🌳 Second Sundays June 2024 🌳

Happy June peeps! I'm actually on time this month. 😅

The last few months have been a it odd for these blogs because I've been in a slight reading slump. The oddness continues a bit this month too as I have not finished any books since the last blog (which was admittedly shared very late) but with luck next month's Second Sundays will see us back to... normalcy? 🤔 lol.

Anyway, onward to the books!

☕📚 June Book Club Pick 📚☕

I'm on a bit of a Jane Austen kick after reading Persuasion last month, so I decided to continue the Regency Era love with Sense and Sensibility. I'm just starting my journey with this myself so it's not too late to join us in the Cup of Tea tier if you'd like!

📘 May Reads and Reviews 📘

As I mentioned, I haven't finished any books yet. I am about 1/3 of the way through Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis. This is a quirky almost cozy fantasy book about a Dark Wizard named Gav who wakes up one day in the aftermath of an explosion in his study to discover he has no memory of who he is. The pacing is mostly the slow day-to-day of Gav trying to figure out who he is without attracting the attention of potential enemies in the process. It is also a self-reflection story as Gav realizes that maybe he doesn't want to be a Dark Wizard anymore. The humor is more situational than the characters actually being funny themselves, though there have been a few one-liners that made me chuckle.

It's a fun story idea, and I was definitely intrigued for the first few chapters, but I have to admit I've become bored, so I'll be setting the story aside for now. I don't know if this is the fault of the story or just the result of me being in a really weird reading mood for the last few months, so I do plan to pick it back up at some later time to give it a second go.

I'm getting better about setting aside books that I'm just not feeling anymore for whatever reason. It bugs me a little just because I've always preferred to finish the books I start regardless, but there's too many books in the world to either meander or struggle my way through something that's lost my interest. So consider this your permission (if you feel you need it) to do the same. There's no shame in moving on to another story!

📚 May Book Haul 📚

It wouldn't be a Second Sunday if I didn't have a book haul to share, and last month I certainly hauled a lot of books. So much so I had to split them into two piles for Grimm to be able to sit atop (not that Grimm or I are complaining).

From  Top to Bottom:

• Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

• The Bright Sword ARC by Lev Grossman - a story about a young man who comes to join King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, only to find out King Arthur has died and there are few knights left.

• Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland - this is one of my new "spredges" (sprayed edges) books from Red Tower. The Google Books synopsis says "Five ruthless killers. Five deadly motives. One King - who must die." It's also based on Korean mythology. Yep. Sold.

• Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Throne - this one is a Legends & Lattes - esque cozy fantasy love story about two women who want to open a book and tea shop.

• How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler - I picked this one up with Dreadful to get me ready for Apprentice to the Villain, the sequel to Assistant to the Villain. Another spin on the villain trope that sounded like fun.

• Heaven Breaker by Sara Wolf - my second Red Tower "spredges" book this month - I talked mentioned this one in the last blog but I wanted to confirm I did get my copy. 😁 This is a Sci-Fi that sounds like a blend between Dune and mech animes like Escaflowne.

• I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle - my hardcover copy came in so I gave the ARC to a coworker for her husband to read. Still plan to come back to this one and finish it one day.

And now, a look at the "spredges"!

This pile of Non-Fiction is for a combination of art and book research, just because I love ancient history anyway 🤓, and my collection of these history types of books was shamefully non-existent 😱 so I've begun with these!

From Top to Bottom: 

• The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan - This is an autobiography/nature journal with sketches by the author of The Joy Luck Club which I was completely obsessed with in high school. The sketches in this little book are amazing and inspiring for me to look at for my own artwork.

• About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks by David Rooney - I've always been fascinated by the concept of time in pre-modern civilizations and the world of my book is set with astrological clocks, so I thought this would be a great research read.

• Silk by Aarathi Prasad - Yep. A book about the history of silk. This is for both practical and political research.

• Alexandria by Islam Issa - A history of the once great city of Alexandria, which I've been obsessed with since I was a kid, and since a lot of the world of my book is inspired by great ancient empires, this was an automatic add to the shelf.

That's all for this month. Happy Reading friends!