Tag: tbr

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Posted in Chatty

May TBR: MAYbe I’ll read these! 😁

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! It’s about a week into the month, so of course my TBR is now becoming my ABR (already been read? no?) as I finish books early. Still, here’s the plan I came in to the month with… even though some of these are already checked off. 😂 I do have a habit of this after all…

Those ARCs I said I wouldn’t request

Look. I usually have very good self control with ARCs and am always sure to only request ones I genuinely think I’ll enjoy and can commit to reading and reviewing before the publish date if it’s not out yet. This time… well, I’ll still do all those things, but I was trying to clear out my shelf books that haven’t been read yet. 😂

Of these, I’ve, uh, actually already finished A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (FABULOUS, pub Jul 12 2022) and A Hundred Silent Ways by Mari Jojie (also FABULOUS). Luckily for you, A Hundred Silent Ways is actually already published, so you can go get a copy yourself which you totally should. I’m in progress with The Olympus Trinity!

The books I said I’d finish

And this is my batch of books that I’ve been in the middle of reading — some for a bafflingly long time — that I planned to finish and… didn’t.

Continue reading “May TBR: MAYbe I’ll read these! 😁” →
Posted in Chatty

In Progress with THE BONE ORCHARD

Posted on by Jennifer

Progress: page 175/420 (42%)

Started off a little hard to get into because it was so different from my expectation that it was a bit jarring and I had to readjust, but now I’m interested!

Why did I start reading it?

This was a recent Fast Forward Friday pick, and it released just a week or two ago. It promised necromancy, witches, and royalty. It technically delivered all of those things, but in NO WAY like I expected. That’s not bad, it has just not been what I thought it would be!

In a word: weird

This on the surface sounds like a story that has been done many times. I feel like it is not a story I have ever read before. It has some of the same elements, but arranged in a Frankenstein’s-monster kind of way that set me off-kilter, and still sometimes catches me off-guard. It’s a bit hard to explain, but the vibe of it is just different.

Lines that linger

The hurting reminds me to hate him every moment, instead of only when I think of him.

p127

Most animals want to live. They struggle toward life regardless of their surroundings. … Human beings are more difficult. At some point of trauma, most people just give up and die.

p153
Posted in Chatty

March 2022 Wrap Up: 🤷‍♀️

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

Well evidently I just gave up on doing a published TBR list for March, but I had planned 5. Of those 5, I read 3 and DNFd too, plus finished 3 others for a total of 6 finished.

The Plan:

  • 1 – BOTM book
  • 1 – book gifted to me
  • 2 – Amazon First Read books
  • 1 – ARC

The Result:

I had a couple of stinkers this month, and both were from Amazon First Reads, so I’m kind of turned off from them this month. The Paid Bridesmaid was shallow and dull, and Like Me was gross for the sake of being shocking, I guess? It didn’t feel like it had a point.

On the positive side, I read a new release I got from Book of the Month Club that I enjoyed in Peach Blossom Spring! Finally, a BOTM that didn’t disappoint. An Ember in the Ashes was a Christmas gift that I finally got around to, and it was enjoyable but not mind-blowing. Two Fast Forward Friday titles were checked off the list with Loveboat, Taipei and You Truly Assumed and both were again decent but not mind-blowing. And finally, A Court of Mist and Fury… which led me to the actually mind-blowing realization that maybe I just don’t like Sarah J Maas anymore. 🤯

Continue reading “March 2022 Wrap Up: 🤷‍♀️” →
Posted in Book Talk

April TBR: no longer gathering dust

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all!

Finally, I’m not posting my TBR when the date is twenty-something of that month already! xD The reason for that is because I’m just generally excited about this month. I don’t have many ARC or other “obligation” reads, so I just lounged around my room and library pages to see what ones I want to settle into for the month. 🙂 My reads this month are primary books I already own and haven’t read yet. Here’s the plan!

I own it, but I haven’t read it

Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs by Jennifer Finney Boylan is a memoir of a woman told in segments based on the dog(s) she had in her life at each point. Now that I have a puppy for the first time ever, and live with a pet for the first time as an adult, I think I’ll be especially able to relate to this. It’s also a book I pegged in my Fast Forward Friday series a while ago, so it’s about time I started it! 🙂

Continue reading “April TBR: no longer gathering dust” →
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Posted in Fast-Forward Friday

Fast Forward Friday: The Bone Orchard, 3/22/22

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is The Bone Orchard by Sara A Mueller!
Expected Release: March 22, 2022

Why wait on this one?

  • Witches. And what witch doesn’t want revenge for something? I feel like it just comes with the territory. Maybe it’s the fact that where there are witches, there are usually witch-hunters and witch-haters. Although I guess it’s more like “witch” since Charm (WHAT A NAME FOR A WITCH) is the last witch. Quite a burden to carry, eh?
  • Magic. And not just any magic, but necromancy. Ooooooh boy am I fan of that dark magic that can lead to moral grays and broken people. I have no idea what a bone orchard is — maybe it will take necromancy to an unexpected life theme instead of it’s usualy heavy focus on death. But wowwww am I excited to find out. 😁
  • Court. I’m a sucker for royalty-themed stories. I guess it’s like the grown-up version of when kids really love princess stories and such. The fancy gowns, the politeness rules, the lavish events… it’s a really lush world to imagine and there’s so much to work with when royal court life is part of the story. Plus, magic + court stories are pretty dang common, but magic + court + WITCHES is not a combo I can think of another title for!

Summary

Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.

Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain.

Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren’t real.

Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself. Now—Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder. If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil—her freedom. But she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart. Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.

Posted in Chatty

February 2022 Wrap Up: BIG CHANGES!!!

Posted on by Jennifer

~reading

How many books that I planned did I read?

I planned 4, and read 3 of those 4, but finished 8 total books.

The Plan:

I really only planned about 4 books. Three of the four I expected to be slower reads for me, either due to length or complexity. I was like half accurate with that. xD

I didn’t plan on much, really…

The Result:

I read 3 of my 4 books, but I ended up reading a whoooole lot more. Turns out The City of Brass is exactly the kind of book I love wildly, and I immediately purchased and read the next two books in the series in the same month, for a total of over 1500 pages just from those 3 books. xD I think I also actually binged a webcomic series or two, but for whatever reason I didn’t add those in. Ah well.

Continue reading “February 2022 Wrap Up: BIG CHANGES!!!” →
Posted in Book Talk

February 2022 TBR: progress instead of plan!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! Since February is 75% complete, I figured I could make this a progress TBR instead of an aspirational TBR. 😂 So here’s what I’d had on my list for the month, and where I’m at with them!

In progress / to read!

Two nonfiction titles here, and two novels. Dear Dana is about a woman who hand writes a letter to her 500+ Facebook friends, and I love letter writing! So I’ve been enjoying this one for the most part so far, though it’s starting to get a little repetetive. Around the World in 80 Plants is the kind of book I like to dip into rathen than read straight through, so I’ve been reading it in sections at a time for around a month

Continue reading “February 2022 TBR: progress instead of plan!” →
The shape of two triangles pointing to the right as a "fast forward" button icon is made up of words in black text. In the middle in pink text tags "fast forward Fridays" and next to it in yellow text tags "new releases"
Posted in Fast-Forward Friday

Fast Forward Friday: Kamila Knows Best, 3/8/22!

Posted on by Jennifer

Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron!
Expected Release: March 8, 2022

Why wait on this one?

  • I just got a puppy for the first time ever, so I’m way more interested in anything puppy or dog-related because I get it now. It’s just a piece of Kamila’s life in this story — her planning dog-centric events like a puppy prom for a shelter — but I still look forward to it! Plus that alone sounds like a character I’ll enjoy meeting and be able to cheer for in a romance.
  • The romantic premise of friendly flirting turning into something more pleases me, because I tend to enjoy stories where the people know each other fairly well to begin with. It feels more real to me when they have history and already know they like each other before considering that they might like each other. 😏
  • Kamila seems to be only realizing how she might feel once someone else takes an interest in Rohan seems like it’ll be fraught with amusing moments. I want to watch that internal journey of denial turn into realization turn into desperation and hopefully, into joyous gratification!

Summary

Kamila Hussain’s life might not be perfect, but, whew, it’s close. She lives a life of comfort, filled with her elaborate Bollywood movie parties, a dog with more Instagram followers than most reality stars, a job she loves, and an endless array of friends who clearly need her help finding love. In fact, Kamila is so busy with her friends’ love lives, she’s hardly given any thought to her own . . .

Fortunately, Kamila has Rohan Nasser. A longtime friend of the family, he’s hugely successful, with the deliciously lean, firm body of a rock climber. Only lately, Kamila’s “harmless flirting” with Rohan is making her insides do a little bhangra dance.

But between planning the local shelter’s puppy prom, throwing a huge work event, and proving to everyone that she’s got it all figured out, Kamila isn’t letting herself get distracted—until her secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan. Suddenly, it seems like the more Kamila tries to plan, the more things are starting to unravel—and her perfectly ordered life is about to be turned upside down.

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Posted in Chatty

And I’m about to start a new one…

Posted on by Jennifer

“Do you read one book at a time
or a couple at once?”

*deep breath*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh!

I don’t know what’s going on with me this month but I am ALLLL over the place with my reading! I want to read everything, all right now! But I also just started playing a new game, which I also want to play all the time!

Which is how I ended up with 7 books I’m currently in progress with, about 5 more on the side table ready to go, and one that I dropped everything else for to start because I got a buddy read invite for it on Storygraph and I’ve been excited and this one for a while. I did plan to read it this year for sure, so why not now with company? xD

Coming soon…

Posted in Book Talk

What’s on my table

Posted on by Jennifer
ZOOLOGISTS GUIDE TO the GALAXY by arik kershenbaum

Summary

We are unprepared for the greatest discovery of modern science. Scientists are confident that there is alien life across the universe yet we have not moved beyond our perception of ‘aliens’ as Hollywood stereotypes. The time has come to abandon our fixation on alien monsters and place our expectations on solid scientific footing.

Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin’s theory of evolution – which applies throughout the universe – Cambridge zoologist Dr Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like: how these creatures will move, socialise and communicate.

For example, by observing fishes whose electrical pulses indicate social status, we can see that other planets might allow for communication by electricity. As there was evolutionary pressure to wriggle along a sea floor, Earthling animals tend to have left/right symmetry; on planets where creatures evolved mid-air or in soupy tar they might be lacking any symmetry at all.

Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? Will they scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? Is the universe swarming with robots? Dr Kershenbaum uses cutting-edge science to paint an entertaining and compelling picture of extra-terrestrial life.