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).
Might as well make use of some of these new emojis…interesting bunch we’ve got here
And sorry for the lack of a book review this week, I just didn’t have the energy for it once the afternoon/evening came (first day after spring break, am I right or am I right).
GENERAL THOUGHTS:
The beginning of March was a bit of a slog, what with all my classes trying to cram a bunch of stuff in before spring break. I finally have that big research paper out of the way though, and we did loads of fun projects in creative writing!
My reading month was good, I’d say; very few books that I didn’t like (no 1-stars and only one 2-star!), my first 5-star read of the year, and indulging in a Smoke Thieves trilogy re-read. I finally got into Heartstopper after all these years of having it on hold at the library too! Worth the wait.
This month was also the month that I finally, finally started sharing my WIP with people! I’ve sent it to some family and friends, and…not gonna lie here, my hands were shaking whenever I put it out there, but I’m proud of myself for getting over the initial hurdle after clamming up about my writing for so many years. Baby steps.
Other than that, I went to see the new Batman (AMAZING!), re-watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show, continued with Raised by Wolves and started Severance, and went to the museum and played guitar there. They have a guitar exhibit at the Denver Museum right now, so I put on a one-man show for my dad and the security guard. The very short setlist consisted of “Trimm Trabb” and “Savior Complex.”
And yesterday, I hit 500 followers!! I’m going to make a longer post later, but for now, thank you all so much for your love and support. 💗
READING AND BLOGGING:
I read 20 books this month! I thought I’d read less for some reason…it feels like I haven’t had as much time to read this month, but I suppose I did read some short books.
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!)
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.
here’s another Ringo picture as a treat
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
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!
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.
Whew, my week went from “relaxing snow day” to “dear god I have at least 4 different tests and projects due next week” in the span of 24 hours…it’s only Tuesday, have mercy on my poor soul…
Hence why I’m writing this review a little later than usual. I’ll probably be a bit less frequent with my posting in the upcoming weeks, but I can do the usual memes and reviews, at the very least. ✌️
Anyway, I preordered this book back in July, mostly just on the basis of a) Amie Kaufman and b) THAT PRETTY COVER. It came in the mail with Skyhunter a few weeks back, and I’m pleased to say that The Other Side of the Sky was a genre-bending success!
North and Nimhara are from worlds that couldn’t be more different than each other. But a twist of fate will bring them together, with possibly disastrous consequences…
North is the prince of his domain in the sky, a floating city fueled by advanced technology. A tragic accident with his aircraft causes him to crash, thrusting him into the world below. The world that, legend has it, is uninhabitable.
The legends were wrong.
In the lands below lives Nimhara, anointed at a young age as the living vessel of the divine. But her people are suspicious of her–every god and goddess has a unique aspect. Nimhara has yet to summon hers.
North’s crash landing thrusts them both headfirst into the words of an ancient prophecy, once that may spell the end of both of their worlds. Will Nimh and North be able to join forces and save their homes?
Melding opposing worlds of science in magic is uncommon in literature, and it may be for good reason. Both of the times I’ve read books with such concepts (see The Wrinkled Crown, Story Thieves), it’s fallen disappointingly flat. But never fear–The Other Side of the Sky is the shining exception to that rule! Though most of the book is set in Nimh’s terrestrial, magic-oriented home, the fantasy and science worlds both felt seamlessly fleshed out–and packed with lovely imagery, at that.
Going off of that…this is honestly worldbuilding that I could–and want to–lose myself in. Every inch of this fantastical realm felt so lived-in and authentic, and there wasn’t any instances where I felt like information was being unceremoniously dumped over my head. The imagery only accentuated the fact–rich, vivid, and immersive, it made reading this novel not just a way to take a break from my (overwhelming) reality, but an experience in and of itself.
And the characters! I really haven’t read much by Meagan Spooner (save for These Broken Stars and Unearthed, which are others that she co-wrote with Kaufman), but Amie Kaufman (or, at least *partially* Amie Kaufman) never misses the mark with every aspect of the characters, from their individual personalities to their chemistry. Nimh was not only intelligent and resourceful, but she had an authentic vulnerability to her as well. Anyone with a big responsibility on their shoulders (even though I don’t know anybody who’s actually a living/god/goddess/goddexx…hello?) will absolutely relate to her. North was similarly cunning, but it was kind of funny to see how bumbling he first was upon landing in Nimh’s world and seeing how he coped with knowing nothing at all about his surroundings. Made for some great character development, too.
Oh, and the representation! Both Nimh and North are implied to be POC, and North not only has two moms, but was in a polyamorous relationship with a girl and another boy, so he’s poly and bi (or pan or omni? not entirely sure, but I’m here for it either way)! 🙂 (Sidenote…I kind of imagined North like Hunter from Raised by Wolves…random, but I thought it was worth noting…)
(EDIT: Amie Kaufman just confirmed that North is bi! 💗💜💙)
Hunter’s the one on the left in this picture, for reference. There’s very few pics of him when I google him, for some reason…I guess it’s bc the show’s newish…EH I digress
All in all, a vividly designed and lushly written melding of science fiction and fantasy. 4 stars!
The Other Side of the Sky is the first in a duology, followed by an untitled second book set to be released next year (2021). Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner together are also the authors of the Starbound Trilogy and the Unearthed duology. Kaufman and Spooner have also written several series on their own, including the Elementals trilogy (Kaufman), the Illuminae Files (Kaufman, cowritten with Jay Kristoff), the Aurora Cycle (Kaufman, cowritten with Jay Kristoff), the Skylark trilogy (Spooner), Hunted (Spooner), and Sherwood (Spooner).
Today’s song:
That’s it for this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!
Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you all well.
Now that all of the big tests and quizzes that I’ve been stressing out over are over with, I’m feeling a lot better. And now I have a long weekend to look forward to next week, which I’m ECSTATIC for! Just the break I needed.
I had another fairly lackluster reading week, but I enjoyed everything that I read. I only got around to reading two books (well, one, technically–I finished the first one on Sunday evening), and that’s all because of the sheer length of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. (Expect a review next week.) I also had my school’s book club meeting for Aurora Rising, and everybody seemed to love it, which filled my heart with immeasurable joy…🥺
Is this gif about To Sleep in a Sea of Stars or my AP Bio quiz/Precalc test this week? You decide…
Other than that, I went back to the library and got a good haul, caught up on Fargo, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Raised by Wolves (nearly finished with the latter…), and I’ve finally gotten slightly back into the groove of outlining for NaNoWriMo. Oh, and The Other Side of the Sky and Skyhunter just came in the mail!
Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you and your loved ones well.
Online school isn’t terribly fun, but being able to see your cats curled up on the couch next to you just makes it *puts fingers close together* that much better.
This week’s been okay. Our school started the hybrid/100% online schedule (I’m in the latter), and I’m slowly starting to get used to it. I’ve had a good week as far as reading goes; with the exception of Four Dead Queens, I’ve liked all of my library books so far! I have a bunch more on hold as well, so I’ll get to pick those up later in the week. And speaking of the library, I went to my first day back volunteering this week! It’s so wonderful to be back.
Other than that, I’ve steadily been watching more Raised by Wolves with my family, working away at my new Radiohead puzzle, and doing a lot more drawing and writing. I’m right in the middle of the climax of my paranormal WIP, and the slump seems to be fading away. I guess soundtracking your emotional tension with Nine Inch Nails just does that.
With the second week of school now under my belt, I’ve started to get used the schedule. Of course, our school has the option of either hybrid (online and in-person) or 100% online, and everybody’s going to hybrid next week, so the schedule’s changing yet again…whee…
But this week has been alright. I have now inherited the role of the president of my school’s book club (!!!), so I’ve been trying to rope all of my bookish friends into joining now that all of the seniors have graduated. There’s a strange kind of power in moderating a google classroom…
My reading week hasn’t been *as* productive, but I went through my whole birthday book haul (I loved TRUEL1F3, but it just took me a while to read), and I loved them all! Expect lots of reviews soon 🙂 The same has been true of writing–I’ve been struggling with stretching out the plot a bit, but we’re nearly at 300 pages, so I suppose that’s a plus. I also went back to the library in-person for the first time, finished Devs [loud screaming], started Raised by Wolves, and later today, I’m going to the movies for the first time since February! (Safely, of course) I can’t wait to see Tenet!
The Bookish Mutant 