I read:

Thoughts:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: I know I read this not so long ago to Tesfa, but this time in reading it, I was really surprised by how pedantic some of the explanations are. I guess they’re supposed to be punny but they seem so smug that I am repulsed.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris: Book with a twist. Guessed said-twist early on. Read to end to be vindicated in my sleuthing it out and dot dot dot my intuition was correct!

Dead Girls by Nancy Lee: I didn’t realize that I’d read one of the stories in this collection before and it is my most hated story — not because, of course, it is a bad story but because I didn’t write it first and now it’s out there and I can’t really claim it as my own. *Sulk*

How To Survive a Plague by David France: Reviewed earlier this month.

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden: I got this out of the library right before the whole frouforah went down. I read the book anyway but I can’t help but feel now that it’s a white dude is profiting off the struggles of POC (although, really, in that case I should have massive problems with my entire existence since I’m a white non-dude whose got to my place in life through benign and not-so-benign whiteness helping me along. Plus my Ukrainian ancestors, some of them owned serfs, and that’s really bad and I can’t untangle my life from all the suffering it has profited from. But then to write about it like this makes it seem like I’m the victim here and I’m not and now I’m even more tangled and that sounds even more self-pitying and I’m going to stop.)

In any case, The Orenda was better.

Asylum by Moriz Scheyer: One: I love the z in Moriz. Not relevant at all considering this is a fleeing from the Holocaust memoir. But I do love that z. Two: Reviewed earlier this month.

A Fortunate Universe by Geraint F. Lewis and Luke A. Barnes: Reviewed earlier this month.

Everything Reminds You of Something Else by Elana Wolff: Review to come closer to the publication date.

Favourite book:

Feels like a cheat, but I wasn’t enamored with much I read this month. Besides, my faerie story takes some lessons from The End so I owe The End that at least.

Most promising book on my wishlist:

New Laurent Binet (of HHhH fame)! Requested it on Netgalley but when they likely reject me because I don’t live in the UK, I will buy it.

I watched:

It’s almost embarrassing how happy ASoUE makes me. Like giddily embarrassing.

I wrote:

Faeries.