My 5-star reads of 2020

Hi, yes, I have indeed risen from the death and am now writing this blog post. Why? I’m not sure. I just felt like writing it. So here we are, in the hell year that is 2020, writing about books again. I hope you are all okay, for as much as anyone can me in this time. I think the title speaks for itself so let’s just get into it.

Girls Will Be Girls by Emer O’Toole

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We started off the year strong with this feminist memoir slash academic non-fiction book that was downright amazing. I actually gave my copy to a friend because I just loved it that much and whenever I love a book that much I need others to read it so I somehow never end up having my own copy. I read most of this on the metro commuting to work (oh I miss it. Damn you, pandemic) and have fond memories laughing and crying about Emer’s stories.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

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I don’t know why I was a year late to read this book but it was amazing nonetheless. It was sad and hopeful and beautiful and somehow reading it made me feel exactly like what it’s like to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack, if you know what I mean.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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I have read this before, back in 2018 and it was one of my absolutely favorite books (still is), and had finally bought myself a physical copy. Reading this is such an experience: it’s intense and emotional and hard-hitting, and it made me cry a lot. Again.

sidenote: please check trigger warnings before reading

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

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This book made me so happy, guys. So happy. This book is so cute and the main character is ace and in case you forgot, I am very ace too, so that made it even better. Takumi, the love interest, is absolutely adorable and made my heart squee, and I am not one to have “book boyfriends” but if I was forced at knifepoint to pick one, Takumi would be the one.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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Look, I know I loved this book. But for some reason my brain has decided to crtl+alt+delete all memory I have of reading this or what it was about, and I’m sure that’s not on this book, it’s just that it’s a weid fucking time right now and apparently that means my brain doesn’t function properly sometimes.

sidenote: please check trigger warnings before reading

Slay by Brittney Morris

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I haven’t really heard people talk about this book, and I just randomly picked it up while browsing through the Scribd library one night, but it is so good! It’s about this badass Black gamer girl, and it’s basically a celebration of Black culture, and I cannot think of a single thing I did not like about this book. I highly, highly, recommend it.

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

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If you haven’t been keeping up with the news very well, you might have missed the many political and socio-economic issues going on in the Phillipines, kinda like Jay. This book was really eye-opening and gave some really good insights, but beside that was just really well-written, and definitely worth the read.

sidenote: please check trigger warnings before reading

Birthday by Meredith Russo

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This book was just so important, and so so brilliant. It’s a very hard-hitting story but heartwarming. It’s about these two characters, both born on the same day, who celebrate their birthdays together every year, as their relationship develops. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about the trans experience that was so well-written. Because it followed Morgan from childhood on it got to go deep into the grey parts: the confusion and the complications and the insecurity.

sidenote: please check trigger warnings before reading

second sidenote: Meredith Russo is alledgedly a domestic abuser. Personally, I don’t know whether that means I should not recommend this book, but I did read it and thought it was great so I also didn’t want to leave it out? This is way too much for my brain to handle so I’ll just leave the decision to read this up to you.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

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This book is one of those books I want to see more of. It’s smart, funny, relatable, and makes you think about things a little deeper. It’s about Emira (a young black woman) and her white employer (a blogger/young mom) and the little microaggressions that happen in their relation. It’s basically about how white people, in their effort to be “woke”, can actually do more harm than good.

I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver

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I Wish You All The Best follows the non-binary Ben de Backer as they try to deal with their traumatic coming-out and the mess that followed. They’re a messy character, but they’re so lovable and you just find yourself cheering for Ben all the way through. While it’s a book dealing with rough topics, it’s hopeful and easy to read. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already.

sidenote: please check trigger warnings before reading

Loveless by Alice Oseman

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I put off reading this book for so long (too long). This is a book about a girl figuring out she is aromantic and asexual. Aka, me, circa 2017. And oh boy was this relatable. Literally, in rough lines, this is exactly my story. I cried, I laughed, I cried some more.

sidenote: this book has gotten some critique on its PoC representation and its aroace representation (the latter I personally disagree on).

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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It is no secret that I am a fan of V.E. Schwab’s work. With this book, that she has worked on for a long long time, I think she really hit that mark. This book is unique and it really shows the way she has grown as an author and story-teller. In my review on goodreads I wrote this, and I think that covers the most important thing: Sometimes you read a book and it is so good, it makes you want to write as well. Sometimes you read a book that is so great, you wonder if there’s any point in writing your own story at all because it will never measure up. This is one of the latter.

I think, after all, 2020 was a quite succesful reading year for me. How was your year? Found any new favorite books? Let me know in the comments!

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Little update: my new blog

I know I said I wasn’t going to post here anymore, which is true, at least, with the exception of this post. I have a quick little announcement: I started a new blog, and it’s not going to be solely about books (mostly not about books, actually). You can find it over here, and it’s called Sunflowers & Wonder. If you liked my content here and am excited for what’s next (just like me), you can give it a follow. I hope you enjoy. Have a lovely day. Signing off now 🙂

My Life, Readathons, Art and more – A short return to my blogging life

Wait. Before you get all excited, I’m not “back”, just, you know, for one post probably. It’s been a really long time since I sat down and just wrote a blog post and it feels so natural and easy that it kinda makes me wonder why I don’t do it more often. But I also know that I don’t want to come back, definitely not in the way I used to blog. I’ve thought about it, of course, but I never actually seriously considered it. Which says a lot, I think. However, that’s not what this post is about.

I wanted to talk about some things, so I’m going to just combine everything here and probably ramble a lot but you should be used to that from me now.

How I am?

I’m doing really well. I’m graduating from my master’s this summer and I’ve already done my master thesis (and I’m pretty sure I passed but I’ll know for sure in a few days). Right now I’m in the final phase, which is an internship. I’m interning at this small company that develops AR software and I’m doing research on why people are resistant to implementing new technologies and why people do or do not buy their software. It sounds complicated but it’s really interesting and I’m having a good time.

Beside that, I’m a bit stressed about The Future, if you know what I mean. As I’m graduating, I’m going to have to really be an adult and find a job and probably a new home and all that and I have basically no idea what I’m doing, so that’s fun…

 

Before I forget, I want to HIGHLY encourage you to donate to the common bonds anthology if you haven’t already. It’s an anthology with aro and ace stories and poems and to make the stretch goal they need a little bit more money! That way they’ll be able to give their writers a decent pay!

Readathons

Two readathons are taking place in April that I both want to take part in and I needed to make a TBR and I thought there was no way I was going to fit this all in a twitter thread so that was my main idea for writing a blog post. And then I thought, why not talk about everything else too?

UnsolvedAthon is taking place from April 1st until April 30th and it looks so amazing. Just check out the announcement post because I’m sure it’ll impress you. And because Aspec April is taking place at the same time (first two weeks of April), I am combining both into a big readathon. I will be reading only books with aro-ace-spec characters in the entirety of April while also trying to do as many challenges from both readathons as possible (which is hard in case you were wondering).

UnsolvedAthon is based on the well-known Buzzfeed Unsolved series on youtube (if you like mystery or true-crime or paranormal, CHECK IT OUT). The goal of Unsolvedthon is to “solve” a case, and to do that you have to solve all 10 clues (in other words read 10 books). There are two paths you can follow: Ryan and Shane and for both paths there are different challenges. Check out this amazing game board they’ve designed!!

I have chosen for Ryan! Not only is he my favourite of the two but his challenges were also a little bit easier for me haha. All the challenges are related to episodes, and before I will go to my tbr, I need to talk more about Aspec April!

As said it takes place from April 1st until April 14, but because I didn’t realize it was only two weeks and not the entire month (oops), I made my tbr for the entire month. And I didn’t keep into account that you’re supposed to read only ace books in the first week and aro books in the second soooo… I’m not exactly following the rules haha

A-spec April also comes with some challenges, which you can see below.

So without further ado, my tbr!

The Search for the Mysterious Mothman: Read a book about a mythical creature or a monster.

A-spec character of color

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

I actually started this book before and then I realized it was fantasy and quit but I’m determined to give it another go and read it fully now. It’s about these girls living on an island and girls go missing and there’s some strange forest creature thing idk. It has a black asexual lead.

The Chilling Mystery of the Black Dahlia: Read a very well-known/famous book.

A book recommended to you

What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

I have kinda been wanting to read this book but I also heard some mixed opinions. But then in my search for a “famous” book, I couldn’t come up with any books that are more famous and have an a-spec character (except probably some high fantasy book that I definitely don’t want to read). This book has, as I’ve heard, a demisexual side character

The Murders that Haunt the Lizzie Borden House: Read a book with an anti-hero or villain as the main character.

Character on both the aro and ace spectrum

Immoral Code by Lilian Clark

I have been wanting to read Immoral Code since I first heard about it. It’s about this ragtag group of students who hack and one of them is aro-ace and I mean it’s described as “Ocean’s 8 meets The Breakfast Club” so there’s no way I’m not reading it.

The Grisly Murders of Jack the Ripper: Read a book about a serial killer or a murderer.

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

I am once again using this book because I don’t think I’m going to be able to read 10 books in a single month.

Roswell’s Bizarre UFO Crash: Read a book involving aliens or outer space.

Sci-fi or fantasy

One Giant Leap by Heather Kaczinski

This is the second book in a duology about an Indian-American teen competing to go to space. She’s asexual/questioning. I actually already started this book but I haven’t gotten too far, so I’m counting it.

The Enigmatic Death of the Isdal Woman: Read a book involving spies or espionage.

Readathon group read

The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

This is one of the group reads for the A-spec April readathon and I was actually already planning to read it before it was announced so that worked out great! I’ve been told it has an asexual main character and that it’s about spies in WWII I believe. That’s all I know.

The Haunting of Hannah Williams: Read a book involving ghosts or spirits.

Indie/self-published

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

I’m actually not even sure there’s ghosts in this book, BUT it’s in the title so that’s good enough for me hahah

I honestly don’t know much about this book except that it’s about space..? It has an aro-ace side character though!

The Historic Disappearance of Louis Le Prince: Read an unknown book or a book that has less than 500 ratings on Goodreads.

Novella or short story

We Go Forward by Alison Evans

I have been wanting to read this novella for a long time but I never got around to it, and I saw that it was on Scribd now, so I thought, why not read it now? It’s about a road trip, and one of the MCs is aro-ace.

The Haunted Town of Tombstone: Read a book about an outlaw/a group of outlaws.

I’m reusing Immoral Code for this one!

The Odd Vanishing of Amelia Earhart: Read a book with a female main character.

If I have time left to read another book, I got three options for this one If I was Your Girl by Meredith Russo, The Birds, The Bees, and You and Me by Olivia Hinebaugh and Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann. And if I don’t have time, I’ll just let another book count for this challenge too. I do want to read all three of these books at some point though.

 

Art

Before I end this already way too long blog post, I want to talk a little about my art. As you might or might not know, back in December I started a 365 day art challenge together with the lovely Kate from All The Trinkets. We’ve challenged ourselves to draw every single day for a year and so far it’s been really great. I’ve improved A LOT and gotten even more motivated to keep drawing, so I thought I’d give you a little overview of art I’ve made lately and if you’re interested, you can follow my progress on my art instagram @lostinink_. You can also commission me to draw you something, for my prices check the art commission button on the menu above!

 

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I hope you didn’t miss me too much, and that you enjoyed this little return to blogging. This will probably not happen much so cherish it haha. Do you make art? Let me know so I can follow you! Also let me know if you’re going to take part in one of the readathon so I can check out your tbrs 🙂

I’m going on indefinite hiatus

I’ve thought about this all day (and honestly, also the entirety of the past two months) and I need a break.

You know how in relationships, people sometimes take a break to reconsider whether they’re right for each other? I need that. I’ve been using uni as an excuse to not post, but I know that if I really wanted to blog, I would have kept blogging. During my bachelor’s, I was really busy and I still managed to post, sometimes even almost every single day. And that was because I loved doing it. But that love is gone now. Blogging has become a kind of chore, something to tick off a to-do list, it’s no longer a reward.

I need some distance to see if I want to continue. I’ve been pushing myself to blog and that’s not good at all. It’s not easy saying goodbye to something that has been a big part of my life for so long, but I gotta do what feels good and that isn’t dragging myself through this. Who knows, I might be back in a month, a year, or never. And I have got believe that that is okay. I understand some of you might miss my posts, but it’s my life and time and mental health, I don’t want to waste it this way anymore. Because that’s what it feels like: a waste.

My blogging experience has been amazing. I’ve done so many amazing things and written things I’m proud of. I’ve made friends and helped people and read great books, but I’ve come to realize I can still do all those things without my blog. I’m not defined by it.

I’ve always lived according to the rule that if something doesn’t feel like it’s worth it anymore, I should quit doing it. And it’s time I follow my own rule.

So I’m saying goodbye, for now. Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I won’t.

You can always contact me on twitter or follow me on goodreads or instagram, I’m not going to disappear, I just won’t be on here anymore.

A Non-Fiction Book Haul with Feminist Books, and other books I wanted to talk about

Since some of you said they wanted to read more about the non-fiction books I’m reading and want to read, I thought I’d do a little book haul. If you’ve read my last post, you’d know that I’ve been falling a little out of love with YA lately (I’ve actually gotten a little bit back into it since the last post) and I’ve fallen in love with non-fiction. I’m reading mostly memoirs and feminist non-fiction and occasionally popular science so you’ll be seeing more of that in the future. You might also be seeing some other things in the future that are a little different from what you expect on my blog.

Why I disappeared + Books I’m excited about

It’s been a while since I posted on here, and that’s because of a lot of reasons, and I felt it wasn’t really nice to leave you all in the dark. As you might know from my twitter, I have just started my Master’s degree and it hasn’t been easy. This is the third week of lectures and I feel like I’m already way over my head with homework. And on top of that I want to keep working at my part-time job one day in the week, so I barely have free time. And if I have free time, I’m just too mentally exhausted to do anything else than watch Netflix. But as much as I’d like for it to be the only reason I haven’t been blogging, it’s not all.

Review | The Art of Being Normal : More like The Art of Being Problematic (which this book was very good at)

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson is a book about two transgender teens, which deals with the matter – how do I say this nicely? – rather terribly. Let me tell you why.

I initially didn’t want to include this synopsis in this review because even the synopsis is terribly problematic – I really wish I had read it before buying and reading this book and had not just read the blurb on the back of the book instead (WHICH WAS NOT PROBLEMATIC). Though it also feels wrong to not include any synopsis so I’m going to cross out some parts and replace them by good things.

Two boys One boy, one girl. Two secrets.

David Kate Piper has always been an outsider. His Her parents think he’s gay she’s a gay boy. The school bully thinks he’s she’s a freak. Only his her two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl Kate is a closeted transgender girl.

On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan.

When Leo stands up for David Kate in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long…

July Wrap-Up | I went on vacation & read a lot reading & am officially back from my hiatus

As you might have noticed, I’ve been away for a while. I haven’t posted much in the past month and that’s because I was on vacation. I’ve been to so many places and seen so many things and had so many great experiences and it would just be a [WORD} to have to describe it in a single paragraph so I might devote an entire blog post to it. Beside my travel adventures, I’ve also been doing quite a bit of reading. I always love reading on vacation, and somehow when I’m on vacation – and almost only when I’m on vacation – I can just read for hours on end and not be bored a single second. I can really easily find myself being lost in a book, much easier then when I’m at home with a lot of distractions (such as the internet).

For the upcoming few weeks, I have no idea what my blogging schedule is going to look like. I’m going to try to post twice a week, as usual, but I’m not sure I can manage to post on the same days as I always do since my work schedule is a little all over the place and I don’t know when I’ll be able to find the time. Anyway, onto my wrap-up!

Hiatus announcement

This is going to be a really short post because I don’t have the time to write anything more than that. I’ll be leaving to go on vacation in half an hour so I’ll be going on hiatus. I will not have any posts until the end of July and maybe a little longer. And I will probably not be able to reply to comments either. So I hope you all will survive without me and have a great July!

P.s. I will hopefully be somewhat active on twitter and instagram so follow me there for updates and other random stuff.

Review | Dare Mighty Things : Asexual Space Nerd Competes to go Into Space

Heather Kaczynski’s book has a premise that might as well have come from my mind, because it’s just so perfect!

THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: You must be gifted. You must be younger than twenty-five. You must be willing to accept the dangers that you will face if you win.

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta’s entire life has been leading up to this—the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe.

Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her.

As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she’ll never back down . . . even if it costs her everything.