I Read Some Books… Let’s Tak About That // March Wrap Up

Uhhhh, not a great deal happened this month so let’s get straight into the books!!

I was quite spoiled by publishers this month and I am extremely grateful. I feel like we can start taking ARCs and Review Copies for granted, especially when some people don’t have access to books at all. I always try to remind myself just how lucky I am. I know people receive giant hauls from publishers, but whether you get 1 book or 20, it’s important to remember just how lucky we are.

The most exciting thing that showed up was this SIGNED COPY of Strange the Dreamer from Hachette Australia. I was pretty hysterical when I saw this. I never really cared about signed copies of books, but I have to admit receiving this definitely helped change my mind a little, haha.

From Pan Macmillan Australia I received The Silent Invasion by James Bradley and Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde. The Silent Invasion was wrapped which is always extra fun because it’s like receiving a birthday present. This is a Dystopian, which I know is a genre a lot of people aren’t into anymore, but I still really enjoy it! I’ve already spoken about Queens of Geek and how much I love it. SERIOUSLY, READ THIS BOOK. I’ll be participating in a blog tour in May! So stay tuned for my review 😊

From Hachette Australia I also received The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel which I’m really excited about because I love a good thriller. I won an ARC of Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley in a Goodreads Giveaway. This is the THIRD time I’ve won a GR giveaway in under a year and I’m super ??? about it because I’d entered them for like 5 years and NOTHING. I guess blogging brought me some luck 😎 Anyway, I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about this book and I’ll definitely be going into it keeping the issues that have been addressed in mind.

I also BOUGHT a book for the first time since like November which was I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. Finally, not a book, but I found out my local Target had all the Stranger Things Funkos which I was NOT expecting so I couldn’t resist buying the Eleven one.

Last month I only read one book, but fortunately this month I manage to beat my slump. For a while, at least.  Towards the end of the month I kinda lost my momentum for various reason. I did read a TON of single issue comics though. I don’t put them in my wrap ups, but I thought I’d make note because it would have easily been 200 pages worth of comics, haha.

   

Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook || ★★★★★ || This is a poetry collection that I discovered through Lindsey @ Paradis Books. The last poetry collection I discovered through her was milk and honey which I adored and it’s suffice to say that I found another one. I connected with this book SO MUCH. It was so beautiful. The formatting is cooll too because it’s stylised like a mixtape. There’s also a “remix” section with blackout poetry.

Noteworth by Riley Redgate || ★★★★★ || – I’ll be writing a review for this so I won’t say too much except: READ THIS BOOK WHEN IT’S RELEASED BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. Such a fun, but important read. This is definitely going to be on my favourite books of the year list.

The Chaos of Longing by K.Y. Robinson || ★★★★★ || – Thanks to the amazing Gretchen @ Chic Nerd Reads for alerting me that this poetry collection was temporarily free on Kindle. I immediately downloaded it and was super impressed. It deals with a lot of important things and I can’t recommend it enough.

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab || ★★★★★ || – DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY ANYTHING? I’M STILL CRYING 😭😭😭😭 Holland is my entire world. This ending was perfect.  ANOSHE 💔💔💔💔

  

Saga, Vol 4 by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples || ★★★★★ || This comic series continues to be amazing. I feel cleansed every time I read it. I really need to just sit down and binge all the volumes, but I don’t want to have to wait for each issue.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde || ★★★★★ || Another one I’ll be doing a review for so I’ll try to keep my thoughts short but AHHHHHHHHH. I LOVE THIS SOOOOO MUCHHHHHH. I read it in a few hours. Just like Noteworthy this was really fun, but discussed important issues and the anxiety rep was spot on.

The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho || ★★★★ || I love all things to do with afterlife and the underworld. I feel like a lot of fiction heavily focuses on the Greek mythology so it was refreshing to see something based on another culture – this time, Chinese. Like all short stories I was left a little confused, but overall it was a really fascinating and unique read.

  

Black by Fleur Ferris || ★★★★ || I love YA thrillers and this one didn’t let me down! It was such a quick and fun read. The only thing I didn’t like was a kind of weird love triangle that was brewing in the background. I did love this though and it reminded me why I love YA thrillers.

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys edited by April Genevieve Tucholke || ★★★★ || This is a collection of short horror stories and I read a few stories every night (in the dark) and it was so much fun. None of the stories “scared” me, but they were all really interesting. My favourite was a super creepy Alice in Wonderland retelling by Carrie Ryan. I also loved the stories by Marie Lu, April Genevieve Tucholke & Jay Kristoff. The only thing I’ll say is that there’s a story in here by Danielle Paige that was TERRIBLE and completely invalidated and romanticised mental illness.

Snotgirl, Vol 1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley & Leslie Hung || ★★★★ || I can see how this comic won’t be for everyone because the main character, Lottie, can be extremely unlikable at times. However, she is also incredibly relatable. I really love this series and the art, especially, is stunning.

  

When the Moon was Ours by Anna Marie McLemore || ★★★★ || This was such a beautiful, diverse book. I love magical realism and this did a brilliant job of that whilst bring up realistic important issues. The only reason I’m giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is because of a “plot twist” that I don’t think should have been used as a plot twist which was in regards to how a character identified.

Freeks by Amanda Hocking || ★★★ || I actually posted a review for this so if you want my full thoughts go check that out. Otherwise, this was a really quick and light read. It wasn’t perfect and had a lot of tropes, but if you want something you don’t need to concentrate on between heavy books then it’s great for that!

Quarter Life Poetry || ★★★ || Another poetry collection I found through Lindsey’s post. I was expecting this to be more serious, but it was just poems that were 4 lines and really “jokey”. It felt more like a collection of Tweets. It was definitely relatable though and if you’re in your mid 20s you’ll probably get a good laugh from it.

Honestly, the best thing that happened to me this month was discovering a YouTube series called Good Mythical Morning. Hence the title of this post because I keep having the urge to add “let’s talk about that” after everything I say. The last half of the month has been dedicated to me binge watching as much as possible. I can’t express how much this show has done for my mental health. I’ve laughed more than I have in ages. I can’t even remember how I found it or why I started watching? I’m soo glad I did though. The humour is so ridiculous at times and I’m constantly questioning what the hell I’m even watching, but it’s just been such a good escape. I don’t even think I can choose a favourite episode. Every time I think I’ve found one I watch something else and I’m like THIS IS NOW MY FAVOURITE. I think another reason I love this series so much is because of how genuine Rhett and Link’s friendship is. They’ve known each other for 30 years and the dynamic they have is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

I was so invested in Rhett and Link that I actually got a free trial for YouTube Red so I could watch their show Buddy System which was even more ridiculous than GMM, but in the BEST WAY. It was hilarious and I’m 100% going to rewatch it. I also decide to watch Escape the Night which was a show created by Joey Graceffa. This was waaaaaay darker and more intense than I thought it was going to be. It was kind of like American Horror Story mixed with a reality show. At times it felt incredibly real. I think the “twist” was a bit anti-climatic, but over all I really enjoyed it. I binged both of these shows in a day too, btw. It kinda made me wish all TV went for 15-20 minutes 😂

THIS GAME, YOU GUYS. THIS GAME. Oh boy. I don’t even know HOW to begin. It was PERFECT? The art was stunning. The characters were incredible. The plot was brilliant. I felt so immersed in this word. There were so many real and important issues being discussed too. I related so much to a lot of the thoughts Mae was having. Sometimes it felt a little repetitive at times, but I didn’t really care that much because I was excited to explore and see what all the characters were going to say. This paragraph is clearly why I’m not a game reviewer, but just omg this game was so freaking good????? It made me laugh and cry and experience every emotion in between. I gotta replay it because there’s DEFINITELY things I missed.

I listened to a ton of music in March too. There were so many new releases! I posted a Music Monday recently, but a song I forgot to mention in that post that I really wanted to highlight here is Sleepover by Hayley Kiyoko. GO LISTEN TO THIS SONG. And listen to the rest of Hayley’s songs because she’s incredible.

Like always, here’s a list of my favourite songs from this month! There’s a mix of old and new stuff.

The biggest thing that happened on the blog this month was that I celebrated my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY 🎉🎉 I also changed up the design a little! Nothing too crazy. I kept the same theme, but I changed the header image and featured images.

Another thing I want to bring up was my Hi… I’m Aromantic post. I recieved so much support for that and I can’t thank you enough. I was extremely anxious posting that and it was so well received and it meant so much to me.

I’m slowly trying to get back into a consistent posting schedule, but I’m not quite there yet. Like always, thanks for sticking with me.

Here are some notable posts from this month in case you missed them:

• Oh Boy… // Looking Back at my First Ever Book Haul
• Happy International Women’s Day! || Feminist Recs (+my TBR)
• The Longest Books on my TBR
• Top 10 Tuesday: My Autumn TBR & Books I Read in One Day
• My Blogiversary Answers to Your Questions (Part 1: Blogging & Reading)

Would love to hear your thoughts on any of the things I mentioned.

What were some of your March favourites?

I hope you all had a brilliant March and have an even better April.

 
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