monthly wrap-up

Weekly Wrap-Up: 5/29 – 6/4

This last week was so much more productive than the ridiculous week before, and I’m so happy. Now, I’m back in the groove! (Yes, I know this is technically a day late. Shut up.)

I haven’t had the best start so far this current week, but I’m hoping I can pick up the momentum a little bit nonetheless. And yeah, I’ll go into it a bit more closer to the end, but I’m not expecting to post like last week. I’m hoping to have almost as much proclivity as usual, but we’ll just have to find out how much together.

Anyway, on with the wrap-up!

Monday 5/29: Majestic Monday

Last Monday, I did the first Majestic Monday that I’ve done in a long time. It felt great, and I’m excited to post more of these in the future. For those who don’t know, Majestic Mondays are when I gush over covers that I like.

Majestic Monday #13

Wednesday 5/31: WWW Wednesday

On Wednesday, I, as per usual, participated in another WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

WWW Wednesday 5/31

Thursday 6/1: The Stardust Thief Review

Thursday was when I finally posted my review for The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah. It’s an excellent Middle Eastern fantasy that I absolutely adored. I gave it ★★★★★.

The Stardust Thief Review

Friday 6/2: First Line Friday

Last Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays. It’d been a bit since the last time I was able to (courtesy of the power so generously deciding to go out the week before), but I managed to do it last week. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.

First Line Friday #16

Sunday 6/4: May 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

On Sunday, I finally got around to posting my monthly reading wrap-up for May 2023. It’s no later than I usually get to it, but I usually take a bit to get to it sometimes. I didn’t read and post as much as I’d have liked last month, but what can you do? Sometimes life just gets in the way.

May 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Books I Read Last Week

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
Witch King by Martha Wells

Goals for 6/5 – 6/11

This week I’m aiming to be almost as productive as last week. The key word here being almost. See, there’s sort of a vacation-y kind of thing going on at the moment, so my spouse and I are doing some stuff this week, which means I’m gonna be distracted. Like, a lot. So I’m hoping to post at least four times, but we’ll see.

But yeah, not a lot specifically planned this week. I just want to post a few things of anything really.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: May Reading 2023

May Reading 2023

Sooo… this is a bit later than I hoped it’d be, but here it finally is – my monthly wrap-up with my May 2023 Reading statistics!

Anyway, talking about May – I’m not super happy with how much I read last month. My statistics were meh on The StoryGraph. It was the least amount of reading that I’ve done yet this year. But I kinda get that a lot of stuff went down this past month, so I didn’t have the time or the mental energy to get the stuff done that I wanted to.

Anyway, I’ve prattled on enough. On with the stats!

May 2023 Reading Stats

I read 3 books and 1171 pages

😐 MOODS: Adventurous was the biggest slice of pie once again. But there are a lot of different kinds of pie on the Moods graph this time. And they’re all pretty equal, which I found kinda funny.

👢 PACE: Unlike pretty much all of the previous months, fast-paced books were the biggest part of the pie. There’s still a chunk of medium-paced, though.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of shorter books in May, similar to what I read in April. 300 to 499 was the only kind of pie here.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: I read a nonfiction book this past month! Yay, finally! This is probably gonna be a once in a blue moon kind of thing though, as I rarely read it.

🎭 GENRES: Fantasy was the biggest part of the graph this time, as per usual. Science Fiction was also on here like it normally is, but Memoir also made an appearance this time… cuz I read a memoir.

📄 FORMAT: The little StoryGraph pie chart for this is wrong once again. (Yeah, I’m never gonna fix it, lol.) 33% (one book) were printed copies, and 66% (two books) were digital.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for the month of April was 4.33. I wasn’t all over the place with my ratings in May. I gave two books 4 stars and one book 5 stars. (According to my StoryGraph stats anyway. Once again, I didn’t add any of the manga I read to it. Otherwise there would’ve been two books with 5 star ratings.)

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read quite a bit during the first week and a half, but dipped down a ton in the middle. During the last few days of May though, I read a bunch.

The Books I Read in May

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

★★★★☆

My Review
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

★★★★☆

My Review
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (The Manga) by Akira Himekawa

★★★★★

(rating is for entire manga)

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

★★★★★

My Review

Wrapping up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, May 2023 reading was kind of a bust. I know that a crap-ton of stuff occurred that I couldn’t control, but I’m still irritated with the reading and blogging that I was able to do.

I’m determined for June 2023 to be different. I’m going to read more books than I did in May, and then I’m gonna write reviews and post them. I’ve had an okay start so far, and I’m determined to keep up the momentum. And the May 2023 Reading Wrap-Up comes to a close.

Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 5/1 – 5/7

As I never always say: another week, another wrap-up!

Haha. Just kidding. In all seriousness though, I’m pretty happy with my blogging last week. Sure, I didn’t read nearly as much as I wanted, but sometimes those things happen.

Anyway, I’ll stop talking now, so that we can wrap-up last week.

Monday 5/1: Majestic Monday

Last Monday, I finally posted another Majestic Monday. The first one in forever. Majestic Monday is when I look at awesome book covers and rate them.

Majestic Monday #12

Tuesday 5/2: Arch-Conspirator Review

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

Tuesday, I posted my review of Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth. It’s a dystopian, post apocalyptic, science fiction retelling of the Greek play Antigone. I gave it ★★✬☆☆.

My review of Arch-Conspirator

Wednesday 5/3: Can’t-Wait Wednesday / WWW Wednesday

On Wednesday, I double posted. First, I participated in Can’t-Wait Wednesday. Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. Then, I participated in WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Never Heir

WWW Wednesday 5/3

Thursday 5/4: April Reading Wrap-Up

Thursday was when I finally got around to posting my reading wrap-up for April 2023. The most reading I’ve done (on a monthly basis) all year so far!

April 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Friday 5/5: First Line Friday

On Friday, I participated in First Line Friday. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.

First Line Friday #13

Sunday 5/7: I’m Glad My Mom Died Review

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

Yesterday, I reviewed I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy. It’s her memoir, and it’s about growing up as a child actor and her toxic relationship with her mother. There’s some sensitive themes here, so if you’re wary of TWs like: EDs, emotional abuse, and addiction, maybe stay clear for your health. I gave it ★★★★☆.

My review of I’m Glad My Mom Died

Books I Read Last Week

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

Goals for 5/8 – 5/14

This week, I want to read at least two new books and review them. I also want to keep up with the weekly memes that I participate in. I’m also planning on something a little different for Thursday, or as an additional post on Friday. We’ll see which day I post it on.

I don’t know what else I’ll do for sure, though. I guess we’ll all find out together!

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: April Reading 2023

April 2023 Reading

May the 4th be with you!

Sooo… this is later than I hoped it’d be, but here it finally is – the April 2023 Monthly Reading Wrap-Up!

The first of May falling on a Monday really messed with my posting, and I never post a reading wrap up until the month is done, so I had to wait till today to post this. Better (slightly) late than never, I suppose. Then again, I don’t think I got February 2023’s out until the fourth of the month either…

Anyway, talking about April – I’m very happy with how much I read last month. My statistics were great on The StoryGraph. It was the most reading that I’ve done yet this year! I also finished my reading goal for this year! Yay!

But I’ve prattled on enough. On with the stats!

April 2023 Reading Stats

I read 6 books and 1750 pages
April 2023 Reading

😐 MOODS: Adventurous and Emotional were once again the biggest slices in the Moods pie chart. Mysterious, Tense, and Dark were much smaller slices than they’ve been in the past.

👢 PACE: Medium-paced books were once again king this month, but I did read a decent slice’s worth of a fast-paced novel.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of shorter books in April than I did in March. 300 to 499 was still the biggest part of the pie here, though.

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: Once again, all fiction. I have a nonfiction book I’m reading right now though, so May’s F/N pie graph will finally look different.

April 2023 Reading

🎭 GENRES: Science Fiction and Fantasy were the two biggest parts of the graph this time, but that’s cuz I was in a sci-fi mood this month. Dystopian and Romance also made their way onto the Genres bar graph, as well.

📄 FORMAT: The little StoryGraph pie chart for this is wrong once again. (At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever fix this, haha.) 50% were printed copies, and 50% were digital. (And this is even counting the manga I read, which I didn’t add to my StoryGraph reading stats.)

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for the month of April was 3.54. I was even more all over the place with my enjoyment of the books that I read last month than I’ve been all year so far.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read quite a bit during the first week and a half, but dipped down in the middle. During the last third of April though, I read a ton.

The Books I Read in April

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens

★★★✯☆

My Review
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

★★★✯☆

My Review
Heavenly Delusion: Tengoku Daimakyo by Masakazu Ishiguro

★★★★✯

(rating is for entire manga)

Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton

★★★★☆

My Review
Chance by Matthew FitzSimmons

★★★☆☆

My Review
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

★★★★★

My Review
Noragami: Stray God by Adachitoka

★★★★✯

(rating is for entire manga)

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

★★✬☆☆

My Review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

April was my most successful month for reading so far, and I’m so happy about that. I hope to read even more in May if I can, however. That’s every bookworm’s dream, though, isn’t it? Haha.

The goal for May 2023 is to read more (as I just mentioned), and to blog more. Cuz the latter could’ve gone better. However, I’m having a very good start to the month, so far. Here’s hoping I can keep it up! And the April 2023 Reading Wrap-Up comes to a close.

Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/27 – 4/2

It’s a new week once again. And not only that, but April is also upon us. Yay for a month (possibly) filled with rain, lol.

Last week was a bit all over the place. Totally not my fault – I got sick on Thursday morning and couldn’t bring myself to do anything! Even watching something streamed on our TV was too much for me, I was that fatigued.

But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s go over the last week.

Monday 3/27: A Court of Frost and Starlight Review

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Last Monday, I was finally able to post my review for A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, which I did in lieu of a Majestic Monday. I gave it ★★✫☆☆.

My review of A Court of Frost and Starlight

Wednesday 3/29: A Court of Silver Flames Review / WWW Wednesday

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
WWW Wednesday

On Wednesday I double posted. Firstly, I posted my review for A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, finally capping off the ACOTAR series. I gave it ★★★★☆. I also participated in WWW Wednesday, a weekly feature hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

My review of A Court of Silver Flames

WWW Wednesday 3/29

Sunday 4/2: The House in the Cerulean Sea Review / March 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
March Reading 2023

Yesterday I was finally feeling better, so I was playing catch up. I double posted to help with the process. (It didn’t help that the weekend was the start of a new month, haha. How convenient.) I posted my review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, which I gave ★★★★✯, as well as my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for March.

My review of The House in the Cerulean Sea

March 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Books That I Read Last Week

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Goals for 4/3 – 4/9

I kinda wanna just keep doing what I’m doing. Aside from being sick last week, I think that it’s been working out well for me.

I definitely want to get my Most Anticipated Books for 2023’s second quarter out by tomorrow, since that’s the first Tuesday in April, and Tuesdays are when new books are released, so… yeah. Other than that, I’m not sure. More book reviews, obviously, but I’d also like to participate in my favorite book blogging features, too.

Anyway, thanks as always for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 2/27 – 3/5

Weekly Wrap-Up 2/27 - 3/5

It’s the start of a new week, and I’m finally feeling better. And I owe it all to last week – I did a ton of research on how to make myself feel better with my chronic illness, and it’s really helped.

Back to the blog, I’m honestly pretty happy with what I was able to post last week. I would’ve liked to get one more post out, but it’s fine. It was more than the week before, after all.

Tuesday 2/28: Weekly Wrap-Up #IDK

I don’t usually highlight my Weekly Wrap-Up from the prior week, but it was late, which was unusual. And it really felt significant to me while getting over being sick. So yeah, that’s what was up last Tuesday.

Wednesday 3/1: Shelf Control #11

Last Wednesday, I finally did another Shelf Control. It’d been a couple of weeks since I’d participated, so I was determined to make it happen last week.

Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. If you missed my post and are interested in what book from my bookshelf I highlighted last week, you can read it here.

Friday 3/3: First Lines Friday #5

On Friday, I managed to participate in First Line Fridays. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words. It focuses on judging books by their words as opposed to their covers.

You can check out my post here if you’re interested.

Saturday 3/4: February 2023 Monthly Wrap-Up

Saturday, I finally got around to posting my reading wrap-up and stats for February 2023. I’m really happy with everything I was able to read and accomplish last month, even if I would’ve liked to read and review more books. I’ll definitely do better in March!

If you wanna see my reading stats from last month, you can read the post here.

Goals for 3/6 to 3/12

This week’s goal is the same one from last week: just to post more than I did the week before. No specific post goals again. I’d really like to do five posts, though, if possible. And I definitely think it’s possible, seeing as I’m feeling way better this week. I’m excited to see what’s in store for me!

As always, thank you so much for reading and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2023

It’s March now, and spring is imminent, but it also means that February is over. So I’m gonna go over February’s statistics on The StoryGraph!

I didn’t read nearly as many books as I’d hoped, but I also didn’t read any less than I did in January, so I’m going to count that as a win.

Also, post #100 let’s gooo!!

So, uh anyway, now, on to the stats…

February 2023 Reading Stats

😐 Moods: Lots of moods in the books in February, Adventure of course being the biggest one, as per usual. My other moods were Mysterious, Emotional, and Dark, which also checks as every one of those except Emotional usually appears on my little pie chart.

👢 Pace: Most of the books I read are medium-paced, and that still shows here, but there dud read a book that I felt was fast-paced this month.

🔢 Page Number: I read a lot of longer books than I usually do in February, as 3/4 of them were 500+ page books. My preferred length of books is between 300 and 499 pages, and you can still see that a little bit here.

📖 Fiction/Nonfiction: 100% fiction once again. I swear I have a couple of nonfiction books on my TBR. I swear.

🎭 Genres: I upped the genres I read from last month. All of the books I read were Fantasy, which is my favorite genre so it’s absolutely no surprise. Most of them were also YA, which also isn’t a surprise as most fantasy that I read tends to be YA. Oh and Science Fiction! Hi there, second favorite genre! I read a lot less Romance than I expected to, even though all of the books I read technically featured it, to some degree.

📄 Format: All of the books I read last month were paperbacks.

⭐ Rating: My average rating for the month of February was 4.0 stars exactly. Not surprising – I gave all of the novels I read 4 stars, lol.

📉 Pages Read Daily: Once again, I was kind of all all over the place with the amount I read. I read more pages closer to the beginning of February, which makes sense, as I was able to read about three books in the first half of the month.

The Books I Read in February

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Cress by Marissa Meyer
My Review
Winter by Marissa Meyer
Winter by Marissa Meyer
My Review
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
My Review
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
My Review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So I didn’t read and review as many books in February that I’d wanted, but hey, I got sick in the last week and a half, and when I’m really not feeling well I just don’t want to read. But I finally finished A Conjuring of Light, and I finally finally finished Cress, which I’m really happy about.

What books did you read in February? What did you think of them? Did we read any of the same books?

Thank you, as always, for reading, and have a marvelous day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Weekly Wrap-Up: 1/30 – 2/5

Weekly Wrap-Up 1/30 - 2/5

Monday has come around once again, and with it, yet another brand new week. So it’s time to review the latest week on the blog – a weekly wrap-up, if you will.

This past week I actually got quite a bit done. Not nearly as many posts as the week before and no double posting, but we can’t all be the week of January 23 to 29.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the week of January 30 to February 5.

Monday 1/30: Majestic Monday #9

Majestic Monday - Weekly Wrap-Up

Sooo, last week Monday, I managed to squeeze out a Majestic Monday, despite being pretty busy. I reviewed three amazing book covers: Tress of the Emerald Sea, Unnatural Magic, and Siege and Storm.

If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Wednesday 2/1: WWW Wednesday #3

WWW Wednesday - Weekly Wrap-Up

On Wednesday, I participated in WWW Wednesday for the third time, as well as the third week in a row.

WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. It focuses on the 3 Ws. If you want to find out what those are, you can check out my take on WWW Wednesday here.

Thursday 2/2: What Moves the Dead Review

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Thursday, I finally got another book review out and posted. It was on What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, but with a more fungal flavor to it. If you’re interested in my full review, you can read it here.

Friday 2/3: First Line Friday #3

First Line Friday - Weekly Wrap-Up

This past Friday, I once again participated in First Line Fridays. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words. It’s where you post the first lines of a book and have people try to guess what it is. You can read my post here, if you’re interested.

Saturday 2/4: January 2023 Monthly Wrap-Up

January 2023 Monthly Reading Wrap-Up

Saturday, February 4, I finally got around to posting my January 2023 Monthly Reading Wrap-Up. Fir those who don’t know, it’s this thing I do every month, where I post my reading stats from The StoryGraph.

If you were interested in what I read during the month of January, you can find out all about it here.

Sunday 2/5: The Savior’s Champion Review

The Savior's Champion by Jenna Moreci

On Sunday, I had wanted to post another book review (Cress), but it wasn’t quite ready yet, so I posted a retrospective book review instead.

This time I did one on The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci, a book I originally rated pretty highly cuz I liked the author’s YouTube videos and wanted to be nice. Now, I went through the book again without bias this time around, and… well, you’ll see if you decide to check out my review. Which you can do here, if you’re interested.

Goals for the Week of 2/6 – 2/12

This week I did a lot of what I wanted. I wasn’t able to do all of my usual weekly posts (*cough* Shelf Control *cough*), but I did do a couple of book reviews. I also continued with bettering my blog. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t able to start that new post series that I was interested in doing, though. (I got my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up done, though!)

So this week, my goals are:

  • Shelf Control
  • WWW Wednesday
  • First Lines Friday
  • a few book reviews
  • the new thing that I wanted to do the two last weeks that I wasn’t able to

Annnd that’s all for this Weekly Wrap-Up! As I said, I did a lot, and read some books. Had a lot of fun doing it too.

Thanks so much for reading, and have an excellent day/night! Join me next post for more bookish things!

See ya ~Mar

LINKS: Goodreads | Instagram

January 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

January Reading Wrap-Up 2023

It’s another new month, and that means it’s to go over the previous month’s reading statistics. January Reading 2023, here we go!

Before I move on to the stats and pie charts and other assorted graphs, I want to mention how seriously happy I am with the amount of books that I combed through. It’s a huge improvement from December’s reading, and I’m hoping to read even more this month (February).

And now, on to the stats…

January 2023 Reading Stats

😐 Moods: For January, I had five moods – mysterious, adventurous, dark, tense, and challenging. No surprise there – I read a ton of either dark fantasy or horror.

👢 Pace: All of the books I read last month pretty much all turned out to be medium-paced. Most actual books are, so I’m honestly not surprised with that one, even though I did find Spinning Silver to be kind of slow, and What Moves the Dead to be generally fast-paced.

🔢 Page Number: Most of the books I read were between 300 and 500 pages, which is pretty average for me. (It’s my favorite length of book to read, after all.) What Moves the Dead was essentially a novella, or a short novel though, so it only clocked in at 165 pages.

📖 Fiction/Nonfiction: All fiction, once again. I promise that I occasionally (very occasionally) read nonfiction books, though.

🎭 Genres: I had four genres that I generally read last month. Fantasy (hello to you too, favorite genre), YA (not exactly one of my favorites, I just happen to read this one often), Horror (when I’m feeling like having a bad time), and LGBTQIA+ (What Moves the Dead had some pretty good rep).

📄 Format: I read three physical copies of books this past month, and one e-book. (Or so the chart says…)

⭐ Rating: My average rating was 4.19 stars, but that’s what happens when you read 4 books, rate two 4/5, one 3.75/5, and one 5/5.

📉 Pages Read Daily: I’m kind of all over the place in January, in terms of how many pages I read in a day, let alone a week. I peaked pretty early on, because I read the entirety of Unraveller in one day, but I read all of the other books in multiple sessions.

The Books I Read in January

Unraveller Book Review - The Blog That Nobody Knows

Unraveller by Frances Hardinge

Spinning Silver Book Review - The Blog That Nobody Knows

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Deeplight Book Review - The Blog That Nobody Knows

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

What Moves the Dead Book Review - The Blog That Nobody Knows

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, I read a lot more – annnd I posted a lot more, now that I think about it – in January 2023 than I did in December. And that really makes me happy with myself, and just my ability to be proactive in general. (Especially with how hard winter can get on my mentality.)

What books did you read last month? Did we read any of the same ones? What did you think of the stuff you read in January?

Thank you for reading, and have a marvelous day/night! Tune in next post for more bookish stuff!

See ya ~Mar

LINKS: Goodreads | Instagram