This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

 

 

 

The Sunday Post #263

 

 

 

 

On The Blog Last Week

 

• On Wednesday I talked about upcoming book releases for the final two weeks of February.

 

 

 

 

On The Blog This Week

 

• On Saturday there’s a book haul.

 

 

 

 

In My Reading Life

 

Last week, I finished A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Someone needs to tell me if I should continue with this series. I found the book entertaining, but I’m not sure if I liked it enough to read the next one. It’s young adult historical fantasy about girls at a proper English boarding school. One of the girls discovers that she can open a portal to another world and bring back temporary magical powers. I love the humor and the complicated relationships between the main characters. The “frenemies” girl group reminds me of the slightly abusive friendships I had when I was a teenager. I like that the story is about teenagers discovering how powerful they can be. I was less interested in the fantasy realm. I know the fantasy world will become more developed as the series progresses, but in the first book, it’s shallow and generic. There’s an evil force and a “chose one” girl who has to stop it. I’ve seen these tropes before. Whenever the girls were in the fantasy realm, I was impatiently waiting for them to go back to the boarding school because that setting was more developed and complex. So . . . I don’t know. It’s a funny, escapist book that I read quickly, but I’m not sure if I want to read the next one.

I also finished a short story collection called How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer. These stories are bleak and oddly fascinating. Have you ever read a plot twist that horrified you so much that you set the book down and backed away slowly? Yeah, that feeling sums up these stories! They’re all coming-of-age tales about girls or young women. The main characters either do something horrible or have something horrible happen to them. The stories are beautifully written and surprising. They come together in ways I didn’t see coming. I didn’t always know how the author would tie the disparate themes and plot threads together, but almost all of the stories ended perfectly. I will definitely reread this collection. I think it’s the kind of book you can read a dozen times and notice something new with each reread. The characters are complicated; the plots are intricate. My only complaint is that the main characters are too similar. They’re morally gray, depressed, slightly naïve, often Jewish young women. By the end of the book, they all felt like the same person to me. Still, it’s an excellent collection. If you can handle bleak, shocking stories, I recommend it.

Right now, I’m reading another bleak book! It’s There There by Tommy Orange. It’s a hard book to summarize because it doesn’t have a plot, but I understand the hype! The writing is stunning and the characters are very real. I guess I’d call the book a composite novel? Or character sketches? Or maybe a loosely connected batch of essays and short stories? I don’t know. It has a similar structure to The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. It focuses on an event called The Big Oakland Powwow. Each chapter stars a different Native American character who is attending the powwow. I promise it’s not as boring as I just made it sound.

I’m also reading An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. It’s a chunky young adult fantasy/dystopia novel. So far, it’s violent and confusing. I guess I’m intrigued? I’ve only read 50 pages, so I don’t really have an opinion.

 

 

 

In The Rest Of My Life

 

Five things that made me happy last week:

 

1. It was Baby Brooklyn’s birthday on Tuesday. She turned two. Her current hobbies include incessantly singing “Baby Shark” and acting like a tiny dictator who talks about herself in 3^rd person, has dramatic mood swings, and bosses everybody around. I love her. She doesn’t understand what birthdays are, but she enjoyed the cake and presents.
2. It was my mom’s birthday on Friday. She understands what birthdays are and would probably murder me if I told you how old she is. We ate fried chicken and cornbread to celebrate.
3. Have you been following the Mars rover stuff? I have! It makes me wish I was smart enough to work on space projects. The picture at the top of this post is a drawing of the rover and drone on Mars (plus cold Bernie Sanders because he’s been Photoshopped into every image on the Internet, apparently).
4. I took a two-day break from blogging. I usually work on the blog every single night. Not looking at it for two days was weird. What do non-bloggers do at night? I ended up watching posh and unhelpful cooking tutorials. It’s hard to believe that people spend a ton of money on lobster, truffles, and fancy meat, then spend a whole day cooking it. If I spent that much money on ingredients, I’d expect them to come with Gordon Ramsey to cook them for me. Maybe cooking posh food is what non-bloggers do at night?
5. I’ve been very good at not buying books recently. There’s actually empty space on my TBR shelf!

 

 

 

 

Obligatory “Begging For Followers” Part

 

 

Pinterest || Bloglovin’ || Goodreads || Instagram || Twitter || Donate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!