I wasn’t planning on doing a December Wrap-Up (because I’m planning on a yearly wrap-up this week, somehow it keeps not writing itself, idk it’s weird), but I realized I hadn’t done a Sunday Post since mid-November and there have been many happenings, so here we are
I’m linking up with:
- The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer.
- The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.
- Stacking The Shelves which is hosted by Team Tynga’s Reviews
- The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight.
Goings-On
The holidays have been pretty chill here. I’ve stuck to the local tradition of eating too much and then being sleepy because I’ve eaten too much. Leia’s been freaked out over fireworks so we’ve been sleeping on the couch with her, which is lovely and full of cuddles but that dog snorrs so loudly. I failed to take a good picture of our tree, but it’s got lots of cutesy-cat-safe ornaments. I burnt (then gilded with spray paint) my fingers improvising a tree-topper because we lost the old one, so behold what 15 mins of painful arts and crafts can get you:
I’ve been taking it slow and wrapping things up with reading challenges and blog stuff. After finishing my bingos I’ve been mostly focussed on reading sequels in series I’ve started. I’ve also managed to catch up with my reviews which is a great victory. I finally took the plunge and I got a Netgalley account, got 3 ARCs currently and trying very hard to not ask for more before reading them.
It was my birthday and Tarja had a great time trying to attack my flowers:
This Week Month on the Blog
I did a lot of mini and micro reviews to get caught up:
- Mini-reviews – the last batch of 2020: The Galaxy Game, Black Girl Unlimited, Tooth and Claw, Moving Pictures, The Sunken Mall, Drowned Country
- Mini-reviews of sequels: The Tombs of Atuan, Deathless Divide, Oathbound, Moving Pictures, Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash
- Graphic novel micro-reviews: Mooncakes, LaGuardia, Ghost in the Shell
- Mini-reviews of books with monsters and creatures: The Jumbies, Ring Shout, Redemption in Indigo, Maya and the Rising Dark, Discount Armageddon
- Romance Micro-Reviews: A Princess in Theory, Lady Griffith’s Second Chance, The Threefold Tie
- Sci Fi Month mini-reviews: Planetfall, Ninefox Gambit, The Vanished Birds
I wrote my longest ever rant-review for Rhythm of War, and then was kinda annoyed at how it shot straight to my most viewed post of the year. I get that it’s the most popular book I’ve reviewed in recent times, and pretty click baity and inflammatory, I just wish I could draw that sort of attention to the books I love.
I had 3 bingo wrap-up posts, with mini-mini-reviews of each book
- R/fantasy bingo – My first card
- R/fantasy bingo – My second card
- Black Lives Matter book bingo – my finished card
And I set out Finish some of those series – a challenge and a plan
Read/Currently reading
Currently going hard on sequels, I’m read The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Heartforger by Rin Chupeco and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. I’ve read a bunch since last post but some stand outs were:
- Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
- The Sunken Mall by KD Edwards
- The Threefold Tie by Aster Glenn Gray
- Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
Stacking the Shelves
Tracking since last time I made a Sunday Post/Stacking the Shelves. Santa was good and brought me exactly what I wrote him for:
- The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin
- A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Netgalley Arcs:
- We Lie with Death by Devin Madson
- The Conductors by Nicole Glover
- The Unbroken by CL Clark
I uhh might have spurlged a bit on kindle books this month, there were a lot of deals going on:
- The Sound of Stars Alechia Dow
- The Bone Shard Daughter Andrea Stewart
- The Book of Dragons: An Anthology Jonathan Strahan
- Resistance to Magic Peter Glenn, Michael Anderle
- The Dragon’s Banker Scott Warren
- The Nothing Mage J. P. Valentine
- God of Gnomes Demi Harper, Portal Books
- The Lord of Stariel AJ Lancaster
- The Element of Fire (Ile-Rien Book 1) Martha Wells
- The Death of the Necromancer (Ile-Rien Book 2) Martha Wells
- A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher
So that’s about it from me this week, month, period of time, happy I’ve had an opportunity to catch up and reset a little, start fresh for the new year.
Your tree is so pretty😁 I had the same thing happen to one of my reviews. A book I really hated has the most views of 2020 and the worst part is I wrote it four years ago! Lol. I guess people love a good rant.
Thanks! Now that the fries sausage smell has subsided it even smells like Christmas Tree!
Oh wow, if RoW continues to be my most viewed for the next 4 years I will be salty … but that probably means I should add more links to it at least lol.
Ah… annoying when it’s the negative posts that get the most views! I hope you enjoy the N.K. Jemisin series – I thought it was amazing. And I also enjoyed A Closed and Common Orbit and loved A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking – so I look forward to finding out what you make of them. Have a lovely book-crammed week:)).
Thank you!
Loving A Closed and Common Orbit so much already, reading it slowly since I don’t want it to end.
Ah… I know that feeling well – there are a handful of authors that I TRY to do that with. And yes… Becky Chambers is one of them!
Happy belated birthday ! I tried very hard to resist the kindle deals last month, but it was hard, but I made it – I have enough books already. The guide to defense baking looks funny, love the title. Enjoy your week 🙂
Thanks, hope you have a good week too! I’d been pretty chill about kindle deals for the previous couple of months, only buying books on my immediate TBR, but apparently I can’t let go only a little and buy 1-2 books like a reasonable person.
Fireworks have driven us mad every night since December 31st around here. Let’s hope they subside soon. And we also overindulged with food on New Year’s. Oh well. It’s a celebration, right, not a lifestyle.
I have always stayed away from Netgalley. I tend to forget about ebooks!
Funny how reviews of books we don’t like take off sometimes. It’s a bit frustrating.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Fireworks seem to have calmed down enough that last night we got a good night’s sleep, so that’s lovely, and finally finished all our leftovers.
Happy belated birthday 🎉
Netgalley is a dangerous place, you are wise to take it slowly 😉
Wishing you a great reading week, and a happy new year
PS. It might just be me, but none of your images in this post are loading
Thank you for the wishes and thanks for letting me know about the images, I think I’ve fixed them
I can highly recommend The Sound of Stars–this book delighted and surprised me. I enjoyed seeing your tree and seeing books under it–books were all I asked for this year and I received really excellent ones, including Class Act, In The Red, and the Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter.