Bookwyrm Breakdown: March 2025

I think I’ve seen this film before
And I didn’t like the ending

exile (ft. Bon Iver) – Taylor Swift, folklore

March was a series of unfortunate events, but depending on how you look at it, one could say the universe is doing a spring cleaning of my life (while dragging me around screaming, albeit internally, of course). There was a lot of loss, but maybe those losses were worth it/meant to happen (at least with actual spring cleaning there’s no one making you do it if we want to be honest…).

Let’s chat about what happened recently!

March Musings

• [4 Mar] Bookwyrm Breakdown: Starting the Healing Process (Again) and Other Things that Happened
• [18 Mar] Books I Aspire to Read in Spring 2025
• [28 Mar] Deep End by Ali Hazelwood ★★★★

Books Hoarded

I’ve only gotten one book this month, an eARC for A Fate So Cold by Amanda Foody and C.L. Herman, who wrote the All of Us Villains duology. I enjoyed that duology a lot, so I’m super excited to dive into the duo’s newest!

(I also ended up changing my Netgalley name to my actual first name since I’m still debating on whether I want to change my status to Librarian for reasons I’ll share later, but I’m using my blog email currently so it’s probably throwing everyone for a loop of confusion. Things I definitely don’t think about when I’m 14-15 just starting out blogging.)

Books Devoured

March had a bit of reading: I finished a manga series, started a few, and continued other ongoing ones.

• Wistoria: Wand and Sword Vol. 1-3 by Fujino Omori, illustrated by Toshi Aoi
• Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
• How to Break Up with Anyone: Letting Go of Friends, Family, and Everyone In-Between by Jayme Waxman
• Cat + Gamer Vol. 7 by Wataru Nadatani
• Spy X Family Vol. 13 by Tatsuyo Endo
• Evil Thing and Fairest of All (both graphic novels) by Serena Valentino
• Brooms by Jasmine Walls
• Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 1-3 by Ryoko Kui
• Mashle: Magic and Muscles Vol. 18 by Hajime Komoto
• Between Burning Worlds (reread) by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell – maybe I’ll finally finish the trilogy…
• Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly (DNF)

Of the Music Variety

• Savage Love by Etienne Steven – originally performed on The Voice Australia 2024; stumbled on a snippet on Instagram and decided to search for the full version on Spotify
• Sugarcoat by AleXa – this whole album is a practical masterpiece and reminds me a little of rosie by Rosè. Favorite songs include a few singles that were released separately prior to this album like distraction, Joy of Missing Out, sick, and i’m okay. Also loved Something New and Arrogant.
• Tiny Pieces by ONE OK ROCK
• like JENNIE and Zen by Jennie
• Imposter by angelbaby and VOILÀ
• Night Off by NND
• ReawakeR by LiSA ft. Felix (Stray Kids) – another song that I came across on a snippet on Instagram and decided to search for the actual song

Of the Movie Variety

• Inside Out 2 – I almost cried at the end.
• Wicked – Defying Gravity is stuck in my head; send help.
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• The Marvels
• Cruella

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

So March was a lot of loss, but one could say 2025 seems to be shaping up to be that type of year. Friendships, family, financial, etc. — depending on perspective, loss = transition = out with the old, in with the new. You know, a literal spring cleaning from the universe, if you will. Taking out the things that no longer serve me and whatnot. I mentioned in my last wrap-up I was going for the full-time that opened at my branch near the end of February, and shockingly enough, I ended up getting the role! 🎉

Much to my mom’s dismay overhearing, I thought my manager was joking at first. Probably not my most shining moment, but I’m sure I’ve done worse things (like, uh, nearly crashing a House of Representatives interview on TV last year… please don’t ask). ¯_(ツ)_/¯ It’s a relief to be back out of food service, and I’m happy I got the role — here’s to hoping this will be The Career™ for me where I stay long term. We’ll see!

I’m scared of doing event programming, but as one of my coworkers puts it: I did jump into displays right away, and it wasn’t just any display, it was the most prominent one in the branch. (Look, maybe I’m a little delusional I like a challenge/figured I’d get the Big Bad out of the way while I’m new and can freely ask questions without feeling like a burden.) Maybe I’m giving myself less credit than I should. Everything will be fine, right? Right?

(My therapist has definitely noticed and pointed this out. We’re working on it, but as with all things healing and trauma, it’s a process. I really am excited to be moving into a full-time role at the library, though, and maybe I will enjoy programming a lot once I jump into it. So far designing and curating displays have been one of my favorite things.)

On the flip side, with losses, I won’t get into the details too much, but if you know, you know. I had major car troubles early in the month and then the end of the month that knocked out my entire savings, which put a wrench in some plans, but alas. I think I’ll take car troubles and losing my entire savings over losing my job like last year because at least savings can be built back up. At least, I would like to think so… but who knows, in these uncertain, volatile times.

(I think it does need to be said that I’m grateful that I even have savings to fall back on, when so many others don’t, even if it comes at a cost of living frugally and thinking a lot about whether I really need an item. Although that also comes at the cost of feeling guilty when I do treat myself, and it’s still an awful situation to essentially be back at square one again with the awareness that if I get laid off again, I’m pretty screwed. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen, right? Anyway, support your local libraries, not just so I can keep my job, but also because libraries are pretty cool.)

I’ve also been having the urge randomly to start a Substack over the past year, but the urge has been growing stronger more recently in the last month especially. I’m not sure I’ll go through with it, though, mostly because it’s another platform for me to keep track of, and I haven’t been keeping on top of the blog (not as much as I would like, at least). But we’ll see. I think if I do start a Substack, I’ll be extremely selective with who gets to see it rather than public.

I think another part of me hesitates because Substack is like Twitter in a sense where we don’t truly own the content and it can be taken down at any time vs. blogging self-hosted where I do actually own it (unless the Internet goes poof, but then we’ve got bigger problems then, don’t we?), and I find these days blogging is more my preference in a world where we increasingly own nothing.

Gotta have my little space carved out and all, or as Sahaj Kaur Kohli says in But What Will People Say?:

I claimed a little corner of the Internet, and it was mine. It was space for me to take up.

(I highly recommend this book, by the way! I felt so seen, heard, and validated as a child of immigrants/refugees, and I have so many notes and highlights.)

And finally, I got featured in a Redfin article! I’m pretty selective about features, but every once in a while, it’s fun. And I think it’s pretty fitting, considering we just got nearly a week of pouring rain in Missouri. Check it out here: Rainy Day Activities at Home: 10 Ways to Enjoy the Gloom | Redfin

Let’s talk!

I hope March has been kind to you! Tell me how your month has been — what you’ve been up to in reading, life, gaming, etc.!