Hey bookworm friends, I’m back with It’s Monday What Are You Reading! I was supposed to post it last Monday but it was a holiday so I didn’t feel like it! It’s been a busy day today: I went out for errands and breakfast, then to the gym. Next, I spent the rest of the day spot-fixing the paint in our apartment from some failed shelf-securing incidents. 🥴 I’m pretty proud of fixing it all by myself for the first time and look forward to finally populating my shelf when it’s ready! Now that the paint is drying, it’s time to catch up on #IMWAYR + Music Monday. My current read is actually the first nonfiction I’ve read this year; I don’t tend to prioritize them often enough!
I’ll be linking up with Kathryn @ The Book Date for It’s Monday What Are You Reading?
Music Monday was created by Drew from The Tattooed Book Geek
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Currently Reading
I started listening to The Art Thief by Michael Finkel today and though I’ve only made it about 45 minutes into it, I’m very intrigued. The narration by Edoardo Ballerini is engaging and the subject matter is fascinating! I’m not typically one for true crime but since this one is not centered around murder it sounds more up my alley.
DNF
I was in the mood for middle-grade fantasy and Witchlings was compared to the TV show The Owl House (which I adore). It’s supposed to have Latine representation except I hated how it was handled. The author doesn’t bring up the MC’s culture, heritage or background but rather the “rep” comes from the fact that the spells are just Spanish words. As a Latina myself I just felt like Spanish was being exoticized rather than properly represented. I know the author is Dominican, which is partly why I’m irked by this—I expected so much better. This is also not my only issue with the book but I better stop here before I get grumpy. 🙃
Up Next
I’m really hoping this other middle-grade fantasy The Curse of The Dead Man’s Diamond is better because it’s for an upcoming book tour!
On The Blog Recently
Memes:
10 Fantastical Animal Companions – Top Ten Tuesday
A Miscellany of Friday Bookish Blog Memes #2
GoodReads TBR Cleanup
Posts That Give The Best Glimpse Into Me – Top Ten Tuesday
After Story│#6Degrees of Separation
Reading Challenge:
Magical Readathon TBR
Wrap-Ups:
Reading Wrap-Up & Stacking The Shelves
Non-Bookish Hobbies Round-Up
Reviews:
Vevin Song
There Will Come A Darkness
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Music Monday
Today’s song is in anticipation of the Green Lung concert I’ll be going to later this month. They’re coming to North America for the first time ever and I can’t wait!! Mountain Throne is one of my favourite songs from their newest album which is all about Occult Albion. I had a hard time picking which song to highlight since the whole album is fantastic!
Album: This Heathen Land │ Year Published: 2023 │ Genre: Doom Metal
Let’s chat in the comments!
What book(s) are you starting the week with? Or what is a song you recently discovered?
Art hijinks, eh? Sounds fun! I just started today — and will finish tonight — Kinfolk, by Sean DIetrich. He’s a humorist with a tragic background, and he uses both to good effect in his novels. This one is set in the 1970s and involves a lot of southern gospel, bluegrass, and “old time” country songs. I don’t want to say too much about the novel outside a review, but it’s about the family we come from and the family we make. for ourselves. The I’m generally familiar enough with the songs to be humming them at work, but I can’t recall Roy Acuff’s voice so I’m going to listen to him a bit tonight after class.
I suppose you could call it art, I’m just glad you can’t tell there used to be 10 holes in my walls now 😁 (Installing anything in drywall is so frustrating lol)
Oh Kinfolk sounds kind of wholesome and sweet, just looked it up and I hope you’re enjoying it 🙂 I love when books include families that we make, those bonds are so special too! It’s nice you know the songs, I’m sure it adds a fun layer to it that I wouldn’t have (not knowing any bluegrass songs myself)! Hope your class today goes well 🙂
Oof, yeah. I learned that lesson the hard way. I presently use art…strategically as well as decoratively to hide gashes. Like, I have a big sombrero hanging from a tack to hide a gash in the sheetrock.
haha very clever, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do! lol I like the mental image of a giant sombrero hiding a secret hole 🤫😆
Ooh I got There Will Come A Darkness when it came out and never read it, this doesn’t make me that hopeful!
Also thx for stopping by my TTT!
haha oops sorry 😂😆 Yeah like there are certainly things to appreciate but it didn’t blow me away or anything! & My pleasure! 🙂
I hope your first non fiction read of the year goes well. It’s a genre that I literally never pick up 🙈 I’m so sorry to hear about that disappointing experience too. But fingers crossed for your upcoming MG & congratulations on tackling so much today.
I’ll check the song you’ve shared out tomorrow morning as I’m in the coach station right now and don’t have headphones. 😂🙈 I hope you enjoy the upcoming concert though.
It’s going really well, it’s fascinating and told in a super engaging way! haha thanks lol I felt very accomplished on Monday😃
ok no worries lol & I am so excited thank you!! I hope you’re having a good week 🖤
That’s wonderful. It’s good that’s its engaging as one of my non fiction fears is a dry list of facts 🙈 yet I find history fascinating so I really should look into the genre.
I can’t decide what I think of it 😅 when I was younger I’d have liked it I think. Now maybe but as I don’t listen to metal I can’t fully decide 🙈 but thanks I’m having a good week. I went to the Tower Of London (hence the coach station) and Tower Bridge and both were fascinating. I didn’t realise how big it is inside the first of them actually. Plus I’ve been playing Dreamlight Valley a fair bit as my sister got it for my birthday and I’m loving it.
That’s basically why I don’t read much nonfic, because of the same worry that it’ll be dry but since I’m happy to dnf books when I don’t like them I’m happy to also take chances sometimes and this one sure paid off!
Haha that’s okay you don’t have to have a solid opinion either way but I’m glad you tried it 🖤
I’m glad you had a good week, and oh that makes sense I did wonder where you were going but didn’t want to be a bother by asking 🤣 Those sound like interesting places to visit. Oh you had asked me about that game so I’m glad you’re playing it and loving it now, that’s fun!! Would you call it cozy then?
I’m glad it ended up paying off in the end. And I will check the genre out sometime. I’ll probably read a bit more of my high priority TBR first though 😂 they were both really interesting and made for a lovely day out. Yeah I’d say it’s cosy. There’s lots of gardening, gathering, fishing etc as well as various story quests and character interaction for friendship levels. And you can redecorate. It’s kind of a mash up of sims and a rpg, minus the combat but Disney themed.
For sure 🙂 And yeah I totally understand wanting to get through some of your high priority TBR before doing anything else, that’s how progress happens I hear 😜lol.
That sounds fun, all of those things are what I enjoy out of cozy games so I’m glad you’ve been having fun with it!
Id say making time to read helps too but I haven’t in days now 🙈 but one day I will have a TBR that’s under control 😂 thank you. I’m so glad my sister got it for me. I’m already hoping for sequels 😅
hehe it’s still good advice regardless 😉 Aww haha I’m glad you love it so much you want more already. Are you almost done or is it the type of game that you can just keep playing forever?
I’m nowhere near done, I have lots to unlock & discover more. I think the story and quests you can complete but you could do the gardening, foraging etc endlessly. Plus they seem to have events with bonus items at times. There’s also a multiplayer mode listed but idk what it’s like as I haven’t unlocked it yet. And it has some kind of expansion in the menu too but I haven’t gotten to that either. I could look both up but I’m having fun discovering it all on my own.
That’s so fun I love that there’s tons to explore! Ah okay that makes sense, gotcha 🙂 I like when games have mini events in them to give you something with a deadline to focus on even if I’m not very good at them 🙂
Yes, I understand not wanting to spoil discoveries by looking them up!
Its certainly got lots to keep me busy and I love those kind of events too. It’s nice that it throws in something extra at various points in time. I’m sure you’re better at them than you think.
Yes that’s so fun 🙂 & haha aww well that’s sweet of you to say, I don’t know how true it is but I certainly appreciate it ♥
Well done on the handy woman work. While you DNF’d Witchlings you reviewed it here really well letting us know what made you grumpy with it. Great the audiobook is working out well.
Thanks so much, it was kind of fun and it made me want to learn more handy things around the house haha. & thanks, I usually take notes on why I DNF something and I feel that giving those details may be helpful for someone else either positively or negatively.
Oh the audiobook is SO Good I’m loving it!
I hope that you enjoy all your books and have a great week!
Thanks & the same to you, happy week and happy reading 🖤!
I love the Owl House. My eighteen-year-old daughter got me hooked on it!!! It is disappointing that the rep was only Spanish words used in spells and I can see why you are grumpy about it. If I read a book that has the promise of a certain type of rep, I expect it.
Oh yesss, I love that show so much. It’s such a masterclass in storytelling AND does the Latine rep superbly ( & I love that the mom is involved too)! & Yes I agree, if a book’s promises aren’t met it’s always frustrating.
I don’t prioritize a lot of nonfiction either but I signed up for a nonfic reading challenge this year and I’ve been doing better than before. I still obviously read a lot more fiction than nonfic, but at least I’m reading just a little more nonfic now! The Art Thief sounds interesting!
Oh that’s a good idea. What is your favourite nonfic that you’ve read because of that challenge?
& I totally get it, fiction is just where my heart is haha. The Art Thief was so great, I’ll be posting my review for it tomorrow 🙂 !
There were so many this year, honestly! But I found myself reading a lot of memoirs and true crime for some reason! The memoirs were great! Born A Crime by Trevor Noah was my latest one and I loved it!
haha seems like you have lots of great ones to choose from which is awesome! & I’m glad you loved Born A Crime! I don’t read a ton of memoirs but that’s one that appeals to me for sure.