April Preorders!

I’m a little late posting this (what else is new…), but there are still plenty of days left in April and plenty of books coming out! I preordered quite a few books in April, so I’ve got a lot of good stuff to look forward to this month.

Here are my April picks!

Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles

Image of book cover from Goodreads
Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/10/18
Format: Kindle
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Inside-My-Mind-Struggles-ebook/dp/B074ZD4C2D/

I’m a sucker for books prominently featuring mental health struggles, and this anthology has some of my favorites in it! This one was actually a last-second preorder because I didn’t know about it until the day before it released!

For Every One by Jason Reynolds

Image of book cover from Goodreads
Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/10/18
Format: Hardcover
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Every-One-Jason-Reynolds/dp/1481486241/

Jason Reynolds is a wonderful poet, and I couldn’t pass this book up. The book itself is a beautiful object, and the heart behind it is powerful.

Lizzie by Dawn Ius

Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/10/18
Format: Kindle
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Lizzie-Dawn-Ius-ebook/dp/B074ZKMW6G/

I heard good things about this one! It’s a Lizzie Borden retelling with sapphic girls and a lot of suspense, which sounds perfect for me.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Image of book cover from Goodreads
Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/17/18
Format: Hardcover
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Ghost-Boys-Jewell-Parker-Rhodes/dp/0316262285/

This is historical fiction revolving around a Black boy who was killed by a police officer who meets Emmett Till as a ghost, and I was immediately intrigued. This middle grade novel sounds stunning and important, and I can’t wait to read it.

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

Image of book cover from Goodreads
Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/24/18
Format: Kindle
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/White-Rabbit-Caleb-Roehrig-ebook/dp/B0763SVCJW/

I love a good murder mystery, and murder mysteries with queer characters are extremely appealing to me. I’ve heard a lot of people say things about this one, and I’m super excited about it!

Leah On The Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Image of book cover from Goodreads
Image of book cover from Goodreads

Release date: 4/24/18
Format: Hardcover
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Leah-Offbeat-Becky-Albertalli/dp/0062643800/

Last but CERTAINLY not least, Becky Albertalli’s newest release is one of my most anticipated books of April (and of 2018, for that matter). Are you excited for Leah? I’m excited for Leah.

What books are you looking forward to in April? Let me know in the comments!

March Wrap-up!

I am a tired human being and have not been updating as often as I would like. I don’t feel like I’m reading as much as I’d like, either, although I’m still reading quite a bit. I’m still here, still chugging along, and still trying to post when I’m not falling asleep at my keyboard. I’m working on getting back into the swing of things — whatever those “things” are — and while this is a little later than I’d like it to be, I still want to update with my March reads!

Reads for March

Here’s all I read in March:

The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk — 5 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

The Pants Project by Cat Clarke — 5 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

Dark Screams: Volume Ten (ARC) edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar — 3 of 5 stars — review here!

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds — 5 of 5 stars

Meet Me In The Strange (ARC) by Leander Watts — 2 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson — 5 of 5 stars

Kids of Appetite by David Arnold — 5 of 5 stars

American Street by Ibi Zoboi — 5 of 5 stars

The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno — 5 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova — 5 of 5 stars

Maus I by Art Spiegelman — 5 of 5 stars

Maus II by Art Spiegelman — 5 of 5 stars

 

Reading stats:

  • Number of books read: 12
  • Number of nonfiction books: 3
  • Number of ARCs: 2
  • Number of books by marginalized authors: ~8
  • Number of books read for class: 2
  • Number of library books: 6

Okay, I think I actually read more than I thought I did this month — I only read 9 books in February, so 12 for March is actually pretty good in comparison. I guess it’s mostly about perspective. I really need to read more ARCs — I went on a requesting spree on NetGalley because I thought there was no way that most publishers would actually say yes to me, and now I have a list 15 books long just on NetGalley… And that’s not even all of my ARCs. April to-do list?

On The Personal Side…

I’m almost exactly two months away from graduation and I’m SLIGHTLY panicking about it because I’ve been a student for two solid decades and I have no idea how not to be a student. The last time I wasn’t a student, I was three years old — three-year-old me isn’t exactly the ideal person for twenty-three-year-old me to turn to for life advice. I am pretty thrilled that I’ll have a graduate degree in just a couple months, and I’m really lucky that I’ve been able to do this.

I’m thinking more about my online presence and about possibly starting a Patreon to support my writing, both on my blog and my own stories. I’m still working out the details and how I’m feeling about it, but this might be a thing soon! Many Patreon rewards would be Coco-related, so if you like cute cats that’d be a good place to put your money, maybe? Speaking of Coco, she has a Twitter now! You can follow her at @CocoTheTux, where she Tweets out photos and self-care messages. Coco loves self-care.

I’ve been trying harder to cook more despite my exhaustion, and I’ve been trying Blue Apron to help with this and found that I really like it. A lot of the vegetarian dishes use tomato paste and I’ve been swapping that ingredient out for peanut butter (seriously!) quite a bit and have had really good results. Also, I have like five free boxes available to give to friends, so if anyone would like one just shoot me an email at librarybenni@gmail.com and I’d be happy to give you one (US only). (This isn’t sponsored — I’ve just been given more free boxes for friends than I actually have friends and wouldn’t mind giving some away to people who want some free food!)

What did you read in March? Let me know in the comments!

February Monthly Wrap-up!

The second half of February and the first half of March were rough on my mental health and were overloaded with homework, and my blogging suffered because of it. The term has now ended, I’m doing a bit better now, and I’m ready to get back in the swing of things! This wrap-up is coming a little late, but better late than never, right?

Reads for February

Here’s all I read in February:

Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki — 3 of 5 stars

The Catch by Kat Helgeson — 5 of 5 stars — review here!

How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake — 5 of 5 stars — review here!

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann — 5 of 5 stars — review here!

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis — 4 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

Beastly by Alex Flinn — 2 of 5 stars

The Diviners by Libba Bray — 4 of 5 stars

Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid — 5 of 5 stars — review forthcoming!

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds — 5 of 5 stars

 

Reading stats:

  • Number of books read: 9
  • Number of nonfiction books: 0
  • Number of ARCs: 0
  • Number of books by marginalized authors: ~7
  • Number of books read for class: 7
  • Number of library books: 4

I struggled with reading last month, as well. Nine books certainly isn’t none, but I was required to read seven of them and that’s not an insignificant number. I still read quite a bit, but I’m hoping that I can get back into the swing of reading things less for class and more for fun again.

I’m also a little behind on reviews, but I’m working on it! I’ll have several from my backlog up in the next week or two.

On The Personal Side…

As I mentioned, February was rough. I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, but I’m working on picking myself back up again. One goal I DID succeed with is getting an actual blog post calendar created. It exists and it is very nice, but I have been a little too exhausted to stick with it. Next goal is to work on building up a bit of a queue so I don’t have to pressure myself to write a new post on the day it’s supposed to be up.

In other news, I now have finished my second to last term of my MLIS and have just a few months left to go until graduation. I’ll be finishing up my capstone project during this term, and I will also be taking classes on intellectual freedom in libraries and on public libraries and advocacy. I’ve started job-hunting, too! I have a couple leads right now and I’m hoping that one of them works out because they’re opportunities that I’m incredibly excited about.

I’m also trying to work on meal-planning! I suck at meal-planning and cooking and being consistent, as you can see by my lack of blog posts recently, but now that I’m on a break from school for a couple weeks I’m hoping to use that time to make a good plan. I’m finally learning to use my Instant Pot and though I’m only cooking my second meal with it as I type, I really love it so far. I also tried grilling vegetables for the first time yesterday and they’re SO DELICIOUS!

Was your February better than mine? What have you been up to in the last month? Let’s talk in the comments!
https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com/tag/jason-reynolds/
bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2022-33
119937
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:UG5QNGCXRSMRAFVSS5LYFGG72EDPCJUJ
<urn:uuid:ed9ea0ed-9b8d-4e19-b311-f076fc0c9957>
2022-08-17T14:10:33Z
192.0.78.12
text/html
sha1:6TU62I7JOWPXGVGJAY4CXJDGGZ3LDLNY
<urn:uuid:28163ac2-98b2-431a-9f94-7b7ea0116a6b>
https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com/tag/jason-reynolds/
response
<urn:uuid:77d5c84e-caac-4cfb-964c-57040ce6462a>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-33
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2022
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-91
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.4-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/