Wrap-Up: May 2019

• Almost Love by Louise O’Neill (★★★★☆)
• The True Queen by Zen Cho (★★★★★)
• The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley (★★★☆☆)
• The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley (★★★★★)
• Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici (★★★★☆)

MONTHLY TOTAL: 5
YEARLY SO FAR: 34

I’m starting to seriously worry about my reading. I’ve read one book less than last month, but most of the books on here are so short; one is novella length! I have no idea how I managed to read this little, although I did DNF one fantasy book (A Crown for Cold Silver) that I spent a bit of time on, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I think that, along with the ending of Game of Thrones, may have contributed to a bit of a reading slump, which is why I switched to non-fiction towards the end of the month. But speaking of non-fiction, I shelved The Devil in the White City this month – it’s definitely not at DNF, I do want to get back to it at some point, but I’m just not in the mood for it right now.

I’m currently reading Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit, which was kind of a spur of the moment decision, though I have been wanting to read more science fiction lately. This is one of the more popular space sagas in the sci-fi world and comes highly recommended. I’m only a few chapters in but I quite like it so far! I’ve also just gotten The Descendant of the Crane out of the library, so that’ll be up next, hopefully.

Life Update:

Well, I suppose I should share here what I’ve already shared on Twitter and Instagram. After about six months of querying, I am now represented by DongWon Song of Howard Morhaim Literary! He’s been a dream agent of mine for soooo long that I almost still can’t believe we’ll be working together. It’s definitely been a surreal experience, and at some point I’ll probably write up a longer post about it all (and my book!), especially since I somehow ended up with multiple offers of representation.

I’ve also graduated library school, and so, four years and two Master’s degrees later, I am finally done with school. It’s such a strange feeling, because I have no idea what to do with my time. I feel like I have so much of it now, too much…I’m not sure I’m being especially productive at the moment, but I guess after four years I deserve some time to just chill and do nothing. One of my goals is to rework my thesis and try to get it published, though, so that’s something I would like to work on this summer.

Oh, and, this isn’t really a life update so much, but you might have noticed I changed my blog URL from Cairene Librarian to Hadeer of the Sea. I just thought it might be nice to have a slightly more cohesive online brand, and I really like the phrase “Hadeer of the Sea” and wanted to use it. It’s not just pretty, it’s accurate: my name in Arabic means “roar of the sea” but would still need to be paired with the word “sea” to make grammatical sense, so it would be “Hadeer el bahr” which literally translates to “the sea’s Hadeer” or “Hadeer of the Sea.”

TV + Film + Theatre Update:

I only watched one film this month, and literally only because a friend of mine was like, “You’ve never seen this movie??? You’re watching it. Now.” Then he put it on and we watched it. Said movie was Train to Busan, and it was terrifying and stressful and a fantastic movie.

I’m still deep in my rewatch of How I Met Your Mother, though I’m dreading the awful finale, but I also started watching Lucifer! I had tried the first two episodes of this a while ago and didn’t dislike it but wasn’t compelled to keep watching. On a whim I decided to give it another shot, and I’m now at season three and absolutely adore it! It’s unapologetically silly (how could it not be, with such a ridiculous premise as: the actual Devil escapes Hell, opens up a nightclub in LA, and helps the police solve crimes?) but also doesn’t take itself too seriously, which makes it really charming. But it’s also surprisingly well-written (it really found its feet in season 2), plus Tom Ellis as Lucifer is…so goddamn attractive. I just enjoy looking at him. And his performance is spectacular; he’s so charming and delightful.

I saw two shows this month. The first was Octet, an off-Broadway a Capella production by Dave Malloy, who wrote Great Comet. If I’m being honest, that’s the only reason I went to see it! Well, that and the advertisement had a Tarot card, so I thought it was gonna be something historical/mystical, but it wasn’t. It was actually all about the effects of modern-day technology on society; the basic setup was a group of people in an internet addicts meeting. It was very good, if not what I expected!

The second show I saw was Frozen; this one was on Broadway, and I went because I won the lottery. This was…fine? Like, there was nothing wrong with it, only that it was pretty lackluster. It pretty much follows the film to a T. It did have some cool set design, though, and the effects for Elsa’s ice were fun. But otherwise, meh, I wouldn’t really recommend it.