Currently Reading

This past week was curriculum inventory week at work, which basically means I'm walking back and forth across campus moving huge boxes of curriculum nonstop the entire week. It's exhausting, and it meant that I was too tired to focus on much when I got home from work, which means...very little reading progress. So, here we are, a list of the books I'm currently (very slowly) reading and my thoughts on them so far.

1. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton - This is a reread, and I know things end up being pretty dire, but I have to say the aesthetic at the beginning of the book...so pleasing. So delightful.

2. Champions of the Galaxy by Tola Okogwu - With any luck, I'll finish reading this ARC over the next week and be able to post a review! So far, I'm kind of on the fence about it, but it has potential.

3. A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann - I'm reading this to Joel at bedtime, so it's going to be a while before I finish it, but I'm thirsty for answers to some of the things that have been presented so far. This is sort of a dystopian Greek mythology setting, and...it's good.

4. The Light We Lost by Kyla Stone - Mystery book reveal! I really can't decide if I like this book or not. Like...it's intriguing, but also it's slooooooow. I'm still holding out hope, but I'll just say this - it's a "dystopian thriller" but I'm more than 100 pages in and so far we're still gearing up to the dystopia. Not very thrilling, not very dystopia.

5. The Hard Parts by Oksana Masters - I have to read this book in chunks because it's giving me so many feelings. Oksana's resilience and determination are incredible, and I'm loving learning more about her.

Being Mary Bennett - JC Peterson

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that every bookworm secretly wishes to be Lizzie Bennet.

A less acknowledged truth is that Mary Bennet might be a better fit.

For seventeen-year-old Marnie Barnes, who's convinced she is the long-suffering protagonist of her life, this revelation comes at the end of a series of self-induced disasters that force her to confront a devastating truth: Marnie has more in common with Mary Bennet - the utterly forgettable middle sister - than the effervescent Lizzie. 

Determined to reinvent herself, she enlists the help of her bubbly roommate and opens herself up to the world - leading lady style. And between new friends, a very cute boy, and a rescue pup named Sir Pat, Marnie realizes that being the main character doesn't mean rewriting your life entirely. It's about finding the right cast of characters, the love interest of your dreams, and, most important, embracing your story, flaws and all."

April was a slow month for reading

April is only thirty days long, and yet it feels so much longer. Not in a nice way, like wow, I got so much done this month! In a "this will never end" way, like I hurt myself and couldn't do any of the things I liked but still had to do all the things I don't like. In the "my aide quit during book fair week because she got some negative feedback for openly not doing her job and didn't like it" way. In the "it's so cruel that there are lots of holiday breaks stacked in the first half of the school year and then none at the end of it" way.

Anyway, in case you aren't picking up what I'm throwing down, I didn't make much Read Harder progress this month. I did START Underground Railroad and The Hard Parts, which are my last April books...but I am nowhere near finished with them. I'll keep working on them this month, though, and at the same time, I'll be working on these challenges:

#9: Read a romantasy with a queer and/or BIPOC main character - For this, I picked Deadly Ever After by Brittany Johnson, which I picked up from the library this past week, and Peter Darling by Austin Chant, which I had to buy and in a very deja vu moment I am once again still waiting on any word re: shipment. I bought it from a different bookstore, who said it was shipping directly from their warehouse, which is actually what the other bookstore told me when they finally answered my email about my other purchased and delayed book, which now has me wondering...do all these local bookstores use the same "warehouse"? And why are their deliveries so slow? I just want my books without supporting Temu Lex Luther, man.

$20: Read a book set in space - You now, this prompt may have helped me realize that I don't particularly love sci fi as a genre. Are there books set in space that I enjoy? For sure. Illuminae, for instance, one of my favorite series of all time. But when I read this prompt, there was no joy in my heart for it. It is not a prompt that excites me. Maybe I'll change my tune when I read my chosen books, Beyond the Red by Gabe Cole Novoa and Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh. But space...books set in it...just doesn't do it for me the way other genres and settings do.

Well, there you have it. Bring on the May.