April 2019 Recap || I Don’t Even Know How To Describe This But It Was Not Good

Life-altering revelation: I have terrible memory and can’t remember the last month!

It’s SO HARD to write a monthly recap two weeks late because ummm I forgot literally everything that happened?? I have terrible memory and at this point life just feels like a blur. Months are melding into each other. What happened in April and what happened in May??

(update: fun fact…….. I originally titled this my MAY recap!!!!!! when it’s my APRIL recap. and I *just* noticed after like, two weeks of slowly writing this post. WHO AM I.)

Also, this post isn’t going to be as long or content-filled as my posts normally are (my posts normally are upwards of 2k words) because I’ve just been feeling kind of drained recently and I JUST WANT TO GET THIS POST OUT OKAY.

That being said, I was not thriving this month. I *was* thriving in terms of book mail (in comparison to what I normally get) but I didn’t read as much as I hoped to and definitely didn’t blog as much as I hoped to.

books i read

   

Under the Moon by Lauren Myracle ★★☆☆☆

• I originally gave this three stars, but the more I think about it, the more angry it makes me, so it gets two stars. Guys, this one frustrated me so so much!! I really was engaged while reading it and I had high hopes, but it’s so short and cuts off as soon as it seems like there’s any semblance of an actual plot? It’s not even enough for a novella. And the one plot point that keeps getting hinted at is wrapped up in one page. Everything was too convoluted and hard to understand, and when the book ended, I was like ??? what ?? [gr review]

Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris ★★★☆☆

• I’m also lowering my rating for this from four stars to three stars because I keep on thinking about how uncomfortable the audiobook made me feel at times. There was a Taiwanese accent made by the narrator as well as a different voice for Millie, the main character’s sister, who has Down Syndrome. I didn’t see any criticisms for the portrayal of Down Syndrome but also, I didn’t see any ownvoices reviews either?? One of the redeemable qualities was the ending, though. It chilled me.

Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham ★★★★☆

• Okay this wasn’t as funny as Gilmore Girls, nothing will be as funny as Gilmore Girls, but this was still pretty fun to listen to!! Lauren Graham seems so kind and nice and now I really want to watch her other show, Parenthood!!

   

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He ★★★★★

• You all already know how I feel about this. Amazing, amazing, amazing!!! Better than Game of Thrones, even though I haven’t watched Game of Thrones. There were still some problems I had with it, but I’m still so emotionally invested in Hesina’s story that I don’t care. [blog review]

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde ★★★☆☆

• I really, really enjoyed listening to this book and it also has one of the my favorite love interests, Alfie. (I love him so much.) I just didn’t enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Queens of Geek, Jen Wilde’s debut novel?? It felt too preachy at a point and at some point, it was just trying to shove the self-love in your face. For example, in one scene, Alfie tells the main character that if her friends judge her for who she is, they aren’t good friends. And then the main character is like “OH MY GOD!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!” and I was just like ????? This is not a shocking revelation, especially for someone who’s almost an adult. Besides that, I really enjoyed listening to this and I thought it was a really fun read. The portrayal of an abusive relationship was actually really accurate!! (This was also one of my reads for Autism Awareness Month; the author is autistic!!)

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue ★★★★★

• This was so so so good and I loved it so much. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator had a British accent and it was overall, very good!! It was so different than what I expected but anyways Percy is a literal, iconic God. Monty is a literal BEAN and I love them both so much, wowowow. I have eternal love for these books. I’m honestly unsure of whether or not this book would land in my favorites of 2019 list?? I’m still considering it.

 

Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen ★★★★☆

• This was so cute to read and it was short and sweet!! I feel like everyone who likes horror films would really like all of the references in this book. I don’t really have a lot to say, but I think that’s because I talked so much about it in my review! [blog review]

The Nowhere Girls  by Amy Reed ★★★★☆

• I loved how this one explored intersectionality and I’m honestly very, very surprised at this. I really didn’t expect the third-person omniscient narrator where the author would sometimes write about random girls and not be constantly focusing on the main three characters. Honestly, I feel like this could have done.. more? I think there was a lot more room to explore certain subplots and the random snippets of other characters left me really dissatisfied at some points. However, like I said before, I really commend this one for its nuance. (This was my second read for Autism Awareness Month; one of the main characters is autistic.)

overall reading analysis (favorite books, least favorite books)

• favorite book? Descendant of the Crane + Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue!!
• least favorite book? Uh, definitely Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale
• average rating? 3.75

I’m actually watching The Emperor’s New Groove right now and wow, it’s genuinely so good. I haven’t watched this movie in so long and I forgot how funny it is.

books i read for any reading challenges (if any)

I’m trying to get the highest badge for #YARC, which I believe is the Giant Panda, and it’s for 60 books so therefore I should be reading five books per month.

At this point, I’m supposed to have read 20/60 books. I have read… nine. (Descendant of the Crane) So… I’m hoping to use this month to catch up on books!!

tbr

I wrote an entire post on my tbr on May and it is right here!!

Also, I was totally on track in the beginning of the month (with two books read) and then now I Am Not. So……. that’s cool.

physical book haul

The Candle and the Flame [received from Scholastic; thank you sooo much!!]

• Thank you so much to the author for helping me to obtain a copy of this!! (Nafiza is so kind I could cry) and thank you to Scholastic for listening and sending me this!! The cover is absolutely GORGEOUS. Also, my first arc sent from Scholastic!!

A Conspiracy of Stars [received from the author through a giveaway]

• Guys guys I received this in a slight fluke because I actually was sending in my receipt for the library request campaign and then apparently the author messed up and was running a paperback Instagram giveaway in conjunction so she told me I could have a copy of the paperback and I was like…. yes.

Happy Messy Scary Love [received from Abrams/Amulet; thank you guys my homies]

• Abrams/Amulet always comes THROUGH for me even though I hardly ever come through for them (haha all of my reviews were posted… late) (my review for this was posted on time though!!) and I appreciate them so much!!

Tell Me How You Really Feel [received from Macmillan (!!); hello THANK YOU GUYS]

• FIRST PHYSICAL ARC DIRECTLY FROM A CENTRAL MACMILLAN PUBLISHER (not counting Bloomsbury, Page Street Kids, Entangled, etc.) so I literally almost sobbed when I saw this. Also, the arc is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever held in my hands…. (and by the time I’m typing this up, I’ve already read this and I rated it three stars; I liked it but it was also slightly disappointing.)

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune [received from Melanie; yes I LOVE YOU] + Girls With Sharp Sticks [received from Melanie; like I said…. I love you] + A People’s History of Heaven [received from Melanie; THREE BOOKS?? I love you 3k]

• Hey can I write a twelve page ballad declaring my undying love and gratitude for Melanie, the queen of everything, sending me on one of my most anticipated titles??? Yes. (And then she sent along two other books that sound amazing?????? Sounds fake but ok.)

Shatter the Sky [received from Simon & Schuster; this is what I need!! THANK YOU!!]

• This is about a girl stealing a dragon to fight against a corrupt government and get her girlfriend back so therefore, it’s already amazing in my heart.

digital book haul

   

favorite post

Books I DNF’d but Plan to Pick Back Up Again

Will I ever actually read all of these??? Possibly not, but anyways it was fun to tell my stories where I ended up putting these books down for various reasons.

Spoiler alert: #1 reason was sleep, because I have a habit of picking up books right before going to bed and then ending up not reading them at all and rather just napping.

most popular post

My Favorite Feelings & Moments While Book Blogging

I’m really not surprised that this was my most popular one, because I feel like my blogging-related posts tend to do really well??

Anyways, writing this one was so fun and it’s really rambly but I’m actually really happy with how this post turned out and how many people ended up relating!! I love you all ❤

posts i loved

Ilsa asks if we genuinely love the content we’re creating & consuming, which is one of my favorite discussions, ever.

Marie discusses comparing yourself to other bloggers and being jealous of others.

May talks about graphic design and making your blog look pretty!

Fadwa posted a youtube video of reacting to our assumptions and it’s kind of great.

Shealea reviews With The Fire on High and talks about teenage pregnancy as someone whose mom had her as a teen.

Tiffany reviews and makes a rainbow mood bood for If I’m Being Honest.

Xandra lists eight things new bloggers should know right before they start.

Olivia opens up about the ages-old adage of reading the book before watching the movie.

Taasia discusses her struggle with five-star ratings and about being a critical reader.

Lais talks about what makes her want to pick up a book!

bookish news

The cover for Anna-Marie McLemore’s next book, Dark and Deepest Red was revealed (and it’s truly gorgeous).

A new book called Cemetery Boys was announced featuring a Latinx, trans, and gay boy main character!

Also, this isn’t even book-deal/cover/etc. related news, but I don’t know where else to put it: I got into the street team for Akemi Dawn Bowman’s Harley in the Sky and I’m so excited!! Her debut novel, Starfish seriously meant so much to me and I’m so grateful that I was accepted in.

 favorites

Frozen grapes are an absolute delicacy. I love them so so much!!! When I made them (by freezing grapes in a bag) they weren’t *as* frozen as I expected them to be, but they’re still so good?? I love the feeling of biting into a frozen grape. It’s… amazing. I’ve only had frozen red grapes so far but I’m hyped to eat all of the grape colors.

Also, I tried Greek food for the first time and it was life-changing. I’ve already had and loved feta cheese (I always put it in my salad at school) and everything else was kind of amazing?? But specifically, the feta cheese. And rice!!!!!! I want to have Greek food again.

media consumed

I got really super into musical animatics??? Specifically, animatics for Heathers & Dear Evan Hansen (well… I keep watching the same Sincerely, Me animatic over and over again). I love the Heathers animatics from MissyAsylum & the Sincerely, Me animatic from Szin!!! WATCH THEM. Also, I started listening to Dear Evan Hansen specifically because of the animatic and by that I mean I just listened to Sincerely, Me over and over again.

I also watched Us in theaters and then I watched it again two days later and I love it so much!! It’s really not that scary the second time you see it but the final scene… it gave me so much angst. Jordan Peele is an icon and I’ll watch every single one of his movies as soon as I get the guts to watch Get Out. You see, I’m better at watching movies in theaters because then I can’t escape from them?

Besides these, I watched How to Train Your Dragon III (outside of theaters) and uhhhh wow the plotline is honestly really… wild and sad and I’m so nostalgic that they’re closing off the entire trilogy. Wow.

I don’t know if anyone has heard of Re:Mind but it’s this Japanese tv show and I watched the first half and then read the description on Wikipedia. The acting is… just not very good and the plotline wasn’t compelling enough for me to keep watching it on my own time, but I was at this person’s house and they wanted to watch it so I watched it.

cheesecake factory

I went to The Cheesecake Factory for the first time (!!) and it was good, but we found a freaking enamel pin inside of one of our chicken roll things. It was like, right on top of one of the rolls and my sister picked it up because she thought it was a fancy decoration (???) and wanted to eat it (???!???) until we realized that it was a PIN. Anyways, we got that specific dish for free which was kind of cool.

taro bubble tea

I went to Coco bubble tea and bought some Taro bubble tea to take home to my sister, because I’m a kind and loving person. Anyways, I decide to transport this bubble tea within my Hershel’s backpack, and it doesn’t break or anything because I keep on checking on it to make sure that it’s okay… until it does break and it spills all over the inside of my backpack!!

The bottom of my backpack is leather so it didn’t leak through or anything and it was literally holding all of the liquid inside of it and it was just a Wild Time because I went onto the train and found all of my belongings swimming inside the liquid!!!

What did you read in April?? What have you read in May? What are you planning to read in May? What’s your favorite bubble tea flavor? Have you ever found weird stuff inside of your food at a restaurant?