making a recommendations post last year, since it landed when I was still trying to settle into college, but I really wanted to make on this year, so I planned ahead. And even though the header says YA (I’m stingy about my WordPress space), I wanted to include books of all age ranges in this year’s post. Enjoy!

For my past lists for Latinx Heritage Month, click here:

2021
2020

Let’s begin, shall we?

THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR LATINX HERITAGE MONTH (2023 EDITION)

REALISTIC FICTION/CONTEMPORARY

Ophelia After All – Racquel Marie: YA | Romance, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Breathe and Count Back from Ten – Natalia Sylvester YA | Romance, Disability | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School – Sonora Reyes: YA | Romance, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez – Claire Jiménez: Adult | Historical Fiction, Mystery | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster – Andrea Mosqueda: YA | Romance, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

FANTASY/PARANORMAL

The Lost Dreamer – Lizz Huerta: YA | High Fantasy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Mirror Season – Anna-Marie McLemore: YA | Magical Realism, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Each of Us a Desert – Mark Oshiro: YA | Romance, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Lakelore – Anna-Marie McLemore: YA | Romance, LGBTQ+, Disability | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Adult | Historical Fiction, Horror | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Wicked Bargain – Gabe Cole Novoa: YA | Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

SCIENCE FICTION:

Prime Meridian – Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Adult | Novella, Dystopia | ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pitch Dark – Courtney Alameda: YA | Thriller | ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Last Cuentista – Donna Barbara Higuera: MG | Dystopia | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! What are your favorite books by Latinx authors? Have you read any of these books, and what did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

merry Shakey Graves, everybody

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: July 25-31, 2022

Posted on July 31, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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

It’s been a fairly uneventful week on my end; other than tagging along with my mom to run some errands, I haven’t left the house much this week. I’ve been trying to exercise a bit more—and I have, a little bit—but most of my days have been spent reading on the couch. Not complaining in the slightest. I was gonna go hiking, but after some storms, there was apparently a flash flood AND snow (???) at the place we were going to go, so…nope.

Reading-wise, I’ve had another prolific reading week. Most of it’s been in the 2-3 star range, but by the end of the week, I’d read something incredibly powerful but that made me feel rather sad (Man o’ War), and a sudden 5-star read that made me cry, but…in a good way? (The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects—the short comic “The Magician and the Snake” was the tearjerker in question). I didn’t have a chance to go to the library, so I’ll be trawling the Kindle library for books to read this week.

And now, Camp NaNoWriMo is almost done! I’m about 97% of the way to my goal, and I’ll finish it up tonight!! This year’s Camp was all about feeling my way through—the story, the website, and everything else—and I think it’s gone relatively well!

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing, playing guitar, watching the new episodes of What We Do in the Shadows, and giving one of my cats an extra chicken treat for her birthday. Hobbes turned 6 on Monday.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1) – Shelley Parker-Chan (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Ophelia After All – Racquel Marie (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology, #1) – N.E. Davenport (⭐️⭐️)

Man o’ War – Cory McCarthy (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Sisters of Reckoning (The Good Luck Girls, #2) – Charlotte Nicole Davis (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects (20th Anniversary Edition) – Mike Mignola (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Early Riser – Jasper Fforde

Since I’ve already posted today, head over to my July 2022 Wrap-Up for today’s song.

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

Monthly Wrap-Ups

July 2022 Wrap-Up 🫠

Posted on July 31, 2022 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

As you can see above, the melting emoji represents my slow melting, a la the Wicked Witch of the West, because July in Colorado always threatens to melt me into a slushy puddle. At least we got some rain. (And hail, one time? got enough that it looked like snow in certain parts of the yard…)

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Hot as it was, I’d say that July was another good month of summer. I’ve had tons more time to read and relax, and even though college is always on my mind nowadays, the time off has been good to collect my thoughts. I’ve gone hiking a few times, seen some fun movies, and tried to exercise a little more.

I got to read tons this month, and although it was generally a mixed bag (a lot more books in the 3-star range than usual), I still found some gems in the mix. For Disability Pride Month, I tried to focus on books with disabled characters, and I’ve found some reads with great disability rep—including the first book I’ve ever read with SPD rep! (Thanks, Carolyn Mackler!!) Camp NanoWriMo is nearly over—it’s had its ups and downs (couldn’t find the stats page for a while and fell behind on my word count, hit command v instead of command b and accidentally pasted the whole Pinnochio trailer into my document), but I’m so close to 45,000 words now!!

Other than that, I’ve just been playing my guitar, recovering from the last two episodes of Stranger Things (OW), seeing Thor: Love and Thunder (pure Taika Waititi fun), drawing, and listening to an excess of Peter Gabriel.

Also, I figured I’d give everybody an update on Ringo, since I haven’t posted about him much since we got him; he’s 7 months old now and even more of a menace to society, but he has the sweetest face…

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 25 books this month! This is probably gonna be the most books I’ll be able to read in a month, since it’s the middle of summer. It was a mixed bag, as always, but I found a few amazing 5-star reads in the bunch.

1 – 1.75 stars: