Weekly Update – Page 10 – The Bookish Mutant

Weekly Update: September 14-20, 2020

Posted on September 20, 2020September 20, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope that this week has treated you well, but if it hasn’t, consider all my love sent to you.

I’ve really ran the emotional gamut this week for some reason…Monday and Tuesday were rather chaotic; I had a lot of homework and resulting stress earlier in the week. I finally finished my first draft of my paranormal fantasy WIP (!!!), and come Friday, I was feeling great. I had my first meeting for my school’s book club now that I’m president, and since we didn’t get the chance to discuss it last year (due to COVID-19 complications/general scrambling), we’re reading Aurora Rising! But then my mood took a nosedive after I heard the news about RBG, so the day ended on a rather somber note. But in these scary and trying times, we must all remember that THIS TOO SHALL PASS, NO MATTER WHAT.

I had a fairly prolific blogging week, but reading-wise…

Flopplause GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

I usually read fairly fast, but I ONLY GOT TO READING THREE BOOKS THIS WEEK. Most of it’s because Dune was so long that it took up a huge chunk of my time, but I loved it nonetheless.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Spaceship Next Door (Sorrow Falls, #1)–Gene Doucette (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: The Spaceship Next Door (9781328567468): Doucette, Gene: Books

Dune–Frank Herbert (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Books of Titans Podcast Episode 19: Dune by Frank Herbert

Things That Grow–Meredith Goldstein (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Things That Grow eBook: Goldstein, Meredith: Kindle Store

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

All Our Hidden Gifts–Caroline O’Donoghue (eARC)

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: September 7-13, 2020

Posted on September 13, 2020September 13, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Four Dead Queens–Astrid Scholte (⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Four Dead Queens (9780525513926): Scholte, Astrid: Books

The Black Kids–Christina Hammonds Reed (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Black Kids | Book by Christina Hammonds Reed | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

The Good Neighbors, vol. 1: Kin–Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Graphic Novel Review: The Good Neighbor - Kin - The Nerdy Bird The Nerdy Bird

The Infinite Noise (The Bright Sessions, #1)–Lauren Shippen (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: The Infinite Noise: A Bright Sessions Novel (The Bright Sessions (1)) (9781250297518): Shippen, Lauren: Books

Raybearer–Jordan Ifueko (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Raybearer eBook: Ifueko, Jordan: Kindle Store

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Spaceship Next Door–Gene Doucette

Dune–Frank Herbert

Check Out the Artwork for a New Edition of Frank Herbert's Dune | Tor.com

Today’s song:

[looks up this song and sees the new Dune trailer pop up as the third result] “This…does put a smile on my face…”

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: August 31–September 6, 2020

Posted on September 6, 2020September 13, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

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!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Burning Kingdoms (The Smoke Thieves, #3)–Sally Green (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

A Song Below Water–Bethany C. Morrow (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: A Song Below Water: A Novel (9781250315328): Morrow, Bethany C.: Books

TRUEL1F3 (Lifelike, #3)–Jay Kristoff (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

TRUEL1F3 (Truelife) by Jay Kristoff: 9781524714000 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Four Dead Queens–Astrid Scholte

The Black Kids–Christina Hammonds Reed

The Good Neighbors, vol. 1: Kin–Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

The Good Neighbors: Black, Holly, Naifeh, Ted: 9780439855655: Amazon.com: Books

Raybearer–Jordan Ifueko

Amazon.com: Raybearer (9781419739828): Ifueko, Jordan: Books

The Spaceship Next Door–Gene Doucette

The Infinite Noise–Lauren Shippen

Amazon.com: The Infinite Noise: A Bright Sessions Novel (The Bright Sessions Book 1) eBook: Shippen, Lauren: Kindle Store

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: August 24-30, 2020

Posted on August 30, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

All things considered, the first week back to online school wasn’t too bad. Not much homework, but lots of google meets. At least classes end at noon everyday…

I ended up posting a lot more than I anticipated this week, and I’ve had a nice and productive week as far as blogging and reading my eARCs goes. (Expect my reviews of Jelly and Mary next week!) I finished off my library haul, and I loved the last two, and I enjoyed all of my eARCs. And I’m certain that I’ll have another great reading week next week; I got a gift card to my favorite bookstore on my birthday, and I got to spend it on three of my most anticipated releases of the year! (See “Currently Reading/To Read Next Week” below for said reads.)

Other than that, I got some new art supplies, ate lots of good food, watched Prometheus (ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL! Michael Fassbender can do no wrong…), and did a lot of drawing and writing. I’ve fallen a bit behind on the latter, but now, I’m nearing 300 pages, and I have a better sense of where it’s going, so that’s a plus.

Prometheus - David in the Orrery on Make a GIF

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

An Unkindness of Ghosts–Rivers Solomon (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: An Unkindness of Ghosts (9781617755880): Solomon, Rivers: Books

Magnificent Ms. Marvel, vol. 2: Stormranger–Saladin Ahmed and Minkyu Jung (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Amazon.com: Ms. Marvel by Saladin Ahmed Vol. 2: Stormranger (Magnificent Ms. Marvel (2019-)) eBook: Ahmed, Saladin, Vazquez, joey, Petrovich, Eduard, Vazquez, Joey, Jung, Minkyu, Ahmed, Saladin: Kindle Store

Michigan vs. the Boys–Carrie S. Allen (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Fire With Fire–Destiny Soria (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Jelly–Clare Rees (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Mary: The Adventures of Mary Shelley’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter–Brea Grant and Yishan Li (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Mary: The Adventures of Mary Shelley's Great-Great-Great-Great- Great-Granddaughter (9781644420294): Grant, Brea, Li, Yishan: Books

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Burning Kingdoms (The Smoke Thieves, #3)–Sally Green

The Burning Kingdoms by Sally Green: 9780425290279 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A Song Below Water–Bethany C. Morrow

TRUEL1F3 (Lifelike, #3)–Jay Kristoff

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: August 10-16, 2020

Posted on August 16, 2020August 16, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! (How are we halfway through August already? What’s going on?)

This week has been one of those weeks where quarantine has really felt like…Quarantine, you know? Not quarantine, but Quarantine. There’s plenty to do around the house, but I felt so weird, listless, and down for no identifiable reason for the first half of the week. Things started to pick up by Thursday, but it was still an odd kind of week. On the upside, I went on a short hike with my mom, did some drawing, watched North by Northwest, and took a tour of a museum (for everybody in the Colorado area, I HIGHLY recommend the Morrison Museum!)

Writing-wise, I’ve kind of been stumbling through my current WIP, so I probably need to get back to outlining…thing is, I have no idea what to put in before the climax, which should be coming…soon? So at the moment, I’ve just been tripping over my own feet in that respect. I really need to outline more.

Gob bluth GIF on GIFER - by Manadar — My last brain cells stumbling around my Pages document in an attempt to make one (1) coherent sentence

Luckily, I got a great library haul, for the most part–I even got a 5-star read in the bunch, so expect a review in the next few weeks! I haven’t read much MG this year, so it was fun to have a few of such books to get into.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Ice Wolves (Elementals, #1)–Amie Kaufman (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Elementals: Ice Wolves: Kaufman, Amie, Szabo, Levente ...

On a Sunbeam–Tillie Walden (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: On a Sunbeam (9781250178138): Walden, Tillie: Books

Blanca & Roja–Anna-Marie McLemore (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Blanca & Roja (9781250162717): McLemore, Anna-Marie: Books

Show Me a Sign–Ann Clare LeZotte (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Show Me a Sign: LeZotte, Ann Clare: 9781338255812: Amazon.com: Books

Tarnished Are the Stars–Rosiee Thor (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Amazon.com: Tarnished Are the Stars (9781338312270): Thor, Rosiee ...

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The War that Saved My Life–Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The War That Saved My Life: Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker ...

Cinderella is Dead–Kalynn Bayron

Amazon.com: Cinderella Is Dead (9781547603879): Bayron, Kalynn: Books

Michigan vs. the Boys–Carrie Allen

The Weight of the Stars–K. Ancrum

Amazon.com: The Weight of the Stars (9781250101631): Ancrum, K.: Books

Spinning–Tillie Walden

Amazon.com: Spinning (9781626729407): Walden, Tillie, Walden ...

An Unkindness of Ghosts–Rivers Solomon

Amazon.com: An Unkindness of Ghosts (9781617755880): Solomon ...

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: August 3-9, 2020

Posted on August 9, 2020August 9, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

First and foremost, I hit 200 followers this week! (I’m currently at about 207, I think.) But I’d just like to give each and every one of you a big thank you for your endless love and support.

wholesome memes, aesthetic, cats and love and affection memes ...

I’ve definitely had a nice week. I spent a few days in Vail with my family, and we did lots of walking amongst flowers and eating too much sugar, so that was a lovely reprieve from the monotony of 2020 life. (Also, writing in a bunk bed is on another level of good vibes.) As far as writing goes, I’ve finally decided to resume writing my paranormal fantasy WIP, and that’s been fun to get back into the groove. All I’ll tell you so far is that it draws a lot of inspiration from Hellboy/B.P.R.D. and Guillermo del Toro, and there’s quite a lot of sarcasm, amphibious creatures, and questionable magic afoot.

As far as reading goes, the 4-5 star high capped off last week, and I’ve had almost entirely 3 star reads this week. I got another library haul yesterday, so hopefully that’ll help pick things back up again, but only time will tell.

Other than that, I’ve started catching up on season 2 of The Umbrella Academy, started watching Devs ([loud screaming]), and I’ve been rewatching What We Do in the Shadows with my family so that we can get my brother into it. (We’ve already blown through the whole first season) I also watched I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, which was lovely.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Shadow Wand (The Black Witch Chronicles, #3)–Laurie Forest (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

The Shadow Wand (The Black Witch Chronicles Book 3) (English ...

How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals–Sy Montgomery (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

A World Without You–Beth Revis (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Starswept–Mary Fan (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

The Good for Nothings–Danielle Banas (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: The Good for Nothings eBook: Banas, Danielle: Kindle Store

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Ice Wolves (Elementals, #1)–Amie Kaufman

Ice Wolves (Elementals, #1) by Amie Kaufman

Blanca & Roja–Anna-Marie McLemore

Show Me a Sign–Ann Clare LeZotte

Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte - Hardcover Book - The Parent ...

On a Sunbeam–Tillie Walden

Amazon.com: On a Sunbeam eBook: Walden, Tillie: Kindle Store

Tarnished Are the Stars–Rosiee Thor

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: July 27-August 2, 2020

Posted on August 2, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope everybody’s had a good week.

I had another library haul this week, and all of them have managed to be 4-5 star reads for me! Needless to say, expect quite a lot of gushing book reviews in the next few weeks. I finally got my hands on The Shadow Wand (the third Black Witch book), and I’m *nearly* finished, so there will definitely be A Lot of Thoughts™️ on that in the near future.

Somehow, I’ve been hitting records for my stats as far as likes and views goes this week! Before this week, the most likes I’d ever gotten on a post was about 20; now, I’ve gotten multiple posts that are above 20 likes, so that’s a first. So thank you all for all the love! 🙂

Other than that, it’s been a good week. July went by in a blur, so mentally, I’m still in July, but hey, now it’s my birthday month! I also started watching the second season of The Umbrella Academy, and I’m liking it so far! Camp NaNoWriMo is done, and now I…don’t really know what to do with myself. I outlined a bit for one of my WIPs, but I haven’t written anything in about a week, so that needs to change. Of course, I’m probably going to procrastinate yet another week, but only time will tell. I also made another original book tag (linked under “posts and such”)! Big thank you to Elle @ Geekerella Undercover for being the first to particpate! 🙂

Oh, and I also made this alignment chart of YA sci-fi books as a joke:

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha, #2)–Tomi Adeyemi (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (B&N Exclusive Edition) (Legacy ...

Goddess in the Machine–Lora Beth Johnson (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Goddess in the Machine (9781984835925): Johnson, Lora ...

Into the Crooked Place–Alexandra Christo (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

Honor Lost (The Honors, #3)–Ann Aguirre and Rachel Caine (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Honor Lost (The Honors, #3) by Rachel Caine

Monday’s Not Coming–Tiffany D. Jackson (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Shadow Wand (The Black Witch Chronicles, #3)–Laurie Forest

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: July 20-26, 2020

Posted on July 26, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope you’ve all had a lovely week, and that you and your families are all safe and healthy.

[dons a pair of sunglasses] IT’S LEO SEASON…

Zodiac Sign Cat Sticker by Pusheen for iOS & Android | GIPHY

Aaaaaaanyway, I’d say that it’s been a nice week. I can’t believe July is almost over already…

I’ve been practicing with putting on my new contact lenses with…[ahem] varied results, but hey, I suppose these things take time. Even though my reading week started off disappointing, I got around to reading two good eARCs (I’ll review the other one next week). I’m SO CLOSE to being finished with my Iron Giant puzzle, and I finished my short story for Camp NaNoWriMo! It’s nearly 10,000 words, and I think I made it appropriately depressing. I’m still working my way towards telling people coherent summaries of my various WIPs, but I will say that it’s a bit of a fairytale, and one that involves quite a lot of bad luck and an unexpected, amphibious child.

I also finished the Netflix adaptation of Cursed (expect a review of that soon), and I’m SO excited for season two of The Umbrella Academy!

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Burning Page (The Invisible Library, #3)–Genevieve Cogman (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Amazon.com: The Burning Page (The Invisible Library Novel Book 3 ...

Serpent and Dove–Shelby Mahurin (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75, rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Serpent & Dove eBook: Mahurin, Shelby: Kindle Store

FORESHADOW: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading & Writing YA (Anthology)–Emily X.R. Pan et. al. (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading ...

Dustborn–Erin Bowman (eARC) (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha, #2)–Tomi Adeyemi

Goddess in the Machine–Lora Beth Johnson

Amazon.com: Goddess in the Machine eBook: Johnson, Lora Beth ...

Honor Lost (The Honors, #3)–Ann Aguirre and Rachel Caine

Amazon.com: Honor Lost (Honors Book 3) eBook: Caine, Rachel ...

Into the Crooked Place–Alexandra Christo

Monday’s Not Coming–Tiffany D. Jackson

Amazon.com : [by Tiffany D Jackson] Monday's Not Coming Paperback ...

Today’s song:

Okay, I know that I’ve said that The Beatles should rarely be touched when it comes to covers, but THIS GIVES ME ALL THE CHILLS. LISA HANNIGAN AND JEFF RUSSO CAN DO NO WRONG, I SWEAR…

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

Uncategorized

Weekly Update: July 13-19, 2020

Posted on July 19, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope this week has treated you and your loved ones well.

You know what one of the strangest feelings (for me) is? Sometimes, I’ll watch a certain movie so many times that I’ll only be able to see a certain actor as the role in said movie, and then I’ll see them in something else, and it’s either impossible to make the connection or it just weirds you out for a bit. Sorry, that was kind of long winded and weirdly-worded, but I’m not sure how to put it into words. But anyway, I watched Alien (1979) on Friday night, and let me tell you, seeing John Hurt after having only seen him in the Hellboy movies (when he was far older than he was in Alien) was weirdly bizarre. I’d just permanently imagined him as Professor Bruttenholm, so…

Also, the John Hurt Professor Bruttenholm will always be the superior Professor. The reboot was way too out of character.

[ahem] Now, back to our scheduled program…

Overall, I’ve had quite a nice week. I’ve gotten a lot of reading done after said library haul, and though there were a few disappointments, I enjoyed everything that I read. Camp NaNoWriMo has been going smoothly as well; I surpassed my goal of 5,000 words for my short story, and updated it to 7,500 so I could get to the end of July. It’s one of those instances where I wish I could just give my past self a little reassurance–the first few days, I panicked a bit that my short story was too short for the word count limit. And now, here we are…

Everything Is Okay GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

Other than that, I’ve made lots of progress with my puzzle, watched Alien, listened to a bit too much Josh Cohen, and started watching Cursed. I enjoyed the book, and I’m about three episodes into the show. The trailer looked like it could go either way, and so far, I’d say it’s pretty good. Once I finish it, I’ll try and put together a review. We’ll see.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles, #2)–Laurie Forest (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)

Amazon.com: The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles Book 2 ...

Surviving the City (Surviving the City, #1)–Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Surviving the City (Surviving the City (1)) (Volume 1 ... - Amazon.com

All the Wandering Light (Even the Darkest Stars, #2)–Heather Fawcett (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

Amazon.com: All the Wandering Light (Even the Darkest Stars Book 2 ...

When We Were Magic–Sarah Gailey (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Amazon.com: When We Were Magic (9781534432871): Gailey, Sarah: Books

POSTS AND SUCH:

SONGS:

CURRENTLY READING/TO READ NEXT WEEK:

The Burning Page (The Invisible Library, #3)–Genevieve Cogman

Serpent and Dove–Shelby Mahurin

FORESHADOW: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA (anthology)–Emily X.R. Pan et. al. (eARC)

Dustborn–Erin Bowman (eARC)

Today’s song:

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

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: July 6-12, 2020

Posted on July 12, 2020September 5, 2020 by madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles! I hope you’ve all had a lovely week.

As usual, July has been sWELTERING here, so there have been several afternoons that I’ve felt like I’ve almost melted into a puddle. (Luckily, I’m still in one piece 😜) Somehow, I’ve read a bunch this week? Other than the fact that half of the books I’ve read have been a little bit shorter (in the 200 page zone), I’ve just sped through a lot of books. I’ve been on a fantasy kick for no apparent reason, but I’m only now being satiated by The Iron Flower. But, my library’s slowly reopening, and there’s now curbside pickup for holds without appointments, so I got to have my first library haul since the pandemic started!

Other than that, it’s been a nice week. I binge-watched all of Over the Garden Wall in one go on Monday night (shhh, each episode is only…10 minutes long…I swear…), made some slow progress on my puzzle, FaceTimed a close friend of mine (who I got to rant about Aurora Burning with), and watched What We Do in the Shadows. So other than the heat, I’ve enjoyed the first week and a half of July, I think.

As far as NaNoWriMo goes, I’m already halfway through my goal of 5,000 words for my short story, and I’m…around the middle? I think? There’s a period of several time jumps leading up to the climax (part of it involves watching a baby grow up, so…), but we’re…getting there. My hunch is that it’ll get to about 6,000 or 7,000 words once it’s finished. But I’m enjoying myself so far. 🙂

Oh, and before I get to everything else, big thank you to Beck @ SMELLFOY CAN READ? for the shoutout on her blog! 💗 (If you don’t follow her already, I highly suggest that you do. Her posts always make me laugh, and she has a formidable arsenal of gifs and quality memes.)

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

Slaughterhouse-Five–Kurt Vonnegut (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)