Reading Goals

May Wrap Up

May was a really solid reading month. Started the month by finishing off an audiobook and re-reading These Old Shades but this time with annotations from Lauren (since this was the book we swapped last Christmas) which was very fun. Got up to date on a series that I'm liking a lot, had a win with another random audiobook. And then read my favourite book of the year (so far, but also I cannot see it being beaten it was so fucking good omg).

Books Read

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer

How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

HRCYED Check In: April

Better late than never I guess lmao. April was a brilliant month for my reading and my HRCYED progress. Another box on the bingo board is complete so now I just need to keep up with the new releases and I will have a bingo which I'm over the moon about.

Books Used + Prompts

Whidbey - New Release (March) + TBR Game

The Appeal - Last 10 Years (2021) + TBR game

Gotham - Last 10 Years (2016) + Series Staircase (4+ Series)

This Is What It Sounds Like - Nonfiction + Make A Quote (Like)

Slade House - Last 10 Years (2015) + Challenge Yourself

A Psalm For the Wild Built - Series Staircase (Duology) + Queer Alphabet (Nonbinary)

April Wrap Up

April was another great month for my reading! Started out a little slow because Whidbey was a bit tough to get through but finished very strong! A couple of audiobooks, a couple of backlist books, and a couple of newer releases.

Books Read:

Whidbey by T Kira Madden

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Gotham by Nick Earls

This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas

Slade House by David Mitchell

A Psalm For the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Poetry isn't typically my thing and this is a mix of poems and short stories, but I'll admit I mostly picked it up because it came up in a rec list of ergodic literature after I finished reading House of Leaves, and since I needed a book from a South American author to finish off a HRCYED challenge I thought I'd give it a go.

The "gimmick" of Multiple Choice is that the whole book is laid out like a multiple choice test (based on the Chilean Academic Aptitude Test) with sections titled things like "Sentence Completion” and “Reading Comprehension” and includes a page where you can fill in the multiple choice bubbles as if you were taking an exam.

Zambra uses this format to raise questions about the nature of education, especially in regard to Chile's political landscape - how a violent regime like Pinochet’s can use educational systems to reinforce their rhetoric, and the roll educational institutions play in society (you weren’t educated, you were trained).

I found it a fascinating book. At first I was a little unsure what I was meant to be getting out of it, but by the section titled "Sentence Order" I was getting very into it. The questions in this section give you a series of sentences and ask you which order you believe the sentences should be placed in to form a cohesive paragraph, giving you a range of multiple choice answers to choose from (you can see an example here).

For me, this was the strongest section of the book. It made me really consider the process of writing. How an author can choose which way information is given and how altering the order of information might alter a readers understanding of a scene or a character. Even just how switching some sentences around can change how a passage sounds, how it flows. I found it a really engaging and fun thought experiment.

How to Solve Your Own Murder was a charming cosy mystery with a dual timeline that I found really fun!

In the mid 60s Frances, a teenager at a fair with her friends, visits a fortune teller and is delivered a prophecy about her eventual murder. In present day, the murder has come to pass and it's up to Frances' great-niece to solve the case.