Goings-On

Wow, I haven’t done a single round-up this entire year. I had two short holidays in August, a really good reading month and a very stressful time at work.

At the beginning of August we went to Bucharest for a Nightwish concert, it was great. And then a few days at the seaside, which were nice except the apt fucked up our reservation and we had to leave a day early, so only had 3 days at the beach one of them rainy. The beach was lovely though, they had great drinks you could order on the beds, good shade, chill music, lots of cute dogs.

On the way home we stopped for the night in Pitesti, which has the most communist-architecture city center I’ve seen in Romania, so that was a neat walk. They also had a huge park in the center, and lots of big fountains.

Last weekend we went to the Eastern European Comic Con, in Bucharest, I’ve been going on and off since it got started and it’s really fun. It’s the most gaming-oriented con of the ones I’ve seen. We got a lot of books & comics cause one of the English language booksellers was having a 30% off sales. I also got a Romanian one with a really pretty autograph! We enjoyed the Cosplay competition a lot. I didn’t have time to put together much of a cosplay, but I did wear my mermaid-inspired outift. (I’ve also put on enough pandemic weight to gain about 2 sizes and I don’t feel very much like sewing atm).

Books read

• After the Dragons Zhang, Cynthia – slice of life short novel, with a sweet romance and kinda bittersweet
• Fata Știmei Apelor Surducan, Maria, Benczédi, Anna Júlia  – Romanian graphic novel, the sassiest thing I’ve read in my language which was a fun new experience
• Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances (Dragons and Blades, #2) de Bodard, Aliette – murder husband and diplomacy husband return for more mystery solving! fun and charming
• A Ruin of Shadows Lewis, L.D. – shot novella with a badass veteran warrior
• She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1) Parker-Chan, Shelley  – why have I been putting this off so long? it was amazing and well worth the hype
• Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch #1) Pratchett, Terry – comfort reread, lovely seeing all the characters again
• The Prey of Gods Drayden, Nicky  – near future pretty grim sci-fi, with lots of dik dik jokes, a good mix of asshole characters and humor
• Girl, Serpent, Thorn Bashardoust, Melissa  – loved it, good mix of classic fairytale vibes with a unique pov (poisonous girl) and setting
• Nimona Stevenson, ND – fun comic
• The Thousand Eyes (The Serpent Gates, #2) Larkwood, A. K.  – took me forever to remember anything from book 1 and if it weren’t for a RL  friend wanting to read it I might have given up. It was fine, but different from book1, in that it lacked most of the things I’d enjoyed
• The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3) Jemisin, N.K. – loved it, and I was smart enough to read a summary of book 2 before starting
• The Bone Shard Emperor (The Drowning Empire, #2) Stewart, Andrea – I liked the story and characters, and learning more of this world, but had one big gripe. it was how often a chapter ends on a cliffhanger and then switches away to a different PoV, really overusing that literary device imo.
• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher – lovely, cosy, part horror part fairy tale
• Whispers of Shadow & Flame, Cry of Metal & Bone by T. Penelope- more success on my reading series project, took a bit to remember what was what but binging it all now. I particularly loved the focus on informers in a totalitarian regime.
• Some of From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back – really fun Star Wars anthology with very short short stories

• Currently reading:  
• Requiem of Silence by L. Penelope
• Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

I’m linking up with The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. I’m also linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. and The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz