Well, this post is about half a month late, but in my defense, when it should've gone up, I was in the middle of the Silmaril Awards and in Ohio, so I think I can be excused for delaying it a bit. In any case, we're well into autumn, so it's high time to spotlight a new season of reads. But before I do that, don't forget that all six Snow Queen retellings in the Broken Mirrors Arista Challenge collection will release in December (just late enough to be not fall) and are currently available for preorder! That includes my own Through a Shattered Glass, Wyn Estelle Owen's The White Queen's Spell (much-anticipated sequel to The Dark King's Curse), and Kendra E. Ardnek's Snowfield Palace (book 4 in her Austen Fairytale series). And now that we have that bit of shameless promotion out of the way, let's take a look at some other books that have either released recently or will come out this season.

Autumn 2022 Reads

1. Unraveller by Frances Hardinge (September 1). While the blurb for this book is a bit vague, what we have does sound cool — apparently, we have a world where curses are common and one boy is able to undo them, except not everyone is happy with that. It's also maybe a nomance, which y'all know I'm happy about. I haven't picked it up yet, but I hope to sometime.

2. What If? 2 by Randall Munroe (September 13). I loved the original What If? — it's lots of weird, fun questions answered with a magnificent blend of sarcasm and sincere curiosity — so I was pretty hyped when I saw there was going to be a follow-up. I've already read it (I requested it from the library pretty much as soon as it became available), and I can confirm that it's just as good as the first book was.

3. Sweet Vendetta Blues by Hazel West (September 27). Y'all have already heard my thoughts on this one (unless you missed that post), but it was a good (though sometimes dark) book, so I wanted to make sure it made this list. Road-trip thriller vibes, brotherhood, angst, a bit of mystery, it's got all that good stuff.

4. Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad (October 18). It's a new fae story! We'll see which side this one leans to, but it sounds like it has potential, with hidden destinies and identities and journeys between worlds. Also, brownies are rather underused as fae creatures, so I'm interested to see how the author handles them.

5. Strike the Zither by Joan He (October 25). This is Asian-inspired epic fantasy featuring a strategist-turned-spy, and it sounds quite good. I read a sample chapter on the Tor.com blog a while back as well and enjoyed that. I am a little wary, as the last thing I read by this author was a bit frustrating in the end, but maybe the second time will be better.

6. Moira's Pen by Megan Whalen Turner (November 1). More Queen's Thief! Sort of! This is a collection of short fiction, some previously published and some not, from the world of The Queen's Thief, and I am so excited! This is definitely one of my top two most anticipated releases for this season . . . though I am kind of annoyed that the cover matches literally none of the other covers in the series. What the pumpernickel, Greenwillow Books? Who made that decision?

7. The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson (November 15). And we have the other most-anticipated read of the season! To say I'm nervous for this book would be an understatement — it sounds like Big Stuff is going down in this story, including a lot of new Cosmere connections, and I am quite worried for my favorite characters. But I am also excited for a return to Scadrial and more of Wax and Wayne and company. (I am not reading the preview chapters, though. I want to read the whole thing as it's meant to be experienced.) Of course, that means I should probably finish my dropped reread of the other Mistborn books . . .

What book releases are you excited for this fall, or what books that have already released this season have you read and loved? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

September 2022 Doings!

Hello, all! So, this post is going up a week later than usual due to the Silmaril Awards and the Sweet Vendetta Blues tour, but that's fine. We're only a week into October. No biggie. Anyway, September was a pretty busy month, with a lot of exciting stuff going on, so let's not delay — time to get to the Doings!

Writing!

• The big news of the month, is of course, that Through a Shattered Glass has a preorder and a release date! (And also a Goodreads page.) In case you missed the big announcement, the book will release on December 23. But if you want to get your hands on it sooner and you are able to post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or social media or a blog, you can request an ARC.
• Through a Shattered Glass is part of the Broken Mirrors Arista Challenge release group, and I highly recommend you go check out the other books in the release as well. They all sound quite delightful. (And I'm not just saying that because I'm a beta reader on two of them.)
• The other big event was the 2022 Silmaril Awards. I hosted the Most Faithful Friends category this year, which was quite delightful and a big change from the Magnificent Dragons and Marvelous Rulers categories I've hosted in the past. We had a lot of truly excellent ceremonies, and I highly recommend you go read through them (or catch any you've missed).
• Otherwise? I have, happily, gotten un-stalled on most of my writing projects. I'm currently on Chapter 11 of Bastian Dennel, PI #4, which isn't quite where I'd like to be but is still good progress, all things considered. I was also able to finally jump back into Through a Shattered Glass edits and work on applying beta feedback. I'm currently working on either the last or second to last round of edits before I move to formatting, so that's good.
• The one area that hasn't gotten a lot of attention has been D&D writing, since my group hasn't met much this month. But I've kept up with what I needed week to week, so we're still doing ok there.

Reading!

• This has been a rather slow reading month. How to Invent Everything took a long while to finish and left me in a bit of . . . not exactly in a slump, but not in a great mood, reading-wise. It wasn't a bad book, and it stuck its concept pretty well. It just kinda dragged after a while, reading it straight through.
• I've already reviewed Sweet Vendetta Blues here on the blog, of course. It was quite good, though I think it could've used a little more polish. I am a sucker for a good found family story, and this is no exception.
• After that, I ended up rereading The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie because the Silmaril Awards had them on my mind. These were on my favorites list when I was younger, and they were just as I remembered them, so that was nice. They were also a nice change of pace after a lot of darker or heavier reads.
• Sticking with the reread theme, I started a reread of the Tales of Goldstone Wood by picking up Heartless. This was partially motivated by the fact that Rose Red was a finalist in my category for the Silmaril Awards, but it was also something I'd been meaning to do ever since I got ahold of a paperback copy of the book. I'm happy to say that I love Heartless as much as I ever did (which is to say, it shows no indication of being knocked out of tied-first-place), and I'm currently working through Veiled Rose, which is . . . a bit slower going.  It is not my favorite book in the series, even if I do love both Leo and Rose Red. But it's going.
• Of course, it would probably be going faster if I hadn't gotten distracted by reading Randall Munroe's new release, What If? 2. This is the follow-up to What If?, one of my favorite nonfiction books, and it's the same concept — seriously (and somewhat sarcastically) answering ridiculous science-related hypothetical questions, such as, for example, what if you tried to make a lava lamp out of actual lava? It's great.
• Oh, and I'm still following Dracula Daily, and this month's installments have been giving me Ideas (besides being very good and very feels-inducing).

Watching!

• My watchlist this month has been a little of this and a little of that and not much of anything in particular — if anything, it's been mostly short-form YouTube content that I'm watching because I'm tired and procrastinating, and if a video is four minutes long, I can easily say "just one (more)." You know how it is.
• Probably the most noteworthy thing I watched all month was the other version of The Parent Trap. The 1961s version of Parent Trap is one of my favorite non-spec-fic movies, but I'd never seen the 1998 version, as I am Highly Skeptical of remakes of perfectly good movies. I still prefer the original, but the 1998 one does have its good points.

Life!

• Well, this month has been a lot. Or it feels like it, anyway.
• The highlight of September was a trip back up to Ohio to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends. It was a fun trip and a lovely wedding, and I enjoyed the opportunity to see quite a few of my college friends in person. While I hadn't met her now-husband prior to the wedding, he seemed very nice, and I could tell that they're good for each other.
• Plus, I drove up a day early so I could spend a day with my sister at her college. Conveniently, she didn't have class that day, so we got to go out for lunch and ice cream (at Young's Dairy, naturally), and we spent a lot of the rest of the day playing board games with various of her friends. That was a very good day.
• That said, the drive to Ohio was the longest distance I'd driven solo, and I don't think there was a single day of the trip on which I spent less than three hours in the car. So, much as I enjoyed it, it was kind of exhausting.
• Outside of travel, work has kept me plenty busy with Big Events either happening this month or coming up next month, along with the normal assortment of tasks that kept getting squished into short weeks. I'm not complaining, mind you. I would rather be busy than bored. I'm just tired, and the arrival of colder winds and rain is not helping that.
• Getting back to a more cheerful note: I finally tried making cheese bread! The specific recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction, and it's a sort of twisted loaf absolutely STUFFED with cheese. I've been wanting to try it for absolute ages, and the result was so tasty!
• I also made chicken potholders as a wedding gift for the aforementioned friend (don't worry; she's already aware of them), and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of them, though, which is unfortunate. I did not finish the scarf I've been working on, but I am closer, so . . . there's that?

October Plans

• On the writing front, I'll probably spend most of October bouncing back and forth between drafting BDPI #4 and editing and formatting Through a Shattered Glass. At minimum, I want to have ARCs ready to go by the end of the month (or sooner); ideally, I'd like to be almost or fully print-ready. (And if I'm not, I'd better have a full or nearly-full draft of BDPI#4 to show for it.)
• I'm also making plans for some fall fun, namely a visit to the Renaissance Festival with a writer friend. I'm very much looking forward to that, and I'm hoping that the weather will allow for coordinating costumes.
• On the work front, I image that things will continue to be busy. Hopefully not quite as busy as this month, but . . . I don't see it slowing down much.
• I still want to finish that scarf. I'm so close, and if I finish this month, I can move straight into holiday gift projects. Whatever those end up being. (I'm already done with the biggest gift item, which I am so pleased about.) I know there'll be something, though, because there always is.
• Reading will probably be a mix of continuing ongoing rereads and mood reading (because stress), but I do have an ARC of A Superhero for Christmas that I need to pick up. It's a little early for Christmas reads, admittedly, especially for someone with a strict no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving policy, but maybe it'll make for a good transition into holiday prep at work? I don't know.

How was your September? Any exciting plans for October? Did you follow the Silmaril Awards (and if so, were you excited about the winners)? Will you be going to (or have you gone to) any Ren Fests this fall? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

It's the 2020 MID-YEAR BOOK FREAKOUT!

THE TIME HAS COME! A bit later than usual, yes, but it's HERE: my annual MID-YEAR BOOK FREAKOUT! In which I don't actually freak out but do get really excited over the best (and worst) books I've read in the first half of the year.

As per the usual, we'll start out with some statistics. I've read 59 books and 19,709 pages so far this year, which is a bit over half of what I'd read this time last year. You would think I would've read more this year, since I was home for several months longer than usual, but nope. Oh well. I'm still ahead of schedule on my overall reading goal of 99 books in the year.

What about my other reading goals? Well, towards my goal of twelve non-speculative-fiction books this year, I have read either eight or ten such books, depending on whether or not you count a few things that I read primarily for class and/or skimmed rather than reading properly. As for my twelve books written before I was born, I am currently at ten such books, thanks to my decision to reread Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes (which was an excellent decision, I'd like to add). So, on the whole, I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

Mid-Year Book Freakout 2020!

1. Best book you've read so far in 2020:

Moonscript by H.S.J. Williams

I wrote a full post with my thoughts on this book a my other blog a while back, but to sum up: I love the characters, I love the focus on friendship and family relationships, and I love the overall vibe of the book. As I've said before, it's like someone took The Silmarillion, Goldstone Wood, and Orphan's Song and blended it all into one beautiful book.

Also, two runners-up:

Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

This is a beautiful book about creation and community and faith, and ohhhhhhh, it's so good. It's poetic without being pretentious and deep without being discomforting. If you're a person who creates, you ought to read this book as soon as humanely possible. Trust me.

An Echo of the Fae by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

I also reviewed Echo one at Light and Shadows, so go check that out for my full thoughts. But this is another very family-oriented book that's full of fae and beauty and fairy tale vibes. Also, it has selkies. How could anyone not love it?

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2020:

Not strictly a sequel, but the closest I can come . . .

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

Basically, I love sarcastic-yet-oddly-excited science and I cannot lie. Randall Munroe's books are the perfect blend of sarcastic cynicism and eagerness to share cool knowledge, and it's just so much fun!

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to: 

There are SO MANY of these, mostly due to the fact that I haven't been able to get my usual book hauls from the library even though I've been home, plus I didn't get all the books in over Christmas break or spring break that I wanted to. But the main one is probably:

Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross

I don't even have a good excuse; I own the book! But I got in the middle of my Great Redwall Reread, and life has been very full of good books to read, so yeah. It's still there, waiting for me.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

We've got a tie between two books that I've been looking forward to for nearly two years in one case and a solid three or four in the other:

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

It's Stormlight #4!!!! Need I say more? I am SO looking forward to returning to Roshar and spending several excellent days (maybe a solid excellent week) lost in this sure-to-be-a brick of a book.

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

EUGENIDES. I am concerned by one particular bit in the blurb ("death of the king?" Gen, nooooo!), but at the same time, I am sure that Eugenides will be in top scheming form (just as his author will be in top storytelling form), and I CANNOT WAIT. Hopefully it doesn't get pushed back again.

And then a runner-up that's actually multiple books, but is also mostly just one book:

The Tattered Slippers Group Release!

Featuring, as y'all know by now, my next book, The Midnight Show! But also featuring Russian vibes, Greek-esque secrets, Celtic fae, and more. There's so much variety in this collection, and I am HERE FOR IT! (Also: sign up for the blog tour! Or ARCs! It will be much fun!)

5. Biggest disappointment:

Libraries being closed and preventing me from reading new releases, haha. But in terms of books I actually read, I'd have to say . . .

Masters and Beginners by Daley Downing

This is a book that I really wanted to love, and that I'd heard a lot of good things about, but the execution (and the focus) just wasn't what I hoped it would be. It had a lot of elements that I did enjoy, but they were outweighed by my frustrations with the writing style, my inability to keep track of the massive cast of characters, and my issues with the visual aspects of the book.

6. Biggest surprise:

Hmm . . . This one is hard this year. In general, I liked new-to-me books either as much as I expected to or less; there were no books that I was like "Wow, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would!" I was surprised by how much more I liked some of the Redwall books when I reread them, so I guess I'll say that.

7. Favorite new-to-you author:

I . . . don't actually have one so far this year. All the books I've loved have been by known authors; all the books by new-to-me authors have been somewhere in the area of "Ok, but not my favorite thing ever." So . . . yeah. That's unfortunate.

8. Newest fictional crush/ship:

Coren and Zizain from Moonscript for life, y'all. They're so cute together. Also, Rhen and Harper from A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Not a perfect couple, but still a good one. (Yeah, that's all I've got.)

9. Newest favorite character:

Basically the entire cast of Moonscript? Is that an acceptable answer? But in particular, Errance (Actual Disaster, slightly burnt cinnamon roll, tries so hard before realizing that trying so hard is 90% of his problem, angst but for a good reason), Coren (smuggler with a heart of gold, a fox's wit, and plenty of flair), and Tellie (mum-friend, wants adventure but also wants people to behave sensibly and not go doing stupid things).

Also, shoutout to Grey from A Curse So Dark and Lonely. He's loyal and stubborn and determined and just generally an excellent character. I actually like him and Harper and Rhen all, but Grey is my favorite.

10. A book that made you cry AND 11. A book that made you happy:

I'm combining these because the same two books apply to both, pretty much:

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness & North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson

Ok, I don't specifically remember crying, but if anything I've read this year would've made me cry (in a good way), it would've been North!, and I know that both of these books made me very, very happy. So, yeah. I love these books, and their new editions are SO pretty.

12. Favorite reread this year:

The Great Redwall Reread!

This year, as y'all have seen, I've reread the entirety of Brian Jacques's Redwall series in chronological order. It's been really fun to revisit this old favorite and see how different aspects of the series hold up after so much time away. I'm happy to say that most of the series held up very well indeed.

13. Favorite post you've done so far this year:

I feel like I missed a lot of weeks posting this year, but I do have some posts that I really enjoyed writing and think turned out very well:

• The Actually Terrible AIs You Didn't Know You Needed (in which 7 A.M. me apparently had good ideas and I got to come up with ridiculous AIs).
• If Baili Met Breen (And Related Potentialities) (in which I got to theorize about how the casts of Blood in the Snow and Mechanical Heart would get along).
• Beauty and the Bard: Tiria's Story and Ardent's Story (in which I wrote a meet-cute for two of my D&D NPCs).

14. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year:

I have bought many beautiful books this year, surprisingly! But right now, I would like us all to take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous Abhorsen set that I found last week at McKay's.

I am super proud of it and also very happy to have a set of the core trilogy that isn't large, unwieldy, and slightly falling apart.

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Too many books. Basically, if I featured it in one of the last four seasonal releases posts and I wasn't part of the blog tour, I still need to read it. Thanks, COVID-19. (On the upside: the libraries are opening up now! So I can fix this soon! Though I may try to clear my owned-but-unread backlog a little more first.)

All right! There we have it: a summary of my last six and a half months of reading! How has your reading been this year? Best books? Biggest surprise? Biggest disappointments? Any new favorite characters? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

February 2020 Doings!

Behold! I live! I apologize for dropping off the face of the earth, blog-wise, the last two weeks. With classes, writing, social events, and the need for decent sleep all coming in front of the need to write blog posts, blogging just didn't happen. And, fair warning, I might be a bit spotty for the next couple months as well. But for now, I'm here (and on spring break!), so let's get on with the Doings of the last month!

Writing!

• My goal for February was to write 500 words or 30 minutes a day, five days per week. I kept that goal for the first three weeks, and then I gave myself the last week as a grace week because I had a lot to get done before I left on break. Still, I wrote a total of 16,707 words, with an average of 756 words per day, so I'd say that's pretty solid.
• Most of those words were D&D-related, unsurprisingly. I wrote a one-shot, plus three campaign episodes (one of which could have been a one-shot in its own right — that one involved homebrewing my own monster villain, which was interesting), plus the Valentine's Day short stories. For anyone who missed those, they showcased the first meeting of a pair of NPCs from my campaign from each person's perspective. Ardent's perspective was on Light and Shadows, while Tiria's was on Dreams and Dragons.
• Outside of that, I did a little more work on Blood in the Earth/Soil, which mostly consisted of finishing up the scene I'd been working on and then writing the first line of the next scene. (That next scene is what I've been working on during break; it's going well. One of the sisters who hasn't been in the spotlight much gets to play a bigger role and interact with Eun-Ji, plus plot stuff is set in motion. It's great.) I also toyed with another writing project, but ended up dropping it because it conflicted with a different novel (or novella) that I plan to write in the future.

Reading!

• I did a little better with reading this month than I did last month, which is good. I finished up my reread of the Illuminae Files around the beginning of the month. Everything I said about them last month stands; they're excellent books and I anticipate coming back to them many more times. Also, can I reiterate how much I appreciate that the authors didn't give us a grimdark ending? Or grimdark anything, really? I think it's become almost a trend for endings of YA fiction to focus almost as much on what was lost as what was gained, but you really don't get that in this series.
• How To was also excellent! I think I may have enjoyed What If? just a little bit more, but I think How To is a little more helpful in certain respects. If you're a writer who tries to get some measure of scientific realism in your stories, I'd recommend picking it up; even though most of the advice is sarcastic, there is some genuinely useful information in here (especially if you tend to write dramatic, over-the-top villains).
• At the end of February and beginning of March, I did a little early celebrating of March Magics by rereading Charmed Life and The Many Lives of Christopher Chant (the first two Chrestomanci Chronicles, nicely contained in one volume) and Castle in the Air. I actually enjoyed both of the Chrestomanci books more this time around than I did the first time — which is saying something; I really like Chrestomanci. And Castle in the Air was, of course, delightful.
• Continuing the reread trend: Redwall's been on my mind on and off throughout February, so I decided to reread Lord Brocktree to see how it held up. The answer is "surprisingly well" — the prose and technical quality of the book are nothing special, but it's refreshing to read a book where the good characters are solidly good, the evil characters are truly evil, and friendship, bravery, and appreciation of life are celebrated so honestly. I'm toying with the idea of doing a Great Redwall Reread now and perhaps even blogging about it if I have time. We'll see.
• I also reread 101 Dalmatians after we watched the movie a few days ago. That one didn't hold up quite as well, but it was still fun. There are some delightful interactions that didn't make it into the movie. And, y'know, it's a fundamentally family-oriented story and we all know that I have a soft spot for those.
• In terms of nonfiction, I've spent the better part of the month slowly reading The Design of Everyday Things, which is, contrary to what I expected, not about the history behind how various ordinary items developed into their modern forms. What is it about? User-centered design, that's what. Is it giving me flashbacks to User Experience for the Web (aka my second-least-favorite PWID class)? Also yes. But it is actually a good book, and it's honestly relevant to some of what I want to do professionally, so I'm going to finish it or go down trying.
• Not reading but still bookish: I did participate in Jenelle Schmidt's February is Fantasy Month again, though not as extensively as usual. I did manage to sort of keep up with the Instagram challenge for a few weeks, which was fun.
• Finally, a quick update on how my reading goals are going! I've read twelve books so far this year, which puts me five books behind schedule, but I should be able to catch up without too much trouble, especially if I end up rereading Redwall — those aren't short books, by any means, but they go quickly. I've also only read one non-speculative-fiction book, but I'm in the middle of a second. I'm doing a bit better on reading older books — I've gotten in four of those. I mean, they're all middle grade-ish, and three of them are by Diana Wynne Jones, and pretty much all of them were published after 1956, but still. It's progress.

Watching!

• Once again, I haven't really watched much of anything this month; I've mostly been too busy. My roommate and I did watch the third episode of Avatar season 2, but that's pretty much it.
• Well, and my family rewatched 101 Dalmatians while I was home for spring break. That was quite fun. (That's why I ended up rereading the book as well.) It's kind of underrated, and if Disney tries to make a "live action" version of it like they did with Lion King and Lady and the Tramp, I shall be immensely annoyed. (I'm already annoyed about Lady and the Tramp, but there's nothing I can do about that.) Also, the art on older Disney movies? Gorgeous.
• (I also have a new appreciation for the title sequences of Disney movies after having taken graphic design classes. I know it's not exactly graphic design, but it's related, and yeah.)

Life!

• Most of this month was, to be honest, taken up by either classes, homework, or writing. As such, my main impression of most of it was of being busy and tired.
• (Not that classes and homework are bad things, of course. I actually got to design the branding for a fictional university for one of my PWID classes, and it was SO MUCH FUN. Like, yes, it was tiring and it took effort, but there's a reason I want to go into branding and marketing if at all possible.)
• My roommate and I did make it down to Orion to take advantage of their drink of the month and their Valentine's blooming tea special. So that was fun. The blooming teas look pretty cool, and they come in this adorable glass teapot and it made me quite happy. (Also quite warm, as it was snowing that day. I was distinctly displeased.)
• On an exciting note, I went to the spring career fair that Cedarville hosts and actually had several very good conversations! I'm not sure if anything will come of them, but I'm hopeful. And the companies that seem to have the highest potential would both mean I'd be spending a lot of time around engineers and scientists, which I would honestly be fine with and would probably even enjoy. (I mean, I already hang around STEM people a lot; why not continue the habit?)
• On a less exciting note, I officially stepped down as an Inklings workshop leader this month. This is a decision I've been contemplating for several months, and I finally made up my mind after the TDK Academic Integration Conference (which I'm not talking about here because it was largely frustrating for me for entirely personal reasons, but some good things did come out of it). My workshop group has only had one person regularly show up (other than me), and it's been frustrating for both of us — and workshop, in general, has been taking up more emotional and mental bandwidth than I can spare ever since the start of the school year. I feel bad about not seeing the year through, but I think that this was best for everyone (especially since the one person who did come to workshop can now move to a group with actually active people in it).
• I also spent several afternoons in Centerville so my roommate could take a series of exams that she needs to get into grad school. That wasn't great for my productivity, but it was a nice change of pace. And now she's done with that, and we celebrated with a trip to Lola's Mexican for chimichangas, which were, as always, delicious.
• And this past week, I've been home on spring break — thank goodness! I've enjoyed being able to relax and spend time with my family and not have anywhere particular to be. It's possible that I should have been more productive over break than I was, but at the same time, I've gotten a reasonable amount done, and I needed the chance to rest.
• As per the usual, being home meant trying a new sourdough recipe. This time, it was crusty sourdough rolls, and they turned out super well (as you may have seen on my Instagram). If not, behold the deliciousness:

March Plans

• I'm going back to my January writing goal of 300 words or 30 minutes of writing per day, five days per week. 500 wasn't unbearable, especially with how much I was writing D&D stuff, but I think this will be more manageable. Plus, next month is Camp NaNoWriMo, so I don't want to exhaust my writing inspiration in March and then have nothing left when April hits.
• I also have lots of books to read, especially since I've gotten ahold of ARCs for several upcoming releases: the Wingfeather Saga rereleases, Moonscript, and Let the Ghosts Speak! I think this is the most ARCs I've ever had at one time, haha. (On the downside, I'm behind on the Wingfeather Saga ones because I can't figure out how to get the ARCs from Netgalley to my Kindle. The emailing thing doesn't seem to have worked. It's a problem.) Plus, of course, I have plenty to reread, and I may try to join in with the Fellowship of Fantasy book this month. We'll see.
• More importantly than either of those: classes still exist. I want to have my Honors final project at least drafted, if not completely done, by the end of the month, and there's the usual deadlines in other classes as well.
• In terms of social activity: D&D will continue to be a thing. Also, my friend group is doing a second cheese night the night we get back to Cedarville, and I'm psyched about that. And part of the TDK Quizbowl group — myself included — is going to a tournament at the end of the month, which I'm really looking forward to. (Not just because that means I get to be back in Virginia for a weekend, but also because it's going to be fun.)

How was your February? How do you feel about rereading books you used to love? What movie do you never want to see Disney remake in "live-action"? What plans do you have for March? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah Pennington

January 2020: First DOINGS of the DECADE!

Hey'a, everyone! It is the last day of January and a Friday, and that means it's time for the first Doings post of the decade! WOOT WOOT. I have no idea why I'm making such a big deal about this, but it's something different, so we're going with it. Anyway. January's been one of those months where it feels like it's actually two or three months stuck into one, so that's been interesting. We'll see how much I remember to recap.

Writing!

• So, as far as writing quantity goes, I'm doing great. My goal was 300 words or 30 minutes of writing per day, five days a week, and though the start of the month was a little rough, I had some really good days and I currently have a really nice streak going. My total for the month so far is 24,214 words, not counting whatever I write today.
• The majority of that has been on D&D stuff, both because that has a closer deadline (I need to have a new session every Friday) and because D&D is currently easier to write than my novel. Around the beginning of the month, I planned out all the episodes for the semester, so I just have to expand my summaries into actual playable session outlines.
• I've gotten some done on Blood in the Earth/Soil, but not as much as I'd like. Again, D&D is higher priority and easier, and all the bits of my novel that I'm really excited about seem very far away. I mean, yes, they'd be closer if I worked on the bits that I'm writing now, but . . . yeah. I did manage to finish one notebook and start a second, though, which is exciting!
• (D&D is going great, though. We've had two sessions so far this month — we had to call off one because of someone's birthday — and everyone seems to be having a good time. And I'm putting Plans in motion, and everyone just hit level 5 and it's all very exciting for me.)

Reading!

• I really haven't read a lot in January — I've been knitting, and I haven't had many gaps between classes and such in which to sneak a few chapters.
• I finished King of Scars literally the day before Christmas break ended, and I have kind of mixed feelings about it. In all fairness, I really should have realized that, no duh, reading Nina's POV would be a constant reminder of that one bit at the end of Crooked Kingdom that I really disliked. Somehow, Zoya ended up being the best POV character in the story, which is impressive given how much I disliked her in the original trilogy.
• Two of my other main reads were retellings: Shadowkeeper (Hades and Persephone crossed with Castor and Polux) and A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Beauty and the Beast). Shadowkeeper was a great concept with an execution that was ok but could have been better (though it's still worth the 99 cents that it currently costs as an ebook). A Curse So Dark and Lonely has been on my TBR list for a while and is definitely one of the better Beauty and the Beast retellings I've read. The characters were great, and, wonder of wonders, people actually tried to communicate with each other after they argued instead of being huffy and stubborn. WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE. Also, it's excellently twisty.
• I'm finishing up the month by rereading the Illuminae Files, which I intended to do over Christmas break but didn't have time to read. I thought I'd just hold off on them until my next break, but then I ended up with a spare hour Monday afternoon during which I was too tired to do anything productive, and I was right next door to the library, so I figured I'd see if they had the first book . . . and they did, so I reread it in three days, and it was just as good as I remembered it. I think the reread was made better not just by the fact that I could pick up hints and clues and such but also by the fact that I took the AI class last spring and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey as a part of that, so I was reading the bits about AIDAN kind of in light of what I'd gotten then. I'm currently partway through Gemina, which is also as excellent as I remembered. (Actually better, since I'm attached to Nik this time around.)
• I'm also keeping one of my reading goals and reading outside the speculative fiction genre! Currently, I'm reading How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, which is the most recent book by Randall Munroe (aka the guy behind XKCD and What If?). It is, as you might expect, excellent and hilarious and highly enjoyable. Absolutely would recommend.

Watching!

• I really didn't watch a whole lot this month. I saw about two-fifths of The Scarlet Pimpernel (the one with Ian McKellen in it) and thought it wasn't bad, though I didn't get to the part that I actually wanted to see (aka the part that's the book proper and not the flashback material put in chronological position). It was long and late and I wasn't feeling well, though, so I didn't finish.
• The roommate and I have also started watching (rewatching in her case) season two of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We've gotten through the first 2 episodes, which includes the "Cave of the Two Lovers" episode. That . . . was a thing. Also, Sokka in that episode is basically me during a lot of D&D.

Life!

• In case anyone was curious: the homemade artisan bread that I was working on when I posted my last Doings post was delicious. The loaves fused oddly, which wasn't great, but they tasted amazing. Definitely going to make those again once I'm home.
• But there will not be any baking for a while because, guess what, I'm back at Cedarville.
• For my last semester.
• Please insert the appropriate nervous screaming noises here. (If you've lived in the same dorm as me for any length of time, you probably have a pretty accurate idea of what that sounds like.)
• Anyway, yes. It's my last semester. I'm enjoying most of my classes, and even the two classes that I'm not crazy for, I like the people there and I'm glad to be taking one last class with them, if nothing else.
• But I'm basically in two web design classes (Web Design II and my independent study) and it's a lot, but I'm really enjoying it. Coding and scripting and such are weirdly satisfying in a way that graphic design and writing aren't, and I can't really explain why, but yeah. It's great. I like it. There's about a 30% chance that I'm going to find a way to work these skills into my PWID professional project (read; basically a pre-capstone project), though it kind of depends on what my professor and I decide.
• I'm also back in a class where the amount I talk during discussions actually affects my grade, and it's surprisingly hard to adjust after a full semester (possibly a full year?) with no classes like that.
• Outside of classwork: my roommate got Sentinels of the Multiverse (aka one of my favorite strategy games ever) for Christmas, so we've been playing that a fair bit whenever we both have a decent chunk of spare time. I've gotten to test out different heroes, which is fun. My favorites are definitely Fanatic (basically a paladin with wings; she smites evil a bunch and occasionally heals people) and Chrono-Ranger (time-traveling cowboy and bounty hunter whose effectiveness is directly proportional to how many bounties he has out at any given time). I've also determined that how much I enjoy playing a character is determined as much by aesthetic as it is by mechanics.
• My online D&D group is also still going strong. We had some MAJOR REVELATIONS dropped on us, not last session but the session before that, and some of us are still processing that, but we have a very clear objective in front of us right now, which is nice! And it does not involve negotiating with dragons other than the one in the party! Which my character is very happy about!
• Also this month was CU Lead, which is a leadership conference that all org officers are required to go to. It was not a fabulous day — it rained, some of the vital conference information was only available in an app that I couldn't download, and there were a lot of people. But it was a lot more helpful than last year's conference, with more practical advice and less theory and devotional-type stuff, so that's good.
• Additional not-terrible thing: CU Lead was the Saturday before MLK Day, and for the first time ever, we got MLK Day off from classes. So we had that day to make up all the homework and social stuff we didn't have time for on Friday, at least. And the chem club had a game night that evening, which was fun. (Oddly, the chem club game night was more fun than the Inklings game night this past week, even though I knew fewer people by far. I think it has to do with the personality dynamics of the people in the club.) And my roommate and I went to the Mexican restaurant down in the town for lunch, which was completely and utterly delicious.

February Plans

• I have two basically-final projects that I plan to start this month (my Honors colloquium project and my aforementioned professional project) and it's so weird to think about that. Plus, of course, I have the usual projects and reading and such.
• Writing-wise, I plan to keep going with roughly the same goal as I had this past month, but I'm upping the amount a little to 500 words or 30 minutes of writing, 5 days a week. I could probably go even higher if I wanted to, but I don't want to overdo anything, especially since I don't know how much time class projects will take up.
• That writing, by the way, will hopefully include at least one, maybe two, Valentine's Day short stories (because it sounds like fun and I currently don't get to write any romantic scenes in my WIP). Watch for more about that on my Facebook page sometime today or tomorrow.
• February also means Blind Date with a Book at the Cedarville University library, which I am super psyched for! I'm curious how they're going to handle it this year, but I'm sure it'll be great. I'm going to read so many books this month, haha.
• Outside of that, D&D and orgs and such will probably proceed as per the usual. I do have a couple D&D and other tabletop RPG one-shots that I'm either running or participating in, which I'm excited for. (The one-shot I'm running is set in Eberron, which means I get to be steampunky and I get to mess around with an artificer NPC, so that'll be super fun.)
• And, yeah. That's pretty much it. But I think it should be plenty to keep me busy.

How was your January? Have you been able to keep any of your resolutions or goals from the start of the New Year? What plans do you have for February? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

End-of-Year Book Freakout 2019!

Here we are again: the end of another year and another six months of books to recap (counting from the time of my mid-year book freakout)! I actually am freaking out a little in this post, 'cause I've read some amazing books in the last six months. But we'll get to that in a minute.

A few quick stats before we get started: I have read a total of 130 books and 38,656 pages this year, plus a little bit because I have a few reading days left in the year. (For those of you concerned: I'm finishing out the year with assorted rereads, namely the Six of Crows duology and the Illuminae Files and maybe the Reckoners trilogy, so there's no risk of my discovering something amazing and then regretting the fact that I couldn't include it in this post.) That's significantly up from last year's count, which was 107 books and 33,968 pages. My average rating, on the other hand, is down from last year, only 3.7 versus 4.1. Apparently, I read better books last year. Oh well. About 31 of this year's books were in this half of the year, which is only about a third of what I read in the first six months — though that does make sense, since the second half of the year contains two low-reading months (July and November) and fall semester kind of killed me.

1. Best book you've read in the second half of 2018:

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

I read this book shortly after Christmas break started, and I haven't entirely stopped screaming about it since. Not internally, at least. It's like someone crossed The Invisible Library with Howl's Moving Castle and then added a dash of the Abhorsen Chronicles to round it all out. It's amazing. It's got a stubborn, fierce, indomitable apprentice librarian and a dashing, disreputable, snarky sorcerer and magical books and equally magical libraries and high stakes and action and romance and just so much awesomeness. I'm probably going to end up rereading it sometime early next year; it's just that amazing. If you haven't read it yet, go grab it now.

A few runners-up, though none of them come anywhere near the amazingness that is Sorcery of Thorns:

Death Be Not Proud by Suzannah Rowntree

It's a non-magical murder mystery retelling of Snow White set in Jazz Age New Zealand. And Suzannah has managed to figure out Megan Whalen Turner's method of keeping secrets from you even when you're really close in character's heads, and she does it to excellent effect here.

What If? by Randall Munroe

This is nonfiction, but it's really fun nonfiction! Basically, the author/artist of xkcd answers all kinds of weird science-ish questions in serious (though snarky) ways. There's a lot of explosions and things lighting on fire. It's awesome.

2. Best sequel you've read in the second half of 2019:
I honestly didn't read a lot of sequels to things this half of 2019. On the upside, that means it's not as hard to choose a book in this category.

Prince of Stars, Son of Fate by H.L. Burke

I quite enjoyed both books in this duology, but I may have liked this one a little more. It's hard to say. I like the relationships and the world, and Arynne and Kay are both pretty great characters. 

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to:

 

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

I honestly didn't realize this was out until a week or two after its release, which is tragic because I'm intensely excited for more Invisible Library. It's got Irene and Kai and a heist and Fae/dragon partnerships; what more could I want?

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

Lower on the priority list, but I do want to read this sooner rather than later. Though maybe later would be better, given what some reviewers have said about the ending cliffhanger . . .  

4. Most anticipated release for next year: 
Oddly enough, this was my most anticipated read for this year too:

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Come on. I want more Eugenides. If this gets put off another year, I'll . . . well, I probably will end up being too distracted by other books to notice, but eventually, I'll realize it and be sad. Y'know how it is.

Also releasing next year: Stormlight Archive #4 by Brandon Sanderson! It has a release date! And a tentative title! (Rhythms of War, if you hadn't heard.) Though not a cover. But it's coming out November 17 of next year, and I can't WAIT. The only reason it's not my top most anticipated read is that technically I've been waiting for Return of the Thief longer. 

5. Biggest disappointment:

Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien

Ugh. I hoped that this would be a fun contemporary-fantasy with an Asian setting, and it was all of that . . . except for the fun bit. I actually ended up DNFing it because I disliked the main character so much. Life is too short for arrogant annoyances like this one.

6. Biggest surprise:

 Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

So, I finally decided to get with the times and read the rest of the Grishaverse books (the ones that aren't Six of Crows, mostly so I could read King of Scars) . . . but Shadow and Bone did not thrill me, so I was honestly expecting a succession of meh books until I got to my Crows reread. But then Siege and Storm ended up being really good? And, yeah, it was mostly because of one character, but it still counts.

7. Favorite new-to-you author:

Haven't really got one, but I did finally read a full-length novel by C.M. Banschbach (Oath of the Outcast, if anyone is wondering), and it was pretty good, so . . . does that count?

 

8. Newest fictional crush/ship:

Ok, so if we're being 100% honest, I am crushing a little bit on Nikolai from the Grishaverse books. Not, like, hardcore, but . . . y'know. If he were real and asked me out, I would seriously consider saying yes. (The answer would probably depend on where he was in his character arc, to be completely honest.)

 

Also, ships. Glorious ships. I don't have a ton of new ones, but I have one that I'm really enthusiastic about, and that is —

• Elisabeth and Nathaniel (Sorcery of Thorns). They remind me of Sophie and Howl in all the best possible ways, and they compliment and play off each other really well, and they have each others' backs and protect each other and . . . oh, stars. I love them, ok? I love them so much.
• Kay and Arynne (Ice and Fate duology). I normally get really annoyed by the whole forbidden love/betrothed to one person but fell in love with someone else drama, but it works really well with these two. They've got a good dynamic overall.
• Alina and Mal (Shadow and Bone trilogy). Ok, I have gotten the impression that this ship was not a favorite with a lot of readers, but I liked it. Yes, Alina and Mal had some communication issues, but no more than any other standard YA couple. And I really wanted the childhood best friend to win for once in the romance.

9. Newest favorite character(s):
I feel like I'm probably going to repeat myself a bunch here, but let's go anyway, 'cause I want to yell about Sorcery of Thorns more.

• Elisabeth (Sorcery of Thorns). Elisabeth is magnificent. She's blunt and straightforward and 100% ready to fight whatever the heck she has to in order to save the world, and she's also quite brilliant about figuring out the best way to go about things . . . but she's also very human? Basically, I would like to be her, please and thank you very much.
• Also, Nathaniel (Sorcery of Thorns). Nathaniel may be my new favorite magic disaster boi.  He's sassy and brilliant and pretends he doesn't care but clearly does. And he reminds me of Howl from Howl's Moving Castle. Obviously, I love him immensely. And he manages to have angst without being annoyingly angsty, which is nice.
• While we're on the topic, Silas (Sorcery of Thorns, where else?) is pretty great as well. He's . . . complicated? But he reminds me of a cross between Calcifer, Mogget, and Alfred Pennyworth, he's a magnificent balance of "actually super dangerous and probably a bit evil if not kept under tight control" and "secretly intensely noble," which is great. 
• We also have to mention Sturmhound (Shadow and Bone trilogy). I love this man. He's snarky and clever and cocky in a fun way, and he has a knack for brilliant, dramatic, perfectly-timed entrances, and he's astonishingly practical and straightforward. But he's also noble and brave and reasonably sacrificial and just generally excellent. Also, did I mention he's the captain of multiple (flying!) privateer ships? Basically, he's a stellar example of one of my favorite archetypes, and I love him.
• Moving on to some books that I haven't yelled about yet: Hesina (Descendent of the Crane) is a lovely protagonist, even if her POV sometimes feels a little detached. She's a princess trying to uncover the truth of her father's death and trying to do what's best for her people . . . and she struggles so much, but she's trying so hard, and I just appreciate her, ok?

10. A book that made you cry:

 Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Hello, yes, we were just talking about this! This book is very good if you like political fantasy-mystery, which I do. And it's got a lot of interesting family dynamics and motivations, which I appreciate. And it's just generally excellent until you get to the end, in which the author basically shatters your expectations and breaks your (and Hesina's) heart . . . at which point it's still good, but it hurts. 

11. A book that made you happy:

 

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones

This is a clever, short novella that's really hard to talk about without spoilers, but it's delightful and has an excellent twist on some mythological stuff. Also, more family stuff. It's lovely.

12. Favorite reread this half of the year

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

Did I just read this for the first time in January? Yes. Did that stop me from rereading it over Thanksgiving break? No. Do I have regrets? Only the fact that I stayed up too late basically every night of break because I was reading it, but otherwise, no. Captain Grimm and Gwendolyn and the Spire are worth it.

I may also have reread Spindle and Masque, despite the fact that I just read them for the first time last February . . . they're good books, ok? And they're excellent de-stressors, which is what I needed, and Howl was back in Virginia, and I'm saving The Beast of Talesend for when I catch up on all the Afterverse books at once.

13. Favorite post(s) you've done this half of the year:

Probably my post on what happens when an AI tries to do my job. But I also had a lot of fun with my posts about books I'd give to the Mechanical Heart characters, AUs I wish were real, and magic powers I want for mundane reasons.

14. Most beautiful book you've bought/received this half of the year:

Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

My parents got me this for Christmas, and I'm quite excited to read it. The cover is more gorgeous in person, but it has this nice texture and debossing and it's just really well done. And given that it's Andrew Peterson, I'm pretty sure the content will be just as beautiful as the outside.

15. Any other books you want to babble about for any other reason?
As per the usual, I'm taking a moment to mention the books that I wanted to read this year but which got pushed aside by other books:

• Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean. This is the second year that this book has been on this list. I actually won an ARC of this from Emma over at Awkwordly Emma, which makes me feel even worse. The main reason for the holdup is the Blood in the Snow sequel — any time I'm starting to write or really involved in writing something in a more specific subgenre, I get caught in this weird tension between "I want to read other books in this subgenre so I can see how those authors did things" and "I don't want to read any other books in this subgenre because I'm worried I'll pull too much from those books," and the latter almost always wins.
• A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigit Kemmerer. This one moved up several spots on my TBR list because of the cover — I absolutely love it and I used it a lot in one of my graphic design projects this past semester. Unfortunately, that same project didn't leave me any time to actually read the book.
• The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen. Again with the problem of reading the subgenre I'm writing. This one probably would've been better, since it's based in Mongolia instead of China, Korea, or Japan, but . . . yeah.
• The Faraway Castle books by J.M. Stengl. I actually own the first four of these now — I heard that book 4 is a King Thrushbeard retelling, and that pushed them up the priority list a bit. Not enough for me to actually have set aside time to read them, though.

What were your favorite 2019 reads? Any favorite rereads? Or major disappointments? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)