Hey everyone, and Happy Tuesday! I’m here participating in another Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025. There are a lot of options with this one: new-to-you authors, new genres, new bookish resources you found, new general bookish stuff, etc. I’m going with: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2025.
Anyway, in order from earliest discovery in the year to latest, here we go!
Christine Calella (via Liar’s Kingdom)
Max Gladstone (via This is How You Lose the Time War)
Amal El-Mohtar (via This is How You Lose the Time War and The River Has Roots)
L.R. Lam (via Dragonfall)
Katherine Rundell (via Impossible Creatures)
M. Stevenson (via Behooved)
Nicole Jarvis (via A Spell for Change)
Andrew Rowe (via How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps)
Brittany Cavallaro (via A Study in Charlotte)
Lois McMaster Bujold (via Penric’s Demon and Penric and the Shaman)
What authors were new to you in 2025? How did you like their books? Will you be reading things written by them again, or was their work not for you?
As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!
So yeah, this is really late. I enjoyed the vacation my spouse and I took earlier this month, but man did it push all of my posts back. Let’s get into my reading wrap-up for May 2025.
My reading in May was… okay. I know that I could’ve read more books, and a decent part of me wishes that I would’ve read more, but that didn’t end up happening. At least I read more than one novel, though.
Anyway, let’s just start talking about my StoryGraph statistics from last month!
May Reading 2025
I read 2 books and 662 pages
😐 MOODS: I had five Moods in May, which is more than the month before. The Moods from this past month were: Adventurous, Lighthearted, Hopeful, Funny and Emotional.
👢 PACE: The two books I read last month both had different pacing. One was fast-paced and the other was medium-paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novels I read last month were between 325 and 336 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. As usual.
🎭 GENRES: There were three Genres in the books I read in May. They were: Fantasy, Middle Grade and Romance.
📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was surprisingly correct once again. I didn’t even have to meddle with it this time, either! All of the novels I read last month were on my physical copies.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.5, as I rated the two books I read 3.25 and 3.75 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading for May was really up and down. I didn’t really start off that great, but I finally started reading my first novel of the month around the 11th and finished it around the 16th. I started reading the second book on the 27th and finished it on the 31st. My highest reading peak was the 30th.
So yeah, this is late and last month I could’ve done better. I’m hoping that the rest of June will either be better than May, or that I’ll do as well as last month.
Right now the stuff on my immediate TBR consists of The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah and A Spell for Change by Nicole Jarvis. I’m still not sure which one I’m going to read next. There are also a couple of new June releases that I’m interested in, so I might actually read one of them first. We’ll see what happens.
I also do want to get back into buddy-reading One Piece with my spouse, but they have a bit of a TBR pile of their own at the moment, and I don’t think I’ll have time in June. Hopefully we’ll get back into it before the end of the summer, though. And as for blogging and blog posts, I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing.
Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my May reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
Hey everyone! I’m a bit late with this again, but yesterday was Memorial Day, so this weekend was a bit busy. But it’s still early in the week, so here’s another Weekly Wrap-Up!
I’m simultaneously happy and annoyed with my productivity last week. On the one hand, I posted three times on the blog and finally got another book review out. On the other hand though… I didn’t get to reading a new book. But I just started another, and I have other book reading plans, so that won’t be a problem this week.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Wednesday 5/21: Can’t-Wait Wednesday
Last Wednesday, I did another Can’t-Wait Wednesday. Three weeks in a row! Yay! May was just a good month in regards to new books that looked interesting to me.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. It focuses on books you’re looking forward to reading, usually new releases.
On Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays for the first time in a while – like a month. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
On Sunday, I finally posted my book review for Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell. It’s a generally well-written, middle grade fantasy-adventure book with gorgeous artwork; which includes the cover as well as pictures in the interior of the novel.
It took me a bit to get this review out, which annoyed me, but I’m happy to have finally written and posted it. I enjoyed this book and gave it ★★★✬☆.
So yeah, I’m generally happy with my blog actually last week, but I wish I would have read and finished a book. This week, my goal for the blog is to do at least as many posts as last week, and to read at least one book.
Regarding specific blog stuff, I want to do a couple of my usual weekly posts, and in particular want to do another Bewitching Book Covers, as it’s been awhile. I also want to do another book review. In relation to what I’m currently reading and planning on reading next… Well, I’ve finally started reading Behooved by M. Stevenson and am planning on finishing it in the next day or so. Then, I’m gonna read the Fishman Island Arc from One Piece.
That’s right, it’s been a while, but I’m finally continuing on with my buddy read of One Piece with my spouse. We’ve actually been meaning to get back to it for some time now, but it just hasn’t worked out. We have still been buddy reading stuff though – we both recently read Impossible Creatures together and liked it.
After that, I think I’ll finally read The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah. It’s been my immediate To Be Read Pile since it came out last month, and I’m a little annoyed I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but I’ve been busy with other things, and Impossible Creatures had a time limit to it since we were borrowing it from my spouse’s family. But I think I’ll definitely be able to read it next week.
Concerning stuff outside of the blog and books, last week has our big cleaning day of the month. So our house is now freshly cleaned. I’m also continuing with my diet, as well, and have been eating better and doing more physical activity.
I wanted to note real quick that next week will probably see a decrease in blog activity here. My spouse and I are doing a staycation, and I think I’m just gonna take it easy mostly. I might do a post or two, but if I do I’ll have probably prepared them and scheduled them ahead of time. I just… want to relax. I want to take a break. I’ve been feeling a little burnt out with the blog on and off for the past couple of months (hence the weeks where I only did like two posts), and I think taking a break during our vacation is what I need. So yeah, you probably won’t see much from me next week.
Anyway, as always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
PUBLISHER: Knopf Books for Young Readers (originally published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
RELEASE DATE: 10 September 2024 (originally publication date 14 September 2023)
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR • A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND SHELF AWARENESS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever.
It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago—a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal—a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.
Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it becomes: no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.
Katherine Rundell’s story crackles and roars with energy and delight. It is brought vividly to life with more than 60 illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures.
My Review
“I think… wherever you are, the needle points you home.”
Impossible Creatures is a solid middle grade fantasy-adventure novel. The characters are diverse, interesting and likeable. The world of the Archipelago is lush and vibrant with life. And the art spread throughout this book is absolutely beautiful.
Christopher Forrester 🗺️ and Mal Arvorian 🧭 are our two protagonists. And I think that they complement each other out rather well. They’re both curious and bursting with a need for adventure, as well as courageous, intelligent and kind. Christopher was a good audience surrogate, and Mal was a good way to exposit the world building of the novel. I also enjoyed the characters that traveled with the protagonists Nighthand ⛵and Irian 📔 as well the creatures that traveled with the group.
The creatures were one of the biggest highlights of the book. The sphinxes and kraken were probably the most intriguing of them all, but my favorites were al-mirajes, the ratatoskas, the kankos and hippocamps. Also the glowing cat. And I always like mermaids and nereids. Ratwin the ratatoska 🌊 was a cool and I really liked how often she popped up in the novel. Gelifen the baby griffin 🪶 was also cute.
“And that’s the magic? The glimourie?”
“Glimourie, aye. Or glamarie, some of the islanders call it. Glawmery, glamry, glim, glimt. It’s all the same: it’s the name they give the first magic. Long ago, it was everywhere.”
I thought that the story of Impossible Creatures was pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite part of the book, but I think it was just fine for a middle grade novel. There were a few standout moments for me and a couple “twists” that got me – in that they weren’t actually twists but I thought they would be, so they ended up surprising me. I kind of figured out all of the actual twists though, and I thought that they were a little too obvious. To me. But they probably wouldn’t be for the actual target audience of this book, so I think they’re actually fine.
I also thought some of the character motivations were a bit unrefined and that the characters got attached to each other a little too fast. It felt like the author was rushing to get to certain points, and was speedrunning certain things in order to get there. I felt that the second half of the book was also much stronger than the first.
I also thought some of the character motivations were a bit unrefined and that the characters got attached to each other a little too fast. It felt like the author was rushing to get to certain points, and was speedrunning certain things in order to get there. I felt that the second half of the book was also much stronger than the first. The climax and ending were really good, though.
I’m kind of half-and-half on the writing here. On the one hand, the author definitely has some experience and some of the prose reflects this. On the other hand, I thought some of the dialogue was stilted and unnatural, and there were a lot of weird metaphors, some of which I thought didn’t really make sense.
Some sentences have the power to change everything. There are the usual suspects: I love you, I hate you, I’m pregnant, I’m dying, I regret to tell you that this country is at war. But the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these:
“I need your help.”
The artwork, including the cover and the interior illustrations, was probably my favorite part of the novel. It’s just… so good. The cover is vibrant and colorful, and the actual hardcover itself beneath the book jacket is also very nice – nicer than most other hardcover books I’ve seen in a while. Like, it’s not just one color, there’s a bit of embellishment to it. The red sprayed edges are also nice, and complement the book well, whether the book jacket is on or off.
And of course, the interior illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. As much as I like to imagine myself what everything looks like, I always enjoy pictures and art of it within the book just as much. Also, there’s an awesome map inside as well – and it’s also the inside cover pages!
I also wanted to highlight the bestiary. I love it when books have bestiaries and appendices and stuff like that, especially when they’re well done. And this book has a good bestiary. Seeing pictures of what almost all of the creatures looked like was really awesome.
“For instance: consider the greatest riddle of all-what you should do with your one brief life? The answer is different for each person. There is no neat answer, though many have tried to offer one. There are no answers to being alive. There are only strong pieces of advice.”
All in all, however, I think that Impossible Creatures was a pretty decent book, a good middle grade novel and a solid start to a new series. I definitely recommend it to its target audience, as well as those who enjoy middle grade fantasy-adventure books with great art. The sequel is also coming out later this year, so now is the perfect time to read it.
Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
