Book Reflections

August Reads: The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Cousins by Karen M. McManus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a good month of reads. The Black Tides of Heaven was book 1 in a series, so I look forward to reading more of that series. Give Me a Sign was a fantastic own-voices book about accessibility and lack of understanding.  Finally finished He Who Drowned the World after about 8 months! That is a long book with a lot of moving pieces, so it took me a bit. But it was overall a very good conclusion to the duology. I dropped the rating a little bit because some of the resolution felt like it was rushed after a lot of build up. I would've liked a stronger ending or less build up. The Cousins was a KMM re-read and who doesn't love a good re-read??? And admittedly I rated Most Ardently higher because I am a sucker  for a P&P retelling. It was a gr...

July Reads: The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This Is My America by Kim Johnson* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson* ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Hunting Moon was a solid sequel and I'm looking forward to book 3 now. This Is My America is such a powerful story about the flaws in the US "justice" system, but at least in this story there's a lot more resolution than exists in reality. Allegedly I really enjoyed for 99.9% of it. Especially reading it right after finishing This Is My America , I thought it was following a similar pattern of pointing out what a flawed and biased system there is in the US. But the ending was not what I expected and I don't know how I feel about that. Pending Reads: He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan (64%) David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (8%) The Cousins by Karen M. McManus (49%) The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang (35%) Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino* Not Officially Pending, but on my priority TBR: Bloodmarked by ...

June Reads: Bite Me, Royce Taslim by Lauren Ho* ⭐⭐⭐ Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Barely got in my fourth book for June finishing the last bit of it all of the last day of the month. Woo! The last three of these are rereads that will never stop being books I enjoy to reread. The first one I will likely never reread. It had a lot of potential and really, really, really  needed a better editor. Pending Reads: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson* This is My America by Kim Johnson* He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard The Cousins by Karen M. McManus [ Still  Not Officially Pending, but on my priority TBR: Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn and The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna] *(Not Quite) YA Book Club reads

  May Reads: Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ At The End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Debating Darcy by Sayantani DasGupta ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a FIVE STAR month of reading which was the plan! After many months of being in a reading slump, the plan was made with my sister to have a chill month reading in May. Lots of great books! Three were new books to me that I really enjoyed and two were tried and true faves. <3 Punching the Air was one that had been on my TBR since September 2020 and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It is written in verse and tells the story of an innocent person who was falsely convicted and incarcerated.  Debating Darcy is a book I picked up while book shopping with my besties in January 2023. And I really loved this retelling of Pride and Prejudice. The new version and the twists on the original characters was excelle...

April Reads: With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rust In The Root by Justina Ireland ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min ⭐⭐⭐⭐ It really felt  like I had read more than 3 books in April. Though, I have made some progress on He Who Drowned The World  which is pretty long, so maybe that contributed to the feeling. The books this month were all great at least! I had some minor gripes or things I would've changed in With The Fire On High and Beating Heart Baby  which is why those are less than 5 stars.  And Rust In The Root was a re-read that was even more excellent the second time through. That's definitely a book that I will go back to multiple times and it will always be such a great mix of fantastical elements with historical aspects that need more attention placed on them. So powerful. Pending Reads: He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi* At the End of Everyt...

March Reads: Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fools in Love by multiple authors* ⭐⭐⭐⭐ It was a slow going reading month for me, March. Finished ear-reading Obsidio on the drives to rock climbing early on and got very wrapped up in finishing the latest installment in The Halfling Saga (A Vicious Game) that it distracted me from finishing the two book club reads this month. Barely finished Fools in Love on time and was a bit late at finishing With The Fire On High (see below).  The Halfling Saga is one with quite a few trigger warnings, but it is excellent so far. All of the subjects are handled with great care and intention. There have been a few plot twists already in the series that I was definitely not  expecting and this book was no different. I cannot wait for the next book to be released (and it hasn't even been announced yet!) Fools in Love was a bit hit or miss with some of the short stories. There were a few that I ...

February Reads: Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Bennet Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman ⭐⭐⭐⭐ If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sunny G's Series of Rash Decisions by Navdeep Singh Dhillon* ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I ear-read Illuminae and Gemina while doing yardwork this month. I deducted a star from both of those because of some fatphobia and other problematic comments. But the production of this series audiobooks is phenomenal! Sunny G's was not deducted a star for the same reason. There were some things that could've been a bit stronger in that one, so it got knocked a star. The Bennet Women I was really looking forward to because it's a spin on Pride and Prejudice. There were some really excellent aspects to the story and overall I really dug it. It followed the P&P blueprint well enough to get the connection without being so exact that it wasn't a truly creative deviation. If I Was Your Girl was a re-read ...