Wrap-Up: April 2019

• The Silent Patient by Alex  Michaelides (★★★★☆)
• When We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia (★★★★☆)
• My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (★★★★★)
• Dare Me by Megan Abbott (★★★☆☆)
• Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (★★☆☆☆)
• The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan (★★★★★)

MONTHLY TOTAL: 6
YEARLY SO FAR: 29

I feel like my reading output has been steadily decreasing month-by-month, and I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps it’s because I’m reading chunkier fantasy books lately? My favorite book of the month, The Gutter Prayer, clocks in at 517 pages and took me about half the month to read, because it was so long and dense. Another reason could be the fact that since the beginning of the month, I’ve been trying to get through a particular non-fiction book. On that note, I am currently reading:

I started The Devil in the White City earlier this month because I was in Chicago! I was only there for a few days, but I got really interested in the history of the city and the 1893 World’s Fair and got a random idea for a historical fiction story, so I thought I would read the most famous Chicago history book out there. I’m only about 25% in; I do like it, but it’s slow and long, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish it this month. I also just started Almost Love, which I’ve been wanting to read for ages and ages, but only recently got from the library. This one I’m hopeful I shall finish soon!

After that, my projected TBR is a little bit up in the air. There’s a lot of stuff I really want to read,  but there’s also a lot of stuff I feel like I should be reading. I’m also in this weird headspace because I’m working on a high fantasy WIP and so I’m trying to read a whole bunch of fantasy books for inspiration and also so that I can stay in the ~fantasy zone~ but I also don’t want to get bored. Books that I should be reading include the ARCs of several YA books that will be published in the next month or three, namely: Wilder Girls, We Hunt the Flame, and The Candle in the Flame. Will I actually read these books in time? Who knows.

Life Update:

As I said, I went to Chicago this month, and it was my first time visiting the city. I was there as part of my fellowship program to visit two research university libraries: University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University. It was super fun, and I enjoyed getting to see Chicago, even if I’m not a big fan of big cities. It definitely had some cool architecture.

I got to meet some really cool people and learned a lot of new things, and it was fantastic just to hang out with my cohort. I also tried deep dish pizza for the first time, and, gotta say, not a huge fan. Like, I didn’t dislike it, but I just found it thoroughly underwhelming. It was an awesome trip overall; I just adore traveling and staying in hotels.

This is my last month of library school, so expect a reflective post about that sometime later this month, once I actually graduate. For now I’m stuck working on my thesis, which…has been a process, let me tell you. Maybe I’ll post all about that debacle too, at some point. It’s just been a bit of a bumpy ride, and I’m not surprised my fellow students are just about ready to burn our program to the ground.

TV + Film Update:

I continued binging Shetland, all five seasons, and I absolutely adore it. It’s a police procedural set on the Shetland Islands and it’s addicting. I also watched A Discovery of Witches, which I posted about on here. And I started watching Ramy, a new Hulu comedy about an Egyptian-American family (!!!!) that I will definitely be posting about on here once I finish it up because it’s filling me with all kinds of emotions, being Egyptian-American myself. Otherwise, I’ve just been catching up on some shows (The Bold Type, One Day at a Time, Station 19) and rewatching others (How I Met Your Mother, for some reason?).

As for films, I watched two horror movies. Djinn was utterly horrible, and moreso because it had the potential to be really, really great, but it was just…bad. Bad acting, bad plot, bad dialogue, just…bad all around. Then I watched Friend Request, which was a lot better! Had its issues, sure, but was engaging and defied my expectations!