One outstanding book this month and several meh books

I hit my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin and at least one #Roll100 pick

I owned everything except Running Close to the Wind which was a library book and I donated the Heroes of Olympus books

I did buy the Trials of Apollo series but that will likely also be donated when I read it. My library doesn‘t have the entire series

#2025stats

I'm sticking with categories and a few named books for #BookSpinBingo This seems to work best for me at the moment

@TheAromaofBooks

This was an absolute delight of a book with unbridled feral energy. My new comfort read.

I cannot recommend the audiobook enough. The voices are amazing and the narrator gives Avra the right amount of manic, racoon energy that brings him to life.

Voting for #QueerBC May's author!

Vote here: https://forms.gle/jU6pQiU5659bLsqr9

April's author is Alan Hollinghurst whose written several novels, poetry collections, and short stories which gives you a lot to pick from

If you are on Storygraph and want to join the book club, you can do that here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_clubs/ec1d5a86-5de9-4315-a128-fcab4d27c31d

Suggest authors here: https://forms.gle/nLwAy72Zufi4brty6

April is National Poetry Month and #QueerBC has voted to read the works of Ocean Vuong!

A Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist, his poems often explore transformation, desire, and violent loss

We also voted on several individual poems. The two favourite poems;

April's book for #RiordanReadalong is House of Hades!

It is the penultimate book of the Heroes of Olympus series

@mom2bugnbee @LitsyEvents

#RealmofElderlings book is Royal Assassin. Aim is to have this I've read by the end of April and then move on to the last book in the Farseer Trilogy

How is everyone finding it? I haven't started my re-read yet 🤣

It's nearly April! How are we all getting on with #GottaCatchemAll

Congratulations to @PuddleJumper and @Yuki_Onna for catching their first Pokémon!

Stuffed full of cold and unable to breath so decided to try an audiobook. I'm hoping the unbridled feral goblin energy this book is giving isn't my fever because it's delightful

My #Roll100 for April and can't say I'm interested in any of them 😂

Death as Fine Art is an ARC I picked up without knowing it was a series

Blood of Elves ... I want to, just not at the moment

Serpent & Dove is too big!

Spring is desperately trying to emerge here so I went with some yellow, green dice for April‘s #Roll100

Roll 1 = 24
Roll 2 = 36
Roll 3 = 16

Tag me if you want to share what you are reading!

Template and trackers are available in the GDrive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nSSxkd6v2jAZmu_J-KXOPmNijsyt22vFUa74xU43...

Time to pick the poet and poems for April‘s National Poetry Month #QueerBC

Pick the poet you want to read in April and 2 of your favourite poems from the list
Voting will end Sunday 30th March

Vote here: https://forms.gle/9fEvsgB4o7zVqNQY6

I've been avoiding things for days because everything is getting a bit too much so it's time for some #BodyDoubleReadathon

I find knowing other people are also doing things at the same time as me, or imagining people in the room with me reading or whatever really helps me stay on task

It'll run noon-noon and you can make it what you want. I have been toying with making a Discord group so there's some socialisation. I'm not fussed either way

Oo nearly forgot about this! Thanks for everyone participating on Litsy, you reminded me.

It runs from March 21-31. Instagram has some amazing recommendations.

Tagging the #QueerBC group in case you want to join as well

I read the majority of this book in the bath with a Poseidon candle that smelt of sea, salt, and shipwrecks. It felt fitting.

This was a filler book. Not terrible, not great, moved the plot along and positioned the characters.

#RiordanverseReadalong

Illumicrate are releasing a special edition of the Farseer Trilogy

Pre-sales are available to subscribers from May 13. Then non subscribers can purchase from May 15.

£90 for the set

They are beautiful! #RealmofElderlings

I've caught up! I'm about half way through this and enjoying it so far. I like some characters way more than others. Jason is still boring. Riordan is still weird about Aphrodite and femininity.

#RiordanverseReadalong

April we'll be reading The House of Hades. Hopefully more Nico 🤣

@mom2bugnbee

#QueerBC April‘s author is Alan Hollinghurst! This is an author I‘m aware of but never read anything by them. I think I have The Line of Beauty haunting my shelves somewhere

Have you read this author before? Drop any recommendations in the comments

Don‘t forget March‘s author is Bushra Rehman. There is still loads of March left! How are we all getting on?

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I don't buy new new books anymore. I'll always opt for second hand or from the library which is what I intended to do with the Trails of Apollo books but I found the book set cheaper new than second hand.

Won't get to these until next year with #RiordanverseReadalong I'm excited though

A really intriguing premise that wasn't executed well

January #ReadingSnake I tried this last year and gave up. This year I've made the stripes smaller and separated them with a band

Each band is a book. I'm using different colours for different genres. Once it's all done I'll stuff it and sew it up

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii It was my birthday on Monday so it's been a good week!

1. Two Point Museum, amazing game
2. Millie's cookie cake, best thing in the world. I ignore my intolerances to get one for my birthday
3. Watching video essays by Bob Wess on bisexual Dean Winchester from Supernatural. Really interesting putting the show in a real world context regarding sexual visibility
4 & 5. My beautiful, idiotic cats Ovid and FitzChivalry

I enjoyed this a lot more than the first one. I found the trio much more compelling and the storyline interesting.

There are still some issues. It got repetitive, Riordan has some weird issues around femininity, and there were some racist and fatphobic comments.

#RiordanverseReadalong

This is a really fun story. London based urban fantasy following two cupids as their love matches turn deadly.

I enjoyed how different the world and afterlife was, the characters were all engaging, the romance was an organic slow burn, and it was the right level of humour for me.

I have the final version and it still reads like a first draft. I wonder what the other version was like because this one still has pacing issues, typos, weird dialogue, and it's awkward to read.

It's very safe. Fake dating the bi hockey player because your shitty friends are trying to force you to date someone. But twist! You both have crushes on each other.

Someone watched Skam and thought they could do it in book form. It does not work.

I don't have the patience for toxic teenage friendship. There were too many characters, the MC had no personality, the relationship was forced and I was bored.

I might be in the minority but I wanted more d&d. With the title and the series name I was expecting more focus on the game or group of people brought together by it.

It did include that, but the majority of the book was them visiting each other's shops and talking. There's no tension, no plot, it's just a bit bland.

It's not a bad contemporary romance, it's just forgettable.

March #Roll100

March #BookSpinBingo

I would like to read the two Rick Riordan novels and keep making headway into my ARC backlog

@TheAromaofBooks

I don't think I've read a sapphic romance quite so centered around men before. It was odd, though that was the least of the issues.

It was very repetitive and neither character is likeable. There's some verbal abuse, biphobia (or what I'm interpreting as biphobia because lesbian with a preference for women … is a lesbian), physical assault, and some humiliation.

They should be running away from each other, not getting together.

Not as good as January. It was a busy and not great month, I was reading a couple of pages every day.

Good books this month though! That was positive

I also got Plus for my birthday 🤣

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

February has been a fairly crappy month in general 😅

I read my #DoubleSpin and read some of my ARC backlog

@TheAromaofBooks

February #2025Stats I'm saying the word search was my favourite book this month because I love word searches

Read 6 books off my shelf, I bought several books for work as they were very cheap second hand and I got 3 ARCs though didn't include them.

The 2 books I donated were ones off my shelf. It was the second and third in a series ... I didn't like the first one and I was never going to read the rest

I am ready! I might read the 1990s edition as I've cracked the spine and it's already well read

I want to read the Rick Riordan books. I might split it up because it is long. Read other books in-between rather than trying to read it all at once

#RealmofElderlings

The first ¾ of this book are very slow and then it speeds up at the end.

It's the recollections of a royal bastard starting from when he was very young. His memories become clearer as he becomes older, though not always.

Fitz is not a reliable narrator. Whether that is deliberate or because memories are fallible. It's interesting to grow alongside him and learn what he finds value in and the people and events that shaped him.

I've just fished this and I had fun. It isn't without faults but I thought the fun I had overcame that

Some of the pages were really low res resulting in pixelated text. Usually in word searches if you have multiple words e.g John Winchester then they are written without spaces. This one would include an extra letter between the words which was annoying.

It's not perfect but if you're a fan then it's a bit of fun.

April is National Poetry Month so #QueerBC is going to celebrate queer poets and poems

You can suggest 3 individual poems. These can be by queer authors or about queer experiences

Then suggest 1 poet and people can read anything they‘ve written

At the end we‘ll vote on which poet to read and then have a top 3 list of poems … maybe, not figured that out

Suggest here - https://forms.gle/W4AWJwPSr5qaJiJa9

I'll keep it open until March 23rd

Vote for April #QueerBC

Sorry, everything is going up early because I‘ve got my ADHD assessment this weekend and family in hospital and I just want it done so I don‘t have to think about it. I get things done early rather than late!

Vote here: https://forms.gle/86ZSy43E86TibPVN7

Royal Assassin is the second book in the Farseer Trilogy #RealmofElderlings

How is everyone feeling about the series so far?

I‘ve got about 50 pages left of Assassin‘s Apprentice will hopefully get it finished this week. I‘m excited and a little intimidated by the second book. Been an age since I‘ve read anything that long and I think it‘s going to hurt but also fuck yeah my favourite character!

It's book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus series for #RiordanverseReadalong

I am a little behind, haven't started book 2 but hoping to get both of these done in March

@mom2bugnbee @LitsyEvents

My March rolls for #Roll100

I'm going to focus on Natural Twenty and How Not to Get Eaten by an Owlbear. The other one sounds a bit heavy

Feb check in for #GottaCatchemAll

How are we all doing?

I've got some that I'm close to catching but beginning of the year is very scattered for me

#Roll100 March rolls are here! It's my birthday in March so I went with some of my favourite dice - skull ones (obviously), my big wooden ones, and part of the Odin's ravens set ... I can't remember which raven

Roll 1 = 51

Roll 2 = 9 or 90

Roll 3 = 74

What are you all reading?

I might get to Son of Neptune this week, I'm not sure. I'm trying to get my book club books read and then tackle ARCs and TBR reads. I want to get my NetGalley ratio to 80%

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

There was something very meditative about this book. I found a lot of joy in reading it and letting everything slow down.

The food descriptions were absolutely amazing. The ethos of minimising waste by using leftovers to create new dishes was really inspiring and there was a lot of love put into this aspect of the book.

⬇️

National Poetry Month is April in the USA and October in the UK

I wanted to do an extra poetry focused thing for #QueerBC. I could do 2 but I'm also concerned that October often has #Scarathlon and other reading challenges. It could be a bit much!

So, April, October, or both?

This started off really well. I liked the setting, though it took me a while to remember who everyone was and their relationship to everyone else.

It started to drag about half way through. Plots were dropped (maybe to be explored in future books), the main couple got a bit repetitive, and the pace slowed down which was really felt.

#RealmofElderlings mid way check in!

How's it going?

I've been really enjoying reading people's comments over on SG. I'm about half way through. Even though it's re-read I'm finding new things in the text, have different opinions, and feeling so I'm really enjoying it

#QueerBC March author is Bushra Rehman with over 50% of the votes!

Drop recommendations or comments below. This is a new author for me so looking forward to seeing what people read and what they think

How are you all getting on with February's author Akwaeke Emezi?

I've created a SG book club for anyone interested - https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_clubs/ec1d5a86-5de9-4315-a128-fcab4d27c31d

First book is 99p on Kobo and Kindle

#ukkindledeal #ukkobodeal #99ponkobo #99ponkindle

Ancient slices of life found in cuneiform clay tablets. Each story is a stepping off point to delve into topics such as medicine, literature, and witchcraft.

This book does an amazing job of being accessible academia. What I mean by that is that it is academic level research and writing, written in a way that is engaging and accessible to people who aren‘t academics.