Bookwyrm Breakdown: May + June 2023

A representation of me when the post goes live, realizing the last time I wrote a post was approximately two months ago with a two month wrap-up:

But also a representation of me as I peek out from the hellhole known as real life, although fortunately to sum things up May and June were better (if we want to compare to the rest of the year).

May Musings

• [9 May] Bookwyrm Breakdown: March + April 2023

Books Hoarded

May and June was when I realized, “Oh shit, I have the no-rush free credit from Amazon when I got my desk accessories that expires in June. I should definitely use it before I lose it.” So my first (and only) solution is to look at books.

(And then I requested one book because it sounds awesome and resisted going on Netgalley the rest of the month even though I really, really wanted to request Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim.)

• If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
• Dramatically Ever After and Practically Ever After by Isabel Bandeira
• Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
• Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite (ARC from Publisher)

Books Devoured

May was an okay reading month and was definitely an overall improvement from March and April, which is generally a good sign that my mental health is kind of going on an upwards trend even if it’s slowly. But small, baby steps.

• Spare by Prince Harry – I read it so some of my friends don’t have to read it. In other words, it was not… great.
• Spy X Family Volume 9 by Tatsuya Endo
• Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree – This was just satisfying and cozy and it was just… just a perfect time for me to actually pick up the book. It’s kind of like me picking up Cookie Clicker and getting addicted two hours in. (Only Cookie Clicker is endless and this book isn’t exactly endless, though if I reread it over and over it technically could be.)
  • This is also the July pick for the monthly readalong in the Bookish Chaos Discord Server!

June is apparently my best reading month when I look at how many books* I’ve read each month in the year so far, and hopefully, just hopefully, things stay that way for the rest of the year (I’ve got ARCs to finish! I feel bad for them! Oh, and we don’t talk about that book or two – maybe three or more? – I started nearly a year ago…).

*Majority are graphic novels, with a teaspoon of a novel in verse and a novella, and then two good helpings of novels, so maybe my shell of a pea sized brain cell is still just a shell.

Except I probably just jinxed myself writing that, so we’ll go knock on some wood real quick.

• Delicates by Brenna Thummler
• Welcome to St. Hell by Lewis Hancox
• Virtually Yours by Jeremy Holt
• The Order of Things by Kaija Langley
• Fauxmance and Bookworm by Cookie O’Gorman
• The Guy for Me by Marzy Opal

Unlike March and April, I actually watched a lot of shows and movies in comparison. Most of them movies, with a good majority from the MCU. A dose of a French drama, K-drama (only took 6+ months), and animation. Oh, yeah, and a reboot.

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Reboot: The Guardian Code (DNF after Season 1)
• Captain America: Civil War
• A Silent Voice – When they said this was going to hurt my soul, they really meant hurt.
• La Révolution (DNF after episode 3)
• Black Widow
• Doctor Strange
• Puss in Boots
• Reborn Rich – I’m still trying to decide if I actually want to write a review for this or not (I might just go for it anyways), but the short and quick version is: it was good, but it got old quickly and honestly, I have zero regrets jumping straight to the last episode after finishing episode 7.
• Mashle – This anime has zero business being this funny.
• Nimona – It’s been a long time since I listened to the audiobook (which I remember enjoying and definitely recommend if you like full cast narration!), but the movie version was a lot of fun to watch.

(We’ll skip the music part because I remember nothing of what I’ve listened in the past two months but also I think this section would be way too long considering the amount of movies and shows I’ve watched.)

The Breakdown

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

So February brought back issues, March and April were work stress causing me to get physically sick and brain fog, but what about May and June? I will say the brain fog is definitely still there, but at least I’m not getting physically sick from work stress this time around. And despite the fact I have zero energy to do things (this poor blog), I will take that as a nice win.

So what did I end up doing anyways/what things happened? Spoiler: a lot of gaming, but other than that, nothing major.

• Playing a fair amount of Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos, which I stopped recently
• Still obsessed with Cookie Clicker because nothing matters but Cookies™ (even if most of that time I’m also playing other idle games, namely Kiwi Clicker and a recent addition of Placid Plastic Duck Simulator, or doing other things)
• Played enough Bejeweled 3 that I might’ve broken my Steam Accomplishments from showing (big oops) but if I can’t crush my enemies I will crush gems instead
• The mouse that I got with my keyboard earlier this year stopped working, and it has been very weird using a regular mouse because it’s so light; my cursor feels like it drank a Redbull and grew actual wings
• Maybe drank too much bubble tea (but let’s be honest, is there such thing as too much boba?)
• Melted into a puddle multiple times because there’s no way 85°F is what it says it is when you feel like taking a nap right there on the ground and become one with the concrete

Let’s talk: tell me about your June!