Saturday self-care, trying to catch up on book club books 🤞🏻 I couldn't possibly do so without an iced latte and a ginger cookie, obvs 😅 #wealldeservealittletreat

It felt like a good alternative to celebrating "freedom" in a nation built on genocide and slavery, which is still pushing to engage more and more in both of those horrific acts, to instead read about and reflect on queerness, gender nonconformity, and so many other ways that the world is far more complex and interesting than binaries make it out to be. ?

I only have twenty four pages left in When Breath Becomes Air, but I had to put it down again, re-learning that it's not an in-public book. So back to Black Water Sister, which I knew NOTHING about going in and am very much enjoying. May the Sunday Scaries flee my brain and body in fear of the Black Water Sister 🙏🏻📚
What are you reading this lovely Sunday? May the Sunday Scaries leave you be as well! ✨️

What girl dinner looks like for a bisexual bibliophile? From the other night, as always my self cafe involved way too many drinks and books 😂 I ended up reading Funny Story and When Breath Becomes Air instead of Lonely Castle in the Mirror that night, but potayto potahto. 🙃

I quickly realized this is not a read-in-public book, unless I want concerned looks and for my winged liner to be destroyed by tears. Good thing I always come prepared with several reading options. 🙃

I'm just leaning into my relatively harmless ADHDisms at this point. I finally got a photo of my full Independent Bookstore Day haul...from April 27 😂
I suppose it's a good reminder to support our local indie bookstores even when it's not their national day! 📚❤️

Not pictured: the three exceedingly kind women I approached after a cricket jumped at me and scared me into spilling some of my latte, one of whom killed the cricket like a badass.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt y'all, do any of you happen to be chill about crickets? I'm very afraid of them and one is by me. I know this is a wild thing to ask a room full of strangers."
Meanwhile Galadriel is fighting giant, magical, deadly beasts on the regular. ?

Back in one of my favorite lil corners of the world on a random Thursday off of work. A loved one is in surgery a thousand miles away, and this is how I'm coping with the anxiety and concern. ✨️

James Baldwin, ginger peach tea, a vegan peanut butter cup, and a window seat? What more could I ask for this Memorial Day?
Also, I'm not a giant Great Gatsby fan but my former best friend gave me this bag and it's the perfect size and sturdiness. I can't bring myself to stop using it to haul my books around as an indecisive mood reader with ADHD and six book clubs 😂

Doing my best to have some tranquil, restful reading time with Witchmark, an iced latte, and my trusty instrumental Spotify playlist on the chaise. This year has brought wildly rude upstairs and next-door neighbors whose disruptive noisiness make this next to impossible, but I'm determined. 😼

Making the most of the last few hours of my random 3-day staycation. I can never pick just one or two books to bring... 😂 But golly, it is lovely to sit in a comfy armchair beneath a ceiling fan sipping a latte and alternating between several books as an ADHDer like me is wont to do. 📚

Snagged a surprisingly comfy window seat from which to read about creepy crawlies and other things that may squick many of us out. 🪲 I had skipped parts two and four because reading about bugs right before bed would not do great things for my sleep, but it's early enough and far enough from my bedroom that I'm able to catch up. 🙃

Been thinking a lot about how profoundly the curse of capitalism shapes, limits, and frankly, destroys, our lives. I didn't expect it to come up in this book, but here we are. 🫠

I'm in my DNF era (trying to stop forcing myself to finish books I'm not vibing with) so I planned to DNF this one. It's not bad or anything, I was just a little overwhelmed by being dropped into this fantasy world without much in the way of explanations at first. But then everyone in my book club loved it, so I'll have to dive back in. 🙂

fell behind on doing these monthly, so this bad boi has all the books i finished in july, august, and september '23 📚

five stars for the hazel wood, phantom plague, lavender house, and the romantic agenda, four-ish stars for the rest ✨️

happy spooky season to all who celebrate 👻

I clearly had a lot of thoughts, and I don't regret reading it, but this one wasn't quite my cup of tea. Not enough detail on the parts I found interesting, but then we come to sudden, incredibly graphic descriptions of sexual assault...why?! So much unnecessary repetition...my favorite of my tabs serendipitiously ended up on top of this pile so I turned it right side up: "WE GET IT. Your father drank sweet coffee and you do too." ☕️

i'm very late on posting the books i finished in june '23, but 'twas a solid month.
the garlic & the vampire/witch duology is everything. 5 stars, no notes, more please.
4.5 stars for cultish and uprooted.
4 stars for let your hearts be light, glitterland, and tea at the end of the world.
3 stars for never have i ever gone skinny dipping.

books finished in may 2023 📚
started out the month DNFing the rakess; ended the month giving these violent delights five stars...we love to see that growth 📈
i read gay shit all year so pride month doesn't change my reading much, but i'm always excited to see others reading more queer lit.🌈
happy june, happy pride, happy reading ✨️

Diving back into this world on a self-care Friday off of work. Maintenance has been hammering aggressively on the other side of my wall. 'Twas overstimulating and dysregulating, so Starbucks it is. 📚 🍵

four stars across the board in april twenty three ✨️
none remarkable, but all good 👍🏻
and these color palettes go so well together 👀

onward to may, happy reading trails y'all 😎

Books I finished in March 2023 ✨️

All 4-5 stars, so a solid month!

My top pick is Beach Read, which was my first Emily Henry read and revived my love of getting lost in a book ⛱️

At the last minute I added this to my books to bring on a lil beach trip. I'm so glad this trip led me to finally read an Emily Henry book! It's been a remarkably MEH reading year for me so far, but this book has me absolutely enthralled. I haven't had this desire to stay up all night reading in so long and missed it so much. I have to read another book for a book club, but it truly pains me to put this down halfway through, even temporarily 🫠

What could have been hopelessly trite
Is instead such a dang delight.
🎂🎂🎂

I saw this in a bookstore a little over a year ago and immediately requested that my library purchase it. It took them 6+ months to get it in, and then it took me several months to get to it, and boy am I glad I finally did. Beautiful illustrations and a sweet purrfect kitty friend. Plus, I'm a sucker for trains. Am I weeping from the ending of a children's book? Yes...mind your business. 😸

👀 🥯 🪨

This book isn't in the Litsy system yet, which is wild, so I suggested it. This one is too expensive and precious to me to lend out, at least in this universe, so I'm hoarding it like a lil dragon. It's A Vast, Pointless Gyration Of Radioactive Rocks And Gas In Which You Happen To Occur: A Trip Through The Multiverse by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and it sprung from my favorite film of last year, Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I didn't love this as much as the Tea Dragon Trilogy, but I'll gladly read anything Katie O'Neill puts out. The exploration of grief, as depicted on the page above, was stellar. O'Neill also focuses on the urgent need to restore the delicate balance in the relationship between humans and the rest of earth's creatures, especially marine life. And it's just so cute and beautiful, per usual. 🩷

I got a new job, and this is my gift to myself to celebrate ✨️
I feel like I spend so much time reading books that are just fine, books that don't light me up the way my favorite books--like the tagged Morgenstern gem--do, and I hope TBR can help me change that 📚

Books/stories I finished reading in November '22 📚

5 ⭐️: Merlin in the Library; Christmas Wish List; A Prayer for the Crown-Shy; the new Red, White & Royal Blue chapter from Henry's POV
4.5 ⭐️: Legends & Lattes; Cult Classic
4 ⭐️: Below Zero; Neuroqueer Heresies; A Cat Story
3 ⭐️: Cat + Gamer; The Cats of Ulthar

Happy December reading to all, and to all a good night ✨️

Every review says how calming and stress-free this is, but I found it to be chock full of stress about losing everything financially, as well as threats--and a horrific act--of violence. It's not anywhere near too dark for me, but the discrepancy between expectations and reality was stark and disorienting, so I wanted to put out a review in case other highly sensitive folks with PTSD could use the warning. But I did like it--positives in comments!

I've listened to Tic-Tac-Mistletoe thrice at this point, so I was scared the sequel would disappoint, but this was a delight. However statistically unlikely it is that this tiny town in Montana would be crawling with gays, I would read 8 more queer romances set in this town straight (or gay 😅) out of Hallmark (but with queer folks, sex, and no Christian propaganda, yay!). Plus, it referenced the previous book's couple exactly the right amount. ❄️

Erin Morgenstern's tarot deck has arrived!
🎪 🖤 ❤️ 🤍 🎪 🖤 ❤️ 🤍 🎪 🖤 ❤️ 🤍 🎪

More queering and fewer cops ✨️

I finally took a proper look at the under-dust-jacket cover of the Deluxe Edition of Red, White, and Royal Blue and the artwork on the endpapers. I immediately burst into tears (one such tear pictured here). This book remains my favorite romance of all time and feels so pivotal in my own journey as a queer person and a reader. FEELINGS. I'm trying to work up the emotional energy to read the bonus chapter from Henry's perspective. I may perish. 💀

Oct '22 - I didn't read many books this month, but there were no duds. Quality over quantity, I'm into it. 🙃

How to Keep House While Drowning - 5⭐️, neurodivergent-friendly, super helpful for self-compassion and protips
Mexican Gothic - 5⭐️, badass protagonist, great creepy atmosphere
Briarley - 4⭐️, sweet m/m Beauty & the Beast retelling, WWII, dragon
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy - 4⭐️, predictable but fun, magic, fighting patriarchy

PLEASE LOOK UP CONTENT WARNINGS!

I had hoped this would be a Gothic tale in the context of Mexican culture, but it's still very English. It does deal with colonialism though.

I rooted for Noemí from the start to the finish and would love to see this same character in a totally different story, from a totally different genre, hopefully having a much better time of it. Maybe a cozy mystery where she's a Miss-Fisher-esque private investigator? ✨️

A beautiful day to read about neurodiversity ✨️

I highly recommend this to anyone struggling to keep up with all the never ending "care tasks" (Davis' preferred term for chores) in life, especially neurodivergent folks and those living with mental and/or physical health challenges. This book is helpful for reframing a lot of our thinking around care tasks and bringing in more self-compassion, and it also contains concrete tips for how to explore what strategies work best for each reader's life.

Newly diagnosed with ADHD, seeking book recs that help folks understand and cope with a neurodivergent diagnosis, as well as determine how best we can manage the symptoms and challenges and unlock our unique gifts and passions so we can thrive. Books specific to women diagnosed with ADHD as adults are great, but more general ADHD or neurodivergence content is great too. Thanks in advance! ✨️

Hank and John Green's annual week-long Pizzamas celebration is almost over, so if that's something you're into, check out the sweet merch while you can. The three oversized shirts I ordered for lounging and sleeping have arrived! To round things out, my other oversized shirt from Maggie McGill also arrived. Looking forward to some solid lounging with some good autumnal books while I crank the AC to pretend autumn exists in Texas. 🍂 📚

Books finished in September 2022 📚 ✨️

Delia and Talia let me down with 3-star reads 🤷🏻‍♀️
Shapes of Native Nonfiction was great, 4 stars 👍🏻
Sabrina & Corina was ELITE, 5 stars, no notes 🏆

I read all of these in printed form, with the exception of Merry Inkmas, which I listened to during the tail end of my rough multi-day vertigo spell when I had my first case of The Rona 📖 🎧

Happy spooky month, everybody! 👻 🎃 🖤

This book has an interesting concept and deals with some serious real-world issues, but the writing, especially dialogue, was meh. Cringeworthy self-monologuing involving, "Oh [other character's name], why did I [do a thing]?!" like a soap opera satire. It was way less triggering for me than I expected, but I was more detached than I usually am because of the bad writing. YMMV, so please check all the content warnings as there are MANY.

Some spooky books that I may or may not read soon, who can say? 🎃 🖤 👻 🧡

One of the best short story collections I've ever read. None of the stories were duds. However, be warned: ALL of the stories were devastating in one way or another. Fajardo-Anstine explores abandonment, death, and grief; women feeling trapped in relationships, roles (especially motherhood), and poverty; domestic and other forms of violence; and the impacts of capitalism, gentrification, colonialism, and white supremacy. 📖

I extended the Summer Splash Readathon for myself because deadlines are arbitrary and time is an illusion. 🙃
I managed to satisfy all the book prompts, which was my main goal. ✨️
The rest are activities like watch a beach movie; create an outfit, art, and playlist based on a book; writing a letter; random act of kindness; be your favorite character for a day; instagram challenge; and reading sprint. Maybe this month, maybe not 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🌊

Books I finished in August 2022 📚 ✨️
5 🌟: From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E Frankweiler, I Am a Cat Barista, Wrapped Up in You, Always Only You, You Got Anything Stronger?, Strange Love
4 🌟: Playing the Palace, Davo, The Ghosts of Rose Hill, Recitatif
3 🌟: Dark and Shallow Lies, Witchlight

This manga is such a delight. A cat who is a barista at a cafe that is Room-of-Requirement-esque in that it only shows up for those who are struggling and patrons are served exactly what the feline barista can sense they need?! YES PLEASE. I am impatient for my library to get Volume 2 in, as it's been on order for quite some time and I absolutely need more of this gem.

This is one of the books I read as a child that has stuck with me the most, but I put off rereading this childhood favorite because I feared it wouldn't hold up. Turns out I had nothing to worry about; it's still wonderful. 😇

I really enjoyed the characters, the humor, and the writing style. However, this book is too short, the pacing is off, and it doesn't give us nearly enough of the central couple actually bonding and falling for each other. This wasn't a book that made me feel all my feelings, and it's not going to be one that sticks with me, but it was a good time. If you're looking for a relatively light, quick escapism read, this may be worth checking out!

From "To The Man Who Gave Me Cancer" by Adrienne Keene ?