An Update on COVID-19 Life
April has come and gone… I don’t have nearly as much to update you on as last month. Read a bunch of books, wrote a bunch of posts, hopped a bunch of blogs (?), attended a bunch of online bookish events, did a bunch of yoga classes, and went outside to walk or bike a few times. I expect to be off work for another month or two, so I’ll be up to more of the same this month.
Books Finished
- The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
- Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorrell
- The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
- Depeche Mode: Faith Devotion by Ian Gittins
- With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst
- Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake
- Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake
- Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly
- Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake
- Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
- Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice
- Bloom by Kenneth Oppel
- Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Books Reviewed
- Homerooms & Hall Passes by Tom O’Donnell (MG reverse portal fantasy)
- This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews (MG fabulist graphic novel)
- The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan by Liesl Clark and REbecca Rockefeller (non-fiction)
- Cog by Greg van Eekhout (MG scifi)
- Dead Reckoning by Ken McGoogan (historical non-fiction)
- Journey to the Edge of the World by Billy Connolly (travelogue)
- Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia (MG portal fantasy)
- Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez (MG contemporary/scifi)
Posts Written
- Shared six underrated books by Asian-American and Asian-Canadian authors I enjoyed for Top 10 Tuesday
- Discussed Lalani of the Distant Sea with my sister for 2020’s first Family Reads
- Created a TBR for Ramadan Readathon
- Shared my plans for Wyrd & Wonder
Goals Check-In
- 10/12 posts written
- I’m starting to think 10 posts/month is ideal and realistic for me, rather than 3 posts/week. (Looking through my blog archives to 2013, I see only two months where I posted 11 times, and never more than that.)
- 16/18 middle grade novels read
- I previously gave this update in terms of books read/month but now I’m giving it against the one book/week metric. I.E. by the end of this week, I should have read 18 MG books to be on track for one per week.
- 5/10 rereads (+1 since last update)
- 4/10+ books with queer MCs (no change since last update >.<)
- 3/10 graphic novels (no change since last update)
- 3/10 works by Indigenous writers (+2 since last update)
- 1/7 books about/by Tolkien (no change since last update)
- 1/5 books with 500+ pages (no change since last update)
- 12/60 books on my TBR that I don’t own (+8 since last update)
Shared on Twitter
I spent way more time than usual on Twitter in April. I don’t feel like digging through my timeline for the gems, so… skipping this section 😛
On My Radar in May
- 23 April to May 23 – Ramadan Readathon (see my TBR here)
- 1 to 31 May – Wyrd & Wonder (a month long celebration of fantasy – see my intro post here)
- 1 and 2 May – Everywhere BookFest (two packed days of live and prerecorded panels on all things kidlit for all ages!)
- 5 May – Release date of all five May books on my TBR :O
Julieta and the Diamond Engima by Luisana Duarte Armendariz (young MG mystery, Mexican-American #ownvoices)- Updated 3 May: This has been pushed back to 30 June
- Any Day With You by Mae Respicio (MG contemporary, Filipino-American #ownvoices)
- Once Upon an Eid edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed (MG anthology, Muslim #ownvoices)
- Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez (MG scifi, Cuban-American #ownvoices)
- Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (YA contemporary, Black and trans #ownvoices)
- 12 May – Release date of The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar (YA contemporary, Muslim #ownvoices)
- Updated 2 May: I forgot about this book because it’s on my YA-maybe-TBR! But I’m interested enough that I should probably move it to my regular TBR.
- 9 May – Transcending the Binary in YA (Zoom panel and Q&A, see tweet below for details)
How was your April? What new books, or bookish events, are you looking forward to this month?
A wicked fab month for you with reading! That Depeche Mode book jumped out at me. 🙂 Happy May, stay safe!
Thanks Freda! Depeche Mode is my favourite band – the book I finished reading is a new coffee table book.
I hope you enjoyed The Jumbies. I’ve been wanting to read that one for so long. I am really looking forward to Felix Ever After as well. I hope you have a good May <3
Yes, it’s a great spooky read! Thank-you~
How was Ghost Squad? I’ve been seeing it float around the book community but haven’t really decided if I want to put on my TBR or not.
I haven’t really done much in April other than finishing up on my classes and cleaning old blog posts when I can (I’m also not working, and probably won’t return until next month?).
Hope you have a great May!
Ghost Squad is a pretty fun read. I enjoyed the found family theme, and there are some spooky parts with thunderstorms and graveyards. If you like ghostly middle grade, I would definitely recommend it.
My last couple Aprils looked more like yours – just focused on finishing up classes. Hope you have a good May as well. Thanks for stopping by!
Even with little going on for me right now, I still haven’t felt like I could commit to any events. I’m hoping this month will be better though, that author talk looks great!
It is a little tricky still, even when I see something on my calendar, I’m not always up for checking it out. But I hope I don’t miss that talk!
Oh I need to check out Cog!
It is a great quick read!