Currently Reading: 14 to 20 August 2022

Currently Reading

- Descendant of the Crane by Joan He (12%)

- Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin (47%)

- Magpie Training by Irene Glasse (16%)

- Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson (21%)

- Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao (23%)

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Yearly Goal

39/50 (78%)

Page Goal

14,416/25,000 (58%)

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Been thinking about NaNoWriMo again, and if I want to participate in it or not in 2022. At first I was against it. Wanted a year to relax to myself. Then I remembered solidly that what I do at home for fun when I am not reading is write. Why would I stop doing something that brings me joy? Makes no sense. So I've been working on prepping for my project for the year. I think I'm going to go with one that's been sitting on the back burner for a fair while, Proj. Degree. A book that I've been meaning to write for a few years, sort of started, then stopped after I kid you not, 850 words. I need to keep going. I wanna write it out. 

As far as reading goes, between Saturday of last week when I finished The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, I then started and finished two other books: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller. Both for the Orilium readathon. That puts me at just above halfway through my list. 8 out of 15, or 53% of the way through my TBR! I can totally make it by the end of the month. The longest books are already done. The rest are all at or under 400 pages. I think right now, Descendant of the Crane by Joan He is the next longest one I have and it's 401 pages. Go figure, it's actually the third. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater has 408, and The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco has 406. Ah well. 

From what I gather in my notes, Aurin's managed to complete all of his Ordinary levels. He's starting on his Qualified levels with Descendant of the Crane. Irwyn still has one Ordinary left and then he's on to his only two Qualified levels. I'm proud of these boys and how much we've gotten done for them.

Nothing else of much importance happened in the last week that I can think of that would go into my reading blog. If something should come up that I remember, I'll add it. 

Currently Reading: 31 July to 13 August 2022

Currently Reading

- Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller (01%)

- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (01%)

- A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin (47%)

- Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson (21%)

- Magpie Training by Irene Glasse (16%)

- Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao (23%)

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Yearly Goal

37/50

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Page Goal

13,583/25,000

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Forgot to post last week, I spent most of the day out and about or at home reading. So far in August, I've read through SIX books and it's only the end of the second week. I still have two and a half weeks to go. I am thinking I will actually get through the readathon! Five of the six books I read during the last week alone! I finished one book on Sunday, one on Monday, rested Tuesday, one Wednesday, one Thursday, rested Friday, one Saturday. If this keeps up then it will be a rest day on Monday with pick up again Tuesday/Wednesday. 

I'm debating changing one of my books over to the BooksandTea monthly book for August. It definitely fits the prompt for Lore - Qualified, which is a book featuring a betrayal. I have picked The Merciless by Danielle Vega but I also think that A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin would work as well as they are constantly betraying one another in order to win the competition. I don't have all that much left of the book, so if I can finish the readathon in time, I may just tack it on to the end of the month and try for 16 books finished in August. Otherwise it will be the first of September's~

Not much else exciting has happened. I've literally just been reading books all week. Irwyn is close to finishing his and passing the tests for Spellsword. I think I have three left for him: Animal Studies - Qualified, Restoration - Ordinary, and Restoration - Qualified. Aurin still needs: Conjuration - Ordinary, Conjuration - Qualified, Demonology - Ordinary, Lore - Qualified, Lore - Distinguished, and Restoration - Qualified. Nine all together. I can do that!

July 2022 Book Haul

 I've been doing really good about keeping my book hauls down. Like I think the only physical book I got last month was the Book of the Month pick...anyway in July I acquired 2 book: 

1. Upgrade by Blake Crouch - I already have two of his books and this one looked pretty good. I've read Dark Matter and half think I got Recursion as a different BotM pick, but I can't remember off hand. It looks brilliant. Kind of gives me the vibe of the beginning of the Borg or Cybermen. Like, you have no control over it. Normally I don't like science-fiction books, but this one just called to me. I'm hoping I'll like it. 

2. Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury - I made myself the promise that for every 6,000 words I completed toward my Camp NaNo July 2022 goal, I'd buy a new book. I hit the first goal on the 5th and ordered my book. I've been following Liselle on YouTube for a while and decided that this would make as good a choice as any other to pick up for my reward. I'm so beyond glad I did! I read the synopsis and this sounds simply amazing. I cannot wait to read it. 

3. Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson - I used to follow Ben on BookTube back when he was posting content. I'm not sure he still is, I'd have to go through my subscriptions. Now I follow him on TikTok and when I found this available on Kindle Unlimited, figured why not? I know it's an m/m Beauty and the Beast retelling and literally that's it. That's what I know. I am intrigued. 

4. The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan - I remember seeing this on PeruseProject's page...but that's it. It looked good and involved an Empire of the Wolf. I am looking forward to it after checking the synopsis. It's one of the books on my TBR for August for the Orilium read-a-thon Autumn Equinox Semester. 

5. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - I bought this not because I needed to read it, but because it's a beautiful illustrated copy. I read the book last year in its paperback edition. But this one was just too gorgeous to pass up. I love the story. 

6. A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin - I remember this from BookTube again, but not where I saw it. I may have also seen it on Bookstagram. That's entirely possible. However, the idea of someone making up for something that they did as an accident that they had not intended it sounded amazing. The idea that the protagonist can only undo the accident by using the same medium that caused it in the first place? Wonderful! 

7. A Starless Crown by James Rollins - No idea. I saw it. It's the first and the cover looked pretty. Picked it up on the Buy-On-Get-One-Half-Off sale at Barnes & Noble. That's as much as I can say about it. I have no idea what the plot is. I have no idea what the series is, but that seems like as good an idea as any going in!!

8. Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao - Stumbled across it while scrolling through Bookstagram, and picked up an audio edition via my subscription to Audible. Had 3 credits I could spend, so this was one well spent. I read The Iron Widow and was excited to find more by Ms. Zhao. This is going to be good!

July 2022 Wrap Up

In keeping with the theme for the year now, let us commence with our July Wrap Up for 2022. I've read 4 book this month!

1. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan - I've had this book for a while, and hadn't read it yet. Shelf Space chose it as their July read along book for the month, and at that point I decided why not. It was interesting. I liked the setting and how women were expected to be meek little things only concerning themselves with romance novels and frilly "ladylike" things that Isabella nearly wanted nothing to do with. I'm glad that eventually we overcome this. Her journey was brilliant. I wholeheartedly believe that if it weren't for Isabella just dashing off on life-threatening adventures with and without her husband's permission, they never would have learned half the stuff they did. I'm definitely going to pick up A Sea of Serpents soon to see how her adventures continue. 

2. Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury - This book was pretty good. I loved the way we follow her and how she agonizes over what choice she'd make. Or not make. She gets her task, fails it, then gets a second chance and it's almost a worse one. Voya has to figure out how to complete her task and get a power to fully call herself a witch. There were moments I definitely didn't understand, but then I am not part of any poc community (yep, I'm whiter than a piece of paper), but I did enjoy the way it was told and how she overcame it in the end. Four stars and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the next. 

3. The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski - I think I'm down to only two books remaining now. The Lady of the Lake and Season of Storms, which I heard you're supposed to read last because it has spoilers for the rest of the series in it. This is the fourth volume in the series and so far I've liked it better than the others. The writing has gotten much better. I still live for the Witcher sass. Looking forward to volume five!

4. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah - I liked the story very much. There were times where I could guess where the plot was going, and definitely times where I couldn't. She was quite imaginative in her telling of the tales of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Omar), Aladdin (Mazen), and probably a few other variants on the 1,001 Nights. Which also featured in and of itself as a plot device. I loved it and I'm looking forward to the next volume in the series!