Wrap-Up: June 2019

 

• Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (★★☆☆☆)
• Devotion by Madeline Stevens (★★☆☆☆)
• Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey (★★★★★)
• The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams (★★★★☆)
• Normal People by Sally Rooney (★★★★☆)
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power (★★★★☆)

MONTHLY TOTAL: 6
YEARLY SO FAR: 40

I went total mood reader this month. I also thought, hey, why don’t I pick up books that have really striking covers. I was just trying to get myself excited about reading, since I’ve been feeling pretty lackluster about everything lately. It worked, I think; Magic For Liars was awesome and got me out of a semi-slump, and I read some pretty enjoyable books after. A lot of these books were also ARCs, so I felt good about getting through some of those. I still feel like I’m not reading a ton, though; in June of last year I think I read something like 12 books? Not sure how I accomplished that.

I am currently reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow and just started Lily Anderson’s Undead Girl Gang. I’m not totally sure what my TBR is going to look like for the rest of the month; I keep trying to shock my system and picking up books that I hadn’t planned on reading, so I guess we’ll see how that goes? I’ve requested two horror YAs from the library, and I’ve had Descendant of the Crane by Joan He borrowed for weeks and have been meaning to get to it, but I don’t think I’m in a high fantasy mood these days. I also really want to read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, which has been on my list for months. Also, everyone is talking about Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, and I have an ARC on my Kindle so I feel like it’s a good fluffy contemporary for July.

I’m also going to be going on vacation to California for a week in July – I’m doing a road trip along the coast with three friends and I’m SUPER excited for my first time in California, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to read much that week.

Life Update:

In early June, I went up to Vermont with my mom for a weekend. I discovered two things. One, I really am not a fan of driving long distances, and two, perhaps it might be better to live in a small town near a big city rather than in the countryside. I guess seeing Vermont through my mother’s eyes made me realize that perhaps it’s not great to have to drive everywhere and have limited amenities. But I loved our weekend there, especially the one day when it was super foggy and rainy and I felt like I was in a horror movie.

 

I went to Washington D.C. to attend ALA! It was my first time in D.C., and I really liked the city. It felt…cozy, in a way that New York and Chicago and Boston don’t. It also felt more historic, which I guess is just because you’ve got all those historic buildings and monuments just staring you in the face in a really obvious way. But it was just SO hot and humid; I was literally Ubering from the National Mall to the Smithsonian (which was like…a ten minute walk) because I felt like I was going to die.

 

ALA itself was super overwhelming; I think I might prefer smaller conferences. Everything was so far away from everything else and signage was absolutely awful. But, the exhibit hall was super cool, and there’s sooooo much free swag to pick up.

TV + Theatre + Podcast Update:

So, when I was in D.C., my hotel room had a TV, and while I usually don’t turn on the TV in hotel rooms, my roommate liked having it on in the background, and for some reason Law and Order SVU was on all the time, and I…kind of got hooked again. I have such a love/hate relationship with SVU, but watching those random episodes reminded me how addicted I can get to police procedurals, so I’ve been wasting a lot of time watching random SVU episodes. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I’m also still rewatching How I Met Your Mother and watching Lucifer. And I finally, finally got started on watching the final season of The Americans. I don’t talk about that show often, but it’s one of my favorites, and I think it’s super underrated. I’ve heard good things about the final season so I’m excited to finally wrap up the show; I’ve been watching it for years, so it’ll be great to finally get some payoff!

I have so many shows I want to catch up on, though! I’m a season behind on Supernatural, Harlots, Underground, and The Bold Type, and halfway through the final seasons of One Day at a Time and The Fosters. I also want to watch the second season of Trial and Error, as well as catch up on The Good Place. I’m also two seasons behind with Agents of Shield, and the final season of Jane the Virgin will probably be going up on Netflix soon. I also want to start Gentleman Jack and Chernobyl. The former is about Victorian lesbians and the latter about a fascinating nuclear disaster. Oh, and Russian Doll too! So much to watch!

In terms of theatre: I saw Nathan Lane’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, and it was godawful. I can’t believe a show that immature made it to Broadway! It was basically ninety-eight excruciating minutes of jokes about farts, poop, and dicks, along with some ham-fisted attempts at social commentary. Worse than all that, it was so, so boring; I wanted to walk out.

On a happier note, I saw My Fair Lady twice! I absolutely adored it; it’s such a funny and charming show. Also, the second time I saw it, Eliza was played by Shereen Ahmed, who is Egyptian-American! I’ve literally never seen an Egyptian Broadway actress. I’ m so sad this show is closing soon, because it’s really so absolutely delightful.

Something else I’ve been is Potterless, which is a podcast! I’m usually pretty awful at listening to podcasts because I’m super visual so I tend to struggle to pay attention to something I’m just listening to, but Potterless is so funny and compelling I don’t have that issue. It’s about a 24-year-old dude who has never read Harry Potter before, so he’s just going through it slowly and bringing a Potter fan onto each episode of the podcast. It’s really fun listening to someone who hasn’t grown up with Harry Potter experiencing it for the first time. It’s making me so, so nostalgic too! I used to re-read Harry Potter at least once a year, but it’s been five years since I’ve done a re-read, and I’m soooo tempted. Oh, and Potterless also led to me discovering Leaky Con, which I think I’m going to go to this year! Any of y’all ever been to Leaky Con?