What a squee-ful week! I finished 4 books and had a grand old time doing it. But this week, we’re going to add another category to this post – The Scorn. It’s the opposite of a Squee, at least in my strange and goofy rating system.
Last Week Squees
I had a pretty laid-back week and got quite a bit of reading done! It helped that I had Wednesday off this week, what with Independence Day falling in the middle of the week and all.
The First Squee, a Slow Burn
So I finally finished Spy by David Wise. The ending was a trip, because some things got revealed that blew my mind a little bit and had nothing to do with the fact that Robert Hanssen was spying on his own country for the Soviet Union and then for Russia. So yes, this did turn out to be a squee! And I’m glad, because it took me so long to read it that I feel like I was slogging through mud in the middle.
The Second Squee, a Laugh-Out-Loud Tear-Jerker
Yes, a book can be both! I haven’t laughed out loud while reading in a long time, but I’m Not Missing by Carrie Fountain did that. But it also moved me to tears. I already raved about it in my full review, and I’ll probably be raving about it for a long time, because it was just so good!
The First Scorn, an Eye-Roller
I’ll be posting a full review on this one closer to the August release date, but I got an ARC of a book called Smothered by Autumn Chiklis, and I COULD NOT with it. I appreciate the ARC, I really do, but I was not the correct audience for that book. It was about a college graduate who whines her way through not looking for a job and hiding her boyfriend from her family and complaining about her mother. Nope. Nope nope nope. I worked really hard to get where I am, and I don’t appreciate reading about privileged people who don’t even try but still think things should be handed to them. Like I said, full review to come, but there’s a taste of my scorn for this one.
Neither a Squee Nor a Scorn, a Reread
As part of my Finishing the Series challenge, I’ve been listening to the first two Red Queen books on audio as rereads before I dive into King’s Cage and War Storm. This week, I finished Glass Sword. And OOF. I forgot how frustrating that book was when I read it the first time. Between the love square and Mare constantly telling us how special she is, I had a LOT of trouble with that reread. It’s made me want to wait a bit before I move on to King’s Cage. But I’m determined to finish that series once and for all by the end of this year! I’m determined!
A Marvel-A-Thon Update!
I’m still in Phase One of Marvel-a-thon, but I’ve been working my way through. To review the explanation of the challenges, see my TBR post. Two rules I forgot to state last time that are starting to come into play! Rule 1: In each phase, you are allowed 2 skips, and they are cumulative. So, if I only skip 1 in phases 1 and 2, I can skip 4 in phase 3. And so on. Rule 2: You can’t move onto the next phase until you finish the current phase. So I have to complete phase 1 before I can move onto phase 2. Okay! Here’s a progress update (and an updated TBR):
Phase One: In Progress
- Iron Man Challenge: In Progress
- Savage Prince by Meghan March
- The Hulk Challenge: Completed
- I’m Not Missing by Carrie Fountain
- Iron Man 2 Challenge: Skip
- Smothered by Autumn Chiklis
- I DNFed the book, so I’m counting it as a skip.
- Smothered by Autumn Chiklis
- Thor Challenge: In Progress
- The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
- Captain America: The First Avenger Challenge: Not Started
- Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
- The Avengers Challenge: Not Started
- #Nerd by Cambria Hebert
Phase Two: Not Started
Phase Three: Not Started
Stats:
- Phases Completed: 0
- Challenges Completed: 1
- Challenges In Progress: 2
- Skips Used: 1
I’m really enjoying this readathon so far! I like looking at books through the lens of how they fit into categories. It makes my organizational brain sing!
Upcoming Reads
I’m continuing with the Marvel-a-thon reading this week! I’ll be working on my two in-progress challenges by reading The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi and Savage Prince by Meghan March. [Note: I HATE the name of that book. The book itself isn’t bad, but expect me to tear into that terrible, racist name when I talk about it in the future.] I generally have one audiobook and one regular-reading book going at a time, which is what’s happening here – Savage Prince is on audio and TSTQ is on my Kindle. Once I finish with those, I’ll be moving on to Code Name Verity on my Kindle and #Nerd on audio. I should be able to easily finish up Phase One this week! Once I start with Phase Two, which is a stretch for this week, but a possibility, I plan to start with Me and Me by Alice Kuipers. I don’t have any audiobooks in the works right now that fit into my Phase Two challenges, so that original TBR might get shifted a bit. We will see!
I hope this coming week is as good of a reading week as last week!
On a personal note, I believe I’ve mentioned that I moved to Puerto Rico for my new Day Job. Right now, Puerto Rico is in the path of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Beryl, which is proving to be both earlier than anticipated in hurricane season and fairly unpredictable for meteorologists to anticipate. Ten months after Hurricane Maria, parts of Puerto Rico still don’t have electricity. There are many places on the island that are still using tarps for roofs. Puerto Ricans have suffered a lot, and what we don’t need is another storm to hit the island right now. Please keep the island of Puerto Rico, along with the other islands in the Caribbean that were hit by the terrible storms last fall, in your thoughts and prayers this weekend. I know thoughts and prayers are not enough. But for me, a brand new resident here, it’s better than nothing.
Stay safe out there, and happy reading!
Snark & Squee 