Monthly Archives: April 2019

Sung to the tune of… these are a few of my favorite things

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I’ve been a YouTube watcher for a few years now – I started subscribing to channels that talked about nail art, which led me to some beauty channels that didn’t do nail art, which then introduced me to the planning community through a few mentions of creative planning.  Following planner channels introduced me to the BookTube world, but I didn’t wholly fall into watching BookTube channels until last year, when I found a video about the planned Wheel of Time TV show by Daniel Greene, linked in the JordanCon Facebook group.

A staple of the beauty YouTube community, which seems to be pretty common among the planner channels as well, is the monthly favorites wrap-up.   And it occurred to me while thinking about my monthly reading challenge wrap up that perhaps I should do a monthly favorites post of my own.

I think I’d like that, although I’m not entire sure how popular it would be with my readers (all 4 of you, hi Mom!)… Why not give it a shot, though, while I’m thinking of it?

This may then be the first in a regular series.  Then again, knowing my history with ambitious projects (there we go again, paving the road to hell) this might be a one time thing.  My unpredictability is part of my charm, right?  Right?

Without further ado, a few of my favorite things from the last month-ish, with commentary and links and whatnot:

  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown – my favorite read of the month of March.  See my March reading challenge update for more.
  • KitKat Drumsticks – purchased on a whim, and they. are. delicious.
  • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – all five seasons so far are on Netflix, and the show is super fun.  And at times, hilarious.
  • Sailing to Costa Rica from ApothAcoffee roastery – I picked up a couple of interesting roasts from their little shop at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, and all last week my cold brew coffee was made with these beans.  Tasty!
  • The Legendarium Podcast – I’ve heard the name tossed around by a couple of other podcasts I listen to, but finally got around to checking out some of their podcast archives.  I’m thoroughly enjoying these guys, currently working my way through their Brandon Sanderson Readthrough from 2016.
  • My 20190323_173948.jpghand-blown glass mug from Andres & Chapman – I’ve walked through their shop at the Renaissance Festival for the past several years, and finally caved and bought a lovely piece.  It’s no good for hot beverages, but drinking cold brew coffee from this gorgeous glass mug has been a happy thing.
  • Merphy Napier – my latest favorite YouTube channel, I found her through the Worldhoppers group channel, and I think she’s positively adorable.  I’m enjoying her book reviews and her reading vlogs.  She also just recently finished the first Wheel of Time book and loved it, so I’m excited to watch her progress through one of my absolute favorite book series.

Happy April, my friends… perhaps next month I will have more favorite things to share!

[2019 Reading Challenge] March Update

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March is just nearly over, y’all, and boy howdy, there were books!  A bunch of books!  Let’s talk about ’em!
20190301_203618.jpgThe first thing I read for the month of March was Red Rising by Pierce Brown – I’d snatched it up on sale for Kindle about 3 years ago but honestly knew nothing about it until recently, when I heard it mentioned on Elliot Brooks’ YouTube channel and got extremely intrigued, so I slotted it for #10, a book with a title done in alliteration.

If you can imagine a strange and wonderful hybrid of the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones set on Mars, you might have as much imagination as Pierce Brown.    Oh man, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Following on the heels of Leviathan Wakes, that makes two really great books in a row from my unread books stash.

20190303_234006.jpgSo the third time was… not so much a charm.  I guess I shouldn’t have expected much more from a random romance novel I found for free, and I have honestly read worse (I’m looking at you, Rachel Caid), but Jane Doe’s Return by Jen Talty was poorly edited, largely predictable, and written… eh, it was OK.

The framework of the story was reasonably interesting for what it was, which was an excuse for the highly predictable romance and the requisite miscommunication between the romantic partners.  Can’t say I recommend it, but hey.  My cup of tea may not be your cup of tea.  At least it was short, and I was able to check off #8 on the challenge in one night.

20190304_233303.jpgI was hopeful about my next choice – Marie Lu’s Legend series was a very enjoyable YA read, and I’d picked up The Young Elites on sale in 2016.  I needed a YA fiction for #2, and saw the opportunity to mark another unread book off my tracker, and Bob’s your uncle.

Actually, Chuck’s my uncle, and Marie Lu’s little experiment with writing an antihero protagonist fell thoroughly flat for me.  The worldbuilding was fine, the story was interesting, but really…  I found Adelina wholly unlikeable, and unpleasant to read.  She was kind of a terrible person, and I did not at all enjoy being inside her perspective.   Not even going to read the rest of the series.

20190308_075105.jpgTwo unenjoyable reads in a row meant it was definitely time to check off #5 and reread the first book of a series I love.  Having just reread all of The Wheel of Time last year, as well as Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series and the first few Outlander novels, those were off the table for this prompt.  I thought about the first Mistborn or Stormlight Archive novel for this as well, but I did burn through all of those in a 2017 binge, so I reached a little further back and decided it was time for Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.  Storm Front isn’t the best of the series by a long shot, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun to read (and hey, Kindle has it on sale for $2.99 right now).

20190311_084315.jpgI immediately began plotting how to fit more of the Dresden Files in my 2019 challenge list (yeah, don’t be surprised to find Harry Dresden’s further adventures pop up in future updates)… but I showed amazing restraint if I must toot my own horn, and moved on to another from the unread stack.

I got a hardback copy of Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan for free at JordanCon last April, so I decided it would be #4 on this year’s challenge.  I had heard a few fantasy lit fans mention the Powder Mage trilogy before, but was totally not aware that it was written by Brian McClellan, and that this fat beautiful hardback I brought home from Atlanta is the first in a second trilogy set in that same world.  And now I really want to read the first trilogy (although I’ve been thoroughly spoiled on a few major events of the series by this book).  It was awesome.  Complex. Gritty.  Grabbed me by the throat about halfway through and made me stay up until 4:30 AM finishing it (wow, such talent for an inanimate object!)…  The second book is on my PBS wish list now, as well as the original trilogy.

20190314_082901.jpgAnd then before I knew it, the only item left on Level 1 of the challenge was #6, a book that takes place during the summer.  When Linz and I put together this year’s challenge, we were thinking this prompt would be a good one for a fast, fun, beach read or some such, but wouldn’t you know it, neither of us went that route.  I did a Google search which led to a Goodreads list of books that are set in summer, and cross checked my unread books list… and voila!  Postmortem, the first in Patricia Cornwell’s popular Kay Scarpetta series is set in the hot, steamy Southern summer.

As I was reading on Kindle, I realized I had actually read it once before but didn’t remember off the bat – I expect it was one of the hundreds of paperbacks I picked up from my mother-in-law’s house and burned through over the course of 8 years or so.  My memory is not the greatest.  I have, after all, slept since then. *wink*

And with that, Level 1 was complete.  And there was much rejoicing!

20190319_214600.jpgNext up, instead of moving to Level 2, I decided it was time to finish my full Brent Weeks reread before this year’s JordanCon.  I burned through the available Lightbringer books last year, but that left the Night Angel trilogy to reread, and fortuitously enough, three spots on the challenge to read a trilogy!  Perfect!

So The Way of Shadows filled in #25 for the first book of a trilogy, 20190321_225810.jpgand Shadow’s Edge for #26.  I remember loving this trilogy when I first read it in 2015, and have read some fairly harsh critiques of the writing since then.

And when I started rereading it, I came to the conclusion that those critiques have a point.  There’s a fair amount of eyeroll-inducing sexist descriptions of women.  Some of the characters are quite two-dimensional.  And yeah, calling your uber-assassin class “wetboys” is one of the most laughably bad worldbuilding decisions I’ve run across from a good fantasy author.   But you know what?  I’ve still really, really enjoyed the reread.  The story is interesting.   And I’m looking forward to finishing the third book in the trilogy before getting to meet Brent Weeks in Atlanta.

But of course, you know I can’t just go through a month of reading without being sidetracked by something, and about 25% into Beyond the Shadows, I was browsing random YouTube recommendations and found a few Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tribute videos, which reminded me of how much I have been enjoying the show, and I couldn’t stand not to finish Season 5.  And then of course I had to start rewatching the show from the beginning.   Because that’s the kind of thing I do.

And since I have 75% left in my book in progress, there’s no chance I’ll be finishing another book in March, so this update will go live before April.

I have a few more ideas in the works for blog posts in April, so stay tuned.  You might find them mildly intriguing, eh?

And the full state of the challenge list, as always, is below the jump.  Happy April, friends!

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