The Obsidian Tower – The Bookish Mutant

Happy Wednesday, bibliophiles! I hope this last Wednesday of June has treated you well.

It’s finally summer, and now we’re halfway through 2021! Crazy to think about, but honestly? Good riddance. Online school was horrendous. But now that’s all done for, and I still have a bit more free time before I go back to school.

Anyways…

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Summer has freed up a lot more time to blog, which I’ve enjoyed! Even though I took a break with my vacation, I had time to make a lot of posts that were loads of fun to write.

And my vacation! Being in an airport for the first time since mid-2019 was…weird, to say the least, but Glacier National Park was beautiful! Being back in nature for a solid week definitely mended up some of the pieces that learning from a screen broke down.

Somehow, June has been one of my lowest reading months, though. I think it’s partly because while I was reading on vacation, I spread the three books I bought out a little bit more, but hey, I’m officially halfway to my goal of 250 books for the year! (I’m at 132 right now.) I also read a lot of great queer stuff for pride month, and I found some amazing books as a result. (But hey! Read queer all year long!) I hope you all had a lovely pride month. As always, here’s a reminder: you are loved, you are valid, you are beautiful, and nobody has a say in your identity except for YOU. ❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I’ve made some good progress with my sci-fi WIP as well! I had a nasty case of creative block for a few days after getting back from Montana, but with a little help from sci-fi Pinterest and my sketchbook, I’m back on track. I just passed 100 pages yesterday!!

Other than that, I’ve just been drawing little aliens, getting back to volunteering at the library, watching Loki and Invincible, and enjoying the warmer weather.

Also, I changed my profile picture to Rabbi Milligan from Fargo on a whim…hey, why not?

We live with the choices we make. Consequences.”... - Tumbex

READING AND BLOGGING:

I managed to read 20 books this month! Not as many as I would’ve liked to, but at least I got to make some trips to my favorite bookstore. Didn’t have any 5-stars that weren’t re-reads, but I have a few 4.5-star reads that I adored!

2 – 2.75 stars:

Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins – ARC Review – Books Real When Shared — *Here the Whole Time*

The Orphanage of Gods – Helena Coggan (⭐️⭐️)

The Obsidian Tower (Rooks and Ruin, #1) – Melissa Caruso (⭐️⭐️)

Here the Whole Time – Vitor Martins (⭐️⭐️.75)

3 – 3.75 stars:

Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh — *Every Body Looking*

The First Sister – Linden A. Lewis (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Upside of Unrequited – Becky Albertalli (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Hidden World of the Fox – Adele Brand (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Hot Dog Girl – Jennifer Dugan (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles, #1) – Aileen Erin (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Light of the Midnight Stars – Rena Rossner (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

A Chorus Rises (A Song Below Water, #2) – Bethany C. Morrow (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

Every Body Looking – Candice Iloh (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Amazon.com: The Ones We're Meant to Find (9781250258564): He, Joan: Books — *The Ones We’re Meant to Find*

The Falling in Love Montage – Ciara Smyth (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Chameleon Moon (Chameleon Moon, #1) – RoAnna Sylver (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Juliet Takes a Breath – Gabby Rivera (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Instructions for Dancing – Nicola Yoon (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Sasha Masha – Agnes Borinsky (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Between Burning Worlds (System Divine, #2) – Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

The Ones We’re Meant to Find – Joan He (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea – Maggie Tokuda-Hall (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

Heart of Iron: Amazon.co.uk: Poston, Ashley: 9780062652850: Books — *Heart of Iron*

Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron, #1) – Ashley Poston (re-read) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH (NOT COUNTING RE-READS): The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea – 4.5 stars

Amazon.com: The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea (9781536204315): Tokuda-Hall, Maggie: Books

SOME POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

POSTS I ENJOYED FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE:

FictionFixer’s review/video essay of Cruella (it looks awful but I kinda wanna watch it as a joke skdjhfskjdhf)
Phoenix’s post on why aro/acespec characters in literature are so important
Maeve’s post on wlw/nblw ships she loves and pairing them with songs
Rachel’s post about fantasy books where the protagonist doesn’t have magical abilities
Emily recommends classics based on popular YA books

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I’VE ENJOYED:

I haven’t listened to Neighborhood #3 but #1 and #2 are just gorgeous

This might just be my favorite song right now?? So many childhood memories of being in the car…big thank you to my dad for putting this on the playlist while we were in Glacier

The new Danny Elfman was hit or miss for me but I loved this one

SOPHIE RETURNS

this whole album is incredible

AND NEW CAR SEAT HEADREST! The remixes EP wasn’t that great but I loved this covers EP

DID I FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY JUNE GOALS?

Download Girl Reading B GIF Status, Shayari, Quotes | Nojoto

Make a list with some Pride Month recs: see the SOME POSTS I’M PROUD OF section!
Read at least 20 books: 20!
Enjoy the first month of summer: absolutely!
ACTUALLY start that first draft of the sci-fi WIP: done, and I’ve made lots of progress since then!

GOALS FOR JULY:

Unf its getting hot in here GIF on GIFER - by Oghmalis — July in Colorado is ✨way too hot✨ and we already had a heat wave recently…wheee…

Read at least 20 books
Get into Camp NaNoWriMo for the sci-fi WIP
Don’t melt into a puddle from the heat

First month of summer? I’d say it’s been a success.

Today’s song:

guess I’m on a Blur kick hehe

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

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

It’s been kind of a semi-quiet summer week for me, which I’m not complaining about in the slightest. I had a lot of time to read, I did some drawing and writing, and I hung out and got ice cream with one of my closest friends! Since I was fully remote for all of last year for school, I hadn’t really hung out with anyone since…oh, probably 2019, so it was so lovely to see her again.

Reading-wise, I had a bit of a hit-or-miss week; I read a lot, but almost every other book I read was just kind of meh. I did find an AMAZING read though, and I can’t wait to review it next week! The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea made my heart so happy, but more on that later…

As for writing, it’s also been a toss-up; I had a few days this week where I cranked out a whole bunch of words for scenes I really liked, but then the motivation would fade away a little bit. Last night I could barely write, even though I’m switching to the POV of my favorite character, so hopefully I can get my motivation back into gear…

Loki Episode 3 Casual Marvel Fan Thoughts — my will to write disappearing as soon as I open the Pages document

Other than that, I finished Invincible (That finale was BRUTAL), caught up on Loki (BI RIGHTS), listened to a lot of Gorillaz and the new Car Seat Headrest covers EP, and drove on the highway for the first time! I still need quite a few more hours before I can do my driver’s test, but I’m getting there!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Juliet Takes a Breath – Gabby Rivera (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)