Unseelie – The Bookish Mutant

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

This monthly wrap-up was brought to you by the letter ‘S.’

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Well, here we are. It’s nice and warm outside, I’m only about a week and a half away from finishing my first year of college, and “Cool About It” is my most-listened-to song of the year so far, according to Apple Music. Yeah, I’m fine.

Somehow, I’m finally at the stage in the school year where everything is starting to wind down. My really stressful finals finals moment ended up happening…a good two weeks before I really should’ve been doing all that, but there’s something to be said for starting projects early and finishing them before everything is supposed to get stressful. (My secret? Overthinking and overestimating how close due dates are. Works like a charm.) Now that finals are right around the corner, I really don’t have a whole lot to do, blissfully. All is quiet. No stats tests to bomb at 7 am in a building I’ve never even set foot in before. I have achieved inner peace (becoming a humanities major).

That being said, working on all of these projects did eat up a good amount of time that I’d normally be reading, or blogging, and all of my other silly little activities, so my reading did take a relative hit. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t find some great books—I got to some anticipated releases, and I have another 5-star read to tick off the list! There were several non-review/Sunday Songs posts that I was eager to get to (see below), and I managed to get them all written, so I’m glad about that. Also, finally finished the Broken Earth trilogy…[incoherent, muffled screams intensify]

Other than that, I finished Dark (CORRECTION: IT FINISHED ME. GO WATCH DARK), watched Beau Is Afraid (forget Beau, dude, I’m afraid…also very overwhelmed…), had some fun on Easter, got a nasty cough (just now getting over it 😭), and started packing up my dorm. Time…time is a thing, huh?

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 16 books this month! I wasn’t able to read as much because of finals season, but it’s been a decent, if slightly more on the “miss” side of hit or miss, bunch. I did get a 5-star read, but said book was Thom Yorke’s lyrics and poetry combined with Stanley Donwood’s older Radiohead art, so that was bound to happen.

Also, I unintentionally read an abnormal amount of books that start with the letter ‘S’…do with that what you will.

2 – 2.75 stars:

Made of Stars – Jenna Voris (⭐️⭐️)
The Spear Cuts Through Water – Simon Jimenez (⭐️⭐️)
Self-Made Boys (Remixed Classics) – Anna-Marie McLemore (⭐️⭐️.5)
Unseelie (Unseelie Duology, #1) – Ivelisse Housman (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – Kabi Nagata (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Social Queue – Kay Kerr (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Never a Dull Moment: 1971 – The Year Rock Exploded – David Hepworth (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Stars and Smoke (Stars and Smoke, #1) – Marie Lu (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Strange Beasts of China – Yan Ge (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Star Splitter – Matthew J. Kirby (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three, #1) – Joan He (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1) – Octavia E. Butler (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Complete Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (for school) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) – N.K. Jemisin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

5 stars:

Fear Stalks the Land!: A Commonplace Book – Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Fear Stalks the Land! – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

I had fun reviewing Strike the Zither, Stars and Smoke, The Spear Cuts Through Water, and Social Queue! (again with the letter ‘S’
More music rambling—here are my Sunday Songs from 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, and 4/30!
Happy Autism Acceptance Month! I made a list of book recs from autistic authors for the occasion.
I reviewed boygenius’ great new album, the record!
I reviewed season 2 of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone!

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

this song has taken up far too much space in my brain but I’m not complaining at all

this song sounds so sparkly I love it

we love First Band on the Moon in this house

another favorite of mine from this album

I wish you could still make custom ringtones out of songs bc this would absolutely be my pick

what is April if not Dark and boygenius taking up all my brain space

no thoughts only the one happy Radiohead song in existence

Today’s song:

in which Peter Gabriel gets into those Danny Elfman shenanigans

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

Happy Thursday, bibliophiles!

As some of you may know, April is Autism Acceptance Month here in the U.S.! I don’t think I’ve highlighted a book list for the occasion, but in my ongoing quest for disability rep in general, I’ve come across many great books with Autistic protagonists and stories. If you’re looking to diversify your reading, it’s always important to uplift every kind of marginalized voice, and disability rep in general often gets left in the dust. So I’ve compiled a list of books by Autistic (with one exception—the author is still neurodivergent, just not Autistic) for this month.

NOTE: some of the older books on this list may still use the term Asperger’s, but in recent years, the term has since been renamed to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the DSM-5, in part because of its association with Hans Asperger, who was involved with Nazism. Some people still use the term, but it is still important to acknowledge the history behind the term.

Enjoy these book recs!

THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S BOOKS FOR AUTISM ACCEPTANCE MONTH

READ:

The Outside (The Outside, #1) – Ada Hoffmann: (Adult, Sci-fi) a fascinating science fiction story on a massive scale! | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily – Laura Creedle: (YA, Romance) a sweet love story between a girl with ADHD and an Autistic boy! | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
On the Edge of Gone – Corinne Duyvis: (YA, Sci-fi) a harrowing, dystopian vision of the world moments after a comet’s blast changes a girl’s life forever. | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Queens of Geek – Jen Wilde: (YA, Fiction) a fun love letter to comic cons, fandom, and geek culture! | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester – Maya McGregor: (YA, Paranormal) add a 30-year-old murder mystery to a nonbinary teen’s coming-of-age story, and you’ve got something like this book! | ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An Unkindness of Ghosts – Rivers Solomon: (Adult, Sci-fi) the raw, unforgettable story of a colony ship structured like the Antebellum South, and one woman’s quest to change things for the better. | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ON MY TBR:

Unseelie (The Unseelie Duology, #1) – Ivelisse Housman: (YA, Fantasy) I have this one on hold at the library, and I can’t wait for it to arrive—a fantasy novel about an Autistic changeling!
Afrotistic – Kala Allen Omeiza: (YA, Fiction) I love that this novel centers a young Black Autistic girl—it’s so refreshing to see disability rep that isn’t just white!
Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal – Anna Whateley: (YA, Fiction) I’m a woman of simple tastes. I see queer and neurodivergent rep, and I click “want to read” without a second thought.
Ellen Outside the Lines – A.J. Sass: (MG, Fiction) I don’t read much MG these days, but I’m excited about the queer and Autistic rep in this one!
Social Queue – Kay Kerr: (YA, Fiction) I just started reading this one—I’m excited to see how it explores autism and dating!
Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl – Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum: (YA, Fiction) again—queer and neurodivergent rep. Need I say more?

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, did you like them? What are your favorite books with Autistic rep? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

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

Tag: Unseelie

The Bookish Mutant’s Books for Autism Acceptance Month ∞