End of the year wrap up 7/7: reading goals for 2021

 Ah, the time has finally come for me to write my personal favorite part of my annual reading wrap-up, i.e. my reading goals for the coming year!

Apparently I do love creating goals for myself that I never end up completing. Oh well. At least I'm having fun, right? ;-)

Anyway, seeing as I flopped massively with doing my reading goals this past year I've decided to lessen my goals somewhat and to make them a bit more interesting.

Are you interested in seeing what I'm planning on reading this coming year? Well, click on through if you are!

End of the year wrap up [6/7] : books I'm looking forward to reading that will be released in 2021

 
Hi guys, we're approaching the very last days of 2020 and thus I figured it'd be appropriate for us to start looking forward to the coming year. Today and tomorrow, we'll look at what's happening in the world of reading and literature in the upcoming year.

Today we'll start with a not-much-researched, half-assed list of 10 new releases I'm looking forward to in 2021. Honestly, I'm generally a bit crap at keeping up with coming releases and whatnot so the half-assedness of this list is due to that, and I apologize in advance.

Despite my ramblings, are you interested in seeing what I'm hoping to read in 2021? If so, click on through and enjoy!

End of the year wrap up [5/7]: top 5 best books I've read this year

 

Hi guys! It's finally become that time of the year again where I look back on books I've read and pick my top five reads of the year! 

Do you want to find out what books I cared for a lot this year? Click on through and you'll find out!

End of the year wrap up [4/7]: how I did with my reading goals

 So last year I was very ambitious with my reading goals, setting a whopping total of 7 for me to try to meet during this year.

Like I've stated in previous posts, I felt my reading being hindered and myself being thrown into a reading slump thanks to these challenges. Long story short, I eventually gave up on them. I gave up on them sometime this fall, and naturally I did read books that fit into these challenges even after I stopped paying attention to them. So, which I guess I have to consider myself beaten, I did enjoy reading for these challenges and I think I did pretty well with them, all things considering..

If you're wanting to see what books I read for specific challenges etc, you'll find that over here. 

Do you want to see how I did? Click on through and you'll find out!

End of the year wrap up [3/7]: even more stats!

 Hi guys,

today's post will be a continuation of sorts of yesterday's post; i.e more stats! I do love me some stats and I figured I might just do more because these interest me (especially now that I've finally figured out how to do graphs in Microsoft Excel, woho go me!). If you, unlike me, isn't a stats ners you can just skip this post and come back tomorrow.

I, however, am very excited to be sharing more stats and graphs with you! Click on through and you'll find them :)

End of the year wrap up [2/7]: the year in stats

 The day has come for a stats nerd like me to really go OFF on all of these glorious, glorious stats! Unfortunately I'm not too good at handling Microsoft Excel, so my graphs sadly look pretty bad. But for the first time ever I'm actually including some kind of graphs so yeah, I'm proud of myself for doing this!

Are you interested in seeing my stats? Well click on through and you will!

End of the year wrap up [1/7]: Review of the year 2020 in books

So, the year of 2020 is finally coming to a close. Needless to say, this year has been very, very different from all other years in my life so far. The events of 2020 have affected each and every one of us, in different ways and there's no point in me going on about how much this year has sucked, because I'm pretty sure we all know it has sucked! 

The pandemic is, needless to say, very, very serious and something that's so vast and horrible it's hard to comprehend. Before I begin my yearly "review of the year in books", let me just start off by saying that I'm fully acknowledging how very...not serious the way this pandemic has affected my reading is, especially in the greater scheme of things. I definitely don't mean to belittle the seriousness of the pandemic nor do I mean to equate it to my reading struggles...

Moving on, let's get started!

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Overall rating; I think I'd give this year a 2.5/5.

All in all, everyone that knows me know I'm usually quite generous with ratings no matter what I'm supposed to rate, be it books, tea, movies, whatever. So basically, a 2.5/5 means "not very good at all", and is a rating I don't normally give (because I'm usually and typically very generous).

This year was sponsored by Reading Slumpes Galore, brought on by my general anxiety and also by some pandemic-induced anxiety and stress. My reading goal is usually, as I put it on Goodreads every year, 50 books. That's a goal I normally hit with ease. 50 books isn't hard at all for me, normally I end up somewhere between 60-70 books read. As I'm writing this, however, I have finished 48 books, meaing I'm not even done with my goal. And that, my friends, is just straight up bad, at least for me. I think this is the first time since I started using Goodreads that I've actually struggled to hit my goal.

Last year, I feel like my slump-ness was a constant thing throughout the year where I'd read maybe 4 books a month. This year, however, it's run havoc and lead to me basically not picking up any books at all for months on end, for me to then suddenly find my will to read, and then slumping again because I somehow ended up reading 8 books in a month. Yeah, I have no idea how that happened honestly. Even if I'm trying to pick up books I know I'll love, I just...don't.

I'm sure most of us have felt anxious, apathetic or simply just hopeless in ways related to the pandemic, and I definitely have. With the calls to stay at home and to limit social interactions, one would think it would bring on a larger will to read for me. Sadly, I can't say that's been the case for me at all. Combine this with my general anxiety that I deal with always (I think I probably have GAD, but I haven't been diagnosed officially with it), this year hasn't been fun for me. It definitely hasn't left me wanting, nor capable, to read.

I also suspect that I took on too many reading goals/challenges this year year. In trying to meet my reading goals/finish my challenges, I was constantly worrying about finishing this month's TBRs. I would create these very elaborate reading goals for myself. I ended up feeling like my reading had no room for what I actually wanted to read at that time, which had me slumping because it took away any spontanity reading had always contained for me (turns out I'm a bigger 'mood reader' than I'd ever thought). Like, I could spend an hour or so a week just trying to figure out how to maximize the 'usefulness' of the books I chose to read the coming month, like if I could pick a book for next month's TBR that fit into various different categories, while stressing out about the fact that I didn't read nearly enough to finish this month's TBR...let's just say I ended up stressing myself out, which caused me to read even less...! If I've learned anything this year, it's that too many reading goals crushes my will to read because I do nothing in moderation apparently and always stress myself out about everything (yay, anxiety...). I finally dropped my reading goals/challenges a couple of months back and lo and behold, my will to read finally returned from the war!

All in all, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew reading-wise, especially in combination with how I dealt with a lot of anxiety in general over other things. So, long story short: I definitely wasn't super impressed with my reading this year. The reading I did get done was good, I just didn't read a lot and I stressed out a lot about reading which is never a good thing.

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Now, let's not forget about the good things in reading this year!

I shall be posting a more thorough post tomorrow where I go through and break down my reading stats with you, so I won't bore you with that kind of stuff right here and now. Let's just say that, without indulging in ~stats~, there were some good reading things that happened to me this year too:

- The quality of the books was overall great/good and definitely better than last year, there weren't that many books that were total duds for me, most of them were good fun and some even found their way into my all-time favorite books. I think I have grown as a reader because

- While I pretty much didn't complete any of my reading goals (apart from hopefully reading 50 books this year), I think I did well with my goals after all. I actually for the most part kept to them and read plenty of books in the different categories, even if I technically didn't finish any of them. 

- The books I requested on Netgalley I mostly got approved for, which was fun.

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And I guess we'll have to add some additional bad things, and then we're done:

- I technically abandoned my reading goals in like, October, so I stopped doing all challenges and haven't even given them much thought at all after that..does this mean I failed all my challenges? Do I really care if I did? i totally did fail them and yes i care too much 

- I ended up pretty much abandoning my blog, which is really bad form for a book blogger, I must say.

- I did a lot of rereads and audio books which I guess technically isn't following/keeping to my reading goals but you know what? I. DON'T CARE. Let a lazy girl live!!

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so that's it for today,,, let me know in the comments how you think my year was!

Read in November

 Ah, November. The month I actually got really back into reading, and read a surprising amount, too. 

This month I kind of discovered audiobooks for the first time in my life; I signed up for an audio book service which I have been using religiously. I've been listening to audio books when I've been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, walking to work..basically I've neglected all music I normally listen to for these audio books, haha. I have no regrets though because I've realized I tend to vibe with this way of consuming literature in general, I guess. This explains the number of books in Swedish I've read this month, by the way, as this service is only available in Swedish/for Swedish books.

Also, I realized that not having an actual TBR is making me feel less stressed about reading which is always a good thing, especially since I tend to stress too much about things in my day-to-day life anyway.

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 # of books read: 10

-  Vi mot er (Björnstad #2) by Fredrik Backman*
- Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3) by Becky Chambers
- En man som heter Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Duktig pojke! by Inger Edelfeldt
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gaby Rivera [ARC]
- Fine by AmyLea Murphy [ARC]
- Min mormor hälsar och säger förlåt by Fredrik Backman
- Under The Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
- Britt-Marie var här by Fredrik Backman
- Allt min son behöver lära sig om världen by Fredrik Backman

* = reread

Best book of the month: I'm not going to pick Vi mot er since I've technically read that one before. Instead, I think I'm going to go with Britt-Marie var här because in my mind, I kind of saw it like Björnstad except funny which turned out to be right up my alley.

Worst book of the month: I didn't read any book that was straight up awful this month, so that's good. However, if I had to pick something I think I'm going to go with Fine because of its slightly preachy tone and the problems I had with the story in general - I don't want to give too much away though as my review will be up shortly.

Review: Juliet Takes a Breath [ARC]

 

TITLE: Juliet Takes A Breath
AUTHOR: Gabby Rivera & Celia Moscote
RELEASE DATE: December 1^st 2020              

RATING: 4/5 ★

  

REP: Puerto Rican MC, fat MC, lesbian MC, latinx side characters, LGBT side characters. 

TWs: racism/whitesplaining, homophobia

Genre: young adult graphic novel

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

 

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Read in October

 # of books read: 4

-  Hearstopper: volume #3 by Alice Oseman
- All den luft som omger oss by Tom Malmquist
- The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
- Björnstad by Fredrik Backman*
* = reread

Best book of the month: Björnstad, because hello my all-time favorite book series.

Worst book of the month: If I have to pick a big, I'd go with All den luft som omger oss because that's the only book I didn't /love/.

Read in September & TBR for October

 Hi everyone,

for the time being I won't be doing these regular posts on my blog as I haven't been in the mood to read at all lately, and trying to meet these goals is just causing me stress I don't need in my life. Therefore, I'll spend October trying to read as much as possible and I'll check back with you in November.

Until then, take care xx

Review: Whiteland [ARC]

TITLE: Whiteland
AUTHOR: Rosie Cranie-Higgs
RELEASE DATE: September 15 2020              

RATING: 1.5/5 ★

  

REP: Turkish side character 

TWs: horror-related things I guess? Nothing too out there   

Genre: adult horror

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

 

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“Arms folded dubiously, Callum’s voice is a frown. ‘Indeed’, he says, a charcoal outline, a sketch. ‘But I don’t like their judgement. They’ve left us outside a deserted cabin, in the middle of the forest, in the dark’. His hand bashes her wrist. In her mind’s eye, he’s open-armed, informing the world that it’s made of nitwits. ‘When has that ever been a good thing?’”

 

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 Plot;

British teenager Kira and her family goes away to the mountains of Switzerland to celebrate Christmas. What they're looking forward to is a calm, relaxing holiday where they can find themselves as a family. Then suddenly, one day, Kira's older sister Romy disappears out into the woods. When she returns, she's changed; she's mean, she's cruel, she's inhuman. And most importantly, she should be dead. But she isn't. Kira's parents pretend everything is fine, though. That is, until they too disappear and Kira's forced to enter the woods, to enter a different world, to find them.

Review;

Honestly, I’m just going to come out straight away and say this: this was the worst book I’ve read in a really long time. For the right reader I’m sure it will work, and I’m normally not too big on horror stories as it is anyway, but. This definitely wasn’t for me. 

To begin with, there’s nothing offensive or anything about this book so objectively it’s definitely not terrible. What made me really dislike this book was how stupidly boring this was. I’m really a chicken, literally everything that even touches on being horror usually scares me half to death, and a big thing about this book for me was that I wasn’t scared at all. Not even creeped out in the slightest. I mean, whenever I read horror books – which very rarely happens – the point is to be scared, but instead I found myself wanting to put this book down (and I never do-not-finish books, ever) or actually skim reading it, which also super rarely happens.

Moreover, I found Kira to be a privileged, unsufferable main character while also feeling pretty…flat. Same goes for pretty much all characters in this book, and the romance had me roll my eyes very hard.

I also found the writing to be pretty confusing too big a portion of the time. I’m also pretty mad because I normally love Scandinavian-inspired things but I found myself really not caring at all.

All in all, I think it’s safe to say that this book really wasn’t for me. 

 

TBR in September: Sapphic September edition

 
Hi guys,

it's officially September aka hopefully the first month of fall around these parts. I can't wait for the weather to get cooler (August has truly been awfully humid and just all-around disgusting), nights to get darker...basically, I'm looking forward to proper fall-nights where you curl up in bed with a good book and go to town.

This September I'm planning on doing something I've decided to call Sapphic September aka where I try to read only/mainly sapphic/lesbian/wlw books throughout the month. And naturally I have a TBR set for this month so let's go!

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1. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (books I own / LGBT: f/f / big book challenge)
2. Under The Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (books I own / LGBT: f/f / 
3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (books I own / LGBT: f/f / need to read urgently)

4. The Gay Girl's Guide to Ruining Prom by Siera Maley (book I own / need to read urgently / LGBT: f/f)
5. Style by Chelsea M. Cameron (books I own / LGBT: f/f)
6. Puddin' by Julir Murphy (books I own / LGBT: f/f / series)

7. Whiteland by Rosie Cranie-Higgs


Happy reading!

Read in August

So, August's come and gone. And so has my will to read, apparently. Or I mean, I have had the will to read, definitely, it's just that I've gone back to work and I've been dead tired whenever I've gotten back home and pretty much fallen asleep every single time I've tried to read anything.

Anyways, enough of the excuses already and let's get onto the monthly wrap-up of August.!
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# of books read: 3
-  We Go Together by Abigail de Niverville*
- Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass*
- Orlando by Virginia Woolf 
* = ARC

Best book of the month: I think I'm going to have to go with We Go Together because it was a very solid and touching book, with likeable character that took a pretty common trope and did it super well.
Worst book of the month: Surrender Your Sons because while it wasn't objectively bad, me and it just didn't mash. Unfortunately. 

Review: Surrender Your Sons [ARC]

 

TITLE: Surrender Your Sons

AUTHOR: Adam Sass
RELEASE DATE: September 15 2020              

RATING: 2/5 

★

REP: gay MC, gay LI, muslim LI, latinx LI, trans side character, gay and lesbian side characters, bi side characters, black side characters, quadriplegic side character.

TWs: homophobia in pretty much every way you can think of, homophobic violence (including murder being passed off as a suicide, internalized homophobia, conversion therapy, transphobia (misgendering and deadnaming), murder, violence.  

Genre: m/m young adult contemporary.

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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“My mouth hangs open in space. My mom has been taking notes on my gayness from when I was seven years old. She knew this whole time. She knew what was happening to me, even though I had no help figuring it out for myself. Somewhere inside me, a fuse blows. ‘I didn’t fall in love with a boy because I played the Queen of Hearts! Okay?!’”

Review: We Go Together [ARC]

 

TITLE: We Go Together

AUTHOR: Abigail De Niverville

                                                    RELEASE DATE: August 10 2020

RATING: 5/5 ★

REP: bi MC, trans love interest, LGBT cast, Native side characters

TWs: sexual abuse, rape, rape apologism

Genre: new adult contemporary

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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"Life was better for her, now, albeit far from perfect. It would be better for me too."

TBR in August

Hi guys!

So August, the month when I'll go back to work...honestly, I decided to set my TBR to six books and while that's probably too ambicious again I really want to be reading more so, I decided to at least *try* a larger number of books, even though I know I probably won't finish this month's TBR.

1. Orlando by Virginia Woolf (challenges: books I own, classics)
2+3: The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #1 & #2) by Maggie Stiefvater (challenges: series)

4. We Go Together by Abigail De Niverville [ARC]. (Challenges: LGBT books - trans characters)
5. Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass [ARC]. (Challenges: need to read urgently, LGBT books - m/m)
6. Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3) by Becky Chambers. (Challenges: series, books I own, need to read urgently).



Happy reading you guys!

Read in July

Hi everyone! I can't believe July has come to an end already. In terms of reading, July has really been a good month. I finished a lot of books, mostly ARCs, and I actually enjoyed reading a lot this month.

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# of books read: 6

-  Still Not Over You by Jenny Frame *
- The Mall by Megan McCafferty *
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
- The Four Profound Weaves by R.M. Lemberg *
- There Are Things I Can't Tell You by Edako Mofumofu

* = ARC

Best book of the month: The Mall probably, even though I also loved Children of Blood and Bone. The Mall was fun, funny and just generally amazing. It's basically the ultimate feel-good young adult book, and it's set in the early 1990s too which I loved.

Worst book of the month: There Are Things I Cannot Tell You because of a really bad surprise!rape scene that wasn't handled properly, ugh. 

Review: There Are Things I Can't Tell You [ARC]

TITLE: There Are Things I Cannot Tell You

AUTHOR: Edaku Mofumofu

RELEASE DATE: July 21 2020

RATING: 1/5 ★

REP: poc cast, gay characters

TWs: homophobia, abuse, rape

Genre: manga

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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Honestly the story line was fine, a lot of yaoi is built around homophobic themes/tropes and I feel like that definitely was the case here (I'm usually able to look past that because I'm aware of the problematic aspects of the genre in and of itself) and up until a certain point, I was willing to rate this book two stars because while I was pretty uninterested in the story, I didn't hate it. Then wham! A Rape Scene That Was Played Off As Being Consentual (when one character was literally begging the other one to stop too...!) and my rating went doooooooown. Needless to say, this wasn't for me, but if you're into reading yaoi I guess you could give this a try, just beware of the rape scene.

I liked the art style just fine though.

Review: The Four Profound Weaves [ARC]

TITLE: The Four Profound Weaves

AUTHOR: R.B. Lemberg

RELEASE DATE: September 4 2020

RATING: 3/5 ★

REP: poc cast, trans characters, nonbinary side characters, polyamory

TWs: torture, transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming.

Genre: adult fantasy

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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I sang as the wind and the feathers dissolved into the sand under my feet. I sang because my transformation was complete. I sang the dawnsong - the sacred melody that the men of my people sing, standing on the roof of the men's quarter every morning.

Review: The Mall [ARC]

TITLE: The Mall
AUTHOR: Megan McCafferty
RELEASE DATE: July 28 2020

RATING: 5/5 ★

TWs: mentions of sexual assault

Genre: YA historical fiction

Representation: Asian love interest

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher. A big thank you also goes out to Wednesday Books for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

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"Until that moment, I hadn't pictured Helen as someone with parents. In my mythology, she was not a normal human infant birthed on this Earth. No, Helen had emerged as a fully-formed monster from the fires of the Hades, a malevolent, vengeful hell-beast forged in the underworld's furnace to make my last summer in Pineville as miserable as possible.
When, in fact, she was just a girl who was hurting inside.
Helen had demons. She wasn't a demon."

Review: Still Not Over You [ARC]

TITLE: Still Not Over You

AUTHOR: Jenny Frame, Carsen Taite, Ali Vali
RELEASE DATE: July 14 2020

RATING: 2.5/5 ★

REP: lesbian MCs, Cuban characters

TWs: none

Genre: contemporary romance

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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”Emma, I need to explain.”
She held up a hand. “Don’t. You may need to explain, but I’m in a good place right now and absolving you of guilt isn’t part of that.”

TBR in July

Oh, July. My month off. My time to read an unlimited number of books, hopefully. I shall be keeping my TBR rather brief to leave room for some ~whims (basically me saying I'm going to try whichever way possible to read more). But anyways, here it is!

- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (challenges: big books, books I own, need to read urgently-shelf, series)
- Persuasion by Jane Austen (challenges: classics, books I own)
- The Mall by Megan McCafferty [ARC] 
- Still Not Over You by multiple authors [ARC] (challenges: adult contemporary, LGBT - f/f)


Happy reading!

Read in June

Hi guys,

another month of abysmal reading on my part. Like, on some days I look forward to reading all day and then by the time night comes around and I finally have time to read, all my will is gone or I get distracted by something else or I end up falling asleep or...the possibilities of me doing literally anything else but read are endless. The most surprising thing about this is that I haven't even had that bad a luck with my books, the majority of all books I've read I have rather enjoyed so I don't know what's up with that. It's gotten bad enough that I've lowered my Goodreads reading goal from 50 to 35 books which is saying something because that's literally never happened before...! As of today, I'm off work for a month so I'm hoping and praying my will to read will return from the war because I am kinda over not reading as much as I used to and especially not WANTING to read as much as I used to.

Anyways, onto the rather shameful list of books I read this month (or rather, this past month as it's actually July today!).

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# of books read: 3

-  A Closed And Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers 
- Jag for ned till bror (Jana Kippo #1) by Karin Smirnoff
- All the Paths to You by Morgan Lee Miller 

Best book of the month: I think I'm going to have to go with A Closed And Common Orbit because I've realized just how much I like that universe. It's truly so happy and wholesome to read, I love it.

Worst book of the month: While it not necessarily being bad per se, I totally feel like Jag for ned till bror was a bit overrated and overhyped for what it was.

REVIEW: All The Paths To You (All The Worlds Between Us #2)

TITLE: All The Paths To You (All The Worlds Between Us #2)
AUTHOR: Morgan Lee Miller
RELEASE DATE: June 16 2020

RATING: 4/5 ★

REP: lesbian MCs, MC with depression, lesbian side characters

TWs: none

Genre: contemporary NA romance

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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”I closed my eyes and inhaled a long breath that filled me up with the smell of her. My heart dropped. She still smelled the same.”

TBR in June

So, I can't believe it's June already! AKA the first proper summer month here in Sweden, where it's perpetually cold. Anyway, June typically means a quieter period of time at work which hopefully should leave me more time to read *fingers crossed*. This upcoming month, I do have some odd days off as well as a public holiday here in Sweden which hopefully should give me even more time to read. Now, if I end up actually reading is beside the question,,,,

For this upcoming month I've picked a whole bunch of books to read; maybe it's too amitious even for me, but hopefully I can pull through with it especially as some of the books are rereads and some are books I've nearly finished...

Click on through if you're interested in seeing what I'm planning on reading in June!

Read in May

So, May is now officially almost gone. I have, all in all, had a pretty good reading month! I did finish a bunch of books that were leftovers from previous months, I did read a lot and even (semi)marathoned some books. So, while I didn't manage to finish all books I set out to finish, I am still happy with my effort.

# of books read: 4

-  A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 
- Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
-  Conventionally Yours (True Colors #1) by Annabeth Albert [ARC]

Best book of the month: I think I'm going to have to surprise myself here - I've always expected A Little Life to be, like, *the* best book I've ever read and while I definitely did like it, I think I'm going to have to go with Conventionally Yours instead. The latter book was fun, cute and light and essentially what I was in the mood for right then! I had so much fun with it, too.

Worst book of the month: Tales of the Madman Underground because of its misogyny, racism, homophobia and fatphobia that added literally nothing at all to the story. Also, I really disliked the main character.

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REVIEW: Conventionally Yours [ARC]

TITLE: Conventionally Yours
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
RELEASE DATE: June 2nd 2020

RATING: 5/5

REP: gay MCs, Jewish MC, neurodiverse MC, side lesbian characters, side gay characters, side non-binary character

TWs: homophobia (mentions of, nothing too explicit).

Genre: contemporary NA romance

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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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As we approached Indianapolis, Conrad became more excited, like a little kid on a field trip. It was sort of...cute. And I didn't find much cute, so that was truly saying something. I wasn't sure what to do with this new desire to make him happy, which had led me to agreeing to this side stop, setting aside my already-strained schedule.  

TBR in May

So, a couple of changes for May. 50% of this challenge will be books from my classics/big books challenge that I picked up other months and didn't finish or didn't even started. So naturally, this means I won't be doing a new book for that challenge this month. Which is fine by me, of course! I think I have to see that challenge in particular as something I should attempt rather than as something I should definitely complete. Other than that, I've decided to include some books from my older TBRs that I never got around to as well as an ARC and a book I borrowed from my mom. Click through to see what books I chose!

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Read in April

So, April's come and gone now. Honestly? I am four books behind on my Goodreads reading goal and I hate that; I am not letting myself be stressed out by that, however. I think I at some point have to accept the fact that I'm simply not reading as much right now as I used to in the past, and that is perfectly okay. Also at some point I have to realize that all reading challenges I set up for myself only stop me from reading and put unnecessary pressure on me, but that's whatever.

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April wasn't the best month when it comes to reading, honestly. At least not if we're looking at it, numbers-wise. I am overall quite pleased with the books I did end up reading!


# of books read: 1

- Night Owls and Summer Skies by Rebecca Sullivan.


Basically, this is the only book I finished so I can't really do my best of/worst of since you know, I don't have a ton of books to compare to each other. I did however read a lot of A Little Life and Little Women, I totally aspire to finish both those books this coming month though!

Review: Night Owls and Summer Skies [ARC]

TITLE: Night Owls and Summer SkiesAUTHOR: Rebecca Sullivan

RELEASE DATE: June 30th 2020

RATING: ★★

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Genre: YA contemporary
Rep: lesbian MC with depression and PTSD, pansexual LI
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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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TBR in April

We live in such strange times right now; I feel like reading and everything else comes second to being horrified at the absolute state this world is in. Still, I'm trying to make my life as normal as I possible can currently and that includes coming up with a TBR for the month of April. Now, I know this TBR is very short and I have quite a good explanation for this: it contains two big books (500+ pages) and one classic (that I've been trying to read since January, which is saying something!

Anyways, here's my TBR for the month of April.

Read in March

Wow, what a month it's been. It honestly feels like it's been going on since forever. I need a break from everything that's going on in the world currently, so I'm just going to leave this here with a reminder to you guys to wash your hands and stay indoors ❤.

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All in all, I feel like I've had a pretty good month, reading wise. I've read quite a bit; one book I really hoped to receive from the library didn't arrive and I didn't quite make it to my big book of the month, but other than that I'm actually pretty happy with my effort!

# of books read: 6

-  Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaria
- A Strangely Wrapped Gift by Emily Byrnes
- Like a Love Story by Abdu Nazemian
-  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me by Steven Hyden
- We Are Lost And Found by Helene Dunbar

Best book of the month: Like a Love Story because it dealt with the topic of AIDS in a very good way and I really liked how it was written.

Worst book of the month: We Are Lost And Found, it deals with the same topics as Like A Love Story but it does everything the other book does much, much worse.

Review: A Strangely Wrapped Gift

TITLE: A Strangely Wrapped Gift

AUTHOR: Emily Byrnes

RELEASE DATE: March 10th 2020

RATING: ★★★

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Genre: Poetry
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E-ARC kindly provided by the publisher.

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TBR in March

So, thus far I haven't even thought about my reading challenges because of some mental health things I've been working through. I am doing a bit better now and so I feel like I can finally start focusing on reading more books and also to read more seriously if that even makes sense? Anyhow, this is my TBR for March. I'm hoping this month will be a good one.

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Read in February

Ah, February. The month where I mentally got a little bit more stable and I started reading again. I am currently three books behind on my Goodreads goal and I'm currently working hard on trying to accept that. It's not the end of the world and besides, it's only February. I should be happy that I'm even attempting reading right now! You know what? I could sit here and whine about how little I've read in February, but I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to be happy that I read anything at all and that's that on that. I think I actually did pretty good all things considering.

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# of books read: 4
Comment: I've mainly read non-fiction this month. And yes, I might have gone through a Nirvana phase.

-  Heavier than Heaven: a Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross
- Kurt Cobain finns inte mer by Hanna Jedvik
- Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain by Danny Goldberg
- Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

Best book of the month: Only Mostly Devastated because it was cute and pretty light and just what I needed to bring my will to read back from the war.

Worst book of the month: You know what? All books I read this month were good.  So I'm guessing none?

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